NARRATIVE ESSAY UNIT 3 GRAPHICS OMAR KHAN
How have recent advances in computer technology effected story telling within artwork? In the last two decades we have witnessed technology revolutionise our society and have an emphatic effect on our lives, we have been fortunate to either contribute towards it or experience its wonders. Technological devices have been invented to facilitate our everyday needs, ranging from smartphones to smart watches; technology has changed the way we live today and is what shapes our present and future. This advancement in technology has had a significant impact in the world of art, and in this essay, I aim to identify how these advances have affected artwork. Many modern artists are fortuitous to have a series of technological equipment at their disposal, an element which previous artist lacked. Traditionally artist would have been accustomed to the pencil and flair of the brush, contrasting to the artwork generated by the computer programming of the 21st century. The effect, which traditional tools would create, can be implemented using computer programmes, whether it is a watercolour effect or oil painting, most tasks are possible to be completed using special software. Even artist who are used to the capabilities of traditional techniques are now taking grasp of modern day technology themselves. In this essay, I will explore how artwork has transformed in this new era. Furthermore, I will examine the work of Nancy Liang, Alexandra Bellissimo and Brian Oldham in order to identify how they have benefited from technology as well as how they portray surrealism in their work. The value of artwork to us comes from what makes it impactful and that is its symbolic meaning which artist can convey by targeting our emotions through the visual beauty of it. It is typical to refer to a painting or sculpture as art but I believe the same term can be applied to digital outcomes, considering that ‘artist’ perform a similar committed process which takes great passion and enthusiasm to have a successful result.
Software Prior to the technological revelations in the 90’s era which included; the original iMac, pagers and Discmans, photographers required immense patience in order to capture a spectacular sight. Perhaps bearing the intense wait to catch the sunrise or pampering a model for hours on end then studios had to be well-lit in order to capture the perfect and ideal image. 1990, A photo manipulation software was released by adobe, which would soon come to revamp the art industry and photography in particular. Adobe continued to develop and update its software and at the turn of the new millennium it is one of the most prominent tools in the art and design industry, Photoshop is arguably the most popular and powerful image editing software to this date.
Artist can use Photoshop to either develop practical pieces of art or generate digital art from scratch. Photoshop can be used to manipulate photographs, which is very common or it can be used create surreal images. Surreal compositions are often created as a narrative. Surrealism was a cultural movement from the early 1900s, the movement was known for its visual artworks and writings. Surrealism implies that something is unreal or bizarre and this theme when introduced in artwork it creates a sense of ambiguity rectifying the symbolic factor of artwork. A narrative is a form of telling a story, in this context the form is presented as Artwork. Narratives can present various stories including; literary, religious, social, personal or environmental, these issues are used to facilitate the artist in creating their work. Narrative could be produced as illustrations, photographs and gifs, which are based on a specific story or relate to an issue and this is transpires from computer software.
Artist research and analysis I will now look at three artists whom I believe are relevant in terms of the question. The chosen artists use various techniques through modern day technology, which would have perhaps been impossible without the advancements we have had in technology. Despite using similar software in the creation of their outcomes the artist have a very diverse range of work, which is distinct to each other’s.
Nancy Liang Nancy Liang is an illustrator and paper enthusiast from Sydney, Australia. Nancy Liang’s illustrations surround a theme involving society or cultural ethics. She often composes illustrations around her personal views and thoughts as well. Liang’s illustrations have an animated presentation; however, the story that is she presents through this, is what greatly reflects the surrealism of her work.
The first creation of Liang which I came across is pictured above (centre); at my initial observance my attention was immediately spurred to the unidentified animal. This was because of the scale proportion of the figure, as it was considerably larger than the houses, people and trees, which made me, feel the illustration was surreal. This is due to my conception, and believing the animal should be smaller in comparison to the homes and people, however Liang has done this for a
metaphorical effect to which to animal is greatly significant. A second example of this is (right) the moth on the building. Again it is larger in scale than it should perhaps, and it makes us question, why is it so big? What is it doing on the building? Is it attacking the building or people inside? In actual fact it is again being used symbolically. The moth pictured draws loosely upon a Chinese belief. When a large butterfly or moth enters a house or a place it is the soul of a recently deceased visiting for the last time. In this case, it is spirit of the building bidding farewell to its physical form after becoming forgotten historic infrastructure in Sidney. Revisiting the image with the animal, we can notice small blazes of fire, and a mildly chaotic scene drawn by the silhouette of people running around. What has caused the blaze? Was it the animal? Why is the area so remote? This is an example of how modern technology and techniques have changed the way that stories are told within artwork. “I focus on landscapes and suburban locales of which I attempt to draw out social, cultural and even personal narratives.” Nancy Liang states, her focus is on landscapes and suburban locales, which explains her settings are very much chosen and represented through the social, cultural, and personal narrative views which she has on them. This reiterates my previous assumption, that her work is very much driven by specific issues which she aims to illustrate through her artwork with “textures and colours from discarded papers, found objects and other miscellaneous materials”.
