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.