What identifiers do people use to place an environment in a particular setting?
I have been continuing my artistic style for South Asian architecture to develop more work such as the Moti Musjid (The Pearl Mosque) in Agra:
Following today's discussion with Jim and showing him my most recent artwork, the question of colour use and architectural elements came up. Some questions asked by Jim and by myself were:
The key difference between Iron Pillar (right) and Moti Musjid (above) is that Moti Musjid has clear South Asian motifs e.g. domes which reveals more about the type of environment and setting the image exists in. On the other hand, Iron Pillar architecturally could be various styles e.g. western Gothic. The ambiguity of architectural style in this case is only removed by my use of colour which is 'warmer' than what is usually associated with Gothic architecture and so could be argued to exhibit a more 'eastern' vibe. (Some may use 'exotic' to describe the colours which is perhaps valid for them, however I would like to move away from associating non-western cultures as 'other/foreign' as from my own perspective, my South Asian heritage is not exotic but an integral part of who I am and as normalised as my British identity.)
An interesting branch of research from this therefore would be to create an architecture identity test where people would try to guess from various art pieces which area they think the architecture exists. I would like to use ambiguous motifs as depicted in Iron Pillar and manipulate the colour palette to try to distort or confirm its authenticity. Perhaps from doing this I can establish a more coherent art style going forward to depict my South Asian fantasy world. Instead of focusing on distinctly South Asian motifs to directly tell the user that this is a South Asian setting, I can find other artistic methods to subtlety suggest the cultural environment of the setting and encourage the user to think more critically about how they interact and engage with the environment.
Following today's discussion with Jim and showing him my most recent artwork, the question of colour use and architectural elements came up. Some questions asked by Jim and by myself were:
- Why choose purple for an arch rather than an authentic colour?
- Can a colour palette influence how someone identifies an environment?
- What identifiers do people use to place an environment in a particular setting?
- What makes an arch Roman rather than Islamic? How could I manipulate a Roman arch so that others believe it to be Islamic and vice versa?
The key difference between Iron Pillar (right) and Moti Musjid (above) is that Moti Musjid has clear South Asian motifs e.g. domes which reveals more about the type of environment and setting the image exists in. On the other hand, Iron Pillar architecturally could be various styles e.g. western Gothic. The ambiguity of architectural style in this case is only removed by my use of colour which is 'warmer' than what is usually associated with Gothic architecture and so could be argued to exhibit a more 'eastern' vibe. (Some may use 'exotic' to describe the colours which is perhaps valid for them, however I would like to move away from associating non-western cultures as 'other/foreign' as from my own perspective, my South Asian heritage is not exotic but an integral part of who I am and as normalised as my British identity.)An interesting branch of research from this therefore would be to create an architecture identity test where people would try to guess from various art pieces which area they think the architecture exists. I would like to use ambiguous motifs as depicted in Iron Pillar and manipulate the colour palette to try to distort or confirm its authenticity. Perhaps from doing this I can establish a more coherent art style going forward to depict my South Asian fantasy world. Instead of focusing on distinctly South Asian motifs to directly tell the user that this is a South Asian setting, I can find other artistic methods to subtlety suggest the cultural environment of the setting and encourage the user to think more critically about how they interact and engage with the environment.
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