Willing the Grid

Nineteen eighty-four series

2011-10-31T16:30:00.002-04:00

So here is the final selection from my Nineteen eighty-four series of 5 colour lithographs along with one larger solo example.

Start the Presses!

2011-08-27T21:09:00.002-04:00

After a three year hiatus from lithography I finally got back to it this week. To start, a choose this five colour non-registered varied edition based on an appropriated Orwell nineteen eighty-four book I found in the library.

(Sorry for the low resolution, I used my cell phone to take these pics)

Don Quixote at my Final Crit.

2011-04-18T22:55:00.004-04:00

So here are some shots from my final critique of my MFA degree. The next time I have a crowd of people judging my work it will be at my thesis defence.

This time around I chose to exhibit only one work in progress as opposed to my standard show of 20 ongoing works. It worked out well and kept the discussion focused. I just hope I can find the energy now to continue this project as it still has a way to go.

In case any one is wondering the entire project revolves around my Quixotic quest to re-type the entirety of Cervante's Don Quixote on an old typewriter. There are many parts to the project and all of them are a bit absurd.

Studio Shots

2011-02-27T20:11:00.000-05:00

Some pictures of my studio. It's a bit of a mess, but at least I am working again.

Found Plate Improvisations

2011-02-22T10:25:00.002-05:00

Here are some shots of the final box of mono-prints. I am exceptionally happy with the way this project turned out. This is probably the first project I can officially say is completed since I started my MFA.

Ideas!

2011-02-21T13:46:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of shots of my Idea Cards. Printed on the Letter press, they allow me to log and archive my ideas for future projects. This way I can map my thought process and almost turn the idea of ideas into a game. When I need a project for a particular reason I just go to my wall and pick something to do.

For Sol Lewitt

2011-02-13T12:38:00.002-05:00

This piece was done for the "exchange with Sol Lewitt" show that was taking place at the MASS MoCA and and at Cabinet in NYC. But, due to a postal error my pice sat in limbo for three weeks and ended up not being delivered.

Summer Work.

2010-09-01T09:38:00.002-04:00

There is a little bit of everything here, including, print, drawing, digital and photography. This is only a small portion of the things I created this summer, but wall space was limited.

Found Plate Improvisations. (Intaglio/Drawing)

Four separate projects

Little Organic Drawings

Macroblock drawing, Macroblock assemblage, Macroblock iterations.

More Photos from City 17

2010-08-08T22:23:00.002-04:00

No More McConnell Fellowship!

2010-07-08T15:59:00.000-04:00

So the bad news is, that my McConnell fellowship has been withdrawn. But, that is not really bad news because it was withdrawn in order to offer me the even better David J. Azrieli Graduate Fellowship and a Concordia University Graduate Fellowship.

This change is meaningful because it means that I got the highest ranking in the fellowship competition. And, while I am not that committed to titles and rankings, this does make studying next year a little bit easier and it flatters my ego a tiny bit (especially considering that last semester was not my best one to date).

The Drawing Room Exhibition

2010-06-20T15:16:00.004-04:00

I am pleased to announce that my drawing has been selected to be part of the The Drawing Room exhibition which is a national juried exhibition taking place as part of the 2010 DRAWN Festival in Vancouver. This festival is (I believe) the only nationwide festival dedicated to Canadian drawing practices in Canada.

Info:

The Drawing Room runs July 17 through August 7 at the Pendulum Gallery (885 West Georgia Street, Vancouver). An opening reception will take place Friday July 16, 7—9 pm.

http://www.drawnfestival.ca/DRAWNNews100619.asp

Pixel bricks

2010-06-14T17:06:00.003-04:00

This is part of a really fun and interesting series of quick compositions in which I drew walls with isometrick pixel bricks that is loosely inspired by old school 2.5D video game art.

All the standard references are here for me: pixels, orthographic/isometric projections, grids, iterations, digital/analog comparisons and even politics if you care to get deep with it.

Drawing with jpg macroblocks

2010-06-14T17:00:00.003-04:00

This was just a one of test in which I tried to use pre-existing jpg image's macro-blocks to do a self protrait with. Without getting technical, I could say that it is like drawing with pre-existing compression artifacts and moving them around until one image becomes another. That doesn't really explain it but I am too tired to type 20 paragraphs.

Drawings

2010-06-14T16:55:00.002-04:00

A couple of drawings from my last crit.

