a.r.t. (aesthetics retooling technology)
This series evolved out of my interest in the environment that exists within the graphic elements of computing: things such as how images appear and how they are constructed; how data vistas can extend beyond the confines of the screen, etc.
Even though I had taught a computer-based art course and was working on a digital animation for New Tools for Imaging (1990), the body of work on this page is analogue rather than digital. It is very much a reaction to the excessive amount of time required at the time to complete digital processes such as wire-framing, modelling and texture wrapping. In the late 1980s, what took little time with traditional materials and tools, took tens of hours to complete in a digital environment. Such was the limitations of animation software running on desktop computers. Like most artists and craftsmen, I was familiar with materials that respond immediately to my touch and I found working digitally to be a drain both on mental and physical energy.
As a result:
The series of six canvases, 48" x 48", is acrylic paint applied with brush but also with a printing block to simulate the way digital images are built pixel by pixel. The canvases feature everyday items such as candies, chairs and cockroaches and reference digital operations such as extruding, scaling, shading and wrapping.
The five works on paper (30" x 22” acrylic paint, chalk pastel, ink & collage) allude to paint software's use of icons that suggest working with traditional tools. The choice of pencil, brush, eraser, etc., is a nod to an analogue studio's most basic equipment.
As mentioned above, alongside making drawings and paintings, I was preparing for the exhibition New Tools For Imaging where a small group of Halifax artists working in traditional media had been invited to use a computer to make an artwork. I elected to make a three-minute animation employing, for a second time, the title Round Earth's Imagined Corners. For the animation, I produced digital versions of earlier work made in traditional media. In the original analogue form, movement is implicit whereas digital reconstructions are animated to move explicitly. Participating in the exhibition was an interesting challenge but, given the time and energy necessary to carry out digital work, it was work made with traditional means and media that kept me focused during the New Tools project.
All work completed during this period was signed off under the acronym A.R.T. (Aesthetics Retooling Technology).
Even though I had taught a computer-based art course and was working on a digital animation for New Tools for Imaging (1990), the body of work on this page is analogue rather than digital. It is very much a reaction to the excessive amount of time required at the time to complete digital processes such as wire-framing, modelling and texture wrapping. In the late 1980s, what took little time with traditional materials and tools, took tens of hours to complete in a digital environment. Such was the limitations of animation software running on desktop computers. Like most artists and craftsmen, I was familiar with materials that respond immediately to my touch and I found working digitally to be a drain both on mental and physical energy.
As a result:
The series of six canvases, 48" x 48", is acrylic paint applied with brush but also with a printing block to simulate the way digital images are built pixel by pixel. The canvases feature everyday items such as candies, chairs and cockroaches and reference digital operations such as extruding, scaling, shading and wrapping.
The five works on paper (30" x 22” acrylic paint, chalk pastel, ink & collage) allude to paint software's use of icons that suggest working with traditional tools. The choice of pencil, brush, eraser, etc., is a nod to an analogue studio's most basic equipment.
As mentioned above, alongside making drawings and paintings, I was preparing for the exhibition New Tools For Imaging where a small group of Halifax artists working in traditional media had been invited to use a computer to make an artwork. I elected to make a three-minute animation employing, for a second time, the title Round Earth's Imagined Corners. For the animation, I produced digital versions of earlier work made in traditional media. In the original analogue form, movement is implicit whereas digital reconstructions are animated to move explicitly. Participating in the exhibition was an interesting challenge but, given the time and energy necessary to carry out digital work, it was work made with traditional means and media that kept me focused during the New Tools project.
All work completed during this period was signed off under the acronym A.R.T. (Aesthetics Retooling Technology).
