Comparison and Contrast: Impressionism v. Photorealism

From the time of the Renaissance up until the invention of photography, the goals of many painters were to paint images that looked real and life-like. However, after the invention of photography, many artists became disillusioned in painting life-like images because what takes them days or even weeks to paint, will simply take a few hours for a picture to develop. 

 http://www.mrdowling.com/images/704mosalisa.jpg

 http://library.thinkquest.org/27927/Centur4.jpg

Eventually, a wave of art movement called Impressionism appeared in Europe from 1867 to 1886 to counteract the invention of photography and its ability to create exact replicas of the world around us. Impressionist painters’ works basically look like actual paintings rather than replicas of the real world by bringing unmixed colors straight onto the canvas. Impressionists paint with small series of strokes in order to create an overall effect when viewed from far away. From close-up, the painting seems like a messy mixture of random colors; however, each step back the viewer takes creates a different experience, and eventually, once the viewer is standing far enough, the human eye will automatically mix those individual colored strokes together and a recognizable overall picture magically appears.

 http://cdn0.mattters.com/photos/photos/579685/photorealism_056.jpg

A century later, the desire to create realistic images with paint on canvas appeared once more. This new movement, photorealism, actually worked with the technology of photography by painting from photos. Photorealism artworks are actual paintings that resemble pictures taken from a camera. The lighting, color, and texture of the items or people depicted in the painting are so accurate that it often requires people to give a double-take before realizing the artwork is in fact a painting and not a photograph.

Impressionism and photorealism relate in that they both focus on being innovative and different from the dominant art movement before their time. They are not afraid to think differently from prior art styles and create their own movements in the art world. Both styles also have a strong focus on texture. Although both styles of paintings are directly affected by the invention of photography, the end results of the artworks are at opposite ends of the spectrum; impressionism revolves around painting sceneries and events with the idea of abstract colors and painterly strokes, while photorealism focuses more on the minute details of specific objects or people.

sources:

Pioch, Nicolas. "Impressionism." Ibiblio.org - Storytelling. WebMuseum, 19 June 2006. Web. 15 Oct. 2010. <http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/impressionism/>

"Photorealism." Art Cyclopedia: The Fine Art Search Engine. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. <http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/photorealism.html>

Design as Conversation

Design is not solely based upon the aesthetics; it can often be used as a method of communication to convey the artist’s belief and ideas about a certain issue to the public. As a result, it would require its audience to understand the designer’s intentions so that they may respond to it; this is exactly what a conversation is: a method of communication in which both the designer and the viewer interact together. It is the most important step as a designer, being able to communicate the idea to a broad range of audience, because design is often a collaborative work. In order to work together, people must understand the purpose or goal for which they are working towards.

Interactive art is a style of art that allows art to speak out to the public and have its viewers participate in response. Rather than “tell” the audience what they should do or believe, interactive art allows the public to join in on the idea and participate right along with it.

http://www.blackrockarts.org/scrapeden/Compost-spiral-pttp.jpg

An example is the Composting Contraption created for the ScrapEden project in San Francisco, whose main goal is to educate everyone about the joys of composting. The Composting Contraption is basically a manually-powered machine that uses the science of kinetic energy to turn the barrel for a composting bin. The materials used to make this machine were either recycled or reused, which is a wonderful way to stay green and help reduce the trash in our environment. This mobile compost design will travel through the area, educating children and adults alike, to enlighten them about composting methods and ways to recycle. They hope to maintain San Francisco’s zero waste goals.

Sources:

ScrapEden SF 2010 — Black Rock Arts Foundation." — Black Rock Arts Foundation. Web. 16 Oct. 2010. .

Rediscovering Design

Even when confined inside a building, one can still find creativity from the limited surrounding. I feel that I often find my creativity by being spontaneous. I take whatever I find in front of me, think of what I can do with it, and begin working towards the first idea that appears in my head.

 Photo by Diane Wu

As represented by the photo, I created six cubes from scotch tape, and began arranging them in certain patterns. It wasn’t until I placed them inside a clear rectangular container and shook the cubes into different arrangements that I remembered Kostas Terzidis’ article on The Etymology of Design: Pro-Socratic Perspective. He states that “design is about the derivative of something that suggests the presence or existence of a fact,” meaning designers never create something new because it already existed before, the same way a fact will always exist. Designers simply arrange and rearrange certain things so that it may appear different or innovative. However, it had already existed before.  We simply rediscovered it once more.

