ESSAY MADA2
Submitted by: Emmanouil Kanellos.
Student Number: KAN0569862
Unit Code: MADA2
Unit Leader: Andrew Stiff
Course: Masters in Digital Art
CAN AN ARTWORK HAVE AN ALTER-EGO?
Abstract
In the following short essay the author of this project has discussed the theme and the research of the project. The project is addressing the question ‘Can an art work have an Alter-Ego?’ The author tries to discover a new language of expression via art. The medium chosen for this purpose is the animation movie. For this purpose the author has done some research in specifically in the areas of direction, animation, rendering and artistic movements. The author intends to conduct experimentation with the video technique in order get the alter–ego of the art work. He has given examples of earlier artist who had worked on such projects and based his research on their work. These artists have experimented by using different art forms and different new for their era techniques. Taking influence and using them as a guideline the author is exploring into new boundaries. The research work is mainly based on study of books, websites and movies and examples of the work relevant to the project are quoted.
Research Question
"If you have the chance to be somebody else who would you like to be?" The etymology of Alter-ego is: alter (Latin: other) ego (Greek: self, I). In other words if a person is not satisfied with his current conditions or way of living in the society in most cases he looks up to another person real or imaginative. What if we transfer this concept in the art and specifically in the film making arts. Since the video as a medium can be more narrative. Therefore if we take a video as the artwork and then experiment with the contents, then the remake of the video would be one of its possible forms of its alter-ego. Reconstruction of a movie can be made in many ways. The author intent to conduct research on four main areas: storyline, direction, treatment and artistic language and answer to the question: “Can an artwork have an alter-ego?”
Critical Literature Review
The key resources of the project are:
Ladommatos, Andrew (1984), “History of Art”, Cyprus, O.E.D.B.
This book contains a historical and aesthetic contact of all the periods of art, from the ancient art till today. It contains information painting, sculpture, architecture and modern art. Moreover analyzes briefly every style and movement and helps the reader to continue his own research on the specific area.
Maudsley, Nigel (2003), “Research Methods and Principles of the Digital Moving Image”, London, London Metropolitan University
This is a technically based book which aims to make the reader discover different techniques of video editing and digital effects by tutorials of editing software such as After Effects and Premiere.
King, Mike (2003), “3d Moving Image production”, London, London Metropolitan University
Dr King explains different techniques of 3d animation from the basic to the experienced. He covers a field of 3d modeling, 3d animation, 3d texturing and 3d rendering. It can be very helpful for the beginners.
Nash, John Malcolm. (1974),“Cubism, futurism and constructivism”, London, Thames and Hudson
This book contains information for three unique movements of the 20th century. Very informative for the reconstruction of art issue. European and Russian artists saw their theme from another ankle.
Friends of the National Film Archive. (1963), “A season of the films of Sergei Eisestein : 1st October 1963-13th October1963”, London, National Film Theatre
A tribute to the artworks of one of the most important constructivist filmmakers and his revolutionary techniques. Descriptions of the radical black and white movies such as October, Potemkin, Que Viva Mexico etc
Content
Exploration is an in built characteristic of human nature. We try to explore either to reach our goals or because we are curious. The mystery of the unknown has always charmed us. To satisfy this curiosity people take risks and experiment. This in-turn leads us into development and guides the society to evolve into civilization. If we did not have this curiosity and the urge to explore and develop the society would stay static in primitive age. But because of this characteristic, humans live in houses, travel on the seas skies and space, use electricity, use computers, and have found cure to diseases by using variety of medicines, there is variety in what we eat and different styles of music and art. In art, artists experimented and used different techniques, material and mediums to find a new language of expression. This gave birth to new movements.
I think that when experiment is successful it leads to development. Artists used to take a long time to make one step of an artistic movement to another. Classic art was going on for hundreds of years and the same happened with the Christian art. Then Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Baroque, Rococo lasted half century to a full century each. In the 20th century every movement last for a few years and in the 21st this evolution has been even faster and reached to the point that an artist has the chance to experiment a lot of different styles in a life time.
