Author: Katherine

Katie Polhemus – Looking Outwards – 02

After scrolling through some of the sources provided, I became most inspired by the Dancing Robots installation at Cinder Gallery. The piece is inspired by the robotic arms producing cars at the Chrysler plant in Detroit, MI. I find it fascinating that the artists were able to produce such an abstract, thought provoking work of art out of something so mundane, materialistic, and consumer-driven.

The artists used their own custom hardware to detect vibrations in the sculpture, and their own custom application to add new points to triangles on any location of the projection. This allowed the artists to “dynamically change the projection configuration.”

This piece ties into this week’s theme of generative art by the fact that it is an interactivity-based sculpture. The audience is encouraged to listen to the music being played and to touch the sculpture; resulting, the live projections shift, and the music becomes “more immersive.”

Source.

Katie Polhemus Project 02 variables face

pup face

/*
Katie Polhemus
Section A
kpolhemu@andrew.cmu.edu
project-02
*/

//pup face variables

	//background colors
var cR = 230;
var cG = 114;
var cB = 154;
	//ears
var earsSize = 150
	//head
var headWidth = 320;
var headHeight = 240;
	//eyes
var eyesSize = 30
	//snout
var snoutWidth = 350;
var snoutHeight = 180;
	//nose
var noseSize = 50
	//nose line
var noseLine = 10
	//mouth
var mouthSize = 50

function setup() {
    createCanvas(640, 480);
}

function draw() {
	noStroke();
	background(cR, cG, cB);

	//left ear
	fill(145, 130, 99);
	ellipse(width/2 - noseSize * 2, height/2 + noseSize, earsSize, earsSize * 2);

	//right ear
	fill(145, 130, 99);
	ellipse(width/2 + noseSize * 2, height/2 + noseSize, earsSize, earsSize * 2);

	//head
	fill(154, 142, 109);
	ellipse(width/2, height/2, headWidth, headHeight);

	//eyes
	fill(0);
	var eyeLX = width / 2 - headWidth * 0.25
	var eyeRX = width / 2 + headWidth * 0.25
	ellipse(eyeLX, height/2 - eyesSize, eyesSize, eyesSize * 2);
	ellipse(eyeRX, height/2 - eyesSize, eyesSize, eyesSize * 2);

	//snout
	fill(74, 61, 35);
	ellipse(width/2, height/2 + noseSize, snoutWidth, snoutHeight);

	//nose
	fill(0);
	ellipse(width/2, height/2, noseSize, noseSize);

	//nose line
	stroke(0);
	strokeWeight(noseLine);
	line(headWidth, headHeight, headWidth, headHeight + eyesSize);

	//mouth
	fill(0);
	arc(width/2, height/2 + mouthSize, mouthSize, mouthSize * 2, 0, PI);	

}

function mousePressed() {
	cR = random(210, 250);
	cG = random(100, 130);
	cB = random(130, 170);
	mouthSize  = random(30, 70);
	earsSize = random(130, 170);
	eyesSize = random(25, 40);
}

Initially, my love for dogs motivated me to draw a dog’s face instead of a human’s, and ultimately, I found it much easier to draw a dog’s face than a human’s (based on project-01.) I think dogs can be very expressive, and I tried to convey that with movement of the eyes, ears, and mouth.

KPolhemus – Looking Outwards-01

When thinking about what to research for this first Looking Outwards assignment, my mind immediately went to Florence, Italy. Once the cradle of the Renaissance, this Tuscan town now serves as headquarters for art restoration and preservation. Two years ago, in 2016, la città commemorated the 50-year anniversary of the devastating 1966 flood of the Arno. It was the worst flood the city had seen in 400 years, damaging countless numbers of priceless works of art. Among them was Giorgio Vasari’s 1546 “ultima cena,” a 21-foot wood-panel painting. It was submerged in the floodwaters for over 48 hours inside la basilica di Santa Croce.

The Opificio delle Pietre Dure (OPD) is an “art hospital,” dedicated to restoring and preserving works of art like Vasaris’ last supper. This painting in particular sat untouched for a number of decades, until the OPD felt confident enough with the available technology to begin restoration. Using microscopes with recordings of photographic and digital images, x-ray equipment, infrared cameras/scanners, spectrocolorimeters, and a number of other advanced technologies, the OPD dwas able to restore Vasari’s masterpiece and put it back on display in Santa Croce.

Source

I chose to write about this topic because although the technology used by OPD is not necessarily used to create entirely new works of art, it is used to restore old masterpieces to a former state of glory. In doing so, the OPD uses this technology to provide the public with countless works of art that could have very easily been lost for good.

KPolheus – Project-01-Face

kpolhemu portrait

function setup() {
    createCanvas(600, 600);
    background(85, 169, 253);
}

function draw() {
	noStroke()

	//hair
	fill(255, 232, 139);
	rectMode(CENTER);
	rect(300, 300, 255, 405, 90, 90, 20, 20);

	//neck
	fill(205, 132, 123);
	rect(295, 350, 70, 300);

	//ear
	fill(205, 132, 123);
	ellipse(395, 290, 15, 30);

	//head
	fill(255, 172, 158);
	rect(300, 270, 188, 263, 90, 90, 175, 175);

	//shirt
	fill(218, 133, 172);
	rectMode(RADIUS);
	rect(300, 600, 150, 150);

	//hair details
	fill(255, 232, 139);
	triangle(320, 130, 200, 300, 200, 150);

	fill(255, 232, 139);
	triangle(320, 130, 250, 250, 340, 130);

	//right eye and eyelid
	fill(0);
	ellipse(255, 260, 30, 10);

	fill(255, 172, 158);
	ellipse(255, 255, 30, 10);

	//left eye and eyelid
	fill(0);
	ellipse(340, 260, 30, 10);

	fill(255, 172, 158);
	ellipse(340, 255, 30, 10);

	//nose
	fill(0);
	ellipse(290, 320, 10, 5);

	fill(0);
	ellipse(310, 320, 10, 5);

	//mouth
	fill(0);
	ellipse(300, 355, 20, 5);

	//earring
	fill(85, 169, 253);
	ellipse(398, 305, 10, 10);

}

Starting & completing this project was pretty difficult for me as I have zero coding experience. I attempted to keep it as simple as possible, using the most basic shapes and not too much detail.