3 November 2011
stephen and i embarked on an archaeological voyage last night, with the holborn viaduct gatehouses centred in our spyglass. these images and captions are courtesy of the city of london planning department. i'm really excited by the prospect of a project here, so let this post act as a lite introduction to something much greater
Labels: archaeology, drawing, history, introduction, london, mythology
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22 August 2011
i return to you years later,
grey & lovely city
unchanging city
buried in the waters of the past
i'm not longer the student
of philosohpy, poetry & curiosity,
i'm not the young poet who wrote
too many lines
and wandered in the maze
of narrow streets and illusions
the sovereign of clocks and shadows
has touched my brow with his hand
but still i'm guided by a star
by brightness, and only brightness
can undo or save me
star by adam zagajewski. i read this on a wall in london's underground tube network, on my way home from leeds & birmingham [as part of project context]. i have a fit of goosebumps on every pass. i'd suggest scanning this interview with zagajewski, it takes my mind to far away places and spreads my eyes apart.
i've been blogging less than i use to because my time is spent elsewhere, in those hidden places for where only few keys exist; sketch books, conversations... but these two photographs above are my studies following josef albers' 'interaction of colour'. the top colour study is from chapter 9 entitled 'colour mixture in paper - illusion of transparence' and the bottom photograph is from chapter 14 'colour intervals and transformation'
the virtuous hunt
for ways of seeing
spears bounty abound;
a game no trap ensnares
Labels: albers, colour, drawing, illusion, poetry
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5 July 2011
josef, étienne & i
"the search is what everyone would
undertake if he were not stuck in the
everydayness of his own life. to be
aware of the possibility of the search
is to be onto something. not to be
onto something is to be in despair"
walker percy, the moviegoer
[as quoted on page 1 of 'seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees' by lawrence weschler]
the image above is my submission to the copy/paste issue of matzine#09; it is of two beds, one for étienne and one for i - two characters from a short story i wrote for the previous issue. i had built part of a miniature stage-set for the piece but the simplicity of this spread, the strange divide of the spine, the butterfly and clone effect, the floating beds in paperspace and the questionable penmanship - these qualities won me over.in a 1968 interview, josef albers said something provocative, that has stuck with me and seems pertinent here :
"the source of art - or where it comes from - is the discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect"
Labels: albers, depth, drawing, dreams, irwin, matzine, quotes, square, vision
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4 June 2011
p h e n o m e n a l p r e s e n c e
"i began to recognize the difference between imagery and physicality, that everything had both an imagery and a physicality, and furthermore that for me, the moment a painting took on any kind of image, the minute i could recognize it as having any relationship to nature, of any kind, to me that painting went flat...
imagery for me constituted representation, "re-presentation," a second order of reality, whereas i was after a first order of presence... it's about presence, phenomenal presence."
images the mechanical film set of stanley kubrick's 2001: a space odyssey [sourced from wikipedia if i remember correctly]
text seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees, by lawrence weschler. the words are spoken by artist robert irwin
Labels: collaboration, drawing, image, irwin, kubrick, mythology, quote, set design
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30 March 2011
Dear reader
here-in: the hourglass issue;
the effect time has on you;
how it and you are ‘twine
here-on will test your eye-sight [there is a lot of small text]
where image, prose, thought just might
spur questions in like kind.
so read, scan and ponder,
upon content of times yonder;
the contributors’ resplendent list
the hourglass becomes a symbol,
an object which asks;
“after all, does the present exist?”
Labels: collaboration, drawing, matzine, shadow, time
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28 March 2011
the constructive critique
matzine#006
the following submission to matzine#006 was a collaborative effort between nick shurey and myself, over the course of a month. we set up a scenario were the relationship between critter and critted was brought into question. the ensuing short design and review exercise was most enlightening. this post is a backlog; this matzine edition was released 11th december 2010
read the edition's intro by editor rowan mackinnon-pryde
click the images below to enlarge the text...
.
