Post 769 -by Gautam Shah
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These Blog articles, all, are from https://designsynopsis.wordpress.com/
Following 10 articles are compiled as one post.
891 COLLAGE -the art and craft of layering
942 ART and CRAFT of COLLAGES
1028 BRICOLAGE
1108 BRICOLAGE
1289 PAPER COLLAGES
1074 ARCHITECTURAL COLLAGES
1525 BRICOLAGE in ARCHITECTURE
1521 MONTAGE -Cinematic versus Architectural processes
1277 MORPHING for DESIGN
1536 DÉCOLLAGE
Some other related articles will be in part -II
PATCH WORK
1494 CRAFT of MOSAICS
877 MOSAIC, INLAY and PAINTINGS
331 MOSAICS
1101 SURFACE MAKING TECHNIQUES
1494 CRAFT of MOSAICS
305 TESSERAE -CONSTITUENTS OF MOSAIC
891 COLLAGE -the art and craft of layering
A collage is a presentation formed by several super-posed layers for a single or multi-sensorial (audio, video, aural, taste, smell and tactile) effects. It is a form of assembly of different forms, materials and sources or origin, for experiencing time-space position and scale. It creates a new whole entity, effacing the identities of the components. The components, yet contribute certain spatial characteristics to the whole image, like texture, colour, scale, depth, intensities, direction, etc.
The term collage, derives from the French ‘papiers collés (or découpage)’, nominally used to describe techniques of pasting paper cut-outs. The technique of ‘collaging’ is more commonly known in visual arts. It is though, a very old method of super imposing the time and space in a single frame. Primitive age murals had super-imposed images drawn in one go, or ritually overdrawn through several periods.
Camouflages and occlusions were often over-formed layers, to enhance or dilute certain forms of art themes for political and social appropriateness (like nudity). It is similar to découpage, a 17th C French practice of decorating furniture with pictures.
Collage technique is used in many fields. In music several themes are played simultaneously, but riding on a common base of beats. The themes appear and fad-out to mark mood transitions. Perfumes are mixed to form varied layers, by their rate of evaporation, strength and qualitative variations. The longer lasting effect becomes the reminder of the original smell. Foods are doused very extremely minute flavours for forming a lasting taste. In graphical presentations like slide shows and movies collages are used to finetune the time-space transitions. In literary works, scenes are shown as a very complex collage, and justified before or later.
Cubist painters, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso created collage in 1912-1913. Picasso also experimented with 3D collage effects.
Décollage is a French word meaning to scrap the surface of posters as part of the nouveau réalisme (new realism).
Montage is an assembly of images that thematically relate or support each other, to create a single work of art. It is more formal and of a realistic theme.
942 ART and CRAFT of COLLAGES
The term collage derives from the French term papiers collés (arranging cut-pieces of papers with some notion) (or découpage -a reverse process). Collage initially included waste pieces of drawn or printed papers, valued for the colour, texture, patterns, images, etc.
These compositions, montages or paper Mosaiks, accidentally occurred on objects formed through (techniques similar to items of papier mache –literally chewed, pulped or mashed paper). Many such products, wall panels, screens, furniture parts, statuettes, architectural elements such as column heads, architraves, warrior helmets, mirror cases, snuff boxes, or ceremonial masks, were all ultimately covered with some other materials or painted.
French artist Henri Matisse described paper collage as ‘painting with scissors’. –John Stezaker says, ‘Collage allows the opening up of conscious, which is very direct, it is also a way of looking at what you are consuming all the time’.
Collages essentially rely on colour, form, line, shape, texture, joints or edges, but most important, on the narrative or commentary included in the bits of pieces, or one that emerges as totality. Collage offers new narratives, dialogues, juxtapositions and temporal duration. Collages in art, literature, music or other sensorial fields, are juxtapositions of images, emotions and ambiences in order to construct an articulated and engaging spatio-temporal experience.’
