Multimedia

When we think about what multimedia means we instantly associate it with things like Television, Radio, PC.

However, these things are not multimedia. Multimedia to do with things which you can interact with, so for example when your watching a program and the present mentions 'The Red Button' that is an interactive source, this enables you to view information whilst watching a different program, something similar can also be found on a blu-ray disc, where you are able to view behind the scenes commentary whilst the movie is still playing.

The other interactive source is of an ipod, because you see when you are using the spinning dial you are interacting with ipod as you scroll through your music, for other ipods like for example; Ipod touch, the interactive source would be that it is touch screen and the name 'touch screen' clearly says it all.

Something else which you would associate with interactivity would be the Wii games console, its controllers are interactive. These controllers allow you to move around and actually do the actions of the character, for example when playing boxing or tennis you would have to do the actions in order to play the games.

Manifesto! Modern Art, Big Ideas (futurism)

Futurism is an italian art movement which came about in the 20th century, some of the artists which were part of this movement were, Carlo Carra, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo and also Sant Elia. These 5 artists were the founding fathers of futurism.

The ideas was of a more grand Itali because in that time Itali wasn't as well known as the other countries, so they sort to make great, they were infatuated with the development of the world and the future. there idea basis was to get rid of the old things and start to create the new things.

The artists used bright, bold colours and in most of there works there themes would be; nature, speed and violence.

As you can see below from Carlo Carra's work the theme is violence as you can seem a mass of people fighting, it resembles more of war as the are all on horseback with spears.

Umberto Boccioni art works were more energetic and has a lot more colour than Carra's paintings, he also focuses more on city life than anything else, as you can see below his art works resembles more of a cubist technic, this is quite ironic because although they are trying to look to the future, they failed to notice that there art technic's are of the past.

However, they use this effectively as it suits there bold and a little chaotic art works.

One of these paintings would be 'A Starda entra nella casa' in english this would translate to 'The street enters the house'.

Surrealism

Surrealism is a 20th century art movement, it was originally developed from psychology and trying to interpret the physical state of the human mind, this is why you would have the art work looking distorted and strange.

For example, Salvador Dali's art piece called 'The persistence of memory', as you can see from the art work below it is very different as in it is more like a dream or fantasy, like its beyond this world, these elements are some of the qualities you would expect in the surrealism movement.

The artist Rene Magritte is another surrealist, his work is more symbolic than other surrealist painters. For example one of his most famous piece or ark work is called 'The Treachery of Images', below you see an oil canvas of a pipe, however, below the pipe it reads 'Ceci N'est Pas Une Pipe', in english this would read 'This isn't a pipe' so you could say it a representation of a pipe but its not actually a pipe.

The Development of Abstruct Art

The earliest style of abstruct art was found in signs, markings even pottery, textiles and inscriptions and paintings. These were simple geometric and linear forms which might reveal a symbolic or decorative purpose. It was this type of art which began visual abstruct art, for example; you can enjoy the beauty of chinese calligraphy and Islamic Calligraphy without being able to read it.

There are three art movements which contributed to the coming of abstruct art, these were Romanticism, Impressionism and Expressionism.

Some of the abstract artists are; Kazimir Malevich and Henri Matisse.

Malevich was a russian painter and art theoretician, in 1913 he start to create some of his first geometric patterns in a style he called suprematise. He later began painting in a post-impressionist manner with a hint of cubism as well as futurism in his art work.

Malevich's black square was one of his most bold and striking art piece's, below you can see the ark work.

My thoughts on this are that I believe he was try to be daring and it worked, this was daring not just for him but also for the public.

Henri Matisse is a french painter known for his use of colour, he was a master draughtersman, printmaker and sculptor. Matisse is regarded, with picasso as the greatest artist of the 20th century. He was concided to be part of the fauvism movement. However, in the 1920s he was hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in french painting.

One of his most famous paintings is called 'The Dance', Below is the art work.

Art Deco

Art Deco was introduced in the 1920's and reigned through the 1930's, encompassing both the roroaring twenties and the great depression. It was and elegant style of decorative art and acrhitecture, you could say that they improved the idea of Art Nouveau with more modern sophistication. Art Deco focus's on sleek straight lines and an element of boldness so there decoration and architecture would stand out, however, some people felt that this was a bit too alraming espiecally through the great depression. The Art Deco movement affected city styles, architecture like I've already mentioned, high fashion jewelry and interior design.
The term Art Deco was not created until the 1960's by Bevis Hillier a british historian.

Some Art Deco architecture you would recorgnise would be the Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building.

From Left To Right: Empire State Building, Rockefeller Center, The Chrysler Building:

Some artists who were part of the Art Deco movement were Jean Dupas and Raymond Hood.

