'Manhatta'

This is the 1921 documentary 'Manhatta' made by my portrait Paul Strand and hid collaborator Charles Sheeler: Watch it!!!

My Concept for the most important project

Watching the documentary by Paul Strand and Charles Sheeler was like looking into a different and past world, showing concrete structures, building sites and industry that was clearly visible and flourishing around the 1920s in Manhattan. For my concept I decided I would like to look at contrast. Contrast was a strong aspect of the documentary as it showed the gradual change of the city going from one extreme to another. The contrast between the very sunny, fresh morning, which is the start of the documentary, and the end, the shiny, glamorous city at night is what interests me. The night almost seems to be a relief after seeing all these massive concrete structures and studying the very industrial looking environment during the day and the progression of the motion picture. The cover of the darkness seems to only let a few aspects of the city shine through, the lights, the most valuable attributes of the city you could say.

I chose the mask as my object from the course outline. My main focus will be to contrast the mechanical nature of Paul Strands photography works with nature and it's organic aesthetics, staying open to any kind of representations of nature, realistic or not. The mechanical nature is my starting point symbolised in the potrait I sourced earlier and the organic nature will be reflected by my drawings and manipulations of Strands image that i will layer over the top.

The idea of contrast came to mind when looking at the black and white aesthetic of early photography. The photograph or potrait that i chose was printed with traditional darkroom techniques and chemicals. The contrast between mechanic and organic reflects the contrast of the darkroom print. Contrast can also be discribed as a limited range of tones.

black white

mechanical nature organic nature

I will conduct some research on organic aesthetics and representations and will use these and the potrait as the starting point of my explorative series. The drawing will later be translated into Rhinoceros.

A portrait of the photographer Paul Strand

This image is a portrait of the famous photographer Paul strand who lived in the beginning of the 20th century. He was an artist that was concerned with pushing the boundaries of photography, always experimenting with new technologies made available in his time. This highly experimental nature shows in his collaboration with the photographer Charles Sheeler in the documentary 'Manhatta' made in 1921. This documentary is about Manhattan, the 'big apple', within a time span of a day. The 10 minute short film shows the change that the city goes through throughout one day and change within lighting, mood and amount of people participating in the turbulence of a day in a big city. Film itself was still a new invention at this time so I think it is quite amazing that he as a simple photographer pursued extending his practice with such new technology. He almost seems to be fearless in exploring the possibilities within anything that relates to his medium even in the slightest way. At the time of Paul Strand movies were still called motion pictures, indicating the relation of photography to the industry of film.

Evaluation of project 2

I did notlike this project as much as I didn't like having to stick to a certain way of doing something, just like the equations. but on the other side it was interesting to see how creative you can become when you are restricted just to try and break out of that.
I do have enough of the Rhino programme by now as it keeps loosing work and making things complicated due to the geometry table that crashes, when your piece of work is starting to become to abstract or complex.

A-B/C

This is the final product i came up with. I love this render and the extention or complication of the structure through the use of materiality.

But to be honest I have to say that the wire frame is again the most successful image of this hole series. It just creates a certain complexity to my work that I do quite enjoy. It still looks house like with a strong 2d quality added to it.










Just an experimental render playing with materials.

I love this close up of first step. i like how the structure becomes holy and these nice looking views through a part of the structure to look at another different part of the structure. Makes me think kind of futuristic.

This is a close up of my favorite part of the construction or more like deconstruction. this piece could almost be inspired by the peeping tom.

I like this image because of the floaty round shapes in the top corner of the piece. I also like the play of negative and positive that deems to happen alot with this equation.

This is the first step taken in the A-B/C equation. I tried to follow the exact mathematical steps of the given equation. Using boolean difference to take away my object b shape out of my object a

A-B-C

This is my final image of the a-b-c equation. I chose to post a wire frame because I like the complexity of the detail that i achieve with this view. I have chosen to use the 'frogs-eye' view because I like the idea of this structure being a house. Almost like under construction or this could be building site of some sort too.


