Sketch for Impression 3 drew my attention immediately. The work captured the enthusiastic mood of a party while reducing the affair down to bare necessities. Sketch for Impression 3 is a chalk drawing down by Kandinsky (in many ways the father of abstract art) in representational style. He made the piece to capture the experience of attending Arnold Schoenberg's Munich concert January 1911. Here the concert is reduced to minimum outlines, enough to document what was there.

I like that there is a bare minimum of detail, leaving one to imagine the rest of the detail. For me Sketch for Impression 3 acts as mental scaffolding for my mind to build on. Every time I look at it I add more detail, the color of dress, what type of chandelier is hanging, the intimate lighting.

Clearly Kandinsky's work succeeds in carrying across what it was to be at Schoenberg's Munich concert over a century ago. It presents ideas about a heterosexually dominated culture, where in those dancing together were only men and women. It seems to show them deeply entranced with one another, by the tilt of their had and body postures. Before experiencing this piece I had a more is better view of artwork. The more detail, the more impressive something was. However I've really enjoyed how my mind has been free to fill in the details.

My interpretation of Kandinsky's work next to his

int width=600;

int height=400;

void setup() {

  size(width, height);

  smooth();

}

void draw () {

  background(200, 183, 156);

  //ceiling

  beginShape();

  vertex (60, 0);

  vertex (200, 150);

  vertex (520, 0);

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  endShape();

  // floor

  beginShape();

  //left side

  vertex (0, 380);

  //center corner

  vertex (200, 300);

  //right side

  vertex (570, 390);

  endShape();

  //corner

  line(200, 150, 200, 300);

  //ligthing chord

  line (270, 0, 270, 140);

  //chandelier top

  bezier(205, 160, 260, 130, 280, 130, 335, 160);

  //light 1, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(210, 160, 212, 170, 219, 170, 216, 160);

  //light 2, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(218, 164, 222, 174, 226, 174, 223, 164);

  //light 3, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(220, 155, 225, 170, 230, 170, 235, 155);

  //light last, starting point same as bezier for top arche

  bezier(320, 155, 325, 170, 330, 170, 335, 155);

  bezier(280, 155, 290, 170, 290, 170, 300, 155);

  bezier(270, 155, 280, 170, 280, 170, 284, 155);

  bezier(250, 155, 260, 170, 264, 170, 270, 155);

  

  //piano hood

  beginShape();

  //left top corner

  vertex (250, 190);

  //top right corner

  vertex (280, 190);

  vertex (370, 320);

  vertex (290, 300);

  vertex (250, 190);

  fill (0);

  endShape();

  //piano body

  ellipse (342, 328, 70, 34);

  beginShape();

  vertex(344, 300);

  vertex (320,342);

  vertex (237,320);

  vertex (237,300);

  endShape();

  

  //wheels

  ellipse (310, 343, 12, 12);

  ellipse (250, 328, 12, 12);

  //man in fron of piano

  beginShape();

  vertex(367,370);

  vertex (367, 270);

  vertex (350, 290);

  vertex (360, 370);

  endShape();

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  bezier (367, 270, 395, 250, 360, 250, 360, 275);

  //woman

  fill (200, 183, 156);

  bezier(360,380,356,350,370,290,330,270);

  bezier(335,270, 327,280, 350,300, 350, 380);

  //woman's head

  bezier(335,270, 320,250,360,245, 340,270);

  bezier (340,255, 358,245,350,230,340,230);

  //main woman

  bezier (220,270, 210,290, 210, 300, 200,350);

  bezier (200,350,220,370,230,330,232,350);

  bezier(232,350, 216,340,216, 320, 220, 270);

  bezier (216, 270, 220, 266, 222, 258, 234, 254);

  ellipse (220, 270, 10, 17);

  

  //main man

  fill(0);

  //body

  bezier(190, 270, 180, 290, 180, 300, 200, 370);

  //leg

  bezier(190, 300, 175, 320, 175, 340, 170, 374);

  //arm

  bezier (180, 290, 190, 300, 192, 310, 220, 306);

  fill(200, 183, 156);

  ellipse (190, 270, 10, 16);

  fill(0);

 //chair

 bezier (30, 270,20, 300, 20, 340, 30, 370);

 beginShape();

 vertex(30, 320);

 vertex(60, 340);

 vertex(55, 350);

 vertex (30, 350);

 endShape();

 line(50, 350, 50, 370);

 line(60, 340, 60, 370);

