Bloomin Virtual!

Richard Falle, Phalaenopsis Momento Mori, 2011, Pigmented Inkjet Print

Richard Falle’s work Phalaenopsis Momento Mori pushes preconceived ideas of vector-based imagery and the recording of still life works within virtual space. Here the allusions to photo-realism and hyperrealism are prominent although momentarily acknowledged once one learns that the image has been described by observing the real object. Subsequently the 2D print resonates between traditional drawing methods for still life recording and the resulting depiction of form and space through virtual tools.

The work was initiated through discussions between the artist and myself - so to give you a bit of background here are some words from the artist about the making and conception of Phalaenopsis Momento Mori.

Making:

The image Phalaenopsis Momento Mori was created in Adobe Illustrator using a plethora of blends, meshes, transparency masks and brushes layered one on another and contained within clipping masks to create depth, texture and lighting effects. The image was drawn from observation rather than having traced over photograph or using the Livetrace function. Not an efficient method of generating this kind of image, I estimate it took at least 30hrs to produce, the challenge of working within the limitations of Adobe Illustrator makes the result all the more satisfying.

Conception:

How often have you posed the question, “What if…?”

For me, it’s been a vice, a pleasure and a muse since I was very young. An unrepentant daydreamer, the images I create are a product of attempting to visualise the props of those unlikely “What if?” scenarios, combined with an ongoing exercise in pushing the limits of what can be achieved using purely vector graphics. The limitations of vector art, creates images that seem to hover between photorealism and illustration and gives the subjects an uncanniness that accentuates their eccentricity.

Phalaenopsis Momento Mori by Richard Falle is a printed edition by CFPR Editions at the Centre for Fine Print Research.

On Vogue

Arthur Buxton, 30 Years of British Vogue Covers, Pigmented Inkjet Print, 2011

Arthur Buxton is an artist who has recently been invited by CFPR Editions to produce a limited edition print at the Centre for Fine Print Research in Bristol, UK. Buxton's work engages with data visualisation methods that use colour extraction tools to explore trends in the natural world, painting and print media. Using open source software he extracts colours from photographs to create charts and timelines that typically display the five most common colours in each image as a percentage. In this instance, the removal of figurative and formal elements from an image present a series of colour harmonies and trends, alluding to sampling methods, information graphics, automation technologies, and objective forms of re-presentation.

The artist explains his most recent work produced with CFPR Editions; 'As the worlds most influential fashion magazine, Vogue acts as an ideal barometer for colour trends. Making use of British Vogue's own online online cover archive I use free software to extract the five commonest colours from each cover and chart them, in Illustrator, by percentage. Arranging these charts into a timeline we begin to see trends emerge - seasonal variations and also in the longer term, a gradual fashion for lighter hues. In my thirty years of British Vogue covers visualisation each column is a year beginning with September (the start of the fashion year) at the top and working backwards to October at the bottom. 1981 is on the right and the timeline runs through to 2011 on the left'.

Monumental Haptic

Assaf Shaham, American Dream (ongoing project)

Assaf Shaham's American Dream series has been created using a flatbed scanner to record a number of printed images that depict monumental structures and buildings. The digitally recorded images in this instance have been 'monumentalized' further by intervening during the scanning process. Here the digital elongation is instigated by the hand in so much as the printed artifact (situated on the scanning bed) is momentarily moved whilst the recording is in progress.

Bleeding Pixels

Paul Ferragut, Time Printing Machine, 2011

Ferragut's Time Printing Machine creates a pixelated aesthetic that is realized through durational deposits of ink on paper. By using a time based algorythm to drive a mechanical plotter Ferragut has devised a mark making system that optimizes the relationship between material absorption and image rendering. Ferragut explains "The time print device uses blotting paper with Letraset felt-pen. The felt-pen ink bleed in the paper for a duration relative to the grey value of a pixel. Every "time stain" gradually recreates any image in a pointilist style." The work was produced for Ferragut's MA show at London Central St Matins and further info concerning the artists activities can be found here

Already made

Rob Myers, Urinal, 3D file

Like Duchamp Myers has enabled an art work to exist by an idea alone. In keeping with Duchamp's iconic Fountain (1917) the artist (Myers) has removed his hand from the work - albeit by employing another to create a potential object to exist, rather than appropriating an existing object and nominating it as art.

Myers Urinal was created by Chris Webber a software engineer who generated the model as three dimensional image so that the digital file could be physically rendered by a 3D printer. The file has been made available by the artist for anyone to download, print and sign (see thingverse download page). Alternatively (if you don't happen to have a 3D printer to hand) Myers 3D printed Urinal is also available to purchase through shapeways. Although technically Duchamp did not completely remove the Urinal's possible function I do believe Myers Urinal to be purely ornament.

Rebel Relief

Sam Burford, Star Wars Relief, 2011

Sam Burford's Star Wars Relief is a timelapse photograph taken from the film Star Wars IV. Burford uses a bespoke capture device to record the film footage that is then rendered as a series of extended (and abstract) film stills (see example here). In this instance the image has been transformed into a surface relief made from silicon - a material previously used in film production to create sets and props. The relief work subsequently has allusions to pre-digital cinematic model making methods and aesthetic reference to the surface structure of the Empires Imperial Starships and Space Station.

