A message to the lecturer;
If you get bored reading before the end, I suggest looking at the posts 'What is New Media' (below) and 'Timelines'.
Friday, June 5, 2009
What is New Media?
The definition of media is “Materials that hold data in any form or that allow data to pass through them, including paper, transparencies, multipart forms, hard, floppy and optical discs, magnetic tape, wire, cable and fiber.” (ask.com)
According to ask.com, the definition of new is “just found, discovered, or learned”
But is what is considered new actually new?
If we consider new to be the most up to date, current version of something, such as technology, using the description ‘new’ would only be used on objects created within the immediate past. Technology is advancing so rapidly that much of the ‘new’ technology becomes obsolete after a few years.
However, for the purposes of this essay, New Media is seen as the most recently developed technology that surrounds our lives; the Internet, the mobile phones, the high definition Televisions. New media has even found a way to permeate into the art sector. Nowadays, there are many artists who choose to do their art digitally. There is a growing market for the devices to produce digital art.
This can make New Media be seen as a rather exclusive, as not only is the software required to do New Media art quite expensive, but it can be rather daunting to make the required media work. Generation Y uses new Media most comfortably and many of the older generations do not have the same techno-savvy that this generation possesses. Generation Y have grown up with the technology, and generally tend to favour New Media over traditional media.
However, technology has not only affected the medium on which art is created, it has also affected art in other ways. Websites can be seen by anyone anywhere in the world. This has opened up a wide range of possibilities to artists, who are now able to advertise their artwork online and, hopefully, gain an online following. An online presence is a necessity to today’s artists.
However, technology is not just a tool of art, it is also able to shape the course that art will take. An example of this is the popularization of ‘phone films’, which is the use of mobile phones to create art (mainly in the form of films). This has only been possible due to the increase of technology and its availability to the masses. The have even have several film festivals dedicated solely towards phone film, such as the ‘Paris Pocket Film Festival’ and the ‘Mobile Phone Movie Awards Xi’an, China’. It is at film festivals like these that budding artists can get an idea of what is happening on the art scene, and be inspired by the work of other artists.
However, this is not the only way for artist interaction. The web is a major source of interactivity, due mainly to file sharing sites, such as ‘netjam’ and Oekaki.
Netjam is a website that allows its members to post a music file onto a server. These files can be worked on by other members and the new files are reposted onto the website with their edited content.
Oekaki is an online drawing forum that provides the software necessary to produce drawings. These drawings are done online, and then posted on the forum for other users to comment and provide feedback on.
These websites allow interconnection and interactivity between like-minded individuals, not only providing a place for users to gather and discuss their interests, but providing support that might not usually be available.
In general this interactivity “is all about collaboration and user controlled information: share, tag, vote and rank what is important to a user. With this process, usually the best out of many raise to the surface. The following social applications can help artists through the searching process by exploiting the collaborative filtering of many users.” (Styliaras 2008, p158) Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have the beginnings of this interactivity, however art sites allow greater sharing than the social networking sites. Art is an expression of people’s true feelings, and art sites allow people who would not normally talk to each other to communicate about a common interest.
To a limited extent this interactivity existed in traditional media, however the introduction of new media has provided artists with a greater deal of interaction. And one of the most interactive forms of New Media is Immersive Digital Environments. Immersive Digital Environments (IDE) is a form of virtual reality, in which virtual reality is defined as “a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment”. IDE are a highly evolving media and can be used for art and entertainment. IDE can come in many forms, such as a reactive environment, in which the way you move affects the environment, simulations, which are mainly used for training professionals in real life, potentially dangerous situations and not art, and virtual reality environments, in which you need the correct gear to participate in. The possibilities for artists are limitless, as with IDE they are literally able to create their own world.
Not only does new media exist in the art world, but it has significantly changed the course of art. New genres have sprung up dealing solely with new media, new methods of art appreciation have been found, and a new social network has been created.
In the words of Lev Manovitch “While New Media strengthens existing cultural forms and languages…it simultaneously opens them up for redefinition. Elements of their interfaces become separated from the types of data to which they were traditionally connected…online distribution of culture challenges traditional “off-line” formats. .. New Media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an “open source”. This opening up of cultural techniques, conventions, forms and concepts is ultimately the most promising effect of computerization.” (Manovitch 2001, p333)
According to ask.com, the definition of new is “just found, discovered, or learned”
But is what is considered new actually new?
If we consider new to be the most up to date, current version of something, such as technology, using the description ‘new’ would only be used on objects created within the immediate past. Technology is advancing so rapidly that much of the ‘new’ technology becomes obsolete after a few years.
However, for the purposes of this essay, New Media is seen as the most recently developed technology that surrounds our lives; the Internet, the mobile phones, the high definition Televisions. New media has even found a way to permeate into the art sector. Nowadays, there are many artists who choose to do their art digitally. There is a growing market for the devices to produce digital art.
This can make New Media be seen as a rather exclusive, as not only is the software required to do New Media art quite expensive, but it can be rather daunting to make the required media work. Generation Y uses new Media most comfortably and many of the older generations do not have the same techno-savvy that this generation possesses. Generation Y have grown up with the technology, and generally tend to favour New Media over traditional media.
However, technology has not only affected the medium on which art is created, it has also affected art in other ways. Websites can be seen by anyone anywhere in the world. This has opened up a wide range of possibilities to artists, who are now able to advertise their artwork online and, hopefully, gain an online following. An online presence is a necessity to today’s artists.
However, technology is not just a tool of art, it is also able to shape the course that art will take. An example of this is the popularization of ‘phone films’, which is the use of mobile phones to create art (mainly in the form of films). This has only been possible due to the increase of technology and its availability to the masses. The have even have several film festivals dedicated solely towards phone film, such as the ‘Paris Pocket Film Festival’ and the ‘Mobile Phone Movie Awards Xi’an, China’. It is at film festivals like these that budding artists can get an idea of what is happening on the art scene, and be inspired by the work of other artists.
However, this is not the only way for artist interaction. The web is a major source of interactivity, due mainly to file sharing sites, such as ‘netjam’ and Oekaki.
Netjam is a website that allows its members to post a music file onto a server. These files can be worked on by other members and the new files are reposted onto the website with their edited content.
Oekaki is an online drawing forum that provides the software necessary to produce drawings. These drawings are done online, and then posted on the forum for other users to comment and provide feedback on.
These websites allow interconnection and interactivity between like-minded individuals, not only providing a place for users to gather and discuss their interests, but providing support that might not usually be available.
In general this interactivity “is all about collaboration and user controlled information: share, tag, vote and rank what is important to a user. With this process, usually the best out of many raise to the surface. The following social applications can help artists through the searching process by exploiting the collaborative filtering of many users.” (Styliaras 2008, p158) Websites such as Facebook and Twitter have the beginnings of this interactivity, however art sites allow greater sharing than the social networking sites. Art is an expression of people’s true feelings, and art sites allow people who would not normally talk to each other to communicate about a common interest.
To a limited extent this interactivity existed in traditional media, however the introduction of new media has provided artists with a greater deal of interaction. And one of the most interactive forms of New Media is Immersive Digital Environments. Immersive Digital Environments (IDE) is a form of virtual reality, in which virtual reality is defined as “a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment”. IDE are a highly evolving media and can be used for art and entertainment. IDE can come in many forms, such as a reactive environment, in which the way you move affects the environment, simulations, which are mainly used for training professionals in real life, potentially dangerous situations and not art, and virtual reality environments, in which you need the correct gear to participate in. The possibilities for artists are limitless, as with IDE they are literally able to create their own world.
Not only does new media exist in the art world, but it has significantly changed the course of art. New genres have sprung up dealing solely with new media, new methods of art appreciation have been found, and a new social network has been created.
In the words of Lev Manovitch “While New Media strengthens existing cultural forms and languages…it simultaneously opens them up for redefinition. Elements of their interfaces become separated from the types of data to which they were traditionally connected…online distribution of culture challenges traditional “off-line” formats. .. New Media transforms all culture and cultural theory into an “open source”. This opening up of cultural techniques, conventions, forms and concepts is ultimately the most promising effect of computerization.” (Manovitch 2001, p333)
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Vision
Consecutive Vision
Consecutive vision was used during the Renaissance. Consecutive vision is where the entire painting has the same degree of focal clarity.This means that anywhere you look in the picture, the same amount of detail will be shown, even in the background.
Simultaneous/Biocular vision
Simultaneous vision is where one point is in focus, and it goes out of focus over 360 degrees. The further away from the point of focus, the more out of focus it gets. Simultaneous vision mimics the way people look at the world, with two eyes focused on the one point, and the rest kind of blurring out.
Monocular Vision
Monocular Vision is where everything on the same plane is in focus. Monocular vision was inspird by the invention of photography, and mimics the way a camera views the world.
Gestalt Vision
In Gestalt vision the unimportant things are rendered, rather than the important things. An example of Gestalt vision would, if you were rendering a window, be to draw the straight lines and leave out the corners, or draw the corners and leave out the straight lines (as seen in this example). By only drawing the unimportant things, you are actually drawing attention to what is not there, leaving the mind to fill in the blanks.
Cone (foveal/photopic) vision
These terms refer to our daylight vision where we look through the centre of our eyes and see colour. The name comes from the cones in our eyes that we use to see colour. This would look like a 'normal' colour painting
Rod (peripheral/scotopic) vision
Scotopic vision is the monochromatic vision of the eye in dim light. Since cone cells are nonfunctional in low light, scotopic vision is produced exclusively through rod cells so therefore there is no colour perception.
Hagen Haltern, A Chair in Peripheral Vision
Mesopic vision
Mesopic vision occurs in intermediate lighting conditions … and is effectively a combination of scotopic and photopicvision. This however gives inaccurate visual acuity and colour discrimination.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_vision [viewed 5.6.2007])
Penti Mento
Penti Mento is where traces from a previous working can be seen in a painting. These traces should not be from an entirely different painting that the artist has painted over, but be the outlines of a different pose or underdrawing. The word derives from an italian word meaning repent.
"The term has sometimes been used in a modern sense to describe the appearance of the sides of buildings with painted advertising. Often they are painted over with newer ads and the paint wears away to reveal the older layers."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento [viewed 5.6.07])
Consecutive vision was used during the Renaissance. Consecutive vision is where the entire painting has the same degree of focal clarity.This means that anywhere you look in the picture, the same amount of detail will be shown, even in the background.
Simultaneous/Biocular vision
Simultaneous vision is where one point is in focus, and it goes out of focus over 360 degrees. The further away from the point of focus, the more out of focus it gets. Simultaneous vision mimics the way people look at the world, with two eyes focused on the one point, and the rest kind of blurring out.
Monocular Vision
Monocular Vision is where everything on the same plane is in focus. Monocular vision was inspird by the invention of photography, and mimics the way a camera views the world.
Gestalt Vision
In Gestalt vision the unimportant things are rendered, rather than the important things. An example of Gestalt vision would, if you were rendering a window, be to draw the straight lines and leave out the corners, or draw the corners and leave out the straight lines (as seen in this example). By only drawing the unimportant things, you are actually drawing attention to what is not there, leaving the mind to fill in the blanks.
Gestalt - Laws of Organisation
Proximity—elements tend to be grouped together according to their nearness
Similarity—items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together
Closure—items are grouped together if they tend to complete some entity
Simplicity—items will be organized into simple figures according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness.
(http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/gestalt/gestalt.htm
[viewed 12.2.2007])
Scanning
Scanning also takes time into account in the picture. Generally, scanning is multiple images forming a cohesive whole that show the passage of time.
Similarity—items similar in some respect tend to be grouped together
Closure—items are grouped together if they tend to complete some entity
Simplicity—items will be organized into simple figures according to symmetry, regularity, and smoothness.
(http://chd.gmu.edu/immersion/knowledgebase/strategies/cognitivism/gestalt/gestalt.htm
[viewed 12.2.2007])
Scanning
Scanning also takes time into account in the picture. Generally, scanning is multiple images forming a cohesive whole that show the passage of time.
.
David Hockney, Chair
David Hockney, Chair
These terms refer to our daylight vision where we look through the centre of our eyes and see colour. The name comes from the cones in our eyes that we use to see colour. This would look like a 'normal' colour painting
Rod (peripheral/scotopic) vision
Scotopic vision is the monochromatic vision of the eye in dim light. Since cone cells are nonfunctional in low light, scotopic vision is produced exclusively through rod cells so therefore there is no colour perception.
Hagen Haltern, A Chair in Peripheral Vision
Mesopic vision
Mesopic vision occurs in intermediate lighting conditions … and is effectively a combination of scotopic and photopicvision. This however gives inaccurate visual acuity and colour discrimination.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotopic_vision [viewed 5.6.2007])
Penti Mento
Penti Mento is where traces from a previous working can be seen in a painting. These traces should not be from an entirely different painting that the artist has painted over, but be the outlines of a different pose or underdrawing. The word derives from an italian word meaning repent.
"The term has sometimes been used in a modern sense to describe the appearance of the sides of buildings with painted advertising. Often they are painted over with newer ads and the paint wears away to reveal the older layers."
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentimento [viewed 5.6.07])
Representation and meaning
Transitions in the Foote, Cone and Belding Grid
According to the Foote, Cone & Belding grid (FCB), if objects are placed in a specific location the observer draws specific conclusions from that placement.
According to this grid:
~Analytical mindsets go on the left
~Emotional response goes on the right
~Temporal concerns are on the bottom
~Spiritual transcendence is at the top
Vanitas
Vanitas is Latin for vanity. Vanitas is "a still life composition in which the objects depicted are symbolic of the passage of time and human mortality, therefore representing the vanity of human desires.”
(Martin, Judy [1986] Longman Dictionary of Art. Longman, Essex, p. 214)
Vanitas will often use objects such as a clock or a skull, to representthe frailty of human existence, and the inevitability of fate.
Allegory
“The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.”
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/allegory [viewed 5.6.2009])
Metaphor
“Metaphor is defined as the substitution of one idea or object with another, used to assist expression or understanding.”
(http://knowgramming.com/metaphor.htm [viewed 5.6.2009])
Often a metaphor expresses a difficult idea, such as a 3-D metaphor of the intangible/negative space surrounding a table that has been molded into tangible/positive space.
