Graphics Essay

How have recent advances in computer technology affected story telling within artwork?

Technology has changed the world we live in today, in the past twenty years the availability of smart phones has reached most of the planet; one gigabyte of memory has gone from an expensive luxury to something virtually useless to many people. But it is common to overlook the extreme amount that the introduction of new technology has changed the art on our planet. From monoscenic rock art of the Iberian Mediterranean Basin to the modern day graphical design that we may see on a poster on a bus or a train, but how did the story behind the art evolve to the present day? And particularly how has the introduction of the computer revolutionised not just art in general but with how we tell a story within the art. I will be focusing on three different artists and how they have used computer technology like Photoshop to influence their style of work. It will hopefully show how the computer has changed things from drawings, paintings and even sculptures to what we have today where its possible with a tutorial of the internet for the most simplest of people to create a fairly professional piece of art. The artist I am taking interest of is Brian Oldham, Daisuke Takura and Mark Weaver. I will be looking at how computers have influenced their work and also the difference between their works to see if computers actually can limit some work. I will also be looking at how the Surrealist movement has progressed with the introduction of computers.

Adobe Photoshop and Surrealism In the current day many of what we see as a design is actually made using Photoshop. Photoshop gives the ability to any individual person to create a piece of artwork that is meaningful to them personally; it gives the ability to the normal person to become an artist in his or her own way.

Although the artwork may not be a sculpture in a museum or a painting destined for the roof of a church, I believe that computer design should still be accredited to the same level. Although it is perceived that Photoshop is an easier way to create artwork than using pen and paper it still requires the same time and effort is still put in to creating it and this is well known by people like myself who have created artwork using both techniques. Photoshop just brings a whole different way of creating art; you can create your own photographs, design a logo or even enhance handmade work like a font or sculpture.

Surrealism is a cultural movement, which uses the element of surprise and unexpected juxtaposition within the work. The Surrealism movement started in 1920 the aim was ‘was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality’. Early works were mainly paintings with confusing scenarios such as an elephant’s face being replaced by a trumpet or an animal doing human activities. An example of this is Vladimir Kush’s work on the right, which shows typical surrealistic art. The movement changed very much with the introduction of computers and Photoshop. Actual photographs may be used and then manipulated to tell the story within, for instance the photo may appear to have a figures face floating by the side of them, this would just represent the story that they’re losing themselves and their identity. Traikovs work below is an example of this and it shows the story behind is not as obvious to see in more modern surrealist art. Therefore this is showing how the advances in technology have changed the whole surrealism movement and how the stories are presented.

I will now be looking at my three different artists who I think represent modern story telling through their artwork. The artists are Brian Oldham, Daisuke Takura and Mark Weaver. All of the artists create work that would not be possible about twenty or twenty-five years ago where the current technology would not have been around, so this advance most certainly takes a massive part in their career and lives. Without the advances all three of the artists wouldn’t be able to tell stories within their work in the same way. For instance it is unlikely Takakura and Oldham's work would exists as

they use mainly photography in their work so without cameras etc. they would not even be artists most likely. Also as Mark Weavers work is so different it will be easy to compare how story telling is different in the present day. An example is how that Weaver may use Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator in a different way as he uses illustrations and drawings more than the other two artists who prefer to use photography as their starting point. This would then consequently lead to them having vastly different types of stories presented within the artwork, with Weaver it may show memories and with Oldham it may be concentration more on the feelings shown by the subject.

Artist 1- Mark Weaver Mark Weaver is a designer and illustrator currently situated in New York and has had clients including the New York Times, Stella Artois and the Wall St. Journal.

All of Weavers work is made using the current computer technology and programs like Photoshop and maybe even illustrator. He uses modern technology like a camera to get all of the photographs that he uses in his work, this of course is vital, and shows how technology is needed. His work contains a varying range of different styles, but throughout there seems to have a centered foreground and a dominant background of mainly white space.

