For my conference project, I am making sketches that are in response to Kazimir Malevich’s works entitled: Suprematist Composition. My initial pursuit of this project was inspired by my attraction to art that involves geometric qualities. Malevich’s paintings fully encompass this perspective on art, using abstracted shapes to create a work that is externally appealing despite imperfections.
The original purpose of painting was to create a likeness to something real and tangible. In Malevich’s own way, he evolved this way of thinking and stepped out of this uniform style of perceiving art. He wound up spearheading an abstract art movement in Russia which he called Suprematism. The way he places his shapes on a canvas are never symmetrical on either side, he thinks outside of the box but still manages to create an aesthetic of his own.
For my first sketch, I will be coding Malevich’s work above on the left. Then, to make it my own, I will give it an interactive quality. For my other four sketches, I will be creating sketches that are in response to Malevich’s abstract movement. His color palette and use of shapes particularly stand out to me so in my own way, I will be reflecting these aspects of his work. In regards to the viewer, each of my sketches will either have interactive qualities, animated qualities, or both. I intend to make my work an experience for all who witness it.
There is something satisfying to me about the use of shapes in art and even with Malevich’s imperfect positioning of these shapes, I still get this feeling. Referencing the Galanter reading, the section discussing the balance of chaos and order very much feels relevant to me in regards to Malevich’s work and the way I want to make my responses. In his series, Malevich creates a very uniform style, you can see a painting and know if it is Galanter or not. Still, within each installment, he directs the placement of his shapes in a way that makes a viewer take a while longer than a realistic painting to process and comprehend. Your eyes want to keep looking for more details to make more observations.
After the artist presentation for Vera Molnar, I became very intrigued by her use of shapes as well. Just as Malevich does, she creates her own style yet also plays around with chaos versus order. You can look at her work or Malevich’s work and think that they are simple, shapes, simple, repeated color palette, simple, but the way they approach their work reveals the subtle system of randomness. With different size shapes, different colors, different positions, variety in shapes, all make each work unique.
As for my intentions for my work, I plan to make them all look aesthetically similar. I want to showcase one style perceived differently in each sketch. I intend for my sketches to look good but good despite their chaos. As I continue with this assignment, I want to force myself to think outside of the box. I tend to over-plan but for this, I want the moves I make with the code to come naturally. If I make a mistake, I want to let this mistake alter my vision and take me down in a different path.
Coding:
variables: will help me to screen wrap and make my sketches interactive.
color: will help me create a sort of aesthetic among my pieces.
functions / interactivity: will help me create a more interactive display for the viewer.
animation: will be used to add more randomness to the pieces.
loops: will set my sketches apart from malevich’s work, it will bring the shapes to life more.
axes: will be necessary to position some of my shapes.
noise / variance: will help add more chaos and randomness to my sketch.
My progress is as follows…