Sublime
The sublime “refers to the experience of pleasurable anxiety that we experience when confronting wild and threatening sights …"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Lyotard [viewed 5.6.2009])
According to the Foote, Cone & Belding grid (FCB), if objects are placed in a specific location the observer draws specific conclusions from that placement.
According to this grid:
~Analytical mindsets go on the left
~Emotional response goes on the right
~Temporal concerns are on the bottom
~Spiritual transcendence is at the top
The FCB is used mainly in advertising, as people react to the products better when they are in this postion, however it was also used in paintings. In these paintings the hero would typically go on the left, with the monster/woman on the right. Gold/rewards were down the bottom, while the top of the painting showed spiritual transcendence (heaven)
Vanitas is Latin for vanity. Vanitas is "a still life composition in which the objects depicted are symbolic of the passage of time and human mortality, therefore representing the vanity of human desires.”
(Martin, Judy [1986] Longman Dictionary of Art. Longman, Essex, p. 214)
Vanitas will often use objects such as a clock or a skull, to representthe frailty of human existence, and the inevitability of fate.
Allegory
“The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.”
(http://www.thefreedictionary.com/allegory [viewed 5.6.2009])
Metaphor
“Metaphor is defined as the substitution of one idea or object with another, used to assist expression or understanding.”
(http://knowgramming.com/metaphor.htm [viewed 5.6.2009])
Often a metaphor expresses a difficult idea, such as a 3-D metaphor of the intangible/negative space surrounding a table that has been molded into tangible/positive space.
Sublime
The sublime “refers to the experience of pleasurable anxiety that we experience when confronting wild and threatening sights …"
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Fran%C3%A7ois_Lyotard [viewed 5.6.2009])
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Composition
Composition is the "placement or arrangement of visual elements or ingredients in a work of art" (www.wikipedia.com)
There are 7 basic types of composition; Classical 'U', Lazy 'S', Pyramidal, Chain, Vignette, Titian's formula and the Golden section.
Classical 'U' Shaped Composition
Although classical compositions are commonly described as having a “U”- shaped structure, the true shape is closer to a “J”. This subtle change to the “J” shape creates a vertical on the right side preventing the eye from wandering out of the composition in a left-to-right reading In many “U”-shaped compositions, the foreground features everyday (temporal) concerns whereas the distance features an almost spiritual realm. The vista leads to an important point of interest.
The use of lighting and shade in U-shaped compositions had important social implications. In the Eighteenth Century the socially significant were highlighted, while the socially insignificant were rendered in the shadow.
Lazy 'S' Composition
A winding shape from foreground to distance will exemplify the “S”-shaped rhythm, binding the composition together. Usually, the road in the foreground starts from the left to invite a left-to-right reading. The rythem of a lazy S composition will take you back into the painting. The beginning of the S always starts on the left side of the painting.
Pyramid
The pyramidal structure lends a sense of calm and formal dignity to projected meanings. Artists wishing to illustrate classical myths and ideals (in the form of allegories) often employ this structure. The most noteable example of a pyramid shaped composition is the Mona Lisa.
Chain
The chain composition has many links, like links in a chain, and these interlocking rhythms tie the key features together. This linking of pictorial components occurs both two and three- dimensionally. As these links are not all on the same plane, it gives the painting a feeling of depth.
Vignette
The vignette focuses a viewer’s attention on key features. It is a device commonly applied in portraiture, especially in miniatures. A vignette is where an artwork fades out around the edges. Sometimes artists will use the vignette device to replicate the lost of focal clarity at the periphery of our vision.
Titian's Formula
Charles Ricketts uses this term to describe a checkerboard effect of light and dark areas that give life to an image. It is not a text book term.
(Charles Ricketts [1908] Burlington Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 61, p. 10; [online]
http://www.jstor.org/view/09510788/ap020061/02a00050/1?frame=noframe&userID=89db107d@jcu.edu.au/01cce4405b00501b86ad1&dpi=3&config=jstor
[viewed 12.2.2007])
This formula is used to stimulate the eye. The name 'Titian's formula' is based on the artist Titian, who was a leading Venetian painter in the 16th century. He was the first artist noticed to practice this technique. Not only did Titian work with patterns of light and dark in many of his paintings, he also carefully balanced his compositions with colour.
Golden Section
According to the Thanks & Hudson Art Dictionary, a golden section is a "traditional proportion which is supposed to express the secret of visual harmony. In its simplest form it consists of a line divided into two so that the smaller part is to the larger as the larger is to the whole. The ratio 1:φ (1:1.6180339…) is 'irrational', i.e. inexpressible in whole numbers. It is roughly equivalent to 8:13" (www.credoreference.com)
In classical compositions key features are arranged on the two vertical and horizontal Golden Section divisions. The Golden section was used especially in the Renaissance.
The Golden sectioon is used to help your eye 'step' backwards into the piece, by having lines at significant intervals.
There are 7 basic types of composition; Classical 'U', Lazy 'S', Pyramidal, Chain, Vignette, Titian's formula and the Golden section.
Classical 'U' Shaped Composition
Although classical compositions are commonly described as having a “U”- shaped structure, the true shape is closer to a “J”. This subtle change to the “J” shape creates a vertical on the right side preventing the eye from wandering out of the composition in a left-to-right reading In many “U”-shaped compositions, the foreground features everyday (temporal) concerns whereas the distance features an almost spiritual realm. The vista leads to an important point of interest.
The use of lighting and shade in U-shaped compositions had important social implications. In the Eighteenth Century the socially significant were highlighted, while the socially insignificant were rendered in the shadow.
Lazy 'S' Composition
A winding shape from foreground to distance will exemplify the “S”-shaped rhythm, binding the composition together. Usually, the road in the foreground starts from the left to invite a left-to-right reading. The rythem of a lazy S composition will take you back into the painting. The beginning of the S always starts on the left side of the painting.
Pyramid
The pyramidal structure lends a sense of calm and formal dignity to projected meanings. Artists wishing to illustrate classical myths and ideals (in the form of allegories) often employ this structure. The most noteable example of a pyramid shaped composition is the Mona Lisa.
Chain
The chain composition has many links, like links in a chain, and these interlocking rhythms tie the key features together. This linking of pictorial components occurs both two and three- dimensionally. As these links are not all on the same plane, it gives the painting a feeling of depth.
Vignette
The vignette focuses a viewer’s attention on key features. It is a device commonly applied in portraiture, especially in miniatures. A vignette is where an artwork fades out around the edges. Sometimes artists will use the vignette device to replicate the lost of focal clarity at the periphery of our vision.
Titian's Formula
Charles Ricketts uses this term to describe a checkerboard effect of light and dark areas that give life to an image. It is not a text book term.
(Charles Ricketts [1908] Burlington Magazine, Vol. 13, No. 61, p. 10; [online]
http://www.jstor.org/view/09510788/ap020061/02a00050/1?frame=noframe&userID=89db107d@jcu.edu.au/01cce4405b00501b86ad1&dpi=3&config=jstor
[viewed 12.2.2007])
This formula is used to stimulate the eye. The name 'Titian's formula' is based on the artist Titian, who was a leading Venetian painter in the 16th century. He was the first artist noticed to practice this technique. Not only did Titian work with patterns of light and dark in many of his paintings, he also carefully balanced his compositions with colour.
Golden Section
According to the Thanks & Hudson Art Dictionary, a golden section is a "traditional proportion which is supposed to express the secret of visual harmony. In its simplest form it consists of a line divided into two so that the smaller part is to the larger as the larger is to the whole. The ratio 1:φ (1:1.6180339…) is 'irrational', i.e. inexpressible in whole numbers. It is roughly equivalent to 8:13" (www.credoreference.com)
In classical compositions key features are arranged on the two vertical and horizontal Golden Section divisions. The Golden section was used especially in the Renaissance.
The Golden sectioon is used to help your eye 'step' backwards into the piece, by having lines at significant intervals.
History of film
The first moving image in history was made in 1878. It was a clip titled "A Horse in Motion" and was made by Eadweard Muybridge.
The earliest celluloid film was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the Le Prince single-lens camera made in 1888. It was called "The Round hay Garden Scene" and goes for 2.11 seconds. It was taken in the garden of the Whitley family house in Oakwood Grange Road, Roundhay, a suburb of Leeds, Yorkshire, Great Britain, possibly on October 14, 1888
The first film ever made was "Exiting the Factory" in 1895. It is simply a film of people exiting a factory.
The first public exhibition of motion pictures occurred on 28th December 1895with "Arrival of a train at La Ciotat".
The first feature film ever made was "The story of the Kelly Gang", which was made in Australia in 1906. It is considered the first full length feature film because it was longer than 60 minutes, although only about 20 minutes of the film remain today. When "The story of the Kelly Gang" was originally released, it was banned in some parts of Australia due to concerns for law and order. It was made only 25 years after Ned Kelly died.
The very first spoken voice in a feature film was heard in New York on October 6th, 1927 when "The Jazz Singer" was released. The voice was that of Al Jolson.
The use of synchronised music in movies had been in use for over a year as a result of the Vitaphone system introduced by Warner Brothers. The first film to use Vitaphone was "Don Juan" starring John Barrymore.
The earliest celluloid film was shot by Louis Aimé Augustin Le Prince using the Le Prince single-lens camera made in 1888. It was called "The Round hay Garden Scene" and goes for 2.11 seconds. It was taken in the garden of the Whitley family house in Oakwood Grange Road, Roundhay, a suburb of Leeds, Yorkshire, Great Britain, possibly on October 14, 1888
The first film ever made was "Exiting the Factory" in 1895. It is simply a film of people exiting a factory.
The first public exhibition of motion pictures occurred on 28th December 1895with "Arrival of a train at La Ciotat".
The first feature film ever made was "The story of the Kelly Gang", which was made in Australia in 1906. It is considered the first full length feature film because it was longer than 60 minutes, although only about 20 minutes of the film remain today. When "The story of the Kelly Gang" was originally released, it was banned in some parts of Australia due to concerns for law and order. It was made only 25 years after Ned Kelly died.
The very first spoken voice in a feature film was heard in New York on October 6th, 1927 when "The Jazz Singer" was released. The voice was that of Al Jolson.
The use of synchronised music in movies had been in use for over a year as a result of the Vitaphone system introduced by Warner Brothers. The first film to use Vitaphone was "Don Juan" starring John Barrymore.
Film Devices
At first glance, it would appear that movies all follow the same formula; a hook to capture the viewers attention, a climax and the ending.
However, there is much more subtler tricks going on in films.
A hook is a means of taking hold or captivating an audience. It is often used in the beginning of the movie, to entice viewers to keep watching. Often a hook is achieved by having an unusual or unexplainable scene, creating a sense of mystery. Viewers will (hopefully) be drawn into the movie and continue watching.
The establishing shot is a long (wide-angle or full) shot at the beginning of a scene, and is intended to show things from a distance. This shot is to inform the audience with an overview in order to help identify and orient the locale. The shot is usually followed by a more detailed shot that brings characters, objects, or other figures closer. An establishing shot sometimes refers to the events that happen prior to the beginning of the story, and lead to the story. Sound can also be used to help establish the location; birds chirping will indicate the country, the noise of traffic will indicate the city and the sound of bagpipes indicates Scotland. The information disclosed in the establishing shot helps to fill out the skeletal story of a screenplay or a character's background.
A montage is a French word meaning "editing", "putting together" or "assembling shots”. Montage is an editing style, or form, of movie collage consisting of putting a series of short shots or images together to form a coherent sequence to create a composite picture, or to suggest meaning or a larger idea. In simple terms, montage is the structure of editing within a film. Montage is not usually accompanied with dialogue, and is made up of dissolves, cuts, fades, super-impositions, and wipes, which are often used to link the images in a montage sequence.
Cross cutting is the editing technique of alternating, interweaving, or interspersing one narrative action (scene, sequence, or event) with another - usually in different locations or places. Cross cutting suggests parallel action (that takes place simultaneously). It is used to dramatically build tension and suspense in chase scenes, and is also known as inter-cutting or parallel editing.
A leitmotif is an intentionally repeated, recurring element or theme associated with a particular person, idea, milieu, or action. This can be a repeated sound, shot, bit of dialogue, piece of music, etc., that helps unify a film by reminding the viewer of its earlier appearance.
Foreshadowing is the act of supplying hints (in the form of symbols, images, motifs, repetition, dialogue or mood) within a film about the outcome of the plot, or about an upcoming action that will take place. This is normally used in order to prepare the viewer for later events, revelations, or plot developments. Ominous music often foreshadows danger or builds suspense.
Transition is one of several ways of moving from one shot or scene to the next, including such transitional effects or shots as a cut, fade, dissolve, and wipe; a transition focus between two scenes means the current scene goes out of focus and the next scene comes into focus.
A Macguffin is Alfred Hitchcock's term for the device or plot element (an item, object, goal, event, or piece of knowledge) that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic or action of the plot and appears extremely important to the film characters, but turns out to be insignificant or is to be ignored after it has served its purpose.
'Macguffin' is a Scottish derivation, meaning a "lion trap" for trapping lions in the lion-less Scottish Highlands (i.e., a trap that means nothing, since it is for a place where there is no such animal).
Hitchcock explained the purpose of the MacGuffin through a joke.
-
Two men are riding on a train. One notices an oddly shaped package, wrapped in brown paper, in the overhead bin and asks his companion what it is.
"That's a MacGuffin," answers the second man.
"And what is it for?"
"It's for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands."
"But," says the first man, "there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands."
"Then," concedes the other man, "that's not a MacGuffin.“
-
We're never told what's in the package, because it isn't important. But something has to be in the package, or the joke can't proceed.
A red herring is a narrative element intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending. Originally a way of training of young hounds was to drag a smelly fish in front of a puppy until it knew the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow an animal scent the trainer would confuse it by dragging a red herring. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original subtle animal scent.
Dissolve or Lap dissolve, fade is a transitional editing technique between two sequences, shots or scenes, in which the visible image of one shot or scene is gradually replaced superimposed or blended with the image from another shot or scene. Often the technique is used to suggest the passage of time and to transform one scene to the next.
