There are four components to this proposal. In my latest my latest work, Paintings for a Robot, I’m proposing the use of film editing technologies to rapidly create merged images that will be made into paintings in the near future by robots. My first attempt at this is documented in the short film below. I was interested in creating abstract images based on conventions from photography.
I have no doubt that robots will be capable of creating high resolution paintings in the near future, meaning artists will be freed from the time consuming tedium of fine art painting. I consider myself a pioneer in the use of digital techniques to create “pre-paintings” that will be rendered by robots that have mastered the highly complex task of applying precisely mixed paint to a flat surface creating the kinds of images that have made painting, historically, the medium which has defined the visual imagination of our most brilliant artists.
Component two, Minimalist Videos, looks at the video work I’ve concentrated on over the past 25 years. These wall art minimalist videos exist somewhere between photography and film. These are intended to be displayed on a wall like a painting and viewed over time. There is no compelling narrative in these slow motion experiments. I am interested in what the slow motion reveals about people in their public personae, lost in thought if on the street, or emotionally consumed by modern tribal activities such as parades, sporting events, marriage parties, etc.
Component three looks at work that I hope is more accessible; Montage Videos that comment on the rise of Christian Nationalism in the U.S. and the coming new urbanism as defined by Las Vegas, perhaps the model for the 21st Century city. These works are also intended to be viewed on a wall as if they are paintings.
Component Four has examples of Proposals for Photo-Sculptures, virtual sculptures I created based on photographic imagery. These include works for Washington, D.C. and Stone Mountain, Georgia, home of a colossal monument to Confederate heroes. With most of the Washington D.C. works I suggest public art pieces that have nothing to do with memorializing politicians. Rather, I’m interested in raising public awareness for the need to develop big science solutions for problems such as global warming- a new environmental Manhattan Project. The Stone Mountain works are proposed photo-sculptures based on Civil War photographs. I would hope these reality based works would disabuse Southerners of their romantic delusions about the Civil War.
Components 2, 3, and 4 can be accessed at the bottom of this page.
1. Paintings for a Robot
This video demonstrates the film editing technique I used to create these images designed for eventual rendering by painting robots. Below are the first eight painting proposals I created using this method.
Slide Show 1: Select the image below to cycle through the first eight “pre-paintings”.
Slide Show 2: Additional abstract painting proposals generated by film editing software: Select the image below to cycle through the “pre-paintings”.
Slide Show 3: These next images were created by merging abstract images randomly with my photographs and master paintings. Cycle through the images by selecting the “pre-painting” below.
Notice about images from well known paintings: Most of the images from artists such as Monet, van Gogh, Kandinsky, da Vinci, etc. were downloaded from museum sites and are copyright cleared. Images from Jackson Pollock, Edward Hopper, etc. are used as proposed montage paintings and may be subject to copyright clearances in the unlikely event these images find a commercial market.
Paintings for a Robot: Version 4
The short video below is a scan of three proposed 90” x 50” paintings created from frame grabs of street recordings made in Las Vegas 2011-12.