ForumsArt, Music, and WritingAbstraction or Something Close

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Gantic
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Gantic
11,892 posts
King

This is in regard to the contests, but more with respect to the Art Skills Competition ('cause I'm horrible with music and music theory and I can't come up with an example for the poetry contest yet.) I've only entered in two pieces and I've had comments for both regarding if they actually fit the topic/theme. They're not particularly abstract (and I don't consider them abstract at all, well maybe a little), but they do require a bit of visualization to wrap the mind around.

I am wondering, how abstract can an entry be before a judge goes, "Whuh?" I'm talking about somewhere just beyond cubism and expressionism (or maybe within their most abstract boundaries) but not only to those two types either. (I am not saying that I will restrict myself to things more abstract. I am, however, just waiting for the right theme to go for the "luls".)

Picture a smooth thick black curve (parabolic, hyperbolic, elliptical, what-have-you) against a white background. This curve is then cut at an angle, any angle. It is then crossed with a similar but thinner curve at some point along its curve. The background is then divided in half at about a 40-50 degree angle. A mottled dark greenish-gray color fills the top half and a mottled offwhite color fills the bottom half.

This clearly fits under the "Hair" theme right?

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Zophia
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Zophia
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Scribe

*spends five minutes getting that image right in my head*
Hmm. Yes. But people who aren't used to abstract things may not recognize it as a such.
If you continue to make more abstract entries, it would definitely be interesting to see the reactions.

Abstract as a theme, now that could be fun...

Gantic
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Gantic
11,892 posts
King

*spends five minutes getting that image right in my head*
Hmm. Yes. But people who aren't used to abstract things may not recognize it as a such.
If you continue to make more abstract entries, it would definitely be interesting to see the reactions.
Abstract as a theme, now that could be fun...


I'm aware I'm too close to be aware if whether or not someone else can see, but I can't see people not being used to abstract things (or maybe I'm just equating it to symbolism). I'm not sure if anyone else had to learn about post-World-War art as a reaction to the war in history class. That might be a few years later for some of AG.

On a tangent, I'm sure Surrealism is more within grasp than just shapes, textures, and colors. Salvador Dali's The Persistance of Memory comes to mind. Everyone's got to know that piece, right, even if not by name? Perhaps something a little more toward the surreal for the next one, depending on the theme.

As for doing abstract for the sake of abstract: That could end up with some excellent stuff.

Yea i like your work.


Thanks.
Strop
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Strop
10,817 posts
Bard

The topic is still open for discussion even though this will be the official word: Art is subjective, and every single entry is judged according to "how it articulates the theme".

Since I'm the judge here, if I think you've engaged the theme, then you're likely to perform well for the purposes of the competition. If I think you could have done more with it, you're less likely to do well.

Hint: I'm a highly cerebral person so abstraction and lateral thinking is encouraged, and since the core of my artistic philosophy is that art is a form of communication, I'm always looking for how something is communicated. This is my license to subjective interpretation- loosely speaking the more 'effective' your communication, the more likely I'm going to pick something up from it. But there is no necessary correlation.

Zophia
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Zophia
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Surrealism... Now that could be fun to try out...

@Gantic:
I actually didn't know that particular piece of his, but fascinating. Melting clocks~

*ponders*

Strop
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Strop
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Bard

Ah, now that would be pure win, is somebody went and did a Dali on these forums...like wow.

Gantic, I really like your approach to the little art contest we have going here, it is refreshing and thus far I reckon I can engage with it strongly. I would be interested to see what kind of piece it would take for me to lose that, and go "whut?" I think that in itself would tell us a lot.

Gantic
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Gantic
11,892 posts
King

It would be awesome if someone did a Dali. Dali actually followed The Persistance of Memory with another piece [i]The Disintegration of the Persistance of Memory/i]. I wonder what he would have done if string theory were proven to be true (more or less by scientific standards).

I would like to see what I can do with the contest and perhaps figure out what would make the Strop go "whut?" and still be clear in its communication.

Does a title at all affect an interpretation?

Strop
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Strop
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Bard

Does a title at all affect an interpretation?


That's a really good question.

In this case I'm going to say "sometimes". I can definitely think of examples where the whole was greater than the sum of parts (esp, say, humorous captions...cholokid won the fashion contest based almost entirely of the impact of the title). But I can also think of examples where titles appear merely tangential.
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