Collage making, like knitting and embroidery, was a dominant cultural activity of the Victorian era. Picasso and Braque, (1912) began exploring the flat compositional aspects of the pictorial plane, but later experimented with three-dimensional objects, blurring the boundaries between sculpture and painting.
Dadaism embraced and radically transformed the collage. Kurt Schwitters pioneered collages that he called Merz, to mean ‘the combination of all imaginable materials for artistic purposes’. Max Ernst, said ‘The collage technique is the systematic exploitation of the accidental or artificially provoked encounter of two or more foreign realities on a seemingly incongruous level – and the spark of poetry that leaps across the gap as these two realities are brought together.’
Décollage, is a French word meaning to take off or lift-off, first credited to Leo Malet, a Surrealist detective novelist. He, defined it ‘the procedure that consists in tearing off parts of a poster in order to reveal fragments of the poster or posters, to disorient and lead astray.’
1028 BRICOLAGE
The French word Bricolage can be translated as ‘patch-up’. A composition, individual or combinative expression formed by visual, aural or and other sensorial material. The composition is a combination of whatever is available. In the new combination, most inclusions retain some original identities. It is a new perspective.
Typically ancient myths and narratives were formed from curious combination of several myths and put them together to form a new ‘richer’ narrative.
In a complex urban scenario, we see perspectives as a patch-up of several structures, open spaces, trees etc. of different styles, ages, and genres. In rap songs very often different words, lines or metres come together to form a new image. In an alien space, we become aware of many different sounds and that image remains with us.
The new image or thought is not a deconstructed form like Derrida. ‘Bricolage understands meaning not as something eternal and immutable, but as something provisional, something shifting’.
Collages, have purposefully or randomly collected images and objects. Here the inclusions miss their original meaning by changed context, so a new image manifests. ‘Collage can subvert traditional meanings and at the same time multiply meanings’. Décollage, is nearly opposite of Collage. It means to take off or lift-off‘. It consists in tearing off parts in order to reveal underlying layers or fragments. Decoupage, means cutting out paper or images, and fixing them on to an object. Photomontage uses photographs and printed images from mass-media sources to form a composition with the intention of disorientation.
1108 BRICOLAGE
Bricolage is a word derived from the French verb Bricoler (=to tinker). It stands for something, constructed or created from a diverse range of things. Bricolage efforts may use not only use diverse materials (including junk) but also ‘mixed’ (disconsonant) media. It is described as the re-mix, reconstruction, and reuse of separate materials or artifacts to produce new meanings and insights. It is a technique or creative mode, but not necessarily an expectant one. A person can develop escape routes (out of the Box thinking) by exploiting ‘previously unrelated knowledge or ideas’.
Bricolage is often likened to the concept of curating. Roman civil servants were as curators, given charge of various events (political, social, religious and entertainment) to turn them into remarkable happenings. Curators, today are often self-proclaimed masters of craft of presentation or conduction.
A Bricoler, however, need not care to comment on the individual items that are selected for inclusion or any change caused due to the placement, orientation, etc. The chaotic origins of the bricolage are overcome, through the unifying satisfaction.
In urban design Bricolage is considered the jumbled effect produced by the close proximity of buildings, of different sizes, styles, periods and siting or orientation. In a fashion world, the mix-to match, or Punk like juxtapositions, are often subversive but carry new meanings.
In 1918 dada artist Kurt Schwitters began to use scavenged scrap materials to create collages, calling it ‘merz’. Assemblage also became the basis for many surrealist objects. The use of mixed media was the basis, (around 1912), with the cubist like Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. In a way they challenged the art critics and gallery owners by disrupting the values and display traditions.
1239 PAPER COLLAGES
Papier Collages (French, Papier collé =pasted paper) began as assemblages of assorted paper materials, placed or pasted on a flat surface. Paper Collages represent work of many artists and styles. The method later also included over painting, texture rendering and three-dimensional surface formations (through folding, scrapping, multiple layering, etc.). Two basic styles were, 1 emphasis on shape-cut and 2 contrasts forming through colour-texture combinations.
