Monday, November 4, 2013

OUT ON A LIMB

Congrats to Alfredo, Kelvin & Philip for their success in the Pumpkin Challenge.  And a big thank you to Zach for making rom for myself ... and for some very kind words.

For a couple of milliseconds I thought ... maybe I should have submitted a more conventional entry, certainly I drifted way out on a limb ... but what a ride !  I'm sure that the significance & relevance of what I learned along the way will be filtering through over the coming months.  And I'm very proud of the final images, which begin to ask some interesting questions about how BIM & ART can intersect. 


In retrospect I think that the nature of BIM would need to show through much more clearly for a work to really cross that boundary.  If you examine Escher's work, the fascination lies as much in his mastery of the techniques of printmaking, (Wood Engraving, Lithograph, Mezzotint) as it does in the abstract conception of imaginary or impossible worlds. 



A couple of people have commented that I could just as well have created my images with 3d Studio.  Of course that ignores the learning experience, but still it suggests to me that the specific nature of a BIM tool like Revit needs to shine through into the finished work more clearly.  One obvious avenue to explore would be the combination of orthographic and perspective views.  In a way my uploads to Autodesk 360 are closer to BIM-ART than the final jpegs.  But I would need to clean up the files more carefully, restrict the number of views ... I don't know.


People gradually figured out how to use still photography and then cinematography for artistic ends.  Along the way the nature of art has been brought into question.  Cubism, Abstract Art, Surrealism, arose partly in response to the emergence of photography.  Of course CG has become an integral part of the film industry, but I'm not sure we have really come to grips with the artistic implications.  It's all too easy to slide into overkill, "the society of the spectacle".  Art implies more subtlety, more gentle probing of the human condition.



In any case, BIM is something different from CG.  Very different really.  Digital Prototyping.  Information content.  The coexistence of the orthographic and perspective domains.  How do you weave that into the substance of an art work in the same way that Escher wove his craft skills into his creations.  You need to look at the way he conjures up reflections and textures with a series of parallel strokes of the burin.  Drives me crazy.



This could have been just text, but I've woven in some images from the night after my submission. I got the idea of walking into my pictures and looking back at the viewer.  What would happen ? Would the illusion break down.  I slipped my grandson Jack into the picture ... peering into the doll's house.

Anyway, enough of that.  Later in the week I'll get around to posting my instance-based trees.  Apologies for the delay in transmission :)

3 comments:

  1. Hi, Andrew! Thank you for mentioning myself, and my friends Philip and Kevin, about the Revit pumpkin. We all admire your work. It's out of this world!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Alfredo, always good to hear from you and to share ideas. Hoping to see you all in Chicago next year

    ReplyDelete
  3. thank for the wonderful post , lots of information gained , visit us Revit Modeling in uk

    ReplyDelete

I've been getting a lot of spam so had to tighten up comments permissions. Sorry for any inconvenience. I do like to hear from real people