November 13, 2004. Bush accepts victory, Kerry concedes. Besides having only about 6 hours of sleep over the past three days, I have never felt so lost and disillusioned in my life. Maybe I just need some sleep. It’s just a dream. Maybe I am just hallucinating.
How did all this happen? What the hell were people thinking?
Intuitively, our gray matter interprets data by sorting through the information we perceive. In the case of an election, candidates are placed on the political spectrum depending upon the issues he/she supports. Additionally, political party affiliation labels a group of politicians who generally endorse similar platforms. This categorization process is inherent within our mode of thought.
Art is not an exception. It only seems logical for us to stick a tag onto a work of art. At our lowest level of critical thinking, the brain usually gives its gut response. “Man that looks like shit!” Or, “It’s made out of rock…” When we continue the critiquing process, we begin to compare and contrast its attributes to our existing knowledge. The data warehouse within our brain essentially adds the new collection of information to the respective databases. However, this brain crunching process is complex, and has an infinite number of ways to define the artwork’s profile. To further examine the means of categorization, I have created a set of computational artwork which exhibits the distinct qualities associated with the genre.
The Modern Art movement, especially within Europe, marked the first time in art history where artists often share similar theories and ideals. Art forms were no longer bounded by the time period or the geographical region. New ideas fueled by the Industrial Revolution allowed art to become a broader genre – design. Improved communication and increased mobility within Europe almost certainly facilitated collaboration and discussions between artists. The Foundation Manifesto by Fillipo Tomaso Marinetti was widely published and translated. His propositions propagated to others in the midst of the “manifest and radical change-over to a technological society,” (Banham 101). Marinetti’s was able to gain support from intellectuals who resented the attitude from the Renaissance as well. Futurism soon became the common expression of their devoted passion for machinery and innovation.
I cannot resist from putting the spotlight on the infamous Futurist - Marcel Duchamp (ex-Fauvist & ex- Cubist). For the best reasons, he pursued his true artistic talent with Futurism. I consider his work of the “readymade” to be the most revolutionary contribution to Modern Art. Challenging the norm of creation, his vision was “to make certain kinds of strategic moves…taking a perfectly legitimate form in the speculative act of posing questions” (Krauss 73). To explore this idea further, I emulated Duchamp’s work (a parody) - L.H.O.O.Q. - using a digital picture George W. Bush’s portrait by Igor Babailov. Within the computational system, the photo used was analogous to the postcard replica of the portrait of Mona Lisa. Within Adobe Photoshop, The photo became digital canvas. Not only I was able to draw on it, I can easily modify to the canvas itself. Using cut and pasting, parts of various pictures was incorporated into the work. In contrast to traditional scissors and glue, the edited canvas is virtually seamless. Also, area of pixels can be smudged in response to the cursor on mouse-click. Computer Science has made digital processing efficient. For smoothing or finding edges of an image, the computer can speedily process the output of a low pass filter or a high pass filter respectively. Adjustable parameters can change the values of the image composition (i.e. color balance; saturation). Likewise, other filters will execute according to desired parameter(s). Additionally, Noise can be added without physically damaging the image. These effects can be used to create the look of an old, or even a half burnt photo. Restorations can be done by removing the imperfections of the photograph. Along with many other capabilities, the unique signatures of these digital effect tools have now established this group of work under the category of digital photo manipulation.
In comparison to Duchamp’s work of the readymade, Expressionism is advertised on the other end of the spectrum. Expressionism is identified by the effect the artwork invokes upon the viewer. Vincent van Gogh (semi-Impressionist) entered into the classification of Expressionism when he began painting with brighter colors. Intended for emotional effect, van Gogh painted, Starry Night, with expressive and representational use of colors. In my reproduction, I wanted to evaluate the use of computation in this category. Using a photo of Seattle, my work portrayed one of the Impressionists’ favorite – scenery. In order to recreate “the kind of stroke-by-stroke revelation of personality,” I needed to represent the realistic photo in a different way (Krauss 80). Parallel to van Gogh’s paintings, I adjusted the colors values of the photo to emphasize the figurative relationship between the color and the elements of the scene. Blue hues represented the sky; red hues gave the color of the clouds at dusk. Yellow highlighted the tint of streetlights; Green makes Washington the Evergreen State. Furthermore, the texture of the image needed to represent Pointillism. When a computer takes a impression of an image, the processor can represent a region by a single color sample to reduce its details. This is the basis of image compression (discrete cosine transform). In the spatial frequency domain, detail is represented by high changes in frequency. Therefore, applying a low pass filter on the image preserves the lower band frequency signal. In other words, the resulting image contains less information. After a compressing the image at a lower quality, I sharpened the edges with no smoothness to put forth the basic representation of any digital image - pixel composition. This piece of work appears to connect with two categories. The final representation no longer resembles the original photograph, but yet it is not an image created from scratch. My work does not create the same effect. No matter how well I can create an impression of an image on the computer, it can never achieve the form of pointillism and emotion from paints and brushes. The weight of the stroke and texture can never be represented on a monitor. Using a computer to recreate van Gogh's work simply cannot recreate humanity that lives within his paintings.
