Exploring through drawing is often my first step. I like to create simple motifs with pencil and pen, then progressing these into digital forms. This digital step adds most of the fascination for me, allowing for quick visual development. I want to look at real space, potentially through photography. From this I may reproduce the imagery in a similar fashion with pen and pencil, then digital editing in order to distort it, or claim ownership over it.
When I visualise abstract ideas in my mind, they often reveal bodies to my more conscious mind. The vase like drawing above is an example of this, an idea which I couldn’t necessarily express in words, yet when drawn evokes an idea of splicing or segmentation. Perhaps I even begin to think of simplification of form, which could be enacted through my photographic reproduction experiments.
The work above from Nick Cave to me invokes a sense of overproduction. Mass making of objects without a sense of aesthetic style. It lead me however to start moving down this path of reproduction. What if I were to reproduce an object over and over in order to get it into a state where I could claim ownership of it because it has been drawn so far from its origin. This almost seems similar in fashion to the overproduction within Nick Cave’s work, yet rather than quantity of many items, in quantity upon one entity.
Seeing this church as I walked down the street in the distance sparked the idea of detail. Something so far away in a vast sea of other buildings stood out to me. I decided to focus on it in that moment, so from this I was drawn into it as a focus for reproduction. I took an image zooming into it digitally. Looking at it, then attempting to draw it from memory. I then used this image to create a three dimensional model. This could be taken further with 3D printing and polygonal degrasion upon the model digitally or physically, then further replicating the object from that. I want to represent the degrasion that occurs through reproduction but in a more rapid impactful way.
Taking the previous model, I have reduced the definition and applied smoothing to it to see the effect of degradation over time. It almost looks as though the model has become eroded like a rock over thousands of years. This effect is exactly what I expected and takes the model to the point where it is barely tangible as a church anymore and appears as an ameboid blob form. Despite this, I feel it can still be regarded as a castle when viewed alongside the higher definition models, in a similar way that viewing evolution from apes to humans appears clear when viewed with the stages in between, yet when apes and humans are compared it seems much more far fetched.
I decided to generate renders of the models alongside one another in order to see how material and colour make them contrast with one another more strongly. I really like the use of emissive, translucent, transparent and reflective objects. It seems to evoke this reproductive sense in a very material way, bouncing concepts from one object to another. Moving forward, I want to look at artists who have taken common objects, and attempted to distort these. I feel creating objects which resemble existing ones just close enough to be tangible could provide inspiration further.
Philipp Schmitt creates work which experiments with the automation of perception and the transparency that artificial intelligence maintains. His work evokes feelings of reproduction for me which is why I have chosen to include it here. The image above is a prime example which interests me. Paired back and simple graphically, yet evoking strong ideas of reproduction mechanically. I want to create similar evocative imagery, and I feel the concept of progression present here links to the drive behind the castles I created as a test piece. The image above appears as though it were a print on wall, yet it is a sculpture casting shadow. I find this confusion of depth really intriguing in itself and perhaps it is something I could explore myself.
Jaywalking Frames created by Dries Depoorter takes stills from surveillance cameras of people walking across streets when the lights are red for pedestrians. This is done through software semi automatically. The prints then are sold for the same cost as the fines for the crime in the given country. This reproduction or mass production of work using digital means is strongly in line with my research path. The automation is fascinating, along with the scale of these ‘crimes’ being presented on the wall. Trophy Camera also is really inspiring for me as it focuses on reproduction of something of value, but perhaps subverting this into a comment on machines misunderstanding.
Emma Kay: The World From Memory II is a comment on reproduction and upon memory. She has created other works such as the future from memory, the bible from memory and the world from memory, all aiming to recite the histories of their namesake. Each work provides insight into the way we remember things with her giving emphasis upon spaces she spent a long time in, or experiences that resonate with her own life. Much of her work is text based, and simply expressed on white paper with black print. This aesthetic draws the viewer away from the visual and towards the conceptual.
David Hockey’s fax art describes issues of digital artwork and its reproduction. He created fax works which he would send to friends and family for fun. They would be pieced together from many sheets which would create a rather ephemeral image due to it being easily degraded by light and heat over time. The issue came when someone tried to sell this work, which was by design not for sale. It brings in issues of reproduction, what is it to own this work, would only the original fax qualify as the article linked explains first hand. I think digital art has many of the same vices. Unless it is produced into installations, then ownership over digital work really seems hard to quantify. How can you own something which could be produced infinitely without the original artists consent, the same issue is prevalent in film with piracy. Ownership becomes lost within a digital space as the general laws of physical space are blurred into those of mental space where ideas flow more freely, not bound to monetary value.
Tom White’s series entitled perception engines looks at machine vision in what appears at first glance, a highly expressionist series of prints. The images seems entirely random, yet when viewed by machine learning algorithms, they are designed to be seen as specific objects, such as a desk fan and coffee mug. This is enacted by understanding the way these items are understood by machines, and the using this to generate lines and shapes that fit this set of rules. I think I could do the same with three dimensional models, allowing me create physical objects to confuse machines. This could in essence parody a machine age where all objects are machine made, yet everything is made incorrectly due to the machines understanding of objects.
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