The Art of Deep Fake

Art is dangerous.

My thesis in creating this blog has been and will continue to be that art - all art everwhere and at all times - is dangerous.  It can and has been used to deceive people.  It has been used to communicate occult (in the strict sense of the word) messages.  It has and continues to be used to educate and illuminate complex ideas and concepts in a concise, distilled format.

In short, art is dangerous.

Over the past few years, we have been increasingly warned about AI "art" and real-time enhanced video and audio that create entirely unreal people, places and things in a way that looks entire real and believable.

A recent example is the story that Donald Trump, US president, retweeted a "deep fake" video of Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, and that this video did not represent reality.

In fact, the video was no more fake than any video you would see on the evening news.  It took an actual recording of the Speaker and compressed it via editing to selected highlights.  There were no other enhancements or alterations.  It was no different than watching a highlight reel of a sporting event.  Is the video fake?  Yes and no is the appropraite answer.

If you have ever watched the evening news at any point in your life, and you are of any demographic group, then you have never seen anything but fake news and fake video.  This may seem like an outrageous claim, but hear me out.

All news operations are businesses of one kind or another.  As such, each company has its own agenda and point of view.  That agenda is communicated to management, whose job it is to execute the executive directive.

The managers in turn hire on-camera talent and technicians who most closely adhere to management's concept of how things should operate.  Management selects which stories will be covered and by whom.  Managmeent selects which point of view will be communicated through its news output, based on its interpretation of executive mandates.  This affects the entire content of the operation's workflow.

The executives may mandate a desire to show the decay of urban life.  Management interprets this as outputting content with a primary focus on crime and police.  Management hires reporters that are good at stories of this kind, and camera operators that are fearless and willing to get provacative images of crimal activity and its results.

The field producer/reporter is sent to the scene of a story, where he or she evaluates the event and decides how best to tell the story in words and pictures that will match management's directives and expectations.  The camera operator is told what to shoot and from what angles, and may have input that he hopes will enhance the narrative.

Back at the studio, an editor - also selected by management for good fit with the corporate environment - takes the footage and reporter's narration, and usually sitting with the reporter in the edit bay, will assemble the story to best match the corporate ideology, management's directives and the producer/reporter's knowledge and instincts on what makes a good story and presents them in the best possible light to enhance their career options.

The final product no more represents reality than any of the most egrigious "fake news" videos you've ever seen or heard of.  It's ALL fake.

Art may depict reality, it may communicate truth, but it is not reality, and in that sense it is fake.  From the moment a human created pigments and began painting images, reality was edited and enhanced.  From the moment Thespis assumed a role and a character, the art of faking imaginary people - called acting - was created.  Magicians have been creating fake reality for millennia, of course.  When a woman applies make-up for an evening out, she is creating a fake image of herself.

All art has a basis in reality, starts with reality, but then edits, enhances and manipulates it to project an idea or concept that is important to the artist who creates it.  The work of art itself is real - real canvas, real paint - but the content is not, never has been and never will be.

Those selfies on your smartphone?  All fake.  They representations of real events, people and places, but they are from a single perspective and do not represent objective reality.  If you take the image into an editing app and clean up your wrinkles, enhance the colors a bit, and crop out unnecessary parts of the frame, then you have taken the image even further from reality and into the realm of "deep fake".

In the current era, we are creating new and mind-bending tools to edit, enhance and process reality, but the idea of "fake news" and "fake video" is nothing new.  It is the very nature of art.

When Robert De Niro took on the role of Al Capone in the great film The Untouchables, were you fooled into thinking he WAS Al Capone?  Or were you cognizant of the fact that it was an actor portraying a character based on a real person, but that character has been modified by history, the studio executives, the writer, the director and the actor to suit the task of telling a compelling and entertaining story.  No one thought he was Al Capone, only that he was portraying the real person.  In other words, a fake.

Claude Monet created the Impressionist movement in paiting, not because he depicted reality in his works, but because he recorded the way his failing eyesight saw the world around him.  From an objective standpoint, his painting are fake.  They do not represent a true depiction of the objective world, but rather the way he saw it.  That the paintings are fake does not lessen our enjoyment of them, and perhaps we can gleen some element of objective truth from them, but they are fake, nonetheless.

Anyone who views a work of art or a recording of an event and thinks it is real is deceiving themselves, or at best allowing themselves to be deceived.

Back to the Nancy Pelosi video.  It is fake because it is recorded.  It is not happening now in objective reality.  It happened in the past and is recorded from a certain point of view.  We have no idea whether she is in a crowded room full of reporters and camera operators, or whether she is in an empty studio in front of a green screen.

(Note: apparently YouTube doesn't allow embedding now, so click the LINK HERE)

LINK HERE

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After watching the entire recording, we can see the that edited video did not "doctor" the recording, but simply compressed certain parts of it into a "highlight" reel.  It is no more doctored than any video on the nightly news.  It is no more edited than any video on the nightly news.  It is no more fake than any video on the nightly news.

What it does show us, judging the the outrage and panic from some quarters, is that art is dangerous.  By taking reality, and editing, enhancing and manipulating it, we can communicate certain truth even while presenting fake images.

This is nothing new.  The 1964 Lyndon Johnson Daisy ad shows us that art in the service of politics has been shocking and disgusting the masses for generations.

