opart_vc

The virtual communities that I found were not all that interactive, as I had thought they would be. I had hoped to find some sites that depicted certain op art paintings by enabling members to communicate via a message board. Even though my expectations were high, I found many fun sites filled with optical illusions. I have used a rating system to examine all the virtual communities that I found. It ranges from Poor Interactivity to Excellent Interactivity. Here some of the sites that I found:

I. <http://www.art.net>
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This site is an online collaboration of artists and their work. This site also supports free speech. It does not, however, include op art as one of their important movements. I would have preferred to see op art as one of their artistic showcases because op art has changed the art world and the way we see things.

II. <http://www.worldofescher.com>
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This site is not the official Escher site, however, everything on this site is devoted to Escher. This site offers an image gallery, a monthly newsletter, in which you may subscribe to, to receive in your e-mail, a FAQ page, and a biography page devoted to Escher himself. More than half the web site was designated for commercial use. The web site sells posters, puzzles, t-shirts, silk ties, books, computer accessories, coffee mugs, magnets, book marks, playing cards, greeting cards, and 3-D cards that you can fold and shape. All the items just mentioned have Escher prints on them. I really did like the site because it was well organized and informative, however, I found that it lacked interactivity. The first that you would see coming to the index page is "SILK TIES ON SALE NOW!!". The only thing that was partially, almost interactive was some of the computer accessories.

Despite the Escher's mouse pads, coasters and wrist rests, and M.C. Escher's Computer Screen Saver, there were two software packages, that one could buy each under one hundred dollars, that enable anybody to work with Escher's artistic techniques. TesselMania Software gives students numerous ways to create their own tessellations. Students can experiment with art and transformational geometry using this software. The second software package is also available on CD-ROM. Escher Interactive CD-ROM provides more than six hundred original Escher works; Escher animations, morphing images, geometric puzzles, and you can even create your own patterns using Escher's techniques and principles. These two software packages sound fun and I hope that they are well worth the money.

There is also a contest page for students to display their tessellations using the TesselMania sotware sold on this site. I actually checked out some of the contest pages. I also voted for some of the images that I liked. I really enojyed seeing that children and teenagers of all ages were participating in this contest. It is really nice to see that op art has had an effect on their artistic capabilities. This is definitely providing more awareness for op art. Click here to see the wonderful entries done by these students.

Overall, the site was not as interactive as I would have liked it to be. I found it to be way too commercialized. One thing that the site could have done was to offer their interactive computer software packages for free. There would definitely have been more viewer participation.

III. <http://www.domaindlx.com/escher/default.asp>
Rating ***
This site is devoted to optical illusions, tessellations, and artworks of the artist M.C. Escher. The name of the site is "Eschart and Illusions". It has a guest book, many image galleries (based on illusions, tessellations and Escher's artwork), and interactive applications (interactive Java applets, interactive metamorphose and creating your own tessellations) that are just the few interactive things to do on this site). One java applet was designed to explore Escher's 1940 masterpiece "Metamorphose". These interactive applications were far by the coolest that I have seen so far. The interactive java puddle enables you to point your mouse anywhere on the Escher's 1952 masterpiece Puddle and the puddle moves, just like water. Micky, the webmaster of this site, also let site visitors use software Escher Web Sketch , which is a Java applet in which you can design your own tessellations. This software package is a lot of fun and it is so easy to create your own art.

The site also enables you to send Escher-postcards by e-mail so that you could send your loved ones cool greeting cards. This site however does not enable viewers to provide input because the guest book was not that all impressive. People's comments varied from, "Good site!" to "Great site!". I have to admit though that this site was one of the best that I found. The interactive possibilities that the creator, Micky G. Lewis, provided on this site enables people, artists or non-artists, to experiment with optical art and tessellations. And it was free!! I would have though preferred more viewer-to-viewer interactivity on this site. It would have been nice to see more site visitors participating in the interactive applications and actually providing feedback to Micky, whether it be by e-mail or in the guest book provided on the site.

IV. <http://www-sphys.unil.ch/escher/>
Rating ***
This site provides instruction information on a software package which enables you to design periodic decorations using M.C. Escher's principles. Escher Web Sketch, which was already mentioned above, is accessible on the web because it uses Java applets to run the program. Anybody can access it and use it. The uniqueness of Escher is portrayed in this software program, which is an "excellent teaching tool for the illustration of basic crystallography courses." This site also enables you to e-mail the authors of the site, and it also enables you to upload images that you have created using this software. I would have preferred though, a bit more viewer-to-viewer interactivity. I would have liked to see a page in which people could upload their images. I would have really loved to see people commenting on other people's work.

V. <http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/Hans.Kuiper />
Rating ***
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. He uses this software to create optical drawings and tessellations based on Escher's principles. To order this software package, which is $30.00 US, you can visit this link from his home page to read more about this software that he created. I really liked the site because Hans displayed most of his work on the site. He also provides instructions on how to use the software. I would have liked more viewer-to-viewer interactivity and perhaps, Hans could have put a page on his site where people could also upload their images using the 'Mirror Artist'.

VI. Toronto Services and Attractions
<http://www.ads-online.on.ca/illusion/directory.html>
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There is absolutely no interactivity whatsoever on this site. It displays only optical illusions. Even though the optical illusions are very challenging, I still think there should be at least a message board where people can put their different interpretations on each image.

VII. <http://www.iproject.com/escher/teaching/teaching.html>
Rating ***
This site provides information on how to teach Escher's based principles in the classroom. This site in a way is a catalyst for the interactivity of "Eschart", or what we call op art and tessellations. It encourages teachers to teach Escher's style of art. Escher's life and style will live on through this person-to-person interactivity in the classroom. The lesson plans include the types of symmetry used by Escher, the techniques that Escher used, and how to incorporate Escher's style in the classroom.

VIII. <http://www.optillusions.com>
Rating **
This site showcases many interesting optical illusions which are very challenging to the eyes. This site also enables you to send optical illusions to your friends via e-mail. In a way, it can be considered to provoke interactivity among your circle of friends. For an example, I sent my friend an optical illusion that I couldn't depict. I am not an optical illusion expert. And he e-mailed me back with his response and his explanations of what he saw. Overall, it was kind of fun because my friend couldn't understand why I could not depict the illusion. I would have been very effective for the site to have a page with the correct answers to the optical illusions, and a comments page in which people can type their different interpretations.