Some work from last semester.

2010-06-14T16:34:00.004-04:00

So, I haven't posted in quite some time and I have done a terrible job of documenting my recent work, but here is one ongoing project.

This project revolves around teaching myself to engrave in copper. Since this technique is hundreds of years old and been, more or less, replaced by etching no one can teach it to me at school. So, this project is me teaching it to myself.

With this project I print after each line I make and keep the off prints for drawing on or doodling. I write my notes directly on the prints and instead of an edition I have a type of narrative book that documents the process. It is definitely not very masterful but is fun none-the-less.

Digital DreamScapes (Not the official Title of the series)

2010-02-05T13:04:00.005-05:00

These prints may end up not going anywhere as I do not like to work aesthetically any more. There are some conceptual puzzles I am working with in these, but they are, as of yet, unresolved. When and if they ever do, I will officially welcome these prints into my official practice. but for now, they are just fun images to make and shoot!

End of Semester Crit

2009-12-10T23:59:00.002-05:00

Though I have not posted any of my new work from the past couple of months, here are some shots from my end of semester crit that give an idea of what I have been doing. As previously seen, my work is still program generated for the most part.

Stay tuned for more posts over the holidays.

Prix Albert-Dumouchel Vernisage

2009-09-14T21:37:00.006-04:00

So my first post in months shows me with my son, sister, partner at the vernissage for the Prix Albert-Dumouchel, a print competition here in Quebec. The show itself had a few interesting pieces and but on the whole was not overly impressive.

The winning Entry was pretty interesting as it dealt with themes that I am interested in as well - notably language, identity and relations. Though if I had to vote on a winning piece I might very well have chosen the same one, I still find it strange that one of the three judges was a the print director at UQAM and the two winners were from there. Seems to me to lack a certain ethic and most likely a conflict of interest but on the whole I do not care much for competitions. I need them for the CV but these are rarely a proof of superiority, just taste. Winning would not have proven me better and losing does not prove me worse.

Still a fun time was had and I was proud to have introduced my Son Lukas to his first vernisage. Hopefully, he will get many opportunities to accompany me in the future.

Awards

2009-05-25T19:53:00.005-04:00

Though, I don't have any new work to show right now, I do have some news pertaining to my education.

The first piece of good news is that I have been awarded the prestigious Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarship from SSHRC (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada) for 2009-10. This alone will make my next year a really interesting one as I will be able to concentrate on my studies and not have to worry about working.

Also, I have just found out that I have been awarded the Yves Gaucher Prize in Studio Arts from Concordia University for 2009.

So, all-in-all, I am having a pretty good week.

Untitled Landscape #2

2009-04-22T13:40:00.005-04:00

Here is my last offset litho of my undergrad degree.

For this one I tried to work with subdued colors and include (a barely noticeable) white layer on tan/grey paper. Overall I like the quality of the print even though it does not stand out like the previous colored ones. The white is subtle but it does make a difference.

At least I finally learned how to print clean with the plates. On the last official day of my undergrad degree i finally realized what I was doing wrong on the press.

I have yet to name this piece so for now we will call it "Untitled Landscape #2".

And one more time

2009-04-20T14:48:00.003-04:00

Conspiring

2009-04-19T15:40:00.002-04:00

Here is one (at a slightly higher pixel resolution) of brutus and a gang of senators conspiring to kill Julius Caesar.

Brutus

2009-04-19T15:37:00.005-04:00

Continuing with my digital TV watching machine, as well, as with HBO's Rome, Here are two versions of Brutus, right before he plunges his dagger to finish off Julius Ceasar.

These tewo images use the same algorithms as the death of Ceasar (seen in my last post below.)

Watching TV Digitaly!

2009-04-15T23:08:00.004-04:00

My latest attempt at digital printmaking has me revisiting the Pixelography project but with a newly programed version.

After realizing the limitations with Max/msp I have recreated the pixel capture program in Java and have included a few new algorithms for how the pixels capture and draw the images.

As well, instead of feeding the video directly into the program, this time around, I am watching the films through a video camera pointed at the tv. Basically, I have created a "subjective" viewer that just happens to be a digital device. And this particular viewer was watching the death of Julius Ceasar from the HBO tv show Rome.