LINK HERE

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We must realize that all art is dangerous.  The act of recording something immediately removes it from reality - it is not happening in the reality of Now.  Once the recording is edited, enhanced and modified, it is further removed from objective reality.  By any measure, recording then changing the recording is by definition creating a "fake".  It may be communicating a truth, but it is not true.

From the first etchings on a cave wall, to Thespis stepping out from the chorus, to Monet's failing eyesight, to Danish cartoons, to Pelosi videos, art has always been mystical and powerful and has changed history.  It is dangerous and changes the path of history.  It brings the powerful down and elevates the mundane.  Whether it is created by the hand of Man, or a machine programmed by a man, art will continue to provoke.

Art is dangerous.

Venus Of The Fields

Venus of Willendorf

One of the oldest, generally accepted works of art is the Venus of Willendorf.  It is estimated to be around 30,000 years old, and was found in southern Austria in 1908.  The small statue (about 11cm/4.5 inches) features a corpulent human female form, with large breasts and a curious feature of knotted hair that completely covers the head.

This design is similar to a whole classification of statuettes called Venuses that date from the same period.  Though there are many variations on the theme, they universally feature the plumb body type, large breasts, and a great number have the knotted hair feature.  The hands are typically folded over the top of the breasts and few examples have actual feet - most end in unfinished stumps, which suggests part of the design rather than missing parts.

From an art stand-point, we note the use of the female form, bilateral symmetry, and a pose that is shared by many similar examples.  The arms and legs are symmetrical through the center axis, so there is no attempt to portray motion, though the very nature of the piece implies three dimension.  This is not carved or painted on a flat piece of rock or wood, but rather a fully 3-D representation of the figure.

The knotted hair completely covering the head is another curious feature.  The fact that the same design is featured on other pieces means that this has a specific meaning.  From the detail in the breasts, the navel, the hair, and the hands, it is not for lack of ability to represent fine features.  We must therefore assume that the artist wanted the figure to be anonymous.  She does not represent any particular woman, but rather a Universal Woman - a concept not a real person.  Without an identifiable face, we are obviously meant to focus on the figure's body and not its identity.  In other words, it is not important who she is, but what she is.

Venus of Hohlefels

This is art's oldest primary function - to represent Universal Ideals.  Even in its oldest examples, humans use art to express ideals rather than one's self.  It is meant to expand the mind into shared concepts, aspirations and our innate quest for perfection.  In fact, one of the most powerful underlying motivations to create art is the concept of "hope".  We'll come back to this in a moment.

Due to the ubiquitous of the female form in these early figurines, it might also be inferred that it is males who are behind the primary impulse to create art.  Until the past few decades, when "equality" became more important than message and technique, men have dominated art since earliest times.  No matter which culture or era one examines, males are the primary progenitors of all forms of art, be it painting, sculpture, music, literature, or architecture.  Speculation on why runs the gammut of speculation, but some of the more common themes are:

• Males have more time for art, since females tend to domestic chores;
• Males desire to participate in the creative process, and since they can't bear children, they create art;
• Males are primarily tasked with attracting mates, and art is a way of displaying one's talents and intelligence, thus increasing one's value as a mate;
• In traditional gender roles, males are more concerned with conceptual thinking, while females are more mundane
• Males simply think differently than females and art is an expression of that difference.

Halaf Venus

Whatever the reasons behind this phenomenon, it is none-the-less true.  Any survey in any culture of the most valued artists and designers will create a list overwhelmingly slanted towards males.  Every rule has exceptions, no doubt, but there is no ambiguity in this conclusion.

Given this fact, we return to the Venus figures.  That the subject is a female form should not surprise us, then.  A male artist would be preoccupied with the female form and would tend to idealize it in conceptual ways.  This leads to the question of why so many of these types of figures?  What did this particular design mean to those who created them?

The female form is one of the most manipulated ideals in human history - and prehistory.  That artists are predominantly male might suggest these Venus figurines are an ancient form of pornography, but that over-simplifies things too much. 

Art concerns itself with ideals, universal truths and higher aspirations.  Given this impulse, we speculate that corpulent female forms would likely represent the broad concept of fertility, rather than the baser act of sex.  A fat female would be a luxury, implying copious amounts of food and a relaxed lifestyle.  The large breasts imply ample milk for children.  Thus, we conclude that the figures represent an ideal living situation - fertility, copious food, relaxed life - and thus, happiness and contentment.

That the Venus figures represent a Universal Ideal is demonstrated by the lack of a face, and in some cases created without a head at all.  Without a face, the figure does not represent any one individual, but rather a concept or ideal.  She is not a wife or mate, but the desire for a particular idealized lifestyle that is exemplified by the sum of features in the figures.

Having determined the style and meaning behind these figurines, we are lead to the question, "Why make these figures?"

Virgin Mary statues

For the answer, we need look no further than modern - though very old - rituals.  In Catholic-dominated countries, there is a ritual where a consecrated figurine of the Virgin Mary is placed (buried or placed on a pedestal) in the corner of a field before planting.  In other parts of the world, similar rituals are performed with different female figures, but always a female.  In older parts of Europe, digging in the corners of fields can often reveal dozens of these figures placed there over centuries.

