Posted on

2001 thanksgiving card

In the years when Mikeal Stevens was my roomie, we referred to my house as the bauhaus. We were very glad to put down the gun and the raw meat after the timer went off.

time-based HSB color values

My interest in time-based color values came from reading about the concept of chromo°. Picking a point from the HSB color model proved more complicated than I originally thought. Ben Bryant helped me do the hard math parts to figure this one out, so special thanks to him.



Above is a working JavaScript sample of an equation to obtain color values from the HSB color model based on time units.
Below is the equation in general terms. View this page’s source for the exact code, which also converts the colors to hexadecimal values.

(round(max(min(abs(767*((($degree+0) % 360)-180)/180)-256,255),0),0))*256*256+
(round(max(min(abs(767*((($degree+120) % 360)-180)/180)-256,255),0),0))*256+
round(max(min(abs(767*((($degree+240) % 360)-180)/180)-256,255),0),0),6)

$degree is the percentage of time unit (divided by half of the total units to offset the difference [by 180°] between chromo° angles and HSB values).

my name

Below are real life implementations of a logotype of my first name. The first version of this was created when I was in middle school, c.1990. After taking art more seriously, or at least doing more art, I have been in search of a symbol or mark which represents me. I returned to a version of the original, adding 2 shades of red (to emphasize the chromatic aspect of אָדָם). The diagram here shows the symbol on a 60° axonometric grid, which reveals some exact proportions, namely that the first 3 letters together have the same area as the last letter and that the entire area is made up of 10 equilateral triangles (shown in light blue).

artist statement 2010-04-28

DEFINITION OF ART

For a thing done to be considered a work of art, it must be the result of the artist actively participating in the following 3 actions.

CREATING

The idea behind a work of art which originates in the mental realm has been created.

SHAPING

The rearrangement of raw materials which trades one defined system of organization for another shapes the new arrangement to be recognizable as ‘something else’ when compared with how the raw materials started out before the artist was involved.

FRAMING

The spatial / temporal boundaries which contain the work establish a frame for where and when the artwork begins and ends. This action also takes place by seeing something in a new way.

ROLE OF AESTHETICS

An assumption I make when using proportions in placement, repetition, size, and so on is that mathematical (as in the golden ratio) and relative (as in a rectangle which has a length thrice its height) relationships can be detected at least on a subconscious level and in this way are interesting to the viewer.

ROLE OF APPROPRIATION

When an artist uses another artist’s art, the other artist has had an active part in at least creating and shaping, and includes framing if the entire artwork was used. Examples of other people’s art (OPA) include photographing an uncited source, use of a font the artist did not create, and collage. My work seeks to be appropriation-free in order to maximize originality in the creative phase of art making.

CURRENT WORK IDEALS

Using ‘coded’ text places the content between data presented as information and focusing on the beauty of letterforms without getting stuck on intrinsic meaning of text.

Entries from old journals are used as form and arrangement ideas and a starting place for new works.

The use of only materials on hand at the time of starting a work emphasizes the self-portrait-nature of the work. Some of the art materials around my house I have had for 15 years.

Reusing previous works as elements in new works provides content for each phase of the process: an idea for creating, material for shaping, and analysis for framing.

optophonetic alphabet

the information below is to serve as an explanation for my proposed guidelines on the creation of a ‘phonetic ideal’ or ‘optophonetic’ alphabet,
which I call the optophonetic english alphabet.

the general guidelines

these guidelines explain the reasoning behind the shapes of the letterforms.

  1. the new alphabet must be unicameral.alphabets with more than one symbol representing the exact same letter
    are not as efficient as possible.

    2. for example, in the roman alphabet, the following symbols


    all represent the same letter.
  2. each character must stand for only one sound.this is even more confusing than the problem mentioned above, for the same reasons.

    3. for example, each a in
    father, hat, lake, a
    rrow, and naught has a completely different sound.

  3. there must be characters representing the full range of sounds present in the language used.if there were characters sufficient to represent this range, there would not need to be phonetic explanations of how to say dictionary words.

