On The Genesis of Symbiosis of Film and Painting: Producing Computer Images of the Development of an Artwork

TheAbstracts section ofLeonardo is intended to bea rapidpublicationforum. Texts can beup to 750 wordsin lengthwith no illustrations , orup to500 words in length with oneblack-and-white illustration. Abstracts areaccepted for publicationupon recommendation of anyone member of the Leonardo EditorialBoard, whowill then forward themto theMain EditorialOffice with his orherendorsement. ON THE GENESIS OF SYMBIOSIS OFFILMAND PAINTING: PRODUCING COMPUTER IMAGES OFTHE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARTWORK Johannes Deutsch, Linke Wienzeile 42/1/9, A-1060 Vienna, Austria. Received 21June 1993. Solicited byJack Ox. Acceptedfor publication byRogerF. Malina. ABSTRACTS on the computer. I digitized them in a video studio with Abecas and then stored them in the computer. These raw images can be divided into three categories: (1) photographs of crucial steps in the creation of paintings represented thematically on the storyboard, (2) photographs of real environments that influenced the works but are not represented in them (interiors and exteriors , people and objects) and (3) photographs of everyday textures, which are used in the computer pictures either directly (as objects) or indirectly (as color or texture). The digitized raw images do not show the paintings, sculptures or photographs in their true proportions. As the different aesthetic and material dimensions were unified in the digital reproduction , I was able to combine all the digital pictures and work on them with computer-aided painting techniques . Aesthetically speaking, my intent was to fuse the reality as represented in the photo with the painting in order to form a unified picture (Fig. 1 and Color Plate B No.2). Using the computer programs Advanced Paint (Wavefront Technologies) and Creator (Barco Industries), I cut out the raw images in the computer (a Silicon Graphics Personal Iris), distorted their perspectives, enlarged or scaled them down and shifted and superimposed them in transparent or opaque layers. I scaled in color and dyed the images with computer painting tools. The digital archiving and retrieval of stages of the pictorial elements in a work, individual spatial layers and final results led to the sequential composition of the picture. There were, however , limitations to viewing the entire sequence on the computer. Following the picture on the monitor , a computer printout from a thermal transfer printer was the next direct and methodical step in the creation of the picture. While printing allowed for the arrangement of the picture seConnections between my mental images and my finished paintings led me to attempt to express my thoughts on one or several of my paintings in sequences of pictures. I began my project Symbiosis ofFilm and Painting with a storyboard on which I outlined all the associations that led to a given oil painting through a series of drawings, photographs and mixed-media collages, which 1 organized according to the formal construction and the content of each individual painting. Sometimes photographic documentation of the genesis of my paintings, as well as commemorative photographic work of the real environment in which these paintings were done, served as aids to memory. I composed each picture in spatial layers on the storyboard, mounting the separate picture components (which had been superimposed on transparencies) on top of each other. After completing the storyboard, I compiled a catalog of raw images; from these raw images I chose the ones I needed for the creation of sequences Fig. 1. Johannes Deutsch, Symbiosis ofFilm and Painting (detail), computer graphics, 21 x 25 em, 1992. In this series of computer graphics, the artist worked with digitizations of different elements (drawings, photographs and mixed-media collages). Mter distorting the perspectives of the elements, he enlarged them or scaled them down, then superimposed them in transparent or opaque layers. Last, he added color and dyed the images with computer painting tools.© 19941SAST LEONARDO Vol. 27, No.4, pp. 353-357, 1994 353 Fig. 2. Ursula Kraft, TimeTunnel exterior, mobile tunnel sculpture, 38 x 4 x 5 m, 1993. (Architect: Bernd Hoge. Music: Otto Kranzler, Design: Labfac Stuttgart.) Participants walk inside this structure for a multimedia experience of motion, light and sound. quences, the specific differences in impact between the pictures produced by the thermal transfer printer and the images as they appeared on the monitor were of greater structural and aesthetic relevance for the following reasons: • due to...