2011
As per my tutor’s suggestion I looked at April Greiman‘s work. I have came across most of it in old design books
which tentatively explain to you how to use all the possible filters on Adobe software. However, I still find some
interesting underlying ideas which are as current now as they were before:
Greiman is probably the earliest explorer of pixelation and other side effects of digitization. Combine this with the introduction of open source
generative software and you can easily trace back the continuing fascination with glitches, both in video and print.
Her fascination with the alien at the time computer technology has led her to do a lot of experimental work
on the relationship between two- and three-dimensional space. In a interview on idsgn.org she says: “I see
everything as an object in space…when web design came into the realm of possibilities…I was already
looking at it as spatial media.” It is certainly a concept which has still not been explored to its full potential.
Also, her treatment of images seem very visually familiar to some of the work that has been created recently. May be that is due to the naivety
and playfulness in the use of filters and other generic image treatments. I find this point interesting especially because of my recent discussions
with my friend Louise and her interests in amateur graphic design. It is uncanny how image treatments, such as gradients, available by default
in Adobe software have already made a full cycle and are kind of popular again. Wondering how quick will be the turnaround of emerging design
tools such as processing?
This reminded me of a discarded book I bought from Camberwell library, called “Graphic Effects by Photography” by Otto R. Croy (1973).
It is self explanatory what the book is about but I still find it amazing that a physical process/treatment of an image could be translated into
an algorithm and then into computer code. The books really contains all the effects you can get from photoshop filters, and one day, I do
intend to carry out a comparative study between the results of both processes. It really is a precious book!