When first looking at Mark Weavers artwork it first appear to me to be following that of the early surrealistic movement. It is increasingly obvious that some work of Weavers is designed to be more surreal than others. The main piece of work that I am looking at for Surrealism in Weavers collection is the ‘control’ piece. From what I have said earlier about early Surrealism art, you can see that in this piece it is on show. The emphasis of the work is towards the center and of the half human half fox creature, which is an icon of surrealism movement. This alone shows how the introduction of computer technology has changed surrealism and how Surrealism may help to tell a story with the work. The main basis and starting point of Surrealism is still there, in this piece of work it seems just to be the quality that has improved. Unlike in the 1920’s Weavers work has been created on a computer rather than been made using pen and paper. The differences are evident when looking at the work in fine detail; a camera has been used to obtain all the images in the work where as before computer technology was widespread, the work would have to be done as a drawing or photomontage. Also how all the images being merged into one piece of work has changed, nowadays it is a much simpler process as you would just have two layers on Photoshop and the work could possibly be complete within twenty minutes. But although the work may be fairly simple it creates a great piece of narrative art. As there is quite simply a lack of information other than the word ‘control’ it leads to a lot more questions about the artwork, for instance, what is the actual story? What is being controlled or what is in control? And what is the significance of the figure? Of course this can be assumed and it can come down to a matter of opinion. For instance I think the ‘control’ work is about how we control how nature and animals, which is why there is a very green hilly landscape for the background and the figure is the way, it is. I believe that as figure has the head of animal but the body of a human, it is suggesting that humans are controlling the environment and animals need to adapt to be like a human to survive. However as there is limited information and detail on the work it can be hard to see what it is actually about.

Another Piece of Weavers work that I will look at is what I presume to be one of his most modern is the artwork of the young boys head with what seems to be a whole world taking place inside. This piece of work is very different to the other work that Weaver has done. I think this does also show the influence that advances in computer technology have had on the general artistic world. It allows for just one artist to wander into many more fields of work and do many different varieties of work. This piece again is a good show of story telling within art, again for similar reasons of that you can ask a

lot of questions about it. Like what do the images inside represent? Etc. I think that how Weaver has made the work crowded and cramped into a small area helps to answer what the story behind is about. As Weaver has crowded all the images into the boys’ head, it creates an idea that all the images may be a memory from a trip, or just simply showing a young child’s imagination. So overall the work is just showing what is taking place in the subjects head but it leaves us to wonder what the actually story still is about. However this piece would be incredibly different if we were still using technology from about 50 years ago. All images seem to have been created in a mixture of illustrator and Photoshop. Illustrator has allowed for this high quality designs not to pixelate and Photoshop has allowed them to be incorporated together. If this were fifty years ago, the artwork would most certainly be created using pen and paper and maybe paintings. This would possibly make the work even more crowded and could affect what the actually story within is about, for instance paint overlapped it could look too crowded and messy, this could make people interpret that the subject has some sort of illness and could have a mental issue rather than it being a boys memories or imagination. Weaver stated that ‘’For this composition, I used a photo my dad took of me when I was around 4 or 5 years old. This is close to what the inside of my head looks like.’’ So this supports what I saying, but Weavers interpretation of the work is that it’s the memories of his father.

Weaver’s work is usually representational rather than realistic; I believe this alone raises a large enough point to show how technology has changed artwork. In previous times to create work like weaver has that combines a rather complicated and crowded array of designs and imagery into a relatively small area, would be difficult and the actual story and narrative behind the work would have been lost or lost some of its meaning. And also with previous times a narrative was no actually common in the terms of using representational imagery rather than realistic. Photoshop has enabled weaver to develop his work into representational ideas about feelings and show his current thoughts of a time and place. This is because with Photoshop, you can add image by image, or design by design, into the area and then alter it in to what you please, in comparison to before recent advances in technology where you may be limited to detail of designs and even ways to express you feelings by just using a paintbrush. Of course using a paintbrush or hand techniques does still show feelings but with Photoshop it is now easier to show these things as you can do the combination of free hand and computer technology all in one creating the best piece of work you can.

After looking at the work of Mark Weaver, I do believe that advances in computer technology have influenced how stories have been told throughout his work. But the main idea behind is still the same as about 100 years ago. I just feel that weaver has used technology to enhance the designs and images that he has created. For instance when he prints them onto a canvas, it makes the work look a lot different and gives a greater effect than just being on a screen. So overall he has used advances in technology to aid his work but not to completely change the style, which other artists may have done.

Artist 2 – Daisuke Takakura

Takakura is an artist that believes that somewhere else in the universe, there’s another version of you — someone completely different yet almost the same exists. Among all of us, alternative versions of the self could be lurking with a different past or future. This is evident in all her work where there is always lots of the same person in a location as if they had all been cloned.

In her work you can see there is a reoccurring theme throughout which is to have pieces that contain several images of one subject repeated throughout and this goes along with Takakuras idea of ‘Maybe somewhere else in the universe, there’s another version of you — someone completely different yet almost the same exists. Among all of us, alternative versions of the self could be lurking with a different past or future.’ so Takakuras work is actually showing us in her original designs multiple universes and almost showing us how they would look if they was all merged into one. This technique would be very difficult to implement without the advances in modern technology. Although some may say that you could just simply draw the same thing multiple times to create the same effect, I believe that Takakuras way of using realistic photos to create a surreal type piece would be very different. This is because it would not give the correct emotions within the piece, throughout each individual piece the subject is ranging in emotions from what they are doing, without using photographs it would be impossible to capture the raw human emotion like Takakura does and how he shows its range. This is all relatable back to the beliefs of the artist and that he believes of ‘multiple versions’ of oneself.

