Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Joshua Davis

Joshua Davis, known for creating a new type of art called generative-art known dynamic abstraction, started out in Littleton, Colorado. He was always interested in art, but didn't really do much with it while in school.

At the end of 1992, he moved to New York and eventually attended Pratt Institute where he worked on Design and Illustration. His classmates got him into working on the web in 1995 using Netscape 1.1, but didn't get serious about it until Netscape 2 came out in early 1996. By the end of 1996, when Netscape 3 came out, he was already teaching himself HTML, Javascript, PERL, DHTML and CSS.

Also while in Pratt, he played around early versions of Flash including Futuresplash, the program that came before Flash. However, it wasn't until Macromedia came out with Flash 4, which introduced ActionScript, that Davis really got into the program. When asked, he says that he is a designer, or an illustrator. He's often said that "I’m trying to remove the graphic designer from graphic design.

Using his skills of a programmer, he uses a combination of Illustrator and ActionScript in Flash to create pieces of art that Davis has described to be "Beautiful Accidents." First, he creates vector images in Illustrator and imports them into Flash, making them objects. Then, using the code he first learned (HTML, Javascript, CSS, etc), he writes a program that picks random combinations of vectors from parameters set by Davis. The number of vectors, colors, and parameters are endless, and therefore, so are the combinations that Flash creates. Davis then picks the ones that work the most and continues to work with them to create a work of art.

A poster design done for the band MingDynasty

These "Accidents" have produced many pieces of art, including two websites: Once Upon a Forest and Praystation. Davis also has many clients, including companies such as BMW and Motorola, and musical artists such as Kanye West and MingDynasty. He has recently collaborated with Miquelrius, a stationary company, to produce notebooks featuring his illustrations on the covers.

A screenshot from Once Upon A Forest

Both Once Upon a Forest and PrayStation were websites put up by Davis to showcase his art. Once Upon a Forest features twenty-three different pictures to be scrolled by clicking on an arrow. All of these spectacular images capture your imagination and interest with different designs, patterns, and colors. Most of the images consist of one or two colors and their variations. PrayStation, on the other hand, has at least three different versions on the Internet, all of which have news, updates, and projects from Davis.

Davis is also known to "hide things" in his art, mostly personal references. In an ad for Motorola, he has illustrated a picture of a girl, who is his daughter. Near her head, is the number "4" and the letter K, both references to his daughter, whose name is Kelly and who was four at the time the advertisement was commissioned. There letter "z" is also found many times all around over the work, a direct reference to Motorola and its code name for the phone.

The forementioned ad for Motorola

Davis has also been apart of a few international exhibitions, including one Barcelona and one in Rovereto, Italy. In 2007, Davis' exhibit in Barcelona was an installation for OFFF, a three day festival that shows off top artists, designers, and studios of digital media. It featured nine large posters that were installed in light-boxes, which really showed off his work and how the light worked with it. In 2008, Davis was commissioned to create eight panels of his work. However, this time, instead of creating them in color, he only made line-art of his work. He set up the paper on the panels and asked the other attendants at the festival to color them in. Davis has called the project a "great social experiment."

Davis usually relates his concepts with those of Jackson Pollock's. Pollock was a 20th century painter, who changed what the world thought about painting by using different techniques, such as splashing paint onto a canvas that was nailed to the floor. Davis said that "I’m [not] a particular fan of his visual style, but because he always identified himself as a painter, even though a lot of the time his brush never hit the canvas. There’s something in that disconnect - not using a brush or tool in traditional methods." This is similar to how Davis works, because he doesn't necessarily draw all his works, but instead uses Flash to generate the pieces of work and works with those generations until he gets an image he likes.


Works Cited:
  • Davis, Joshua. Joshua Davis | Studios. 14 Nov. 2008 <http://www.joshuadavis.com>.
  • Davis, Joshua. "Joshua Davis' photostream." Flickr. 14 Nov. 2008 <http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuadavis/>.
  • Davis, Joshua. "Motorola, RIZR." Joshua Davis | Studios. 8 Feb. 2007. <http://www.joshuadavis.com/projects/motorola-rizr/>.
  • Davis, Joshua. Once Upon a Forest. <http://www.once-upon-a-forest.com/>.
  • Davis, Joshua. Praystation (Version 2). <http://ps3.praystation.com/pound/v2/>.
  • Hoxsey, Rich. "Flash Forward." The International Design Magazine. 7 Feb. 2008. <http://www.id-mag.com/article/flashforward>.
  • Kirsner, Scott. "The Chaos of Joshua Davis." Wired. Mar. 2006. <http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.03/joshdavis.html>.
  • Malmberg, Elise. "Joshua Davis: Infinitely Interesting." Apple. <http://www.apple.com/pro/profiles/joshuadavis/>.
  • Spear, Josh. "SpearTalks: Joshua Davis." Josh Spear. 14 Dec. 2007. <http://joshspear.com/item/speartalks-joshua-davis/>.
  • Thursday, December 11, 2008

    Max Lamb at Design Miami

    Article link: Max Lamb at Design Miami


    3rings >> Max Lamb at Design Miami from Jacob Slevin on Vimeo.

    This video features designer Max Lamb, talking about his work. I like the white, bronze chairs, and I like the idea of his Delaware bluestone furniture, but I'm not a huge fan of black rubber while I'm sitting at my dining table.

    Warning: The internet is almost full

    Article link: Warning: The internet is almost full

    In this article, Seth is talking about how full of information the internet is, and how we cannot process it because there's just so much out there.

    I realized the point of this article a while ago, when I started using my RSS reader. If I fell a day behind in reading it, I easily lost 50+ posts, and with the mounting school work, it was harder and harder to keep up with the information piling in my inbox.

    Tuesday, December 9, 2008

    Expandable bookcase design


    Article link: Expandable bookcase design

    This article is about an "expandable bookcase" design, where the bookcase can be stretched out to fit more books, or pushed in to save space.

    This is so cool! I think this is an amazingly thoughtful idea, and would be very useful if you plan on starting a library, or something. The only thing is that you'd have to leave that entire space open to the possibility of expansion, so it might look empty.

    Book Review: Art & Sole: Contemporary Sneaker Art & Design, by Intercity

    Article link: Book Review: Art & Sole: Contemporary Sneaker Art & Design, by Intercity

    This article is about a book called Art & Sole, which explores and shows off the "commerce, guerilla art, mass production and customization that is limited edition sneaker design."

    I'm actually not a huge fan of shoes, but I do love that, in this society, we're able to use shoes to create art, design, and individuality. My brother is a huge fan of shows, and actually used to want to major in sneaker design, so I'm excited to hear from him about this book.

    Thursday, December 4, 2008

    Autodesk University 2008: Other things you can do with rapid prototyping

    Article link: Autodesk University 2008: Other things you can do with rapid prototyping



    This video features examples of rapid prototyping, including casting positives and the actual finished products. I know I have no idea what they're talking about here, so I'm not even going to pretend to understand, but last year, when I took my course in 3D Design, we were asked to find packaging and cast positives of it in plaster. After the cool designs from everyone in the class, I think it's always interesting to see what the positives are.

    iPhone case enables the blind to access touchscreens

    Article link: iPhone case enables the blind to access touchscreens

    This article is about an iPhone case for the blind, that would allow them to access applications and type.

    I still love that people are coming up with ideas for the impaired to use technology. This is such a great looking skin too. Of course, it would probably take some getting used to, but I'd like to see a blind person trying this out.