Optic Array
The patterns of light reaching the eye can be thought of asn an optic array containing all the visual information available at the retina. This optic array provides unambiguous information about the layout of objects in space.
Textured Gradients
As the optic array flows around you the viewer, the textured gradient of what you perceive gives information about distance, speed, etc. This perception involves almost little or no information processing by the cognitive system.
For this to happen Gibson's theory relies on action, or movement. Previous research almost eliminated the movement of subjects in laboratory conditions. Two constants are important: the pole (or the point to which someone is moving) and the horizon in relation to the height of the person. These invariants help to maintain size constancy.
Gibson further explained an ability to filter the optic array as the potential to filter information through resonance. This is rather like radio waves and the radio, which can pick up frequencies that broadcast music etc. distinguishing them from other 'noise'. People are able to 'tune into' their environments fairly automatically.
Affordance
This means attaching particular meaning to visual information. Gibson rejected the theory that long term memory provides meaning. Rather, he argued that the potential use of an object is directly perceivable - a ladder 'affords' climbing up or down, a chair 'affords' sitting.
Gibson concluded that visual perception is extremely accurate. Visual Illusions work because the view we have is often of a very short time (impoverished) and usually two dimensional and static, not involving the added perceptual awareness of movement. Visual illusions have little to do with everyday living. However, Gibson only goes so far in understanding 'seeing' and not far enough in explaining how people 'see as' assigning meaning to what we see. This does involve memory and learning.
(http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~kbroom/Lectures/gibson.htm)
Monday 2 August 2010
Tuesday 8 June 2010
Monday 7 June 2010
Friday 21 May 2010
+ Dan Graham
(www.ifa2008.org)
One Straight Line Cross By One Curved Line/2-way mirror glass
Dan Graham's model "One Straight Line Crossed by One Curved Line", 2007/2008, recently realized in Basel, provides, as in the other models that precede or follow the artist's built pavilions, a break with rectilinear form. Its reflective anamorphic surfaces which are both transparent and mirror the surrounding space are functional structures, hybrids between sculpture and architecture.
(http://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/dan-graham/)
(http://artnews.org/gallery.php?i=211&exi=14747&Marian_Goodman&Dan_Graham)
Dan Graham
«Time Delay Room»
This closed-circuit installation was varied by Dan Graham six times following the same structural set-up as described below:
«Two rooms of equal size, connected by an opening at one side, under surveillance by two video cameras positioned at the connecting point between the two rooms. The front inside wall of each features two video screens - within the scope of the surveillance cameras. The monitor which the visitor coming out of the other room spies first shows the live behavior of the people in the respective other room. In both rooms, the second screen shows an image of the behavior of the viewers in the respectively other room - but with an eight second delay.
The time-lag of eight seconds is the outer limit of the neurophysiological short-term memory that forms an immediate part of our present perception and affects this «from within». If you see your behavior eight seconds ago presented on a video monitor «from outside» you will probably therefore not recognize the distance in time but tend to identify your current perception and current behavior with the state eight seconds earlier. Since this leads to inconsistent impressions which you then respond to, you get caught up in a feedback loop. You feel trapped in a state of observation, in which your self-observation is subject to some outside visible control. In this manner, you as the viewer experience yourself as part of a social group of observed observers [instead of, as in the traditional view of art, standing arrested in individual contemplation before an auratic object].
(Gregor Stemmrich, «Dan Graham,» in Thomas Y. Levin, Ursula Frohne, Peter Weibel (eds.), CTRL[SPACE]. Rhetorics of Surveillance from Bentham to Big Brother, ZKM | Center for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, 2001, The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, London, 2002, p. 68.)
http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/time-delay-room/images/12/
Thursday 20 May 2010
+Bruce Nauman
Live taped video corridor
Square Depression 2007, Munster
(http://blog.seattlepi.com/art/archives/130267.asp)
(http://blog.art21.org/2007/08/30/dont-miss-bruce-nauman-in-montreal/)
Square Depression 2007, Munster
(http://blog.seattlepi.com/art/archives/130267.asp)
(http://blog.art21.org/2007/08/30/dont-miss-bruce-nauman-in-montreal/)
Sunday 9 May 2010
+ Transgenic Art/ Eduardo Kac
...More than make visible the invisible, art needs to raise our awareness of what firmly remains beyond our visual reach but which, nonetheless, affects us directly...(http://www.ekac.org/transgenic.html)
The Eighth Day
Eduardo Kac, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Fluorescent Dictyostelium
Eduardo Kac makes transgenic art. In his world, rabbits, fish, plants and mice glow in the dark – not because they are virtual or digital but because they are genetically engineered to do so. These synthetically luminescent life forms share their environment with a biobot, a robot whose actions are controlled by a colony of amoeba acting as its brain.