An experiment of different styles is also the aims or the theme for my project. Through this course I want to find out a new language of expression, a language which is more influenced by art as a medium of expression. Coming from an advertising background, where things are driven by the needs and the demand of the customer, what I was missing is the freedom and liberty of expression which fine art offers. This was something that I urge to experience and I guess that forms the base of my motivation for my master in digital arts. This in turn has helped me to open my horizons in something almost unknown to me. I try to find my alter-ego artist. I have taken this issue and made this as a theme to my project. I am trying to answer the question “Can an artwork have an alter-ego?" where I make two movies - an animation movie with the knowledge I already have and another experiment movie where I have the liberty of experimentation and I investigate the freedom of fine art and find a way of expression of its alter ego.
To achieve this goal I planned in unit 1 of this course, I would greatly benefit by and understanding what other artists have done related to the reconstruction of art and at the same time developing the skills I need to execute this project. Artists in the past have developed different ways to 'see' a theme. For instance the symbolists replaced real objects or situations with symbols to express an allegorical meaning. I also developed a better understanding of Cubist movement. The Cubists analyzed the objects of their theme and re-assembled them presented another reality in an abstract form. Pablo Picasso said : ‘ I draw the objects the way I think not the way I see’ (cited in Ladommatos. 1984, p139). One more movement that wanted to escape from the solid imitation of reality is the Surrealism. Andre Breton founder of this movement gives us a fine definition of the surrealistic language of expression: ‘I think that in the futuristic combination of two conditions who seem to be dissimilar, the dream and the reality in creation of an absolute reality – a super realism or surrealism.’ (cited in Ladommatos. 1984, p140)
In my project the experiments of another way of expression will take place in the 3d animation field. Moreover after researching different techniques in 3d animation movies I have come to a decision that for one of the movies am going to use a rendering technique that I have not used before. This is the quite modern technique and is gaining popularity. It is called Non Photorealistic Rendering (NPR). The reason I want my renderings to be NPR is because it gives a mainstream mood that I think fits better to one of the movies. Cel-shaded or Toon rendering is the most common of the artistic rendering styles of NPR, makes the rendered works appear hand-drawn like comic strips and traditional cartoons. Toon rendering has also its tricks in animation that I am exploring.
Coming from a more technological based and advertising background I had a total different view for art and animation. So in the beginning I had a hard time in understanding art perspective. I think my research and observations has helped me and now I have a much better understanding of this prospective. Things have started to make more sense to me but there is still a lot to learn. Andrew Stanton director of ‘Pixar’ animation studios in an interview explains why a director should see an animation with artistic eye and use the computer as a tool:
As animation seems to be moving to a more technically based medium, I think one of the most powerful things is to have both an artistic background and technical knowledge. With animatics you have to be able to draw well and know the computer. For directing, you have to have a writer's sensibility and artistic background. Learn the technology but don't let it get in the way of what has made animation so great in the days when there were no computers. (Andrew Stanton, Pixar's official web-site www.pixar.com).
Talking about the 3d animation area is important to note an interesting exhibition that took place in Proud Gallery in London between 8th -28th of October 2004 which is related to my research – ‘The Alter Ego exhibition’. In that exhibition on-line video gamers met each other’s alter-ego in the form of 3d characters in a 3d environment. The reporter of BBC Jo Twist notes:
Virtual people are to step offline and reveal themselves in a "real-life" photography exhibition.
