Rantings on Glitch Art (Forshadowing of What is to Come)

I struggled with glitch art a lot because it often seems to be art without explanation and without intent. It sometimes bothers me when art is just for hanging on a wall without either a concept or an explanation of what the artist saw. Some artist, me included, struggle to take concepts and turn them into visuals, but other artists have amazing visuals with no communicated intent or observations. Art is such an amazing tool for communication and drawing attention so I want to understand what my attention is being drawn towards and then compare that to my own thoughts and perceptions.

The top piece is a anonymous "glitch" of the bottom. I don't like the original at all but I really like the recreation because it gives off a feeling of submersion. It almost seems like, more than anything related to nuclear explosions, an exploration of being submerged or forced under by a force of unmatchable and near-surreal strength. A sense of loss of control. To me this is created by the bars that seem to recede from front to back instead of changing vertically.  I'm glad the original artist decided on creating it with a more oblique 3d-ish perspective from the contour of the city rapping around the explosion than designing it with a normal side or aerial view.

Digital Nature Montage

One of my friends had this set as his background on his Macbook. I thought it was pretty cool since we just worked on montages that showed the passage of time. I really liked the way it was split into panels, I would love to do a piece similar to this of my own someday. I am however curious as to how much time passed in between these photos, is it a lot or are they just not in chronological order?

The vertical frames also reminded me of a piece by Joshua Patnaude pictured below. Notice how, even though they both deal with the passage of time, they are both organized by color change inflicted by changing light not exclusively by time. This really appeals to me because it's very natural and there is a lot of color coherency.

Are We Humans, or are We Dancer?

I don't understand why I love art revolving around dancers so much, but I do. My very first design, which was done just over a year ago now as part of an interview process, incorporated a significantly modified version of the picture below. I was hooked.

 

 

 

I have fallen in love with artwork related to dancers. So when, in Mary Stewart's Launching the Imagination, the author begins discussing shapes - instantly I thought of an art exhibit opening my friend and I went to in Seattle. I wish I could remember the name of the photographer because his work was great but unfortunately I only remember the work. In the series he was working on he used different dancers and had them posing one at a time in different natural settings from around the world. By utilizing different natural features in their poses, as the motion in the pictures (created by their various stances) got more and more intense the dancers became less and less distinguished from their environments and more and more connected with the natural features in their surroundings (which also seemed to bring some of the features themselves into motion). The picture may be considered representational but the poses the dancers held were abstract, even to the point of seeming "pure form".

The painting below (an actual abstract by Pat Carroll) captures a similar quality and also incorporates some awesome texture.

Fascinated by Lines

So lately I have been fascinated by different artists use of lines. Mary Stewart, Director of Art Foundations at Florida State University, discusses in her book Launching the Imagination, the use of lines in cross-hatching and cross-contours to create intricate pseudo three-dimensional images. Albert Seveso uses both these techniques phenomenally in his work "David Lynch + Ice Cube".

The continuous curves on the left and right really draw your attention and give contrast to the face and background making the red and browns pop. Compared to Michelangelo's Head of Satyr in Launching the Imagination, the picture above demonstrates how a technique used 400 years ago can be translated into use in a modern medium to create something awesome. Michelangelo my have used cross-contours for hair but in my opinion Seveso takes it to a whole new level in the photo above in using it to create the eye-cuff and various other facial features.

In my personal work as a marketing consultant I have been experimenting with some other uses of lines. I recently finished designing the below business card w/ a client who already had a concept in mind.

He wanted his name and the text "owner" where it is located, his wife had a great idea of adding the line to the left of the text. While a horizontal line, like those placed below and above the letterhead, would have added the most stability. I think a vertical line was better than floating text not tethered to any stable object (Adam is also a very qualified accountant if you are looking for someone to do your taxes. My return this year should be more than I ever thought possible, just an fyi :) .

A Self-Portrait

I had a lot of fun creating the above self-portrait, a slightly cathartic experience that I wish I had more skill and passion to polish. I wanted to explore identity but I had trouble translating what I conceptualize for installation pieces into a 2-d image. I think I was able to express that sports and an active lifestyle are the only things that keep me from depression - I would have liked to incorporate a picture of one of my close friends that I often play sports with though because he is also a source of insecurity which makes sports interesting, unfortunately we have mutual friends in the class. My insecurities are fueled by a damaged relationship with my father and cause me to look for someone to fill those roles, in this case the person I also happen to spend the most time with who is incapable of meeting those needs. I know there is only one person capable of meeting those needs and I draw all sense of confidence from Him and the time I spend with Him. I used cardboard for background because my life is very compartmentalized and I wanted to express that I spend different parts of my life in different zones that I seldom let mesh.

The Mirror

By Cody Gregg

I can see the hurt beneath his eyes,

the deep somber litany of entrapment, depression, isolation, and disappointment,

running away from a past he isn’t sure how much longer he can hide, and desires he can’t fulfill.

The loneliness deviating his acceptance, and relationships

that should be great investments end,

in dysfunction as he pulls the plug on what sometimes feels

so right but sends him into dejection as he falls short of his expectation

of boundaries that he built in discipline, to easily leaped by momentum from a past…

I look away from his eyes,

the sadness, overwhelming, too much to bear.

Eyes I had beheld in hopes of finding life,

But only finding pain revealed in this mirror.

Merging Two Mediums Simplified Again

I am not a web developer, however, from what information is available that I can understand, HTML5 made it easier to learn coding for small applications with intuitive ideas revolving around one word: Functionality. While coding in HTML5 is simplified, meaning it takes fewer codes to produce the same results, according to the World Wide Web Consortium, it may still be a while before HTML5 is ready to take the reigns completely from its predecessor. What is particularly exciting about HTML5 is video backgrounds being integrated into the HTML coding. This merging of two mediums made for an exciting new flurry of fascinating web applications and opened the door for possible future expansions including the possibility of intigrating video and other media with even less code and coders no longer being responsible for telling the web how to render the media, just where to locate it. 

With HTML5's bringing Adobe's development of flash for mobile device to an end in 2011, many smartphone users will appreciate what HTML5 expansions will continue to offer with hopeful launches of HTML5.1 in 2015/16 and 5.2 not far beyond that.

Looks like fun airsoft practice!

I never cease to be amazed at what Auto-CAD can do. These are sick and I love how detailed they are. I think they would be the perfect secret santa gift for Dwight Schrute given I'm pretty sure he beat all the Halo games the first time he tried. 

In all seriousness I think this will be a great spot for the manufacturing market in 3d printing to enter an ever growing market of video game enthusiasts. Props to artist Khurram Alavi.