(http://crossings.tcd.ie/gallery/Kac/Eighth_Day/)
The Eighth Day
Eduardo Kac, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Fluorescent Dictyostelium
Eduardo Kac makes transgenic art. In his world, rabbits, fish, plants and mice glow in the dark – not because they are virtual or digital but because they are genetically engineered to do so. These synthetically luminescent life forms share their environment with a biobot, a robot whose actions are controlled by a colony of amoeba acting as its brain.
(http://crossings.tcd.ie/gallery/Kac/Eighth_Day/)
Tuesday 9 March 2010
+ Fresco
Michaelangelo: Fresco of the Last Judgement 
(http://endtimesjournal.wordpress.com/2006/05/01/michaelangelo-fresco-of-the-last-judgement/)
(http://endtimesjournal.wordpress.com/2006/05/01/michaelangelo-fresco-of-the-last-judgement/)
+ Civilization / Marco Brambilla
Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard hotel in New York City, depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQJVr8Lvce0
Wednesday 3 March 2010
Tuesday 2 March 2010
Wednesday 17 February 2010
+ Technologies of the Picturesque
Technologies of the Picturesque: British Art, Poetry, and Instruments 1750-1830 (Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture)
"Technologies of the Picturesque" is an original study of how art and technology mutually align their representations of nature in order to transform land into intelligible landscapes. Ron Broglio explores three technologies in eighteenth-century Britain whose influence on the picturesque aesthetic has been overlooked: cartography, meteorology, and animal breeding. He traces how these scientific fields influence the works of Wordsworth, Gilpin, Constable, Gainsborough and other key figures of the period. Broglio argues that technology and interior experience of the poetic subject overlap in their means and methods of removing the viewer from nature, while presenting the land as a comprehensible object.Each chapter pairs archival research with a phenomenological critique of how representation abstracts from the lived engagement with the land. With considerable learning and insight, Broglio reveals how artists are both complicit with such objectification of nature, and at other moments work toward a more vivid connection to the environment.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0v582b0THzEC&lpg=PP1&ots=xEdNfBPqQg&dq=Technologies%20of%20the%20Picturesque&pg=PA29#v=twopage&q=&f=false
"Technologies of the Picturesque" is an original study of how art and technology mutually align their representations of nature in order to transform land into intelligible landscapes. Ron Broglio explores three technologies in eighteenth-century Britain whose influence on the picturesque aesthetic has been overlooked: cartography, meteorology, and animal breeding. He traces how these scientific fields influence the works of Wordsworth, Gilpin, Constable, Gainsborough and other key figures of the period. Broglio argues that technology and interior experience of the poetic subject overlap in their means and methods of removing the viewer from nature, while presenting the land as a comprehensible object.Each chapter pairs archival research with a phenomenological critique of how representation abstracts from the lived engagement with the land. With considerable learning and insight, Broglio reveals how artists are both complicit with such objectification of nature, and at other moments work toward a more vivid connection to the environment.
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=0v582b0THzEC&lpg=PP1&ots=xEdNfBPqQg&dq=Technologies%20of%20the%20Picturesque&pg=PA29#v=twopage&q=&f=false
+ Origami
The goal of this art is to create a representation of an object using geometric folds and crease patterns preferably without gluing or cutting the paper, and using only one piece of paper.
Almost every origami book begins with a description of the basic origami techniques which are enough to construct those models described as basic or intermediate in difficulty. These include fairly standard diagrammatic representations of the basic folds like valley and mountain folds, pleats, reverse folds, squash folds, and sinks. There are also standard named bases which are used in a wide variety of models, for instance the bird base is an intermediate stage in the construction of the flapping bird.
It is common to fold using a flat surface but some folders like doing it in the air with no tools especially when displaying the folding. Many folders believe no tool should be used when folding. However a couple of tools can help especially with the more complex models. For instance a bone folder allows sharp creases to be made in the paper easily, paper clips can act as extra pairs of fingers, and tweezers can be used to make small folds. When making complex models from origami crease patterns, it can help to use a ruler and ballpoint embosser to score the creases. Completed models can be sprayed so they keep their shape better, and of course a spray is needed when wet folding.
The practice and study of origami encapsulates several subjects of mathematical interest. For instance, the problem of flat-foldability (whether a crease pattern can be folded into a 2-dimensional model) has been a topic of considerable mathematical study.
The problem of rigid origami ("if we replaced the paper with sheet metal and had hinges in place of the crease lines, could we still fold the model?") has great practical importance. For example, the Miura map fold is a rigid fold that has been used to deploy large solar panel arrays for space satellites.
There may soon be an origami airplane launched from space. A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel on March 2008, and Japan's space agency adopted it for feasibility studies.
(Spring Into Action, designed by Jeff Beynon, made from a single rectangular piece of paper)
Almost every origami book begins with a description of the basic origami techniques which are enough to construct those models described as basic or intermediate in difficulty. These include fairly standard diagrammatic representations of the basic folds like valley and mountain folds, pleats, reverse folds, squash folds, and sinks. There are also standard named bases which are used in a wide variety of models, for instance the bird base is an intermediate stage in the construction of the flapping bird.