It is reasonable to link this modern ritual to ancient ones involving Venus figurines.  Thought the ages of these figures is roughly double the generally accepted advent of agriculture, I submit that these figures demonstrate a much earlier use of agriculture, and that they are an integral part of rituals to invoke fertility and plenty.  In fact, the missingfeet and somewhat pointed legs tell me that these figures were stabbed into the corner of a field to impart blessings on the harvest, much like the Virgin Mary does in the modern ceremony.

In conclusion, we see that art, even in its oldest manifestations, express positive ideals, in this case fertility and luxurious lifestyles centered around food supplies.  The lack of individuation (a face) implies a universal ideal and not any one person.  The large breasts imply an ample supply of nutrition and the hands placed above the breasts seem to be expressing milk.  The lack of feet and pointed ends of the legs tells us that this element of the design was to facilitate stabbing the figurines into the ground, probably in the corners of fields.  We see this ritual echoed even today, with the placement of similar Virgin Mary statues in fields during spring rituals.

The Birth of Venus, Boticelli (1484)

From the earliest manifestations, art provided a symbolic and idealized message.  It represented the aspirations of the humans that created it and focused on positive messages.  This will become more apparent as art evolves into expressions of divine ideals and heroic exploits.  Art has always been meant to uplife and ennoble.  It's message has always been one of hope and desire for greater things.  It has always had symbolic elements that communication ideals, rather than reality.  In fact, the concepts of nihilism and reality are anathema to art.  These latter themes will become important when we reach the 20th century and "modern art" and cinema.

On a more mundane level, we see the impulse to represent three dimensions, either through scupture, or later through the use of pigment.  We see symmmetry and balance, though on a less developed state - mirrored features.  Even at this early stage, we see the use of line to focus attention - in this case on the breasts.  Without a face, we move on to the body.  The arms and hands are drawn in to the center of focus.  The extended belly provides and stylistic balance to the large breasts, with the navel echoing the nipples.  The legs and lack of feet mean that these features were unimportant, or had a strictly functional purpose, sich as stabbing into the ground in an upright position.

Art first lesson in Art is that humans today are little changed from humans thousands of years ago.  Our hopes, desires and aspirations, though changed in focus, are identical in form.  The Human Experience transcends time and space and is memorialized and communicated across millennia in our art.

The Language of Art, Part 3

Now that we have grammar (Principles) and vocabulary (Elements), the only thing left is to string them together in coherent and meaningful forms of communication.

Whether you are using paint, stone, wood, letters, musical notes, acetate, or digibits, Composition is the foundation of Art.  Anyone can put words on a page, saw on a violin, or barf colored milk on a canvas.  This may constitute "self-expression," but it is NOT Art.  If you do not feel stirred in your soul, uplifted in your heart and stimulated in your mind, then you are not in the presence of Art.

The atheist can feel awe in the Sistine Chapel.  The tone-deaf can feel elation with Beethoven's 9th.  The blind can appreciate the mastery of story-telling with Citizen Kane.  The unlettered can revel in the visual message of e. e. cummings.  True Art transcends barriers.  There is something positive for everyone in every great work of Art.  The average English speaker uses 90% of the words that Shakespeare did, but no one would consider a grocery list a work of Art.

We achieve Art through the careful manipulation of Principles and arrangement of Elements through the mastery of Compositition.

To demonstrate Composition, we will use a simple graphic to show the process of composing Art.

In Panel 1, we have the beginning of all wisdom - infinite time and infinite space.  This is what we would commonly call the blank page or canvas.  It is undeliniated and undefined.  It is all and nothing.  Art is the process of defining and limiting this basic state of being.   To an artist, this is a terrifying thing.

In Panel 2, we begin the process of composing by defining some basic spaces that will become the foundation of Time and Space within the composition.

We have created four triangles that are symmetrical across the X and Y axes, with the focus point at the center.  The perfect symmetry of shape, color and proportion, the space is rather boring and far from dynamic.  There is no motion or depth, because we have perfect balance and harmony.

In writing, if all the characters are in perfect agreement and their personalities are perfectly meshed, there is no story.  We have no drama, development or growth.  Though we tend to think a state of balance and harmony are desirable, it is obvious that this kind of life would be bland, at best.

In Panel 3, we take the next step of adding color.  I have chosen contrasting values for the top and bottom trianges, while the left and right triangles are given the same values.  This adds a sense of rhythmn to our previous creation of balance and harmony, and begins the process of creating a third dimension

The problem we face here is that the third dimension may be receeding into the canvas, or it may be rising up from it.  Without further information, we have no way of determining which direction our space and time are moving.  While this makes for an interesting optical illusion, it is still bland and tells us nothing about the universe we are creating.

In Panel 4, we add a circle dead center.  Note that we still have balance, rhythmn and symmetry, which is still bland and uninteresting.  There is no dynamic direction of motion.  Everything in this universe is sitting still and achieving nothing.

In Panel 5, we manipulate the third dimension through color and by changing the focal point.  The focal point has been moved to the center of the lower third, and gradients have been added to the colors, with lighter colors at the outside edges, and darker colors toward the center point.