Val Lewton noted the horror tactic, now a standard horror movie device known as “The Bus." He first used it in Cat People.
-
A woman is trailed by someone as she walks through dark city streets. As she hurries along, music, sound effects, lighting and editing stress that something terribly ominous is about to happen. Suddenly, a hissing, screeching roar fills the sound track. The woman puts up one arm, as if to defend herself, and we realize the roar is a just a bus coming to a stop.
-
Homage
Within the content of the story-line of a film, a reference is occasionally made to another film. Accordingly, an homage is performed to the film and or director of the referenced film in the content of the new production. Such allusions are made in the script, sets, images or clips taken directly from the honoured/venerated work.
http://www.allmovie.com/glossary/term/homage
The climax is the highest point of anxiety or tension in a story or film in which the central character faces, confronts, and deals with the consequence(s) of all his/her actions.
Some films have a twist ending or surprise ending. This occurs when a film has an unexpected or a surprise ending that isn’t revealed until the end of the picture. This may cause us to re-evaluate the characters and narrative.
However, there is much more subtler tricks going on in films.
A hook is a means of taking hold or captivating an audience. It is often used in the beginning of the movie, to entice viewers to keep watching. Often a hook is achieved by having an unusual or unexplainable scene, creating a sense of mystery. Viewers will (hopefully) be drawn into the movie and continue watching.
The establishing shot is a long (wide-angle or full) shot at the beginning of a scene, and is intended to show things from a distance. This shot is to inform the audience with an overview in order to help identify and orient the locale. The shot is usually followed by a more detailed shot that brings characters, objects, or other figures closer. An establishing shot sometimes refers to the events that happen prior to the beginning of the story, and lead to the story. Sound can also be used to help establish the location; birds chirping will indicate the country, the noise of traffic will indicate the city and the sound of bagpipes indicates Scotland. The information disclosed in the establishing shot helps to fill out the skeletal story of a screenplay or a character's background.
A montage is a French word meaning "editing", "putting together" or "assembling shots”. Montage is an editing style, or form, of movie collage consisting of putting a series of short shots or images together to form a coherent sequence to create a composite picture, or to suggest meaning or a larger idea. In simple terms, montage is the structure of editing within a film. Montage is not usually accompanied with dialogue, and is made up of dissolves, cuts, fades, super-impositions, and wipes, which are often used to link the images in a montage sequence.
Cross cutting is the editing technique of alternating, interweaving, or interspersing one narrative action (scene, sequence, or event) with another - usually in different locations or places. Cross cutting suggests parallel action (that takes place simultaneously). It is used to dramatically build tension and suspense in chase scenes, and is also known as inter-cutting or parallel editing.
A leitmotif is an intentionally repeated, recurring element or theme associated with a particular person, idea, milieu, or action. This can be a repeated sound, shot, bit of dialogue, piece of music, etc., that helps unify a film by reminding the viewer of its earlier appearance.
Foreshadowing is the act of supplying hints (in the form of symbols, images, motifs, repetition, dialogue or mood) within a film about the outcome of the plot, or about an upcoming action that will take place. This is normally used in order to prepare the viewer for later events, revelations, or plot developments. Ominous music often foreshadows danger or builds suspense.
Transition is one of several ways of moving from one shot or scene to the next, including such transitional effects or shots as a cut, fade, dissolve, and wipe; a transition focus between two scenes means the current scene goes out of focus and the next scene comes into focus.
A Macguffin is Alfred Hitchcock's term for the device or plot element (an item, object, goal, event, or piece of knowledge) that catches the viewer's attention or drives the logic or action of the plot and appears extremely important to the film characters, but turns out to be insignificant or is to be ignored after it has served its purpose.
'Macguffin' is a Scottish derivation, meaning a "lion trap" for trapping lions in the lion-less Scottish Highlands (i.e., a trap that means nothing, since it is for a place where there is no such animal).
Hitchcock explained the purpose of the MacGuffin through a joke.
-
Two men are riding on a train. One notices an oddly shaped package, wrapped in brown paper, in the overhead bin and asks his companion what it is.
"That's a MacGuffin," answers the second man.
"And what is it for?"
"It's for trapping lions in the Scottish Highlands."
"But," says the first man, "there are no lions in the Scottish Highlands."
"Then," concedes the other man, "that's not a MacGuffin.“
-
We're never told what's in the package, because it isn't important. But something has to be in the package, or the joke can't proceed.
A red herring is a narrative element intended to distract the reader from a more important event in the plot, usually a twist ending. Originally a way of training of young hounds was to drag a smelly fish in front of a puppy until it knew the scent. Later, when the dog was being trained to follow an animal scent the trainer would confuse it by dragging a red herring. The dog would eventually learn to follow the original subtle animal scent.
Dissolve or Lap dissolve, fade is a transitional editing technique between two sequences, shots or scenes, in which the visible image of one shot or scene is gradually replaced superimposed or blended with the image from another shot or scene. Often the technique is used to suggest the passage of time and to transform one scene to the next.
Val Lewton noted the horror tactic, now a standard horror movie device known as “The Bus." He first used it in Cat People.
-
A woman is trailed by someone as she walks through dark city streets. As she hurries along, music, sound effects, lighting and editing stress that something terribly ominous is about to happen. Suddenly, a hissing, screeching roar fills the sound track. The woman puts up one arm, as if to defend herself, and we realize the roar is a just a bus coming to a stop.
-
Homage
Within the content of the story-line of a film, a reference is occasionally made to another film. Accordingly, an homage is performed to the film and or director of the referenced film in the content of the new production. Such allusions are made in the script, sets, images or clips taken directly from the honoured/venerated work.
http://www.allmovie.com/glossary/term/homage
The climax is the highest point of anxiety or tension in a story or film in which the central character faces, confronts, and deals with the consequence(s) of all his/her actions.
Some films have a twist ending or surprise ending. This occurs when a film has an unexpected or a surprise ending that isn’t revealed until the end of the picture. This may cause us to re-evaluate the characters and narrative.
Semiotics
Semiology or semiotics is the science that studies the life of signs within a society. French linguist Ferdinand de Saussure formulated theory of language at the beginning of 20th century. American C.S. Pierce made similar discoveries at the same time.
CREATIVE ARTS
Semiotics not limited to language. Everything that involves communication, even non-deliberate, relates to these theories. Semiotics is applied to animal behavior, social habits, architecture, poetry, mythology, etc, etc, etc
Images work via communication system - a language of their own. Images can be supported by words - captions, labels, etc - that tell us how to interpret and use images. This can affect ithe nitial ‘reading’ of the visual. Images work via a communication system - a language of their own.
Like texts, most pictures are comprised of parts arranged on a surface. When the various elements of the picture interact, associations may be formed that suggest/state/attest/define/direct meaning.
Key Terms
Sign (signifier and signified)
Symbol (open and closed)
Icon
Index
Myth
Most of these terms are overused and poorly understood. Eg, any well known manifestation of popular culture gets the title ‘iconic’, however this is not a proper use of the term.
Sign
Signs are events or things that direct attention or are indicative of other events or things. They are a link between the object and the real world. Anything that represents something else is a sign. A sign is a stimulus pattern that has a meaning, and has a structure defined as the association between a signifier and a signified.
A drawing of a tree represents a tree.
The picture = signified
The tree = signifier
The sign requires the presence of both the picture and the object.
Icon
An icon looks like what it is signifying. Computer icons, pictographs used on "pedestrian crossing" signs are examples if icons.
There is no real connection between an object and an icon of it other than the likeness, so the mind is required to see the similarity and associate the two itself. The icon is a pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for'. A characteristic of the icon is that by observing it, we can derive information about its signified. The more simplified the image, the less I'll learn, but I will still learn. No other kind of sign gives that kind of information.
• A picture of your face is an icon of you.
• The little square with a picture of a printer on your computer screen is an icon for the print function.
• The picture of a smoking cigarette with a diagonal bar across the picture is an icon that directly
represents `Smoking? Don't do it' (at least it does with appropriate cultural experience).
• Your cat is preparing to jump up on your lap, so you put out the palm of your hand over the cat.
• Words can be partly iconic. Bow-wow, splash and hiccup. And the bird called the whippoorwill. (These are also called onomotopoetic words.)
Problems with the icon are just how similar must it be to be called an icon? Just because we can recognize a picture doesn't mean any other animal could.
Index
An index has a causal and/or sequential relationship to its signified. A key to understanding indices (or indexes) is the verb "indicate", of which "index" is a substantive. Indices are directly perceivable events that can act as a reference to events that are not directly perceivable, or in other words they are a physical representation of something out of sight. You may not see a fire, but you do see the smoke and that indicates to you that a fire is burning. Similarly, you cannot see sadness, but you can see the tears that indicate it.
Index are defined by some sensory feature (directly visible, audible, smellable, etc) that correlates with and implies or `points to’ something of interest.
* All animals exploit various kinds of indexical signs
* Less sophisticated animals acquire them by natural selection.
* More intelligent animals learn them.
• Dark clouds in the west are an index of impending rain,
• A limping gait is a sign (index) that an animal is physically impaired
• A scowling facial expression is an index of displeasure or concern (to a human)
• A particular pronunciation of a word can index a particular geographic place or social group.
The word "this", like a pointed finger, are also indices. The nature of the index has nothing to do with that of the signified, but the connection here is logical and organic -- the two elements are inseparable -- and there is little or no participation of the mind. Indices are generally non-deliberate, although arrows are just one example of deliberate ones.
All pictures are indexical - they isolate a portion of a scene which is present more fully in the actual world of perception. They are also icons.
Symbol
A symbol represents something in a completely arbitrary relationship. The connection between signifier and signified depends entirely on the observer, or more exactly, what the observer was taught. Symbols are subjective, dictated either by social convention or by habit. Words are a prime example of symbols. A group of sounds or a group of characters, words are only linked to their signified because we decide they are (language) – and because the connection is neither physical nor logical, words change meaning or objects change names as time goes by. It all happens in the mind. Symbols are ideas, and whenever we use one we are only pointing to the idea behind that symbol.
Computer aliases (or shortcuts) - You create a file that opens the actual file it refers to. If you trash the alias/shortcut, it doesn't affect the file. Symbols work in a similar way: they are in relation to the concept they serve. The $ symbol, astrological symbols, road signs, V of victory, are all symbols. They look nothing like what they stand for: arbitrary. A symbol can rarely tell us anything more about its signifier than we already know.
ORDER OF SIGNIFICATION
Roland Barthes concept:
1. First order is iconic sign (photo of car means car)
2. Second order - connotations - human intervention (lighting, pose, camera angle)
Myth arises from experiences we have had and the associations we have learnt to couple with signs. This is related to culture and language.
CREATIVE ARTS
Semiotics not limited to language. Everything that involves communication, even non-deliberate, relates to these theories. Semiotics is applied to animal behavior, social habits, architecture, poetry, mythology, etc, etc, etc
AND ART.
We see evidence of signs in much artistic practice. It’s a means of communication, used to deepen meaning and contextualize the time, place, and person. Symbols, signs, indices and icons provide us with the ability to sort information, appropriate meaning and ultimately communicate more effectively.Images work via communication system - a language of their own. Images can be supported by words - captions, labels, etc - that tell us how to interpret and use images. This can affect ithe nitial ‘reading’ of the visual. Images work via a communication system - a language of their own.
Like texts, most pictures are comprised of parts arranged on a surface. When the various elements of the picture interact, associations may be formed that suggest/state/attest/define/direct meaning.
Key Terms
Sign (signifier and signified)
Symbol (open and closed)
Icon
Index
Myth
Most of these terms are overused and poorly understood. Eg, any well known manifestation of popular culture gets the title ‘iconic’, however this is not a proper use of the term.
Sign
Signs are events or things that direct attention or are indicative of other events or things. They are a link between the object and the real world. Anything that represents something else is a sign. A sign is a stimulus pattern that has a meaning, and has a structure defined as the association between a signifier and a signified.
A drawing of a tree represents a tree.
The picture = signified
The tree = signifier
The sign requires the presence of both the picture and the object.
An icon looks like what it is signifying. Computer icons, pictographs used on "pedestrian crossing" signs are examples if icons.
There is no real connection between an object and an icon of it other than the likeness, so the mind is required to see the similarity and associate the two itself. The icon is a pattern that physically resembles what it `stands for'. A characteristic of the icon is that by observing it, we can derive information about its signified. The more simplified the image, the less I'll learn, but I will still learn. No other kind of sign gives that kind of information.
• A picture of your face is an icon of you.
• The little square with a picture of a printer on your computer screen is an icon for the print function.
• The picture of a smoking cigarette with a diagonal bar across the picture is an icon that directly
represents `Smoking? Don't do it' (at least it does with appropriate cultural experience).
• Your cat is preparing to jump up on your lap, so you put out the palm of your hand over the cat.
• Words can be partly iconic. Bow-wow, splash and hiccup. And the bird called the whippoorwill. (These are also called onomotopoetic words.)
Problems with the icon are just how similar must it be to be called an icon? Just because we can recognize a picture doesn't mean any other animal could.
Index
An index has a causal and/or sequential relationship to its signified. A key to understanding indices (or indexes) is the verb "indicate", of which "index" is a substantive. Indices are directly perceivable events that can act as a reference to events that are not directly perceivable, or in other words they are a physical representation of something out of sight. You may not see a fire, but you do see the smoke and that indicates to you that a fire is burning. Similarly, you cannot see sadness, but you can see the tears that indicate it.
Index are defined by some sensory feature (directly visible, audible, smellable, etc) that correlates with and implies or `points to’ something of interest.
* All animals exploit various kinds of indexical signs
* Less sophisticated animals acquire them by natural selection.
* More intelligent animals learn them.
• A limping gait is a sign (index) that an animal is physically impaired
• A scowling facial expression is an index of displeasure or concern (to a human)
• A particular pronunciation of a word can index a particular geographic place or social group.
The word "this", like a pointed finger, are also indices. The nature of the index has nothing to do with that of the signified, but the connection here is logical and organic -- the two elements are inseparable -- and there is little or no participation of the mind. Indices are generally non-deliberate, although arrows are just one example of deliberate ones.