The Alter Ego display shows what kind of virtual characters people choose to be in online games and 3D worlds. (Jo Twist, news/bbc.co.uk)
Another source of my development is the environment provided by the university and the faculty in-charge of running our course. For example our tutors have given me very useful references for reconstructive methods in film-making; I researched them and found out some interesting aspects. One of these film makers is Sergei M. Eisenstein. I have learnt that he lived during Soviet Revolution era and he is a good example of the artists who tried new methods in their artworks. He was famous because of his style and the camera angles especially with his movie "Potemkin". After this movie Eisenstein had new project called "October", where he tried out a different artistic language with experimental montage and new cinematic ideas. The authorities didn't like the movie though and the film critics were bad too. In jump-cut online issues professor Murray Spebber notes that when Eisestein asked about his freedom of style in his movie October he described it as : “the first embryonic step towards a totally new form of film expression”.(cited in ejumpcut.org from Jump Cut no 14, 1977, p14-22)
In conclusion I would say that this project helps me to look into the unknown and quench the thirst of my curiosity of the art and experimentation in the medium of digital arts. I found this year a great opportunity of artistic experimentation and research.
Bibliography
Arnason, H. (1977), “History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture”, London, Thames and Hudson
Brion, Marcel. (1966), “Art and Romantic Era”, London, Thames and Hudson.
Friends of the National Film Archive. (1963), “A season of the films of Sergei Eisestein : 1st October 1963-13th October1963”, London, National Film Theatre
Gray, Camiella. (1971), “The Russian Experiment in Art 1863-1922”, London, Thames and Hudson
King, Mike (2003), “3d moving image production”, London, London Metropolitan University
Ladommatos, Andrew (1984), “History of Art”, Cyprus, O.E.D.B.
Lucie-Smith, Edward. (1975), “Movements in Art since 1945”, London, Thames and Hudson
Maudsley, Nigel (2003), “Research Methods and Principles of the Digital Moving Image”, London, London Metropolitan University
Nash, John Malcolm. (1974),“Cubism, futurism and constructivism”, London, Thames and Hudson
Roberts, Graham. (2000), “The man with the movie camera”, London, I.B. Tauris
Saunders, Dave. (1994), “The World’s Best Advertising Photography”, London, Batsford
Web
www.pixar.com
www.wikipedia.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.pbs.org
http://www.ejumpcut.org/
http://blackboard.arts.ac.uk/
Student Number: KAN0569862
Unit Code: MADA2
Unit Leader: Andrew Stiff
Course: Masters in Digital Art
CAN AN ARTWORK HAVE AN ALTER-EGO?
Abstract
In the following short essay the author of this project has discussed the theme and the research of the project. The project is addressing the question ‘Can an art work have an Alter-Ego?’ The author tries to discover a new language of expression via art. The medium chosen for this purpose is the animation movie. For this purpose the author has done some research in specifically in the areas of direction, animation, rendering and artistic movements. The author intends to conduct experimentation with the video technique in order get the alter–ego of the art work. He has given examples of earlier artist who had worked on such projects and based his research on their work. These artists have experimented by using different art forms and different new for their era techniques. Taking influence and using them as a guideline the author is exploring into new boundaries. The research work is mainly based on study of books, websites and movies and examples of the work relevant to the project are quoted.
Research Question
"If you have the chance to be somebody else who would you like to be?" The etymology of Alter-ego is: alter (Latin: other) ego (Greek: self, I). In other words if a person is not satisfied with his current conditions or way of living in the society in most cases he looks up to another person real or imaginative. What if we transfer this concept in the art and specifically in the film making arts. Since the video as a medium can be more narrative. Therefore if we take a video as the artwork and then experiment with the contents, then the remake of the video would be one of its possible forms of its alter-ego. Reconstruction of a movie can be made in many ways. The author intent to conduct research on four main areas: storyline, direction, treatment and artistic language and answer to the question: “Can an artwork have an alter-ego?”
Critical Literature Review
The key resources of the project are:
Ladommatos, Andrew (1984), “History of Art”, Cyprus, O.E.D.B.
This book contains a historical and aesthetic contact of all the periods of art, from the ancient art till today. It contains information painting, sculpture, architecture and modern art. Moreover analyzes briefly every style and movement and helps the reader to continue his own research on the specific area.
