Sunday, 08/29/10: first week of wash + notes

I'm not really sure what I came into WASH expecting to do the first day, but I don't think building structures strong enough to hold up a cinder block out of newspaper was on the list somehow.  I think the hardest part of that project was getting out of the mindset that there was NO WAY that the newspaper could possibly hold up a cinder block.  I just kept seeing it fall over in my head as I was building it.  I don't want to say 3-D art is unfamiliar territory for me, I don't feel like it's a strong point for me though, nor something I do often.  I think one of the hardest things in 3-D art for me is getting the piece to be able to support itself, to balance properly.  However, I got mine to work just fine without toppling over or being crushed by the cinder block.

A few pictures from the first day, I'm not sure how everyone feels about having their pictures posted here, but for future reference if I ever post a picture of you or your project and you'd like it taken down, just let me know and I apologize in advance!

Just a little summary from the first part of my Friday notes:
Composition is overall design, it is everything in the world that was created by us.  Composition can apply to writing, music, visual arts, dance, and even to things in nature [i.e. minerals].  It's a way of organizing ideas.  Ideas are composed of elements, in the case of art we use the elements of point, line, shape/form, value, color/hue, texture and space.

We then did an exercise to see if we could apply the elements of art to sound.  My group received the element of form.  We thought of a shape and asked "how can we express this same idea as a sound?"   We chose to express a circle.  A shape is really a collection of lines, which is a collection of points.  Our idea was that we would stand in a large circle around the room and clap, one after the other.  Unfortunately, another group already came up with a very similar idea and we had to tweak it before presenting.  Thinking of it visually, I imagine as if the sound of the clap is being carried from one person to the next creating the shape of our circle.

We each received two objects from Bill, a piece of cardboard, and one other object, mine was some sort of bone.  It looks like a tailbone from a medium-small sized animal.  I'd really like to know what exactly it is, but perhaps it's better if I don't know.  He asked us to observe the objects as if maybe we were aliens from some distant planet and were trying to record them by drawing them.  I like the object I got, it's very complex, it's very easy to lose myself in all the small details.  I've made a few sketches of both, mostly trying to get down the shape in my head.  I still need to acquire some cardboard for tomorrow.


Here are some of my notes from the readings: [I'm still in the progress of reading]

Gestalt theory: How we perceive visual organization.

closure: a design contains separate elements that we perceive as a whole.
continuance: happens when a form is overlapped and we can still follow the shape of the form even though we cannot see it.
proximity: distance between elements, objects that are closer together appear to be related.
similarity: elements that share common characteristics appear to be related.

Design is not just in the visual of something.  Something that is 'designed' should not be just aesthetically pleasing, but functional as well.  Anyone can be a designer without any knowledge of rules or principle of design, as we all have our own sense of taste in visuals.  However knowledge of of these principles is extremely helpful as they help a designer understand why we are naturally drawn to particular visuals as opposed to others.

There are 4 types of elements in design:
- conceptual: these elements are not visual, the seem to exist without actually being there.
    -point: indicates exact location, also create the beginnings and endings of lines.
    -line: a collection of 2 or more points.  It has length, but no width.
    -plane: Has length and width but no thickness.
    -volume: bound by planes, it has a place in space, weather real or implied.
- visual: visible aspects of conceptual design.
    -shape: main identifying feature of anything visually.
    -size: defines shapes as relatively large or small, physically measurable.
    -color: a hue that helps makes shapes distinguishable from one another.
    -texture: a characteristic of the surface of a shape, can be real or implied.
- relational: governs placement of shapes in a design.
    -direction: depends on positioning relative to the viewer, other shapes in a design and frame of design.
    -position: position of a shape depends on the frame of the design.
    -space: all shapes or all size take up space, space can also be left blank.  May be flat or have depth.
    -gravity: psychological sense of gravity as we apply it to design.  Attributes heaviness, lightness, stability or instability to shapes.
- practical:
    -representation: when a shape comes from our man-made world, it is representational.
    -meaning: message of a design
    -function: purpose of a design.

Geometric v. organic form - Geometric forms are squares, triangles, circles and combination of them.  They are generally man-made, but may be found in nature as well.  Organic forms are less structured in shape, they are more fluid than geometric forms.