Image Making Ecology Assignment Kate Brown 301098490 CMNS325 February 9, 2011 Fig 1. Raoul Hausmann was one of the primary thinkers of the dada movement in Berlin (Biro, 26). Much of his work was within photomontage, collage, and assemblage; these works were often a comment on the impact of technology on the human mind, as well as mechanized war, and the human identity (Biro, 26). As a part of the dada movement, this kind of protest art has been profoundly influential. His collage work often featured photo portraits that are overwhelmed with clipped imagery of machinery and newsprint typefaces. There is a feeling of chaos within them. In representing his work, I took inspiration from his work entitled The Art Critic (1919 1920) and Self Portrait of the Dadasoph (1920) two collagephotomontages (Biro, 29). In re creating Hausmann s style, I used the several tools that Photoshop has created for image cutting and layering. Pen tool, Vector Masks, and Lasso Tools were used to isolate images within images. Using Layers, I was able to re assemble these to create new meanings much like Hausmann did. By filtering otherwise clean images through Sharpening, Noise, and Distortion Filters, I was able to create a collage and photomontage using a portrait of Hausmann, a soldier, a map of Berlin, and original dada typefaces. I thought that this was appropriate as they advocated re appropriating art pieces into new work. Ultimately, this set of tools replaces scissors and glue and photo processing, as well as the sourcing of publications for images. It is interesting how different of an experience it becomes to seek images on the vast expanse of the Internet, as opposed to being more limited to the printed material that you are able to access. Fig 2. Andy Warhol was a leader in the pop art movement in the United States (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). His work focuses on everyday products, especially within the popular consumer culture. He worked within many different mediums; some of his most famous works included silk screened paintings of newspaper photographs of celebrities (Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia). I recreated Double Elvis (1963), which was made by this method. As silk screening doesn t pick up mid tones, and Half toning effect re creates this effect, re organising the image into a grid of evenly spaced dots of colour as opposed to a consistently
filled colour with varying tones. This effect also imitates both newsprint and the silk screening process where colour passes through a screen in layers. Using Photoshop s layers, this effect can be re created, as if by re printing the Elvis figure 3 times. This digitization of these two processes recognizes their prevalence in art and media. It makes it extremely easy to reproduce works that were done through an otherwise much more arduous and manual printing process. Fig 3. Constructivism was pioneered in large part in Russia after their Revolution of 1917 (Museum of Modern Art Website). The first group of Russian artists who selftitled themselves as constructivists and described their works as constructions, and worked with industrial materials as opposed to working with abstract images in paintings. Much of the early work spoke to new technologies that had strong geometric lines. This stream of constructivism became intertwined with the values of the USSR (Museum of Modern Art Online). Much of their work was encompassed in sculpture and graphic design. Its components were as follows: photomontages, combining bold typography and abstract design with cut out photographic elements. As the product of a mechanical process, the photograph complemented the Constructivists commitment to technology, while conforming to the Communist Party s stated preference for realistic and legible images accessible to the masses. (Musem of Modern Art Online). The art was used for many practical reasons, such as the promotion of film, literature, and other advertisements, but it seems that their ideology was still very much encompassed in the graphic design choices. In re creating a Constructivist poster, I first chose a political topic to represent, as much of their art referenced current political and economic ideas or ideals. The photograph is of Hosni Mubarak, currently the President of Egypt. Although not directly, the poster addresses the rebellion that is occurring at this time in Egypt over his occupation as President through the crowd silhouetted behind him. Propaganda often uses impassioning symbols and icons within the work, which is why I chose the Sphinx and the Pyramids two representations of Egypt s pride and antiquity. The words can be translated to mean My Country, My Country, My Country which is their national anthem s title. Many tools in Photoshop permitted the layering of this photographs and the rendering of their colours to resemble vintage poster art, which is still much referenced in contemporary graphic design. I used the Bauhaus font for this reason. The colour lines and blocks are layered and transformed into angles using the Transformed tool while holding shift, which creates right angles, with reference to the importance of geometry and math in art today. Again the half tone, bitmapping, black and white function, and photo filtering all work to create vintage imagery. Fig 4.