This image is a close up of the front view cropped. I like it because the detail becomes even more clear here and the complexity seems to increase with zooming in too. It is now less apparent weather the lines are cuts or just lines on the surface although I know through the process that the Lines are actually cuts, but also that contributes to the success of the 2D version of my model.





This image shows the side view of my little house and I have to say I do really like it. The detail is extraordinary and the patterns it creates are intriguing, reminding me of a motherboard of a computer or some similar kind of network like system. In the previous equation I had come to a similar outcome in the sense of ideas but aesthetically the two are very different from each other.

This is the front view of my object or house which I like to call it. this is an ordinary view of my piece while constructing it on Rhinoceros. Not all the detail at the back is visible but because of the straight geometry look and the front on view it becomes almost a floor plan or some kind of drawing like model. This is only fictional modelling but you can start to recognise it as a more or less real sculptural object or house.

an experimental render using materials applied to the surface of the object on a two colour faded background that contrasts with the model itself quite well. but nevertheless I am missing the detail so i will post an image of the wire frame that is a lot more successful.

This image shows a further step in the a-b-c equation. It becomes clear that even though the object is becoming more complex, the dull 3D version does still not do any good for my final pieces and some or a lot of the complexity gets lost. I want to try some experimental renders as that might change anything but if it doesn't I know what to do

This image is a close up of the second step in 3D. contrasting it with the image below makes it clear what i mean with the wire frame being more successful than the actual model in 3D. This is because when the object is a wire frame you can also see the cuts and modifications on the back side at the same time as you can see the front ones, making the object a lot more complex which I like.






This image shows the second step in a wire frame. Again I have to say I almost like the wire frame version better that the 3D one.
it becomes a lot more pictorial as in 2D compared to the solid models i have showed previously. Maybe that is a tangent i could go on?

This image shows a different version of the first step after i had reversed the very first version. I think i just moved the the variables or the parts to different areas of part A constructing a different outcome than before. Now one leg is missing and I believe that greater abstraction would be achieved with this version and also if I would continue in this manner. But do I want abstraction?

This version is quite funky. I like how the elongated cylinders seem completely dismantled and broken apart almost. to me this version of the first step seems a lot more sculptural. It looks like someone chopped of parts of the one part with a butchers knife using the a-b-c equation. The half shapes are quite interesting but unfortunately if I continue in this manner there might not be much surface area or object left unless...... Scale?

Once I had proceeded through the first step I asked myself weather it would make a difference if I would swap around the variables, as the two of them would be subtracted from the other one. so I reversed my process and tried out three different versions of the same equation. Also I started to play with scale in this equation especially as i wanted to get the most possible surface area at the end, because other wise I might not be able to take the equation through more than a few steps.

this image shows my first step in the a-b-c equation. I subtracted b and c from a and this house like model ended up being what I got out of it. i like the round shaped cuts and the round slabs that were cut of at the left right and are now floating in space. This version almost reminds me of Gordon Matta Clarks works where he cuts into buildings creating a negative space just like here in this image.

The first Apex reached.......

This image is my apex. it shows my network multiple times and put together in a city scape of objects fused together. Because i had problems with the computer i had to take photos of my last images of my work for the addition equation. Because of the lens of the camera the image has become slightly stretched and rounded, which gives a quite cool effect to the image. It makes it seem like your standing on the roof top of another building in the city starring at the other complexes.


The image below is a more helicopter view of the city scape I created in this project. It also has the quality of the camera lens as the image above does too. I really like this images and am happy with how I reached the apex.

A+B+C

This image is reminds me a lot more of a city or network of buildings and pipe lines. i like the view it is set in and how the viewer appears to be inside the 'building' looking at the other parts.









This image is a wire frame of the bottom image and cropped nicely. I like how this wire frame image seems to turn into floor plan almost, giving the insight into under laying parts and components of the work.

In this view the change of rotation is a lot more apparent than in any other images that I posted apart from the smaller one below. I like how it looks but I would like it to be a lot more complex than this as i think the network or system of my parts would look a lot more like an infinite network than it does in this image. I do enjoy the aesthetic of the parts together though.