My six cubes in a clear plastic container replicated this idea by showing that no matter how much we shake the container and rearrange the cubes into different patterns, these patterns are not newly created by the designer. These limited arrangements have already been discovered before, but human memory can only live so long. When the new idea is forgotten, it will be rediscovered in the future as something “new”, and the cycle continues into the future. No matter how creative or original a designer may seem, a design similar to theirs have probably been already used in the past, but in such a small scale that the original idea of the past designer was soon forgotten.

 Photo by Diane Wu

 Photo by Diane Wu

Sources: 

Terzidis, Kostas. "The Etymology of Design: Pro-Socratic Perspective." MIT Press Journals. 5 Oct. 2007. Web. 20 Sept. 2010. <http://ucelinks.cdlib.org:8888/sfx_local?sid=mit&genre=article&id=doi:10.1162/desi.2007.23.4.69>.

Finding Creativity From Our Surrounding

It is October, and I can already see the leaves on the trees changing colors from green to yellow, orange, and red. The warm breeze of the wind animates the trees and brings them to life, lifting the already-fallen leaves off the ground and sending them into a spiraling frenzy. The fallen red and yellow leaves reminded me of Andy Goldsworthy’s Rowan Leaves Laid Around a Hole, 1987. Goldsworthy is an excellent example of an artist who was able to find creativity from his surrounding and the things he sees.

http://prettisculpture.typepad.com/photos/other_artists_3/andy_goldsworthy_rowan_leaves_with_hole.jpg

Although I admire all his artworks, I am especial awestruck by not only his creativity, but his ability to create the Icicle Star, which he pieced together with saliva. Each icicle stick he carefully collected, in the shape of a long cone, is delicate and perfectly straight. Goldsworthy created an illusion, make the star appear to stand or float on its own in the picture. It is truly amazing to see how by simply using only nature as a source of inspiration and medium, humans can tap into their artistic gift and create something so beautiful. Sometimes, going back to the most basic inspirations, we are able to create the most beautiful artwork.

 

http://brandonk10.files.wordpress.com/2010/04/icicle-star.jpg

So for those who are artists or designers, the next time you become frustrated at the inability to think of something creative, simply a stroll through the forest or in nature as a way to relax from the stress. You might just find the inspiration you were searching for.

UCD ASID (American Society of Interior Designers)

I recently attended the first UCD ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) meeting held at Walker Hall last Tuesday, and although I understand that there are very few Interior Design students at UC Davis, I was still rather sad to see how few people showed up for it. To my astonishment, the club president seemed rather impressed by the turn out, mentioning that this was more than she had originally expected. This furthered my disappointment.

However, besides my opinion of a small turn out, the club itself seems very active. ASID has a clear goal to focus on its members and help provide them with resources for their future career. The officers are also very helpful and welcoming. During the first meeting, we were shown a PowerPoint which introduced the important design professors whom we already have or might have in future classes. And although I am still only a first year, ASID not only provided us with a list of excellent graduate schools that has a strong Design focus, it also listed the requirements to get into the schools. Knowing the requirements early is extremely beneficial so that we won’t accidentally miss something when the time comes. 

 Slide from ASID Ppt

ASID is also already looking for potential future officers to train so that those who graduate in 2011 will be able to leave ASID in strong hands. So for those of you designers reading my blog and interested in applying for ASID officer position, email them at ucdasid@gmail.com for an application, and turn it in before October 17^th!

And for those of you reading this blog, whether you may be a graphics design major, a fashion major or not even in the field of design, you are all welcome to join ASID. Who knows, they just might be handing out free cookies like the first meeting that I went to!

Stone Soup

I’m sure we’ve all heard of the Stone Soup Fable since childhood about a soldier coming home from war and trying to make soup out of a rock. Eventually, curious town folks pass by and each decide to add carrots, lettuce, seasoning, and other foods into the pot; thus, the stone soup is made!

