Image to Brush | Joseph McKee

Section 1 Self Surveillance Zine + Typeface

'Self Surveillance Zine' began as a 30-day poster creating challenge. I sought to answer the questions - how far can we render, edit, and digitally transform one file type into the next? And, when does the image stop and a new digital file begin? I began this project through exercises in self surveillance, observing and utilizing images from my visual diary via my phone's camera roll.

Each image used in this project was taken during a daily activity, from a familiar route, it includes screenshots from algorithmic social media selections, my roblox avatar, and a 3D LiDAR scan of myself. These images were intentionally quick in nature and were selected due to my intrigue. They are ultimately images that I hoped to later return to, but ones that ultimately escaped from my memory until my scrolling led me back to them.

Technical Process

From the image I would isolate an object it from it's background in photoshop. The object's color, exposure values, and threshold were next edited down to black to realize the object's silhouette and character form. From this the object was then turned into a photoshop pixel based brush. These brushes were used to develop a series of graphic posters, leaving me a space to experiment with the spacing, direction, opacity, and texture of each brush (formerly object, formerly image.)

After the completion of 30 days, I selected 26 objects to create a working typeface. Bringing these images and objects back into the physical I designed a small run of Risograph zines which documented the selection of objects and Image to brush to vector shape to font file.

Is it still the same? I can't say I've reached a clear answer, my investigation continues as does this project.

Posters

Below are an excerpt of posters from the 30-day creation challenge, each are paired with the original image that was used to develop it's corresponding brush. Each poster was created using a set time limit of no more than two hours. I allowed myself to use any color, but could not include any other image or texture other than the brush I created.