Human Compositions

My Human Compositions!

The Exquisite Corpse Part II

"The adventurous puppy lept a conclusive shoe."

When I first set out on this scavenger hunt, I was completely at a loss for what to do with my sentence. I kept thinking it over and over in my head, and, if for some weird reason I would stumble across a dog in my travels, I was pretty much thinking I'd have to take a picture of my shoe for it. Nevertheless, I started off through my search of the campus to find a picture that could represent my Exquisite corpse piece. I took several pictures of what could make for some intense analysis to actually make it even relate to my sentence. 

Then I stumbled across these painted.animal footprints on the ground. It was front of the Residence Life building near Belvin. I pretty much assumed they were painted there for image of a bearkat with the orange, but for my project, I thought it was perfect. Although it doesn't entirely reflect the meaning of the sentence, I thin kit could also represent an adventurous puppy in some way, just by where the paws are shown. You could also go as far as to imagine that there's a shoe on the periphery of the photo that the tracks are leading to to be 'lept' over.

My Eight Text as Texture Compositions

Text as Texture!!

WASH Lecture 4 Summary (9/17)

Post-Modernism (1979)

• Pluralism of Viewpoints
• Shift from a dialogue taking place in person (in New York and Paris) to a mediated dialogue (through art fairs, media, etc)

Modernism

• The shock of the new rapid progression of styles
• Rejection of the Past
• Colonial view of Non-European Cultures

Transgressive (avant garde) - opposition to mainstream society.

Industrial achievements such as the making of the largest ship in the world, The Great Usurper and massive projects such as the Eiffel Tower, saw to the decline of of original, illusionistic pieces of art and focused more on the reality of things. With the birth of photography, more people were focusing on realistic pieces rather than art that expressed an artists feelings.

Impressionism - not a painting, but an expression of what the artists sees (such as Monet)

Post-Impressionism

• "Art consists of inventing, not copying." - Fernand Leger
• Fauves: "Wild Beasts"

All over the world, different countries were finding different ways and methods to express themselves through art:

• Italy - Futurism
• Cubism
• Russia - Constructivism
• Germany - Expressionism
• Holland - De Stijl

Final Playful/Periodic Projects and Group Critique

Playful (left) and Periodic (right) project:

   When faced with all six of my compositions (including the dots), my group had some very helpful insights on how possibly to make them better and to choose the right one for my text as texture project.

   For my two latest additions, they said that my periodic piece was very clear to see when associated with that definition. The arrangement of the squares almost looks like a checkerboard, adding a bit of closure to it as well, as if trying to fill in the rest of it. The direction is continuous, another gestalt principle you can clearly see.

   The playful piece is a little bit harder to decipher. When making it, I was thinking of card games, like diamonds and popular games like Bejeweled, as my group pointed out. But to someone who might not think of it that way, or haven't played those games might have a harder time seeing the composition on 'playful'. They suggested if I had spaced the squared out a little more, make it more chaotic, it would be easier to see, since putting them right across from each other like that also shows a sense of periodic as well. 

   They saw both pieces as asymmetrical, on purpose, for how they were made. The meaning for both of them was clear, even if playful could be fleshed out a bit more. There wasn't much of a difference from my dots to the squares, and they looked relatively the same in quality... the dots being a little more precise.

   For the choice of best composition for the text as texture project? Most of them like my periodic piece because it was easy to follow and understand. They also put up options like my similarity and continuous compositions up for debate as well, since the way they were arranged drew some attention from people who were looking at them. I ended up choosing the periodic as my best piece for the next project.

3D Cardboard Project Critique

Final Result:

     For my final critique my group first started in by comparing my cardboard project to my natural object, a shell. The ridges on the shell were a lot harder to replicate with cardboard than I first thought. They suggested adding more texture to the project to make it look more like a shell. The pointed ridges over each section of the project are supposed to show the ridges from the natural object. If I had enough time, I would've added more texture to the project overall, instead of just leaving it plain like it is now. The holes already cut into the cardboard actually helped me in a big way, allowing me to stick in the pointed edges of cardboard in them so I could represent the edges of the natural object. My group thought that that was a great way to use the structure of the cardboard given to me.

    The main problem with my final project would be the end of the shell, where I used some paper cardboard to try and close it up. Unfortunately, it didn't turn out as neat as I had hoped and and the pointed end doesn't represent the natural object as much as I would like it to be. I had, at first, used actual cardboard to close it up, but I ended it up redoing it with this result. Although it was better than my last strategy, it still left a bit to be desired. My group suggested, if I ever had the time, to redo the end with the same amount of paper cardboard, but to make it big enough to twirl it into a spiral of sorts to cover the entire end. It certainly would've made it a lot smoother.

    Overall, I'm a little pleased with it. At least when compared with the natural object, you can kinda tell what it is, although it may be a little bit harder to do if you didn't have the object to compare it by. There were several things that could be fixed to make it look better but in the end I think it's a fair representation, especially given the time it took to make it.

WASH Lecture 3 Summary (9/10)

What are the attributes of Creativity?