Inspired by this old story, students from Housefield’s DES001 class were assigned to bring random materials and objects from their homes to compile together and create a “stone soup,” although this one is not actually edible. My group brought glitter, glue, paintbrushes, cardboard, feathers, scrapbook paper, and a soda bottle. Without a clue of what we were going to make, we simply picked up the pieces and began assembling it all together. And this is what we created…

All photos by Diane Wu

Staring at each other, we had no idea what our creation was. Eventually someone blurted out, “It looks like a dead parrot that crashed into a tree.” As a result, we named our artwork Parrot’s Funeral. It is interesting to see how by sticking completely random and irrelevant objects together, we can create a work of art. This “stone soup” project didn’t require us to portray a specific idea, but after completing the activity, our group leader Cody Torgersrud, explained that as an artist, no matter how ridiculous our work looks in the end, the most important skill is to have the ability to explain and defend it. There will always be people out there critiquing an artist’s work, thus, as a designer, one must refine our ability to speak and acquire the skill to sell our work to the public.

Self-expression

Design can be thought out, but it can also be spontaneous and random. According to the article Etymology of Design: Pre-Socratic Perspective by Kostas Terzidis, the word “design” in Greek means incomplete, about, anticipation, and unfinished; even the definition itself is rather ambiguous. Even something as insignificant as the arrangement of multi-colored pins on my wall is design and I am the artist because I was responsible for the random placements of the pins. Design is simply a form of self-expression.

 Photo by Diane Wu

This is exactly why so many artists in the modern world are often misunderstood by the public for their creations. The modern mentality of artists is to use art as a form of personal self-expression. Many artists ceased to create art to please the public; rather, they create art to please themselves. Although many modern arts compared to the arts of the Renaissance seem much more simplified, it is still design.

Jackson Pollock, one of the many misunderstood modern artists, painted using the technique of splattering paint from a brush into a large canvas laid out on the ground. Although he did achieve fame during his lifetime and was accepted as an artist, critics often claimed that his paintings were not art. They argue that any uneducated person can splatter paint into a canvas and achieve the same result as his work. However, Pollock’s paintings were not about whether it can be reciprocated, it was about his ability to express his emotions through the colors that he uses and to engulf himself and be actually part of his painting. His paintings bring him joy and individuality, which is exactly the purpose of art and design.

  http://www.arthistoryspot.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/painting_jackson_pollock.jpg

Sources:

Terzidis, Kostas. "The Etymology of Design: Pre-Socratic Perspective." Massachusetts Institute of Technology 23 (2007). Print.

Prehistoric Designs

Originally, I chose the class Intro to Archaeology simply to fulfill my General Education credits, and also because it sounded interesting considering I had taken AP Art History back in high school. However, after a few classes, I realized how artifacts left behind by prehistoric humans could provide modern humans with clues to their past. Past human designs managed to build a bridge for us to rediscover a world long forgotten.

Archaeology, put simply, is the study of human history. Thus, archaeologists appropriate a large portion of their time excavating for and interpreting artifacts, which are objects modified by humans. A few examples of artifacts archaeologists may find are arrowheads, potsherds (broken pottery pieces), and stone tools. These objects are all designed by prehistoric humans, and archaeologists note that the designs for these tools become more complex and intricate over time. As a result, archaeologists are often interested in studying everything design-related in order to establish an overall picture of past human history.

A site that most fascinates me is the Lascaux Cave located in France. At first glance, once sees paintings of animals such as bulls and horses on the ceilings of the cave, not very impressive. I’m sure we’ve all been able to draw animals since Kindergarten. Most archaeologists reacted the same way when these paintings were first discovered, ignorant of the origins of these paintings. A few years later, other archaeologists took interest in these cave paintings, and after scrutinizing and testing the accumulated dirt on the walls, they realized that the animals were painted about 17,000 years ago! This is one of the earliest paintings ever discovered so far!

http://www.frenchfriends.info/g2/main.php?g2_view=core.DownloadItem&amp;g2_itemId=708&amp;g2_serialNumber=2

The desire for humans to create and design has been imprinted into our genes since the beginning of time. Despite the hassle and extra effort to simply mix the paints by scavenging different colored materials to grind up, prehistoric humans put aside the time to hunt for food in order to express and draw what they see. It is amazing to see how even thousands of years ago, humans had the ability to scrutinize the make-up of particular animals and understand enough of its structure to recreate a three dimensional animal into a two dimensional painting. In the modern world, design has truly taken a step further every century since the paintings in the Lascaux Cave. Now, we have created a world overwhelmed by human designs.

Sources:
Kelly, Robert L., and David Hurst Thomas. Archaeology: Down to Earth. Fourth ed. Davis: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.