First collages were essentially experiments with the two-dimensionality. Later, many other explorations for forming the impression of the depth were made. These were, by over drawing, shadowing, using non-paper materials (wood, linoleum, other objects, etc.), use of materials that can be viewed from different angles.
Papier Collage incorporated and integrated several forms and surfaces into an art composition. First Papier collages were formed by the cubist painter Georges Braque (in 1912). Papier collé, (even in absence of the paper) was a popular technique with Surrealists, Dadaists and Futurists. Picasso and Braque restrained to introduce colour into their paintings, but later artists used it intensively and creatively.
Paper Collage was a remarkable spatial expression. This spatial character gave the freedom from figurative-art (even abstract ones). The traditional language of spatiality, made through tonal contrasts and shadowing were now replaced.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar Céret, spring 1913 Cut-and-pasted newspaper, wallpaper, paper, ink, chalk, charcoal, and pencil on coloured paper.
1074 ARCHITECTURAL COLLAGES
A Collage is a compounded visual image formed through joints or edges of several figures, where each of these may include a narrative or commentary, and also on the totality that emerges over the jumble. The layers may include a mix of sensorial effects like, audio, video, aural, taste, smell and tactile.
Collages also rely on contextual settings of colour, form, line, shape, texture, etc. Collages form new narratives, dialogues, juxtapositions and fleeting engagements. Collages have been explored many fields of creative pursuits. In order to construct an articulated and engaging spatio-temporal experience.
‘An image is a sight which has been recreated or reproduced. It is an appearance, or a set of appearances, which has been detached from the place and time in which it first made its appearance and preserved -for a few moments or a few centuries. Every image embodies a way of seeing.’ –John Berger -Ways of seeing 1972.
Architectural built spaces carry many manners of collages. With the digital capacity of image manipulation, collage making offers quick results. Primary collage making occurs when post forming a plan, the third dimension of height-depth are ‘included’. These requires many superfluous recoveries or adjustments through Masking, Framing, Occlusions, Camouflages, etc. Collage as an active tool creates a multi-layered asset, that has ‘sincerity of the original creation and surety of not going too far’.
Tatiana Bilbao, Mexican architect, refuses to produce computer visualisations of designs still in progress but making collages helps to develop more exciting buildings.
New users of built spaces, bring in many unrelated entities to functionally alter, culturally domesticate and socially distinguish the space. Over a period, these through micro adjustments, corrections and additions become part of the lifestyle.
John Stezaker says, ‘Collage allows the opening up of conscious, which is very direct, it is also a way of looking at what you are consuming all the time’. Max Ernst, said ‘The collage technique is the systematic exploitation of the accidental or artificially provoked encounter of two or more foreign realities on a seemingly incongruous level – and the spark of poetry that leaps across the gap as these two realities are brought together.’
1525 BRICOLAGE in ARCHITECTURE
Collage, montage, assemblage and bricolage are image formation methods with nearly similar intent. Architecture designed by architects is considered too a stiff deliverance, which can allow any jumbled effects. These manners combine materials without any preconception or prejudice without any intention of generating any integration, but rather capture the post-effort combination. Architects must attend to utilitarian as well as structural purpose. Bricolage is considered an improvisation in a human endeavour.
Bricolage is considered natural, when architectural or urban scenes produce a scrambled effect due the spatial closeness (visual overlapping) and mix-up of periods (styles). Otherwise, some modernist Architects (of 1960s) wanted to take on the role of bricoleur. Their language, however, was more negative (resorting to breaking of the form, turning into a deconstructivist), rather than neutral one (by being formatter of new form from bits and pieces).
It is also a term that was admiringly applied to the architectural work of Le Corbusier, (by Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter in their book Collage City), implying that he ‘assembled’ many historical forms in his buildings.
1521 MONTAGE -Cinematic versus Architectural processes
A Montage is a mixture of elements. The word montage derives from French –meaning assembly. The assemblage is an intentional process. The word came to be used with cinematic editing, to rationalize the conveyance in a shorter span of time and effectively. Another purpose of the montaging was to combine several narratives into single comprehension.