Born in 1882 in bordeaux, Jean Theodore Dupas was a French painter, designer and decorator whose work is considered the utmost example of Art Nouveau and Art Deco.
Dupas worked in various exponents of the Art Nouveau and Art Deco areas. His famous qoutes writes "The greater if my, the happy I am", he collaborated in the decor of famous steamships during the 1930's where he emphasized the Art Deco style of that time. Some of his work would have been seen on the SS lle-de-France and the SS Liberte, these two ships were among the first to have him design the interiors, Dupas later went on to design and decorate the grand salon on the Normandie.

Here is an image of the first salon of the SS lle-de-France.

Here is and exterior of the SS Liberte as I couldn't find an interior of the grand salon but you could image that it wouldn't be to far from what the SS lle-de-france would look.

Reymond Mathewson Hood was an early-mid twentieth century architect who worked in the Art Deco style. He was educated at Brown University, MIT and the Ecole Des Beaux-Arts in paris. He met a one John Mead Howells, with whom he would work with in later years.

Some Of His works were the Tribune Tower in Chicago, the Daily News Building in New York (this building is also a model for the 'Daily Planet' where Clark Kent AKA Superman worked) and also the Rockefeller Center in New York as well.

From left to right, Tribune Tower, Daily News Building, Rockefeller Center:

Art Nouveau

The Art Nouveau movement occured in that late 19th century from about 1894 to 1914, and was represented in Europe as well as in the United States. In Each Continet "Art Nouveau" had a different meaning and identity, artists were often piqued against each other in defing the art period. Art Nouveau is the avant-garde movement of the period.

Art Nouveau artists wished to blur the lines between famous and minor artists, and unifying all arts and also unifying art with everday human life, in essence, the art of the period became part of the architectureand jewelry in an attempt to combine life and art.

One artist who was part of the Art Nouveau movement was Gustav Klimt.

Gustav Klimt was a Austrian symbolist painter. Klimts primary subject was of the female body, he explored the themes of beauty, eroticism, life and death through his subjects. He was one of the most innovative and controversial artists of the early 20th century.

Here are some of Klimt's works of art:

This Piece of work by Klimt is called 'Beethoven Frieze' as you can see Klimt focus's on the female body, this painting was displayed in 1902.

This is klimt's works of art, this painting is called 'The Kiss', yet again we can see that Klimt is focusing on female as well as the male figure in this artwork, he is also focus's on human emotions as we can clearly see.

The Arts & Crafts Movement

The arts & crafts movement was a British, Canadian, American and American aesthetic movement occuring in the last years of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century. Inspired by the writer John Ruskin who idolized craftsmen and how they would make something so authentic and pure with there own two hands with no machines used in the process.

The arts & crafts movement was a reformist movement which brought about architecture, decorative arts and cabinet arts. The movement also influenced likes of William Morris, Frank Lloyde Wright and also The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood which was also part of the post-impressionism movement.

William Morris was an English architect, furniture, textile designer and also a writer, he was also part of The Pre-Rapaelite Brotherhood. Morris wrote as well as published his own works, his most famous book is called 'The Defence Of Guenevere And Other Poems" and his other book was called "The Earthly Paradise". Although Morris was part of the Pre-Rapaelites in his college years he was greatly influenced by them before he joined their brotherhood, he was also in fluenced by John Ruskin, Thomas Marloy and by Lord Alfred Tennyson. Morris letter started to develop his philosophy of rejecting industry manufactured decorative art he won't art to be hand made.

Here are two images of his fabaric works:

This First image is of Morris's 'Cabbage and vine Tapestry' this was one of the first tapaestries woven at kelmscott house in the summer of 1879.

This is his fabric woven design, it was a 'Tulip and Willow' design it was printed in 1873.

As you can see from the William Morris ark works he put in a lot of detail and time into his works.

African Influences on modern artists

Today I will be talking about how african art influenced some the late and modern artists of today.

During the early 1900's, the aesthetics of the traditional african sculpture became a powerful influence among european artists who formed an avant-grade in the development of modern art. In France, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and their school of paris friends blended the highly stylized treatment of the human figure in african sculptures with painting styles derived from the post-impressionist works of Cezanne and Gauguin.

Here are some of Matisse works:

This Painting is called 'The Young Sailor", its an oil painting and as you can see matisse exadurated the eyes which african sculptures would have influenced him to do this.

This Painting is called "Snow Flowers" Matisse used watercolour and gouache on cut and pasted paper. As you can see this he may have tryed capturing the image of a snowflake.

Here are some of Pablo Picasso's works which where influenced by african art:

This painting is called "Gertrude Stein" Picasso started painting this in 1906 and as you can see from the eyes being dispropossioned he decided to paint the person as they where, so which ever angle he look at them from would be the angle he painted.