I have included here two versions of the capture, one with the same linear algorithm as my last Full Metal Jacket series, and one with my new k*counter%arrayLength algorithm. Though both very simple the perceived image speaks volumes about the role the perceiver has in creating the object viewed.

Ashenvale Bridge

2009-04-15T23:03:00.002-04:00

Here are some shots of my newest Video Game landscape done on the the Vandercook press with polymer plate.

Though I had some major problems exposing the plates I am fairly happy with the resulting print.

New project: Untitled Landscapes

2009-03-15T11:07:00.005-04:00

For my new project, just started this week, I am going in a very new direction. I am creating line screened offset lithographs and polymer plate "Landscapes". As usual, my interests lie in the construction of images as they transverse different mediums and paradigms and so these particular landscapes come from digital gaming worlds and then get "translated" into traditional and older analog reproduction techniques.

In all cases, I would like to preserve some of the unreal whimsy or romance of the original, while transforming it into something wholly ambiguous.

the only real issue right now, is that the outcomes are quite aesthetic, and as a general rule, i prefer when the aesthetics play a secondary role to the thought being generated.

I will have to try more and see how the process works as a generator of interesting questions.

This was also a practice run for me working with the large offset printer and though it was fun to learn, my body is still aching from the two days of printing with it. It does feel good to use my entire body to create something again, as sitting in front of a computer can sometimes be very alienating.

Narratives - Art Matters 2009

2009-02-27T21:40:00.006-05:00

Here are a few photographs from the Narratives show at Art Mur in which I showed my digital print series on Full Metal Jacket.

FMJ Series Continued

2009-02-23T20:49:00.003-05:00

Here are some of the last images produced for the Art Matters show at Art Mur. Though these don't look like much displayed on screen, they are quite interesting when printed on quality paper. As much as I profess to care more about content, rather that aesthetics, I still can't help appreciating a really beautiful image.

Full Metal Jacket series

2009-02-16T10:44:00.004-05:00

These are some new experimentations with representation, time and perception from Kubrick's seminal film. I am now, more preoccupied with looking for how time and space are created or reconfigured through the modes of representation or perception we use.

While all this is still not clear in my head the outcomes of my attempts are strangely poetic and aesthetic to me.

I wonder if others have anything to gain from these. I guess we will see when these are on display at Art Mûr next week.

Start the Presses

2009-02-08T23:46:00.005-05:00

After a long break from the printing presses, I have started to work with my line screen experiments again. To start me off I am working small and with one or two colors and will hopefully work towards more complex images as the semester advances.

This test was done using a polymer plate and printed on a Vandercook Proofing press. Though, the tests started out really well, after a few prints it started filling in and I could not get it back. Additionally, I kept getting ink on the back of the printed pages and did not notice it until I got home with the prints. I will expose another plate with a modified matrix and try again this week.

Digital traces

2009-01-29T20:05:00.005-05:00

Here are digital time-lapse captures taken from within the EV building of Concordia University.

What we inevitably see is how a slowed down digital capture exposes the digital process. What is qualitative and continuous in analog equipment becomes sequential, precise and divisible in the digital. Movement can be captured, but only in a precise, yet abstract way. We don't get the faint, blurry trace that we have come to expect from time-lapse photography. What we get is a the precise information of that existed in that pixel position at that particular time.

Moving Bodies are transformed into information - numbers to be precise - and only those things that appear immobile allow themselves to be understood.

Full Metal Jacket Diptych

2009-01-27T23:26:00.006-05:00

Here are my most recent attempts at a conceptual use of my, slightly modified, temporal palindromatic pixel sampler! I know that doesn't make much sense, but I am in no mood to explain what the program is actually doing at this point.

The Organic and the Algorithmic

2009-01-27T23:16:00.003-05:00

So, after that slight setback last week, I am back at it with a modified version of my video processing software. I realized, that in reality, the work I was (or still am,) doing is not that interesting. The problem with machine processes is that once the "fun" work of writing a program is done, the output becomes predictable and uninteresting. It may be interesting to look at, but it lacks any opportunity for continued thought.

I am not saying that there is nothing to think about. I am just saying that once there has been one piece of work output, each additional one, is redundant. The program is too predictable and that is the obvious shortcoming to all programed works. The addition of random elements, arguments or parameters, is usually not the solution, as again that just gives the appearance of difference.