 //woman there

 //piano player head

 fill(200, 183, 156);

 ellipse (255, 280, 12, 15);

 //piano player

 fill(0);

 beginShape();

 vertex(260, 290);

 vertex(250,290);

 vertex(235, 310);

 vertex(255, 310);

 endShape();

 line (255, 310, 270, 290);

}

Golan Levin

http://www.flong.com/storage/images/self/golan-levin-2-lg.jpg

Levin's website: http://www.flong.com/

Golan Levin is an artist and engineer hybrid. His work utilizes modern instruments, such as software, robotics and cognitive science. This is no surprise as he worked at MIT in academics in addition to being a researcher focusing on computer tech and software engineering. Levin's pieces can be considered performance art, engaging audiences in various ways and many times forcing their participation. 

He is pushing the boundaries of what is art. Levin is an artist that truly uses the tools of today. Many of his pieces focus on interactivity, using the full body to better explore an aesthetic experience. Two of his pieces that I found captivating focus on inverting spectatorship. Double Taker aka Snout is an eight foot robotic nose http://www.flong.com/projects/snout/. Snout is the robotic equivalent to Ten Second Tom from Fifty First Dates. He is continually shocked and surprised to see his audience members. The other piece I found entertaining to say the least is Opto-Isolator http://www.flong.com/projects/optoisolator/. This piece boils "gaze" down to its bare-bone components, an eye and blinking. The eye is programmed to incorporates familiar social behavior, such as becoming shy when you stare. This is just a really cool example of art looking back. 

Aaron Koblin

http://specials-images.forbes.com/imageserve/04ED7bEbh2eYB/0x600.jpg?fit=scale&background=000000

Koblin's website: http://www.aaronkoblin.com/

Aaron Koblin is a media artist who works primarily with visualizing data sets and crowdsourcing. Currently he is employed as the Creative Director at the Data Art Team for Google. Much of his work focuses on GPS and other forms of locative technology to depict humanity. Some of his work has included music videos, such as Radiohead's House of Cards (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nTFjVm9sTQBy) and The Johnny Cash Project (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lp3RpC-60U). 

Those projects that look at and depict mass data sets are the ones I find particularly fascinating. Koblin captures the ebb and flow daily life in North America by looking at traffic patterns across the night sky http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ystkKXzt9Wk. You can literally see the East Coast come alive. Another piece that really gets at humanity is Koblins visualization of SMS messages in Amsterdam, one can aesthetically understand what it looks like for people to reach out and connect with technology http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WKuSBbleYuE.

Theo Jansen

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAoTZniQaUITB340B9OPPkpBc7MNQAlgbbQ_krb8NBHpybaIyrsS1ItOUkC5Zzx2pBPnt_1c4-_P16e8nxMWFEsCmlFr0Oio_RZNG77fh0ZOAIBAWp8erESmHs8HwTVMBiYftflN4RRO4/s640/theo_jansen.jpg

Jansen's website: http://www.strandbeest.com/

Theo Jansen is a bit different from the other two artists I have discussed. Jansen has created children for himself. I don't mean this in a biblical sense, rather in the tool bench sense. His children are Strandbeests, who in habit the beaches. They are creations made from tubes that are powered from the wind. They are evolving through generations and becoming autonomous slowly but surly. 

Strandbeests can seem a bit off the beaten path as far as art is concerned, but truly these are masterpieces. This is a prime example of how computational art is not limited to the digital screen, it does not always have to include software and electronics. Instead, Jansen employs pneumatic computers and a pseudo genetic code which determines the next generation.  

My first taste of computing and the arts came in high school, when I took graphics and of course fell in love. Continuing on from level 1 graphics, I took and completed up to level 4. Learning how to edit and create in CS3 (Illustrator, Photoshop, and Indesign). As well as the physical components, like how to run a printing press, make screen sprints to create our own shirts, pick vinyl... pretty much a smorgasbord of experience. In college I have added to my repertoire a bit through various ISTA classes. I've taken classes on basic HTML/CSS, programing in Python, and with Kelland Thomas I worked with Processing in a cursory way. My major is Anthropology, so my experience outside of these classes have been next to nothing. There has been some art history if you count archeological classes touching on cave paintings but nothing intensely focused on the subject.