september

Lines, they start from a point, and can make either an open path or a closed path. They can be straight, curved, or jagged. A shape is a line with a closed path. Lines can have different emotions, depending on the way it was drawn, how smooth it is and etcetera.

I wanted to share a music video that I really enjoy, and it uses the concept of lines really well. It is Arctic Monkey's Do I Wanna Know, and note how the lines illustrate a story in a very interesting manner, as compared to using the same old method of using a video. There are many different types of lines in the video, and they use lines to illustrate different things. At the beginning, lines are used to simulate sound waves of the singer's voice. Then, it transits to become animation, and it oscillates quite a few times, and even mashes the two to achieve a very seamless effect. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! It never gets old.

The task assigned to us this week, was to trace just the contours/lines from a photo of our liking, and then trace another one with just the details, and then combine it until we get one that we like. I chose a photo of the Golden Gate Bridge. On the right is the tracing of just the observable lines in the photo, mainly the silhouette of the tree above, the main parts of the bridge, and the bushes below.

On the left, is the tracing of just the observable lines in the photo, mainly the silhouette of the tree above, the main parts of the bridge, and the bushes below. The photo on the right is the combined photos of the two tracings.

I also experimented with different mediums. The bridge was drawn with a thick marker, the suspension cables were drawn in a 0.1mm pen, and the tree trunk with charcoal.

How does tracing just the details/contours alter the intention of the image?
Drawing only the outlines makes the image a little harder to interpret, as the viewer would have to guess the details.

It simplifies the image when you take out the details, but it may do the opposite when too many important details are being left out, for example the drawing of the leaves and branches. It is hard to tell that the lines are actually the outlines for the natural landscape without the shading and details, thus enters the conflict of abstraction, as we think to ourselves how much is too much?

DADA cut up & collage

The image above, was made by Marcel Duchamp in 1919, as a challenge to artistic and cultural authority by being intentionally disrespectful to the highly acclaimed artwork, the Mona Lisa. The letters "E.H.O.O.Q" were also inscribed on the print. It spells out a risqué French pun, "Elle a chaud au cul", which translates to "She has hot pants".
Picture credits to http://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/dada-115169154/

The DADA movement seeks to challenge and mock materialistic and nationalistic attitudes. It started in Zurich as the Cabaret Voltaire, with artists reciting their pieces of works that critics called 'gibberish'. And that was exactly what these young Zurich artists wanted - to counter intellectualism, and to create a form of aesthetic terrorism, in hopes to break away from orthodox ideas of traditions.

Dada got its name from a French-German dictionary, as coined by Hugo Ball and Richard Huelsenbeck. Dada meant 'yes-yes' in Romanian, ‘rocking horse’ and ‘hobby horse’ in French, and for Germans it is a sign of foolish naiveté, according to Ball.

Dada was meant to provoke, and catch your eye. Barbara Kruger was a contemporary artist and designer whom many associate with Dada, as her artworks were supposed to go against the exploitation of, anything actually. Her works are characterised by the typical black and white photo, and slogans in red boxes and white Futura italic fonts.

https://ucart100.files.wordpress.com/2014/02/w-magazine-kim-kardashian-barbara-kruger.jpg

It's all about me, I mean you, I mean me (2010) tells of how women are always subjected to men's expectations. There is a cyclic uncertainty about the voice in red and white, supposedly the female's words, that she wants to be confident, yet she changes her stand and says that men are more important than her view of herself. It makes me think about all the times that guys have called girls ugly or 'not as pretty'. To relate to Dada, the photo alone without the taglines would have been definitely pleasing to the eye (for some out there). But Kruger chose to add the 3 taglines to insert a certain uncomfortable sentiment into the magazine cover, making it more difficult to enjoy as an audience. And that, is the intention of Dada, to challenge the norm, that is in this case, a beautiful woman wearing little or nothing on a magazine cover.

negative & positive space

This week, we explore many different concepts in lecture, starting with Chiaroscuro, tenebrism, form, value, lines, negative and positive space. I will touch on topics that are more prominent, such as Chiaroscuro and negative/positive space.

