Teaching portfolio: Examining the evolution of project 1- Photomontage
4D Foundations, 2016-Present

Since 2016, I have had the honor of writing and delivering many “project 1’s”. One of the foundations courses I regularly teach at Virginia Tech is ART 1604 Principles of 4D, where I teach digital art and creative media practices to aspiring BFA Studio Artists, Graphic Designers, Creative Technologists, and a few non-majors. We look at time through the lens of the Adobe Creative Cloud using Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Audition, and After Effects. The course begins with digital collage as an analogue to paper collage. My goal with any first project is to guide students to a place of confidence to encourage bigger, more creative leaps. In the current iteration of 1604, Project 1 (image) combines with Project 2 (sound) to metamorph into Project 3 (image+sound=video).

How it started: 2016-2020
ART 1604 was called “Principles of New Media” and functioned as SOVA’s standard ‘computer art’ class. A typical first week introduce a project, around a core theme, such as magical realism or camouflage, provide demo files, then in class, students follow along as I cover selections, RGB color, alpha, file types, and opacity as our first technical concepts with the ultimate goal of getting to masks and adjustment layers by the end of the first week of class. The advantage of jumping into layers quickly is that it teaches students to play fast and loose with the tools and the workflow, keeping them familiar with identifying creative problems as they arise. Navigating technical challenges with dexterity requires persistence and perseverance.

Accompanying an overview of Photoshop is a companion lecture on foundational art and design terms, cell phone camera usage, a brief overview of artists, and get to work on developing our descriptive and visual vocabularies, and of course, make things by repeatedly cycling through the process, with me guiding them through their challenges as they spring up. During the 2016-2018 academic year, students had the added burden of needing to apply to their respective BFA programs, with acceptance to them pending a high-stakes faculty juried portfolio review.

Project 1: 2D Collage (the old way)

Prompt:
Part 1 Use your camera to create a collection of 100 images. The images must be taken after the first day of class.
Pay attention to color, composition, and subject. Move the library to your computer.

Part 2 Use photomontage to create a composition that builds on traditional art and design rules of composition line, value, and color and expands into 21st-century foundations that include ideas like sampling, texture, fragmentation, rhythm, representation, and identity.

Objectives:
• Develop a visual vocabulary by collecting 100 images.
• Look for patterns in your collection.
• Use selections, layering, and masking to create a composition.
• Distinguish TIFF, .jpeg, .gif, .png, .raw, .psd, .pdf file types.
• Create a file structure for this class.
• Filters or adjustment layers are not allowed.
• Gain experience managing a large number of files

Sample outcomes: 2016-2021

The New Way, 2022-Present. Call and Response: The Image and The Echo.

How is it going: Improved image quality, chance operations are introduced, and the contents are sampled using a scanner.
After many years of tweaks to 1604 Project 1, I finally had enough of the iPhone and its camera and decided to get serious about image quality and artistic composition. On the first day of class, students are given a ‘kit’ consisting of a photo slide, a vintage postcard (with handwriting), and a set of instructions a la fluxus (or a single word depending on the semester), prompting a scavenger hunt. The postcard and slide are randomly picked from a pre-sorted collection of about 500 cards and distributed in reusable envelopes. Fall 2025 will be the 3rd year. Compositional strategies focus on objective and non-objective approaches to image building and process layering. This module starts as a call to explore digital collage in part 1 (the image), leading to an audio response based on the backside of the card (the Echo). Finally, the Image and Echo merge in a final composition: The Combo, where students first use video editing software.


Module 1, Image and the Echo
Project 1: The Image 2D Collage Reaching through time.

Scavenger hunt, vintage Postcard Photomontage
Based on the unique word or instructions in your envelope, bring a trace from our time.
Prompt: Create a digital collage from a postcard and a photo slide. Capture both the front and back of the postcard.
Use objective and non-objective strategies to create compositions using collage techniques based on your envelope's word prompt or instructions.

Objectives:
• Use a flatbed scanner to capture and digitize media
• Determine the most manageable pixel density for your composition
• Be mindful of the file size, type, and quality of your imagery
• Layer meaning by layering time, preserving elements from then, and making space for now.
• Incorporate multiple images into a single file in Photoshop
• Use layers, smart objects, and masks
• Set up an image for playable media as 16:9 aspect ratio or 19:6

Questions
“How many DPI gives me the best resolution for my purposes?”;
“How does this tiny slide get scanned so large?”;
“What is the relationship between image and pixel?”
”What is cursive handwriting, and how do I read it?”
”Why is my file so heavy? Is that normal?”

Outcomes: 2022-Present

What about their agency? Student curation of ephemera is a required element. Instead of using their phones to source textures, students are challenged to scavenge for material traces, textures, or remnants from the world. This is their part of the conversation; they explore this object non-objectively and objectively. Show and tell on Day 3.

Project 1 Module breakdown
Week 1 Day 1: Monday - Course Expectations, Introductions/Ice breaker. Cards given out.
HW Monday PM Journal 1-Write about the contents of your envelope formally asses your material objects
Fill out the new student survey.

Week 1 Day 2: Wednesday - Digital image lecture. What’s in an image?
HW Wednesday PM Journal 2: Reflect—source remnant.

Due by 11:59 Sunday:
• Journals 1
• Journal 2
• Scans of both sides of the postcard and the slide.

For Week 2 Monday: Show and Tell. More scanning.
Bring your ephemeral object to be scanned and explored via non-destructive deconstruction.

Week 2 Day 3/4: Monday
In-class exercise: Photoshop Basics. Principles of Art and Design. Show and Tell.
Non-Objective and Objective imagery. College artists. Library Assignment.

-I know I’m doing something right when they are trying to see what they can get away with scanning.
Mystery food goo in a ziplock is a perennial favorite-

From here, we begin our lecture on objective and non-objective collage. As you would expect, there are Photoshop demos. Weeks 2-3 explore the tools and compositing in Photoshop.

The students get their library assignment, go to my holdings, research Dada, Fluxus, and collage, and have to find six artists—three historic and three contemporary.

Due by 11:59 Sunday:
Journal 3: Library research
Diptych 1: non-objective card.
Diptych 2: diptych objective: slide.
—

Week 3: Studio Time, Compositing, and Composition
A combined composition that includes your ephemeral object and the front and back of the postcard is due by 11:59 Sunday.
Journal 4 check in, brainstorming the back of the card.
_
Week 4: Module 1 Part II, The Echo Layering Sound and Time:
Based on the back of the postcard, create a sound piece.
Topics. Adobe Audition, Foley Art, Hertz, How to capture sound,

The downside for me? I must keep finding new old postcards so I don’t get bored.
The upside? I get to keep my Photoshop teaching chops a bit longer, and the images look amazing.

-LD

SPOILER ALERT For those who want to skip ahead. The Image and the Echo: Postcard Project