Thursday, March 26, 2009

Encore Une Fois Les Soeurs (Le Tourniquet) [Animated .GIF Excerpt]



Below two slightly different treatments of the original .AVI file in animated .GIF, with slightly different color scheme, size, and timing: (1) the smaller:



and--cropped--(2) slightly larger:


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Click on the still image to view at full size.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Les Soeurs Encore Ou: Winckelmann's Revenge


"The office of the imagination, then, in Greek sculpture, in its
handling of divine persons, is thus to condense the impressions of
natural things into human form; to retain that early mystical sense
of water, or wind, or light, in the moulding of eye and brow; to
arrest it, or rather, perhaps, to set it free, there, as human
expression...."

[Walter Pater]
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Click on the image to view at full size.

More Door (Video Still)



The first segment of the video, "The Large Door"--this still not included--may be viewed below here:

http://burbankstomato.blogspot.com/2009/01/large-door.html

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Click on the image to view at full size.

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Les Soeurs Feu Et Soleil Escortent La Princesse Neige Au Travers Du Printemps



Les Soeurs Feu Et Soleil Escortent La Princesse Neige Au Travers Du Printemps (09)

With dawn comes a sense of lost space,
to move in
to see through
to laugh again,
fingering with grace
the moist and lurid locks
of sleeping limbs.

How long ago was Mistress Snow?
No one remembers--no one knows.
She is in hiding now, white
tears running down her cheeks
in shame.


The day is wet and grey.
I find lost hours in a stopped clock.
The winter count was light.

Medicine man names a good year.

[copyright EAC]

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Click on the image to view at full size.

Chop-Chop: Two Views Of A Radiator With Asymptotic Balls



"Only in one field has the omnipotence of thought been retained in our own civilization, namely in art. In art alone it still happens that man, consumed by his wishes, produces something similar to the gratification of those wishes, and this playing, thanks to artistic illusion, calls forth the effects as if it were something real...."

[Sigmund Freud]



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Click on the images to view at full size.

Guttzirra Vs. Muttila



"This egg took seven minutes to hatch. The monster egg is a million times larger...."

[Godzilla]

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Note: this animation first appeared in 2003 at my gallery here:

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/gallery/index.php?image_id=521331&member

One must be a member to view images there. Membership is without charge.

Monday, March 23, 2009

Soleil












"Nous nous chaufferons accroupies, toutes
nues, nos cheveux sur le dos...."


[Pierre Louÿs]
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Click on image to view at full size.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

Portrait De Jacques Lacan (Le Diagrammatiste)












Every day
I ride with falcon to the river’s edge
Or carry the ringed mail upon my back,
Or court a woman; neither enemy,
Game-bird, nor woman does the same thing twice;
And so a hunter carries in the eye
A mimic of youth.


[W.B. Yeats]
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Click on the image to view at full size.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

The Six Day Bicycle Race (Wuhu 2020)



"Horse sense is the thing a horse has which keeps it from betting on people."

[W.C.Fields]
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Click on imge to view at full size.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Bazooka: Zen And The Art Of Animated Digital Labeling In The Far East



"Snap! Crackle! Pop!"

[Vernon Grant]

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This animation used Sqirlz Water Reflections, a freeware available, with other fine Sqirlz applications, for download here: http://www.xiberpix.net/

The Cyclist

In the battles fought between the Egyptians and the Persians, Herodotus says it was remarked both by others and by himself that of those who remained dead on the field, the skulls of the Egyptians were incomparably harder than those of the Persians, because the latter kept their heads always covered, first with caps, and then with turbans, whereas the former kept their heads shaven and bare from infancy....

[Michel de Montaigne, tr. D.M. Frame]

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Click on the image to view at full size.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Stade Du Miroir No. 11 (The Metronome)




Stade Du Miroir No.11 (The Metronome)


In the mirror preening.

Is it I or is it me?

3 2 1 2 3....

[copyright EAC]


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Click on the still image to view at full size.

Quiver



"...but they send little boxes filled with artificial tears, and with the name of the sender painted neatly on the outside of the lid. The tears vary in number from two to fifteen or sixteen, according to the degree of intimacy or relationship; and people sometimes find it a nice point of etiquette to know the exact number which they ought to send...."

[Samuel Butler]

Žar-ptica: Ballet With Three White Ladders



"Vision is not only what we see; it is a stance taken, an idea, a geometry--a point of view in both senses of the phrase"

[Octavio Paz]

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Click on the image to view at full size.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Robota On A Demoted Planet (With Groma)




"Help me, Marcel, or I'll go crazy."

[Albert Einstein]

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Click on image to view at full size.

Saturday, March 14, 2009

Parfum...(Anaglyph)



"The order was attempted to be carried out...."