All pictures are indexical - they isolate a portion of a scene which is present more fully in the actual world of perception. They are also icons.
Symbol
A symbol represents something in a completely arbitrary relationship. The connection between signifier and signified depends entirely on the observer, or more exactly, what the observer was taught. Symbols are subjective, dictated either by social convention or by habit. Words are a prime example of symbols. A group of sounds or a group of characters, words are only linked to their signified because we decide they are (language) – and because the connection is neither physical nor logical, words change meaning or objects change names as time goes by. It all happens in the mind. Symbols are ideas, and whenever we use one we are only pointing to the idea behind that symbol.
Computer aliases (or shortcuts) - You create a file that opens the actual file it refers to. If you trash the alias/shortcut, it doesn't affect the file. Symbols work in a similar way: they are in relation to the concept they serve. The $ symbol, astrological symbols, road signs, V of victory, are all symbols. They look nothing like what they stand for: arbitrary. A symbol can rarely tell us anything more about its signifier than we already know.
ORDER OF SIGNIFICATION
Roland Barthes concept:
1. First order is iconic sign (photo of car means car)
2. Second order - connotations - human intervention (lighting, pose, camera angle)
Myth arises from experiences we have had and the associations we have learnt to couple with signs. This is related to culture and language.
Photography and Myth
In popular usage Myth refers to beliefs which are demonstrably false, but semiotic use of the term does not necessarily suggest this.
Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our
experiences within a culture.
People initially associate the photograph of Marilyn Monroe with her star qualities of glamour, sexuality, beauty - if this is an early photograph - but also with her depression, drug-taking and
untimely death if it is one of her last photographs.
At a mythic level we understand this sign as activating the myth of Hollywood: the dream factory that produces glamour in the form of the stars it constructs, also the dream machine that can crush them.
Photographs can be read in many ways, on many levels. Photographs are representations: a photograph of a person is not that person, but a representation of them. The object is a sign, an index, an icon.
Semiotics allows for definition of photography’s type of realism. Photograph is both an icon and an index - it resembles the reality and points to it at the same time.
A portrait is also an index as it captures a moment, and by looking at photograph the viewer feels taken to that time and place.
The information in images (semiotics) can be read and understood in different ways according to varying human factors:
~Cultural background
~Economic status
~Geographic location
~Gender
~Psychological state
~Political beliefs
~Religious beliefs
~Sexual preference
Myths can be seen as extended metaphors. Like metaphors, myths help us to make sense of our
experiences within a culture.
People initially associate the photograph of Marilyn Monroe with her star qualities of glamour, sexuality, beauty - if this is an early photograph - but also with her depression, drug-taking and
untimely death if it is one of her last photographs.
At a mythic level we understand this sign as activating the myth of Hollywood: the dream factory that produces glamour in the form of the stars it constructs, also the dream machine that can crush them.
Photographs can be read in many ways, on many levels. Photographs are representations: a photograph of a person is not that person, but a representation of them. The object is a sign, an index, an icon.
Semiotics allows for definition of photography’s type of realism. Photograph is both an icon and an index - it resembles the reality and points to it at the same time.
A portrait of famous person is an icon in that it resembles their likeness in physical appearance.
A portrait is also an index as it captures a moment, and by looking at photograph the viewer feels taken to that time and place.
The information in images (semiotics) can be read and understood in different ways according to varying human factors:
~Cultural background
~Economic status
~Geographic location
~Gender
~Psychological state
~Political beliefs
~Religious beliefs
~Sexual preference
Alternate purposes
Signs have alternate purposes.
In a commercial sense, signs are used in advertising to create consumer loyalty. The aim of advertising is to create signs that are easily recognisable with a particular brand, such as; red-and-white pole advertising a barbershop, and logos (icons) such as McDonalds, Coke, and Apple.
Cultural signs represent mythological, religious or cultural concepts that have changed over time and location. They are used by society to ‘stand for’ something significant in culture;. They can come in the form of icons, symbols, and indexes.
Magical symbols are associated with magic and spirits. Tribal masks are used to suggest meaning in battle and love. The christmas tree was originally a symbol for keeping away witches, ghosts, spirits and illness
Psychological symbols are a system for investigating conscious and unconscious processes of the human mind; Freud and Jung; used by film-makers to emphasize pschological side of human nature.
Religious signs/symbols generally represent generosity, forgiveness, hope,
love, virtue and quest for enlightenment. An example of some religious signs are the; cross, Star of David, and Buddha.
Just as a lawyer may seek to sway a jury to his or her side of an argument, a picture, through visual cues, enables understanding that may shape our perception and construct a sense of reality. The pictures freezes, frames and fixes in our memory a moment in time that can suggest other memories.
Time is stopped.
We can consider.
In a commercial sense, signs are used in advertising to create consumer loyalty. The aim of advertising is to create signs that are easily recognisable with a particular brand, such as; red-and-white pole advertising a barbershop, and logos (icons) such as McDonalds, Coke, and Apple.
Cultural signs represent mythological, religious or cultural concepts that have changed over time and location. They are used by society to ‘stand for’ something significant in culture;. They can come in the form of icons, symbols, and indexes.
Magical symbols are associated with magic and spirits. Tribal masks are used to suggest meaning in battle and love. The christmas tree was originally a symbol for keeping away witches, ghosts, spirits and illness
Psychological symbols are a system for investigating conscious and unconscious processes of the human mind; Freud and Jung; used by film-makers to emphasize pschological side of human nature.
Religious signs/symbols generally represent generosity, forgiveness, hope,
love, virtue and quest for enlightenment. An example of some religious signs are the; cross, Star of David, and Buddha.
Just as a lawyer may seek to sway a jury to his or her side of an argument, a picture, through visual cues, enables understanding that may shape our perception and construct a sense of reality. The pictures freezes, frames and fixes in our memory a moment in time that can suggest other memories.
Time is stopped.
We can consider.
Naked or Nude
We can read a nude picture in 3 ways. But how do signs play a part in the ‘reading’ of these?
Art appreciation - the viewer looks upon the nude as a work of art.
Gazing upon gazing again - the viewer looks upon the nude through a peephole. This gives a sense of voyeurism and seems erotic.
Guilty viewing - The viewer appears to be spying on the nude. This is gritty voyeurism; unauthorized.
Naked or Nude?
A nude drawing has these traits:
~Engaging the audience; eye contact
~ An element of grace
~ Strong humanity
~Manipulated lighting
~ Sensual
~Full body image
~Welcoming body language
~Timeless
~Give the appearance that they have never been clothed
~Romanticised background
~lit from the top-front-left
A drawing can be classified as naked if they have these traits:
~No eye contact
~Angle of view
~Clinical/cold lighting
~Confronting
~Cropped image
~Submissive views
~Snapshot
~Specific moment
~Specific place
~Evidence that they have lost their clothes
~Not lit from the top-front-left
Art appreciation - the viewer looks upon the nude as a work of art.
Gazing upon gazing again - the viewer looks upon the nude through a peephole. This gives a sense of voyeurism and seems erotic.
Guilty viewing - The viewer appears to be spying on the nude. This is gritty voyeurism; unauthorized.
Naked or Nude?
A nude drawing has these traits:
~Engaging the audience; eye contact
~ An element of grace
~ Strong humanity
~Manipulated lighting
~ Sensual
~Full body image
~Welcoming body language
~Timeless
~Give the appearance that they have never been clothed
~Romanticised background
~lit from the top-front-left
A drawing can be classified as naked if they have these traits:
~No eye contact
~Angle of view
~Clinical/cold lighting
~Confronting
~Cropped image
~Submissive views
~Snapshot
~Specific moment
~Specific place
~Evidence that they have lost their clothes
~Not lit from the top-front-left
Visual Appreciation
Photographs give us the impression that we are seeing some part of the world and sharing the view of it with the photographer who saw it in his viewfinder. This is not just confined to photographs, but the camera's perspective closely matches our own vision - a familiar world. This makes the clues easier to read.
Photographs use language to explain meaning. Index - information about the creation of the photograph, but not about its meaning. Words (descriptions) are required to add meaning. ie “the photo is of my mother”. The descriptions indicate how it is to be ‘read’ - index, icon or symbol.
Bound by cultural code, each person has a unique personality, set of beliefs, opinions, and in order to convey that identity we use our body as a canvas to project that identity. Differing cultures may perceive signs differently. For example, colours, which can be highly symbolic, vary in meaning from one culture to another. People can also have their own highly personal symbols based on their unique personality and history. If you saw a baby bird die next to a rose bush, you might associate roses with death.
"Photography genres can be crudely allocated to the categories of sign: index, icon and symbol." (Clive Scott, Basic Critical Theory for Photographers.)
Index - photojournalism, documentary, portrait, photogram, pornography and family shapshot. Icon - fashion, nude, photo-story and landscape.
Symbol - allegory, photomontage and advertising.
All index genres can move towards being icons. All symbol genres can move towards being iconic. Fashion and photo-story can move to either of the other categories .Nude and landscape can move to being index Photographs move between the classifications.
Index Icon - Past reality - Punctum (personal)
Icon - Present use - Studium
Photographs use language to explain meaning. Index - information about the creation of the photograph, but not about its meaning. Words (descriptions) are required to add meaning. ie “the photo is of my mother”. The descriptions indicate how it is to be ‘read’ - index, icon or symbol.
Bound by cultural code, each person has a unique personality, set of beliefs, opinions, and in order to convey that identity we use our body as a canvas to project that identity. Differing cultures may perceive signs differently. For example, colours, which can be highly symbolic, vary in meaning from one culture to another. People can also have their own highly personal symbols based on their unique personality and history. If you saw a baby bird die next to a rose bush, you might associate roses with death.
"Photography genres can be crudely allocated to the categories of sign: index, icon and symbol." (Clive Scott, Basic Critical Theory for Photographers.)
Index - photojournalism, documentary, portrait, photogram, pornography and family shapshot. Icon - fashion, nude, photo-story and landscape.
Symbol - allegory, photomontage and advertising.
All index genres can move towards being icons. All symbol genres can move towards being iconic. Fashion and photo-story can move to either of the other categories .Nude and landscape can move to being index Photographs move between the classifications.
Index Icon - Past reality - Punctum (personal)
Icon - Present use - Studium
Studium & Punctum
Studium and Punctum are classifications of ‘reading.’ They are terms coined by Roland Barthes in Camera Lucida (1980).
Studium is the cultural, linguistic and political interpretation of a photograph.
Punctum is the human, personally touching detail that establishes a direct relationship with object or person within the photograph
Symbol reveals index - advertising perceived mainly as fiction, yet photograph refers to tangible object that can be bought from the shops. Advertising often includes a ‘straight’ shot of the product (index) within a symbolic ‘lifestyle’ image.
Photomontage - not related to initial ‘taking’ but depends on photography’s power to “attest, bear witness and reveal”. Scott, 2005:145
A photomontage was one of the first forms of photomanipulation.
Studium is the cultural, linguistic and political interpretation of a photograph.
Punctum is the human, personally touching detail that establishes a direct relationship with object or person within the photograph
Symbol reveals index - advertising perceived mainly as fiction, yet photograph refers to tangible object that can be bought from the shops. Advertising often includes a ‘straight’ shot of the product (index) within a symbolic ‘lifestyle’ image.
Photomontage - not related to initial ‘taking’ but depends on photography’s power to “attest, bear witness and reveal”. Scott, 2005:145
A photomontage was one of the first forms of photomanipulation.
Advertising
Signs, symbols, icons and indexes are used prominently in advertising.
Semiotics provides the viewer of advertisements with a means to manipulate and manage language and non-verbal sign systems. Advertising works in conjunction with images to promote or to sell or to persuade consumers into changing their behavior.
Semiotics do the following:
(i) Read the text.
(ii) Read the culture.
(iii) Make connections between the two.
Semiotics provides the viewer of advertisements with a means to manipulate and manage language and non-verbal sign systems. Advertising works in conjunction with images to promote or to sell or to persuade consumers into changing their behavior.
Semiotics do the following:
(i) Read the text.
(ii) Read the culture.
(iii) Make connections between the two.
Music
Music is often used to enhance scenes in movies. Often, this music is not noticed by the viewer, however when the music is not added we are often aware of something being 'not right'. The music is often unnoticed because we are distracted through our focus on the faces, expressions and dialogue of the actors as we try to make sense of the situation or plot.
It takes a lot less effort to decieve our eyes into seeing a cohesive image than it does to make our ears hear a cohesive sound. Our eyes can be deceived into seeing a moving image with just 24 frames (still shots) per second. Our ears are much more sensitive - the standard for CD sound is 44,100 samples per second. Such sensitivity to sound requires sound teams in film and television go to great lengths to ensure that recorded dialogue is at all times realistic - down to capturing or reproducing the sound of the room a voice is recorded in.
Diabolus in Musica (the Devil in Music)
A musical interval (called a tri-tone) that is dissonant (i.e.unpleasant to the ear) is known as the Diabolus in Musica. It was avoided in Medieval and Renaissance music. In the Baroque and Classical periods, the tri-tone became accepted as a standard part of music harmony, though it was always resolved to a consonant (pleasant) interval.
In film, composers exploit the tri-tone interval and use it to increase tension. Often it is used when the character is about to get into an unplesant situation, or when the monster is about to take its next victum.
It takes a lot less effort to decieve our eyes into seeing a cohesive image than it does to make our ears hear a cohesive sound. Our eyes can be deceived into seeing a moving image with just 24 frames (still shots) per second. Our ears are much more sensitive - the standard for CD sound is 44,100 samples per second. Such sensitivity to sound requires sound teams in film and television go to great lengths to ensure that recorded dialogue is at all times realistic - down to capturing or reproducing the sound of the room a voice is recorded in.
Diabolus in Musica (the Devil in Music)
A musical interval (called a tri-tone) that is dissonant (i.e.unpleasant to the ear) is known as the Diabolus in Musica. It was avoided in Medieval and Renaissance music. In the Baroque and Classical periods, the tri-tone became accepted as a standard part of music harmony, though it was always resolved to a consonant (pleasant) interval.