It is common to fold using a flat surface but some folders like doing it in the air with no tools especially when displaying the folding. Many folders believe no tool should be used when folding. However a couple of tools can help especially with the more complex models. For instance a bone folder allows sharp creases to be made in the paper easily, paper clips can act as extra pairs of fingers, and tweezers can be used to make small folds. When making complex models from origami crease patterns, it can help to use a ruler and ballpoint embosser to score the creases. Completed models can be sprayed so they keep their shape better, and of course a spray is needed when wet folding.
The practice and study of origami encapsulates several subjects of mathematical interest. For instance, the problem of flat-foldability (whether a crease pattern can be folded into a 2-dimensional model) has been a topic of considerable mathematical study.
The problem of rigid origami ("if we replaced the paper with sheet metal and had hinges in place of the crease lines, could we still fold the model?") has great practical importance. For example, the Miura map fold is a rigid fold that has been used to deploy large solar panel arrays for space satellites.
There may soon be an origami airplane launched from space. A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel on March 2008, and Japan's space agency adopted it for feasibility studies.
(Spring Into Action, designed by Jeff Beynon, made from a single rectangular piece of paper)
+ Cross-fertilization
Cross-fertilization: interchange between different cultures or different ways of thinking that is mutually productive and beneficial; "the cross-fertilization of science and the creative arts" (http://www.wordreference.com/definition/cross-fertilization)
• fertilization (reproduction)
• outbreeding (biology)
Encyclopædia Britannica
biologyalso called Allogamy,
the fusion of male and female gametes (sex cells) from different individuals of the same species. Cross-fertilization must occur in dioecious plants (those having male and female organs on separate individuals) and in all animal species in which there are separate male and female individuals. Even among hermaphrodites—i.e., those organisms in which the same individual produces both sperm and eggs—many species possess well-developed mechanisms that ensure cross-fertilization. Moreover, many of the hermaphroditic species that are capable of self-fertilization also have capabilities for cross-fertilization.
There are a number of ways in which the sex cells of two separate individuals can be brought together. In lower plants, such as mosses and liverworts, motile sperm are released from one individual and swim through a film of moisture to the egg-bearing structure of another individual. In higher plants, cross-fertilization is achieved via cross-pollination, when pollen grains (which give rise to sperm) are transferred from the cones or flowers of one plant to egg-bearing cones or flowers of another. Cross-pollination may occur by wind, as in conifers, or via symbiotic relationships with various animals (e.g., bees and certain birds and bats) that carry pollen from plant to plant while feeding on nectar.
Methods of cross-fertilization are equally diverse in animals. Among most species that breed in aquatic habitats, the males and females each shed their sex cells into the water and external fertilization takes place. Among terrestrial breeders, however, fertilization is internal, with the sperm being introduced into the body of the female. Internal fertilization also occurs among some fishes and other aquatic breeders.
By recombining genetic material from two parents, cross-fertilization helps maintain a greater range of variability for natural selection to act upon, thereby increasing a species’s capacity to adapt to environmental change.(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/144101/cross-fertilization)
• fertilization (reproduction)
• outbreeding (biology)
Encyclopædia Britannica
biologyalso called Allogamy,
the fusion of male and female gametes (sex cells) from different individuals of the same species. Cross-fertilization must occur in dioecious plants (those having male and female organs on separate individuals) and in all animal species in which there are separate male and female individuals. Even among hermaphrodites—i.e., those organisms in which the same individual produces both sperm and eggs—many species possess well-developed mechanisms that ensure cross-fertilization. Moreover, many of the hermaphroditic species that are capable of self-fertilization also have capabilities for cross-fertilization.
There are a number of ways in which the sex cells of two separate individuals can be brought together. In lower plants, such as mosses and liverworts, motile sperm are released from one individual and swim through a film of moisture to the egg-bearing structure of another individual. In higher plants, cross-fertilization is achieved via cross-pollination, when pollen grains (which give rise to sperm) are transferred from the cones or flowers of one plant to egg-bearing cones or flowers of another. Cross-pollination may occur by wind, as in conifers, or via symbiotic relationships with various animals (e.g., bees and certain birds and bats) that carry pollen from plant to plant while feeding on nectar.
Methods of cross-fertilization are equally diverse in animals. Among most species that breed in aquatic habitats, the males and females each shed their sex cells into the water and external fertilization takes place. Among terrestrial breeders, however, fertilization is internal, with the sperm being introduced into the body of the female. Internal fertilization also occurs among some fishes and other aquatic breeders.
By recombining genetic material from two parents, cross-fertilization helps maintain a greater range of variability for natural selection to act upon, thereby increasing a species’s capacity to adapt to environmental change.(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/144101/cross-fertilization)
Monday 8 February 2010
+ Mike Webb / Tempe Island
Temporal Depiction of Rotating Drum
The vertical dimension shows the drum in different position of its rotation.