These two simples changes achieve some interesting effects.  The color gradient, with the lighter color at the outside edges and darker colors in the center create the illusion of space receeding into the canvas.    Most people viewing this effect would interpret lighter colors as being nearer to the viewer, while darker areas are further away.  Part of this effect is based on how we generally perceive the world with vision.

Part of the effect is acculturated, meaning we are taught to perceive this effect as we learn about our societies and how to "read" our art and images.  Though few of us, sadly, receive formal training in art, we learn through watching TeeVee or looking at paintings to interpret certain signals as creating three dimensional effects on two-dimensional surfaces.

By moving the focal point to the lower third, we recreate the way we normally see the world.  When we stand on a street corner and look around at eye level, our individual horizon line is limited by our height, so that the vast majority of the world appears to be above us.  Thus, with the focal point at the lower third line, the viewer now feels as if he is looking at a space from his personal perspective.

This simple adjustment further creates a sense of dynamic involvement.  The viewer feels limited in how far down he can move, but significantly less restricted in how far up he can go.  The viewer now feels like he is looking at a very long hallway, or perhaps is standing in a canyon of rock or buildings, bepending on what details we add later.

There is still a lot of balance and symmetry though, and this makes the scene uninteresting, as nothing seems to be going on in the image.  There is no tension, no motion.  We are standing still and nothing in the scene is moving towards us, away from us, or across the scene.

In Panel 6, we place the circle back in the scene, but now it is at the lower left.  Given all the other information - color, gradients, size, perspective - it appears as if the circle is closer to us than the focal point.  This is a trick our minds play on us by interpreting the relative size of things as either closer or further away from our position.  Since the lines and color information have given us the impression of standing in a long hallway, then placing the circle near the edge means we interpret it as being closer to our vantage point.

Notice that the scene feels off balance.  The dark circle near one corner, without something visual to offset it, makes the canvas seem heavier at the lower left corner.  Also, the lack of gradient in the circle makes it flat, while the rest of the image appears 3-D.  So...

In Panel 7, we add a color gradient to the circle, and it now appears to be a ball - a three-dimensional object - with a circular gradient that shares an incident angle - point of origin - with the general light in the hallway.  Now the hallway and the ball are visually linked together by color and position.  However, the focal point is still in the center of the lower third, so the image lacks dynamic tension.  The ball is not moving and it has no other objects in the frame to interact with.  Thus...

In Panel 8, we add a second ball.  This ball is much smaller and placed on the focal point.  Notice too that the focal point has been moved towards the right third of the frame.  This creates two diagonal lines - one from the lower left edge of the frame to the focal point, and one from the large ball in the foreground to the small one in the distance.  Diagonal lines are always more dynamic.  They create the illusion of motion, even when nothing in the frame is actually moving.  This creates visual interest, as we interpret this dynamic as implying that something will soon happen to the elements, and our minds start to fill in the missing narrative.

If we left it with just the two balls though, the frame would still seem off balance.  The large ball in the lower corner dominates the scene and the dark color pulls the eye down, thus creating a sense of weight.  We balance this with a window in the upper right third.

We have now created a three-dimensional space through color and line.  We have placed objects withing that space that have a dynamic relationship with each other.  We have balance because the window offsets the weight of the larger ball and draws our eyes up and to the right (diagonal), with the smaller ball creating a fulcrum or center point around which the other two objects are in dynamic tension.

Our minds interpret the smaller ball as being further away, which enhances the third-dimensional effect.  We assume that because the balls appear identical in every way except size that they are also the same size, and thus the smaller one is further down the hallway.

We also have harmony.  The two balls and the window share the color blue, so these objects harmonize even though one is quite different in nature than the other two.  We assume some kind of relationship between all three.  Perhaps the window is the source of light that creates the highlights on the balls, as well as lighter colors near us and dark ones further away.  There is also an visually interesting juxtaposition between the round objects and the polygonal one.  They are related by color and light, yet very different from each other.

This is a very simplistic description of Compostion, but it effectively demonstrates how Principles and Elements are arranged within an infinite space to create limits that we interpret as pictures with depth, motion and relationships to each other and to us, the viewers.

With these basic tools, we are now prepared to analyze great works of Art, no matter what medium or aesthetic.

As we proceed with this series, I will refer back to Principles, Elements and Composition in every case, since these are the objective criteria we must use to determine the mastery of the artist.  How we react to the great works is the subjective aspect of art criticism, but as we will see, much of our emotional reaction can be predicted and even manipulated by a great artist.

--- Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 ---

The Language of Art, Part 2

Art is a language whose rules and words are innate in all human beings.  We all are born to "know it when we see it," though few of us are ever taught to develop this talent.

Our daily lives are literally bursting with art - movies, television, radio, advertising - but how many times do we slow down to actually interpret the messages being sent to us?  How many of us have the skills to ascribe meaning to the visual world that rushes at us from literally all directions simultaneously?  What kinds of messages are we missing?  And what is by-passing our conscious minds and burying themselves deep in our inner selves?

This series is an attempt to develop the basic tools to understand and manipulate art.  As we go forward, we will use these tools to analyze, decipher and respond to messages in art.  We want to become active consumers of art, rather than passive victims of it.  Our thesis is a simple and direct one:

Art is Dangerous.

In Part 1, we examined the Grammar of Art - called the Principles.  As with all languages, Grammar without Vocabulary would be rather useless, so in this article, we will expand our lexicon.