    4. for example, there is no (normal, roman) letter for the schwa.

  4. the characters of the new alphabet must be derived from a process of
    cross-referencing frequency of sound and ease of mark.     

    the orthographies of the roman alphabet used in the english language are based on neither frequency of sound nor ease of mark.

    5. for example, the simplest mark to make is a dot, which is only used for punctuation.

  5. the alphabet must be able to be read without anchors to define the orientation of the text.some letters rotated, inverted, or written backwards may be read as other letters.

    6. examples:

  6. the characters must be able to be easily formed by any writing instrument and on any surface.closed counter-spaces and forms which have paths too complex to be followed by basic writing instruments can be difficult to write with certain instruments and on certain surfaces.

    7. for example, the letter s is difficult to scrape into clay; nib-pens scratch paper when writing in certain directions.

  7. the printed version of the alphabet must be identical to the written version.this is the same problem as the first rule.

    8. for example, one writes this symbol:

    and types this symbol:

optophonetic theory

these thoughts explain why the letterforms in the optophonetic english alphabet
have been chosen and included. there are 3 categories of letters: consonants, vocals, and vowels.

  1. consonants are straightforward sounds having no variations.

    2. hydrogen

    lawrencium

    mercury

    neon

    radon

    winter

    yummy

  2. vocals are sounds with 2 variations. for each of the examples here,
    the non-vocalized version of the letter pair (the second one listed in each pair)
    can be heard if the first word is whispered.

    3. big prices

    very fine

    the thing

    good looking

    dark tower

    zen master

    visionary shape

    judge’s chambers (the letters in this pair are actually combinations of the dark
    tower and visionary shape pairs. hence,
    j is dzh and ch is tsh.)

  3. vowels are sounds which fill the spaces between consonants and vocals. there are (basically) 4 groups.
    this is the only group with actual dipthongs. some dipthongs are 2 vowels and some are a vowel and a consonant.
    in the latter case, the vowel takes on a unique sound when preceding the consonant.
    (the letters in th last vocal letter pair above are not dipthongs because the sounds only take up one syllable.)

    4. the e group

    international (the schwa sound)

    this

    then

    see

    potato (dipthong of the 2 preceding sounds)

    the u group

    gun

    do

    no (dipthong of the 2 preceding sounds)

    book

    the a group

    father

    ice (dipthong of preceding sound and see sound)

    naught (dipthong of father sound and winter sound)

    ark (dipthong of father sound and radon sound)

    hat

    now (dipthong of preceding sound and winter sound)

    the o group

    on

    or (dipthong of preceding sound and radon sound)

text example


roman alphabet observation

I wanted to call this my roman type theory, but it’s just more of an observation of an interesting pattern. maybe after you read this, you’ll look at the alphabet differently, especially if you’re looking at the alphabet with something obstructing your view of most of it….

what is meant here by the roman alphabet is the characters used to represent the English language to English readers. if you are not familiar with this alphabet, you probably have not made it this far.

it is easiest to illustrate this observation step by step:

    1. consider only the top and bottom portions of the alphabet. write out the alphabet in order with these portions highlighted (brown), using a different color (red) for the 1st instance of each distinct top or bottom.
    1. remove each letter not containing the 1st instance of a top or bottom.
    1. remove the middles of the letters and subsequent instances of tops and bottoms.
    1. condense the remaining tops and bottoms by shifting leftward.
    1. this is where the pattern becomes more obvious. there are only 6 distinct tops and bottoms in the roman alphabet. they are described below in the illustration as:
      • single point
      • line / curve
      • curve
      • line
      • double point
      • triple point

  1. the order in which these 6 tops and bottoms appear is illustrated below (and could also be 1/5 2 3 4 5/1 6, depending on how you look at it).

in conclusion, not only are there only 6 distinct tops and bottoms, but the order in which they appear creates this interesting pattern. these numbers or shapes could be used to represent the alphabet as a whole.

chromo watch ideas

These are sketches for a watch which uses color to identify the time of day.