Okay - Baucis it is... such a wonderfully improbable city! But first things first - as of now you are banned from drawing 'buildings as boxes' - yep, you heard it - you're banned! Your various thumbnails for nearly all of your investigations of Calvino's cities are all dominated by 'cubes' and 'rectangles' and as a concept artist, I think you need to reflect on this, because it suggests to me that a) your worries about drawing more complex forms are preventing you from giving a freer reign to your imagination and b) you're not actually designing anything or really allowing your influence maps to actually change or challenge your depictions. So, yes, I don't want to see another box - and that's a direct commandment :) There is, after all, nothing in Calvino's text to support the idea that Baucis is a city of skyscrapers - I think when you think of cities, you see 'skyscrapers = city' - and yes, this is certainly true of modern cities like New York, but if we were to imagine that Baucis is real, I wonder how likely it might be that they'd drag all that steel and concrete up those stilts - imagine the weight of it for one thing. And you need to imagine other practical things too: these guys never come down... so where does their food come from? Where does their energy come from? If I was an architect thinking about designing an ariel city, I might look at other 'up in the air' structures for my inspiration... for example:
and let's get back to the practicalities of power and food - where would power and light come from up there? https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vg1IKefOkP4/maxresdefault.jpg http://www.eeclondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Solar-Panels.jpg
and what about growing stuff? There's no earth up there after all...
You're being challenged to think about the detail of this city on account of the low angle exterior and interior shot, both of which are opportunities to take us closer to the character of the city. These views need to be special or significant - showing us something that the master shot doesn't show us - perhaps by asking the question 'Where does the food come from?' you might generate some ideas as to a fascinating choice of interior? Perhaps by asking yourself 'How do these people get around the city?', you might generate some ideas of what a big terminus, station or 'airport' in Baucis looks like...?
My general point is simple - you need to 'think' about this city and maybe stop 'not thinking' about this city - or rather 'seeing skyscrapers' whenever you think about what a city is or could be. Really I'm saying you can afford to be much more creative, much more imaginative and really embrace the role of the concept artist - you've been commissioned to think big and you've been commissioned to design and you've been commissioned to create something rather extraordinary - an aerial city!
So no more oblongs, no more boxes and no more skyscrapers - they are forbidden to you from this point forward! - have a bit more fun instead and start asking the nitty-gritty questions as these will yield some much less generic visions of Calvino's most fantastical cities :)
OGR 05/10/2017
ReplyDeleteHi Emily,
Okay - Baucis it is... such a wonderfully improbable city! But first things first - as of now you are banned from drawing 'buildings as boxes' - yep, you heard it - you're banned! Your various thumbnails for nearly all of your investigations of Calvino's cities are all dominated by 'cubes' and 'rectangles' and as a concept artist, I think you need to reflect on this, because it suggests to me that a) your worries about drawing more complex forms are preventing you from giving a freer reign to your imagination and b) you're not actually designing anything or really allowing your influence maps to actually change or challenge your depictions. So, yes, I don't want to see another box - and that's a direct commandment :) There is, after all, nothing in Calvino's text to support the idea that Baucis is a city of skyscrapers - I think when you think of cities, you see 'skyscrapers = city' - and yes, this is certainly true of modern cities like New York, but if we were to imagine that Baucis is real, I wonder how likely it might be that they'd drag all that steel and concrete up those stilts - imagine the weight of it for one thing. And you need to imagine other practical things too: these guys never come down... so where does their food come from? Where does their energy come from? If I was an architect thinking about designing an ariel city, I might look at other 'up in the air' structures for my inspiration... for example:
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vxC85hSerkU/hqdefault.jpg
https://static.boredpanda.com/blog/wp-content/uuuploads/amazing-treehouses/amazing-treehouses-3.jpg
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/JCHkrVPy6NI/maxresdefault.jpg
https://i0.wp.com/goodthingimpretty.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Ibuku-hero.jpg?resize=678%2C381
and if I was seriously thinking about supporting an ENTIRE city on stilts, wow that would be some feat of engineering... epic really!
http://martybugs.net/gallery/photos/IMG_A33446_1000.jpg
http://www.artofthestate.co.uk/photos/tower_bridge_supports.jpg
and let's get back to the practicalities of power and food - where would power and light come from up there?
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vg1IKefOkP4/maxresdefault.jpg
http://www.eeclondon.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Solar-Panels.jpg
and what about growing stuff? There's no earth up there after all...
https://fthmb.tqn.com/3h0pkOIwciPFOTUPB5Ullrnixjw=/960x0/filters:no_upscale()/119791286ps-56a5034d3df78cf77285f901.jpg
http://cdn.wonderfulengineering.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Aprilli-Design-Studio-Urban-Skyfarm5.jpg
and you've also got the whole idea too of Baucis being a city of observatories...
https://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/2015/02/04/20150206_style_observatory1.jpg
https://mcdonaldobservatory.org/sites/default/files/images/news/gallery/het_night.jpg
You're being challenged to think about the detail of this city on account of the low angle exterior and interior shot, both of which are opportunities to take us closer to the character of the city. These views need to be special or significant - showing us something that the master shot doesn't show us - perhaps by asking the question 'Where does the food come from?' you might generate some ideas as to a fascinating choice of interior? Perhaps by asking yourself 'How do these people get around the city?', you might generate some ideas of what a big terminus, station or 'airport' in Baucis looks like...?
ReplyDeleteMy general point is simple - you need to 'think' about this city and maybe stop 'not thinking' about this city - or rather 'seeing skyscrapers' whenever you think about what a city is or could be. Really I'm saying you can afford to be much more creative, much more imaginative and really embrace the role of the concept artist - you've been commissioned to think big and you've been commissioned to design and you've been commissioned to create something rather extraordinary - an aerial city!
So no more oblongs, no more boxes and no more skyscrapers - they are forbidden to you from this point forward! - have a bit more fun instead and start asking the nitty-gritty questions as these will yield some much less generic visions of Calvino's most fantastical cities :)