Purpose of challenge - To create an abstract representation of a scene or subject that is moving to the artist, in such a way as to produce the same feelings in the viewer, without the art image being immediately recognizable.
The rules:
1) I had originally intended to require these images to be 2D, but I decided to leave it up to the artist HOW to represent the original subject. The intent is to evoke the same feelings in the viewer that the artist felt from the original subject, while disguising the reality behind it.
The subject could also be just one aspect of a scene that the artist finds most interesting. That is what I usually choose, just one aspect of a subject that interests me most.
No rules about the methods, just follow the purpose of the challenge.
I leave it to the artist how to disguise the reality of the subject; I usually try to simplify it and represent using simple shapes. That is why I had related it to the 2D challenge.
2) When you submit your image, do not describe or explain it in any way, and do not give the image a meaningful name.
3) I'd like to set a time limit on this challenge, of two weeks for submissions, so the last day to submit will be Sunday, March 31st.
4) After the submission deadline, I'd like the forum members to submit their impressions of the images, and how the images made them feel, to try to guess the artist's intent and what the artist was trying to evoke in the viewer. And perhaps guess what the original image was.
This is the fun of it!
5) I'd like to set a deadline on the evaluations, of 3 days, after which the artists will reveal what their original subjects were, and what feelings and impressions they were trying to convey.
Definition of feeling - I am making this up, so bear with me. I will define feeling as the total PHYSICAL experience of an artistic subject, including all the visual cues such as distance, perspective, color use, light and shadow, plus the other physical impressions of the original subject, such as humidity, temperature, sound, or others. This is all very visceral, no thought at all. Physical reaction, including emotions.
The feeling will be a bundle of all the perceptics and emotions.
Some examples: the feeling on something large looming over you with the feeling of being small and vulnerable, looking over a cliff with the sensation of depth and apprehension about falling, a sunrise with mist over a lake and warm colors giving a feeling of calm and new beginnings, going into a dark place with apprehension about what might be inside, the sense of freedom from flying, closeness to a pet with the soft fur and warmth and(or feathers).
In my experience, the real trick to this is finding that fine line between abstract and real, where enough is shown to convey the feeling, but not enough is shown to totally give away the reality of the subject.
My example is a rework of one of my 2D posts, which was designed to convey the sense of going into deep cold water, and the apprehension of what hidden things or creatures might be inside the blackness, with a definite sense of water and moisture in the air. I tried to remove some of the visual cues, like the horizon line, to make it more flat and less "real", while still maintaining the feel of the original image. The original was a photo of a shoreline, the relatively calm water getting deeper and darker as the eye move outwards towards the sea. I reversed the effect I was seeing, as it seemed to communicate better.
Hope you find this interesting!
Dale
This image has been revised!
[This message was edited by Dale Landry on March 19, 2002 at 16:29.]
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