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelspiderwebb/)
The vertical dimension shows the drum in different position of its rotation.
(http://www.flickr.com/photos/michaelspiderwebb/)
Saturday 6 February 2010
+ Lee Miller
Lee Miller was an American photographer from upstate New York. Her determination, her beauty and perhaps her agreeable disposition enabled her to travel. She began her career as a New York City fashion model, on the other side of the camera, photographed by the likes of Edward Steichen and other reputable names. Her first big break was acquainting herself with photographer Man Ray, who took her to Paris to, assumingly, pose as the character of many roles. Through this relationship, among others, she gained the eye of a documentary photographer. She was exposed to a world outside her home in upstate New York, a world far more vast than perhaps she had ever imagined. With the opportunities that came her way, she took the bull by the horns. She is best known for her surrealist photographs which speak in the language of poetic metaphors. Similar to fashion photography and quite opposite photojournalism, her surrealist work (and her fashion photography work for which she is less known) intentionally and intelligently offer invading objects that occupy her photographic space. In some ways, this is surrealism because it is not true documentary. For better or for worse, it is the manipulated landscape. With surrealism, the power lies in the hands of the photographer rather than in the hands of the scene. Other renoun surrealists are Rene Magritte and Salvador Dali, who took this movement a few steps further and altered his mind far beyond the likes of sanity. With intentional starvation and sleep deprivation and love sick mutiny, Dali’s body and heart became a tool to produce imagery that a ‘healthy’ mind may not encounter. On a similar note, Lee Miller used herself as a tool of expression and access, which can speak, in an artist’s world, as the relationship between artist and muse and muse and artist. Through both artist’s gestures, an image taken by Lee of Picasso staring back at his own female creation suggests perhaps both artists are thoroughly perplexed. Above, however is a surrealist picture of a ripped screen offering a view of a barren desert. Is that a mirror above it?
(http://stephanieoconnor.wordpress.com/2009/04/11/lee-miller/)
+ Sculpture
(http://www.kinetica-artfair.com/)
Dimensions
Height 230 cm, ø 40 cm
Materials
Wood, magnetism, acryl, steel-wire
(http://www.hanskooi.com/sculptures/?sid=4)
Friday 5 February 2010
+ Photographic Developer
In the early days of photography, a wide range of developing agents were used, including chlorohydroquinone, ferrous oxalate[3], hydroxylamine, ferrous lactate, ferrous citrate, Eikonogen, atchecin, antipyrin, acetanilid and Amidol (which unusually required mildly acidic conditions).
Developers also contain water softening agent to prevent calcium scum formation (e.g., EDTA salts, sodium tripolyphosphate, NTA salts, etc.).
Modern lithographic developers contain hydrazine compounds, tetrazolium compounds and other amine contrast boosters to increase contrast without relying on the classic hydroquinone-only lithographic developer formulation. The modern formulae are very similar to rapid access developers (except for those additives) and therefore they enjoy long tray life. However, classic lithographic developers using hydroquinone alone suffers very poor tray life and inconsistent results.
The developer selectively reduces silver halide crystals in the emulsion to metallic silver, but only those having latent image centers created by action of light. The light sensitive layer or emulsion consists of silver halide crystals in a gelatin base. Two photons of light must be absorbed by one silver halide crystal to form a stable two atom silver metal crystal. The developer used generally will only reduce silver halide crystals that have an existing silver crystal. Faster exposure or lower light level films usually have larger grains because those images capture less light.
The areas with the most light exposure use up the tiny amount of developer in the gelatin and stop making silver crystal before the film at that point is totally opaque. The areas that received the least light continue to develop because they haven't used up their developer. There is less contrast, but time is not critical and films from several customers and different exposures will develop satisfactorily.
The time over which development takes place, and the type of developer, affect the relationship between the density of silver in the developed image and the quantity of light. This study is called sensitometry and was pioneered by F Hurter & V C Driffield in the late 1800s.
Standard black and white stock can also be reversal processed to give black and white slides. After 'first development,' the initial silver image is then removed (e.g. using a potassium bichromate/sulfuric acid bleach, which requires a subsequent "clearing bath" to remove the chromate stain from the film). The unfixed film is then fogged (physically or chemically) and 'second-developed'. .
In colour print development, the Cibachrome process also uses a print material with the dye-stuffs present and which are bleached out in appropriate places during developing. The chemistry involved here is wholly different from C41 chemistry; (it uses azo-dyes which are much more resistant to fading in sunlight).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_developer)
Developers also contain water softening agent to prevent calcium scum formation (e.g., EDTA salts, sodium tripolyphosphate, NTA salts, etc.).
Modern lithographic developers contain hydrazine compounds, tetrazolium compounds and other amine contrast boosters to increase contrast without relying on the classic hydroquinone-only lithographic developer formulation. The modern formulae are very similar to rapid access developers (except for those additives) and therefore they enjoy long tray life. However, classic lithographic developers using hydroquinone alone suffers very poor tray life and inconsistent results.