Through nonrepresentational paintings, Abstract Expressionists seek to create the same effect as Expressionists. The pure abstraction is “caused by a heightening of the principle of discontinuity” (Krauss 165). Jackson Pollock, known for his action paintings, stresses the fundamental spatial quality of his work. One of Pollock’s works, Number 23, is composed of black and white paint strokes disintegrated across the canvas. Using Adobe Illustrator, I used two different brushes to create the splatter on the painting. I didn’t allow myself to undo any actions, because action painting is spontaneous. Although my work might resemble Pollock’s work, but the natural movement of the body, the physical characteristics of the strokes, cannot be achieved within a computer. Our nature is not systematic; no finite set of computer instructions can accurately describe our surroundings. Each brush in illustrator leaves the same mark on the canvas, without any imperfections or mistakes. By receiving inputs from the mouse, the program records the path the cursor has traveled. The only data recorded is the coordinates of the path. The program is only capable of “knowing” the weight of the stroke a value is specified. However, the computer is able to provide quantitative measurements. Scaling is one of the main benefits of using vectors. Illustrator’s pen tool utilizes splicing to form cubic curves. Since vectors generally require a heavy amount of calculations, it is useful for us to take advantage of the environment to create complex designs. When we wish to scale objects or paths, an algorithm will take care of the job. Vector Art is characterized by the distinct, almost perfect shape of the vector outlines. It is often preferred for creating professional illustrations over freehand drawings on paper or screen. It must not be forgotten that our computational environment is limited to what we have programmed. Humans are autonomous and creative. Our actions are unpredictable and chaotic. It is a system that cannot be replicated inside a computer. Due to the limitations of the computational environment, it can only accept a bounded set of given inputs mapped to a bounded set of outputs. In the example of abstract expressionism, the computational environment would brutally destroy its defining character form the art form.
Wassily Kandinsky, an artist from Bauhaus, created abstract compositions of simple shapes. Despite the disputes and crisis, he and his colleagues changed their focus from Expressionism to Elementarism. Kandinsky and his colleague Paul Klee theorized the principles of high level Abstractions stems on the formation of elements from a point to a line, from a line to a plane, and from a plane, to a volume (Banham 283). This idea is implemented the computer screen as I type. For instance, Design by Numbers follows the same principle of abstraction. In terms of design, all elements were broken to the atoms (points). His work, Composition X, shows the composition of bright solid colors components in a conceptual arrangement. The tension the colors created did not seem to be connected with the spatial composition of the components. Because of the simple solid forms, it would be best to experiment in Illustrator. I created my arrangement by listening to my drum and bass records. Kandinsky’s style is the hardest one I have done so far. I find it difficult figure out what he is trying to do with his work. At this point, I could only describe his work based on the aesthetic observations, and I have yet to develop a deeper understanding of his work. In my piece, I created my own visualization from the music. Naturally, I think sound as a signal, where it can be transformed and combined in different ways. We can often create graphical representations of sound by analyzing the spectrum of the signal in the frequency domain. The result is the typical visual display for equalizers. Music Visualizations Design is based on representing audio signals to a visual display. By analyzing the spectrum of the signal, the shape and amplitude of the signal in the frequency domain can be used as parameters of a visualization program. It will process the characteristics of the signal and create beautiful colors and patterns in sync to the fluctuations of frequencies. Besides graphic design, music notes on an instrument are analogous to a point as well, where a sequence of notes can form a measure, and a series of measure puts together a song. This theory of abstraction is the foundation of computational design.
