Concept – Abstract Analysis
Design Year: 2008
Institute: New Jersey Institute of Technology
Responsibilities: Student Analysis
Primary Applications Used: Adobe Photoshop
“I actually have one painting that I had to analyze for a project back in my first year of college. It was one of those paintings that were in motion. I looked at it and translated it the way I saw it, but what I saw and what it was supposed to be weren’t the same. I couldn’t see the intentions of motion in the particular painting. My professor kind of downplayed me because I couldn’t see it. Til this day, 15 years later, I have it hung up on my wall, trying to see something different. Still don’t think I see it. It bothers me, yet intrigues & motivates me at the same time.”
Summary of Work: Students were to analyze a selected painting from a set of artworks from the Guggenheim in NY. This one was by Marcel Duchamp in 1911. It was a self portrait named A Sad Young Man on a Train. From these analysis we were supposed to begin a landscaping mock up for a park. We were to first analyze what we saw. So I took the painting, emphasized where stood out to me as defining lines. Then we did a physical abstract analysis of it. Then we were to translate that into something a bit more realistic in layers by simulating topography…
Client Needs:
- Analyze and abstract artwork
Project Challenges:
- Artwork Open to Interpretation
1. Photo of Physical Model: This was at a point in my education where we were focusing only on ones ability to analyze and display creativity. This was the first instance in my educational career where we incorporated landscape into architecture.
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you what I saw the first time. I remember the painting well. I don’t remember what I saw. Because I look at it now, and every other year, I see something different. Perhaps that’s what is meant to be…”
2. Photo of Abstract Model: Taking the emphasized lines and motions that I personally saw in the painting and making them into something physical had been my favorite part of this entire project. Something abstract from something abstract…
