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| The Effects of TECHNOLOGY on the Interactivity of Optical Art |
| Menu: ** Home ** What is Art? ** Optical Art Page ** Introduction and History of Optical Art **Interactive Possibilities: Virtual Communities ** Image Gallery ** Conclusion ** Bibliography ** E-Mail Me! |
The Effects of Technology on the Interactivity of Op Art Technology has definitely given op art more dimensions; it enables people (artists or non-artists) to program and manipulate images and geometric shapes, and to create and produce patterns and prints through specialized software such as Adobe Photoshop and Corel Draw. During the 1960s, many op artists did not have a computer at their disposal; everything was done manually. Technology is now enabling many programmers and graphic artists and designers to distort images in a way that was never possible. Technology even makes these images more visually challenging and harder to perceive. Advances in this increasing domain have made op art more interactive in the sense that it works together with op art to produce "hard-edged", confusing-to-the-eye imagery. According to John Lancaster, the technological world is reflected in op art. One of the aspects of modern art is the "degree to which the artists are trying to involve the spectator in the experience of the object or art form. (Lancaster, 25)" According to Lea Virgine, op art amplifies the sphere of perceptivity, as does technology. They both inaugurate a new stage of visualization. The Internet and new advances in technology have an enormous effect on perception; as in op art, it has created new relationships to the artwork. The Effects of the Internet on Op Art The interactive possibilities with any art form are infinite. Firstly, let me start off by saying that the Internet has played a great role in the distribution of op art. I might not have chosen this topic if it wasn't for the wonderful, always-dependable E-Mail. I received several forwards in my E-mail that contained optical illusions. These forwards were questioning my ability to perceived these images. One important thing to keep in mind is that the people who received the forwards before me were exposed to the op art as well. This constant exposure, as a result of the communicative capabilities of E-Mail, helps with the awareness and distribution of op art to the public. Furthermore, the Internet has also opened the gateway to websites devoted to optical illusions. At Optillusions.com, you can send optical illusions to your friends via E-mail. This site showcases many interesting and challenging optical illusions. The virtual communitie that I found were not all that interactive, as I had thought they would be. Most them only displayed a gallery of optical illusions, like the example mentioned above. In a way, the site can be considered to provoke interactivity. I was very disappointed to see that there was so little interactivity on sites similar to the example above. My expectations were far greater than all of this. I imagined that there would be websites that offered a message board in which people from all over the globe could comment on and depict op art paintings. My hopes of finding web sites such as these were a result of having received the optical illusions in my E-mail. My only conclusion from all my research is that there are not too many web sites devoted to making this amazing artistic movement interactive as it is. I did, however, get some progress when I decided to look for virtual communities on the famous Dutch artist, M. C. Escher, who experimented with optical illusions in his work. Many of these sites devoted to Escher sells products such as t-shirts, posters, coffee mugs, post cards, bookmarks, and so much more. Consumerism was often the only form of interactivity that I saw. You give them your credit card number, they take your money and send you something nice. Some sites though provided software packages that enable people to draw using Escher's artistic techniques. Escher Web Sketch, derived from a Java Applet, enables anybody to draw using Escher's principles. Another web site that I found provided information on how to teach Escher in the classroom. My favourite Escher site had a guest book, a few image galleries and many interactive applications created the by author, Micky G. Lewis. These interactive Java applets help people to create op art images and tesselations. Micky also took some of Escher's masterpieces and made them interactive. For example, for Escher's 1940 masterpiece Puddle, Micky made this artwork interactive by making the image of the puddle move and simulate like water. He also lets site visitors use the Escher Web Sketch without downloading it from the Internet. Speigelkunstenaar or "Mirror Artist" is a unique Dutch paint program to design Escher-like drawings. Hans Kuiper, whose work is both interesting and innovative, designed this program which is sold on his site. Hans created this software to create optical drawings and tesselations based on Escher's principles and artistic techniques. He also provides instructions on how to use the software program in English and in Dutch. The advantages of sites that offered software packages like the Escher Web Sketch and "Mirror Artist" is that enable anyone to draw op art. These web sites in turn re-use Escher's original ideas, and viewers are encouraged to participate. These potential artists put themselves into Escher's shoes. It is sites like these that give op art more meaning and more importance. There are more intentions to create significance in the artwork. It also provokes authorship and more participation on behalf of the viewer. With all these interactive possibilities, come many drawbacks....they will be discussed in my conclusion. |
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| (c). By Vann-Ly Cheng, 2002. |
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