This image is another experimental render playing on the idea of a house network. I created a ground plane and added some more organic wooden material to my piece of work. I like this image as my work seems to change appearance when altered in composition, material and idea.

This is an experimental render of the 'wheel' using glass as the material. The defined outline of the network seems to almost vanish within the materiality. The background reminds me of the sun coming up.

This image shows a render of the whole complex network I created. It almost looks like a wheel and my network represents the spokes.

This image shows my change of the rotation system i kept following. I tried to stay quite rigid and squarish after recognising the success in the idea of a pipe-system. I am going to keep going but I don't know if I am over-shooting the apex by doing that but i would like to try and see what happens.

This image is the bottom view of my network. Unfortunately it is not as successful as the top view or side view but it shows more complexity in the parts. I like how the cylinders, big or small, act almost like extensions of my objects causing the network to fleer out adding to the idea of an infinite system. Like how the lighting falls on my work in this peticular image.

This image is a close up of the topview of the start on my pipe network. I think this drawing is already quite successful and i am close to reaching the Apex. I like the way the network has no ending in this image and that makes it kind of infinite. Only a few more steps is needed to extend the system slightly and maybe make it more complex.

This image shows what the first fusion has turned into after a few more run-throughs of the a+b+c equation. It is starting to look like some kind of network or pipe network constructed out of boxes and cylinders. This image shows you a side view of this start of a drawing.

This image shows my first fusion of the three parts constructed on Rhinoceros and taken from my earlier drawings from the Hub-building. I attached the A and C parts to the straight and levelled sides of my object B. The pieces are only slightly overlapping, but it is not visible as it is so minimal.

Rhinoceros: First step to completing the Equations

This is my object A modelled on the Rhinoceros program. It consists out of two rectangles and two elongated cylinders put together in a union to make up one part.










This is my object B. It consists out of a square rectangle and a square pipe-like object that is lined into it. I chose to render the parts in this way to make edges and physicality more apparent and the different coloured background helps with distinguishing between the two.








This is my third part, Part c, and also one of my favorite ones. It is constructed out of a rectangle and 3 hollow, half-cut cylinders. This part was taken from a vent on the outside of the hub building.

Research concerned with the Equations a+b+c , a-b-c and a-b/c

Jeff Koons: This image is an image of a little lamb decorated with flowers and other 'kitsch' such as brooches and shiny things. It looks really real and you feel like you want to cuddle the little lamb. The lambs back is slightly lower than in real life, that shows the notion of minus. Later on the 'kitsch' objects were added to the lamb(am not too sure if this is a cast or a real taxidermy lamb). I think this is very intriguing because you have to look twice to realize that the lamb is not alive.

Ricky Swallow: This work by Ricky Swallow is an interesting one. The pyramid sticking out of the ground appears to only be part of the whole work. Weather that is the case is unknown as the 'rest' of the object is buried. I like the idea of the panels within the structure and this image is quite hard to categories into one of the equations. It could be addition because of the multiple panels or it could be divided as part of the structure is not visible but what it was divided by is not apparent.


The artist of this image was obviously interested in multiples and addition. I am not sure who this artist is but I am

nosey about the materiality of this work of art. It looks like some kind of silicon or plasticy material conjoined with different colours as a way of adding difference in sameness. The skulls almost seem to be illuminated by the pedestal that they are sitting on. The realness of the bony structure is lost though through the different material that was applied. At the side of the head you can see a speaker like component to the skull, which makes me think it might be some kind if speaker function involved.

Anthony Gormley: This work by Gormley reminded me of the divided and minus equations. I like how the features of the torso are quite vague and how it seems to remind of something draped over it. The colour black makes it a universal torso, that means it could be from anyone but most likely a male due to the very broad shoulders. this piece of work almost reminds me of star wars and Darf wader. The sculpture itself is lifted on a pedestal or some kind of plinth to add to its sculptural effect.

Gordon Matta Clark: This work by Gordon Matta Clark is a work that deals with the minus equation or the divided one. Imagining the minus equation a-b-c the object that was minused must have had the shape of the negative space that you can see in the image to achieve this out come. Thinking of the divided equation a-b/c the object that was divided by must part of whatever is left over. I like how the pieces of the house take on a completely different context when put in this clean gallery space. They are almost like small cross sections of the 'used to exist house' that Clark cut apart.