[H.W. Fowler]
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N.B.: This is an anaglyph designed for viewing with red-blue 3D glasses, red left, blue right.

Click on the image to view at full size.

Friday, March 13, 2009

Landing Party










"Man, man, man, humanity all over the page, land and trees.

The people who take up one point and spoil the totality 'neglecting a hundred other points' are un-Mencian. They 'lift up and grind one, and hang up and cover a hundred'..."


[Ezra Pound]



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Click on the images to view at full size. The top one is only slightly larger than the mid-thumb, the bottom image much larger than as compressed above.

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Mutt Versus Sélavy: Leningrad 2011


Mutt Versus Sélavy: Leningrad 2011

White (R Mutt) Black (Rr. Sélavy)

…n + 1 KxKt QxP (check)!

n + 2 K-P4? QxP (check)!...

n + 53 KxB! QxP(check)!

n + 54 K-P4 QxB(check)!...

n +137 KxB! QxQ(check!)

n +138 KxKt (discovered check)!…

…n + y(a+b) .... Q-Q3?...


[copyright EAC]



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Click on the still image to view at full size.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Artifact No. 3 (Monocle For Philippe W.)


The image is dedicated to Philippe W., an elegant and original digital and traditional artist, now living in Spain, who recently suffered an injury to one eye, from which he is in the process of recovery.

If examined closely with normal binocular vision and the natural faculty to perceive chromostereopsis, the above image will have more depth seen with one eye than with two.

With two eyes there will be some inward depth, but little projection. With one eye (for those who have two, either or both will do, though one at a time) one will find that there is both considerable depth and projection.

The reasons for this are complex. It has not generally been observed, for example, that red chromostereopsis is actually less with stereoscopic vision, exactly because the stereoscopy of vision with two eyes gives stereoscopic clues counter to the chromostereopsis of the red projection illusion.

In this case, there are additional structural clues giving the illusion of depth to one eye more strongly than to two.

As far as I know this is the first mixed structural and chromostereoscopic illusion of this type digitally, where, fairly close to the viewing screen and at that small size, one eye sees the illusion of more depth than two.

Best wishes to Philippe on his next surgery and speedy recovery of the full sight of both eyes to a gifted 3D digital artist, and car'amico. Salut!
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N.B. Apparently there are some who, for the various reasons, do not process depth illusions as most do. No need for anxiety if one does not see the illusion. In many cases the red-blue depth illusion, an old standby of visual artists, has to be acquired by looking, and it is like swimming or sex or riding a bicycle--once it is acquired it is nearly impossible to unacquire.

Structural illusions of depth are also old standby's of visual artists, sometimes not recognized for what they are even by adept critics, as in Picasso's Guernica which one recently discussed with Philippe W., and which, seen from exactly the right point, is a marvel of wrap-around depth, thus strengthening the surprise and horror of the scene.

For those who may be wondering about the provenance of an "Artifact" numbered "two", the medial image may be found in the gallery at Inner Traveler here:

http://www.innertraveler.com/publicgallery/showphoto.php?photo=50957&cat=500&ppuser=902

One needs to become a member to have full access to works not in the public galleries.

Variations On The Stadium (Animated .GIF Versions)





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N.B.: The above are small, very abbreviated versions in animated .GIF to meet file size requirements of the off-blog hosting site for animated .GIF.

Image size, length in frames, and colors have been severely reduced while still trying to maintain as much of the original integrity of the files as possible.

Reducing animated .GIF size to meet file size requirements is a complex process, involving both color compression and other procedures. Though some software algorithms are fairly successful in reducing animated .GIF image size and sorting colors--to generate thumbnails, for example--many other algorithms often mutilate .GIF files under JPG/JPEG-MPEG or Flash compression beyond all reognition.

However good the automated algorithms, a manual process fit to the specific image and animation always has the advantage.

In the cases above, for example, one went through several discrete steps, reducing image size, eliminating marginal frames, using a custom visible palette of 256 colors, and then reducing the colors adaptively from 256 to 150.

A still image from the original file, intended eventually as a segment in video, follows. Click on the image to view at full size and resolution:


Federico's Post-War Tunnel Of Love (La Strada)







PROFESSOR: Passeggiare.

FORTUNATO: To Walk.

PROFESSOR: Amare.

FORTUNATO: To love.

PROFESSOR: Dormire.

FORTUNATO: To sleep.

PROFESSRR: Labbra.

FORTUNATO: Lips.

PROFESSOR: Carezza.

FORTUNATO: Caress.

PROFESSOR: Capezzolo.

FORTUNATO: Nipple.

PROFESSOR: Pelle liscia.

FORTUNATO: Baby skin.

PROFESSOR: Sangue ardente.