Chiaroscuro is a canonical painting style that started in the Renaissance period. Currently there isn't any evidence as to who is the founder of Chiaroscuro, but it has been utilised and made popular by painters such as Caravaggio (the most prominent of them all), Rembrandt, Honthorst, and Botticelli. It focuses on using light, more specifically one source of light to light up the surroundings of the scene that is being painted. In the olden days, they only had candlelight that could help them to illuminate the place, which is where I assume this style came about. Therefore, there is a lot contrast that can be observed in a Chiaroscuro painting, such as the one in the header of the post. It was painted by Caravaggio, San Giovanni Battista (Saint John the Baptist), 1604. Credits to https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Giovanni_Battista_(Caravaggio) for the picture.

I chose to increase the scale of YOU! in the photo. I did this twice, therefore also including the concept of repetition. The meaning of the image has changed, to just a normal I Love You message to something more explosive and In-Your-Face. The word You has been enlarged and repeated, giving more meaning to YOU rather than the two other elements in the photo. This could mean that the relationship has a lot of the 'you' element rather than 'me', symbolising a very selfless relationship.

I initially thought the idea was to scale the photo into a smaller frame, so that was my mistake on the right. Anyway, the meaning of the photo changed as well as it could be interpreted as OVER YOU instead of I LOVE YOU, leaving the ambiguity in the picture for the viewer to guess.

The original photo is a very sensual and provocative image. However, after adding more teeth in the mouth, it looks a little strange and less appealing. It looks a little like vampire teeth the way the last two teeth are pointing inwards. The photo changed from something sensual to something disturbing. This can symbolise how beauty can turn ugly. One could refer to one of the Ten Commandments - Thou shalt not commit adultery.

I chose a photo of Audrey Hepburn on the set of ’Sabrina’, 1953. Photo by Mark Shaw. Firstly, I deconstructed her head from her torso, and flipped it upside down.

Two other variations: Putting her arms in a more demure manner, covering her torso, and the last one looks like she's on her fours. This was not done out of disrespect for Ms. Hepburn, but rather to show how women can be manipulated to something that she's not. Especially in the entertainment industry, where sometimes women need to do things that she doesn't want to, in order to get the things she want.

The assignment this week was to experiment with subtract information from the image by either cutting it out or colouring it black.

For the first image of a scenery out of a bedroom window, I experimented with removing the scenery from the photo. I began with the entire scenery, then did one with removing just the sky, leaving the buildings intact.

I feel that the photos with the entire scenery removes has a feeling of ambiguity, like you don't know what you're going to get. Or it could symbolise someone who is constantly moving around, without a certain home, as there is no fixed scenery. This applies more for the cut out instead of the blackout background. The blackout background has more of a condemned feeling, as it could be looking out into nothingness. Or a jail, where you have no windows at all.

Next, I tried cutting out just the windows. By zooming into the rooms and not removing the buildings, it focuses on the lives of room's occupants, like they could be anyone, doing anything. A housewife cleaning the dishes, a young couple with their pet, a grandma knitting.

I also experimented with removing the buildings, and then removing everything except the sky. It gives it a more modern and urban feel as you can't really see the buildings, it looks more like skyscrapers.

Following, I tried colouring the sky black and making everything else white.

I am changing the focus to the pillows and blanket instead of the window now. I cut out one pillow, and the message of the picture changes to a lonely person in the bed instead. Like someone has left the life of this protagonist, and there is no one lying on the pillow next to him/her.

Removing both pillows and the blanket makes the cut out just look like a clump of nothing, it has become too abstract to know what it actually is.

I have manipulated this photo of a deer by removing its antlers first, then its eyes, ears, nose, and eventually the entire head. One could say this is the deer losing its sense of identity as the antlers are the most notable part of the deer. By removing the sensory organs, it can be said that it has been desensitised or rather lost its senses. It is now a very helpless deer.

I then tried to cut out the white dots on its abdomen, as it is another distinct feature of the deer. To me, the dots make it look innocent, as compared to an animal with stripes. Thus, to me, it feels like the deer has lost its innocence.

By colouring these parts black, it has cast an ominous or rather creepy aura on the deer. Like it does not want you to know what it is.

My third photo was of a seaside, with some buildings in the background. First, I tried to remove the buildings from the background. This could represent the removal of urbanisation in nature, as urbanisation in natural sites are destroying the planet.

Next, I removed the sea, and then the trees. By doing so, the message it is sending is that if we do not take care of the environment, it will be taken away from us and it may not ever come back.

Lastly, I cut up the windows in the buildings. Just like Photo 1, it gives the photo a sense of individuality as it opens up the idea of people living in the building. They could be anyone. It could also show the removal of people from such environments.