Artsnova Digital Art and Space

Zero Energy Abstract Art

After adding three old images to the Artsnova Space Gallery last Friday, I thought that I had better add something new to another of the galleries.

Zero Energy is a play on the physics term of zero-point energy, which is the lowest possible energy state of a quantum mechanical system. For more on the physics behind the term see Calphysics Institute: Introduction to Zero-Point Energy.

All “drawn” shapes in the image are perfect circles. However you will notice that the circles are organized into rectangular blocks - think of round pegs in square holes.

For more, see the Zero Energy gallery page. The page also contains a link to a full size version of a portion of the image as the details can not be discerned in the scaled down version.

Ad Astra, Jim

Mistress Moon

I have just completed adding three new pieces of astronomical art to my Artsnova Space Gallery. These are not new art but art that I had not previously added to my web site. In fact I still have a backlog of art to add. I am also planning on adding at least two new galleries in the near future. One will be a portrait gallery and the other will be an Americana gallery.

Following are thumbnails of the three new images. Clicking the thumbnail will take you to the pictures details page where you can see a larger version of the image.

Mistress Moon

In Mistress Moon I have recreated an antiqued rendition of our Moon. Mistress Moon started out as a photograph of a moon globe. When I started working the piece I had no strong idea of what I wanted to accomplish. And therein lies the beauty of working digitally - the degree to which I can experiment with different styles and effects is far greater than the traditional artist can achieve. As I worked the final concept slowly evolved until finally I knew what impression I wanted to create.

Rorschach Moon

Rorschach Moon was created using a pastel-oriented palette of colors. You have probably heard the story of how the Beatles song A Day in the Life was actually the product of the merger of two different songs. Rorschach Moon is similar in that it started out as two different works of art. Individually I had been working on creating a nebula experimenting with different techniques. I was simultaneously working on an image of the Moon. As I was doing so it hit me that I was employing similar coloring techniques on both images. It was at that point that I decided to combine the two into one and to produce a final unified piece.

Sands of Mars by Jim Plaxco

Unlike the two previous images, Sands of Mars is based on an actual photograph of the surface of Mars. I have long been a lecturer on the subject of Mars and have prided myself on illustrating my presentations with images created from the raw data files returned by the various robotic missions to Mars. This freed me from having to rely on the finished images offered up by the various NASA science and PR organizations.

I was searching through the newly released online archives of the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Planetary Data System Imaging Node when I came across a MRO Context Camera (CTX) image that I found particularly arresting. I downloaded the PDS IMG file and converted it to a GIF using NASAVIEW. I then used Photoshop to crop, contrast enhance, clean, and colorize the image. Colorization consisted of using multiple coloring layers and masks to achieve the final effect. I must say that I am far more pleased with this image than the one that NASA included in their Mars As Art gallery (my entry appears on gallery page 2, last row, middle image). Of course this image did not exist at that time.

I hope that you enjoy the art and these brief explanations of the process by which they were created.

Ad Astra, Jim

A Binary Mona Lisa

I recently came across an article about teaching computers to appreciate art - at least that was the title of the news story. The story actually dealt with a software program under development that would be able to analyze a work of art and associate it with an artist in its database. The software would also be used to spot art forgeries.

The program was created by Daniel Keren, a professor from the Department of Computer Science at the University of Haifa in Israel. The software works by subdividing known paintings by an artist into discrete blocks. Each of these blocks is then mathematically reduced to a formula. The multiple formulas can then be combined and compared with one another. The underlying program logic is that these sets of formulas will uniquely describe the artist that created the associated works of art.

Models were created for five artists - Vincent van Gogh, Rembrandt van Rijn, Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte, and Wassily Kandinsky - using 15 painting per artist. The program was then tested against another 15 paintings from each artist to see if the program could correctly associate a painting with an artist. The program was able to correctly associate a painting with its artist 86 percent of the time.

Over the course of the article it becomes clear that the program has a very long way to go in order for it to be considered truly functional. I am skeptical as to the program’s chances of ever surpassing, or even equalling the judgments of the art specialist. While this program could develop to the point where it becomes a more useful tool, I can not see it ever reaching a state of reliability such that it becomes the arbiter of authenticity. I am even more skeptical of the ability to apply the program’s technique to the analysis of digitally created art since digital brushwork does not have the same characteristics of traditional brushwork.