In film, composers exploit the tri-tone interval and use it to increase tension. Often it is used when the character is about to get into an unplesant situation, or when the monster is about to take its next victum.
Baroque Sensibilities
Baroque composers were obsessed with the ‘affections’ (moods) that provided the basis of meaning to their music.
“It was believed, for example, that a lamento bass [a series of descending bass notes] was the palpable expression of sadness, while a rapidly rising sequence of notes was the opposite - euphoria.” http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/baroqueideal.html
This was often linked to word painting - where the music was composed to portray the mood of the text: ”Mountain" forms a peak in the melody, and "hill" a smaller one, while "low" is another low note. "Crooked" is sung to a rapid figure of four different notes, while "straight" is sung on a single note, and in "the rough places plain," "the rough places" is sung over short, separate notes whereas the final word "plain" is extended over several measures in a series of long notes.
Wikipedia - “Word Painting”
Handel 1685 - 1759
from the Oratorio Messiah
Musically Baroque composers were also obsessed with placing equal emphasis on both the melody and the bass.
The Baroque period saw a focus on the two musical modes we know as Major and minor.
Major modes tend to be stable and stereotypically provide music that is ‘happy’ in meaning.
Minor modes are more unstable and stereotypically sad in meaning.
But this is not always the case, as illustrated in an example from the contemporary Estonian composer, Arvo Part, which is set in the Major mode using a violin and a piano only.
Musical Meaning in the Classical Period:
Rejection of Baroque affections
Duality in musical themes
Balance and symmetry
Melody becomes superior Neoclassical architecture
A Leitmotif is a recurring musical theme.
The Father of film music?
Max Steiner (1888 – 1971) is sometimes called the 'father of film music'.
King Kong, 1933 - “Steiner successfully captures the varied moods of the story. Using a heavy orchestration dominated by brass and percussion Steiner creates a terrifying sound. But the music goes beyond this one-dimensional view of Kong; it also gives him a human personality. By the end, Steiner’s music projects a tremendous sense of sadness at the death of the magnificent animal.”
Hickman, R. (2006) Reel Music, W.W. Norton, New York.
The Father of Film Music?
“It was believed, for example, that a lamento bass [a series of descending bass notes] was the palpable expression of sadness, while a rapidly rising sequence of notes was the opposite - euphoria.” http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~tas3/baroqueideal.html
This was often linked to word painting - where the music was composed to portray the mood of the text: ”Mountain" forms a peak in the melody, and "hill" a smaller one, while "low" is another low note. "Crooked" is sung to a rapid figure of four different notes, while "straight" is sung on a single note, and in "the rough places plain," "the rough places" is sung over short, separate notes whereas the final word "plain" is extended over several measures in a series of long notes.
Wikipedia - “Word Painting”
Handel 1685 - 1759
from the Oratorio Messiah
Musically Baroque composers were also obsessed with placing equal emphasis on both the melody and the bass.
The Baroque period saw a focus on the two musical modes we know as Major and minor.
Major modes tend to be stable and stereotypically provide music that is ‘happy’ in meaning.
Minor modes are more unstable and stereotypically sad in meaning.
But this is not always the case, as illustrated in an example from the contemporary Estonian composer, Arvo Part, which is set in the Major mode using a violin and a piano only.
Musical Meaning in the Classical Period:
Rejection of Baroque affections
Duality in musical themes
Balance and symmetry
Melody becomes superior Neoclassical architecture
A Leitmotif is a recurring musical theme.
The Father of film music?
Max Steiner (1888 – 1971) is sometimes called the 'father of film music'.
King Kong, 1933 - “Steiner successfully captures the varied moods of the story. Using a heavy orchestration dominated by brass and percussion Steiner creates a terrifying sound. But the music goes beyond this one-dimensional view of Kong; it also gives him a human personality. By the end, Steiner’s music projects a tremendous sense of sadness at the death of the magnificent animal.”
Hickman, R. (2006) Reel Music, W.W. Norton, New York.
The Father of Film Music?
Beethoven and Meaning
Beethoven’s 3rd Symphony - Eroica (Heroic Symphony) - aged 32-34. This was initially dedicated to Napoleon Bonaparte, but following Napoleon’s proclaiming himself as Emperor, the dedication was changed to “a symphony composed to celebrate the memory of a great man”.
Beethoven’s 6th Symphony - Pastoral Symphony - was composed when he was 38.
"Each of the Pastoral’s five movements bears a descriptive title suggesting a scene from life in the country… In the movement Scene by the brook, flute, oboe and clarinet join harmoniously in imitating birdcalls - the nightingale, the quail and the cuckoo."
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony - Choral Symphony - aged 54.
In Beethoven’s last symphony, he sets Schiller’s poem titled O de to Joy for a massive chorus and orchestra. “Consistent with his ethical ideals and religious faith, he selected stanzas that emphasize universal fellowship through joy.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Beethoven can be seen as having a theme running through each of his symphonies.
3rd Symphony - idealistic and politically motivated
5th Symphony - Anger, frustration at his own fate/deafness
6th Symphony - Appreciation of nature
9th Symphony - Celebratory and joyous
Beethoven’s style is marked by “the revolutionary element, the free, impulsive,
mysterious, demonic spirit, the underlying conception of music as a mode of
self expression, that fascinated the Romantic generation.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Debussy and Impressionism
“Impressionism did not seek to express deeply felt emotion or tell a story but to evoke a mood, a fleeting sentiment, an atmosphere… Impressionism relied on
allusion and understatement, the antithesis of the forthright, energetic, deep expressions of the Romantics.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Beethoven’s 6th Symphony - Pastoral Symphony - was composed when he was 38.
"Each of the Pastoral’s five movements bears a descriptive title suggesting a scene from life in the country… In the movement Scene by the brook, flute, oboe and clarinet join harmoniously in imitating birdcalls - the nightingale, the quail and the cuckoo."
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Beethoven’s 9th Symphony - Choral Symphony - aged 54.
In Beethoven’s last symphony, he sets Schiller’s poem titled O de to Joy for a massive chorus and orchestra. “Consistent with his ethical ideals and religious faith, he selected stanzas that emphasize universal fellowship through joy.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Beethoven can be seen as having a theme running through each of his symphonies.
3rd Symphony - idealistic and politically motivated
5th Symphony - Anger, frustration at his own fate/deafness
6th Symphony - Appreciation of nature
9th Symphony - Celebratory and joyous
Beethoven’s style is marked by “the revolutionary element, the free, impulsive,
mysterious, demonic spirit, the underlying conception of music as a mode of
self expression, that fascinated the Romantic generation.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
Debussy and Impressionism
“Impressionism did not seek to express deeply felt emotion or tell a story but to evoke a mood, a fleeting sentiment, an atmosphere… Impressionism relied on
allusion and understatement, the antithesis of the forthright, energetic, deep expressions of the Romantics.”
Burkholder, J., Grout, D., Palisca, C. (2006) A History of Western Music, 7th Edition, W.W. Norton, New York.
20th Century
Changes in attitude as to musical meaning appeared in the first decades of the century, in line with changes in attitude as to what constituted art
Intonarumori are boxes that contained a mechanical noise generator inside, with a crank handle on the back and an amplifying horn on the front. Russolo used them as a musical instrument.
John Cage (1912 - 1992) was a pioneer in the field of chance music, electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. He was an American composer, however what he composed would not normally be called music.
He used a variety of instruments such as:
~Turntables (Imaginary Landscape No.1, 1939)
~Prepared Piano (Sonatas and Interludes, 1948)
~Silence (4’33, 1952)
~Found objects (Water Walk, 1960)
Glitch (1980s - present) is a form of experimental electronic music that originated in the 1980s, and is still practiced today.
Marcel Duchamp, Fountain, 1917
In 1913 the Italian Futurist artist and composer Luigi Russolo wrote his manifesto titled The Art of Noise, in which he envisaged a mechanical form of music. “Ancient life was all silence. In the 19th century, with the invention of the machine, noise was born. Today, noise triumphs and reigns supreme over the sensibilities of men” (Russolo, 1913).Intonarumori are boxes that contained a mechanical noise generator inside, with a crank handle on the back and an amplifying horn on the front. Russolo used them as a musical instrument.
John Cage (1912 - 1992) was a pioneer in the field of chance music, electronic music and the non-standard use of musical instruments. He was an American composer, however what he composed would not normally be called music.
He used a variety of instruments such as:
~Turntables (Imaginary Landscape No.1, 1939)
~Prepared Piano (Sonatas and Interludes, 1948)
~Silence (4’33, 1952)
~Found objects (Water Walk, 1960)
Glitch (1980s - present) is a form of experimental electronic music that originated in the 1980s, and is still practiced today.
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Aesthetics of Film Music
American composer Aaron Copeland wrote in The New York Times in 1949, “Five Aesthetics of Film Music”, discussing many of the ways music adds to and supports meaning within film.
The first two Aesthetics are:
1 - “Music can create a more convincing atmosphere of time and place.”
Music “is associative - bagpipes call up images of Scotland, the oboe easily suggests a pastoral scene, muted brass connotes something sinister.”
2 - “Music can be used to underline or create psychological refinements - the unspoken thoughts of a character or the unseen implications of a situation."
“Frequently, music can imply a psychological element far better than dialogue can.”
Foley is a sound effects technique that is used to enhance the sounds of a film. Sounds that are typically created by a Foley artist are the minor sounds that help to add realism to a scene; sounds such as cloth rustling, taking a teacup out of a saucer and hitting someone. The process of creating Foley sound effects is often quite creative, such as banging coconuts together to resemble horses hooves, snapping celery to resemble breaking bones or thumping a watermelon to resemble punching someone.
The first two Aesthetics are:
1 - “Music can create a more convincing atmosphere of time and place.”
Music “is associative - bagpipes call up images of Scotland, the oboe easily suggests a pastoral scene, muted brass connotes something sinister.”
2 - “Music can be used to underline or create psychological refinements - the unspoken thoughts of a character or the unseen implications of a situation."
“Frequently, music can imply a psychological element far better than dialogue can.”
Foley is a sound effects technique that is used to enhance the sounds of a film. Sounds that are typically created by a Foley artist are the minor sounds that help to add realism to a scene; sounds such as cloth rustling, taking a teacup out of a saucer and hitting someone. The process of creating Foley sound effects is often quite creative, such as banging coconuts together to resemble horses hooves, snapping celery to resemble breaking bones or thumping a watermelon to resemble punching someone.
Colour
Colour plays a vitally important role in the world in which we live. Colour can sway thinking, change actions, and cause reactions. It can irritate or soothe your eyes, raise your blood pressure or suppress your appetite. As a powerful form of communication, colour is irreplaceable.
Colours mean more to us than simply pigment. They are forms of energy, and as such speak to us and interact with us on a nonverbal level. In a very real way, life is colour. Colour affects every part of our lives, our emotions, and our health.
Colour originates in light. As we perceive it, sunlight is colourless. However, the reality is that all the colours of the spectrum are present in white light. A rainbow, created through the diffusion of white light through raindrops, is testimony to this fact.
"Colour is the visual effect that is caused by the spectral composition of the light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by objects."
As illustrated in the diagram above, light goes from the source (the sun) to the object (the apple), and finally to the detector (the eye and brain).
1. All the" invisible" colours of sunlight shine on the apple.
2. The surface of a red apple absorbs all the coloured light rays, except for those corresponding to red, and reflects this colour to the human eye.
3. The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to the brain, resulting in you seeing the appropriate colour.
Colour Vision: How do your eyes ‘see’?
The human eye is like a camera lens - only able to transmit light to a recording medium (the retina). All interpretation of the data from the eye is processed by the brain, and is based on a variety of factors. The ability to see colour occurs in your brain.
Light is made up from three primary colors—red, green, and blue—and this is basically how our eyes see colour. The light-sensitive cells within the eye are split into two main types: rod-shaped and cone-shaped. The rods are the most sensitive to light, but cannot discriminate between different colours. The cones are less sensitive to light, but contain chemicals that allow them to
see one of the three primary colours. The blue- and green- sensitive rods equate very well to the colours that we think of as pure primary colours, but the rods that we use to see red light are only sensitive to light that we would consider to be orange. The information given by these three types of rod is sent to our brain, which interprets the information to give us a mental picture of the scene. So, while our eyes play a major part in the physical aspects of vision, it is our brain that determines what we see.
When mixed, colours in light will conform to the additive colour theory. As more colour is added in light, the colours will eventually fade out to white light. In the additive colour theory, the three primary colours are red, green and blue.
This is opposite to subtractive colour theory which is used for paints (etc). In this theory, as more colours are added the resulting colour becomes darker and fades to black. The primary colours of this theory are red, yellow and blue.
Colours mean more to us than simply pigment. They are forms of energy, and as such speak to us and interact with us on a nonverbal level. In a very real way, life is colour. Colour affects every part of our lives, our emotions, and our health.
Colour originates in light. As we perceive it, sunlight is colourless. However, the reality is that all the colours of the spectrum are present in white light. A rainbow, created through the diffusion of white light through raindrops, is testimony to this fact.
"Colour is the visual effect that is caused by the spectral composition of the light emitted, transmitted, or reflected by objects."
As illustrated in the diagram above, light goes from the source (the sun) to the object (the apple), and finally to the detector (the eye and brain).
1. All the" invisible" colours of sunlight shine on the apple.
2. The surface of a red apple absorbs all the coloured light rays, except for those corresponding to red, and reflects this colour to the human eye.
3. The eye receives the reflected red light and sends a message to the brain, resulting in you seeing the appropriate colour.
Colour Vision: How do your eyes ‘see’?
The human eye is like a camera lens - only able to transmit light to a recording medium (the retina). All interpretation of the data from the eye is processed by the brain, and is based on a variety of factors. The ability to see colour occurs in your brain.
Light is made up from three primary colors—red, green, and blue—and this is basically how our eyes see colour. The light-sensitive cells within the eye are split into two main types: rod-shaped and cone-shaped. The rods are the most sensitive to light, but cannot discriminate between different colours. The cones are less sensitive to light, but contain chemicals that allow them to
see one of the three primary colours. The blue- and green- sensitive rods equate very well to the colours that we think of as pure primary colours, but the rods that we use to see red light are only sensitive to light that we would consider to be orange. The information given by these three types of rod is sent to our brain, which interprets the information to give us a mental picture of the scene. So, while our eyes play a major part in the physical aspects of vision, it is our brain that determines what we see.
