Eyes, Lies + Illusions

Eyes, Lies and Illusions

I really like illusions and pictures that make you think I stare at them for ages, The art of looking sideways is my favorite book it has quote from philosophers artists and graphic designers. As well as all the crazy theories there is a section on illusions. This is where I first became interested in illusions. I was really looking forward to The London trip.
I remember getting up after little sleep and meeting Phil for the bus, He was as bad as me so we sat most of the way there trying to soba up. The bus journey was an illusion, once I was there I was very impressed with the exhibition. I own one those trippy mind warp posters which used to be on my ceiling. if you look up and down the poster these circles begin to spin the more your eyes get distracted to the next circle the more the circles appear to spin around, so seeing where the ideas for illusions came from was amazing. I'm also really interested in the animations and where the idea for moving image emerged. One of the biggest influences to these hypnotic illusions and moving image was a man called...

Marie-Georges-Jean Méliès
Méliés was born 6th December 1861 in a time when animation and film had not been recognized. He moved to London in 1884 where he opened a shoe company He worked there for many years before he found his love for moving images. He began to take trips to the theatre and commented on how the illusions on show really began to inspire him. He was 22 Years old when he saw a stage go in to complete darkness and watched skeletons and limbs dancing across the stage. It was illusions like this which really grabbed hold of Méliés and helped him on his way to become the great animator. He then started going to lessons at a magician shop, He started small shows in front of family and friends then progressing on to shows in a small theatre. He produced puppets and comic operas in short performances .

Méliés finally sold his shoe companies and bought the Robert-Houdin theatre. Houdin had been a brilliant magician and was admired by Méliés. He refurbished the theatre and opened it to the public. He put on a film called The Golden Cage in 1897 which convinced him to start working on films. Between 1905 and 1907, Méliés put on four spectacular films before running out of money forcing him to sell his much loved theatre. 1902 saw the best of Méliés with some stunning films and new illusions. The film Le Voyage Dans La Lune was one his most famous films. He made it look like men had gone to the moon on a mission. He used illusions to make the audience think the actors where really traveling in to space. Another new film called Le Mélomane, had Méliés himself acting as a music teacher. He appeared to take off his head several times before throwing them onto a music sheet. This looked so real and had audiences wondering how this wonderful magician was performing this trick. In 1909 he was made president of Congress International des Editeurs du Film where he met with major film representatives. Méliés had emerged as a first generation film maker and began to lead the way in the film industry

Colour Essay

Introduction

I have been researching into the theory of colours, which colours look harmonious together, which colours contrast, and why? I’ve also looked at the psychology of colour, where colours are specifically used and how colours effect our moods. I’ve produced a series of experiments to demonstrate my knowledge of colour theory arranging colour compositions produced using photoshop, I’ve also collected sixteen different colours and produced a mood board for each one, with thought storms and an explanation about the psychology and my personal response to the colour. (look at colour diary on blog)

Colour Theory.
Colour theory Is all about how colours are mixed and used with each other in complimentary or contrasting pictures Colour theory is a set of principles to create harmonious colour relations. To produce new colours using methods like the colour wheel, the colour wheel is a visual representation of colour theory, The first Colour Wheel was invented by Sir Isaac Newton. The current colour wheel we use with colour theory was developed By Johannes Itten.There are so many different colours if you include all the tones as one colour merges into others, most are similar to the original primary colours.
The three primary colours are Red, Blue and Yellow, colours like Aqua Marine Blue is a different colour but also has a similar tone/ shade of blue on the colour wheel.
The Secondary colours are Orange, Green and Purple these colours can be mixed where as the primary colours can not.
The Tertiary colours are produced when you mix Secondary colours with the primary colours, e.g yellow - Orange, Red - orange, Blue - Green, Blue - Purple


Complimentary colours, These are the colours that are actually opposites on the colour wheel like blue and orange, red green and purple and yellow. When these colours are put together in compositions in the right balance they compliment each other, making both colours bolder and stand out more.

Colour Harmony is similar to the theory of complimentary colours, It’s complimentary colours that look harmonious when places together in compositions. Analogous colours are any three colours which are side by side in a twelve part colour wheel, It’s these colours that are harmonious together, normally one of the three colours predominate over the others.You can see colour harmony best when relating the theory to Nature. When you see green images of tree’s e.t.c look for the different shades of green and yellow’s, the colours will blend together looking pleasing to the eye.

Contrasting colours, Colours like pink and brown look bad together, even worst would be green and pink which really doesn’t go together, they distract each other so you cant focus on the image.


Colour Psychology
Colours act upon the body as well as the mind.
Bright bold colours like Red, Orange and Yellow stimulate the mind and can make rooms feel warmer, Red being the boldest and most aggressive. where as the cooler colours like Green, Blue and Purple are more relaxing and can make rooms feel cooler, Green being the most natural and harmonious. If you notice Red the boldest and Green the most harmonious are opposites on the colour wheel.

Blue:
Sadness, depression, wisdom, trust and loyalty

Yellow:
Eye factuating, Cheerful, warmth, danger

Red:
Heat, fire, blood, passion, love power, excitement, aggression

Green;
Wealth, nature, life, renewal, hope, relaxing

Orange:
Warmth, fruitfulness, wholesomeness,

Purple:
Royalty colour, Luxury, wealth, sophistication, artificial.

