Minimalism was the final stage in the logical development of Abstract Expressionism, whose style went from gestural to plane-work (colour field painting) to sharply defined geometrical planes and patterns (hard edge painting) to Minimal Art. It arrived at an impersonal form of so-called artistic purity or truth. All that remains is the intellectual idea of the piece: there's no emotion. This is why Minimalism is close to Conceptualism - both are concerned with the basic idea or concept of the work created. Minimalst, abstract and conceptual artists such as:
Richard Allen
"I have never approached painting with the idea that there has to be a beautiful end product. If beauty can be said to exist in a work I would consider it more a by-product. I would prefer to think of it in terms of a spiritual experience for some people." - Richard-allen.com
Sol Lewitt
“LeWitt compared his role to that of a composer who creates a score that may be played by musicians for generations to come. The concept—or score—remains constant, but the wall drawing, like a musical performance, will vary slightly each time it is realized anew.”- http://www.moma.org/
Mondrian
“only now [in 1943], I become conscious that my work in black, white, and little color planes has been merely ‘drawing’ in oil color. In drawing, the lines are the principal means of expression; in painting, the color planes. In painting, however, the lines are absorbed by the color planes; but the limitation of the planes show themselves as lines and conserve their great value.” – pietmondrian.com
Peter Peri
“In his most recent paintings Peri develops linear geometric structures formed by the repeated drawing and effacing of coloured lines where the accumulation of mistakes and ghosting appear to form the real substance of the painting, with the rendered geometric forms functioning somewhat in a supplementary role. Likewise, the anthropomorphic aspects of Peri’s recent drawings suggest a corporeality which retreats from us the more we concentrate on the constituting, minute, individual lines.”
These artists have influenced my decisions on visual aesthetic a huge amount. For the triangles idea, I decided to study Mondrian and how he viewed ‘the line’ and the expressionism inherent within it. This became the foundation for investigating that element of ‘negative special design’ with triangles and small areas of colour to dynamic effect. The buildings idea is a much less concise version of a similar idea train. Another go using different imagery to deploy the same techniques, however these ideas failed. This was due to the fact that they lacked any audio related content within them, so the semiotic persuasion that I planned on trying to implement could not be easily assigned. I had started making these pieces before I had really come to terms with this factor. But I though they had reasonable aesthetic quality and wanted to pursue the idea further as means to an end and exercising what Edward De Bono calls ‘lateral thinking.’
The inspiration behind idea 2 and 2.1, which are my primary ideas and which were conceived second after much more careful consideration, came from Richard Allen, Peter Peri (minimal artists), and contemporary A/V artists Rioji Ikeda and Quayola (explored in ‘Reasoning 1).
The concept behind the composition of the lines came from thinking about semiotics and how I could potentially direct or manipulate the observer into recognising that the images were directly linked to a sound motif.
The arrangements of the lines directly correspond to the wave form of a particular ‘hit’ at a givent point through out the track. This was achieved by looking at the different wave-forms in the clip view in Ableton and sketching their outline and shape. Then in Photoshop, the lines were arranged to represent their associated wave-form.
(The lines themselves were derived from photographs I had taken of faces, trees, natural forms as well as buildings. Although their content is arbitrary as they are abstracted to such a degree that it is hardly recognisable.)
Having attempted them in white, with both black and coloured lines, they were still lacking an element of professional aesthetics and industry standard design.
It was then I looked back over Peter Peris’ work and decided to attempt the same ‘line’ concept, just inverted so the negative space was black. This turned out to be the winning combination that I feel holds much promise moving into the ‘realisation’ stage of the project.
As a side note, I feel these pieces of Concept art stand alone as a series in their own right. They are powerful when they are blown up to a large scale. Shards of colour shatter through the lines and angles present in the image and could work well if displayed or exhibited correctly.
However, due to the nature of this project, these images will be abstracted one more time as to free up the content of the images to be animated more freely. I do not feel this will have a detrimental effect on aesthetics as it is inherent within the nature of the problem that artefacts are manipulated, reduced and abstracted to their essence for an almost utilitarian end.
In creating the concept art, Ikeda and Quaola were constantly being cross referenced in my mind as this was the contemporary feel I was after. However it is in technique and approach that these more modern artists have filtered through into my work. The execution is far more akin to contemporary practice of these artists where as the aesthetics of my concept art owe their being to more classic abstract and minimalist artists.