A montage carries some juxtaposition, contrast, masking, camouflage, some intervening areas (vacui) and link elements get formed. Cinematic Montage, like the visual art collage, are important strategies of composition.
The Cinematic montage is a captured and arranged scene sequence, unchangeable after it is formed, except in casual perusal, where one may switch the scenes randomly.
The visual art collage is circumstantial one, as it occurs within a frame, field, but could, as well be experienced irrespective of the edges at a detail level.
The architectural montage and collage have one major difference. The montage involves time definitions, but a collage is static. Architectural montage is intended to be experienced as a series. Some buildings like museums have set sequence of experience, but here too, the eye movements of observers and cognition cannot be controlled. Majority of outsiders or on-lookers do not follow preset terms.
1277 MORPHING for DESIGN
The Greek god Morpheus was the god of dreams, who ‘shaped’ the dreams. The morphine, is a narcotic, analgesics or painkiller that blocks the pain signals going to the brain and also send one to a dreamland. The word Morph comes from Ancient Greek μορφή, morph= form or shape. Morphism means ‘the state of being a shape, form, or structure’. Morph comes from the word metamorphosis, a Greek word meaning ‘a transformation’, a striking alteration in appearance, character, or circumstances. ‘Polymorphism literally translates to ‘the state of being many shapes or forms’. A blob (of liquid) or an ameba, is amorphous or shapeless.
The word Morph has had many ancient variants, but it really came into being around 1980s, with the digital craft of seamless change, the animation. Many forms of primitive cave painting were made ‘live or magical’ by change of illumination and position of view. Many ancient mythical characters are anthropomorphic, to gain powers of other beings.
The design world since then is suffused of morphed images or neo-morphism. Multiple images in layers work like a stack of ‘see-through’ spreadsheets with consistent matrices, integrated across the depth. The same was offered in other graphical utilities and CAD files. Such Morphism came after several collage images were formed by early 20th C artists. The most notable was the Bricolage (French -Bricoler =to tinker). It stands for something, constructed or created from a diverse range of things. In urban design Bricolage is considered the jumbled effect produced by the close proximity of buildings, of different sizes, styles, periods and siting or orientation. In a fashion world, the mix-to match, or Punk like juxtapositions, are often subversive but carry new meanings.
Designs, morph images, as compounded sensorial entity, where, each of the components may reflect a narrative or commentary or remains mute. On totality, a new emerges over the jumble. The layers may include a mix of sensorial effects like, audio, video, aural, taste, smell and tactile.
1536 DÉCOLLAGE
Décollage is the opposite of collage. Collage is a process of adding layers to form a composition. Décollage, is a French word, meaning literally to unstick, remove or de-layering. It became identified with artists of Nouveau Réalisme, 1960s, (main members of new realism movement were, François Dufrene, Jacques Villeglé, Mimmo Rotella and Raymond Hains), They were, individually and collectively (anonymously) involved in creating an art from the overlayed posters on public walls. But, these walls were public and so cannot be preserved (likely to be re-stuck with new posters) or can be carried home. Étrécissement was also a similar reductive method.
Décollage is created by tearing away parts of the staked multiple posters. The image is created primarily by ‘collage’ (mixing) effect of multiple images from posters of political, cinema, public shows, etc. Later, the artist began to exploit the wide cleaved (white) joints and impression formed by the depth aspect of the thick layers.
Artists also began to carry sections of striped layers of posters from public walls to their studios and used that for a ‘collage composition’ with or without further manipulation. Similarly, Rabindra Nath Tagore (India Poet Nobel laureate) ‘over painted the words and lines’ of his poetry sheets to create graphics.
Décollage as an art began as a public or street art in France, and was similar to the mass culture Pop Art of USA.
Déchirage (from the French, déchirer =to tear) is an artistic style that tears or distresses papers to form 3D construction. It is like a décollage, where original image/s are cut with incision, peeling and partial folded or creased. Romare Bearden, an American artist used déchirage as part of the abstract expressionist paintings.
Interior Design Assist 