The developer selectively reduces silver halide crystals in the emulsion to metallic silver, but only those having latent image centers created by action of light. The light sensitive layer or emulsion consists of silver halide crystals in a gelatin base. Two photons of light must be absorbed by one silver halide crystal to form a stable two atom silver metal crystal. The developer used generally will only reduce silver halide crystals that have an existing silver crystal. Faster exposure or lower light level films usually have larger grains because those images capture less light.
The areas with the most light exposure use up the tiny amount of developer in the gelatin and stop making silver crystal before the film at that point is totally opaque. The areas that received the least light continue to develop because they haven't used up their developer. There is less contrast, but time is not critical and films from several customers and different exposures will develop satisfactorily.
The time over which development takes place, and the type of developer, affect the relationship between the density of silver in the developed image and the quantity of light. This study is called sensitometry and was pioneered by F Hurter & V C Driffield in the late 1800s.
Standard black and white stock can also be reversal processed to give black and white slides. After 'first development,' the initial silver image is then removed (e.g. using a potassium bichromate/sulfuric acid bleach, which requires a subsequent "clearing bath" to remove the chromate stain from the film). The unfixed film is then fogged (physically or chemically) and 'second-developed'. .
In colour print development, the Cibachrome process also uses a print material with the dye-stuffs present and which are bleached out in appropriate places during developing. The chemistry involved here is wholly different from C41 chemistry; (it uses azo-dyes which are much more resistant to fading in sunlight).
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_developer)
+Anak/ Kinetica Art Fair
Souldance is a captivating dance of shadows.
An attempt to explore the possibility of touching the other self.
A subtle romance where space, light, and perception mysteriously reflect from a mirror to another realm.
Anak is a multidisciplinary artist engaged in exploring patterns of perception confined in our culture by using a wide range of mediums from graphic design, urban art, interactive work to performance art and dance.
With music by Roi Erez.
Photograph by Shira Klasmer
(http://www.kinetica-artfair.com/)
Friday 29 January 2010
+ Ha-Ha
ha-ha: a sunk fence; that is, a ditch with one sloping side and one vertical side into which is built a retaining wall; a ha-ha creates a barrier for sheep, cattle, and deer while allowing an unbroken view of the landscape.(http://faculty.bsc.edu/jtatter/glossary.html)
The Ha-ha is an expression in garden design that refers to a trench, the inner side of which is vertical and faced with stone, with the outer face sloped and turfed, making the trench, in effect, a sunken fence or retaining wall. The ha-ha is designed not to interrupt the view from a garden, pleasure-ground, or park, and to be invisible until seen from close by.
The ha-ha consorted well with Chinese gardening ideas of concealing barriers with nature, but its European origins are earlier than the European discovery of Chinese gardening.[1] The ha-ha is a feature in the landscape gardens laid out by Charles Bridgeman, the originator of the ha-ha, according to Horace Walpole (Walpole 1780) and by William Kent and was an essential component of the "swept" views of Capability Brown.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ha-ha)
Stowe Landscape Gardens and ha-ha
Wednesday 27 January 2010
+ From Cabinet of Curiosities
A corner of a cabinet, painted by Frans II Francken in 1636 reveals the range of connoisseurship a Baroque-era virtuoso might evince(http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frans_Francken_d._J._009.jpg)
The highly characteristic range of interests represented in Frans II Francken's painting of 1636 (illustration, left) shows paintings on the wall that range from landscapes, including a moonlit scene— a genre in itself— to a portrait and a religious picture (the Adoration of the Magi) intermixed with preserved tropical marine fishes and a string of carved beads, most likely amber, which is both precious and a natural curiosity. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities)
Sunday 24 January 2010
+ Man Ray / PHOTOGRAMS/ RAYOGRAPHS
(http://www.geh.org)
1921: Man Ray begins making photograms ("rayographs") by placing objects on photographic paper and exposing the shadow cast by a distant light bulb; Eugegrave;ne Atget, aged 64, assigned to photograph the brothels of Paris(http://webpages.maine207.org/east/departments/art/literacy%20website/art%20documents/Photo%20timeline.htm)
+ Golf Swing / Harold Edgerton
"Densmore Shute Bends the Shaft, 1938"
Dr. Harold Edgerton,
the M.I.T. professor who pioneered the art of high-speed photography
Advances in technology have allowed us to observe a level of glorious detail in God's creation that has been previously hidden from us. Dr. Harold Edgerton at M.I.T. pioneered the art of high speed photography, allowing us to see the remarkable movements of the hummingbird, the golfer's swing, and a bullet's path of destruction through an apple.(http://pietyandhumanity.blogspot.com/2009/04/slow-down-and-behold-glory-of-god.html)
* 1931: development of strobe photography by Harold ("Doc") Edgerton at MIT. By adjusting the frequency of the strobe's flashes to the rotation speed of the whirling parts of a motor, he was able to observe the parts as if they were stationary. In 1931 he developed and improved strobes and used them to freeze objects in motion so that they could be captured on film by a camera. HEE designed the first successful underwater camera in 1937 and deep sea electronic flash equipment in 1953. He developed special sonar applications to facilitate location of underwater objects and devised pingers to enable underwater cameras to be accurately positioned above the sea floor. In 1953, he worked alongside oceanographer Jaques Cousteau.(http://webpages.maine207.org/east/departments/art/literacy%20website/art%20documents/Photo%20timeline.htm)
Friday 22 January 2010
Wednesday 20 January 2010
+ Gilpin's picturesque
Penrith castle in 1772 from Gilpin's book on Cumberland and Westmoreland.