When mixed, colours in light will conform to the additive colour theory. As more colour is added in light, the colours will eventually fade out to white light. In the additive colour theory, the three primary colours are red, green and blue.
This is opposite to subtractive colour theory which is used for paints (etc). In this theory, as more colours are added the resulting colour becomes darker and fades to black. The primary colours of this theory are red, yellow and blue.
A brief history of colour
Our modern understanding of light and colour began with Isaac Newton (1642-1726) and a series of experiments that he published in 1672. He was the first to understand the rainbow , by refracting white light with a prism, resolving it into its component colours: red, orange, yellow, green, blue and violet.
In the late 1660s, Newton started experimenting with his ’celebrated phenomenon of colours.’ At the time, people thought that colour was a mixture of light and darkness, and that prisms coloured light.
Early theory: scale that went from brilliant red, which was pure white light with the least amount of darkness added, to dull blue, the last step before black, which was the complete extinction of light by darkness.
Newton set up a prism near a window, and projected a spectrum onto the far wall. To prove that the prism was not colouring the light, he refracted the light back into white light.
Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for colour. His most useful idea for artists was his conceptual arrangement of colours around the circumference of a circle, which allowed the painters’ primaries (red, yellow, blue) to be arranged opposite their complementary colours (e.g. red opposite green), as a way of denoting that each complementary would enhance the other’s effect through optical contrast.
In the late 1660s, Newton started experimenting with his ’celebrated phenomenon of colours.’ At the time, people thought that colour was a mixture of light and darkness, and that prisms coloured light.
Early theory: scale that went from brilliant red, which was pure white light with the least amount of darkness added, to dull blue, the last step before black, which was the complete extinction of light by darkness.
Newton set up a prism near a window, and projected a spectrum onto the far wall. To prove that the prism was not colouring the light, he refracted the light back into white light.
Artists were fascinated by Newton’s clear demonstration that light alone was responsible for colour. His most useful idea for artists was his conceptual arrangement of colours around the circumference of a circle, which allowed the painters’ primaries (red, yellow, blue) to be arranged opposite their complementary colours (e.g. red opposite green), as a way of denoting that each complementary would enhance the other’s effect through optical contrast.
Until Johann Wolfgang von Goethe came along, no one had questioned the validity of Newton’s ideas about light and colour.
Goethe reformulated the topic of colour in an entirely new way. Newton had viewed colour as a physical problem, involving light striking objects and entering our eyes. Goethe realizes that the sensations of colour reaching our brain are also shaped by our perception — by the mechanics of human vision and by the way our brains process information. Therefore, according to Goethe, what we see of an object depends upon the object, the lighting and our perception.
Goethe’s diagrams in the first plate of Zür Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) include a colourwheel and diagrams of distorted colour perception. The bottom landscape is how a scene would look to someone who was blue-yellow colour blind.
Goethe - laws of colour harmony, ways of characterizing physiological colours (how colours affect us) and subjective visual phenomena in general.
Goethe studied after-images, coloured shadows and complementary colours. And he anticipated Hering’s “opponent-colour” theory, which is one basis of our understanding of colour vision today. Above all, Goethe appreciated that the sensation of complementary colours does not originate physically from the actions of light on our eyes but perceptually from the actions of our visual system.
Goethe reformulated the topic of colour in an entirely new way. Newton had viewed colour as a physical problem, involving light striking objects and entering our eyes. Goethe realizes that the sensations of colour reaching our brain are also shaped by our perception — by the mechanics of human vision and by the way our brains process information. Therefore, according to Goethe, what we see of an object depends upon the object, the lighting and our perception.
Goethe’s diagrams in the first plate of Zür Farbenlehre (Theory of Colours) include a colourwheel and diagrams of distorted colour perception. The bottom landscape is how a scene would look to someone who was blue-yellow colour blind.
Goethe - laws of colour harmony, ways of characterizing physiological colours (how colours affect us) and subjective visual phenomena in general.
Goethe studied after-images, coloured shadows and complementary colours. And he anticipated Hering’s “opponent-colour” theory, which is one basis of our understanding of colour vision today. Above all, Goethe appreciated that the sensation of complementary colours does not originate physically from the actions of light on our eyes but perceptually from the actions of our visual system.
Different shades of colour
Until the 19th century, colour was thought to be an intrinsic property of an object, like density or melting point. Oranges were intrinsically orange and lemons were intrinsically yellow. The Impressionists and changed this conception.
Claude Monet’s (1840-1926) work around 1890 demonstrates this development. Monet and his contemporaries began to paint outdoors, as opposed to the traditional settings of a neutral studio environment. They noticed how the colours of the landscape changed during the day.
Monet’s haystacks (1890-91) were painted under different light conditions at different times of the day. He would rise before dawn, paint the first canvas for half an hour, by which time the light would have changed in colour and direction. Then he would switch to the second canvas, and so on.
Impressionist interest in colour and light was influenced by the research of scientists like Michel Chevreul. They liked the idea that an object of any given colour will cast a shadow tinged with that of its complementary colour and tinting neighboring colours in the same way.
Monet’s Haystacks played a crucial role in the emergence of modern art and inspired Vasily Kandinsky to create a series of abstract compositions, including his Composition V, 1911.
Instead of referring to the outer world, Kandinsky’s objects correspond to their subjective mood and their “inner nature”.
Artists have always explored the effects of juxtaposing complementary colours, even without understanding it in neurophysiological terms. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) used colour very dramatically.
The response/sensation to colours is most intense where two extremes are juxtaposed. Van Gogh’s Night Cafe composes colours described as “warm,” which are generally associated with such sensations and emotions as energy, joy, love and festivity.
In his letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh considers the work as “…one of the ugliest (pictures) I have done… I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green.” By using colour in this manner, van Gogh uses the psychological capacities of colors to invite emotions.
Two colours, side by side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly; the effect of this interaction is called simultaneous contrast. Since we rarely see colours in isolation, simultaneous contrast affects our sense of the colour that we see. For example, red and blue flowerbeds in a garden are modified where they border each other: the blue appears green and the red, orange.
Simultaneous contrast is most intense when the two colours are complementary colours. Complementary colours are pairs of colours that are diagonally opposite on Newton’s colour wheel.
Claude Monet’s (1840-1926) work around 1890 demonstrates this development. Monet and his contemporaries began to paint outdoors, as opposed to the traditional settings of a neutral studio environment. They noticed how the colours of the landscape changed during the day.
Monet’s haystacks (1890-91) were painted under different light conditions at different times of the day. He would rise before dawn, paint the first canvas for half an hour, by which time the light would have changed in colour and direction. Then he would switch to the second canvas, and so on.
Impressionist interest in colour and light was influenced by the research of scientists like Michel Chevreul. They liked the idea that an object of any given colour will cast a shadow tinged with that of its complementary colour and tinting neighboring colours in the same way.
Monet’s Haystacks played a crucial role in the emergence of modern art and inspired Vasily Kandinsky to create a series of abstract compositions, including his Composition V, 1911.
Artists have always explored the effects of juxtaposing complementary colours, even without understanding it in neurophysiological terms. Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) used colour very dramatically.
In his letter to his brother Theo, van Gogh considers the work as “…one of the ugliest (pictures) I have done… I have tried to express the terrible passions of humanity by means of red and green.” By using colour in this manner, van Gogh uses the psychological capacities of colors to invite emotions.
Two colours, side by side, interact with one another and change our perception accordingly; the effect of this interaction is called simultaneous contrast. Since we rarely see colours in isolation, simultaneous contrast affects our sense of the colour that we see. For example, red and blue flowerbeds in a garden are modified where they border each other: the blue appears green and the red, orange.
Simultaneous contrast is most intense when the two colours are complementary colours. Complementary colours are pairs of colours that are diagonally opposite on Newton’s colour wheel.
Abstract Art
According to The Thames & Hudson Dictionary of Art and Artists, Abstract Art is "art which does not imitate or directly represent external reality." (www.credoreference.com)
The idea that forms and colour, not the subject matter, can move the viewer underlies all Abstract art. Abstract Art is when form and colour are independent from the subject being depicted. Therefore, instead of a naturalistic illusion, modern art often represents the artist’s subjective sensation. This was suggested by Fauves and Cubists.
Cubism was the first form of abstract art, and has had a decisive effect on other artists and groups. Various sorts of Abstraction became more common in the art of the 1920's, which for the most part had a geometric basis.
Georges Braque: Still-life with a Pair of Banderillas, oil on canvas
The idea that forms and colour, not the subject matter, can move the viewer underlies all Abstract art. Abstract Art is when form and colour are independent from the subject being depicted. Therefore, instead of a naturalistic illusion, modern art often represents the artist’s subjective sensation. This was suggested by Fauves and Cubists.
Cubism was the first form of abstract art, and has had a decisive effect on other artists and groups. Various sorts of Abstraction became more common in the art of the 1920's, which for the most part had a geometric basis.
Georges Braque: Still-life with a Pair of Banderillas, oil on canvas
Emotion and Colour
Colour has considerable impacts on human emotions. The relationships between colour and emotion have long been of interest to both artists and scientists.
Colour emotion is the relationships between colour and the viewer's psychological response. ie. "that's a very warm colour", "how exciting the colour feels", "the colour feels heavy" or "the colour makes me feel tense".
This seascape seems rather cold and
aloof.
The feelings coming from a beautiful sunset filled with pale pinks and golds will be vastly different to a black and white version of the same photo.
In his early twenties, Pablo Picasso tinted his paintings a pale, cold blue. For three years (1901-1904), he paints as if he is viewing the world through blue glasses. This is known as his "Blue Period".
These paintings portray destitute human beings. Blue was chosen deliberately — deep and cold, signifying misery and despair — to intensify the hopelessness of the figures depicted, such as beggars, prostitutes, the blind, out-of-work actors and circus folk, as well as Picasso himself and his penniless friends. If the colour is changed, such as if 'normal' colours were used, these paintings would have a completely different feel.
A study was conducted recently (2005) to investigate how cultures influence the viewers’ emotional responses to single colours and to colour pairs. A psychophysical experiment was carried out in 6 countries: Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan. A total of 20 single colours and 190 colour pairs were used as the stimuli, presented individually on a calibrated cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitor in a darkened room at each experimental site. Four scales, “warm-cool”, “heavy-light”, “active-passive” and “like-dislike”, were used in the experiment to measure colour semantics and preference using the method of categorical judgement.
The results show that there was little cultural effect on all the scales except “like-dislike”. The Spanish data were found to disagree with the other 5 observer groups on “like-dislike”. The experimental results show that the Spanish observers tended to prefer colour pairs with small lightness difference between constituent colours in each pair, while the other 5 groups tended to prefer colour pairs with large lightness difference.
The definition of colour harmony is “when two or more colours seen in neighbouring areas produce a pleasing effect, they are said to produce a colour harmony.”
Existing colour harmony theories can be categorized into several "principles":
~Equal hue - Colours harmonize if they are of the same hue.
~Equal chroma - Colours harmonize if they are of the same chroma.
~Complementary hues - Colours harmonize if they are complementary in hue.
This seascape seems rather cold and
aloof.
In his early twenties, Pablo Picasso tinted his paintings a pale, cold blue. For three years (1901-1904), he paints as if he is viewing the world through blue glasses. This is known as his "Blue Period".
These paintings portray destitute human beings. Blue was chosen deliberately — deep and cold, signifying misery and despair — to intensify the hopelessness of the figures depicted, such as beggars, prostitutes, the blind, out-of-work actors and circus folk, as well as Picasso himself and his penniless friends. If the colour is changed, such as if 'normal' colours were used, these paintings would have a completely different feel.
A study was conducted recently (2005) to investigate how cultures influence the viewers’ emotional responses to single colours and to colour pairs. A psychophysical experiment was carried out in 6 countries: Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Taiwan. A total of 20 single colours and 190 colour pairs were used as the stimuli, presented individually on a calibrated cathode-ray-tube (CRT) monitor in a darkened room at each experimental site. Four scales, “warm-cool”, “heavy-light”, “active-passive” and “like-dislike”, were used in the experiment to measure colour semantics and preference using the method of categorical judgement.
The results show that there was little cultural effect on all the scales except “like-dislike”. The Spanish data were found to disagree with the other 5 observer groups on “like-dislike”. The experimental results show that the Spanish observers tended to prefer colour pairs with small lightness difference between constituent colours in each pair, while the other 5 groups tended to prefer colour pairs with large lightness difference.
The definition of colour harmony is “when two or more colours seen in neighbouring areas produce a pleasing effect, they are said to produce a colour harmony.”
Existing colour harmony theories can be categorized into several "principles":
~Equal hue - Colours harmonize if they are of the same hue.
~Equal chroma - Colours harmonize if they are of the same chroma.
~Complementary hues - Colours harmonize if they are complementary in hue.
Colour and Meaning
Colour conveys meanings in two primary ways - natural associations and psychological symbolism. People are comfortable when colours remind them of similar things. For example, a soft shade of blue triggers associations with the sky and a psychological sense of calm.
It’s a form of symbolism - colours convey meaning and help us to understand. The communicative properties of a colour can be defined by two categories: natural associations and
psychological (or cultural) associations. Occurrences of colours in nature are universal and timeless. For example, the fact that green is the colour of vegetation can be considered a universal and timeless association.
Colour may generate another level of meaning in the mind; arises from cultural and contemporary contexts. Green associated with nature and communicates growth, fruitfulness, freshness and ecology, but may also be symbolic of good luck, seasickness, money and greed — all of which have nothing to do with green plants.
Colour may have both positive and negative symbolism. Blue is the beautiful colour of the sky on a sunny day, but it can be symbolic of sadness or stability. These traits evident in phrases such as “singing the blues” and “blue chip stocks.” Red is another example of dual symbolism: the colour of fire and blood, energizing, aggressive and bold colour. In direct contrast, red is used for “STOP” signs throughout the world today.
