Skip to main content

Posts

Visual Analysis: WHAT ARE VISUALS?

  Visuals are images/collection of images that are  made to be  seen. There is a continuum of images in which people live; and visual is a paused/frozen moment from them. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) What Are Visuals? PDF People/artists/designers capture/construct/make images/visuals for others to see. Therefore we only see the image/visual/frame that is given to us to see. For John Berger, a visual is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced ... which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance. Art: Traditional art, the oldest form of visual expression, represents humanity's first attempts to interpret and document the world. From prehistoric cave paintings to Renaissance masterpieces and contemporary installations, art has evolved beyond mere representation to become a vehicle for emotional, philosophical, and social commentary. Artists manipulate colour, form, texture, and space to create works that challen...

Concept Line Art

Concept line art is a minimalist artistic technique that focuses on capturing the essence of a subject through simple, deliberate lines, often without the use of shading or color. Originating from various artistic traditions, including Japanese calligraphy and Western architectural sketching, this style strips away unnecessary details to reveal the fundamental form and energy of an object, person, or scene. Artists typically use continuous, fluid strokes to create images that are both economical and expressive, relying on the viewer's imagination to fill in the gaps. Contemporary concept line art has gained popularity in digital illustration, graphic design, and tattoo art, with practitioners using tools ranging from traditional pen and paper to digital drawing tablets. The style's appeal lies in its ability to communicate complex ideas with remarkable simplicity, making it an powerful method of visual communication that transcends cultural and linguistic boundaries. When fuel ...

Magazine Cover Designs

 Magazine cover design represents a complex visual communication strategy that synthesises graphic design, marketing psychology, and cultural semiotics to create a compelling entry point for a publication's content. Sophisticated covers employ strategic typography, strategic colour theory, and carefully curated imagery to simultaneously attract potential readers and communicate the editorial essence of the magazine. Professional designers meticulously balance hierarchical visual elements, ensuring that headlines, masthead, primary imagery, and supplementary text create a dynamic compositional narrative that can instantaneously communicate the publication's identity and appeal to its target demographic. Magazine Cover Design Creates A Visual Rhetoric  The most effective designs operate as compelling and inviting visual rhetoric, using visual rhetoric to negotiate complex relationships between graphic communication, consumer psychology, and brand identity, transforming the ...

Art Explodes in Every Direction: Inward and Outward

 Today is Sunday. I began my day with my usual Catholic Sunday service; standing in the middle of a church, filled with faith filled, convinced, and uncomplicated people, praying, singing, sharing, and celebrating. There was energy, there was vibe, there was devotion, and nothing lacked from the usual Sunday services. But from people walking into the church, to the entrance hymn, to the recessional hymn to people walking back home; everything looked and felt like being in an automated mode. Nothing unexpected happened, and nothing unexpected was even expected. Nothing unanticipated was heard, no one was expected to listen to anything that is unanticipated. It was a ritual performed and participated in the most ritualistic manner as possible. It was a kind of implosion into once own faith, certainties, and, age-old practices. Nothing is neither further clarified nor challenged. Later in the day I was at Chitra Shante (Art Fair) by Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath , which had artworks...

Kaziranga and Its One-horned Rhinos: Photo Story

 I love Kaziranga; because here they are not caged or fenced as an exhibition item for the homo sapiens . The rhinoceros, elephants, wild buffalos, deer, the occasional tigers, and many other smaller animals roam free in this 430 square- kilometre expanse across the flood plains of Brahmaputra. Kaziranga lies between the Brahmaputra and the Karbi Hills. Much of the park is marshland interspersed with large pools fringed with reeds, patches of elephant grass, scattered trees, and thickets; inhabited popularly by the great Indian one-horned rhinoceroses. I took an early morning walk around the park with my lens, and the woods there is bustling with birds, both resident and migratory. Sighting rare large birds, like, wooly-necked stork, grey-headed fish eagle, the lesser and great adjutant, which
are declared vulnerable and threatened by International Union for Conservation of Nature, is very satisfying. Kaziranga and its one-horned rhinos We took a safari in a private Gypsy into the ...

Ecce Homo

  Behold powerlessness, here is humanity: trafficked, used and made to overwork for profit, left unemployed for greed, dominated and muzzled by authoritarian and patriarchal regimes, and desecrated in the name of religion. May is hot; not just because of the rising mercury levels across India and elsewhere, but also because of the elections in Karnataka, which is arguably, an important state for the existence and rise of BJP in the South, because of the ongoing ED raids and political arrests, and of course, because of May Day –the day we appreciate the constitution of the eight-hour working day. The workers today, as in every age, are in a permanent revolution, lest the bosses take advantage of their powerlessness, and make them machines.  There has been no other movement as the workers movement, which made the world take notice of people and their struggles. May is a month to notice humans, look at powerless humans more genuinely, more seriously. I borrow a conversation from ...

AI and Automation Anxiety

  Work is not just an economic thing, it is also existential; it gives meaning to human existence. Man verses machine is an age-old conflict archetype. Since the emergence of this conflict archetype machines have been growing in power and intelligence in all directions. The evolution of the thinking machines now stands at the threshold of a quantum leap, breaking completely with the past –the Open AI is here. We have heard of automating repetitive tasks, but that is not the question today. Instead of automating repetitive tasks, technology today is climbing the cognitive ladder. Is it too fast? Or is it that for doing the repetitive jobs we still have the cheap human labour around? Automation Anxiety The stress one goes through because of the fear of losing ones job to automation is real and happening. Work is not just an economic thing it is also existential; it gives meaning to human existence. Money could be provided and found, what about meaning? With infallible machines a...