This work is also by the artist Gordon Matta Clark. A circle like shape was cut out of the house. the photographer, standing inside the building, gazes out on the busy street. It is obvious that the circle was cut out with some kind of concrete cutter but the horizontal part of the cut doesn't seem to overly clean, but more like rough and jagged. The house appears to be empty and unoccupied but more like a building site just ready to be ripped down. I like it how the focus becomes on the negative space of this 'Drawing' rather than the space that is left over. The way this work is photographed also adds to that notion.

Peter Eisenman: Also this image is a bit of a tricky one concerning the three equations. In this case you would have to decide yourself weather you want to see this work as construction or deconstruction, hence addition or subtraction. This work seems to be a model of some kind of building or new age complex. The empty panels almost act like windows or escape paths out of the constructed or deconstructed model. To scale objects were added at the bottom to give a sense of scale and indicate the actual size.

Ricky Swallow: This work is also a work by Swallow done through the casting process and different application of a material. This vase looking piece was made by someones cast sneezed snot. Someone sneezed and Swallow somehow recorded the path of the particles coming from that. Then that figure was cast and made a vase out of it. Pretty smart! Again this idea is not clearly defined into one of the equations, that could either be addition or Division. I like this piece of work because the viewer doesn't quite realize what the vase represents unless it was researched about. Also the contrast between the disgusting snot and the pretty flower becomes more apparent once you really know what this work is about.

Peter Eisenmann: this piece of work by Eisenmann is one of the easiest one to define what equation suits it. this image looks like a modelled piece on Rhino or some kind of similar program. Division is the subject of this work as it almost seem two things were overlaid and layered over each other and later on the edges were cut.
Due to the black only background the contours and the forms and shapes become a lot more visible.

Sol Le Witt: this work by the French artist Sol Le Witt shows the idea of division. Sol Le Witt had a fascination with cubes and squares, taking them apart and studying the different aspects of a cube or square. This sculpture reminds of an upside down table with only three legs. But once you look closer you notice that the table is not a table but a geometric union of elongated small cubes. This is not the only piece of work of his that is concerned with division and also subtraction.

The Apex Defintion

The Apex can be defined in many different ways. Everything or every object can reach its apex, weather it is visually, geometrically or within the sense of force. The Apex can be a summit, peak, climax and so on. The highest point or the vertex of a hill triangle etc. Even the tip of a leaf can be described as an Apex. The word Apex as a noun actually means the highest point. Also what I found out and realised a few days ago is that a racing car going into the corner can also reach its apex. This is due to the force that acts upon the vehicle when entering the corner and the rise of the intensity of the force on the car throughout the progression of the corner. you can call it an apex when the maximum amount of force acts upon the car. If the car is too fast it can't handle the force and gets thrown out of the pursued way of travel. You would call this a car accident. If the car on the other hand has the right speed and position, it will progress in the most efficient way possible.

A, B and C

This is my object A taken from my earlier drawings. I liked how the two cylinders were intersecting the two thin slabs of rectangles, which already reminded me of boolean Unions. The box around my object help restricting me to a smaller scale and helped focus on smaller scale parts of the buildings we were drawing.

This is object B again drawn within the small box on my piece of paper. I like it because it is simpler than my object A. That is my idea of contrast as I tried to choose my objects selectively and focused on contrast and the difference in its aesthetics.

Object C is my favourite object that I have chosen to work with. If I recall it right this object was taken from the outside of the Hub building, next to the stairs, and it represents the visible part of an air shaft. I like the combination of the square and cylindrical shapes and also the play within scale that already starts to happen in this drawing.


Overall I find that all 3 chosen objects are very architectural which comes from the fact that we used buildings as our drawing models. Very simple shapes are visible in all 3 drawings such as squares and cylinders etc. I like especially object A and C as they talk about the fusion of round and square objects and maybe this is a tangent that i want to pursue or keep in mind.