Though, my knowledge of programing is extremely limited at this point, I am starting to see the limitations of purely programed work and why it has usually failed to hold my interest in the past. I need to find a way to imbue them with more "organic" algorithms, if that is even possible or meaningful.

Shut it down!

2009-01-19T20:12:00.002-05:00

Ok, so it is rare that I have to completely pull the plug on something that I have worked so hard on, but today I am doing it.

By pure coincidence, I came across the work of American artist Jason Salavon, and realize that he has tackled the same issues as me, but seven years earlier. And when I use the word "same" I do not mean "similar", I mean the same exact thing. Same look, same point, same format, same everything.

I have never heard of this guy before and I have lost weeks of work, as their is no way I can keep going with this without outright plagiarizing.

Here is the link to his 2001 works that have staled me thus. http://salavon.com/MTVsTop10.shtml

New pixel-time tests

2008-12-23T17:36:00.004-05:00

Here are some new generated images from modified version of my Pixel-time patch. This one turn films into timed pixel grids by calculating the resolution based on number of frames in the video and then captures on pixel per frame and flows from the top left down to the bottom right.

I have some that capture the pixel based on its current read-write position and others that capture the average of all the pixels on screen.

So far, there isn't much going on with this as it only produces abstract grid compositions. I am currently working to expand the functionality of this program as well as find an actual use for it.

Lasagna show @ Arprim

2008-12-13T23:47:00.005-05:00

Some pics from the Lasagna show opening today at Arprim. The show turned out pretty well and I was happy with my prints. The invitation I made for it was really badly printed and someone (I don't know who,) repositioned my type. But, since they where printed so late it didn't make a difference and hopefully almost no one will see them.

Self-Portrait Studying

2008-12-08T20:46:00.003-05:00

After having found a way to streamline and speed up my program quite considerably. I took this 10 minute shot of me re-reading a draft of one of my latest papers. Due to the increased speed it is a lot easier to make out moving figures.

3 hour self-portrait in Pixel Time

2008-12-08T16:04:00.006-05:00

Here is a higher resolution example of my pixel-time photography program. It took almost three hours to complete. I will need to find a way to pump a little more speed out of this program or I will have trouble finding sitters when the time comes to produce my series.

Or, maybe I just need to figure out a more creative use for this new machine instead of simple photo-portraits.

I will keep playing around with it and see what comes out. The possibilities of opening the debate on perception and information are already quite apparent, as are the possibilities of discussing the differences between analog and digital perception and their subjects. I am looking forward to seeing where this can go!

Pixel lapse photography

2008-12-07T22:32:00.005-05:00

Here is a test from my latest programing/print project. Basically, It does what a digital camera does only slower. It exposes the process of registering one pixel at a time as it takes the photo. Usually the process is so fast that it looks instant but in reality numbers always register in sequence.

I still have quite a bit of work to do on this as right now my computer has trouble doing this at speed at high resolutions. So, I need to optimize the program and see where I can squeeze a little more performance out. I also need to make an interface and iron out some bugs. It shouldn't be long now as the prototype works quite well.

As you can see things that don't move register clearly whereas things that do move have their movement registered as the pixels draw.

Projecting Pastness: Memory and Time

2008-11-27T22:38:00.005-05:00

This installation consisted of a chair, some history books and a lamp to read them by. The chair included a light sensor that was hooked up to a computer running the program I wrote which would trigger a camera to photograph the subject and re-project them on the wall when they left the scene. Additionally, when no one was interacting with the installation the computer would randomly recall moments from the past and replay them – not necessarily in the proper order, and sometimes deciding midway to mix them up. the captured images would also, once recalled, deteriorate with time and pixelate into obscurity. All these effects would also create visual feedback loops and that would fragment and redefine the "memories" as time past.

Obviously, the still pictures here, taken under low light, do not display much of the actual situation at all, but they are all I have to show for now.

Wittgenstein, Language, and Simulacrum

2008-11-21T21:01:00.003-05:00

These are the next steps in my simulacrum project listed below. In this print work, I used programming to translate some Wittgenstein quotes from Tractatus, into binary pixels in CMYK. I guess this can almost be seen as a combination of much of my previous work. to me this still seems in-progress. It is not resolved and needs to continue or be discarded.

Memories

2008-11-12T23:20:00.004-05:00

I never realized just how important your living or working space is. I guess I have been exceptionally lucky up until now that I have always felt good where I was and just accepted that as a given. Well, that is until I moved to my current space in NDG.