IDEAS – Process summary…
Idea 1: Triangles
These images were created and executed with the help of joel Wilson. They were created in Illustrator by copying and pasting smaller patterns of triangles across a larger image, inverting the images and duplicating them. Tweaks to the composition have been made to create an illusion of depth.
Joel has access to a Laser Cutter in Printed Textiles. He prepared the images in Illustrator for the Lazer cutter, and this is the result.
Paper based geometric patterns.
The coloured images were cut out and stuck on by hand.
The detail is from the photos Taken of architecture from around leeds.
I like these images. They have character and charm, reminding me of Mondrian and Kandinski in terms of aesthetics. However, they do not really reflect the feel of the track. There isn't any tangible reasoning as to why the sounds should be expressed as triangles, apart from i liked its Kistch form of minimalism and abstract art.
I also wanted to experiment with a bit of colour, but i am still uncertain. Maybe short flashes, exaggerated and emphasised by the lack of other colour around it. This could be highly dynamic if it is gotten right.
Idea 2: White and line colour
These images were created in Photoshop. They were originally pictures that i had taken of objects. (Faces, Flowers, Trees) The concept behind arranging these abstract shapes the way they are, is that i wanted to represent the shape of the wave form of the hit i was hearing in the audio. So i looked at each hit of each instrument once sampled to audio in Ableton, and copied a rough outline of the shape of the wave form. (The bass is specific to that, Drums (kick snare toms hi hat) the textures are on their own). Then i arranged the lined images of what is now the Concept art to a specific 'Audio Semantic' waveform i was hearing. So all the different parts that make up the audio are referenced, independently in an abstract fashion. Hopefully this will further progress and realize the semiotic, suggestive and phenomenology aspect of the concept.
Once in Photoshop, i added a layer and began drawing outlines and highlighting the silhouettes of shapes to abstract them. Some of these were filled and some not.
The next part was to take line representations of the remaining shapes instead of having constant tones, turn them 90 degrees to achieve. In doing this, the original image was then erased, and this is what was left.
I tried using colour again on these ones and a pure white background. With minimalism in mind, the white juxtaposed against the colour accentuates what is darker. Which i like, however i still feel there is to much colour contained within these images. I will be toning this down and hopefully creating a feeling of 'less is more.'
I prefer these designs to the first ones. It feels like it has more direction and is closer to the aesthetic i had in mind.
In terms of semiotic intent, if the shapes are moving in time with the music, they already have a lot of persuasive information within them. The lines can represent lengths of 'Hit' and altering amounts of lines 'how loud the sound is.'
Idea 1.2: Buildings
These are the developed progression on from Idea 1 - Triangles. Similar in style, decided to make one in full colour, and the others black and white to see a bit of variation.
Using Photographs taken from Leeds many City buildings, they have a lot more architectural information that im not sure i like the semantic connotations of the architecture as it couple potentially influence ideas of decadence or mans prowess/tech advancement, when, after looking at these, i think i want a more humanist resonance to be available.
I do like the full colour piece as a piece, but its definitely not right for the a/v project. There is far to much information in it, it isn't at all clean and defined, it is very over crowded.
I prefer the aesthetic to the black and white images. Distorted perspective though collage is quite effective, this is something i may take forward into the actual concept art.
Idea 2.2: Scratch
These are a continuation on from Idea 2 - 'Scratch'. They were made in the same way as before, selecting images and objects and abstracting them to line an shape, arranging them into the shape of a waveform specific to a hit in the audio.
I did a series of white ones, and then whilst messing around, i remembered the 'inverse' function. This then Flipped the background black and made the lines white This was starting to look more how i imagined it. Constructed minimally out of abstracted and reduced shapes, there is plenty of negative space, there are a few more curves and other dynamics that suggest a more sensual, romantic, humanist element which i really liked. the only thing missing is the colour.
I had the idea that it would only be the nuances within the audio that will be represented by colour, and as these are general concept art ideas, i decided that they can be decided at a later date, giving me a slight bit of wiggle room to potentially change and develop the audio and visual images a bit more if i need to. I’m still uncertain of what colours will be used other than the black and white.
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