Labels: collaboration, critique, depth, drawing, matzine
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8 March 2011
mineralogical notes
and making stereoscopic drawings
image above : non-crystalline tetrahedral network model, from "a simple method for making stereoscopic drawings" by fred ordway, the american mineralogist, vol 50, september 1965. this image pair is made for viewing with a stereoscope.
a 3-page scanned article is included below. in this 1965 article, a molecular-scaled geological representation technique is explored - stereoscopic drawing. it is a fascinating, technical account of an experimental drawing method, which aims to overcome the otherwise slow process a crystallographer must endure to produce such a stereo-pair image.
article : "a simple method for making stereoscopic drawings" by fred ordway, the american mineralogist, vol 50, september 1965
stereos - stereós, meaning solid
the particular things, from this article, which i'd like to do something with are:
the necessary 4 coordinates and stereo pairs,
parallax mining - to find atomic/molecular structure,
parall-axis - the problem of vertical vs horizontal parallax with regards to human visual perception and interocular distances.
the necessary 4 coordinates and stereo pairs,
parallax mining - to find atomic/molecular structure,
parall-axis - the problem of vertical vs horizontal parallax with regards to human visual perception and interocular distances.
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article : "a simple method for making stereoscopic drawings" by fred ordway, the american mineralogist, vol 50, september 1965
stereos - stereós, meaning solid
-scopic - skopion, meaning to look at
the cinema screens in recent times have seen a notable rise in 3d films - the movie-makers are sharing the same basic principles as this crystallograpgher's notes; human stereoscopic vision. simply put, we have one eye about 6cm horiztonally adjacent from another eye. this is called the interocular distance. healthy humans also, crucially, have the phenomenal ability to fuse the two images we experience from each eye - visual-depth perception.
some people are not able to view our world with stereoscopic vision - perhaps the neurophysiology is affected by some disorder, the eyes do not sufficiently look in the same direction or some other issue. recently i found myself reading a fascinating, almost frightening book by oliver sacks entitled the mind's eye. in this book a woman named sue, who, for most of her life had only monocular vision, suddenly is able to see in binocular vision
"i noticed today that the light fixture that hangs down from our kitchen ceiling looks different. it seems to occupy some space between myself and the ceiling...
i noticed the edge of the open door to my office seemed to stick out toward me. now, i always knew that the door was sticking out toward me when it was open because of the shape of the door, perspective and other monocular cues, but i have never seen it in depth"
quote : the mind's eye, p129, oliver sacks, 2010
it is not only likely that we all take for granted the effect of stereoscopic depth, it's wholly improbable that we could even imagine, at will, the world of monocular vision. between ordway's mineralogical representation techniques and sack's patients, quickly questions arise about the limits of our sense of visual-depth, about how we might use this understanding of our eyes and mind to positively inform and create in our "ocular-centric world"
image above : from the above mentioned mineralogical article. i have made an animated gif to simulate the effect of seeing both stereo-pair images at the same time through a stereoscope
[thanks to wales for introducing me to this article. i believe she came across it while panning for diamonds]
[thanks to wales for introducing me to this article. i believe she came across it while panning for diamonds]
Labels: depth, drawing, parallax
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29 November 2010
grimshaw architects recently sponsored a life drawing class, with a set of conditions.
i no looking at the page one was drawing on
ii drawing with one's less dexterous hand [in my case, my left hand]
iii drawing with both hands, simultaneously, with the above two conditions
ix finally, on selected drawings the pen was not allowed to leave the page.
this applied discipline made producing a self-indulgently pretty depiction of the model's bodyform near impossible, yet still some unexpected attractiveness prevails. there is a child like quality in these drawings - perhaps something to do with the unusually clear evidence of thought/focus on the drawing. the result is almost remedial.
the exercise reminds me of a book that i read before beginning my education in architecture, called drawing on the right side of the brain, by betty edwards. a fascinating worthwhile read.
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Labels: drawing
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4 July 2009
Labels: collage, drawing, film, projects
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