Hi Cindy, one of my favorite Hellenistic sculptures is the Nike in the Louvre. I was thinking about your project and the human figure and technology, and then looking at the NIke, I thought about all the history of combining the human figure and animal forms or attributes-- a hybrid kind of like the human/technology. In the case of humans/animials, there are two attitudes-- one is that the hybrid corrupts the human, and the other attitudes is that the hybrid creates a more powerful human.
CINDY'S PROPOSAL
Technology and society are so interwoven in a synergistic relationship that our incorporeal attachments to even simple technology make up the framework of our lives, socially and intellectually. Technology, a product stemming from the mind and hand of man, has grown and expanded to beyond our own comprehension and beyond our own control. We, as a society, have become subservient to our own creation. Ironically, because it is so integrated into our lives, we are hardly conscious of its power. It infiltrates every aspect of our lives, and while we come to think that we are masters of our possessions, we overlook technology’s governing control. In many ways, our lives are becoming more and more mechanized.
We tend to fear the unknown—Death, darkness, and other entities that maintain difference between what the mind expects and what occurs, and leave our imagination to project what we fear, form the undercurrent of our phobias. Technology has properties of the unknown; it has unascertained infinite potentiality. But perhaps what’s more terrifying is that, as a system, it can be manipulated and influenced by outside sources while we remain unaware of its domination and our victimization.
This project will incorporate the effect of technology on the human condition. While technology infiltrates our lives, we are not conscious of it, so I want to depict a scenario in which it transcends the limits of the human sight and is present in our view. My vision for this project involves the human figure in spotlight writhing and turning away from the imposing hand of technology, which almost looks human itself. There is a dichotomy of size—the individual will appear small in relation to technology’s presence. Moreover, the human figure will rest on the bottom of the page as the cybernetic organism imposes its control above it. The color palette will consist primarily of cool colors in order to create a futuristic, almost science fictional atmosphere, as well as reflect the mood of the piece.
I plan to implement this idea in a mixed media drawing on 20” x 30” cold-pressed illustration board. The primary figure will be in Prismacolor colored pencil, but I plan on incorporating pastels, markers, graphite pencils, and/or paint in the overall picture.
My inspiration for the project stems Hellenistic sculpture, more specifically, the marble sculpture Laocoon and His Sons by Agesandros, Athenodoros and Polydoros of Rhodes. I admire the expressivity and atmosphere of Hellenistic art, and how the artist seeks to represent character rather than precision of traits. In Hellenistic art, we see often the portrayal of painful moments rendered expressive with three dimensional composition and anatomical hyperrealism. After all, Laocoon, strangled by snakes as he tries desperately to loosen their grip, looks far from an inanimate carving—he is a dynamic figure with strong movement and expression. This serves as an inspiration to me to create a piece that moves beyond the two dimensional surface of the page that almost makes the viewer forget they are looking at a drawing.
Michelangelo’s David also influenced this project in his portrayal of a moment in time and the intricate details of David’s hand. Additionally, I am inspired by Salvador Dali’s surrealistic paintings and his imaginative depiction of ideas, as in The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory.