FORTUNATO: Hot Blood.

PROFESSOR: Luna di miele.

FORTUNATO: Honeymoon.

PROFESSOR: Tenerezza.

FORTUNATO: Tenderness.

PROFESSOR: Desiderio.

FORTUNATO: Desire.

PROFESSOR: Sogno.

FORTUNATO: Dream.

[A pause. The PROFESSOR looks for other questions, reads the name on the test paper.]

PROFESSOR: Translate: "Mi chiamo Fortunato. Lo sono veramente, oggi. Ho incontrato lei."

FORTUNATO: [Very sure of himself, with a good accent] My name is Fortunato. I am really fortunate today. I met you...

[Mario Fratti, tr. R. Rosenthal]

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Artifact


JOVE: The propitiation of lightning? Numa, my boy, this is very serious business. The thunderbolt is my direst weapon.

NUMA: That's why I've come.

JOVE: Have you consulted Pythagoras?

NUMA: Indeed. The symbols construe nothing pertinent.

JOVE: How about your wife? And, by the way, how is the little nymph getting on?

NUMA: Very well, thank you. It was Egeria who sent me to you.

JOVE: Ah. Well, as I said, Numa, it's a serious business. First I demand a head. Are you taking this down?

NUMA: Certainly, Sir. Just what sort of head?

JOVE: What do you mean, what sort of head? A head is a head is a head.

NUMA: So it is, Sir. One head of garlic it is.

JOVE: Garlic! Human, Numa, I meant human! A human head, my boy!

NUMA: Even the Father of the gods must be precise. A head of human hair, Sir, so it is.

JOVE: No! Damn it! A Life....

NUMA: A life? Of course, Sir, the life of a sprat. That's a small fish, Sir, rather a herring.

JOVE: A sprat! A HERRING! Numa I meant a human life!

NUMA: A life is a life is a life.

[copyright EAC, from Procuratio Fulminis, Or: The Thrid Resumed]



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Click on images to view at full size.

M. Sélavy Ascending Imaginary Stairs With Tray Of Mineral Water



KROGSTAD: I'll tell you. I want to get on my feet again, Mrs. Helmer. I want to get to the top....

[Henrik Ibsen, Tr. M. Meyer]

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Lost Notation For Hydraulis (On Grey Afternoon In Friday)



It was already evening when, near the Echinades Islands, the wind dropped, and the ship drifted near Paxi. Almost everybody was awake, and a good many had not finished their after-dinner wine. Suddenly from the island of Paxi was heard the voice of someone loudly calling Thamus, so that all were amazed. Thamus was an Egyptian pilot, not known by name even to many on board. Twice he was called and made no reply, but the third time he answered; and the caller, raising his voice, said, "When you come opposite to Palodes, announce that the Great Pan is dead"....

[Plutarch tr. F.C. Babbitt]
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Click on the image to view at full size.

Friday, March 6, 2009

Nude Approaching A Cube (N+1)




"Elena had a little mole hidden away in the folds of secret flesh...."


[Anaïs Nin]
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Click on image to view at full size.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

Tridentipotens (Gasperini Wiggles & Anaglyph)



In the course of conversation about Stereo 3D and Video with Dr. Frankenstein--I mean Thorndike Pickledish--I mean the estimable Robert O. Smith, we hit incidentally upon the subject of what one some time ago dubbed Gasperini Wiggles, a new type of Stereo 3D Animation pioneered and originated by Jim Gasperini, a 3D photographer (among other things) from San Francisco.

Gasperini uses the two stereo photographs from a 3D camera as two frames in sequence of a small animated .GIF, with startling results, as one may see at his site, here:

http://www.well.com/user/jimg/stereo/stereo_list.html

Here and elsewhere one has earlier posted examples of this new Stereo 3D, which relies on the phenomenon of persistence of vision and which needs no glasses to see the 3D effect.

Gasperini Wiggles require two renders of the object from different camera angles but focused on the same point in the object. The two images are then combined as sequence in animated .GIF. The effect varies with contrast and color, timing and size, as in the following examples:




Each of these differs slightly in focal point for the two camera angles, color, size, background, and timing.



As an experiment one could not resist combining the Gasperini Wiggle with red-blue stereo 3D anaglyphization, and the animation below is the result. It is an inward-projecting red-blue anaglyph which one looks into, while the Gasperini Wiggle effect makes the arm project outward within the inward-projecting anaglyph. You will need red-blue 3D glasses to view it--red left, blue right:



Finally, one highly recommends Dr. Frankenstein's--I mean Thorndike Pickledish's site here:

http://thorndikepickledish.blogspot.com/

not only for anaglyphs but for video, animation, and images that are both cutting edge in Digital Art, and invariably profoundly original and comic.