Elements are the "words" of art.  These are the pieces that are strung on the framework of Principle to create "thoughts" and "ideas".  Through the use of Composition, the Priniciples and Elements are assembled into unified Works that can come in the form of books, symphonies, films, paintings, and so on.  Thus, we will decipher, interpret and manipulate the Language of Art to find the meanings within it, no matter what medium is being used.

All art begins with empty Space and infinite Time.  We then begin placing limits on these two universal qualities with the Four Principles.  Into these limits, we further define Space and Time with the Six Elements:

• Line
• Shape
• Form
• Texture
• Value
• Color

It is important to note that art, from the very start, is a set of limits.  Creativity is not endless abundance, since that is what we start reducing in order to create.  This is why, for instance, a movie with a massive budget is not necessarily good and often forgettable, and why a movie with almost no budget can define entirely new genres and profoundly affect audiences.  There is no Creativity without limits.

The first three Elements simply define the Three Dimensions of Space.  A Line exists in only one dimension, a Shape in two, and a Form in three.  Thought of another way, a Line is a single boundary, Shape is a series of interconnected fences, and Form creates a container that places limits in all directions.

Texture is the perceived feel of a subject through its visual characteristics.  Texture is the adjective of visual cues and it comes in pairs: hard/soft, rough/smooth, cold/warm.  If we draw a box with gray boundaries, paint is dark red and speckle it lighter and darker colors, we might perceive this a a brick, which is hard, rough and (depending on other cues) perhaps warm to the touch.

When we view an image of a brick, we can't actually touch the subject, but we interpret various visual clues to tell us what the brick feels like.

This may seem obvious, but when creating an image of a brick, the artist must examine how light and color play on the surface to create what we all know is a brick.  Change the texture, and the subject might become a shipping container, or a train car, or perhaps the gaps in a gate.  It also tells us the material from which the subject is made - is it stone, or terra cotta, or Styrofoam, or pumice?  This in turn gives us visual cues about the weight of the subject.

In the image of the bricks, we use the straightness and rigidity of the Line, combined with the Color of white, red, blue, green and yellow, plus the pattern of dark rectangles spaced with gray gaps to tell us we are looking at bricks.  The visual clues tell us what we are looking at, and our personal experience fills in weight and feel.

Value is a bit harder to define, but there is a wealth of information stored within it.  In art, Value is often a function of light - the relative abundance between light and dark.  Blue is a Color, light blue and dark blue are values.  Value includes concepts like Tint and Hue.  Value is often displayed in organized form by things like a PMS Color Chart.

A trained human eye can perceive and identify about 16 million colors and 256 shades of gray (a.k.a. contrast).  While most of us rarely stop to analyze the entire range of Values on the surfaces of objects in the real world, the artist instinctively knows to look for these clues in order to encode and transmit information about Texture.  The artist also uses Value to create three dimensions on a two-dimensional surface, like a piece of paper or a canvas.  A circle is a flat Shape that only differentiates itself between the Space inside and the Space outside its Lines.  When we apply Texture and Value to it, we can create the illusion of a metal ball with light falling on it from the upper right corner of the Space.  The more layers of Value we apply, the smoother the surface appears to be.  Note also that within the Space of the ball, the use of Radial Balance (see Part 1) creates the illusion of roundness.

In the case of the ball, the light and dark areas, or Value, are manipulated to create the illusion of three dimensions.  Shades of gray from almost white to near black are arranged inside the Shape of the circle to trick our eyes into seeing Space that rises out towards the viewer, or fall away from the viewer.  We then tell ourselves that there is depth on a flat surface of only width and heighth.

If we were looking at a great landscape painting, we would see progressive bands of changing Value across the image.  The ones we interpret to be closest to us might be a bit darker, with browns and greens and grays representing rock and foliage.

Moving up (top to bottom) and into center (outer to inner), the addition of increasing shades of blue would tell us those areas are behind or further away from the others.  Together, we interpret these Values as giving depth and distance to the subjects.  The Shapes and Forms tell us what the subjects are.

The Texture tells us what the subjects feel like and how heavy or light they are.  The Lines create a perspective that draws the eyes in different directions to tell a story - as if we are reading a book.

In the ball image, the specular shine in the upper left immediately catches our eye through Emphasis, and our eyes are led down and to the right by the curving areas of light around the perimeter of the Shape until they rest on the antipodal area of relative brightness on the lower right through the use of Balance.  The smoothness of the reflected light tells us the Texture of the ball.

We also perceive Line from an implied light source that is above left and behind the ball - behind because the center of the ball is dark, no reflections - so that an imaginary line runs upper left to lower right, creating bilateral symmetry on a diagonal.  We assume the ball is hanging motionless in empty Space because there are no other objects in the frame to create dynamic relationships.

We now have a basic tool set to begin deciphering any artwork any where at any time.  These tools work regardless of what medium we are using - paper, canvas, stone, light, sound.  We must remember, however, that these are the basics.  These rules can be poked and prodded, stretched and broken in a million different ways to create works of art.  It is the skill of the artist that elevates the mundane to the sublime.