Closely associated with Bauhaus, de Stijl because a movement that first expanded the realm of Modern Art to architecture. Additionally, de Stijl was an international form that became the common ground for Futurism, Cubism, Expressionism, and Elementalism. As the industrial revolution slow down, society was beginning to demand for pleasures outside of our basic needs of shelter and food. With higher living standards, cleverly designed mass-housing hoped to satisfy “every demand for comfort” (Banham 159). The effects of the Industrial Revolution became immensely useful in production. De Stijl architecture became main stream. Despite opposition, de Stijl publications worked to promote the “enlightened Machine Aesthetic that inspired the best work of the Twenties” (Banham 153). The renowned example, Gerrit Rietveld’s arm chair, was proclaimed as the “abstract-real sculpture of our future interior” (Banham 190). The utopian representation of the chair was the model of “the inviolate and unmutilated condition of each structural member…and the spatiality of the total structure” (Banham 190). The color of the chairs were primary colors used by other de Stijl artists. The chair is free of handicraft decoration, and presents itself as a tribute to the machine aesthetic. This chair motivated for a design that religiously follow these principles in a computational environment. Equivalent to Elementalism, computer aid drafting (CAD) has became the standard tool for 3d Modeling. Objects are defined by points, lines, surfaces, and volume. Points are stored as point(x, y, z). Lines are a pair of line(p1, p2). Surfaces can be defined as a plane defined by 3 points and a direction of the normal plane(p1, p2, p3, N). Volumes are simply a protrusion of a surface. These basic relationships serve as the building blocks for all other models. I designed a chair that showed the values of de Stijl. Erik Mendelsohn’s term – dynamicism – can describe the chair’s structural tension stresses. The curved form and open space of the chair creates a unique visual character. CAD tools open a large variety of options for exploring new materials such as plastic and concrete. Computational design of models is made to represent a 3d object on to a 2d monitor. The object itself is virtual. It allows for changes to be made quickly. The object itself, however, will always remain as a conceptual representation.
Constructivists took a different stance on sculptures during this period. Naum Gabo’s work, Linear Construction No. II, crossed from one genre to another. The form of his structures and installments have been abstract and nonrepresentational. His art achieves create dynamic tension within the piece. To illustrate the idea of tension and curves along the streamlined curves, I used splices in Illustrator to sketch out a similar concept of tension in a 2d computational environment. Gradients bounded by the curves represent the density and magnitude of tension within the piece.
During the same time period, Optical Art was relatively short lived compared to other groups. Bridget Riley was the pioneer of Optical Art. Her pieces were orchestrated with colors, shades, and space. Her combination of these elements created wonderful visual stimuli. Her work is often misinterpreted that her colors are random. I believe that her intentional choice of colors was beautifully executed. Her style is often seen on purses, shirts, and shoes. I created a piece similar to her work, but chose my colors based on my own intuition. Computation can easily generate a piece of art using random colors. Perhaps by chance that it looks like Riley’s work, it would lose the valuable deliberate choices in the process. I began my second piece of Optical Art emulating Victor Vasarely’s work by creating a gradient on the canvas. Using two waves, I transformed the continuous gradient to tiles of color. Then by applying distortion filters, I was able to draw the lines closer. The orientation of the lines intends to suggest movement drawn to the dark areas.
De Stijl became the stepping stone to move towards Contemporary Art. The period is characterized by the beginning of a new social focus. Rising consumerism demanded for artistic designs for advertisements and product package. The new portfolio of this time period reached to the film industry, music industry, food industry, fashion, etc. Print media was still the primary mode for dispersing information, and many designs were still based upon printing. The most interesting category within Contemporary Art is Popular Art. The genre itself began because popular icons and idols was a large market in the midst of rising consumerism. For instance, Peter Blake designed album covers for the Beatles and Elvis Presley. I explored Popular Art by creating a record label cover. The typography and style was used as part of the design modeling the text in Blake’s work – Q is for Quarters. The contrast of colors juxtaposed against each other in simple field shapes. As contemporary art move down its timeline, its end was marked by the introduction of digital art. Popular Art prevailed, and took form as media design.
The introduction of computation changed our generation when a new media emerges – Internet. The interactive portal of information, in combination with the capabilities of our computers, has become the road where design is headed. Everyday engineers try to improve our capabilities to perform more computations, better and faster. Design is now a major phase in the development process of all the products out in the market. Great designs in the market succeed in establishing identities. The demand for design is growing every day, where designers are in a wide range of industries. Design will soon become a universal science, because it is now a mode of artistic control – where there will be no categories and boundaries.