Maudsley, Nigel (2003), “Research Methods and Principles of the Digital Moving Image”, London, London Metropolitan University
This is a technically based book which aims to make the reader discover different techniques of video editing and digital effects by tutorials of editing software such as After Effects and Premiere.
King, Mike (2003), “3d Moving Image production”, London, London Metropolitan University
Dr King explains different techniques of 3d animation from the basic to the experienced. He covers a field of 3d modeling, 3d animation, 3d texturing and 3d rendering. It can be very helpful for the beginners.
Nash, John Malcolm. (1974),“Cubism, futurism and constructivism”, London, Thames and Hudson
This book contains information for three unique movements of the 20th century. Very informative for the reconstruction of art issue. European and Russian artists saw their theme from another ankle.
Friends of the National Film Archive. (1963), “A season of the films of Sergei Eisestein : 1st October 1963-13th October1963”, London, National Film Theatre
A tribute to the artworks of one of the most important constructivist filmmakers and his revolutionary techniques. Descriptions of the radical black and white movies such as October, Potemkin, Que Viva Mexico etc
Content
Exploration is an in built characteristic of human nature. We try to explore either to reach our goals or because we are curious. The mystery of the unknown has always charmed us. To satisfy this curiosity people take risks and experiment. This in-turn leads us into development and guides the society to evolve into civilization. If we did not have this curiosity and the urge to explore and develop the society would stay static in primitive age. But because of this characteristic, humans live in houses, travel on the seas skies and space, use electricity, use computers, and have found cure to diseases by using variety of medicines, there is variety in what we eat and different styles of music and art. In art, artists experimented and used different techniques, material and mediums to find a new language of expression. This gave birth to new movements.
I think that when experiment is successful it leads to development. Artists used to take a long time to make one step of an artistic movement to another. Classic art was going on for hundreds of years and the same happened with the Christian art. Then Renaissance, Neoclassicism, Baroque, Rococo lasted half century to a full century each. In the 20th century every movement last for a few years and in the 21st this evolution has been even faster and reached to the point that an artist has the chance to experiment a lot of different styles in a life time.
An experiment of different styles is also the aims or the theme for my project. Through this course I want to find out a new language of expression, a language which is more influenced by art as a medium of expression. Coming from an advertising background, where things are driven by the needs and the demand of the customer, what I was missing is the freedom and liberty of expression which fine art offers. This was something that I urge to experience and I guess that forms the base of my motivation for my master in digital arts. This in turn has helped me to open my horizons in something almost unknown to me. I try to find my alter-ego artist. I have taken this issue and made this as a theme to my project. I am trying to answer the question “Can an artwork have an alter-ego?" where I make two movies - an animation movie with the knowledge I already have and another experiment movie where I have the liberty of experimentation and I investigate the freedom of fine art and find a way of expression of its alter ego.
To achieve this goal I planned in unit 1 of this course, I would greatly benefit by and understanding what other artists have done related to the reconstruction of art and at the same time developing the skills I need to execute this project. Artists in the past have developed different ways to 'see' a theme. For instance the symbolists replaced real objects or situations with symbols to express an allegorical meaning. I also developed a better understanding of Cubist movement. The Cubists analyzed the objects of their theme and re-assembled them presented another reality in an abstract form. Pablo Picasso said : ‘ I draw the objects the way I think not the way I see’ (cited in Ladommatos. 1984, p139). One more movement that wanted to escape from the solid imitation of reality is the Surrealism. Andre Breton founder of this movement gives us a fine definition of the surrealistic language of expression: ‘I think that in the futuristic combination of two conditions who seem to be dissimilar, the dream and the reality in creation of an absolute reality – a super realism or surrealism.’ (cited in Ladommatos. 1984, p140)
In my project the experiments of another way of expression will take place in the 3d animation field. Moreover after researching different techniques in 3d animation movies I have come to a decision that for one of the movies am going to use a rendering technique that I have not used before. This is the quite modern technique and is gaining popularity. It is called Non Photorealistic Rendering (NPR). The reason I want my renderings to be NPR is because it gives a mainstream mood that I think fits better to one of the movies. Cel-shaded or Toon rendering is the most common of the artistic rendering styles of NPR, makes the rendered works appear hand-drawn like comic strips and traditional cartoons. Toon rendering has also its tricks in animation that I am exploring.
