parallelUniverses

11-minute read If enough planes act together in a specific, closed configuration, we perceive the appearance of Volume or Mass. The presence of mass creates a byproduct, the Void or Space surrounding the mass. The 3D Mass-Void relationship is equivalent to the 2D Figure-Ground relationship encountered with shape. Beyond Kandinsky: Volume Related terms: Extrusion |… read more »

7-minute read While the idea of making has evolved radically through two revolutions — the Industrial and the Digital. However, the kinds of making remain relatively fixed by the properties of the material world. We can manipulate by hand, machine, digital interface, or some hybrid among these. No matter the means, material processes generally organize… read more »

18-minute read Change over time For thousands of years, artists have used all kinds of images and media to depict the fourth dimension: time. In our upcoming readings on metaphors to cinema in Chapter 16, we will encounter how prehistoric people portray motion in paintings and carvings of animals. Trajan’s Column in Rome contains a triumphal narrative… read more »

11-minute read Principles are enzymes We can manipulate and organize Elements by using Principles. Easy enough, but here’s the confusing part: some Principles can also be manipulated and organized using Principles! For example, Shape (an Element) can be organized into Pattern (a Principle) that is generated through the use of Symmetry (a Principle). In other words, we can use… read more »

22-minute read You, who are blessed with shade as well as light, you who are gifted with two eyes, endowed with a knowledge of perspective, and charmed with the enjoyment of various colours, you, who can actually see an angle, and contemplate the complete circumference of a Circle in the happy region of the Three… read more »

4-minute read What is 3D design? At first, this sounds like a question with an obvious answer. We are born into a world in which our bodies occupy and experience space, after all. We come to understand 3D intuitively through sheer exposure; akin to the way we learn our first language. In the case of… read more »

10-minute read The futurists of past generations were not paying attention. Waxing poetic about personal jet-packs (which I am still waiting for!), they completely missed what was right under their noses. Even such a genius as Stanley Kubrick cast us still in the thrall of a Cold War with the Soviet Union (the What Union?)…. read more »

10-minute read What is a model? We’ve learned that the mental image you have in response to that question is itself a model. A model can be an ideal or an abstraction, a pragmatic object or an object of kitsch. We’ll take a brief look at these concepts of the model as a way to clarify the place of digital modeling…. read more »

9-minute read Prehistoric models and the cosmos The first models attempted to create order out of randomness. Early hunter-gatherer humans must have felt the need to generate order in the relatively uncontrollable environment in which they lived. Among the most prevalent were models based on the pattern of celestial phenomena. Daily sunrise through monthly moon… read more »

3-minute read What is modeling? A map is not the territory it represents, but if correct, it has a similar structure to the territory, which accounts for its usefulness. What is modeling? Defined as simply as possible, modeling is the making of a map. But a map is not so simple a thing. Often a… read more »