Her work is often quite crowded with all these different figures and subjects, and this again shows about Takakuras ideas of multiple versions of oneself in various different universes. But also is quite bright and vibrant in most her work which makes it feel like its a positive environment and situation that all the different versions of the same person is a generally good thing for whatever reason. There is a role of computer technology, similar to in Weavers work where the ability to put a lot of information in one confined space without it loosing its narrative meaning. This is largely to do with the way Takakura created his artwork.

Takakuras artwork was created by Takakura taking multiple images of a landscape or scene but with the subject of the photos moving around into different positions, but with the position of the camera staying in one position. All of this was using modern technology and showing the evolution of a basic idea. Using a camera will show real life emotions, and obviously imagery. And the way that Photoshop allows for them to be integrated into one shows the long way that technology has come.

From looking at Takakura works really demonstrates how advances in computer technology have changed artwork and the story telling within. The story is more an obscure thing at first until you read about the beliefs of Takakura, then it because painfully obvious within all of his work. The advances in technology are also obviously shown, as there is no drawings or paintings or anything made by hand. Merging photos together creates all his work, and this whole process is made on Photoshop.

Comparing Weaver and Takakuras work I can see the differences that computer technology has created. Looking at the media and medium of both artists, you can see that in some cases they are similar although they are not clear. They both use photography in their work, although they do it in different ways. Takakuras work is primarily all photography work where it the photos have been manipulated to create and affect where it is all in one and that they’re many versions of the person in them. Where as in Mark Weavers work the photographs that may not even bee his own, such as he used photos that he ‘found’ of ‘his father’ when he was a child, and these are used are manipulated

a lot more than Takakuras. A fairly common theme he does is placing various photos within an object such as someone’s head (his fathers), but Weaver has a much larger range of work. Weaver also prints some of his work onto canvases, which creates a better affect than being left on computer form.

Takakuras work in the terms of the themes is much more simple than Weavers. However they do have very minute similarities. For example in some of their work they have both attempted to make the pieces crowded. This can make the theme be hidden or unclear. The differences between Takakuras and Weavers are however a lot clearer as the theme of all Takakuras work is that there could be many versions of us in different universes. But Weavers is more telling a hidden story for instance in one of his pieces its about the year 1973 but you cannot tell much else from it. Advances in computer technology shows through in both of these factors, as without the advances neither would have been able to integrate the ideas and narrative into the small spaces without losing detail, both themes have taken influence to the advances. This is shown where Takakura is all to do with photo manipulation to create his theme and Weavers is to do with creating imagery and confining it to small areas to tell the story.

The emotions shown in Takakuras work are ones of confusion and some of conformity, in her work there’s many of the same people and they’re all doing similar things when they’re suppose to be from different universes. Confusion is a similar emotion in Weavers work especially within the piece of the boy’s head, its as if its a lot of memories stuck into one place of like a place or an event. Differences within emotions are more present in Weavers work as you can get clear thoughts and messages like ’control’, which just shows that someone is controlling you or you’re in control of yourself.

Both Takakuras and Weavers work are mainly monoscenic. Takakuras is all from a background and different figurines of the same person edited in to create a single scene. Weavers are similar where different locations or different images are put into one frame. Neither have any work that isn’t monoscenic The composition of each pieces are rather different. Weaver’s work is all focused towards the center and the rule of thirds can be used in the 1973 piece. Where as in Takakuras work its just more confusion and everything is put everywhere following no patterns or rules. Both the artist use computer work and photo manipulation on programs like Photoshop etc. However Weaver has printed some of his work onto canvases, so it shows that Weaver is more of a practical artist.

In my opinion one of the largest differences between the two is the way they vary from Takakuras realistic approach to Weavers representation techniques, both these artist use surrealism but shows how computer technology has moved that movement further along. Representation used in Weavers work is all to do with how he crammed in emotions into various images and was able to place them in the head of his father, furthermore showing his emotions at the time. Where as Takakura has taken a different route by using realistic photos and cloning techniques in Photoshop, this was able to show the emotion through just human facial expressions. Overall you can see that the advances in computer technology has sent two artists in very different directions, much like a painter would be very different to a sculpture but they may both use similar equipment. This does also create varying stories to be portrayed within, Weavers to be more complex and Takakuras a more simple piece. But it they do both show how much the development of technology has influenced artwork and how it divides and broadens out the type of artwork that can be made.