•  Playful
• Sensitivity
• Productivity
• Originality
• Flexibility

Perception - ability to see relevant differences


An artist puts their whole self into their work.


Creativity Blocks

• Physical (safe)
• Intellectual (see what your supposed to see, mental flexibility)
• Environmental (fear of failing)
• Expressive
• Cultural
• Fear 

Taboos - mostly cultural. Societal norms affect the way artists think. Examples: Rules about where art should be, playfulness is for children, problems are serious, humor is out the question.



Understand the Problem (sub-problem/rules)

• devise a plan
• put to other uses
• ideas

The Exquisite Corpse

My sentence:

The adventurous puppy lept a conclusive shoe.

 

Art, Squared: My thumbnail sketches and final two

Thumbnail sketches for part two of our dot dot dot projects.

Periodic:

Playful:

Top 4 Periodic:

Top 4 Playful:

Final Two:

WASH Lecture 2 Summary (9/3)

What is Art?

• Artists thinks of it (image of a person)
• Like the way it looks (it's not art, it's... nature?)
• inspires thought/emotion
• takes effort and usefulness
• An artifact is something that someone made

The Impulse for Art

To Present of Re-Present

Representation - one thing stands for another

Styles of Representation

• Naturalistic - as in nature
• Realistic - true to life
• Stylized - simplified to emphasize important detail
• Abstract - highly stylized (may not be recognizable)

 "Scale of Representation"

<---v----------------------------------v----------------------------v------------------------------------v------------->
  hardcore                                 STYLIZATION                                   Abstract
  naturalism
  (realistic)

For our activity in this lecture, we split up to go and evaluate different art that hung on the walls. We described what we thought about it; what elements made it strong, and which made it weak, and whether we liked it or not. These are the two painting I chose:

My Top 4 Dots

My top four chosen for the end product of the dot dot dot project 1

Progress on 3D Cardboard Project (9/7)

My object was as shell, shown here:

It took a long time to formulate an idea on how to start out with this one, but I ended up drawing an outline for the backbone of the shell and then circling a different piece of cardboard around it to give it its circular structure:

In my next class, I just continued my work on the rounded pieces of carboard to make it look more like it's model. It's a lot harder than it looks:

Class Critique of Top 16 (9/1)

     I chose for my class critique the top 16 I thought most demonstrated the four gestalt principles. There were four of them chosen for each principle. When we got the critique, the first thing my group pointed out was that most of compositions didn't have any overly large circle that overwhelmed my work. It might have been better to have at least two or three included for some variety, though. Instead, I seem to have pretty basic shapes throughout, from large to small. They also said there was an excess of negative space in some of them (where bigger circles could've been used), while in others there was a suitable amount or not much at all. Sometimes that is a good thing, considering the principles like proximity or closure, where small shapes and a lot of space were, at times, needed to demonstrate them.


     I used three to four basic shapes in my compositions. This can be a good and bad technique. It might lack in variety for doing this, but it also makes it easier to distinguish the principles in doing so. On that note, another critique made by group made was that, even among my top 16, some of them were not as obvious as others. Well, pretty much the point of of the critique was to hear others opinions and pick their version of the top 4, so it was okay if a few of them didn't exactly totally show each principle perfectly. I ended up going with the group's decision for the final four, because they all seemed to be perfect ones for the final project.

WASH Lecture 1 Summary (8/27)

Composition - everything in the world created by us (writing, music, visual)

Elements of Design

• point
• line
• shapes/forms
• color
• texture
• value

Principles of Design

• harmony
• dissonance
• rhythm
• contrast
• balance
• scale
• pattern

After this part of the lecture, we proceeded to break up into our table groups in order to do an activity. We were given an element of design to use and figure out a way to demonstrate it through sound only. We got the term 'shape'. Our strategy was standing in a circle around the group and clapping, stomping and snapping altogether in a sequence to display the illusion of shape. It seemed we did it well, too, because everyone guessed it right.

The Whole - the senses help us percieve the world. The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Gestalt Principles

• proximity
• continuance (direction)
• closure
• similarity

Newspaper and Cinderblock Experience (8/25)

      This was a very hard, yet really fun project to start out with. I had to sit and try and form a plan of attack and try and figure out how I was going to suspend a cinderblock in the air using just newspaper and tape. Not an easy feat by a long shot. I started gathering up some of the thickest newspapers in my pile and rolled them up to make steady supports for the cinderblock. After that was done, I built a flat platform to put the support on, so it would hold it up without it slipping on whatever surface the structure was on. It was hard to tape the columns to the surface at first, but in the end I found a strategy that worked.

      I was almost sure that my method would work the first time, but I was proven wrong. The cinderblock was simply too heavy for my four columns. I figured this was my trial and error, so I set to work again. I added three more pillars around the four already made to hold it up better. I also curled up the edges of the bottom platform I made and taped them to the pillars, lessening the chance that the columns would crumple or slide. I attached another platform ontop of the columns so the cinderblock could balance on top of the structure. After adding in a lot more tape, my newspaper structure was able to successfully hold a cinderblock. In hindsight, using a lot more tape than I did may have helped, because I still had hefty amount left to use after I was done. I don't have any pictures of it, because the only thing I had was my phone, which cant send texts to an email. But, overall, a very fun project.