In 1768 Gilpin published his popular Essay on Prints where he defined the picturesque as '"that kind of beauty which is agreeable in a picture" and began to expound his "principles of picturesque beauty", based largely on his knowledge of landscape painting. During the late 1760s and 1770s Gilpin travelled extensively in the summer holidays and applied these principles to the landscapes he saw, committing his thoughts and spontaneous sketches to notebooks.
Gilpin's tour journals circulated in manuscript to friends, such as the poet William Mason, and a wider circle including Thomas Grey, Horace Walpole and King George III. In 1782, at the instigation of Mason, Gilpin published Observations on the River Wye and several parts of South Wales, etc. relative chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the summer of the year 1770 (London 1782). This was illustrated with plates based on Gilpin's sketches, etched by his nephew William Sawrey Gilpin using the new aquatint process. There followed Observations on the Lake District and the West of England and, after his move to Boldre Remarks on Forest Scenery, and other woodland Views ... (London 1791).
For Gilpin, both texture and composition were important in a "correctly picturesque" scene. The texture should be "rough", "intricate", "varied", or "broken", without obvious straight lines. The composition should work as a unified whole, incorporating several elements: a dark "foreground" with a "front screen" or "side screens", a brighter middle "distance", and at least one further, less distinctly depicted, "distance". A ruined abbey or castle would add "consequence". A low viewpoint, which tended to emphasise the "sublime", was always preferable to a prospect from on high. While Gilpin allowed that nature was good at producing textures and colours, it was rarely capable of creating the perfect composition. Some extra help from the artist, perhaps in the form of a carefully placed tree, was usually required.
In contrast to other contemporary travel writers, such as Thomas Pennant, Gilpin included little history, and few facts or anecdotes. Even Gilpin's descriptions can seem quite vague, concentrating on how scenery conformed to picturesque principles rather than its specific character. In one much-quoted passage, Gilpin takes things to an extreme, suggesting that "a mallet judiciously used" might render the insufficiently ruinous gable of Tintern Abbey more picturesque. In the same work he criticises the poet John Dyer for describing a distant object in too much detail. Such passages were easy pickings for satirists such as Jane Austen demonstrated in Northanger Abbey as well as many of her other novels and works. (Elizabeth Bennet, in Pride and Prejudice, notably refuses to join Mr. Darcy and the Bingley sisters in a stroll with the teasing observation, "You are charmingly group'd, and...The picturesque would be spoilt by admitting a fourth.")
Although he came in for criticism, Gilpin had published at the exactly the right time. Improved road communications and travel restrictions on continental Europe saw an explosion of British domestic tourism in the 1780s and 1790s. Many of these picturesque tourists were intent on sketching, or at least discussing what they saw in terms of landscape painting. Gilpin's works were the ideal companions for this new generation of travellers; they were written specifically for that market and never intended as comprehensive travel guides.
Sunday 17 January 2010
+ Stowe Garden
Charles Bridgeman's plan of Stowe, as it appeared in Views of Stowe, 1739, published by Sarah Bridgeman. The area by the ouse, in the lower part of the plan, contains 'Dutch' canals and parterres, while the upper part derives from the Forest Style.