Artist 3 - Brian Oldham

Brian Oldham is a 22-year-old fine art photographer and visual artist hailing from Southern California and is currently living in Los Angeles.

In the work that Oldham has made I choose to look at the pictures above. In the pictures above the theme that is repeated is that there is one figure and it is often in an unusual places. The setting of the work is uncommon places such as being between the trunks of a tree, which of course is physically impossible. Another setting in his work that is impossible to get to be that there is a figure standing on water in like a thing like a lake or a sea. The theme does occur also where the figure is on the top of a cliff on the sea, which would be really hard to get to. This is all things that have been created by computer technology; this is as the artwork is done mainly using photo manipulation on a computer program like Photoshop. The work is usually just done using a background image and editing in a figure.

The artwork that Oldham creates is realistic but also slightly representational, this is due the nature of Oldham’s work and how it is simplistic. ”I strive to bring life to the quiet whispers at the back of my mind, to make whole the ghosts of my experiences." Is how he likes to describe his work, this is saying that he is expressing his emotions through the work he creates, the advances in computer technology has definitely helped influence this, some of his work despite what it may seem is actually pure photography with little manipulation.

The artwork is rather surreal where people will be in unusual places and how they seem lost.

However I do find that the work is relatively realistic in some circumstances, for instance some of the places may not be physically impossible to get to but only just a difficult place to get to, which makes it believable that they have got to the place. And this has been created by designed using computer technology like Photoshop as he has moved and edited the figure to move in to the landscape.

The artwork is always very empty and Oldham uses a lot of blank space throughout all of his work. I believe it is like this as it is trying to tell the story of that one figure in each piece of work is undergoing something that they feel they must battle alone. For instance in the piece with the tree it could be interpreted that the man in it is struggling to cope with stress and feels a large weight over his head and this is symbolized by the tree in this piece of Oldham’s work.

The thing that interests me most about the work is the locations and scenarios that are going on, and how I perceive them to be the places the people in the artwork go when they are feeling under stress or alone. And they’re the emotions that I think the figures are feeling, ones of negativity and it shows the places where they’d go to be alone. Which is why some are physically impossible to get to, as it’s the ultimate place to be alone.

What I can’t tell from the art is what actually is going on in the minds of the figures within, despite how lost they look. Also I cannot explain why or how they got to the locations and situations that they’re in and I believe Oldham has placed them there to express and emotion but one I am not sure on. And the final thing I cannot tell is what would happen after the photo, would the stress become too much and crush the man? Would the figure drop through the lake and drown?

Oldham's work shows how computer technology has changed simply by the way that there is very little information to go of, you would have to search for the deeper meaning within work, like many of the modern narrative artworks. Oldham's work gives the discreetness factor with emotions and stories and leaving it up to the audience to decide what is going on. The way that the subject has been edited onto odd landscapes and locations shows what technology has been used to create the narrative artwork.

Conclusion In conclusion from the various artists and various artworks that I have looked at, it is evident that the advances in computer technology has played a big part in the evolution of narrative art. Weavers work showed me how it is possible to simply just bring the surrealism movement up to date along the same basic morals from 90 years ago. And it shows how obscure the stories may be in current narrative art. When comparing the use of computer technology between Oldham, Takakura and Weaver there are some similarities and differences. Oldham certainly uses less computer technology to his work but it is more significant to the whole scheme of things, without this he would not be able to present the emotions and present the narrative properly. Likewise with Takakura as the way that he presented his work with duplication and moving the subject, similar to Oldham’s technique, is heavily influenced by the use of cameras and Photoshop. Weaver’s work is different in style to these two but also heavily dependent on the technology, in some ways more than Takakura and Oldham, this is due to Weaver using illustrations and photography to create his work, and Photoshop to not overcrowd the artwork. However it is probably easier to create Weavers work without the advances in technology but it would still lose some emotion and effect.

Computer advances have definitely had a major effect on representational and realistic artwork, hence the comparison between Weaver and Takakura, the way that computer advances has changed representational art is that the designs can be more obscure and also that there are more designs to confine emotions like shown in Weavers work. Realism has evolved also, mainly because before photography and computer technology there was no obvious way to actually make the work, now it is possible to combine realistic work and surrealism and many other things, this is simply by having access to cameras and computer programs that allow for photo manipulation such as Photoshop.

Overall I find that modern technology has really affected narrative art and the main feature of the narrative art nowadays is that it requires a deeper, more imaginative thought to really be able to interpret and understand what is going on within the artwork.

Bibliography http://brianoldham.format.com/#1 http://brianoldham.format.com/biography https://www.lensculture.com/daisuke-takakura

http://mrkwvr.com/info

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surrealism

https://www.tumblr.com/blog/richardrobinsonnarrative