Hidden Art – When I first began my MA, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. Ultimately I knew it would be something to do with the hidden or the unseen. Initially I began looking at invisible phenomena such as sound waves and the passage of time. However, nothing captured my interest quite as much as augmented reality. It was this whole concept of a hidden unseen world (only accessible to those ‘in the know’), that intrigued me. While conducting research for my Research Paper I discovered that there is a distinct negative bias towards AI generated art. I looked at a number of strategies to help mitigate this bias. Finally, after a number of image polls, used to inform my project, I created a fictitious robot called Athena. Her name was inspired by the old Athena posters from the past. My research was suggesting that humanoid robots with a sad ‘backstory’ could help to reduce bias and win over an audience when presenting AI art. At this point I began to develop a narrative for my robot. During a visit to Barcelona, I was completely amazed by the sheer weight of graffiti adorning the city walls. I […]
Barcelona’s Hidden Artists – While visiting Barcelona, I became fascinated with the vast swathes of graffiti covered walls. It felt as if collectively everyone had given up on cleaning the walls. Indeed, it felt as if the walls themselves had become works of art. In stark contrast I also noted the pristine internal walls of the MACBA (One of Barcelona’s contemporary art museums). I was so ‘taken with’ the beautiful light inside of the MACBA that I decided to photograph it. I also photographed many graffiti laden walls across Barcelona. There really was a such a stark contrast between the pristine and the messy that I began to wonder what the MACBA would look like if it was plastered in graffiti? The internal walls of the MACBA were so beautifully clean that I felt an irresistible urge to ‘plaster’ them. The vibrant colours and designs found externally on the Streets of Barcelona seemed a logical choice. Unfortunately, my dream of taking spray paints to the MACBA walls was pretty much out of the question. However, I did have access to Photoshop, Ai and augmented reality. As a direct result of my thinking I managed to self publish 3 small art […]
Affairs of the Heart – In my last post about the Grotto print project, I mentioned that I was becoming increasingly unsure about the clocks project. Therefore I asked my friends on Facebook for help. In some sense I wished that I hadn’t bothered because unfortunately it just further confused the matter. Below are the choices I gave to my Facebook Friends. So far not many people have commented on the second set of options with the coloured graffiti hearts. However, for the first set of options namely the colourful clocks vs the black patterned hearts, it was an absolute tie. Over 16 people responded and the comments indicated that those who liked the clocks really liked them and those who loved the black hearts really loved them! I just don’t know which to choose. Personally I am torn between all three of them. I don’t really feel that the clocks are fully mine even though I had quite a hand in generating them from one of my own images. The graffiti hearts are quite busy and vibrant and although the photography, collaging, design and layout are all mine, they do incorporate elements of other artists’ work. The black and […]