Stimulating colours,
Red has been shown to stimulate the senses and raise the blood pressure.
Yellow alerts the brain enhancing concentration, It’s considered an optimist's colour, but people lose their tempers more often in yellow rooms.
Orange is colour most associated with appetite, it can also make expensive products appear more affordable, also orange products seem suitable for everyone, like orange handled appliances.

Relaxing colours
Blue causes the body to produce calming chemicals, so people often paint there bedrooms this colour. Fashion consultants recommended wearing blue to job interviews because it symbolizes loyalty.
Green symbolizes nature, it’s the easiest colour on the eye and can improve eyesight. It’s a calming refreshing colour.
Purple is a feminine colour, it’s not found very often in nature so i can appear very artificial. It represents sophistication
wealth luxury, It’s a royal colour.

Conclusion

What have I learned?
From researching the colour wheel and creating colour compositions on photoshop I’ve learned how to make pieces look pleasing to the eye better.
I’m happy with my relaxing colour compositions, I think the green composition demonstrates colour harmony in Nature quite well. My blue composition experiments with colour balance, using
complimentary colour orange with the blue.
I produced two bold compositions demonstrating more the colour psychology, I created a red composition representing the aggression and bold passion the colour procieves. The yellow composition demonstrates how yellow is used for distracting signs, like danger / diversions. With the yellow and red compositions I used black in contrast with the two bright colours to make them stand out more, and become more infatuating to the eye.

Colour Research

Colour Theory
Colour theory
illusions
colour cube

Colour Psychology
Colour psychology

Wall art (demon)

Wall art (demon)
Originally uploaded by t19tone.

I was given permission to paint this so really it's not graffiti and more wall art, it doesn't follow the traditional graffiti style of art.

Kitchen Table

Kitchen Table
Originally uploaded by t19tone.

This is my kitchen table after being vandalised, I think this is more an act of vandilism than art.
It expresses a different message to the picture below.

Table Graffiti

Table Graffiti
Originally uploaded by t19tone.

This could be seen upon as creative vandalism, It's my kitchen table thats blatantly been graffitied all over. I my oppinion it looks better that grey!!

Graffiti

Graffiti art or vandalism?

Graffiti is a style of art.

Graffiti is looked upon by the majority of people as vandalism, because it’s defacing public properties. You can argue the case that some graffiti is allowed and seen as art more than vandalism, some councils have given authority to paint certain walls as morals. White washing some walls purposely for the use of graffiti, this is a good idea but it kind of defeats the object. Graffiti artists who create the huge and talented morals pick their locations for a reason, it’s part of the feeling and mood of the ideas they are trying to communicate. The location is the frame for the art pieces so by purposely creating locations with the white wash walls you are loosing the meaning behind the art, so by taking away the vandalism you're actually taking away the meaning and purpose of the art.

I know typography is an art and can be used in powerful ways of advertising, graffiti is mostly type or include signatures, and some invented fonts being regularly copied. This art is seen as vandalism yet its style is copied in commercials and other advertisement campaigns especially club flyers etc.

I think most Graffiti is a defined and recognised art style and at the same time its vandalism, some graffiti is purely art but with weaker meaning and no real message and some graffiti is intentional vandalism again without meaning, for example scribbling names on park benches is not my idea of expressive arts. The “tag” form of graffiti is used to sign larger pieces of work and also mark territories.

Graffiti is underground advertisement.

“Graffiti. Term applied to an arrangement of institutionally illicit marks in which there has been an attempt to establish some sort of coherent composition: such marks are made by an individual or individuals (not generally professional artists) upon a wall or other surface that is usually visually accessible to the public. The term "graffiti" derives from the Greek graphein ("to write"). Graffiti (s. graffito), meaning a drawing or scribbling on a flat surface, originally referred to those marks found on ancient Roman architecture. Although examples of graffiti have been found at such sites as Pompeii, the Domus Aurea of Emperor Nero (AD 54-68) in Rome, Hadrian's Villa at Tivoli and the Maya site of Tikal in Mesoamerica, they are usually associated with 20th-century urban environments. Graffiti range from simple marks to complex and colourful compositions. Motives for the production of such marks may include a desire for recognition that is public in nature, and/or the need to appropriate public space or someone else's private space for group or individual purposes. Illegitimate counterparts to the paid, legal advertisements on billboards or signs, graffiti utilize the wall of garages, public rest rooms, and jail cells for their clandestine messages. This illegal expression constitutes vandalism to the larger society.”
Taken from http://www.graffiti.org/faq/graf.def.html

Reading this definition has made it clearer to me that graffiti is both a style of art and vandalism; with out repeating what has all ready been said it’s a free form of advertising and expresses feelings through illegal ways of communication. It defiantly has a purpose because you can produce an advert / art piece where you want and have it as explicit as you like, with no boundaries as to where you must exhibit it and you can target everyone. You can making the message harder hitting just by locations, e.g. people who graffiti over bill boards and on public monuments get all the attention.