All English speakers everywhere use the same Grammar and Vocabulary, but there is a vast differene between the common expression of "C'mon let's go," and T. S. Eliot's imortal opening "Let us go then, you and I."  The mundane curse of "Get this damn spot out of my shirt," versus Lady McBeth's profound "Out, out damn spot," belie a huge gap in meaning, context and subtext.

To appreciate the full meaning in a work of art, we must first examine Composition.  In the same way that a writer uses Grammar and Vocabulary to construct a complete story, the visual artist uses Principles and Elements within the framework of Composition to do the same thing.

The final layer of our examination will be Convention.  Just as human languages are written in many different ways - left to right/top to bottom, right to left/top to bottom, top to bottom/left to right etc. - so too does visual art have dialects.  There are hundreds of cultural contexts that affect how art is read and interpreted.  Different cultures see colors with different meanings.  The relative size and hierarchy of subjects says different things to different cultures.  For our purposes, we will primarily focus on Western European conventions, but where appropriate, juxtapose them with conventions in other traditions to show how similar Composition can have wildly different interpretation.

In all cases, there are secret messages hidden in direct view.  These messages can and have been quite subversive and have even changed the course of history, but by-passed censorship because the censors didn't understand what they were looking at.  In other cases, complex scientific Truths were made simple and comprehensible by nothing more than showing the viewer how it works in plain but spectacular images.

Art Is Dangerous!

Until our next meetings, why not take a virtual spin through the wonderful Musee D'Orsay in Paris?

Practice using the Principles and Elements while perusing some of Western Civilization's greatest art.  Be sure to bookmark this site and return often for updates as we learn to read, interpret and appreciate great art in all media.

--- Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 --- 

The Language of Art, Part 1

All forms of communication involve encoding and decoding information for transmission from one point to another.  Each form of transmission is called a medium, and collectively they are the media.

Every form of communication has a set of rules that provide context and meaning to the elements that make it up.  In electronic communication, there are bits and bytes, carrier waves and signals.  In language, there are grammar, syntax and vocabulary.

Art is a form of communication, and as such has a set of rules much like any language.  Like any language, the rules must be followed in order to have meaning.  In the hands of an artist, though, the rules can be broken, as well, to provide additional layers of context and subtext.

These rules also provide us with objective means to interpret, evaluate and judge works of art.  By applying the rules, we can stare at a painting or sculpture and appreciate its superior qualities by how well the artist has manipulated the pieces to create a completed work.

Most of us do this instinctively.  We automatically know the difference between a Mozart opera and a Justin Bieber pop song by the richness of the experience and the depth of our emotional response.

Few of us, unfortunately, are ever taught to develop our innate abilities.  Most modern schools have little or no art appreciation classes, and those that do often drop them at the first sign of financial stress.  The field trips to the local museum, symphony, theater, or gallery are sadly things of the past.

We will thus present a series of articles that survey the broad landscape of fine art and develop some basic tools that will allow us to more profoundly appreciate the arts, as well as begin to unravel the hidden messages that are intrinsic to the great works of art.

First, we ask "what is art?"

There are many forms of art.  Painting, sculpture, literature, and music are often created by individuals.  The collaborative arts include architecture, theater, cinema, and even fine dining.  Music often crosses the line, since a composer may work alone, but the performance generally requires the talents of many individuals.

At the very foundation of art is Space and Time.  Space consists of three dimensions: height, width and depth, while Time measures the movement of objects from one point to another. Fundamentally, art is the manipulation of Elements in Space and Time using the Principles as guides.

This may sound baffling at this point, but we hope that as you continue to read our articles, these things will become clear and useful tools.

In every case, there are Four Basic Principles of Space that allow us to objectively evaluate the quality of any work and extract meaning from it:

• Balance
• Rhythm
• Harmony
• Emphasis

Within each of these Principles are a set of styles - rules if you will - that define the meaning and purpose of the Elements.  Think of the Principles as the Grammar of Art.  They are equivalent to nouns and verbs, adjectives and adverbs, prepositions and articles that show relationships between the Elements.

Balance is divided into three types:

• Symetrical
• Assymetrical
• Radial

 Balance refers to how we apportion Space (there is a similar concept in Time).  We can divide it into equal linear parts (symmetry), equal circular parts (radial), or unequal parts of both kinds (assymetry).

View any great work of art and let your mind begin to divide the canvas up by following lines the artist has placed into the work.  Follow the placement of objects in Space.  How do they align?  Do you perceive a "box" or perhaps a "tunnel" effect?  Put simply, what is the overall geometry of the composition, and of the individual subjects?

In the famous painting Et In Arcadia Ego, by Nicolas Poussin, we perceive a number of lines created by the locations of the subjects and background objects, their positions, postures and their gestures.

If we blur our vision a bit, we also perceive a division between lighter and darker areas of the canvas, both vertically and horizontally.  Also note that you can divide the canvas into three equal sections both vertically and horizontally.  This is called the Rule of Thirds, which we will return to this concept in composition.

Emotionally, symmetry induces a feeling of peace, assymmetry causes anxiety, and radial balance frequently makes us feel dizzy, helpless, or out of control.

These feelings are caused solely by the balance in a work, before we even consider other aspects.  In other words, we are already receiving a message from the artist in just the lines created by the Elements in Space.