Nancy is very much a practical artist, in the sense that she consistently implements handmade elements and textures in her work. Despite this she does inevitably resort to technology to enhance her work and compose a more complex piece of art work. Once she has collected her textures and crafted paper she then transfers these to computer software, likely to be Photoshop where she can manipulate these single elements and create a more detailed and composed piece. The software provides more options which she now has control of after the process of her project in its earlier stages. The software will allow her to control the colours, gradients, shadows and many more specific elements which will impact her work emphatically. Liang’s work is a great example as it shows the possibilities and the advancements of technology in artwork; however it also highlights the significance of traditional methods. This could mean perhaps as an artist, Liang feels she can express her thoughts better when initially using traditional methods and later this can be enhanced through digital software such as Photoshop. Interestingly, I have found all her illustrations appear to have a consistent scenario, in that it is set in the evening adding a night time feel, of dusk and darkness, making the work feels almost ‘chilly’. This perhaps helps to intensify her emotions and thoughts which she illustrates through her artwork, and effect which would not be conveyed in a light and bright image. The dark and dusky feel can easily be implemented through editing software where she can adjust the image to how she feels necessary. Strong tone of white colour is used by Liang to create a winter season feel, representing snow with casts of shadows spread over several areas; the atmosphere again seems cold and silent. It allows the house (left) to dominate the artwork and attract the audiences view swaying their mind to question why it is upside down, it could suggest and emotional destruction within the family who live in the home. Among the stars (left, centre) is a crescent moon which could be significant in many ways to the characters or the subjects in the artwork, possibly through religion or other beliefs.
Nancy Liang – Artwork: Midnight Games
Considering Nancy Liang’s art work and the question, I feel the recent advances in computer technology have affected storytelling, and it has positively affected it. Nancy Liang exemplifies how traditional methods can and are still used, but technology can greatly improve artwork. For example, we can assume many of the subjects in her art work above have been created by hand. The trees, houses, mountains were either drawn by pen or pencil or cut and crafted from paper. Through the use of editing software, she is now able to combine these individual elements and compose a detailed and symbolic story. Editing software often allows a more efficient completion process and enables easy fixes for mistakes. Nancy Liang’s work was very much inspiring, as I enjoyed the distinctive way in which she presents social and cultural issues as well as her own personal opinions on society. She creates an unusual presentation of a story using traditional and modern day techniques. The metaphorical essence which she implements makes her work intellectual as well as imaginative. It can attract various opinions and questions which makes the narrative successful, as the audience can share their various perspective and it shows how opinions may differ despite people looking at the same image. This creates a great interaction between the artist, artwork and audience.
Alexandra Bellissimo The second artist I have chosen to look at is contrasting to Nancy Liang as her artwork is generated from a photographic process. Despite their differences, Alexandra Bellissimo takes advantage of the advancements in modern day technology similar to Nancy Liang in order to create surreal and enigmatic compositions. Alexandra Bellissimo is an unconventional photographer who “extends her work beyond traditional photography”. Alexandra collages a collection of images in relation to humans and nature exploring their physiological and physical connection. Her outcomes are produced by cutting, layering and cohering photographs into a single collated piece through Photoshop.
The reason I have chosen to study this artist and her artwork, is because I feel her work is very direct and prominent. The prominence of work is significant as I believe it portrays a clear example of how advancements in technology have affected storytelling. I have displayed three examples of Bellissimo’s which I believe represents her best. As we can see Bellissimo uses a female figure which she then cuts apart through Photo editing software. The artwork above each include a close up of a female character who has a section of her body removed, two of them present the character with the upper part of her head remove. This dissected effect appears to be calm and works well despite the differences between the subjects, and this is only possible through the advancements in computer technology, in comparison to a photo montage by hand these outcomes are rather complex and the difference between the subjects In the image would be quite complex to compose so well by hand. These advances have allowed artist such as Alexandra to create this surreal image, and image which is hypnagogic and beyond realistic. However the portrayal of it is very much visually realistic although in our conscious we know the image is mere illusory.
From the minimal expressions and body posture which we can withdraw from photography I perceive the subject is stressed and rather vulnerable or suffering emotional and, or physical pain. This is evident as we see in the third image her hand on her neck which looks like she could be in pain or distressed and is seeking relaxation by soothing her neck. The first image displays her back with her head tilting down which makes her look vulnerable and secretive. From this I fee Bellissimo is trying to express her emotions through her artwork, similar to Nancy Liang. The third image which displays the flight of birds reinforces the stressed portrayal and presents a search for freedom which is illustrated through the birds. The birds can represent escapism or a release of her frustration or stress. In the first image the nature element which she fuses with the character is rather faint this perhaps shows fragility of the character and weakness. The second images features what seems to be tree branches scrunched together and arising out of the characters head, the branches seem congested and scrambled towards an upwards direction this
could symbolise the congestion of thoughts running through the characters mind. The image looks stiff and the darkness on the branches could symbolise a more horrific train of thought. The manipulations are rather direct due to the shortage of content, however this complements what the artist is trying to convey in my opinion, the minimal content highlights the image and gains full attention of the audience as there is nothing around it to divert any attention. The audience will be intrigued by what is the reason for this fusion of a female’s body and natural element. Analyzing the illustration I feel the narrative is perhaps based on an personal story, and this perception is enforced by the female character which is heavily used by the artist, I believe the character could be her or at least be representing her. The natural forms represent a message which she is trying to broadcast and are probable concealed within her as she is possibly finding it hard to express. She has said herself “Through this unusual; unification, the collages evoke a sense of empathy, intimacy and harmony when humans and nature coexist” (http://alexandrabellissimo.com/) which would suggest she is depicting a narrative in connection with humans and nature.