This painting is called "Bust Of A Man" Picasso worked on this from 1908, yet again you can se the resemblence from the african art works from the way he painted the eyes to mouth even the nose you could really sence the remblence in this piece of work.

Here we see another example of Picasso's attempts to capture in his own minds eye the african art form. as you see in the sculpture above Picasso chose to sculpt a woman from this wood. He named this piece "Womans Head".

Impressionism And Post-Impressionism

Impressionism

The Impressionist movement originated in France in the 19th century and lasted from 1867 to 1886. Impressionists broke from traditional European painting techniques and incorporated new elements into the chemistry of color in order to achieve new levels of tone, and exact color. Impressionists created paintings that were suddenly different in how they looked because they applied paint in small touches of pure paint color rather than broad, mixed brushstrokes. This resulted in Impressionist artists having the ability to emphasize the impression of an object or subject matter. The impressionist style allows the artist to capture an image that someone might see if they only caught a quick glimpse of the image. Impressionist paintings are usually outdoor scenes with bright, vibrant colors, without an emphasis on detail. Impressionist art allows an artist to create a mood, while portraying a scene that is not realistic, but might be perceived by any spectator.

Impressionism is generally a light and spontaneous method of painting, where an artist attempts to capture the impression of light in a scene. The name of the movement was derived from one of Monet’s early works ‘Impression: Sunrise’.

The two most famous impressionist artists were Edouard Manet and Edgar Degas.

Edgar Degas was regarded to be one of the founders of impressionism although he rejected that term and preferred to be called a realist. Degas is especially identified with the subject of the dance, and over half of his work is of dancers.

One of the paintings if called La Classe De Danse (The Dance Class) of which he started in 1873 and finished in 1876.

The other half of his work was spent depicting nude paintings, one of them was called La Toilette (woman combing her hair).

Post- Impressionism

Post-Impressionism is the term coined by the British artist and art critic Roger Fry in 1910 to describe the development of French art since Manet. Post-Impressionists extended Impressionism while rejecting its limitations: they continued using vivid colours, thick application of paint, distinctive brushstrokes, and real-life subject matter, but they were more inclined to emphasize geometric forms, to distort form for expressive effect, and to use unnatural or arbitrary colour.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-Impressionism)

Some Painters of the Post-Impressionism Era were Vincent Van Gogh, Georges Seuart and Paul Cezanne.

Vincent Van Gogh is a well known painter, one of his most famous depictions was of the painting called the sunflower as you can see below Van gogh uses bright tones of colours typical to the post-impressionism era.

Romanticism & Realism

Romanticism

Romanticism Began in the ate 18th century and ened in the mid 19th century.

Romantic art portrays emotions painted in a bold and dramatic manner, and there is an emphasis on the past. Paintings by famous romantic artists such as gericault and delacroix are filled with energetic brushstrokes, rich colours and emotive subject matters. The German Landscape painter Casper David Friedrich created images of the solitary loneliness whereas in Spain, Francisco Goya conveyed the horrors of war in his works. This demonstrates the variety in subject matter, but the emphasis on drama and emotion. The Pre-Raphaelites(The Pre-Raphaelites Brotherhood) movement succeeded Romanticism and impressionism is firmly rooted in the romantic tradition.

Some of the most famous paintings in that movement was a painting called 'Wanderer above the sea of fog' and this painting was created by Caspar David Friedrich as you can see in the image below Friedrich certainly does capture the solitary loneliness.

The Other famous painting was created by Francisco Goya who called it 'The Third of May 1808' as you can see in this painting, Goya perfectly conveys the horrors of war in this painting.

Realism

The Realism movement was active from 1830 to 1870. The movement discarded the previous traditional styles of romanticism.

The realist artist portrays subjects in the most straightforward manner possible without idealizing them and without following pervious art theories. The earliest works from the realist movement arose in the 18th century as a reaction against romanticism. The works of Friedrich and Goya are an example of the early influences on realism.
Famous artistis of the realism movement include Gustave Courbet, Jean-Francios Millet and Edouard Manet.

One Of Edouard Manet's famous painting which he named 'Le Dejeuner sur l'herbe'(The Luncheon on the grass) engandered great controversy and servered as a rallying point for young painters who created impressionism.

This is one of Barbara Probst images using the tripod method:

Barbara Probst Works

Hi everyone, Yves here again.

Today I'll be talking about Barbara Probst.

Barbara Probst is a very important figure in the photography business, born in munich in 1964, Probst works in Munich as well as New York. Instead of taking traditional photography Probst use's different angles to take her photograph's, with Probst new visual perspective of things there was also a new technic she used to take these images, she would use up to 12 SLR (single-lens reflex) camera's in a tripod to capture the different angles, the different emotions of the subject, Probst doesn't shoot digitally

Hi everyone.. Yves here

Welcome to my blog of digital arts.
I hope you engoy it..

Jean-Yves