FODR - M2 Journal - Jeremy Bonwick

Foundations of Design : REPRESENTATION, SEM1, 2017 M2 JOURNAL - FLATNESS vs PROJECTION Jeremy Bonwick 697718 Gumji Kang / Studio 20

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WEEK 3 READING: LEGER, LE CORBUSIER, AND PURISM

Question 1: What is Pictorial Space according to Le Corbusier? (Maximum 100 words) Le Corbusier’s view of Pictorial space is “that which cannot be entered or circulated through”. This idea separates the idea of Pictorial space from reality, setting it at a distance from a subject who’s only role is that of viewership — they cannot penetrate into the flatness of the plane. Pictorial Space is then something distant, viewed from a frontal perspective. Flatness results from Le Corbusier’s “insist[ance] upon the rigid frontality [sic.] of all objects”. In such a paradigm, representation is reduced to basic geometries, shapes and lines which are distant from the viewer and flattened by that distance.

Question 2: The Flatness of Le Corbusier’s painting’s are attributable to two properties. What are they?

And what are these pitted against?(Maximum 100 words) Le Corbusier’s paintings exhibit a flatness which is defined by two primary elements; the image is composed of ”flat, crisply contoured shape[s] which never breaks rank” where the assembled “constellation of objects wedge together”. Lines and planes do not so much cross as nestle, creating a “continuity of edges” across the picture plane. The other primary element present is colour which Le Corbusier uses in no way to suggest depth or shading as would be classically expected but merely to further segregate the shapes from one another. Black especially is rescinded, leaving a “chalkiness” to the tones which further flattens the image.

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MARIO’S WORLD

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1ST MARIO’S WORLD

Projection of the front Mario world image.

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COMBINED MARIO’S WORLD

Hand drawn Axonometric design combining the two Mario images.

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WEEK 4 READING: AXONOMETRIC PROJECTION

Question 1: Explain the difference between Pictoral (in this case perspectival) space and Projection?

(Maximum 100 words) Lissitzky suggests that perspective renders objects in a closed off, boxed fashion, constraining and restricting. This is in opposition to projection which “operates to simultaneously prolong and collapse distance”, creating the illusion of infinite space around the object. For example, a perspectival view sees an ever retreating vanishing point descending into the distance, a figurative infinity but in practice the end of a line. Projection on the other hand sees no vanishing point, there is no horizon for the retreating vanishing point to meet at, lines remain parallel and therefore suggesting an infinite gap before they meet.

Question 2: Where did Axonometric projection first arise, and why? (Maximum 100 words) Stan Allen states that Axonometric projection first came into use in military circumstances where the method’s precise measurability was beneficial in plotting and tracking the trajectory of artillery. Axonometric projection’s ability to retain the “immediacy of a perspectival view” whilst also providing the “measurability and transmissibility of orthographic projection”, making it invaluable in fields such as design where precision of dimensions is integral. Such, the method began to appear in engineering schools during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as a form of representation for schematics and designs.

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ILLUSTRATED MARIO’S NEW WORLD

Final coloured digital design, traced from the original linework.

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APPENDIX

Original Mario image rotated at 45 degrees on set-square

Projecting the front elements from the Mario image using guiding lines at 45 degrees from the boundaries of objects in the image

Multiple layers of tracing paper to build up the three areas of the image; the two Mario worlds and connecting landscape

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