NARRATIVES

The following pages contain detailed instructional explanations of Studio ideas, thoughts, techniques, and processes used in the construction of artwork and media products.
 
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CONSTRUCTION - IDEOBLOCKS - By Don Bergland
This page provides a detailed presentation of the Studio processes used in the construction of a product called IdeoBlocks. This is a3D Block constructed with a customized ideological image on each of its 6 faces.
shim blocks
 

This studio process was started on January 27, 2013. The result was a set of blocks that have been used in a variety of subsequent paintings.

SUNDAY, JANUARY 27, 2013
 
shim
  PAINTING - 1431-IDEOBLOCKS
Location - Archive/Paintings - 1431-IdeoBlocks Last Worked on
Note - This Project started as "Improvisation" but gained a specific topic status. I need to be able to find this Project File under the topic is gained, so partway through, I renamed the Project - IdeoBlocks.
I have nothing in mind this morning, except for some of the images that remain in my mind after watching a movie last night. The movie was "The Mill and the Cross," an exploration inside on of Breugel's paintings. This was a profound visual experience and left me with many things to ponder.

REPOSITORY BUCKET - (Note - I thought of this yesterday. A bucket at the start of a Project taht holds all the ideas ideas, resources, themes, that are currently in mind, or I've encountered lately. This becomes a Repository Resource Pile, sitting there, waiting to be exploited, used, or ignored.

Extreme Pies & Cakes Props/Exnem/Cakes & Pose/Exnem & Textures/Exnem
Monument Props/JoesFantasy/Monument
Monument with Arches Props/JoesFantasy/Arkadente
Mousetrap - Figures/BionicRooster/MouseTrap
Play Blocks - Props/ChildeofFrye/COF-PlayBlocks
Renaissance Lute - Props/Ghostman?GM Renaissance Lute
Skull - Props/Human Skull
Decorated Eggs - Props/AAProps/Decorated Egg
Painted Teapot - Props/ThePeanutGallery/PG Teapot

Swan Boat - Props/DarkCarnival/SwanBoat.
Play Blocks and Painted Teapot. The two Monuments were quite impressive, and the Skulls offer some interesting contrasts.I'll keep these in mind as I work.

And from yesterday morning - The Individualist, Two Unequal People, Takes Offense at Everything, A Rich Capitalist,

STUDIO MUSIC - iTunes - Podcast - Dark Ambient 2.0 - #9 - Box of Shadows
So, as I was looking through the Repository Bucket above, I had a thought about the Play Blocks having different images on parts of them? Is this possible? I'm thinking that the blocks could be Ideological Indoctrination products, with a letter on two sides, and Doctrine on the others.
1. I launched Poser and installed a Play Block in the set (Props/ChildeofFrye/COF-PlayBlocks). I installed Letter B.
  block
2. I headed to the Materials Editor to find the Texture Map for this item.
  block
  Textures/ChildofFyre/ChildrensPlayBlocks/Letter-B.jpg.
3.

I launched Photoshop and opened this Texture Map.

  map
  I saved it as a .psd file to the Project Folder.
4. I created 6 Numbers to place over the block faces. I want to determine how the block enters the environment and which faces are associated with what areas of the Texture Map.
  map
  I created an image and saved it in the Texture file as Letter-Btest.jpg
5. I'm going to open a New File and start the insertion process over again. I want to make sure I'm naming the faces in the order the block is inserted in the set.
  block
6. I applied the new map.
  block
7. Now, I have to figure out a way to notate this understanding. I'll try to use Front, Top, Bottom, Back, Left Side, Right Side. I manipulated the block in the set to gain the following knowledge:
 
Front 2
Top 5
Bottom 6
Back 4
Left Side 1
Right Side 3
8. I'll place a text indication about these on the Texture Map
  map
  This will help me negotiate this particular Project, but it won't help in future projects unless I can access this information easily again. The smart thing would be to open all the Texture Maps in Runtime, and then apply this text label to them all. But this would take an immense amount of time. I'm going to move on with my original exploration.
9. The idea I had here was that this was a set of Play Blocks for children, but they contained Ideological Doctrine as information on their faces. How would this be placed? What would it consist of?
  This is almost another project in itself.
  I think I'm going to go up and rename this project - IdeoBlocks.
10. I suppose the most obvious method of indocrination would be to include Doctrinal Slogans, Words, and Phrases. The easiest for these very small surfaces, would be words - Unity, Collectivity, Equality, Tolerance, etc. Even these words end up being too big for the surfaces.
  The better thing would be to have visual images/logos which represent the Doctrine. What would these be?
  I think I may have to do some online research here.
 
VISUAL ICONS FOR PROGRESSIVISM
There are many obvious ones, like the very recognizable faces of Che Guevara, Lenin, Marx, and the Solidarity Fist. I think the point here is that the images HAVE to be immediately recognizable as doctrinal messages.
Karl Marx There are many images out there, both stylized and photographic
Lenin Again, maybe not as recognizable, but everywhere.
Che Guevara This is a very recognizable face. For some very strange reason, this rather violent and murderous person has been selected as a model for the Progressives.
Solidarity Fist This is a very recognizable motif which has been revived recently.
Revolution Images Images depicting social revolution have some characteristics about them.
Propaganda Posters There are some excellent Propaganda Posters which feature the smiling faces of young children within the embrace of the collective. Are any of these Public Domain? Hmm. Maybe not. But do they have to be?
  I can gather images of Marx, Lenin, Guevara, and Fist. But the more subtle and aesthetic approach would be to use portions of old Socialist Propaganda posters.
  When does Public Domain start? "The public domain comprises copyright-free works: anyone can use them in any way and for any purpose. In the U.S., any work published before January 1, 1923 anywhere in the world[1] is in the public domain."
  Now, when were the great socialist revolution in Russia? The Russian Revolution is the collective term for a series of revolutions in Russia in 1917. Okay. Is it possible to find a number of Propaganda Posters produced between 1917 and 1923? This may be very difficult to do.
11. I think I should return to this Project and the initial idea which was to determine if the Blocks could be used as Indoctrination devices. I'm going to select a few images and map them to the template.
12. I went through the Internet and quickly selected a few poster images that I'll experiment with.
13. There seems to be an aesthetic in the poster concepts that would allow one type of image to work better than others. I'll investigate this later.
14. I opened the Block Template in Photoshop and covered over the letters using the background texture.
  template
15. I then installed the Propaganda Posters I collected in the file and applied these images to the block. At this point, I'm just going to make a Propaganda Block and not worry about keeping the regular letter in place.
  template
16. I saved the Texture File as Letter-B-prop.jpg and applied it to the Block. I ran this through a variety of Renders using different rotations.
  blocks
  Interesting. I think this is as far as I will take this exploration with concept and technique today.
  While this particular exercise resulted in some rather overt and obvious Ideological imagery, there may be a possibility to refine this in the future.
  UTOPIA BLOCKS - Maybe I should invent a set of Utopia Blocks. These would be blocks that children play with while being indoctrinated with doctrine concerning Utopia.
 
Rewriting Labels on Objects - This is a technique very similar to the Tin Can Project I was working on.
  Another technique in the inventory.
   
CONSTRUCTION - IDEOBLOCKS - By Don Bergland


You can explore further Studio Production Instructional Details through Don Bergland's Online Journal


© 2015 Don Bergland