Coming from a more technological based and advertising background I had a total different view for art and animation. So in the beginning I had a hard time in understanding art perspective. I think my research and observations has helped me and now I have a much better understanding of this prospective. Things have started to make more sense to me but there is still a lot to learn. Andrew Stanton director of ‘Pixar’ animation studios in an interview explains why a director should see an animation with artistic eye and use the computer as a tool:
As animation seems to be moving to a more technically based medium, I think one of the most powerful things is to have both an artistic background and technical knowledge. With animatics you have to be able to draw well and know the computer. For directing, you have to have a writer's sensibility and artistic background. Learn the technology but don't let it get in the way of what has made animation so great in the days when there were no computers. (Andrew Stanton, Pixar's official web-site www.pixar.com).
Talking about the 3d animation area is important to note an interesting exhibition that took place in Proud Gallery in London between 8th -28th of October 2004 which is related to my research – ‘The Alter Ego exhibition’. In that exhibition on-line video gamers met each other’s alter-ego in the form of 3d characters in a 3d environment. The reporter of BBC Jo Twist notes:
Virtual people are to step offline and reveal themselves in a "real-life" photography exhibition.
The Alter Ego display shows what kind of virtual characters people choose to be in online games and 3D worlds. (Jo Twist, news/bbc.co.uk)
Another source of my development is the environment provided by the university and the faculty in-charge of running our course. For example our tutors have given me very useful references for reconstructive methods in film-making; I researched them and found out some interesting aspects. One of these film makers is Sergei M. Eisenstein. I have learnt that he lived during Soviet Revolution era and he is a good example of the artists who tried new methods in their artworks. He was famous because of his style and the camera angles especially with his movie "Potemkin". After this movie Eisenstein had new project called "October", where he tried out a different artistic language with experimental montage and new cinematic ideas. The authorities didn't like the movie though and the film critics were bad too. In jump-cut online issues professor Murray Spebber notes that when Eisestein asked about his freedom of style in his movie October he described it as : “the first embryonic step towards a totally new form of film expression”.(cited in ejumpcut.org from Jump Cut no 14, 1977, p14-22)
In conclusion I would say that this project helps me to look into the unknown and quench the thirst of my curiosity of the art and experimentation in the medium of digital arts. I found this year a great opportunity of artistic experimentation and research.
Bibliography
Arnason, H. (1977), “History of Modern Art: Painting, Sculpture, Architecture”, London, Thames and Hudson
Brion, Marcel. (1966), “Art and Romantic Era”, London, Thames and Hudson.
Friends of the National Film Archive. (1963), “A season of the films of Sergei Eisestein : 1st October 1963-13th October1963”, London, National Film Theatre
Gray, Camiella. (1971), “The Russian Experiment in Art 1863-1922”, London, Thames and Hudson
King, Mike (2003), “3d moving image production”, London, London Metropolitan University
Ladommatos, Andrew (1984), “History of Art”, Cyprus, O.E.D.B.
Lucie-Smith, Edward. (1975), “Movements in Art since 1945”, London, Thames and Hudson
Maudsley, Nigel (2003), “Research Methods and Principles of the Digital Moving Image”, London, London Metropolitan University
Nash, John Malcolm. (1974),“Cubism, futurism and constructivism”, London, Thames and Hudson
Roberts, Graham. (2000), “The man with the movie camera”, London, I.B. Tauris
Saunders, Dave. (1994), “The World’s Best Advertising Photography”, London, Batsford
Web
www.pixar.com
www.wikipedia.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk
http://www.pbs.org
http://www.ejumpcut.org/
http://blackboard.arts.ac.uk/
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