I am not sure if it was the light, the location or the sound insulation but last year I felt inspired from morning till night and now I find myself looking for reasons to not be here and waste more time than I have wandering aimlessly downtown.

This photo I found of my ex-studio illustrates the obsessive focused passion of last year well. My current studio is so barren and empty you would swear it was abandoned.

New Adventures in Electronics and Computers!

2008-11-11T17:42:00.005-05:00

I am really new to electronics, programming and interfacing with the computer beyond the mouse and keyboard, but I am really excited about the possibilities for future projects.

Here is my Arduino and a photocell I put together in order to interface using light sensing. This is pretty basic, but I got a resolution control program working with light readings.

I am currently working this into an installation project that will deal with projections and memory. I will be done in two weeks and will, hopefully, film the interactions to display here.

Simulacrum project

2008-11-11T17:06:00.006-05:00

Here are some works in progress from my new print series of binary/hex/grid compositions.

The word simulacrum means: An image or representation of someone or something. (Oxford English Dictionary) But I prefer Brian Massumi's interpretation , which states:

"A copy is made in order to stand in for its model. A simulacrum has a different agenda, it enters different circuits."1

and,

"The thrust of the process is not to become an equivalent of the 'model' but to turn it and its world in order to open a new space for the simulacrum's own mad proliferation. The simulacrum affirms its own difference. It is not an implosion, but a differentiation; it is an index not of absolute proximity, but of galactic distances."2

This new series of mine, based on programing and file codes, attemps to explore the questions of copy and simulacrum by looking at the nature of an image from a digital perspective. What is an image? And when it is explored from different perspectives or encodings does its nature change?

This is unfinished work and is still in the process of being created.

1. Massumi, Brian. "The Simulacrum According to Deleuze and Guattari" Copyright no. 1, 1997.

2. Ibid.

Willing the Grid. part I

2008-09-27T00:07:00.002-04:00

In case people haven't gotten it yet, my work last year wasn't really about grenades. It was more about structures and systems; relationships that define perceptions and not objects in-and-of-themselves.

A grid is a very relevant structure in this sense. It grounds and systemizes thought, ideas, architecture, etc. Is this what people seek? A willing of the grid at the expense of a groundless potential?

And again!

2008-09-26T18:52:00.002-04:00

Since I felt the last 4 color litho was such a success i decided to up the challenge with a much finer dot resolution and try it again. Of course, I got myself completely in over my head and had no end of trouble printing this. Wasted films, plates, paper and time to finally end up with a paltry edition of 3! 250$ worth of material and perhaps 35 hours to get 3 prints that are not even that well printed. At least I ended last year with a valuable lesson in humility.

So this is how JPG compression works!

2008-09-26T18:36:00.001-04:00

I have so much more respect for the computer after trying to draw like one. Understanding how simple things like compressing a JPG image require some pretty creative constructions has completely changed my view of the dichotomy between the analog and the digital.

Precious Grenade in CMYK

2008-09-18T22:44:00.001-04:00

This 4 color offset lithography uses the concepts of commercial CMYK offset printing process and makes the color illusion created by half-tone patterns explicit. Though the pattern is an obvious distortion, the image from far appears top be full color. Does exposing the illusion change the way we understand perception?

Art Matters 2008

2008-09-09T23:34:00.000-04:00

My drawing installation at last years Art Matters Festival at the FOFA Gallery. Three grenades, or perhaps, three representations of grenades.

So many people automatically assumed that I was protesting war with this work. As if an image of an unarmed grenade was inherently political. Or even the actual grenade lying on the floor between the two images. Anti-war or pro-war?

Maybe it had nothing to do with war and more to do with the way we, as thinking creatures, relate and identify to an object of our own creation. This work turned out to be a great example of the paradox of being attracted to something we have been conditioned to revile. And, luckily for me, more people than I had originally expected came in for a close look and realized that the grenade was not the real subject of this work, but merely a vehicle for a more abstract idea of relative truth and tautological systems.

First words

2008-09-09T23:20:00.000-04:00

For intellect in the service of the will, that is to say in practical use, there exist only individual things; for intellect engaged in art and science, that is to say active for its own sake, there exists only universals, entire kinds, species, classes, ideas of things.

– Arthur Schopenhauer