Talkablity Is the Key

  Though art is endlessly changing, its ability to make worlds meet is constant: the worlds of the artist and the art consumers break into conversation, the subjects in a piece of art and the audience pause to converse. Initiating conversations is perhaps the greatest modern virtue. Our world, in this era of alternative facts, propaganda, thought control, and post-truth, is more polarised and divided than ever before. Most are stuck in their own petite filter bubbles and echo chambers. We are diametrically opposed to each other on virtually every issue that matters -climate, citizenship, refugees, racism, caste, gender –you name it. Exclusive black and white, left and right, for and against is the new mantra for political success. The rest of the population, in between the poles, is ignorantly comfortable and indifferent. To be in a state of being talkable, or people to be in a position to converse is made tougher by people getting offended by the slightest of disapproval. Of cours...

Sound Design: An Introduction

 Sound is a vibration that propagates as an acoustic wave. It is a kind of energy.  To make a sound, something has to vibrate — whether that’s the string of a guitar, the larynx (voice box) of a person, or the loudspeakers of your radio.   Sound waves consist of vibrating particles , which knock into other particles, causing those particles to vibrate and knock into more particles, and so on and so forth; this is how sound waves travel away from their source.   We hear sounds because the vibrations in the air cause our eardrums to vibrate , and these vibrations are converted into nerve signals that are sent to our brains. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Sound Design for Media PDF Elements of Sound The amplitude: The amplitude is the height of the wave on the graph from the middle to its highest point. The amplitude determines a sound’s volume — sound waves of higher amplitude are louder. The frequency: The number of rarefactions and compressions that occu...

Sound Design: Microphones

 A microphone, colloquially called a mic or mike, is a transducer (a device that converts energy from one form to another) that converts sound into an electrical signal. Study the PDF below (for academic use only) Microphones PDF Kinds of Microphones A cardioid microphone has a unidirectional cardioid polar/pickup pattern. It is most sensitive to on-axis sounds (where the mic “points”). A hypercardioid mic has a tighter pickup angle and offers more side-rejection than a cardioid pattern. It is, however, slightly sensitive to sound sources that are directly behind the mic. Omnidirectional microphones are microphones that pick up sound with equal gain from all sides or directions of the microphone. A bidirectional mic , sometimes called a figure-of-eight, is equally sensitive to sounds coming from the front and rear of the mic and least sensitive to sounds coming from the sides. Shotgun polar pattern is exceptionally narrow and focused. This makes it flawless at recording a s...

Screenplay/Script Writing: Ideas, Stories, and the Script

 Stories are Character/s, imaginary or real, aspiring and moving towards a need/goal through adversaries (achieving it with a big idea / super powers) will make one a hero). More elaborately, Character/s, imaginary or real, faced with a conflict/problem/issue/situation and trying to understand/overcome/change it in spite of difficulties / limitations / oppositions from within or without (overcoming/changing it with a big idea / super powers) will make one a hero). Please study the PDF below (only for academic use) Stories and Film Scripting PDF Stories have Shapes Storytelling is an art form that has captivated humans since the dawn of civilisation. Whether through oral traditions, written literature, or visual media, stories have the power to entertain, educate, and inspire. At the heart of every great story lies a carefully constructed narrative that engages the audience and conveys a meaningful message. According to Kurt Vonnegut, stories have shapes, the main ones are Man in th...

Mona Lisa's Smile Broke a Few Standards of Patriarchy

  Art is never finished, only abandoned is a famous saying of Leonardo da Vinci. His life and work bear witness to this fact. His great Mona Lisa took 16 years to become what we see as Mona Lisa today. He was never satisfied, he kept drawing over it time and again. Finally he in fact died without completing it; or it may be more right to say, many times completed it but without finishing or perfecting it. Apparently the renaissance masterpiece Mona Lisa was commissioned by a businessman to paint the picture of his wife. Perhaps the businessman was never satisfied by what was painted. Whether Mona Lisa was a real woman is still a mystery by itself. Mona Lisa When most secular women in paintings had a stiff appearance, Mona Lisa has a relaxed appearance. Mona Lisa has a triangle composition to bring the gaze of the audience directly to her face. And I guess Da Vinci had reason for it. He wanted us to see her face and its features. Most women up to then in secular paintings never loo...

The Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci

 Though the world knows Leonardo da Vinci as one of the greatest artist, he had not considered himself as an artist. Considering his stature today, he did not many art-works to his credit. In a letter to the duke of Milan da Vinci wrote a letter to consider him for a job. In that he explained his skills in engineering, building bridges, and military equipment, etc. Only at the end in the 11 th paragraph of the letter did he say that he also could paint. Leonardo's Notebook What reveals Leonardo to us is his famous notebook. He had a habit of writing and sketching his ideas on a notebook. Even the great work Vitruvian Man is an image from his notebook. His notebook writings and scribbles had around 13000 pages. On his notebooks he wrote in mirror script. Nobody could easily read it, unless a mirror is placed against it. He did it that way perhaps to hide his initial thoughts from others because most of them were from his fertile imagination, and were not tried and proved. But today...