In this unit of Digital Media for the Artist, we examined the idea of composing in Design and Visual Art. We looked at the scope of the design and creative process through visual art, with input from D&P visual arts director Will Taylor, and architecture and writing, from Chancellor Lindsay Bierman.
2) Starting points
Before this unit I knew a lot about visual arts and architecture. I had already had Will Taylor in Drawing class for a period of time and knew his background as an artist as well as had visited his gallery exhibit downtown. I also have taken an AP art history course at my high school so I felt very comfortable talking about the idea of composing in either design or visual art.
3) What I Learned
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| Diptych |
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| Gradient |
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| Double Exposure |
In this section from my writing journals I learned more about my own creative process, and when I looked at the discussion form I learned more about those processes around me. It is interesting to see how each person, although all composing creative ideas, can come about these ideas very differently. From the readings I learned how the process of generating ideas takes a very good deal of practice so that one can just think of an idea without simple mind roadblocks inhibiting you. Csikszentmihalyi suggested it takes ten years of pratice to master a skill and Young's idea of mastering the technique of producing ideas was very interesting to me and stuck with me. I learned a lot from Bierman's lecture, mostly because I had already seen all the pieces he had talked about, but the way he explained them gave me more of an artistic view into their place in the world. I learned a lot about photoshop in my image projects, especially with the gradient, but I ultimately realized how awesome and helpful of a tool photoshop can be.
4) Things I Would Like To Learn More About
I would like to learn more about the length of time it takes for one to sufficiently master the skill of generating ideas. I think by reading more material by Csikszentmihalyi and Young I would be able to find out more about this topic. I would also like to learn more about the capabilities of photoshop and how to produce art from images I already have taken before.
5) Conclusion
In conclusion, composing in Design and Visual Arts relies heavily on the idea of harnessing creativity through generating ideas thereby creating art like the new media images we created.