If you would like to know more about this program, see the article Teaching a Computer to Appreciate Art

Binary Mona Lisa

Since this post is about software “appreciating” art, I decided to create an image reflective of the subject. The image used to illustrate this blog entry is a digitally manipulated rendition of that most famous of paintings, the Mona Lisa, also known as La Gioconda, painted by Leonardo da Vinci slightly more than 500 years ago. The woman in the portrait is said to be the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.

Ad Astra, Jim

Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art

Today I visited the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University. I was there to see the Imaging by Numbers: A Historical View of the Computer Print art exhibit.

Quoting from the Imaging by Numbers exhibition flyer:

“This groundbreaking exhibition examines the intersection of digital technology and the graphic arts by surveying the use of computers in printmaking and drawing. From electronic waveforms and plotter printer drawings to experiments with computer code and software and inventive combinations of digital and traditional printing techniques, Imaging by Numbers features approximately 60 works by nearly 40 artists… from the 1950’s to the present.”

There were works by Manfred Mohr, Jean-Pierre Hébert, Ben Laposky, Otto Beckmann, Michael Noll, Kamran Moojedi, C. E. B. Reas, and Richard Helmick to name a few. There were also two works by Joan Truckenbrod who taught the first computer graphics class at Northern Illinois University. I am happy to say that I was fortunate enough to get into that graduate level course. You can read more about this in my article Recollections of my Introduction to Computer Graphics.

Another smaller exhibit that is running concurrently is Space, Color, and Motion which features animated images and one very cool computer controlled magnetic ball creating patterns in a sandbox.

If you are in the Chicago area and art thinking of seeing the show, do it now because the exhibit ends April 6. Admission is free! The Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art is located on the grounds of Northwestern University at 40 Arts Circle Drive, Evanston, IL.

I found out about this art exhibit by way of the American Art American City Exhibit Calendar web site created by the Terra Foundation for American Art. The calendar consists of listings of current exhibitions in Chicago area art museums.

Here is a list of links you may find useful.

• Nine works from Imaging by Numbers
• Imaging by Numbers exhibit information
• Block Museum of Art Hours and location
• American Art American City Exhibit Calendar

Ad Astra, Jim

The Artsnova Web Site

At long last I am finally launching the Artsnova web site. The Artsnova blog dates back to October 2006 and I have been working on developing the Artsnova web site since that time. However, it seemed that other projects always took a higher priority and my work on the site was sporadic at best.

The purpose of the Artsnova web site is to display and market my digital art. At this point I have only 18 pieces on display in four galleries. The artwork is organized into galleries based on subject.

The Abstract Gallery is not really accurately defined since it contains not only purely abstract forms but also some rather interpretive representational art.

The Nature Gallery consists of art whose theme is the natural world. Landscapes, botanicals, and life - both photographic and digitally painted - all illustrating different aspects of our natural world are to be found here.

Since childhood, I have had a strong interest in astronomy and space exploration. The Space Gallery is home to my astronomical and space art. At present, only astronomical art is on display.

The Technology Gallery features art whose subject is the technological creations of man. Whereas luddites curse technology, I praise technology for the many benefits humanity derives from it.

In the future I expect to add a Portrait Gallery to the collection. I also hope to find the time to make regular additions to the existing galleries.

Ad Astra, Jim

Library of Congress image of Titanic survivors alongside Carpathia

The Library of Congress has just released over 3,000 royalty free photographs on Flickr. While this represents just a tiny fraction of the Library’s 1 million plus digital images, it does provide a new avenue of access to the collection.

The release consists of two collections. The 1930s-40s in Color collection features 1,615 pictures from the Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. The News in the 1910s collection consists of 1,500 black and white photos from the George Grantham Bain News Service which even includes a photograph of George Washington’s teeth. Together these two image collections provide a fascinating look back at American history of the early to mid-20th century.

One of the photographs that I came across while going through the collection was the image shown above: TITANIC survivors on way to rescue-ship CARPATHIA. If you examine the full size image of the photograph you will see that it doesn’t look quite right. Also interestingly the photo is dated as “between 1910 and 1915″. I found this curious since the exact date of the recovery of the Titanic’s survivors is a matter of record (April 15, 1912). So is it a photograph of one of Titanic’s lifeboats - or just some generic or staged lifeboat image that the news service labeled as being of survivors of the Titanic?