Rhythm is divided into:

• Repetition
• Progression
• Contrast

 Rhythm is used to lead the eye in certain directions in order to create dimensions of Space or patterns or implied movement (in the case of static images), which is a function of Time.

Rhythm and Harmony work closely together to create emotional and spacial relationships within a work.

In the image of the Acropolis, the columns create repetition, or a pattern.  They create progression, as the larger ones at center decrease in size in either direction, creating the illusion of distance (Time).  And contrast, subtle changes in color and hue, separate the individual objects and enhance the sense of a third dimension.

Together, the repetition, progression and contrast create a rhythm that is itself meaningful, because it gives us a sense of scale, expanse and depth - or three dimensions.

Harmony is a bit ephemeral and somewhat more subjective than the others, but generally it is defined as the pleasing way in which Elements are arranged in Space and Time.  it should be noted that harmony without variety is intensely boring.  Imagine the Acropolis image taken straight on and cropped so that you only see the repetition of equal-sized columns.

A great work of art will juxtapose areas of harmony through the use of color or rhythm, or by using dissimilar Elements in balanced opposition.

Again in the image of the Acropolis, the harmony of the vertical lines is interrupted by the capstones and friezes, thus creating visual drama between the soaring feeling of the columns and the ponderous weight that sits atop them.

Finally, we arrive at Emphasis.  Emphasis is commonly divided into four "layers":

• Emphatic
• Dominant
• Subdominant
• Subordinant

Simply put, emphasis creates a mental impression of importance or heirarchy to the objects in a work through the use of size, color, hue, overlap, texture, and other techniques.

A subject that partically blocks the view of another is Dominant, while the blocked subject is Subdominant.  The brightest subject or area in a work is the Emphatic focus, while the darkest would be Subordinate.

In the Poussin image above, the emphasis is on the arms and legs of the central figures, while everything else fades away in various layers of importance.  This choice by the artist is telling us that something about this arrangement carries special meaning, and we both rationally and instinctually look to those bright areas to discern his deeper message.

Now that we have a structure, or grammar, on which to hang our visual communications, your assignment will be a field trip to The Louvre to practice your new skills.

Poke around in some of the greatest works of art Mankind has ever produced, and see if you can detect Balance, Rhythm, Harmony, and Emphasis.  We are looking only at the geometry and light/dark values, but there is a wealth of information just in these basic properties.  Be sure to note how you feel as you examine the works.

In our next class, we'll examine Elements, which are the vocabulary of art.  Once we have our grammar and vocabulary, we'll be able to make entire sentences of visual language and start to see the vast caverns of information that have been hiding - literally - right in front of our eyes.

Be sure to bookmark our site and come back often for fresh adventures in art!

--- Part 1 --- Part 2 --- Part 3 ---

What Is Art?

If you've ever read a judicial ruling on the question of pornography, then you are aware of the difficulty in defining art.

The most common response, after forays into long-winded philosophical proofs or fanatical diatribes on rights, is, "Well, I know it when I see it."

In fact, those judicial screeds often spend thousands of words trying to draw a line between the pornographic and the artistic.  What they are really trying to do is describe the separation between the mundane and the sublime.  Pornography appeals to the base senses, while art is transcendent and elevates the subject and the viewer above our daily existance into a realm of beauty and harmony.

In the coming series of articles, we will endeavor to develop the tools not only to recognize true art, but to articulate the specific tests that define it.  The reader will be able to attend a gallery showing and know instantly whether one is in the presence of the Creative Spirit, or being sold a pile of tripe, and more importantly to be able to say precisely why.

Imagine you are doing your weekly grocery shopping and the aisle is blocked by an exasperated mother and her toddler in full tantrum mode.  No one would call this scene art, of course.  But put the situation in the hands of Norman Rockwell or Frederico Fellini, and it is transformed into a Mirror of Truth reflecting back to us the profundities of the human experience.

In recent decades, all manner of grotesque sensual assaults have been committed in the name of "self-expression."  Talentless court jesters humor the rich and senseless with vile contrivances of paint, junk and magazine clippings, declaring their expression of some deep-seated Freudian nightmare that they are now exorcising on canvas.

This is not art.

The screaming child is expressing himself.  The sterno drinker yelling at Morpheus is expressing himself.  The truck driver hanging out of his window and displaying his dexterity in your face is expressing himself.  This is not art.

Art is defined as elevating the mundane into the sublime using the language of art.

I can image the reader folding her arms and thinking, "What the hell does that mean?"

To put it visually, as art should, a painted ceiling is mundane - everyone has one.  The Sistine Chapel is sublime - it is one of a kind and leaves a lasting impression on the viewer.

Thus, art should elevate the senses of the viewer and reveal some universal truth about one's condition and place in the Grand Scheme of Things.

If it does not, then it is not art, but could meet the basic criterium for self-expression.  However, self-expression does not imply or require art in order to have its effect.  The screaming child in the grocery store certainly affects those around him, but it very likely does not lift the viewers out of their daily routines and inspire introspection and fascination.  More likely, it causes revultion and anger.

In viewing what passes for art in our contemporary culture, we must consider the effect it has upon us.  Are we confronted with negative emotions and revultion?  Or are we inspired to examine ourselves and our environment in new and positive ways?  The former is self-expression, and the latter is art.