The Pond of Tranquility

Matthew Day Jackson, Reflections of the Sky, 2010

With presentation cue's to Monet's Reflections of Clouds on the Water-Lily Pond Jackson's Reflections of the sky depicts a surface area of the moon that has been rendered by laser etching gypsum board (wallboard or Drywall) - a mass-produced material often used within domestic interiors. The etched pits and troughs that create the images surface topography also retain a gritty interference quality that exists somewhere between the production process and the transmission reception of such distant images.

Augmented Print

James Alliban, AR Business card

Also see the application of augmented reality in German Suddeutsche Zeitung magazine publication and previous posting the Loaded Surface concerning the integration of the physical space with the digital environment.

Analogue after Digital

Stefan Kubler, Aljarn, 2007, collaged postcards, 148 x 104 cm

Somewhere between Chuck Close's grid portraits that pull information inward and Tom Friedman's three dimensional interpolated packaging that explode outward. Stefan Kubler's Aljarn jumps forward within its two dimensional plain - a distribution process using multiple copies of a single printed image.

Loom Moon, I saw you standing alone.

Jeff Sanders, Moon, 2007, Jacquard tapestry, 72 inch x 8 inch depth, Edition of 12

Published by Magnolia Editions

Jeff Sanders Moon 2007 is a tapestry work constructed from a digital image. Using a series of interwoven threads the tapestry has been rendered by a specialized, electronic Jacquard loom. To get a better view of the Moon see the work at Magnolia Editions.

Another wry smile

Mike Ruiz, Replaced Mona Lisa, 2011, Oil on Canvas

As described by Mike Ruiz;

The Mona Lisa with the lady selected then put through Content-Aware Fill (a Photoshop CS5 tool that automatically generates content based on the existing surrounding content of the image and fills in selected area). The resulting image is a potential landscape as interpreted by the software. The image was sent to a painting manufacturer in China where an oil painting was produced.

Pretty fly for a print guy

3D Printed Hovering Ornithopters

Project by Charlie Richter, Floris van Breugel, William Regan, Zhi Ern Teoh

The Ornithopter project uses 3D printing technology to construct complex wing structures that replicate 'natures design'. See video here

Interesting thread

Devorah Sperber, Holodeck: Simulation Program..., 2007-08

The Human Printer: A Namesake Production

Paul Laidler, The Human Printer.tiff, Produced by The Human Printer, 2010

“We shape our tools and thereafter our tools shape us.” (M. McLuhan, 1964)

The Human Printer.tiff is part of a series entitled Print is Dead and was produced by a group called The Human Printer. The group consists of eleven individuals who specialise in reproducing by hand, the digitised rendering of a half-tone image that is normally associated with mechanical print processes. The Human Printer group has adopted the remote Print-on-demand facility for transferring digital files, although the potential to rapidly produce large editions is somewhat limited due to the extensive labour involved and the small-scale production of the studio. The Human Printer.tiff (see source file here) took just over two weeks from order to receipt.

In keeping with the mechanised half-tone print process, the digital image is printed as colour separations using the four printing channels of CMYK. To produce the final drawn image, each colour separation is traced individually on to a single sheet of semi-transparent paper so that collectively, the channels register with one another. The layering order of each colour follows the half-tone print procedure using four different coloured pens that correspond to each of the separate colour channels.The Human Printer’s transcription process includes the visual descriptions associated with reproduction through the mechanised image. The Human Printer’s rendering of a coarse photographic half-tone and its associations with automation are reminiscent of Andy Warhol’s 1963 comment “I want to be a machine”.

Further overtones of convergence between humans and technology reference a (hypothetical) Post-human future where a biological generation of humanity ends and technological one begins. The influence of science and technology upon the human condition has been a constant source of inspiration for the field of science fiction. In more recent times the fictional associations with phenomena such as implants, smart materials and cloning have accelerated the science fiction world toward are own.

The idea that a fiction can become functional through an associated process has been incorporated in to the selection of a specific technology for the work entitled Stretch out with your feelings.

The Human Printer.tiff is part of larger series of work entitled Print is Dead that continues the theme of humans as printers and the broadening definition of the print medium in the digital age. Collectively these works have contributed toward the development of paper for the Impact 7 2011 printmaking conference in Australia - further details can be found here.

Moire Paintings

Hugh Scott-Douglas, Moire Paintings

Ryuji Nakamura, Midget & Giant

A celebratory substrate?

Pepon Osorio, You're Never Ready, 2009

Seen here at The Graphic Unconscious Exhibition 2010 (Part of Pilagraphika Print festival) Pepon Osorio has enlarged an x-ray image to produce an inkjet print on confetti.

Photoshoped Out

Riyo Nemeth, Sculpture, mixed media, 2010

Folding Space

Riyo Nemeth, Fold II, 2010

Rendered in physical space, Riyo Nemeth composes and records the Photoshop gradient affect by printing and folding a sheet of paper.

Back to the Future

Xavier Antin, Just in Time, or A Short History of Production

Magenta (Stencil duplicator, 1880)

Cyan (Spirit duplicator, 1923)

Black (Laser printer, 1969)

Yellow (Inkjet printer, 1976)

Human Interface

Hi from Multitouch Barcelona on Vimeo.