Main : Timeline

Medium: Photography

Size: 60x91cm (70×101 with matte)

Print Sales: Golgotha Graphics

Following is an art history essay from my second year core Modernism course. It seemed to do reasonably well in marking, so I figured I may as well publish it. The length restriction was 1200 words, and so as the marker rightly suggested, it can become a little point-like (what happens when you’re editing down).

Question: To what extent is modernism a response to the Industrial Revolution? Did it replace the classical style of pre-industrial Europe? In your answer you may refer to a range of practices, including architecture, ceramics and photography.

Modernism is a tacit realisation that the overwhelming direction of the arts since the beginning of the Renaissance had run its course. Sculptors had made stone look as much like flesh as possible. Painters had made the flat surface of the picture plane as convincingly deep as the horizon, and builders had replicated the Greek temple and Roman arch for everything upto the metaphorical garden shed. The time of illusion through technical dominance of materials was drawing to a close (along with that of the craftsman who wielded that dominance), and a new era of honesty and sincerity to materials and function was dawning. Modernism therefore, is both a response to and enabled by, the industrial revolution.

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Here’s one of my three teapots.

It’s constructed as a wheel thrown bowl, that’s deformed, and has a top added, along with the fins that are moulded to fit the thumb and middle finger. The lid is a little thrown and turned bowl which could theoretically be filled with milk to warm as the tea draws. The lid stays level as you tilt the pot under it, and you pretty much have to go past vertical to get it to fall out.

If you click the image, give it a bit to load the Quicktime file. It’ll let you drag the view around once it’s loaded.

Somebody taking Adobe to task for their mediocre user interface ideas in the new CS4 versions of their apps.

About freaking time.

Any time now – I’m just scoping some printer quotes, but in the meantime, check out this review.

A time-lapse shot of my laptop running its screensaver. Though shot on film, I used a digital camera to get the aperture / and timing settings right before committing a film shot.

The same setup, but with a chest xray hung between the camera and the regulator. It would be interesting to shoot with backlighting behind the whole thing.

This is the regulator for my airbrush. I like the shadow was set so that it had this creepyness, it lurks there behind the regulator itself.

Another shot of the reservoir gatehouse. Also burned to darken the sky down.

In theory, it’s bad to have the edges (or any part) of the image left paper-white. At least, that’s what my photography teachers said.

One of the gatehouses for Petersham water reservoir. I love the fact that old-timey utilitarian public infrastructure has such decorative architectural details.

This pic was shot on film, and hand printed. The sky was originally blown out and white, so a bit of hand burning was required (exposing the area to be burned for longer, so it darkens).