Brian Oldham Oldham is a fine art photographer and visual artist from Southern California. Oldham tends to experiment with self-portraiture as this is something he used to ‘‘blossom’‘ his creative skills. He uses his art work as a substitute to words which he can’t ‘’fathom’’ (Behance.net) and give life to thoughts in his mind along with his personal experience. His work consist of photo manipulation, taking a collection of images and recreating them as a combined piece, equaling to a story built from perhaps up to several different prospects.
His work is rather playful with an open landscape often consisting of a misty skyline and a male figure placed towards the center. The environment the figure finds itself in seems to be abandoned with the absence of species and humans in particular. One illustration we find presents a figure of hand close to connecting with the human figure; this could be symbolizing a connection with god. The concept is reinforced in the other illustration which present a ladder connecting the ground and a cloud, as well as the illustration which presents the human figure being compelled/falling to/from the sky and the dark clouds. The artist seems to be enforcing a mutual theme in his illustrations and I believe it may be of some belief or connection with the upper/outer end of earth. Based on my
research I believe the illustrations imply a symbolic meaning, which presents an ambiguous message from his thoughts and experience. The process of creating the ideal background is one which is lengthy; the tone of color is one which has to be matched by his human figure. He photographs his figure in a similar lighting, to suit his background and then goes on to manipulate his images through Photoshop and editing the adjusting the variations of color to ensure they all complement one another. The colors which we come to see are relatively dark and low in saturation and brightness, there is also a subtle absence of sharpness to ensure no image draws focus more than the other giving it the appearance of one naturally photographed piece. It is acceptable to say that the colors which Oldham includes are rather dull and melancholy which could relate to the illustrators feelings and thoughts. This color scheme seems to be significant at it appears to be mutual amongst all three artist, in that there is a heavy use of black and white and minimal use of color, this suggest perhaps this color regime appeals and emphasizes a tantamount expression and response. The piece which intrigues me most is the first one, as it is the first which I have scene to include more than one humanly figures, despite only being a hand this is integral as it provokes curiosity. We are made to question what the relation between the man and the hand is. Does the hand relate to any religious belief, or is it a connection with something or someone out of this world. Also the small detail which we can see is the hands despite going each other’s direction, are not physically touching or at least digitally made to be seen touching. Is there a symbolic barrier stopping them from doing so or are we shown a motion towards this connection commencing.
Conclusion The involvement and effects of technology in story telling within artwork is evident throughout the work of most artwork in modern day. As exemplified by the work of the artist I researched, modern day technology has supported artist with the capability to produce and enhance artwork allowing the surreal to visually be perceived as reality. Software such as Adobe Photoshop & Illustrator has aided artist in creating artwork which can reflect their inner emotions and discrete thoughts whilst expressing their creativity and imaginations. Artist Nancy Liang has shown despite the advancements of technology, traditional methods are still valuable, as her work is a result of a combination of both technological and traditional artistic methods. Furthermore, traditional methods can influence a more physical or even emotionally or traditionally powerful narrative. Brian Oldham, and Alexandra Bellisismos works distinctively highlight the potential and endowment of technological advancements being able to create an enthralling conceptual or emotionally powerful narratives within artwork. As a graphics student myself, and a consistent user of these technological and traditional methods, I believe that both methods are extremely effective given the purpose. I happen to prefer the use of technological methods, which is popular for most people in modern society, however often I do have
to resort to traditional methods where practical work is more effective than that of a computer Some may feel traditional techniques you have more freedom as it is all in your hands, however many will argue the same for technology where anything is possible at the click of a button. In response to the question the effect of the advancements in computer technology has been greatly significant in story telling within artwork has been greatly significant, and will continue to be. The potential of technology will continue to grow and continue to change storytelling within artwork as it has done over the past decade.
Bibliography Feature Interview - 365 Days: Brian Oldham http://alexandracameronphotography.blogspot.co.uk/2011/07/feature-interview-365-days-brian-oldham.html How Did You Do That? Nancy Liang Shares Her GIF-Making Process
http://www.brwnpaperbag.com/how-did-you-do-that-nancy-liang/ CHAPTER89 http://chapter89magazine.com/2013/06/12/alexandra-bellissimo/
Images : http://alexandrabellissimo.com/ http://alexandrabellissimo.com/ http://cargocollective.com/nliang
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