'What If Metropolis?' Online Green Light Review Part 1
Apologies for the lateness of my OGR , I am having trouble working out how my city should work and still trying to experiment with what the city should contain and how it would be constructed. I have half of my travelogue. However, I would love any input or guidance on it as creative writing is not my strongest suit, and I would really like to improve.
OGR 03/11/2018
ReplyDeleteHey Shannon - a nicely put together OGR as per - and some powerfully rich thumbnails too. So, we spoke a bit today in the baseroom, and while I very much like your concept of the 'tower', I also think that perhaps it has a complexity of ideas that is similar to 'not choosing an idea' if that make sense - and just in terms of helping you focus on some key space or place for purposes of the project, it might be too broad. Partly your issue is that Cragg has made many types of work, but you don't have to acknowledge everything he's done in a single frame; my suggestion is you work with the side of your artist that you're drawn to most (I think the more organic sculptural elements).
As discussed, I think you need to look now at actual architecture for a sense of how to move past just 're-drawing' Cragg's pieces, and instead thinking about them a) at scale and b) in terms of detailing and materiality and function. Some visual references for you:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blobitecture
http://www.surfacesreporter.com/articles/20768/pebble-inspired-architecture
https://www.archdaily.com/794364/aedas-pebble-inspired-le-architecture-in-taipei-nears-completion
https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/508062401691358557/?lp=true
You'll quickly see that Cragg's shapes maybe not be so outlandish after all! The other thing to look at is the idea of cladding/veneering - so how curves and colour can be applied to the surfaces of buildings:
https://www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/products/vt_cedar_shingles_shakes_c130212.jpg
https://www.theconstructionindex.co.uk/news/view/steni-cuts-its-cladding-competitors-down-to-size
As discussed too, I think you should consider using Maya as an 'in-between' in terms of generating new 'custom' thumbnails for your Cragg-inspired architectural forms - as discussed, by taking a 'shape' and then extruding it along a curve in Maya to emulate the 'piping bag/toothpaste' style structures. In this way, you could be working in the style of Cragg to create some forms - then bring them back into Photoshop as paint-overs or starting points for some creative thumbnailing. We've established that 'faces and profiles are used in some of his work, so maybe using silhouettes of heads/profiles as your 'extruded' shape might be interesting and 'on message'.
The other thing we talked about was attaching some kind of specific purpose, function or place to the thing that will be central to your digital set. There's a word in this article ' taxonomy' - that you might want to think about in this regard.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/art/what-to-see/mind-boggling-structures-stunning-landscape-tony-cragg-rare/
The article highlights Cragg's ideas of 'stacking', 'ordering' and 'sorting' - behaviours we associate with classification and grouping. In this sense, Cragg is a 'curator' - and this is a role we associate with Museum collections etc. Maybe, what you and Cragg are working on together is a brand new and spectacular museum or 'Wunderkammer'?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cabinet_of_curiosities
Certainly, when new museums or extensions to museums are commissioned, the tend to be pretty spectacular and sculptural...
https://www.homedit.com/museums-with-unique-archtiecture/
I have a feeling if you sort of slot a few of these ideas together, you'll soon be feeling much more confident and focused in terms of what it is you and Cragg are dreaming up together. I think too, in light of some of the museum examples given above, the idea that Cragg's work is hugely different to its surroundings - jumping out at people in terms of colour and form - seems very appropriate too :)