Cultural associations come from places such as; the colour of currency, traditions, celebrations, geography, etc (ie. green is associated with
heaven [Muslims] and luck [U.S. and Ireland])
It’s a form of symbolism - colours convey meaning and help us to understand. The communicative properties of a colour can be defined by two categories: natural associations and
psychological (or cultural) associations. Occurrences of colours in nature are universal and timeless. For example, the fact that green is the colour of vegetation can be considered a universal and timeless association.
Colour may generate another level of meaning in the mind; arises from cultural and contemporary contexts. Green associated with nature and communicates growth, fruitfulness, freshness and ecology, but may also be symbolic of good luck, seasickness, money and greed — all of which have nothing to do with green plants.
Colour may have both positive and negative symbolism. Blue is the beautiful colour of the sky on a sunny day, but it can be symbolic of sadness or stability. These traits evident in phrases such as “singing the blues” and “blue chip stocks.” Red is another example of dual symbolism: the colour of fire and blood, energizing, aggressive and bold colour. In direct contrast, red is used for “STOP” signs throughout the world today.
Cultural associations come from places such as; the colour of currency, traditions, celebrations, geography, etc (ie. green is associated with
heaven [Muslims] and luck [U.S. and Ireland])
Reactions to Colour
Each colour is able to invoke specific reactions in a viewer. These reactions can be either emotional, physical or behavioural.
Red has more personal associations than any other colour. Red is a stimulant; it is inherently exciting and the amount of red is directly related to the level of energy perceived. It draws attention and can immediately focus attention on a particular element. The colour red also increases enthusiasm, stimulates energy and encourages action and confidence. Red provides a sense of protection from fears and anxiety.
In India red is dynamic, constantly breathing fire in the eyes of the beholder. It incites fear and is the colour associated with one of the most revered goddesses in Hindu mythology - Durga. Her fiery image is enhanced by her red tongue and almost red eyes. Red stands for purity and is the preferred colour for a bride's garment; red also symbolizes fertility and prosperity. It is the colour of the fertile clay that reaps harvests and better lives and is used widely in prayer ceremonies and offerings. India could hardly be celebrated as the land of spices without its most feisty ingredient -- chilies. And while red symbolizes fertility and purity, it also connotes a certain sensuousness and demands positive energy.
The emotional reaction that red produces is one of; love, vitality, courage, passion, and anger.
The physical reaction helps to; increase blood pressure, aids digestion, increases respiratory rate, and increases strength.
The behavioural reaction to red is one of; aggressive, sensuous, extreme, athletic, impulsive, sensual, physical, and bullying.
Orange is a close relative of red, and there is usually strong positive or negative association to orange ("love it" or "hate it"). It is fun and flamboyant, orange radiates warmth and energy. Orange can be said to encourage socialization and stimulate activity and appetite.
The emotional reaction to orange is; active, boldness, exuberance, cheer, and vigour.
The physical reaction is that it; decreases irritability, decreases hostility, and improves social behaviour.
The behavioural reaction is; gregarious, active, social, extroverted, jovial, pleasure seeking, and fickle.
Yellow implies optimism, enlightenment and happiness; the promise of a brighter future. Yellow will advance from surrounding colours and instill optimism and energy, as well as spark creativethoughts. Yellow is mentally stimulating, activates memory, stimulates the nervous system and encourages communication
An emotional reaction to yellow is one of optimism, irritability, wisdom, cheer, annoyance, warmth, and makes people fight more.
The physical reaction to yellos is an; increases irritability, increases hostility, improves memory, aids digestion, stimulates circulation, and stimulates appetite
A behavioural reaction is; caution, debate, egotism, innovation, introspection, communication, and discrimination.
Green occupies more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye and is second only to blue as a favorite colour. Natural greens, from forest to lime, are seen as tranquil and refreshing, with a natural balance of cool and warm (blue and yellow) undertones; it is the colour of peace and ecology. There is an "institutional" side to green, and is associated with illness or hospitals. Green is also associated with the Government, it conjures up negative emotions as do the "slimy" or bilious greens.
Later in the millennium, Early Christians banned green because it had been used in pagan
ceremonies.
It is said that green is the most restful colour for the human eye, and some claim that green has great healing power. It can soothe pain. Suicides dropped 34% when London's Blackfriar Bridge was painted green.
The emotional reaction to green is one of; growth, envy, inexperience, refreshment, birth, jealousy, wealth, and compassion.
Physical - rejuvenation, expansiveness, and balance.
Behavioural - moderation, normalcy, balance, conventional, tradition, quietly social fertility.
Blue is the most common "favorite colour." Blue is trustworthy, dependable and committed; blue is perceived as a constant in our lives (sky/ocean). It invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming. Electric or brilliant blues become dynamic and dramatic, an engaging colour that expresses exhilaration. Some shades or the overuse of blue may come across as cold or uncaring. Blue is the least "gender specific" colour, having equal appeal to both men and women.
Emotional - serenity, peace, sadness, loyalty, sincerity, and justice.
Physical - lowers blood pressure, slows respiratory rate, cooling and relaxing.
Behavioural - conceptual, rigid, loyal, astute, responsible, manipulative, conservative, and authoritative.
Purple embodies a balance of red (simulation) and blue (calm). It can cause unrest or uneasiness unless the undertone is clearly defined at which point the purple takes on the characteristics of its undertone. Purple is a colour often well liked by very creative or eccentric people, which gives it a sense of mystic and royal qualities. Purple is uplifting, calming to mind and nerves, offers a sense of spirituality and encourages creativity
Emotional - royalty, quietness, supremacy, and reverance.
Physical - lowers blood pressure, depresses appetite, and quietens overactive internal dialogue.
Behavioural - elegance, spiritual, creativity, day dreaming, philosophical, and lateral thinking.
Brighter pinks are youthful, fun, and exciting, while vibrant pinks have the same high energy as red; they are sensual and passionate without being too aggressive. Pinks tone down the passion of red with the purity of white, which results in the softer pinks that are associated with romance. Pink is the color of happiness and is sometimes seen as lighthearted.
Emotional - emotional, guarded
Physical - weakens muscles, stimulates sweet tooth
Behavioural - gentle, friendly, protective, indulged
Brown is the colour of stability, reliability, and approachability. It is the colour of our earth and is associated with all things natural or organic. It creates a feeling of wholesomeness, stability, a connection with the earth, and offers a sense orderliness
Emotional - earthiness, natural, tranquil, bored, safe, and casual.
Physical - encompassed, dull.
Behavioural - homespun, shrewd, sturdy, reliable, stable, and conservative.
White
Emotional - joy, hope, innocence, cleanliness.
Physical - purity, enlightenment.
Behavioural - individualism, indecision, idealism, and optimism.
Black
Emotional - mourning, mystery, fright, elegant, dignity, sophisticated, intimated, uncertainty
Physical - mourning, fatigue
Behavioural - wordly, stunning, powerful, aloof, intimidating, mysterious
Red has more personal associations than any other colour. Red is a stimulant; it is inherently exciting and the amount of red is directly related to the level of energy perceived. It draws attention and can immediately focus attention on a particular element. The colour red also increases enthusiasm, stimulates energy and encourages action and confidence. Red provides a sense of protection from fears and anxiety.
In India red is dynamic, constantly breathing fire in the eyes of the beholder. It incites fear and is the colour associated with one of the most revered goddesses in Hindu mythology - Durga. Her fiery image is enhanced by her red tongue and almost red eyes. Red stands for purity and is the preferred colour for a bride's garment; red also symbolizes fertility and prosperity. It is the colour of the fertile clay that reaps harvests and better lives and is used widely in prayer ceremonies and offerings. India could hardly be celebrated as the land of spices without its most feisty ingredient -- chilies. And while red symbolizes fertility and purity, it also connotes a certain sensuousness and demands positive energy.
The emotional reaction that red produces is one of; love, vitality, courage, passion, and anger.
The physical reaction helps to; increase blood pressure, aids digestion, increases respiratory rate, and increases strength.
The behavioural reaction to red is one of; aggressive, sensuous, extreme, athletic, impulsive, sensual, physical, and bullying.
Orange is a close relative of red, and there is usually strong positive or negative association to orange ("love it" or "hate it"). It is fun and flamboyant, orange radiates warmth and energy. Orange can be said to encourage socialization and stimulate activity and appetite.
The emotional reaction to orange is; active, boldness, exuberance, cheer, and vigour.
The physical reaction is that it; decreases irritability, decreases hostility, and improves social behaviour.
The behavioural reaction is; gregarious, active, social, extroverted, jovial, pleasure seeking, and fickle.
Yellow implies optimism, enlightenment and happiness; the promise of a brighter future. Yellow will advance from surrounding colours and instill optimism and energy, as well as spark creativethoughts. Yellow is mentally stimulating, activates memory, stimulates the nervous system and encourages communication
An emotional reaction to yellow is one of optimism, irritability, wisdom, cheer, annoyance, warmth, and makes people fight more.
The physical reaction to yellos is an; increases irritability, increases hostility, improves memory, aids digestion, stimulates circulation, and stimulates appetite
A behavioural reaction is; caution, debate, egotism, innovation, introspection, communication, and discrimination.
Green occupies more space in the spectrum visible to the human eye and is second only to blue as a favorite colour. Natural greens, from forest to lime, are seen as tranquil and refreshing, with a natural balance of cool and warm (blue and yellow) undertones; it is the colour of peace and ecology. There is an "institutional" side to green, and is associated with illness or hospitals. Green is also associated with the Government, it conjures up negative emotions as do the "slimy" or bilious greens.
Later in the millennium, Early Christians banned green because it had been used in pagan
ceremonies.
It is said that green is the most restful colour for the human eye, and some claim that green has great healing power. It can soothe pain. Suicides dropped 34% when London's Blackfriar Bridge was painted green.
The emotional reaction to green is one of; growth, envy, inexperience, refreshment, birth, jealousy, wealth, and compassion.
Physical - rejuvenation, expansiveness, and balance.
Behavioural - moderation, normalcy, balance, conventional, tradition, quietly social fertility.
Blue is the most common "favorite colour." Blue is trustworthy, dependable and committed; blue is perceived as a constant in our lives (sky/ocean). It invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming. Electric or brilliant blues become dynamic and dramatic, an engaging colour that expresses exhilaration. Some shades or the overuse of blue may come across as cold or uncaring. Blue is the least "gender specific" colour, having equal appeal to both men and women.
Emotional - serenity, peace, sadness, loyalty, sincerity, and justice.
Physical - lowers blood pressure, slows respiratory rate, cooling and relaxing.
Behavioural - conceptual, rigid, loyal, astute, responsible, manipulative, conservative, and authoritative.
Purple embodies a balance of red (simulation) and blue (calm). It can cause unrest or uneasiness unless the undertone is clearly defined at which point the purple takes on the characteristics of its undertone. Purple is a colour often well liked by very creative or eccentric people, which gives it a sense of mystic and royal qualities. Purple is uplifting, calming to mind and nerves, offers a sense of spirituality and encourages creativity
Emotional - royalty, quietness, supremacy, and reverance.
Physical - lowers blood pressure, depresses appetite, and quietens overactive internal dialogue.
Behavioural - elegance, spiritual, creativity, day dreaming, philosophical, and lateral thinking.
Brighter pinks are youthful, fun, and exciting, while vibrant pinks have the same high energy as red; they are sensual and passionate without being too aggressive. Pinks tone down the passion of red with the purity of white, which results in the softer pinks that are associated with romance. Pink is the color of happiness and is sometimes seen as lighthearted.
Emotional - emotional, guarded
Physical - weakens muscles, stimulates sweet tooth
Behavioural - gentle, friendly, protective, indulged
Brown is the colour of stability, reliability, and approachability. It is the colour of our earth and is associated with all things natural or organic. It creates a feeling of wholesomeness, stability, a connection with the earth, and offers a sense orderliness
Emotional - earthiness, natural, tranquil, bored, safe, and casual.
Physical - encompassed, dull.
Behavioural - homespun, shrewd, sturdy, reliable, stable, and conservative.
White
Emotional - joy, hope, innocence, cleanliness.
Physical - purity, enlightenment.
Behavioural - individualism, indecision, idealism, and optimism.
Black
Emotional - mourning, mystery, fright, elegant, dignity, sophisticated, intimated, uncertainty
Physical - mourning, fatigue
Behavioural - wordly, stunning, powerful, aloof, intimidating, mysterious
Eye tricks
The colours surrounding your desired colour can change the tone of your colour. This is an illusion, the colour hasn't really changed but because of the surrounding colours 'bleeding' into it it appears to be a different colour. An example is the illusion shown below. The tile marked A and the tile marked B are the exact same shade, however due to the colours surrounding them they appear to be completely different.
Colour Symbolism - Influential Factors
The quantity and placement of the colour can influence the way in which the colours are interprated. Colours deliver the most powerful symbolism when used in large areas.
Colours take on new meaning when combined with other colours. For example, red and green are the colours of Christmas in Western cultures, and maroon and blue are the colours used in State of Origin.
Colours take on new meaning when combined with other colours. For example, red and green are the colours of Christmas in Western cultures, and maroon and blue are the colours used in State of Origin.
Photography and light
When photographing, light is very important. Around midday the light is whiter and much more harsh than at other times of the day, which will make photographs taken during the middle of the day appear washed out. The best time for taking photographs is in the morning or the evening, when you will get much better results when it comes to colour.
Motion and colours
Artists use the technique of “equiluminance” to blur outlines and suggest motion. We cannot perceive the edges of objects where object and background have the same luminance. If parts of a painting are equiluminant, their positions become ambiguous. They may seem to shift position or to float. Equiluminant colours have long been recognized by artists as being special because they can generate a sense of vibration, motion or sometimes an eerie quality. Use of equiluminance in painting can make sunsets twinkle and flowers shimmer.
The choice of colors can also suggest motion. To create the illusion of an advancing object, use warm colours in the foreground (on the object) and cool colours in the background. If the object is receding, use cool colours in the foreground and warm colours in the background.
The choice of colors can also suggest motion. To create the illusion of an advancing object, use warm colours in the foreground (on the object) and cool colours in the background. If the object is receding, use cool colours in the foreground and warm colours in the background.
