My Bloggy Wog

It will become immediately apparent to anybody reading this that I have never in my life owned, written or subscribed to a blog in my entire life, so first and foremost: APOLOGIES to those of you who think that this is a load of rubbish but I really am trying my hardest...bear with me whilst I try to figure out what on earth is going on.

SO this week's Lecture was entitled 'Can You Tell What It Is Yet? An Introduction to Realism' and not surprisingly it focussed on Realism in art and design. Having studied Fine Art for a very brief period during my foundation at Chelsea, I know that realism in modern art is something which the tutors could absolutely not stand. Anything that vaguely represented anything else was a big no-no and so not surprisingly, I found myself specialising in 3D modelling. In my opinion, the ability to be able to accurately represent reality through models, drawing, painting, flower arranging or anything else is incredibly impressive. We were shown an oil painting by the artist Ralph Goings which was so realistic that it fooled everybody into thinking that it was a photograph. This Photorealistic style of work reminded me very much of an artist that I studied at A Level called Sarah Graham whose work is absolutely incredible. 

More of Sarah's work can be seen here: http://www.sarahgraham.info/default.asp?id=1

I'm not trying to say that the ONLY type of work that I can appreciate is that which represents reality. I'm all for futurism, expressionism, modernism, dadaism etc etc but there is something about REALISM which has always intrigued me. 

In terms of models and realism, we briefly spoke about the 'hyperrealist' sculptor Ron Mueck who I seemed to have developed a slight obsession with. The most striking thing about his work is not only the absolutely perfect representation of the human form, but also the way in which he plays with the scale in order to make the viewer see the work differently. 

'Dead Dad' - 1997

'A Girl' - 2006

Mueck's work totally captivates me, something which I strongly believe artwork should do. If I am ever lucky enough to visit one of Mueck's exhibitions I honestly believe that I could spend a whole day looking at one piece of sculpture alone. This type of work makes the viewer focus on the skill which is involved in making and the incredible attention to detail. However, when it comes to special effects and media, the idea is to fool the viewer into thinking that it is in fact REAL so that they feel like they are a part of the game or film. This is known as Immediacy. The explainations that follow are more for my benefit than anybody else so try not to get too bored.

Immediacy - The medium vanishes and the viewer or reader is totally immersed in what is happening e.g The visual effects in films such as Inception 

  

Hypermediacy - The medium draws attention to itself, and makes people recognise how much effort has gone into the work itself. This definition applies to the wonderful work of Mueck, as well as films where it becomes ever so slightly embarrassing to watch because you can completely imagine how smug the visual effects people must be with themselves (sorry, Avatar). 

Can you tell that I'm a model effects student?