Assignment 2

The Sauron Monument
 

The image was constructed using several images around the web combined with mask layers and various uses of the clone stamp.  The area in front at the bottom of the tower was created with copy and paste and clone stamp. The sky and the Washington Monument was masked out in order to insert the sky, Mount Doom, and Sauron's Tower.  The sky was also created using the clone stamp and various masks and layers.

The images came from various places from the web.  The Washington Monument is a government image so that allows public use and it is also distorted from its original purpose.  Sauron's Tower is actually a model of it from a buying website and it did not include the eye, so it is also not being used for its original purpose.  They eye and Mount Doom came from a free Official Lord of the Rings background and the image itself was distorted.  The background was also removed from its original meaning and purpose.  It falls under fair use merely for the fact that it is being used for educational purposes.

The meaning the image conveys is 1: the government is always watching you and 2: what we see is not always reflected by what is actually there.  The first meaning is conveyed by the fact the Sauron could see anything with almost no restriction, especially in the case of the ring.  The second meaning is conveyed by the fact that we see the Washington Monument as a white, pristine, perfect tower that reaches to the sky.  Sauron's Tower is the complete opposite: black, jagged, and looming.  Some people believe that the perfect America is only here to cover up the America we don't want to see or believe.