Sunday, February 28, 2010

The Symbiote's Effect on the Mind


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16 comments:

  1. Altoon SultanFebruary 28, 2010 at 8:45 PM

    Andrei, please! teach this guy how to upload a low res file; his images take forever to load; I'm about to unfollow your blog because it gums up the works.
    thanks!

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  2. Andrei MolotiuFebruary 28, 2010 at 10:47 PM

    Well, I will let Aaron respond for himself, but I would guess he loads such high-res files because he works with very fine lines, and it is important to see the detail.

    Aaron, one thing you could do--what I usually do for my own posts--is to actually make two images, one the size you want to appear on the blog, and one full size, and use the small one to link to the big one, like this: (Well, I tried to demonstrate, but blogger thinks I'm actually posting html and won't allow it... Email me if you need pointers). This way, only the small one will need to load when people are just skimming the blog.

    By the way, Aaron, I like this one a lot.

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  3. Melvin MannheimFebruary 28, 2010 at 11:32 PM

    Altoon- sorry I didn't realize I was inconveniencing anyone. I don't want to turn away from this blog

    Andrei- Exactly correct I use high res files so the enlarged details can be visible to anyone. I didn't realize that I could do it another way. I suppose it makes sense though. Do I just post with the smaller image and then highlight it and at a hyperlink to the the large one? And thank you. I have been working on this one for a few months, I thought you might like the idea of doing a completely abstract strip that makes reference to an abstract element of the mainstream superhero comic world.

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  4. Andrei MolotiuFebruary 28, 2010 at 11:54 PM

    Funny, I just liked it visually, I wasn't even thinking of the Marvel symbiote. (I know very little of Marvel post-1970, except for Frank Miller's work.) That adds a further dimension.

    May I ask how you made this? It almost looks like fractals. But is it that mathematically precise?

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  5. Melvin MannheimMarch 1, 2010 at 2:54 AM

    Andrei- first off I tried to publish it again linking the image but it kept going to the small version and not giving the large as an option which I would really like to offer for my work. If you would like me to start posting smaller or know how I can change this I will do whatever you tell me. I want to be accommodating to the needs of this blogs readers.

    I made this in illustrator. As far as the math, yes and no. Every curve is arched precisely as to make a quarter circle. The actual placement, direction, and size of the curves is arbitrary (or just where I wanted to put them; like my taste guiding my hand as the spirits would guide a planchette's pencil, sorry been on Stephen King kick). I rarely make any choices in my work beyond the original idea but in this I did because I wanted to make something that felt like an organic growth and the only way to make it behave like a living thing is to behave like one myself and make seemingly arbitrary decisions

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  6. Melvin MannheimMarch 1, 2010 at 3:04 AM

    I reposted this using Andrei's instructions and it should be better now. Sorry for an inconvenience.

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  7. Altoon SultanMarch 1, 2010 at 12:41 PM

    Thank you, this is great,and the enlargement is still huge.

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  8. Andrei MolotiuMarch 1, 2010 at 3:34 PM

    See? Now everyone is happy.

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  9. Melvin MannheimMarch 1, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    Yay!

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  10. TimMarch 1, 2010 at 5:02 PM

    marvelous. I particularly enjoy the hints of meaning implied by the little black figures emerging, on the top row.

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  11. Andrei MolotiuMarch 1, 2010 at 7:35 PM

    That actually reminds me of the sprouting of Swamp Thing, in (IIRC), Swamp Thing 37--one of the Alan Moore issues.

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  12. Melvin MannheimMarch 2, 2010 at 1:00 AM

    Tim- To be honest I don't really know what you are talking about.

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  13. Paige ColwellMarch 2, 2010 at 2:32 PM

    This reminds me of a peice I did last year with cut paper. Cut paper, exacto blades, rubber cement and CRAFTSMANSHIP CRAFTSMANSHIP.
    It was a very tedious project.

    But I enjoy this a lot. I've been following this blog and it's been wonderful

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  14. TimMarch 2, 2010 at 5:54 PM

    okay, I'll explain my reaction.

    for the top row, the meaning-creating part of my mind, in a split second, says:
    #2: question mark
    #3: little man with bend in the middle
    #5: bird, perhaps a funky-looking rooster

    #4 is more of a hybrid, less clear to the symbol recognition parts of my thinking apparatus. I have to resort to a more complicated description, such as "half way between a bendy man & the funky rooster, but more like a bendy man with a long, bendy arm." in other words, less primitive, simple, universal.

    the lower "frames" are more detailed, but don't trigger the same instantaneous reaction. luxuriant vegetation, drawn in a particular style, is my verbal reaction.

    my point: using mathematical rules, you've created forms which affect me as archetypal symbols, or pictographs.

    my reactions are obviously subjective. another person might respond quite differently to these shapes.

    this area deserves more investigation.

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  15. Melvin MannheimMarch 2, 2010 at 10:13 PM

    Tim- Thank you for explaining. I think I see what you mean now. In the initial panels we are given more clear and simpler information. We see a form sprout and with only a small simple form in the sea of white our brain can easily assign meaning to this as well as make distinctions like positive and negative space. I think we all agree we read the black as growing on the white and not the white shrinking away from the black.

    As the strip goes on the forms become more complex and the distinctions we made become unclear or are contradicted. This seems to lead to an inability or a lessened ability to assign meaning to the forms.

    I wonder if this has to do with the nature of visual confusion. That when stopped by too many questions or an unanswerable one we can no longer establish the connections necessary to assign meaning.

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  16. pivot art galleryMarch 3, 2010 at 11:53 PM

    Thanks for sharing this piece! I look forward to seeing more, no matter the resolution...
    I agree with Tim, this inquiry deserves more investigation - both deeper and wider - though I would caution against too much analysis.

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