by Timothy Warnock // tim at timwarnock.com // work in progress

What kind of art do you do?

This question is difficult to answer. Every image tends to be completely different. Consider, for example, a piece that involved a large charcoal on newsprint, a pastel painting, both scanned in a high-resolution format, then layered with textures from photographs, then digitally painted with a Wacom tablet — eventually few traces of the original layers are visible. Additional layers are added changing the hue and color characteristics. And still, even more layers are painted adding highlights and definition to achieve the desired lighting and aesthetic. It is not uncommon that you would be dealing with several different mediums.

Some clarification of terms

The term “digital” often refers to the processing and storage of information in discrete numbers (typically in binary). The important distinction is that “digital” refers only to discrete numbers (the numerical base of the counting system is irrelevant). Non-digital, or analog, refers to non-discrete, or continuous systems. Our conventional base-10 counting system is, in fact, digital. A discrete counting system has in no way limited us from representing continuous numbers in mathematics and science — something computers excel at.

So what we’re really talking about with “digital fine art” is a classification of fine art. Digital fine art refers to art that was created with the assistance of computers, and that the artwork can be deconstructed into discrete numbers.

Considering the History of Science, Technology, and Art

Paul Brown, in his essay “An Emergent Paradigm” said it best:

It’s reported, although probably via apocrypha, that Michelangelo was advised by his contemporaries not to use stone as a medium. It was not befitting an artist who should, of course, have been using marble. Three centuries later the Impressionists were reprimanded for using paint from tubes because, as everyone knew, artist grind their own pigments in order to create a personal palette. By the early years of our own century we find the Constructivists being criticized for using modern industrial materials like plastic and steel and reminded that real artists used stone. Duchamp and Schwitters were just two Dadaists who were scathingly attacked for their use of found materials instead of paint out of tubes like the more commendable of their colleagues. [2]

The lessons of history seems plain: the art mainstream is hideously reactionary and beware any creative soul who experiments beyond the boundaries they prescribe. [2]

We’re all occasionally Luddites, even when we don’t mean to be. The beautiful part is what happens next. In every case of new science or new technology, art follows.

Strangely enough, art has historically lagged in its acceptance of new technology, in particular with fine art. Consider photography or lithography, while early pioneers existed in both it took decades before being fully accepted into the fine art world.

Computer art has been with us now for well over thirty years. [1] Photography appears to be the most relevant model for the adoption of digital fine art, and yet digital art takes photography into a new dimension of existence.

Digital Art techniques have freed photography from its own finality. In the hands of a digital artist a photograph is just the beginning, neither real nor unreal. [1]

Modern computing is poised to take over fine art, an eventuality that is as unavoidable as death and taxes. What is fascinating to me, is that digital art unifies the entire history of man-made art.

The visual styles of art which we have accumulated over the last six hundred years of art making–that is, all the art movements of the past that were identified as fostering unique imagery–these styles can be integrated into one another to make Digital Art. In this respect, Digital Art is the ultimate Mixed Media Art. [1]

Massively Mixed Media Art

So how do we combine our oil painting, our pencil sketch, a series of photographs we just snapped, all into a visualization of data collected from a hummingbird flight? Better yet, we want it aesthetically pleasing, and yet inventive in its uniqueness as to overwhelm the audience into a momentary reflection of the boundaries of their own existence. This intersection of science and art is revolutionizing fine art.

Let’s be clear: this is the beginning of a new art movement. [1]

We are, at this moment in history, able to leverage fractal geometry to build mathematical models of nature. And yet we can also leverage the entire body of knowledge of fine art techniques to masterfully produce these visualizations in ways that will stand out in every art history book as a turning point into a new era of art making.

The Art of the Code

Beyond algorithmic visualization [Work in Progress]

The Collectors

What this all means to the collector is that we have new frontiers of art-making to explore and examine. It means that, here at the turn of another century, there is an emerging form of art that comes directly from the technological invention that promises to define the culture of this century. [1]

References

1. http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa100.shtml
2. http://www.dam.org/essays/brown01.htm

I was doing some research that involved deconstructing top-selling art prints. The data was gathered from online retailers of art prints, and occasionally factored in customer comments (e.g., “the colors look great with my sofa”). The dimensions were completely subjective based on primitive design and art themes. The dimensions are treated as orthogonal for the sake of comparison, for example, a landscape black-and-white photograph of the ocean would contain three independent vectors: “landscape”, “black and white photograph”, and “ocean”.

For the sake of anecdotal simplicity, all correlating data was ignored (e.g., “horse” and “erotic female” never appeared together, but “basic geometry” and “abstract” seemed to have a significant positive covariance).

The theory is that these basic dimensions can be mapped back to cognitive heuristics and evolutionary biology factors that would influence human taste in artwork. The wholly subjective desire to see a painting hanging in your living room may have some objective merits based on evolved cognitive biases. In other words, there’s a reason you like the paintings that you like.