An excerpt from the full size version on Flickr is shown in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Full size section of Titanic survivors in lifeboat being rescued by the Carpathia.

I next went to the Library of Congress’ site and downloaded their full size scan (22 megabytes). Shown below is a full size excerpt of the two passengers from the rear upper left of the lifeboat.

Figure 2. Full size excerpt from the Library of Congress’ scan.

From this high resolution version, it appears obvious that the original glass negative has been retouched in the form of someone inking in black lines in order to “improve” the picture. In my opinion the emotional impact of the image suffers as a consequence and the poor quality of this “improvement” serves as a visual distraction to the viewer

I recommend that you take a trip over to the Library of Congress Flicker Photograph Collection and browse through the collection. For more information about the Library of Congress photographs on Flickr visit the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Reading Room. The full digital image collection of the Library of Congress can be browsed at the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Catalog where over 1 million digitized images are available.

The CGSociety and NVIDIA are sponsoring an Amazing Creations digital art contest. The contest challenges digital artists to “create artistically and technically excellent images of things that are impossible in the real world… Specifically we want to see exciting new images, that are clearly a product of the digital world. However, we don’t just want technically excellent renders that are lacking in artistic beauty. The whole point is to create images that are clearly creations of the digital world but retain the artistic beauty and composition of a traditional painting.” Prizes for the contest total over $21,000.

It wasn’t until today that I actually submitted my entry for the contest. Unfortunately contest rules do not allow me to publish that image here at this time. I will add it at a later date. You can see my entry Inside A Transdimensional Timeship in the contest forum. This image was inspired by the tessellated works of M.C. Escher. To create this image I used a combination of Bryce and Photoshop. I don’t use Bryce much anymore and am currently focusing on improving my skills with Lightwave. However for this project I choose to go with Bryce based on my superior familiarity with that package.

The submission period for the contest ends on January 7 2008. You can see the art that has been submitted to the contest at the NVArt CGSociety forum thread.

Ad Astra, Jim

3D object created in CB Model Pro

This last week I learned of and downloaded a new 3D modeling program. The beta version of CB Model Pro is a free download that can be used indefinitely if you fill out the online registration.

CB Model Pro sports a very simple user interface. It operates by deforming the surface of either the supplied primitives or very simple imported objects. The supplied primitives are the sphere, cylinder, cone, cube, sheet, and torus. 3D object operations that are available are Point Pull, Flatten, Bend, Neck, Scale, and Poke. The degree of deformation applied by these tools is controlled by two simple sliders. There is also a Mirror option so that operations performed on one side of the object are mirrored on the other side.

In addtion to modeling, you can also paint your object. This is accomplished either by applying an image to the model or by using the paintbrush tool.

Once finished with your 3D model, you can export it as either an obj, stl, wrl, or 3dxml object. However, for the stl and 3dxml formats, only the 3D mesh is exported. The CB Model Pro web site has a gallery of sample textured objects to give you an idea of what can be done with the product.

If you have questions about the program, you can turn to the 12 page PDF for program documentation. There is a forum for the software advertised on the web site but stupidly they have chosen to restrict both read and write access to only those people who have previously purchased software from SolidWorks. Definitely not a bright marketing move.

The Pluses

Okay it’s free. It’s also a very simple program to learn and use. I created the object in the picture used to illustrate this article in minutes using only the Neck tool and application of a texture image.

The Minuses

It would be nice if you were able to name your saved models - rather than having the program arbitrarily assign names like file1.cb3d Precision of manipulation is really not there. It is a simple tool that performs simple tasks to create simple objects. You start with a primitive, select an operation, click somewhere on your primitive and drag. And a forum closed to everyone except owners of SolidWorks software is not at all helpful.

Summary

If want to play with creating simple 3D objects in an intuitive manner then give CB Model Pro a try.
Ad Astra, Jim

Moon Base Art - David Robinson

Time for traditional artists to grab their brushes and digital artists to grab their digital brushes. The National Space Society is sponsoring its second space art contest. Like the first space art contest last year, the submitted art is to depict space settlements in our solar system and unlike so many other art contests, this one is free. Yep, there is no submission fee. Art is to be submitted in one of four categories: lunar settlements, Mars settlements, asteroid settlements, or orbital settlements. Twelve winning images will be chosen and used to illustrate the NSS 2009 Space Settlement Calendar. FYI, the NSS 2008 Space Settlement Art Calendar has been sold out since early last month.

