An easy example of a strange loop, the Droste effect can be, essentially, including the actual labeled product in the picture printed on the product box. This inclusion forms an "infinitely" recursive visual loop. I put infinite in quotes because, though our minds tell us there would be no end and that the pictures would grow infinitely smaller, there would have to be an end (a first, "seed" photo) in order to print any of them at all.

I've really been interested in this phenomenon recently. So, as soon as I saw this task, I knew it was the right one. You know, for my -----pause---- first time. You see, I've been stalling about posting my first praxis and, like a meteor from the planet Ouhutdehal, this task comes along. It was fate. Like in "Cast Away" when Tom Hanks saves the package with the wings for the lady who's husband is cheating on her in Russia? Yeah. It was like that.

First, I made a list.


Well, I copied a list off of wikipedia:

Cracker Jack
Land O'Lakes
Morton's Salt
The Laughing Cow (La vache qui rit)

Quick. I mentally reference all food items in house. No Cracker Jacks or Land O'Lakes. The Morton's Kosher Salt box doesn't really cut it. The Laughing Cow would be hilarious, but has three things working against it. One: Not original. --It's a copied list from Wikipedia. Two: I don't have any and am not about to buy any. See Appendix I - Funds Allocated for Task. Three: Where the hell am I going to find a cow that will hold still long enough for me to pierce its ears? Looks like a better idea is in order.

Then I found had a better idea*:





K2 had smuggled Coco Wheats in from Michigan and they have an extraordinarily awesome box. Plus, they are a combonation of two of the greatest breakfast foods of all time - Malt-O-Meal and chocolate - see Bill Cosby or click here for a testimonial. Since the CoCo Wheats box has a CoCo Wheats box on it, it was perfect. So I set out to recreate the recursive nature of the CoCo Wheats box.




Final product:





I initially broke the box down into four parts, each of which I was to recreate:
The Coo Coo clock -not to be confused with CoCo. Check out the movie.
The Bird on top of the box
The Manic Kid with red hat and blue t-shirt
The Actual CoCO Wheats Box

Substitutions were made.

Once I recreated the scene, I needed a 'seed' picture. This picture would be used as the first picture in the series of ten and eventually be infinitesimally small in the final photograph.

This took a LOT longer than expected. I'm not a photographer, people. I'm also not a model. I sure as hell am not someone who can easily set up a scene, pose and shoot a picture simultaneously. I had so much fun with this, I caught myself laughing hysterically in most if not all of the first 20 shots. I knocked the ironing board over three times. I'd forget to take my glasses off in one, and then forget where the spoon was in the next. It was a BLAST. Eventually, I settled on this shot:



I put the image up on K2's laptop, tinted, added text and cropped, and then set the shot up again:



Reset and repeat, each time the only computer manipulation was to crop, tint and add text. After ten permutations, this is the result:






Overall, a simple completion. But I had a great time doing it and it took me a lot long er than originally expected. Laughs: One million. Regrets: None.



*I only know one html tag. There is no such thing as overused, just underappreciated.


-Junk



Appendix I:
Funds allocated for task.



Appendix II:
Audio/Visual Aid - see movie


Merch. -- Little Crow Foods