Modern Landscape

VDL Categories: Art & Design

Project type

Take-home

 

Source

Spalter

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Background materials

Viewings

• Some examples of and thoughts on traditional landscape painting: http://www.oberlin.edu/allenart/collection/modernlandscape.html

 

Skill set being developed

• Knowledge of the range of mark making possible with today's computer graphics applications
• Insight into the role of technology in today's landscapes

 

Relevance to VDL

• Artists and designers using the computer need to understand the types of marks and gestures it can help them make. Just as a painter must experiment with different ways of applying paint and different types of oils or wax, so artists and designers using the computer must experiment with the range of expressive elements available to them. This assignment helps students gain an intuitive sense of the best type of data representations for (in a given context) depicting certain types of objects, emotions, and forms. Although this assignment can be done at any point, it benefits from previous exposure to both raster and geometric computer graphics concepts, as well as some vocabulary for discussing both formal aesthetic and "meaning" issues in art.

 

 

Interactive multimedia software

 none.

 

Materials Needed

 

Examples of relevant applications of the module content (some sites for inspiration)

• Michael Najjar
  • Black and white image composite cityscapes: Go to http://www.michaelnajjar.com/ and then navigate to the Netropolis series.
• Lane Hall and Lisa Moline, Bad Science, http://www.uwm.edu/%7Elanehall/
  • Interior and exterior landscapes that often combine scanned elements, graphics software, and innovative retro printing practices.
• MANUAL (Suzanne Bloom and Ed Hill)
  • Bloom and Hill have created several landscape-based series that meditate on the tensions between modern technology (esp computer) and the often nostalgic view we have a the landscape.
  • Images 1985-1996. See especially the Worldmaker and Constructed Forest series. http://www.art.uh.edu/dif/manualArtworks.html
  • Arcadian Landscapes: http://www.art.uh.edu/dif/manual/Poussin/introPage.html
  • Link to larger versions: http://www.art.uh.edu/dif/manual/Poussin/arLandscapesTitles.html
• Char Davies, the Osmose project: http://www.immersence.com/
  • Davies was a co-founder of SoftImage 3D software (now owned by Microsoft) but has a background in the arts and humanities. Her 3D landscapes are unlike the vast majority of 3D work: they are flowing and organic-feeling, rather than geometric and synthetic-felling.
                      

Activitity

Assessment

• Critique will be similar to critique you would get in an art class--looking at work and discussing its impact and methods of expression.