animation and code
Here is my finished light sculpture, titled “Cube is for Cubism”. It actually has nothing to do with Cubism (other than the fact that it’s a cube), but is more in line with Futurism and Kinetic Art, as it represents speed, motion, and general techiness.
Special thanks go out to¬†Hugues Bruy?®re¬†who came out to Addison with me, brainstormed on the idea, and took some pictures of me buying 25 glow sticks.
Materials
I wasn’t really sure what to do for the “Light Sculpture” assignment, but I wanted to build some volume using EL wire. I was going back to Montreal for the weekend, so I passed by Addison, an electronic surplus store that has all these things you think you need like a solar panel system in a box, an industrial fan that will literally blow your socks off, or an alarm system that sprays trespassers with cayenne pepper. I ended up getting a bunch of LED glow sticks that I would strip and put together.
 
 
The nice thing about these glow sticks is that they have seven or eight different light patterns, which becomes really interesting when you have a bunch of them flashing at the same time.
What struck me in the essay “Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting” is the idea of putting the spectator at the centre of the picture instead of the actual subject matter. The painting is about the viewer’s perception of what is represented, and this is something that is not fixed in time or space. This is why they are pushing for the representation of movement over time, and rejecting the idea of perfectly delimited shapes. Although I think this is an interesting way to look at a painting, I find it a bit odd since it is not totally aligned with the conventional definition of a picture as a “moment in time”. However, I am curious to know how the Futurists felt about photography, as it seems to be the ideal medium for capturing subjects in many instants.
It seems like this manifesto is a response to the critic’s definition of “art” at the time, a revolt against the stride for realism. Reading this reminded me of something very similar that happened in American animation. In 1941, many Disney animators that were fed up with their studio pushing for ultra-realistic animation left and formed United Productions of America. UPA pioneered the technique of limited animation, where experimentation with visual design, movement, and pace were encouraged.¬†
The Futurist detachment from mainstream art appears to deal with the same issues. By pushing for realism and perfect mimicking of the subject matter, art becomes nothing but a technical skill. Although they have an interesting way of putting it, it seems to me that the Futurists are just claiming a return to art as a means of expression.