Reading Assignment 1 Summary (week thru 8/27)

Theory of Human Perception

Gestalt Theory - important for understanding how we perceive visual form by organizing its components into a meaningful whole. A form that exhibits high organization has good gestalt, while a form with weak organization has weak gestalt.

The Four Aspects of Gestalt - these aspects help us understand form as a meaningful whole and not as isolated, unrelated parts.

1. Closure - when separate elements are placed so that you perceive the design as a whole rather than in different sections.
2. Continuance - when part of a form overlaps itself or an adjacent form; your eye is led to follow the dominant form across the secondary without interruption.
3. Proximity - distance between the parts compromising a form.
4. Similarity - helps hold a form together and can be an effective way to create meaning.

Visual elements interact through position, direction, and space. Taken together or separately, the principles of interaction govern the placement of elements and influence our understanding of meaning.

• Position - the placement of an element relative to other elements and/or the frame. This includes overlapping, touching and not touching.
• Direction - the course of movement. Horizontal, vertical, and diagonal lines of any angle move our eye in a given direction.

• Space - perhaps the most important aspect of interaction in a composition. The areas between and around elements are active participants in the composition, and can be dominant and important as the elements themselves.

 Depth - when in a composition, it can create and help a form communicate its purpose and meaning. In 3d design, depth is physically present. It is much harder to demonstrate in 2d design, where you have to display the illusion of depth.

Perspective - created through the use of lines to depict three-dimensional form on a flat, 2d surface. It is distinctly a Western invention, refined during the renaissance as an aid in organizing compositional space and in lending order to our relationship to the environment.

Visual Weight and Balance - weight is the sum of a form's components and is akin to mass and energy. Balance refers to the degree of equilibrium in a composition Position is the dominant means of creating balance, resulting in symmetry, asymmetry, or combination of both.

Symmetry - a form has symmetry when is can be divided diagnonally, vertically, and horizontally and the resulting sides are essentially the same. It is abundant in nature and is the odest method of seeking visual balance.

Asymmetry - a form has asymmetry when it is divided and the resulting sides are not the same size and shape (also called dynamic tension/equilibrium).

Formal Matters

Content - in a sense, is that which is expressed or made manifest through form, or even as form. Form actually is content and vice versa.

Form - the means by which one gives substance to an idea. It operates in ways that are as numerous as there are formats for work.

Formalism - refers to an approach to art and art making that emphasizes elements such as shape, color, and materiality, often seeing the work of art as a self-referential object as opposed to a vessel for a message of some kind.

Modernism - when thinking about art is predicated on the assumption that art history is a progressive movement toward greater purity in each medium.

When looking at work with a formal eye, the shape of a form or the uprightness of a figure may embody a likeness, which becomes the "content" of a work. Here, form slips into content. A shape or form that doesn't really look like anything but reminds us of other things adds those identities to it. This slippage of identity can be all the poetics of meaning.

A Painting's Internal Logic - a whole lot of questions can be answered about the logic of a painting when you address the actions going on within the frame.

• Line - considered many artists to embody the direct channel between the brain and the hand, a means itself of thought.
• Color - Color is to painting what line is to drawing. It carries with it the emotional content, and the perception of it changes, depending on the other colors nearby.
• Composition - generally thought of as the arrangement of lines and shapes within a pictorial space. They are based on shared human perceptions.
• Fields - composed as all-over patterns over the picture plane. They psread out to edges of the canvas so the pictorial space becomes a fragment of an imaginary larger field that exists beyond its edges.

A Paintings External Logic

• Edges - the physical outer edge of a painting; it separates the work from the rest of the world.
• Scale - A large canvas tips inherently away from the object toward pure surface because the depth of its edges is much smaller. It refers to a work's size in relation to the world around it and to the relation of its parts to one another within the internal logic of the whole.
• Format - refers to the shape and proportions of a pictorial surface.

Principles of Form and Design

Elements of Design 

•  Conceptual Elements

1. Point
2. Line
3. Plane
4. Volume

• Visual Elements

1. Shape
2. Size
3. Color
4. Texture

• Relational Elements

1. Direction
2. Position
3. Space
4. Gravity

• Practical Elements

1. Representation
2. Meaning
3. Function

Form - Point, line, or plane, when visible, becomes form. A oint on paper, however small, must have shape, size, color and texture if it is meant to be seen. So must a line or a plane. Volume remains illusory in 2d design. Visible points, lines, or planes are forms in the true sense, although forms as points or lines are still simply called points or lines in common practice. They can encounter each other in numerous ways. There are eight different ways of interrelationship can be distinguished (Detachment, Touching, Overlapping, Interpretation, Union, Subtraction and Intersection).

Types of Form

• Geometric - has regular angles or patterns.
• Organic - fluid in appearance.

Elements of a Form

• Dot
• Line
• Plane
• Volume

Characteristics of Form

• Size
• Shape
• Texture
• Color