(http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/tom_turner_english_garden_design/garden_design_mid_in_eighteenth_and_nineteenth_century#ixzz0dAlAnoiM)
Waddesdon Manor
Temple of British Worthies
Rotunda with statue of Aphrodite at Stowe Landscape Gardens
(http://artnarchclub.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/trip-to-waddesdon-manor-and-stowe-landscape-gardens/)
Map locations
1. Concord and Victory
2. Grotto
3. Gothic Temple
4. Temple of British Worthies
5. Temple of Ancient Virtue
6. Palladian Bridge
7. Chinese House
8. Temple of Friendship
9. East Lake Pavilion
10. West Lake Pavilion
11. Articial Ruins
12. Stowe House
Stowe House
Temple of Ancient Virtue
Temple of British Worthies
Palladian Bridge
Gothic Temple
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/image_galleries/stowe.shtml)
(http://www.gardenvisit.com/history_theory/library_online_ebooks/tom_turner_english_garden_design/garden_design_mid_in_eighteenth_and_nineteenth_century#ixzz0dAlAnoiM)
Waddesdon Manor
Temple of British Worthies
Rotunda with statue of Aphrodite at Stowe Landscape Gardens
(http://artnarchclub.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/trip-to-waddesdon-manor-and-stowe-landscape-gardens/)
Map locations
1. Concord and Victory
2. Grotto
3. Gothic Temple
4. Temple of British Worthies
5. Temple of Ancient Virtue
6. Palladian Bridge
7. Chinese House
8. Temple of Friendship
9. East Lake Pavilion
10. West Lake Pavilion
11. Articial Ruins
12. Stowe House
Stowe House
Temple of Ancient Virtue
Temple of British Worthies
Palladian Bridge
Gothic Temple
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/oxford/content/image_galleries/stowe.shtml)
+ Picturesque
(The Old Mill, Ambleside 1798, watercolour, University of Liverpool Art Gallery Linithglow Palace c. 1806-7, oil on canvas, Walker Art Gallery)
The picturesque was a concept that emerged in the eighteenth century, embodying a new attitude towards beauty in nature. Theorists such as Gilpin and Uvedale Price encouraged tourists to search for that quality of the natural landscape which was capable of being illustrated in a painting.
The idea was not to make an exact reproduction of the natural landscape but for artists to rearrange a composition as they saw fit. According to Gilpin, the picturesque was distinguished by roughness and ruggedness, as in the outline and bark of a tree or the craggy side of a mountain - qualities illustrated in Turner's, The Old Mill, Ambleside of 1798.
Towards the end of the 1790s, artists began to challenge the notion of the Picturesque, finding more expressive and direct means of depicting the landscape. By the end of the first decade of the new century, Turner had largely abandoned the concept.(http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/walker/exhibitions/turner/landscape.asp)
(http://www.gardenvisit.comhistory_theorylibrary_online_ebookstom_turner_english_garden_designlandscape_style_of_repton_price_and_knight)
Thursday 14 January 2010
Wednesday 13 January 2010
+ Toyo Ito / Tower of Winds(1986)
Friedrich Schelling's famous quote, "Architecture is Frozen Music" attempted to find a relationship between the solidity of architecture and the intangibility of music in his era. While the Baroque, and subsequent Rococo, styles in architecture contain a plasticity and flow of ornament that seems to validate the statement, it does not go beyond purely surface characteristics. If we look at the purpose, goal and process of both music and architecture, finding clear relationships is difficult, though this does not deter architects from finding inspiration in music, and vice-versa. A good example of both is Toyo Ito's Tower of Winds, in Yokohama, Japan, and Savvas Ysatis and Taylor Deupree's album of the same name.
During the day the Tower of Winds stands as a 21m tall opaque object, its aluminum cladding shielding the mirrored plates and lights within. At night the lights and reflective surfaces dance to the music of the city, computer-controls reacting to both man-made and natural forces: ambient sounds, wind forces, time of day and season. The images that follow illustrate the variety of patterns and degrees of transparency achieved by a combination of over 1,000 lamps, twelve neon rings, and thirty flood lights, the last situated on the ground and directed upwards within the tower. Ito created a work of art/architecture of simplicity that reflects the complexity and nature of the city and its inhabitants. His influence is the music of the environment combined with our interaction and effect upon it.
http://www.archidose.org/Apr01/040901.html
We will be designing the time just as we design the space?http://www.designboom.com/eng/interview/ito_statement.html
Tuesday 12 January 2010
+ Salamander
(Scott Camazine web.mac.com/camazine)
Salamander is a common name of approximately 500 species of amphibians. They are typically characterized by their slender bodies, short noses, and long tails. All known fossils and extinct species fall under the order Caudata, while sometimes the extant species are grouped together as the Urodela.[1] Most salamanders have four toes on their front legs and five on their rear legs. Their moist skin usually makes them reliant on habitats in or near water, or under some protection (e.g., moist ground), often in a wetland. Some salamander species are fully aquatic throughout life, some take to the water intermittently, and some are entirely terrestrial as adults. Uniquely among vertebrates, they are capable of regenerating lost limbs, as well as other body parts.
Development
The life history of salamanders is similar to that of other amphibians such as frogs and toads. Most species fertilise the eggs internally, with the male depositing a sac of sperm in the female's cloaca. The most primitive salamanders, grouped together as the Cryptobranchoidea, instead exhibit external fertilisation. The eggs are laid in a moist environment, often a pond, but sometimes moist soil, or inside bromeliads. Some species are ovoviviparous, with the female retaining the eggs inside her body until they hatch.[2]
A larval stage follows in which the organism is fully aquatic or land dwelling, and possesses gills. Depending on species, the larval stage may or may not possess legs. The larval stage may last anything from days to years, depending on the species. Some species (such as Dunn's Salamander) exhibit no larval stage at all, with the young hatching as miniature versions of the adult.