The data collected was fascinating. The percentages indicate the total percent of top-selling artwork that contained the dimension.

* “abstract” in this context refers to a work with no ostensible representation of a thing that can be described with a single noun in the English language. This is clearly a subjective judgment call and could very well differ from culture to culture.

What I love most about art is that life is an ever unfolding expanse of art– inescapable and infinite.

“If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite.”
- William Blake

Taking notes during an altered state of consciousness:

I go deep. Voices point me towards what first appears as an abyss. Further down it opens up. Amazed at the overwhelming detail of what I am seeing, I wonder what I am not seeing. An infinite number of paths each with limitless depth — the experience reminded me of zooming in on a fractal.

Breaking through that glowing membrane … I go deeper … outside of my conscious mind. It is dark as there is no visual representation to adequately describe the experience. Like driving late at night only the road before me is illuminated yet the ever present feeling of the infinite abounds. And what can only be described as children were pointing me towards a glowing opening. As I thought “follow my happiness”, they seemed to agree, “yes, that way”.

At any point I could have stopped, any path, any where — all of them so rich in details and life — the focus of my attention seems to drive me forward. Details unfold as I go. Dark, but never empty and not frightening.

And so I went, onward through another layer, darkness at first and blinding light seemed to mix together. I came upon two distinct windows of blinding light, my eyes. I’m looking out through them but the feedback is recursive. They are connected to me through this path, this loop I have just created — I am seeing “me” from the other side but through my own eyes.

My body, I realize, is not a temple — it is merely a vehicle from which I am aware; finite awareness of an infinite space, like zooming in on the edges of a fractal.

I stand up. Assuming my experience is at an end — the world looks the same. Only it is not. I close my eyes and see… Strands of consciousness and thought, glowing fibers criss-crossing into infinity. I move from strand to strand.

I decide to exercise — meditate through tai chi. Simple stretches and moves. My eyes closed — everything seems to move with me, it is not me that is moving, it is the universe moving through me; I am only an awareness of the movement of the universe. It seems to dance and rearrange itself at my every whim. Conscious awareness of a finite piece of an infinite universe.

I was momentarily worried that I just tied my brain in a knot. I recognized that was just another filter, trying to map the experience into terms I can rationalize… like trying to imagine a hypercube in 3-dimensions. It seems to cross through itself in impossible ways, but once you realize what it is — it’s just your mind rationalizing it in 3-dimensions that makes it seem impossible.

I realize it is only our perception; the ultimate filter on the infinite. The epiphany was when I realized it all comes back to my awareness in life — that I am just this singular awareness of a finite perception of the infinite — and where in past meditation I did not see, I realized that the movement was the key. You can see and experience the boundless energy of the universe, but letting it move is amazing. Life becomes the movement of the universe through you — things you are thinking come and go into your life — exactly like zooming into the edges of a fractal.

In the void of nothingness we create

And in the sea of creation we design

Wonderful things happen when you’re open to find them.

Recently, my work was gracious enough to purchase additional monitors for my workstation. I guess all my ranting about increasing productivity with multiple monitors payed off! Now I feel obligated to get more work done, but first I have to waste time by looking for panoramic wallpaper!

You’d think there’d be lots of tri-monitor wallpapers out there, something 4800×1200, but after an extensive search the results were entirely disappointing. It turns out I wasn’t searching with the right keywords. Don’t bother searching for anything with the word “wallpaper” or “multi-monitor”, instead just simply google “autostitch”.

That’s right, autostitch. Autostitch is a small program created by Mathew Brown, a PhD candidate at the University of British Columbia. Autostitch is based on research by Brown and his supervisor Professor David Lowe. The program automatically recognizes similar images and “stitches” them together to form a seamless panoramic. Despite the stigma of being “academic software”, autostitch is a revolution in creating panoramic images.

I have always avoided the desire to take dozens of pictures in a wide panoramic. Think of those idiots on top of the Eiffel Tower taking a series of photos in a slow rotation. I never thought there was a point to that activity, not without expensive cameras capable of capturing a real panoramic image. Autostitch proves that even cheap digital cameras can produce amazing panaormic images, perfect for my multi-monitor display!

Here is my first attempt with Autostitch:

Solana Beach – near my house

What’s more, I even managed to produce a great image of a simple street corner:

I’ve linked to the full-size images for those of you with tri-monitor displays looking for a 4800×1200 pixel wallpaper!

Overall, I am in awe of the quality of autostitch. Photography often fails to capture the simple beauty of an ocean, or a mountain, or even a street corner. Beauty is often found in the full breadth of view, the vastness of contrast between a simple street and an ethereal sky. Autostitch enables anyone with a camera to better capture the experience of a breathtaking ocean, or even a breathtaking walk around the neighborhood.

And now back to my multi-monitors!