In the interest of full disclosure, I chaired the NSS Space Settlement Calendar Committee and served as chief judge for the previous contest. This time around, I have limited my participation to serving as a contest judge. My fellow judges are Don Davis, Bart Leahy (this year’s chair and padawan apprentice), Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesides, and my pal David Robinson whose lunar base artwork adorns this post.

This year’s space art contest has a great line up of prizes. There will be twelve winning entries selected: one Grand Prize, four First Prizes, and seven winning entries. Full contest details are available at the NSS Space Settlement Art Contest site.

Here is a great chance for all space artists to create their visions of a spacefaring future - a future where humanity’s home is no longer just the Earth but wherever we choose to live in the expanse of the solar system. But hurry, the deadline for submissions is December 31, 2007.

Think Space!

Ad Astra, Jim

It’s time for Windycon

How quickly a year can pass. It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was posting my schedule for the 2006 Windycon Science Fiction convention. Once again I’ll be a participant in Windycon which opens Friday Nov 9 and continues through Sunday Nov 11. Following is what’s in store for me this year.

The Lunar Barrier Grand Ballroom North, Saturday 11:00:

From 1968 to 1972, eight manned missions reached the Moon. In the past 35 years, man has never risen above low Earth orbit. Will this be the state of manned space exploration for the rest of our lifetimes or will we actually once again rise above Earth’s gravity well? Will we be able to say “To Lunar orbit and beyond!” Panelists: T. Buckell, B. Higgins, J. Plaxco, F. Ruiz, H. Spencer

This should be an interesting panel especially since we have an election coming up in a year. Given that the return to the Moon program is a product of the Bush administration and widely derided by Democrats, I fear that plans for a return to the Moon may be short lived. I find it strange and disappointing that the party that gave us the Apollo missions to the Moon should be so non-supportive of a return visit.

The Vision for Space Exploration Grand Ballroom North, Saturday Noon:

Is NASA’s new preoccupation with a return to the Moon a massive mistake, a wonderful idea, or of no real importance? Where should we be going in space, and how? Panelists: B. Higgins, J. Liss, J. Plaxco, H. Spencer

Another excellent topic of discussion. The Vision for Space Exploration is the most strategic mission that NASA has been given since Apollo. What’s even more amazing is that this program has survived for three years in the current political environment. If the American voters want to see this project last beyond the end of George Bush’s term as President, then we had better do everything humanly possible to make sure that the next president continues to support this vision. One thing you can do to help is to join the National Space Society.

Prints and Originals Orly, Sunday Noon:

You look at the originals and crave them, but the prices seem so high. When should you consider buying a print rather than an original? What exactly does it mean to be a print (and how are they created)? Panelists: P. Charlifu, S.V. Johnson, J. Lee, J. Plaxco, D. Waltz

Looking around my office, I count 8 prints and 4 originals hanging on my walls. Interestingly, I bought three of the originals at a couple of different Windycon art auctions many years ago and they actually cost less than most of the prints I have.

The whole issue of originals vs prints has been further complicated by the advent of digital art and the giclee or giclée. Digital prints represent an entirely new arena. But there is precedent provided by the world of photography. For example, the film negative is analogous to the digital file in that both are the source of the final printed image.

The Windycon art show can be a great place to acquire art at a bargain price. I’ll have several of my own pieces in the show (haven’t decided which yet) so if you’re at the convention, take the time to look for my art in the show.

Politics in the Future Orly, Sunday 2:00:

No, we aren’t interested if you think Dennis Kucinich should run against John Cox in the general election (well, we might be interested, but not for the purposes of this panel). We’re more interested in thoughts of politics in the long term. Will democracy survive? What sort of political systems will exist after mankind colonizes the planets? D. Bingle, J. Lilly, J. Plaxco, W. Thomasson, L. Zeldes

Definitely the most open ended panel I’ll be on. Who knows where this one will go. Interplanetary Fascism in the 23rd century? Technological advances, smallish physically isolated communities, the nature of trade between different settlements, the legal regime of ownership - these will all be ingredients thrown into the mix. And of course the plight of the individual will be a factor as well. To quote Robert LeFevre: “To live is good. To live well is better. To live in abundance, security, and joy is the acme of living.”

See you at Windycon. Jim