The contagious blog

So I was in the library this afternoon blogging about the topics covered in class today and a couple of my friends were sitting near by watching me express my thoughts. The were intrigued  with the concept of keeping a blog for class; so much so that they decided to create their own blogs so they can document their daily events and happenings.

The Combination Rule

Today the topic was brought up of whether there is such a thing as new at anymore, or is everything just taken in some form or another from past works? Well after hearing this it made me think if a saying that i had heard in relation to the same subject only to the design world.

The Combination Rule

Designing is basically the practice of combining stuff; ideally in ways that haven't been seen before. So the more stuff you know (about everything), the greater the chance you'll find a relevant and distinctive, and therefore effective (and original) combination.

The Plastic Surgery Debate

I don’t support or condone plastic surgery; people can do with their bodies what they please. My take on the whole matter is that its becoming an epidemic in this country; being spurred on by the publicity given to people on reality tv shows and on internet websites. This very clear when you look at the numbers, in 1948 there were 300 board cert. plastic surgeons, today there are over 4000 in the US; and in 2004 there were 12 millions cosmetic surgery operations.

Again I have no real sway to either side, I don’t think that its something that people should have I think that doctors could better use their time helping the sick or victims of accidents crimes or fires but then again people work to make money so they can spend it as the please, and if that’s what makes them happen who am I to say that they should not partake.

A childs mindset

Also at the MFA while in the impressionist room there were tons of kids sitting and sketching their views of the paintings. I walked around and looked at the paintings and then looked at the interpretation that the kids had drawn, and I couldnt help but to wish I were a kid again. I loved the way the kids didnt think to hard about what they were drawing they just did it, the scale didnt have to make sense and the forms were more expressionistic then representational. I often wish that I to could just get into the mindset of a kid.

I once heard a story of a lady sitting on a bench with her dog lying on the ground infront of her. A kid walked by, stopped and asked her if it was dead.

Kids don’t have anything in their brains that stop them from saying or doing anything that want. 

Dormition of the virgin

I chose to write about the Dormition of the virgin, by an unknown Bohemian artist because it clearly demonstrates the evolution of perspective. It was painted around 1350-1360, which puts it towards the beginnings of the renaissance. If you examine the painting you can still the two dimensionality of the medieval painters in the people; while seeing the new advancements of perspective and the figure ground.

Being on the cutting edge of anything you take from what you have and you push the boundaries. The artist tries this with his representation of people. They are still as a whole two dimensionally drawn, but they all have hints of shape to the face. Also a major advancement is that people are become expressionistic.

The perspective/axonometric is the part that draws me in the most. If you look at the ceiling you can clearly tell that the artist is trying to give depth and a three dimensionality to the space. Looking closely at the painting it seems almost axonometric rather than perspective, which to me shows the evolution of the though. They knew that object were moving away from the viewer but they didn’t know how to show that in a diminishing fashion, so what they did was they took the forward measurement and then replicated that at the rear of the painting.

I personally like this painting a lot due to the fact that this is a freeze frame in time. Commonly people look at either medieval or high renaissance paintings and they do not take the time and look at the missing links between the two; which are the ones that I like the most. The in between paintings show the artists who are pushing the limits if what is possible at the time, and this process and evolution is what I like. 

Lets play a game

I was online earlier and i came across a little game and i thought that it would be interesting and could tie into discussion of what Mary was reading while writing Frankenstein. The game goes like this:

1. Pick up a book that you are reading (not Frankenstein)

2. Open the book to page 123

3. Find the fifth sentence

4. Post the next three sentences

Perpetuity?

Perpetuity? is a digital image that questions the directionality of time and the inevitability of cultural friction using the interplay of historical perceptions of space and time. The lack of perspective is the same as in early cave paintings and medieval divine art, periods which percieved time as non-sequential. The geometric perfection of light in the scene (done using modern computational tools) borrows from Rennaissance to pre-modern artists' rigid adherence to Euclidean space and linear time. Finally, the warped geometry represents the change of thought within science and art in the late 19th century toward curved space and its intimate relationship with time. In the image, multiple implied time dimensions (movement of the sun, translation and warping of the geometry) leave no clue to their future progression and add layers of complexity to even the modern perception of space and time. The weaving together with light of space, time, detail, and emptiness invite careful contemplation of the component interactions.

mark.technolope.org/image/