Post impressionism evolved out of a rejection of the limitations imposed upon the artists working under impressionist aesthetics. In specific, Post Impressionist art rejected the Impressionists ideas about light and colour needing to be represented realistically (Museum of Modern Art Online). It maintained thick paint strokes and blurring colours, but gained more definition in other ways. Paul Gaugin s work is particularly interesting, as he evolved from Impressionism and headed with several artists the rejection of some of its trends (Museum of Modern Art Online). He also worked within the Cloisonnist movement towards Symbolism (Museum of Modern Art Online). Using Gaugin as an inspiration of the Post Impressionist style, I took a picture I had of two pieces of furniture in bright light, as opposed to using a more natural landscape. There were three strong colours within the picture already, but I warped them using the Colour Balance function; this represents the shift that the this movement of art took towards using unnatural colour. I also filtered the image many times. There are many filters that allow the user to convert a picture into a painting. Painting is perhaps on of the most immediate mediums of fine art, so it follows that Photoshop would build in several brushes and styles painting into the filters. In order to blur and create paint on the image, I put it through the Gaussian Blur and Paint Daubs several times, altering the intensity and thickness of the stroke in an attempt to give the picture painterly depth. I also increased the shadow and the contrast to do this. I made the image sharper and noisier so that it might look more like an image on canvas. Finally, thick Accented Edges worked to represent the thick painted outlines that artists like Paul Gaugin used to create more definition within their piece. Fig 5. The golden mean is an often used composition technique. It is proportion that is used throughout geometry, biology, and artistic works (Konečni, 75). In Western art in particular, there is detectable use of this ratio it provides tension and perspective to art that make it both realistic and aesthetically pleasing to the eye (Konečni, 75). Several tools in Photoshop make it easy for the user to engage with their work mathematically. Rulers and information about image sizes, as well as using the Shift key to create perfect squares allows you to measure for this ratio. This combination of math with art making pertains to this ideal in art. I used an image of the golden ratio and created images that measured the same amount as each respective square and then pasted them. I chose to do a portrait of a human to make the connection with the fact that this ratio also applies to the proportions within human face and body however, in this case, it is distorted to accentuate the quadrants. Fig 6.
Printmaking is an ancient art making technique. It is said to have originated in China in about A.D. 105 (Cartage Organisation). There are many means to create prints using metal, wood, or other materials. Relief printmaking in particular was more popularly adapted in Europe around the 15 th century. The process of hand carving a material in order to distribute information is mostly eradicated today as a practical practice. However, it was not replaced in the fine art world and is still used today. Escher was renowned for his printmaking in the early 1900s, combining this traditional art with modern surreal imagery. I chose a photo that I took in Venezuela to convert into a relief print. This is usually done by linocutting. In order to properly turn the image into a black and white stamp looking image, I made the photograph high contrast and changed the colour balances of the photo to accentuated shadows and highlights. I then used the Threshold tool to convert the image to an even higher contrast black and white image. The invert of this image would represent the physical linocut used, and this image would be the product on paper. Works Cited Konecni, Vladimir J. The "golden section" as Aesthetic Idea and Empirical Fact. Visual Arts Research Journal. Vol/Issue: 30 (2), 2004, Pages: 75 86. Biro, Matthew. Raoul Hausmann's Revolutionary Media: Dada Performance, Photomontage and the Cyborg. Art History. Vol. 30, No. 1 (February 2007) p. 26 56. 2007. Cartage Library Online. History of Printmaking. URL: http://www.cartage.org.lb/en/themes/arts/graphicartists/generalities/historyofp rintmaking.htm. Accessed on February 7, 2011. Andy Warhol. Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 7/1/2010. Museum of Modern Art Online. The Collection. URL: http://www.moma.org/explore/collection/index. Accessed on February 7, 2011.