Drawing the “Old Masters Links to an external site.” is a time-honored way Links to an external site. of learning fundamental techniques in the art community. While the faithful reproduction has fallen out of favor as a teaching technique, a close study of a work of art promotes a new way of seeing and understanding the work. In fact, many museums still offer programs
Links to an external site. which allow artists to closely study famous artworks and reinterpret them. In your final project, you will be working to create a work of art based on a work of art in the Rollin's Museum of Art collection using computational techniques we have studied this semester and/or new techniques of your own devising. Part 1: Computational Art Work
Complete a computational work that is inspired by a work of art found here at Rollins. To be clear, you are not trying to copy the work of art (there are copyright issues involved here
Links to an external site.). Rather, you are looking to a particular work of art as inspiration. You should try to capture aspects of the work of art computationally and recreate the effect, mood, colors, etc of the original work. In many cases, this may mean incorporating your own photographs into your project. All images you use should be in the public domain or utilize a licensing scheme under which you qualify (e.g. Creative Commons licensing for non-commercial uses with/without attribution).
We’ve taken a tour of only a small piece of RMA’s collections. Take some time to investigate other artworks and choose something which “speaks” to you for some reason. The original piece of art you select does not need to be a photograph or photographic in nature. You can select any work: paintings, sketches, sculptures, mixed media, and yes, even photographs. Below are some ways to investigate other works which are held by RMA.
Visit in person. There are always rotating exhibits in the RMA. See this page
Links to an external site. for a current listing and see if anything interests you. The Alfond Inn also houses many pieces which our tour did not cover. There are many pieces on the residential hotel floors as well. I have several books in my office, Art for Rollins (Vols. 1 and 2), which provide longer commentaries and background information on the contemporary art collection which you are welcome to stop by and browse. (Apparently down right now...) CFAM has images of most of their work (organized by collection) online. Go to the main RMA website Links to an external site.. On the top tab bar, click "Explore" and then "Collections". Scroll down and you will see the different collections, Contemporary Art, European Art, etc. Click on the collection of your choice, scroll down and you will see more sub-categories. You will eventually get to images and descriptions of the artist and work. There is a great self-guided audio tour
Links to an external site. of the Alfond Inn which covers many works we did not focus on in our tour. Consider taking a leisurely 45 minutes to stroll over and indulge in some art or "walk" through the exhibits virtually.
Part 2: Writeup
For the final project, you must produce a detailed report covering multiple aspects of your project. It is expected that this report will be around 2000-2500 words and will include multiple diagrams and images.
Begin with a discussion of the original artwork you selected. Why did you select it? What aspects of it captured your interest? What is the background of both the work and the artist? What process did the artist use to create the work. Be sure to include an image of the art work(s) with appropriate attribution.
Discuss the particular aspects of the artwork which you are trying to capture.
Discuss the computational process and techniques you used. Why did you choose these techniques? What were your successes and failures using this technique? What sorts of “fine-tuning” did you need to do to achieve the effect you were looking for? Flowcharts and images showing unsuccessful effects may be useful here to help illustrate your process. You should also include an overview (bullets points, diagrams, flow charts, etc. are all acceptable) of your (eventually) final process.
Show the effects of your code on an image of your choosing. This should be the “star” of your project, the best image you could achieve. Discuss why this image is similar to your originally chosen art work and the effects you were trying to achieve.
Show how your algorithm does (or does not) work with other images. These other images may be of the same type (eg. “portraits” or “landscapes”) or not. If your algorithm does not work with other images, discuss why not. Given more time, do you think you could make it work with other images? Are there any other changes you would make to your project (again, if given more time)?
Conclude with a short reflection. How did this assignment (or more generally, this class) change or enhance your view of programming or computer science?