Blog 2
This week, I have started thinking about what a more complete final product might look like, and what tools I will use to get there. Based on my research last week, I started taking a deeper dive into light and space artists. I like the clean look of these works and how they can change a whole space. I also like the emotions they bring to the viewer.
I like this type of work as a basis for my project, but I do not think it will be the complete idea. I like the way this concept looks, but I want it to have a stronger emotional meaning behind it. I am trying to connect this project to parts of my life, so I want to have some sort of darker counterpart and a way to travel between them.
To be more specific about the concept, I want to replicate this light and space look digitally. I think that this will make it easier to reach wider audiences, and will also give me more freedom and flexibility. I am also comfortable in different digital programs so I already have the skills needed for this. I am planning on using blender, unity, or godot for this, although I am not sure which one yet. I might test out different ideas in each and then decide.
I think that the design part will come easily once I come up with a more concrete idea once I have a better idea of what the project looks like. In past projects, I spend a lot of time brainstorming what specifically the idea is before I jump in. I like when the idea is planned out. I have a good idea of what the project will look like generally, but I have not worked out specific ideas yet, that is something I am working on.
I have started diving deeper into light and space art for inspiration and research. I started with James Turrell and Doug Wheeler, but have started looking at different artists and techniques as well. I have started to research how I could replicate some of these techniques digitally. There are a lot of tutorials available for 3D lighting, but not necessarily having the light itself be the art. That is an area I will be looking into going forward.
To answer my question in the previous part, I wanted to look up digital artists that use light to their advantage. I did not find a lot of artists that specialized on this. A lot of them used art as part of their projects, but not as the focus. There are a lot of good tutorials as well, but it was hard to find a singular artist that specialized. I am sure they are out there, I just have to keep digging.
With this in mind, I started looking at more recent artists that have expanded on the light and space movement. One of these artists is Ann Veronica Janssens, who started her work a few decades after Turrell. Jannssens still uses light and space in her work but does it differently than Turrell. Turrell’s art feels very uniform and stable. He uses few colors and displays them in a very bright and bold way. Jannssens uses more variety and movement in her work. She combines more colors in a way that feels sharper with more contrast. She uses people in her work more than Turrell. I am not sure however if they are part of the work or spectators, or both. I like how her work feels more edgy and experimental, versus Turrells which feels more comfortable.
The different artists’ techniques and looks are inspiring my art in different ways. They are inspiring different thoughts and ways to use this medium to express the narrative and emotions I want. I like the contrast of comfort and edge in these two artists, and I intend on exploring this line in my project. I want the two different “worlds” of my art to represent my different thoughts and feelings in the world, and analyzing the way I feel about these different artists is helping me define these worlds.