Neoteny has been observed in all salamander families, in which an individual may retain gills into sexual maturity. This may be universally possible in all salamander species[7]. More commonly, however, metamorphosis continues with the loss of gills, the growth (or increase in size) of legs, and the capability of the animal to function terrestrially.
Mythology and popular culture
Main articles: Salamander (legendary creature) and Salamander (legendary creature) in popular culture
Numerous legends have developed around the salamander over the centuries, many related to fire. This connection likely originates from the tendency of many salamanders to dwell inside rotting logs. When placed into a fire, the salamander would attempt to escape from the log, lending to the belief that salamanders were created from flames - a belief that gave the creature its name.[9]
Associations of the salamander with fire appear in the Talmud as well as in the writings of Aristotle, Pliny, Conrad Lycosthenes, Benvenuto Cellini, Ray Bradbury, David Weber, Paracelsus and Leonardo da Vinci.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander)
1)"Phylogenetic relationships of the salamander families: an analysis of the congruence among morphological and molecular characters". Herpetological Monographs 7 (7): 77–93. 1993. c1993.
2)Lanza, B., Vanni, S., & Nistri, A. (1998). Cogger, H.G. & Zweifel, R.G.. ed. Encyclopedia of Reptiles and Amphibians. San Diego: Academic Press. pp. 60–68.
7)http://www.uoregon.edu/~titus/herp_old/neoteny.htm
9)Ashcroft, Frances (2002). Life at the Extremes: The Science of Survival. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. p. 112.
+ Super Chameleon
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMT1FLzEn9I
Chameleons give camouflage a run for its money, and this little guy is a champion in the art of adapting to the colors of his environment.(http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/177800/Coolest-Chameleon-Ever.html)
Chameleons give camouflage a run for its money, and this little guy is a champion in the art of adapting to the colors of his environment.(http://www.spikedhumor.com/articles/177800/Coolest-Chameleon-Ever.html)
Sunday 10 January 2010
+ Ephemeral Lifestyle
Aster satellite image of the new volcanic island called "Home Reef"(NASA/GSFC/METI/ERSDAC/JAROS and U.S./Japan ASTER Science Team,2006)
Ephemeral
adj.1. Lasting for a markedly brief time: "There remain some truths too ephemeral to be captured in the cold pages of a court transcript" (Irving R. Kaufman).
2.Living or lasting only for a day, as certain plants or insects do.
n.A markedly short-lived thing.
[From Greek ephēmeros : ep-, epi-, epi- + hēmerā, day.]
ephemerality e•phem'er•al'i•ty or e•phem'er•al•ness n.
ephemerally e•phem'er•al•ly adv.
Ephemeral things (from Greek εφήμερος - ephemeros, literally "lasting only one day"[1]) are transitory, existing only briefly. Typically the term is used to describe objects found in nature, although it can describe a wide range of things.(http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/ephemeral)
Geographical examples
An ephemeral waterbody is a wetland, spring, stream, river, pond or lake that only exists for a short period following precipitation or snowmelt. They are not the same as intermittent or seasonal waterbodies, which exist for longer periods, but not all year round.
Examples of ephemeral streams are the Luni river in Rajasthan, India, Ugab River in Southern Africa, and a number of small ephemeral watercourses that drain Talak in northern Niger. Other notable ephemeral rivers include the Todd River and Sandover River in Central Australia as well as the Son River, Batha River and the Trabancos River.
Lake Carnegie in Western Australia and Lake Cowal in New South Wales are ephemeral lakes. Lake Tuzkan and Mystic Lake in California are ephemeral.
There are also ephemeral islands such as Banua Wuhu and Home Reef. These islands appear when volcanic activity increases their height above sea level, but disappear over the course of several years due to wave erosion. Bassas da India, on the other hand, is a near-sea level island that appears only at low tide.
Biological examples
Many plants are adapted to an ephemeral lifestyle, in which they spend most of the year or longer as seeds before conditions are right for a brief period of growth and reproduction. The spring ephemeral plant mouse-ear cress is a well known example. Animals can be ephemeral, with brine shrimp being an example.
Ephemeral artifacts
Ephemeral can also be used as an adjective to refer to a fast-deteriorating importance or temporary nature of an object to a person. Brands are notoriously ephemeral assets, magazine publishing was once much more ephemeral than it is today, as was television programming.
A number of art forms can be considered ephemeral because of their temporary nature. Early land art and all sand sculptures, ice sculptures and chalk drawings on footpaths are examples of ephemeral art. G. Augustine Lynas and Duthain Dealbh create ephemeral sculptures.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephemeral)
Ephemeral Arts
Arts which are temporary or short lived, based on a specific occasion or event and transitory in nature.(http://www.ephemeralarts.com/about.htm)
Ephemeral Architecture
A surrealistic work(http://shadowness.com/AegisStrife/ephemeral-architecture)
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