Project #3 -- Mapping the Evolution of a Creative Event

Proposal for Project 3: Mapping the Evolution of a Creative Event

Mapping a Creative Event

After exploring a variety of examples of the artistic mapping of various digital environments, I found myself especially drawn to the works of Jason Salavon. Two of his works, City and The Loop, Chicago, 1848-2007, are evocative of Monet’s studies of the Cathedral of Rouen, a series that I have always liked. Similarly, Salavon’s stunning work, American Varietal, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, is strongly reminiscent of the veil paintings of Morris Louis, one of my favorite painters. Like Monet’s studies of Rouen Cathedral (also of haystacks, poplar trees, and other), Cities and The Loop explore transitions through time though by collapsing the time frames so they are seen simultaneously rather than serially as done by Monet. All of this led me to think about Louis’ technique of layering washes of color. Thus I came to my decision to explore a similar creative process through the use of Photo Shop, taking advantage of its layering capabilities.

I propose to start with a basic and simple shape such as a rectangle, to which I will add some variations such as curves & fluting along one edge. I then will explore that shape, transforming it, giving it various fills, applying multiple copies, varying the layer opacity, etc., building up layers until I achieve a final composition. The final work will be composed of two phases which will both be included in the same picture plane: (1) the finished composition consisting of the build-up and accumulation of shapes and colors into a unified whole, and (2) a composite strip of images recording the process from the creation of the original shape through the transformations to the final shape or shapes. Thus viewers will be able to see the process of creation mapped alongside the final work which will be a kind of metamap, a map of itself.

Project #3: Artistic Mapping

Conduct research on a topic of personal interest and present this research in the form of a map using Photoshop. Mapping is a way to represent space, information and concepts into a condensed document. While it is generally considered the domain of cartographers and scientific researchers, there are many artists who consider their practice closely related to mapping. As an artist, your choices of what to map are unrestricted. You may choose to map an idea, yourself, a political or historical issue, a material, a space, a process, or even a fictional topic of your own devices. How does your map function as an artistic conveyance of information to others?


Project Proposal Description

Proposals should describe the main ideas / concepts you are interested in and the ways you plan to make them visible in your project. What do you plan to do and why is it interesting? Why does this particular subject interest you? What artists and/or thinkers have influenced your ideas? Why is it appropriate to address this subject matter through digital imaging? How will your project be original? What do you imagine the end result will look like? How will you arrange the elements of your work to best convey your ideas? Proposals are tools of creativity. It is expected that ideas will change and evolve along the way.

Project #2 -- Fabricated Landscape
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This project has been challenging & fun: Used a digital camera for the first time (asked fellow classmate, Kevin, a photography major, to set the camera for "point & click." I didn't even know that I had to turn the camera on (duh!) let alone what button to push, but I'm learning. Also learned how to scan images on a really good scanner & how to @ least try to print on the Hopkins 184 marvel -- success through teamwork! Critique was great, every artist in class had something special to offer. I wish I could include them all here; maybe we need a class blog. Okay, so here's my "Fabricated Landscape", based on scanned painting of Trellowarren countryside, photo (one of my first digital photos! I'm learning a lot of new stuff) of one of my paintings, beach & flowers from Carlsbad, California, & photos taken by classmates:



Project #2: Fabricated Landscape With digital imaging, the ubiquitous world wide web, games and emerging types of nanotechnology, the landscape as a material thing (or collection of things) has been evolving into the landscape as a virtual thing. For this project, in lieu of using online images, use only your own manually scanned imagery and high-resolution digital photographs to construct a series of images that reveal a personal investigation of Landscape.