Finally got the mosaic going.

After many hours of work I was finally able to get the parameters correct for displaying the mosaic the way I want in the image synthesizer. The next step would be to gather more frames for the indiviudal pieces so that I can have more color. I want to get a total of 256 frames because that would provide a good variety of color and commericals.

Also, I ordered the PVC wiring today. I should be getting 2 spools of each color red, green, blue, and white. I need to get some plexiglass for both the sculptures and graphic pieces.

Additionally, I want to work on another mosaic that will be facing my self-portrait. I plan on using a television set as my subject which is created out of smaller tiles comprised of people from my community. I will use photos of people from facebook to create this. Depending on how many frames I end up using on the self-portrait I will add or subtract he number of frames from the tv set. 

Sculpture started

Found the right material to use finally. I will be rubber-cementing this PVC string (called S'gettehi (TM) ) to the head form.

At first I tried with actual ribbon cable and a hot glue gun. The cable was too small and the wires made it too stiff. Also the hot glue melted and deformed the head.

hahaha, this one looks exactly like someone I used to work with:

Buying supplies

I bought a Styrofoam head from a Halloween store for $2.65. I figure I could use this as a mold for the ribbon cable and heat the cable with a hair dryer to mold to the form. Maybe cover with tin foil and heat?


Also, worked on photo mosaic today and finally made lots of progress, just need to be able to change the sizes of the mosaic for different parts. Thinking of using the brush tool with different parameter presets to achieve the desired sizing effect. Lastly, I need to get 256 frames from 24 hours worth of commercials as my tile material. I'm choosing 256 as it seems like the perfect range of colors and images to represent the mosaic accurately.

Influential Books

Both of these books have been the influential crux of my project. Through Graphic Design, Sculpture, and possibly Video-Art I will examine the unintended consequences of information derived from television. If there is one thing I want to point out, it is that we as a television viewing society have traded depth of knowledge on subjects for breadth of knowledge of subjects.

Photo Mosaics

Another idea for a graphic design peice was to make a photo mosaic. The work of Charis Tsevis and Chuck Close have inspired me to create photo mosaics because I enjoy the idea of how perception changes when you look closer to the piece.

 

When I saw these works by Charis Tsevis I was immediately inspired to do the same and got my hands on a copy of the software to create these. The software, Studio Artist 3.5 is only for Mac and EXTREMELY frustrating to use because of the literally millions of variables that can be changes and the very non-user-friendly interface. It took me two days of working on the program to create something similar to what I wanted, but it still needed lots of tweaking.

Thanks to relentless Google searching I found a clear tutorial on how to create a photo mosaic with Studio Artist 3.5

Additionally, another collage artist I admire is Johnathan Yeo. He creates collages using images from pornography. This is my favorite:

Skull Sculptures

I saw an artist who makes skull sculptures out of wire and rope. http://www.jim-skullgallery.com/





This got me thinking of how I could use the rainbow ribbon cable as a sculpture. Using a Styrofoam head (bought from wig store) I could cover it and use ribbon cables glued or heated together to make a form. Additionally I may be able to use LED plastic tubing. The final artwork may be placed inside a hollowed TV frame. The idea is to create an artistic reply to Edward R. Murrow's quote regarding TV:

This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise it's nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.

Materials needed:

rainbow ribbon cable
stryofoam head
led light tubing?