nga.mov still

project B:: storyboard

project B:: proposal

nga.mov

algorithmic layering

5.75″x8.0″ portfolio spread

coverage_explanation

coverage_ex06

surficial translation; pattern to space

permeable surface_translation

This image is composed of perspectival viewpoints taken from the current model. I’m not quite certain if it is more (or at all) successful as either an image or a spatial construct. In order to further expand upon surficial geometries in initial investigations, I have abandoned (for now…) translations of the bitmap “surface.”The final translations have been evolving linearly, however, I am still trying to find ways to incorporate the previous images.

surficial translation (b)

surficial translation (b)

surficial translation (b)

surficial translation

permeable surface;

abstract; project a

This investigation will interpret the layer of floral decoration, abstracted into a finite geometry, as an entirely different system. Maybe the colors, which are the first perceptible key to an observer, operate as a leftover trace or wire-frame.  Each could have individual properties to cut, slice, bend, fold, or manipulate the green surface underneath.  A variety of scales within the source image will be tested in order to achieve an end result from the pattern.

An especially compelling condition occurs between complementary colors in the source image.  Particular areas of full saturation between red and green create a situation where the boundaries begin to vibrate.  This perceptual illusion questions what layer is the foreground and which is the background in the composition.1 Traditionally, dark colors are understood to effectively recede into space and white colors come forward.  Using these parameters for translating the image into space as well as testing the inverse will be an immediate goal.  A new translation of surface could arise if the green surface were represented as foreground; this project will test the potential of each layer to operate as both.

Influences include Asymptote and their exploration of space through spatial installations at a variety of scales.  They use digital technology as both a design tool and the manifestation of a final project.  A critical aim of this project is to abstract pattern and color in the source image [artifact].  For their Writing Space at the 1996 International Paper Biennale, the design team translated the physical nature of paper manipulation and dematerialized its’ properties.  Asymptote utilized digital recording and virtual output to create a new spatial construct.2   With the ability of the object to function as backdrop, background, or foreground, a great degree of variability results.

When transforming the image to grayscale, however, there is a compelling result.  By compressing the colored layers into a bitmap image, a unified new surface is derived from which to draw data.  One could imaging that cutting sections both transversely and longitudinally with a given set of rules according to its’ contrast would reveal a dramatic mutation of surface.  A new texture could operate as either structure or skin.  Without the primary hues, the colored flowers are no longer the first perceptible objects of the source image.  This project will explore the potential of a unified layer as a separate element or a datum to manipulate a surface beneath.

The image produced in exercise 05 is inherently scale-less.  One could imagine the shadows reflect the space between two shelves, layers in a façade, or levels of an apartment complex. A goal of the final project will be to preserve this ambiguity.

1  Itten, Johannes.  The Elements of Color.  New York: Wiley, 1970.
2  Rashid, Hani, and Lise Anne Couture.  Flux.  New York: Phaidon Books, 2002.

surface

courtyard;

a courtyard space

a courtyard space

CMA_exercise02