Hi all,
I received this email from the SIGGRAPH educators list and thought there
might be someone here interested.
--Mark
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My name is George Pearlman; I am an artist/painter and Program Director
at the Vermont Studio Center, which is an artist residency program in
northern Vermont (). I am writing you to ask for your help. I am trying
to create a computer program to illustrate the experience of visual
plasticity. Visual plasticity was the corner stone of the of the
Modernist Art movement. It represents the phenomenon in which three
dimensionality is expressed on a two-dimensional surface (painting). In
painting as in all two-dimensional art forms, we try to create the
appearance of three dimensionality on a two dimensional surface. We
call this surface the picture plane. The picture plane has natural
properties that it operates by (not unlike our visual cortex) and we
use these to recreate the experience of visual perception. By using
overlapping and dynamic distribution of flat planes along with color we
can create a sense of volume and space. We call this plastic space it
is always changing as the eye moves across the picture plane. Every
plastic activation of the picture surface creates a two dimensional
motion and at the same time, a three dimensional suggested motion in
the sense of push and pull (that is the sense of in and out of depth)
The interplay of this dual motion produces a combined two and three
dimensional rhythm.
In using the computer I would like to create a program that would show
a painting. Lets say a Picasso or a Hoffman, first as it is in it’s
static two-dimensional state. And then through the use of animation
show how the space changes through the observation of the relationships
of the different parts of the painting. I feel this software would
serve two purposes: one as a teaching tool to teaching people how to
perceive a modern painting as well as for the experiential value the
visual experience would bring. If you have any interest in this
project, or if you think you might know of someone who would, please
pass this on or contact me. Thanks, George Pearlman
george(a)vermontstudiocenter.org