BASIC CONCEPTS IN CREATIVE COMPUTING
II
Imagination and Technique :Process Based Art and Minimalism
Recap Experimental abstract film and animation
Looks like stuff we can do in processing Explores ideas of the relationship between visual
movement and music Dada – Absurdist political art – activism
Op-art Materialism Richter, Eggeling, Man Ray Early ‘systems based’ art i.e. Tristan Tzara – “The Cut
up” Bauhaus – Gropius, Kandinsky, Klee, Moholy-Nagy, Early Computer Graphics - Whitney
Bauhaus
Bauhaus
Bauhaus
Gropius Chairs
Kandinsky Synthesis – “Point and Line to Plane”,
Kandinsky (1926) Fundamental elements of design –
The Point Line (force between connecting points) Plane (The Background)
For Kandinsky, Lines of different orientations had different subjective meanings – or ‘tonalities’
Constructivism Moholy-Nagy “Lichtspiel”
Constructivism ? Emphasis on Technology in Creative Acts Importance of the Machine –
mechanisation Engineering principles as the basis of Art
Is this the basis of Art? What about Duchamp? What about Kandinsky?
Oskar Fischinger Experimental Animator “Absolute Cinema” (non objective)
What do we mean by non-objective ? What is the point?
“Grandfather of the Digital Arts” “Fantasia” (1940)
Whitney John and James Whitney
“5 Abstract Film Exercises” 1940-45 Early Minimal, process-based art Pantographs of Moving colour with sound
What is a pantograph?
Winner, First International Experimental Film Competition in Belgium, 1949
Minimalism Strip back all elements to basic form and
technique Deploy ideas in the most simple way possible Make ideas and concepts visible in work
through simplicity Movements in Music, Painting, Sculpture and
Animation.
Is Fischinger Minimalist? Is Whitney Minimalist? Bauhaus ?
Sol Lewitt Artist whose work is characterised by minimalism
Unit Shape – A basic shape for the extension of a set of ideas or works.
Lewitt’s Unit Shape == Cube. Serial Project – “Incomplete Open Cubes”
Variations on open cubes can be used to generate lots of interesting shapes : Think about how simple this is.
What is a ‘Permutation’ ?
Incomplete Open Cube
Incomplete Open Cubes
Cubes What is special about drawing a Cube? How many dimensions does a cube have?
How many dimensions do we draw in?
What problems does this present? Does this change the way we have to think
about drawing?
The Necker Cube
The Necker Cube
Escher’s Impossible Cube
More about Escher later
Sol Lewitt
Remind you of anything?
Duchamp