Artist Post #3: Charles A Csuri

            Charles A. Csuri, an American artist born in 1922, is considered one of the pioneers of digital art. He began experimenting with digital art in 1964, making computer animated films and digital 2D artwork. Many of his pieces used algorithms and different softwares that he created. He has been creating digital art for more than 40 years, since the beginning, when they were designing the software needed to create different affects and he is still alive and creating digital art.

            His piece from the reading, Sine Curve Man, made with James Schaffer, is a portrait of a man who is distorted or seems to be melting. They created the effect by laying one image of a man over top of another and displacing them using sine waves. You can see the separate lines of each image, creating a sort of echoing effect, sort of like when an image on film is distorted when a signal or connection is being lost. It seems like there is a glitch and the image keeps repeating when it shouldn’t be, and the result somewhat disturbing and gruesome. The face looks like it has been mutilated or distorted in some way. Unlike many people working in computer art, Csuri actually had a background in art. He was a painter, which can be seen in a lot of his work. Many of his pieces, like combinePICS_1974, have a more classical look to them. This image in particular looks like a virtual 3D still life. The background looks like paint, but is clearly pixelated at the same time. Also, there is a strong light source one what appears to be oranges, again characteristic of a still life. There are many images similar to this one, images containing spherical 3D shapes that are only partially there, with a sense of fantasy to them. And again, most of his work is using specific algorithms to create the art.

 Sine Curve Man

 combinePICS_1974

 Infinite Universe

 Frozen Moment

astroTEX

            What I’ve noticed about a lot of his work, or the pieces that I took a closer look at, even though they aren’t necessarily representational, is that they have a really strong sense of space and texture, which I appreciate because many of the other artworks from the reading don’t have that same sense; they feel more flat and just seem like patterns. Also, his painting background really comes through in his work. I also appreciate that you can see some of the more classical elements of art in his work because it makes it easier for me to understand and relate to, rather than just an algorithm creating some pattern. With Sine Curve Man, a mathematical system was being used, however there is still the recognizable image of the portrait of a man.

Citations:
http://www.csurivision.com/
http://www.siggraph.org/artdesign/profile/csuri/

Artist Post #2: Jon Rafman

     Jon Rafman is an artist living in Montreal, Canada. I found him on rhizome.org when I saw an image from his “Brand New Paint Job” series, which is an ongoing series of images that he has been posting to a blog. He creates these images by using environments, interiors, and objects that he takes from Google's 3D Warehouse, which is a collection of 3D models that users can post and share. Once he has one of these models, he then creates a sort of wallpaper out of different artistic masterpieces and covers that object or room in the artist's work. All of the images are 2D, but they depict 3D models. 

     The environments or objects and canonical artwork that Rafman combines  usually seem to have something in common with one another. For example, Van Gogh Volkswagen lays several of Vincent Van Gogh's paintings on top of a Volkswagen van. Besides the alliteration in the name, and the fact that both artist and object share a word (van), Van Gogh's paintings seem to fit on this van because of what it has come to represent. It creates a whimsical feeling that is often associated with these vans because of the era they are associated with. There is also the obvious contrast going on between the classic paintings and 3D models gathered from the internet. 

This piece, Pollock Tank, creates a similar connection. The dripping splatters of Jackson Pollock's painting create the same look as camouflage.

Jasper Johns Oval Office

Rousseau Rocking Horse

     This piece, Chuck Close Bathroom, is an example of one of the interior spaces. So, like the name says, it is a 3D model of a bathroom taken from the 3D Warehouse and overlaid with several different paintings or images by Chuck Close. Since these are portraits, there is a much clearer division in the separation of the images. They are clearly shown in grids and lines, whereas some of the other images are covered in more abstract paintings, making it harder to see the line or pull out the original artwork. 

    The connection here isn't as clear ast the examples above. But what I found interesting is that Rafman used Close's more precise, photograph-like portraits to cover the surface of the floor and the sink, bathtub and toilet and a self-portrait, that actually looks more like paint and is in color, to cover the walls. Rafman uses the black and white realistic portraits on the surfaces that would most likely be black and white, and would be made of some material like porcelain, to create the same effect as that material. The floor is so shiny and clean that you can see the reflection of the walls in it. He contrasts this with the walls, which are colorful and have more texture, to make it feel more like a painted or wallpapered wall. Also, the use of portraits is interesting because the bathroom is the place for us to take care of ourselves, to get ready and bathe. It is a personal space, so the use of portraits parallels that idea.

      The only criticism I have about this piece are that the toilet, sink, and bathtub get a little lost in the image because the portrait covering them is so similar to the one covering the floor. Also, I was unsure whether the portrait of Bill Clinton was meant to be just that, a portrait hanging on the wall, or a reflection in a mirror. 

Citations:

http://rhizome.org/artbase/collections/1/

http://122909a.com/?p=2254

http://brandnewpaintjob.com/

http://jonrafman.com/

http://www.paintedetc.com/post/1343118795/jon-rafman-fernand-leger-bomb-2010-some-recent

Celebrity Mash Up

Iggy Pop

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                                                                 Cameron Diaz

                                                                   
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Before and After Color Correction

Before:

After:

My Blog Collage

My Ten Scanned Items

My Pixel Drawing