Let us examine some examples.

Indonesian artist Hendra Gunawan (1913-1983) is best known for his blend of Western and Indonesian aesthetics that portrayed daily life in the islands in a way that elevated mundane daily activities into unversal experiences of all humans.  He used bright primary colors and romanticized features in stylized and idealized compositions that lead the viewer to see the inherent nobility in even the most mundane subject.

Most of us would not pause to consider the wonder of a mother and child together, but when viewing Gunawan's Mother and Child, we see the two characters captured in a moment of feeding a sea bird with a fish carcass.  The vibrant colors, traditional costumes, intense focus of the characters, the bird's supplecant posture all combine to make this moment unique and radiant.  The viewer pauses to reflect on the interaction of humans with wild nature.  We consider the learning moment in the child's mind and the mother's support and encouragement.  Then we are struck by the thought that something as mundane as tossing food waste is a magical act multiple interacting parts.

There are multiple dynamic lines of action: the mother's and child's intense gazes cutting diagonally from upper left to lower right; the anticipated motion of the fish carcass from top to bottom; the bird's rapt attention focused from bottom to top; the perceived breeze stirring hair and fabric; the color relationships of the light food bowl and the child's dress, and the mother's dark dress and the bird's dark color; and the re-enforcement of the diagonal through the bright blue upper right corner and darker lower left corner.

There is strong balance, rhythm, feelings of anticipation, and a sense of the miraculous in a frozen moment of time.

In contrast, we look at a very famous photograph taken during the Spanish Civil War of a soldier at the moment of his death.  We have a very dynamic composition, with multiple subjects hanging in mid-air about to fly in different directions: the rifle to the left edge, the soldier back and down, the implied path of the unseen bullet.  We witness the extinguishing of a life and are repulsed by the horror of war and are forced to confront mortality and the cruelty of our species.

To the casual viewer, we don't know the circumstances or why this man is fighting.  We know that to some he was a hero, and to others an enemy.  How many lives did he take before his was taken?  Was this sacrifice worth whatever goals were sought?  What pain and anguish did he feel at this precise moment?

While the image is iconic, there is little rhythm or balance, either physically or conceptually, in this image.  It does not inspire the viewer, but rather repulses.  Our thoughts are negative and we reflect on the darker side of ourselves.  While the sponteneity of the scene is well noted, it is not composed or deliberate - it is nearly accidental instead.

The image is unique as photo-journalism.  We marvel at the photographer's skill and nerves to be that close to death and still capture the image.  It tells us information about a real conflict and shows us real pain caused by it.  It won well-deserved awards and is famous worldwide.

It is not art; craft yes, but not art.

There is nothing deliberate about the composition.  The photographer did not arrange the subjects in a meaningful way.  It is just a recording of a single moment in time with no context and it does not elevate our senses, but dulls them.  We are repulsed by both the image and the perceived/implied events around it.

The final example is a woman named Millie Brown.  She is a contemporary "self-expressionist" who drinks colored liquids and regurgitates on canvas, which is then sold as "art".

In this case, we find similar features to the Spanish soldier photograph: randomness, lack of deliberate composition, lack of context, and a lack of up-lifting message.  We are repulsed and revolted.  There is no rhythm, balance or aesthetic value here.  Most of us would rather avoid this mess, or at the very least want to clean it up.

Certainly, there are few - if any - of us who would proudly display this in our home.

In contrast, we can clearly call Mankind's earliest artworks aesthetically pleasing and up-lifting.  In the caves of France and many other locations around the globe, cave paintings meet all of the criteria for art: they are deliberate compostions; they tell us a story about our ancestors' daily lives but in a stylized and idealized way; they contain balance, rhythm and context; they are dynamic and emotive of hopeful and positive themes.  We detect a reverence for the subjects, a desire to convey wonder and a desire to elevate the mundane into the sublime.

The images are dynamic, with implied motion and controlled focus and a relationship between all of the subjects in the frame.  There is non-random placement of objects in order to convey hierarchy and tell a story.  We come away feeling refreshed and positive, and that emotion spills over into our own mundane lives.

That is art.

As we go forward in this series of articles, we will examine true art.  It is a universal language of hope and wonder.  It has its own vocabulary, syntax and grammar.  It is hardwired into the human condition.  It has expressed itself throughout our history and continues to be among the most powerful tools we possess to create beauty and harmony.

It is this writer's desire to fill in what has been lost in our cultural education - the ability to recognize, decipher and internalize art, and most importantly, how to distinguish true art from self-expression and why that is so vitally important in our modern world.

We will examine the entire spectrum of art, from the oldest cave paintings to the modern cinema, from music and literature to sculpture and symbolism.

The reader is duly warned, though.  Art Is Dangerous.

The Creative Spirit speaks a very loud message in a very quiet voice.  It abhors the dominance of authority and the silence of complicity.  Learning how to "read" art opens a vast world of communication swirling around us in every aspect of our world, and the messages are rarely friendly to ruling classes.  Not only does it reveal to us their constant messages of conformity, but it allows us to subvert their censorship without saying a word.  There is a reason why art is so rarely taught in our schools now.

By continuing, the voices of a thousand subversives spanning the totality of human existance will soon be heard again.

The reader has been warned!