Colour and Meaning in The Matrix
Green is symbolic of the matrix code. All scenes inside the Matrix have green tint to them. In fact, in the words of the Wachowski brothers, this use of green tint "...was a whole motif inspired by the phosphorous green of old PCs."
Green = sickness, decay, disease, and impending death. Also associated with naivety. All the people inside the matrix don't have a clue that they are really living in a false reality and that they are actually prisoners.
Blue is symbolic of the real world; all the scenes in the real world have a overwhelming bluish cast to them. Many of the objects inside of the matrix are blue also.
Blue = a peaceful, spiritual colour; mentally and physically therapeutic color. It heals, soothes, and relaxes.
When we first see Neo in the real world, he is in poor shape physically and mentally. Morpheus calmly tells Neo to rest and the Neb crew begin to work on his muscles, which have atrophied from being in the matrix pod. These "healing" scenes are filled with blue objects and they have a general blue aspect to them.
Blue is symbolic hope and inspiration. In religious symbolism, it stands for truth as well. When Neo sees Trinity and Morpheus for the first time in the real world, they are surrounded by a misty bluish light. Morpheus tells Trinity that they have "found him." When Trinity questions this by saying, "I hope you are right," he counters with "I don't have to hope."
Dark blue is associated with depression, dejection, and sadness. Cypher has grown very tired of the real world and he is unhappy with the harsh reality of it.
Orange (the colour of the sun and fire) emits a warm, positive feeling and suggests enduring energy, strength, and vitality. Seen in Oracle's kitchen. The Oracle's presence and demeanor reflects these "orange" qualities. She seems to be a warm, positive person who makes you feel at ease.
Orange = drive, ambition, and enthusiasm. Seen in Dojo scene: Morpheus is determined and confident teacher while Neo reveals himself to be a student eager to rise to the challenge.
Red = aggression, anger, danger, sin, and war. Cypher wears a dark red shirt in the real world. It also has a large hole in it where is his heart is located. Also associated with the devil and evil. In this case, the agents are representative of evil as well as Cypher through his alliance with them. Since medieval times, the Devil has been often depicted wearing red clothes or having red skin.
Red is sexuality, passion, lust. The woman in red catches Neo's eye in the agent training program. This is a "red herring ” - something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand. The whole matrix world is really just one big red herring.
A woman wearing a red coat is there when Neo is taken out of this office building by the agents. She appears to be the only person in that scene who isn't wearing white or black so she stands out.
The colour of blood, red also stands for life, death, and war (the shedding of blood.) Cypher's steak is a blood red. It is during this meal that he makes a decision that will result in the deaths of several people, including his own.
The inside of the matrix pods are red, signifying life/death; primitive.
Black uniforms - powerful, mystery, frightening, uncertainty, aloof, mysterious
White = hope, faith, confidence, and enlightenment. Also purity, innocence, goodness, and perfection.
When Morpheus first plugs Neo into a computer simulation, the screen is totally white and void of anything - represents the loading program having endless possibilities and uses.
Green = sickness, decay, disease, and impending death. Also associated with naivety. All the people inside the matrix don't have a clue that they are really living in a false reality and that they are actually prisoners.
Blue is symbolic of the real world; all the scenes in the real world have a overwhelming bluish cast to them. Many of the objects inside of the matrix are blue also.
Blue = a peaceful, spiritual colour; mentally and physically therapeutic color. It heals, soothes, and relaxes.
When we first see Neo in the real world, he is in poor shape physically and mentally. Morpheus calmly tells Neo to rest and the Neb crew begin to work on his muscles, which have atrophied from being in the matrix pod. These "healing" scenes are filled with blue objects and they have a general blue aspect to them.
Blue is symbolic hope and inspiration. In religious symbolism, it stands for truth as well. When Neo sees Trinity and Morpheus for the first time in the real world, they are surrounded by a misty bluish light. Morpheus tells Trinity that they have "found him." When Trinity questions this by saying, "I hope you are right," he counters with "I don't have to hope."
Dark blue is associated with depression, dejection, and sadness. Cypher has grown very tired of the real world and he is unhappy with the harsh reality of it.
Orange (the colour of the sun and fire) emits a warm, positive feeling and suggests enduring energy, strength, and vitality. Seen in Oracle's kitchen. The Oracle's presence and demeanor reflects these "orange" qualities. She seems to be a warm, positive person who makes you feel at ease.
Orange = drive, ambition, and enthusiasm. Seen in Dojo scene: Morpheus is determined and confident teacher while Neo reveals himself to be a student eager to rise to the challenge.
Red = aggression, anger, danger, sin, and war. Cypher wears a dark red shirt in the real world. It also has a large hole in it where is his heart is located. Also associated with the devil and evil. In this case, the agents are representative of evil as well as Cypher through his alliance with them. Since medieval times, the Devil has been often depicted wearing red clothes or having red skin.
Red is sexuality, passion, lust. The woman in red catches Neo's eye in the agent training program. This is a "red herring ” - something intended to divert attention from the real problem or matter at hand. The whole matrix world is really just one big red herring.
A woman wearing a red coat is there when Neo is taken out of this office building by the agents. She appears to be the only person in that scene who isn't wearing white or black so she stands out.
The colour of blood, red also stands for life, death, and war (the shedding of blood.) Cypher's steak is a blood red. It is during this meal that he makes a decision that will result in the deaths of several people, including his own.
The inside of the matrix pods are red, signifying life/death; primitive.
Black uniforms - powerful, mystery, frightening, uncertainty, aloof, mysterious
White = hope, faith, confidence, and enlightenment. Also purity, innocence, goodness, and perfection.
When Morpheus first plugs Neo into a computer simulation, the screen is totally white and void of anything - represents the loading program having endless possibilities and uses.
Digital Practitioners
Early Digital Practitioners
Afrika Bambaataa - Rap – 1991
Neil B. Rolnick - Art music – 1987
John Oswald - Art music – 1989
New Media and Contemporary Practice
Later Digital Practitioners
Moby - Dance/Electronic
Scanner - Laptop artist
Current Digital Practitioners
“There are certain trends and attitudes developing now (2005) that bear watching in the future.”
“The most innovative of the new generation of digital sound artists are the ones working in the laptop-techno scene…” (Duckworth, 2005)
Artists are now using software to build their own sounds, their own processing modules and even their own software from the ground up. (Ikue Mori N.Y. Laptop performer/composer)
Afrika Bambaataa - Rap – 1991
Neil B. Rolnick - Art music – 1987
John Oswald - Art music – 1989
New Media and Contemporary Practice
Later Digital Practitioners
Moby - Dance/Electronic
Scanner - Laptop artist
Current Digital Practitioners
“There are certain trends and attitudes developing now (2005) that bear watching in the future.”
“The most innovative of the new generation of digital sound artists are the ones working in the laptop-techno scene…” (Duckworth, 2005)
Artists are now using software to build their own sounds, their own processing modules and even their own software from the ground up. (Ikue Mori N.Y. Laptop performer/composer)
Interactive Media
Case Study: Intimate Transactions
“Interactive installation , which allows two people in geographically separate spaces to interact
simultaneously using only their bodies.”(Transmute collective
www.goeproject.org.au)
~User /Technology Interaction
~User/User Technology
~Arts (Creator)/User Interaction
“Intimate Transactions is not reducible to the consequence of any single practice. Its hybridized form and content straddles art; design; education & entertainment” (Tony Fry, Intimate Transactions: Close Encounters of Another Kind. www.geoproject.org.au/geo/o1_cms/details.asp?ID=401 p. 3)
Case Study: Funky Forest
Created by Theodore Watson and Emily Gobeille (Netherlands)
Premiered Cinekid Festival (Netherlands) 2007
~Interactive/Reactive
~immersive
~experience accessed by generations who are comfortable with the media
“Interactive installation , which allows two people in geographically separate spaces to interact
simultaneously using only their bodies.”(Transmute collective
www.goeproject.org.au)
~User /Technology Interaction
~User/User Technology
~Arts (Creator)/User Interaction
“Intimate Transactions is not reducible to the consequence of any single practice. Its hybridized form and content straddles art; design; education & entertainment” (Tony Fry, Intimate Transactions: Close Encounters of Another Kind. www.geoproject.org.au/geo/o1_cms/details.asp?ID=401 p. 3)
Case Study: Funky Forest
Created by Theodore Watson and Emily Gobeille (Netherlands)
Premiered Cinekid Festival (Netherlands) 2007
~Interactive/Reactive
~immersive
~experience accessed by generations who are comfortable with the media
New Media
How has New Media changed, especially in the areas of:
Artists communication with their medium,
Artist and viewer interaction,
Artist to artist collaboration and
Producer and consumer role?
But first, what is New Media?
New Media is based upon concepts of; global networks, convergence, digital content, interactivity and communication.
Interactivity existed to a limited extent in traditional media, however New Media has enabled a greater degree of interaction and opportunities for complex forms of interactivity.
New Media interactivity can be in the form of basic interaction (blogs, wikis and interactive online environments), or complex (immersive digital environments/virtual reality)
Contempory New Media has a high entertainment content.
How has New Media changed the artist medium communication?
-Instead of communicating through a paintbrush (etc) to the medium, New Media artists communicate through software to create art. There is still a physical manifestation present between the artist and the medium. In both traditional and new media, the artist does not work directly with the finished product; whether the artist works through a paintbrush, charcoal, tablet, or mouse, there is always something stopping the artist from directly working with their canvas.
-The mediation of art by digitization; art is done with digital software, however it is just as different from working in paints, as it is to work in charcoal, or watercolour, or ink. In the end, digitization is just another medium to express yourself in.
-the communication of the idea not the physical representation. People buy art because they connect with the emotions behind the artwork, and the ideas behind a digital artwork are just as valid as the ideas behind a traditional artwork.
but is this really any different from traditional media?
Inclusion and Exclusion
New Media can be seen as an exclusive medium. Factors such as technology, understanding and experience all work to hinder those who wish to break into the field of New Media. The technology required to do New Media can be rather expensive, and if you are new to the technology it can be rather frustrating to understand/work it properly.
Artist/Viewer Interaction
In 21st century art, web presence is a necessity regardless of an artists preferred medium.
Viewers can interact with the artist in these ways:
~Web Art,
~Artist created web pages/web galleries,
~Phone art (film)
~Interactive online environments (such as SIMS, Second Life)
~Online Music releases (such as Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys) & online gig posts,
Having a web presence provides:
~Global access
~Marketing/exposure
~Online sales point
~Communication channels
~Interactive Online Environments
Phones and Films
With the increase in technology and its availability to the masses, there is a growing trend of using mobile phones to creat art (in the form of films).
There are even film festivals dedicated entirely to Phone Films, such as:
~Paris Pocket Film Festival
~Mobile Phone Movie Awards Xi’an, China
~Portable Film Festival
~Future Screen Mobile
New Media Music
A web presence allows budding musicians to sell their music online, as well as through online marketing, online sales, gig updates, communication and exposure through social networking sites. Music placed online can be downloaded (either a sample or a full track), or acessed through software such as iTunes.
Immersive Digital Environments
Immersive Digital Environments are a highly evolving media which includes:
~Virtual Reality environments
~Reactive Environments (Funky Forest)
~‘Smart Furniture’ (Intimate Transactions)
~Simulations (Immersive Technologies)
~Art
~Entertainment
~Training
Artists communication with their medium,
Artist and viewer interaction,
Artist to artist collaboration and
Producer and consumer role?
But first, what is New Media?
New Media is based upon concepts of; global networks, convergence, digital content, interactivity and communication.
Interactivity existed to a limited extent in traditional media, however New Media has enabled a greater degree of interaction and opportunities for complex forms of interactivity.
New Media interactivity can be in the form of basic interaction (blogs, wikis and interactive online environments), or complex (immersive digital environments/virtual reality)
Contempory New Media has a high entertainment content.
How has New Media changed the artist medium communication?
-Instead of communicating through a paintbrush (etc) to the medium, New Media artists communicate through software to create art. There is still a physical manifestation present between the artist and the medium. In both traditional and new media, the artist does not work directly with the finished product; whether the artist works through a paintbrush, charcoal, tablet, or mouse, there is always something stopping the artist from directly working with their canvas.
-The mediation of art by digitization; art is done with digital software, however it is just as different from working in paints, as it is to work in charcoal, or watercolour, or ink. In the end, digitization is just another medium to express yourself in.
-the communication of the idea not the physical representation. People buy art because they connect with the emotions behind the artwork, and the ideas behind a digital artwork are just as valid as the ideas behind a traditional artwork.
but is this really any different from traditional media?
Inclusion and Exclusion
New Media can be seen as an exclusive medium. Factors such as technology, understanding and experience all work to hinder those who wish to break into the field of New Media. The technology required to do New Media can be rather expensive, and if you are new to the technology it can be rather frustrating to understand/work it properly.
Artist/Viewer Interaction
In 21st century art, web presence is a necessity regardless of an artists preferred medium.
Viewers can interact with the artist in these ways:
~Web Art,
~Artist created web pages/web galleries,
~Phone art (film)
~Interactive online environments (such as SIMS, Second Life)
~Online Music releases (such as Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys) & online gig posts,
Having a web presence provides:
~Global access
~Marketing/exposure
~Online sales point
~Communication channels
~Interactive Online Environments
Phones and Films
With the increase in technology and its availability to the masses, there is a growing trend of using mobile phones to creat art (in the form of films).
There are even film festivals dedicated entirely to Phone Films, such as:
~Paris Pocket Film Festival
~Mobile Phone Movie Awards Xi’an, China
~Portable Film Festival
~Future Screen Mobile
New Media Music
A web presence allows budding musicians to sell their music online, as well as through online marketing, online sales, gig updates, communication and exposure through social networking sites. Music placed online can be downloaded (either a sample or a full track), or acessed through software such as iTunes.
Immersive Digital Environments
Immersive Digital Environments are a highly evolving media which includes:
~Virtual Reality environments
~Reactive Environments (Funky Forest)
~‘Smart Furniture’ (Intimate Transactions)
~Simulations (Immersive Technologies)
~Art
~Entertainment
~Training
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