Anna Ursyn: Clear Water Act
Artist(s):
Title:
- Clear Water Act
Exhibition:
Creation Year:
- 2007
Medium:
- Computer print
Size:
- 24 inches x 36 inches
Category:
Artist Statement:
Natural order infuses several levels of both worlds: some determined by human society and some determined by nature. It guides our understanding of big datasets related to network analysis. Acutely aware of order, I examine what technological and human worlds have in common. My task is to juxtapose the regularity of nature with human constructions, both physical and intellectual. The big-city images, for example, combine how humans affect their environment, and at the same time, how a city metaphor reflects rhythm and organization of big datasets and makes data mining easier.
Some of my computer graphics explorations serve as a point of departure for a series of prints and sculptures. Processes in nature and events in technologies inspire my images. I transform an image of an animal into a simple image, an iconic object such as a rocking horse or a symbolic picture of a man or a bird, to present them in dynamic movement as the visible texture of the sky and the ground. Such processes also support my instruction in computer art and graphics, where students learn to create artwork inspired by science and demonstrate what they understand of scientific concepts.
Technical Information:
In my work, I use the computer on different levels. For my two-dimensional works, I create programs to repeat lines and transform, distort, and manipulate images by scaling, rotating, slanting, and changing perspective. I have been setting color combinations, transforming light intensity,
applying grid patterns and moiré effects in order to gain composition. The two-dimensional programs serve as a point of departure for photolithographs after computer programs and photo silkscreen prints on canvas and paper; they are included in both my two-dimensional and threedimensional
works. Scanners, digital camera, and a PC provide further image manipulation. All of these approaches are combined for image creation with the use of painterly markings. Printouts
were obtained in several ways: black-and white plots from the Versatec plottercolor slides via the Computer Output Microfilmer (COM) recorder, and Inkjet and Novajet printers/plotters.
