Letty - my first computer was a freebie - a 486 when they were already well past their sell by date - I persuaded a firm to let me have one - I was thrilled with it. It then became upgraded again and again over the years - I think there is just a cd writer left from the original, absolutely everything else has changed, including the box - I kept the CD writer as a second one just for playing cd's (it records at 2X - this is where Monger, Craven et al fall on the floor in hysterics!) It is still far from state of the art but it does what I need.
I did embarassingly leave out sculpture in the fine art category because the medium is seldom used for advertising. However, for instance, the Big Boy sculptures which greeted one out in front of their restaurant and now bringing big bucks as collector items were not fine art when they were created. Now they are pop art icons again blurring the division between fine and commercial art. Ditto the Las Vegas signage from defunct hotels, etc.
Andy Warhol and other pop artists really blurred the line between commercial and fine art. However, they made an artistic statement in their time and place which is difficult to imitate without copying them. The recent years have brought us, as noted by Timber, the graffitti and cartoon pop artists and amongst them are Kenny Scharff (fantastic comic book inspired surealism), Keith Haring (iconic imagery making visual statements about our times) and Rodney Allen Greenblatt (cartoon art brought to its antithesis). Unfortunately, they've also bred a lot of commercial copy cats foisting off their work as original. Caveat emptor.
I don't know how many times I've written how the "fine art publishers" have blurred the line between commercial and fine art to the point that the general public is nearly entirely baffled.
Thanks, Letty -- at UCLA I was a student teacher in the art department. Never followed up on it, however (became a credit manager/controller for a manufacturing company yet!)
BTW, artists like Tolouse-Lautrec allowed their artwork to be used as commercial advertising doesn't seem to have disqualified their other work from being included in museums like the Louvre as fine art. One of the advertisers that have had projects of using fine art as advertising art is Absolut. Again blurring the line -- commmercial art is commercial art, meaning to sell something and even the lowest newspaper ad is still art. Fine art is created for itself but can be sold to a collector that appreciates and loves the work. There are no special departments in higher education which separate fine art from commercial art -- they're all in the Art Department.
I smiled a bit at Vivien's "state of the art" reference.
Mr. Wizard, I think perhaps the line between art, commercialism, and philosophy can be vague, sometimes, but of course, paintings, murals, etc. are indeed a separate thing. Heeba, is a fine sculptor. I can still see, in my mind's eye, his work on the Realm.
Well, the academic world lost to manufacturing, prof. I watched LOTR last night, and I do know that the special effects were an art form. I'm beginning to believe that all is art reflected in the mirror of metaphor.
If you want to see CGI used to the highest aesthetic invention, see "Hero."
Ads are art some are even interesting and funny. But it is the repetition I cannot stand about seeing them on TV. Some bill board ads are a distraction while driving on the other hand they to can be fun.
My first computer (1997) I painted my favorite color of pink. When the guy came to install the cable he was in shock! I just don't think computers were meant to be that weird gray/brown color.
And guess what I was not the only one thinking that way. Look how many colors and designs computers come in now.
Mac's come in a lot of colors including grape! I have seen some PC's going for color but can't remember the brand.
Colors are big for high-end gamin' machines. Acer offers a powerhouse laptop with a Ferrari paint job and logo, and multi-layer, many-clearcoat finishes worthy of custom show cars can be had on the big-gun gamin' machines - for a price. Some sport paintjobs that tack hundreds of bucks onto the cost of the rig.
I haven't searched to see if Porsche Carrera has designed any boxes. Laptops seem to be more intriguing to designers to come up with unique looks. I still have an inline cartridge Carrera turntable hooked up to play older LP's. Unfortunately, off goes the surround as the surface noise is processed into ambient signals! The palms and MP2 players come in some beguiling designs and colors. The new U2, loaded with all of their songs is a stylish black and red.
I think product design, especially furniture, is probably the closest to being fine art. MOMA has many examples in its collection, the icon likely being the Barcelona Chair by Mies Van Der Rohe
(Well, and the Eames Chair which I saw one of the original prototypes at the Pasadena Art Museum when I was attending Art Center).
or there is the wallpaper posters that are created by
Hanna Werring or the fabric designs of
Mina Perhonen that I think cross over from design to little pieces of "art" that you can own. (if we are going to talk about furniture / interior design).
I have used wallpaper as wall decor but that's all it is -- wall decor. Instead of wallpapering a wall, cut out the singular image from the paper and frame it. Inexpensive and it works for clients who are ultimately going to go out and purchase their own art. I've even framed a piece of wallpaper that matches the wallpaper background. Again, it's all art but not all fine art.
no, it is not fine art... but there are people that classs it as a limited edition of some type of art.
That is clever about the wall paper. I have only ever seen that type of phenomenon in an Asian restaurant in Sydney, where they have Thai fabric in frames. It is nothing extraordinary, just shiny. Gives light.
"Limited Edition's" are seldom fine art as they are not produced with the participation of the artist other than the creation of the original for reproduction purposes. Most of it is banal decorator art of which maybe 10% is worthy of praise.
of course.
but it still exists.
I have in front of me a French graphics magazine that I subscribe to (as this is the type of work I normally get paid to do) called étapes. The latest issue has books in it that they think are "beautiful" or well made or signify something for typography (but only mentioning Jan Tschichold) - but they are classing them as "works of art"... but to me they are examples of creative design, not art in the sense that I think of art. I love illustrative work if it is good or extremely imaginative, but it is always going to be graphic design / illustration.
I suspect we gather inspiration from everywhere, and I am sure that eventhe lowly graphic can sometimes influence. Think of Op Art for example.
Etapes is a great magazine -- they do not, however, endorse the method of producing graphics as the American marketing ploy of copying originals by such methods as the computer generated giclee and then try to pass them off as original graphics.
The best Op Art is not particularly influenced by any graphic processes or illustration if that's what you meant. Rubin's underdrawing revealed a very geometric method of creating his compositions.
It wasn't exactly what I meant with the Op Art... I can't recall my train of thought exactly now. I think I must have been refering to the general thought...
goodness.
I was thinking about The Golden Mean last night when I wrote that. So everything was linked to it. Everything!
Jan Tschichold was very mathematical in his creation of layouts if you have ever read anything about his work and thoeries.
I have a book that talks about The Golden Mean and it's use in beautiful and well balanced page design for all forms of graphic design. Being more right lobed (correct?), mathematics in excess can be a bit of overload for me. It is interesting in the small amounts I can read at a time.
Op Art is just another mathematically influenced movement. You could go on naming how geometry and mathematics have crept into all forms of life.
I am getting off topic. I could go on forever about this I suspect.
Ben, you reminded me of the golden spiral. Thinking back.
If one is viewing a Vasarely image, I'd suggest listening to Bach. An Albers, Philip Glass. Art and music based on mathematics is not out of the ordinary. I thought I knew where you were going with the Op Art train of thought, ben, but it was unclear. Ads can rely on designs related to Op Art like the Target target!
