Anne Fisker Nielsen
______________________________
Art & Technology, AAU
1. Semester 2011
1
List of Contents
The Introduction
3
The Theory
4
The Methods
6
The Product
8
The Conclusion
10
The Bibliography
12
2
The Morphology and Topology course was for us as
students to develop our practical skills when it comes
to creating art. We worked with cardboard,
sticks and foam during this course.
We followed an experiment Thomas Jæger and Peter
Mandal had created where we should take starting
point in a painting and then gradually expand the idea
and the focus points into both structures and forms
under certain demands.
3
The Theory
When translating a two-dimensional painting into
three-dimensional structure or form you have to be
aware of the hierarchy of the focus points and be
aware of the composition of the painting. You find the
hierarchy in a painting in looking at the frontmiddle- and background of the painting. And by
realizing what seems to be closest to you, you also get
the painting. You decide how you want to translate
the different parts of the hierarchy into your own
version of it. By using the theory you will be able to
see a resemblance between the old version and the
new. This theory is here demonstrated through the
drawings and paintings by Theo van Doesburg, taken
from the presentations in Morphology and Topology
lessons:
a sense of the space the motif creates. The hierarchy
is also what is most important in a piece and what is
most or less detailed. You find hierarchy by looking at
the different lines and forms that creates the
composition and weighing them one for one compared
to the rest of them to find order in it. The order arises
when you group these segments of the picture. By
analyzing the composition you realize how the
different components of it interact with each other
and this is the hierarchy. This you use to place
different structures or forms in the right place
compared to each other. You go through this to make
sense of the painting and create order. From here you
can now interpret the hierarchy into a new version of
From the order I found in my picture, I could then
start to translate lines and forms on paper into threedimensional structural lines and from the order in
this, translate it into form.
4
5
The Methods
We got to choose a picture to work from. I chose to
use the painting “Main Ouverte” by Le Corbusier for
inspiration.
I created a hierarchy of front and background and
over detailed focus points and simple focus points.
From this I decided how long sticks should be
horizontal and how long vertically to make them seem
closer to you and therefore creating a front. I also
created complex structures where there were many
details in the painting and simple where few details.
In this first one we were only allowed to do horizontal
and vertical lines and therefore no diagonals or joins
with a degree other than 90 or 180. The next step was
to work with forms and spaces. Inspired by the piece
of structure I had just created from sticks I should
now create forms of foam. Again without diagonals.
This became a much more simple composition than
before.
6
This time I focused on the hierarchy of simple and
complex work of details. I used a hobby knife and a
ruler to make the cuts even, which was important to
keep the illusion of there not being any diagonals.
The third step of this course was to once more get
inspiration from the structure of sticks to create a
new structure of sticks, but now only with diagonals.
This meant that no stick could have the same angle
to the edge of the paper. To make this work you have
to find some sort of order in this chaos. I did it by
thinking of a circle and therefore knew which angles I
had already used. It was easy to see now that
diagonals create a much more dynamic structure
than only vertical and horizontal lines. Out of this
new, more chaotic, structure I created new forms of
foam still only with diagonals. This became a much
simpler version of the stick structure with diagonals. I
took the most significant shapes from the structure
and converted them to masses.
7
The Product
The product I ended up with was four new versions of
“Main Ouverte”; two structural and two formal
constructions.
The first structural piece with its straight lines and
orthogonal corners was easy for me to create. This
version of the painting about 5 cm tall at its highest
point and was therefore three-dimensional to look at.
The sticks create shapes and spaces without actually
being a shape or space. You have to be able to use
your imagination to detect spaces where you with the
formal versions are given the spaces through the
forms.
The second piece – a formal one was harder for me.
There is a comfort in the lines and forms that are just
plain rectangular. The forms are a bit too small,
because they seem a bit structural still. I should have
used more volume in the foam to get the true feeling
of masses.
system, never really felt like I controlled. The
diagonals create a feeling of motion in the piece, like
it is spinning somehow. But still there is a reference
from the first version to this third that is without
problems detected. Because of the fact that it is more
vibrant, this piece would be easily interpreted in new
ways because you can see new spaces in new places.
The last version was diagonal and formal. You can no
longer see the direct connection to the original
inspiration. It is very simple, but still dynamic. You
can see the masses stand out and the formal work is
therefore a success. I found this version very hard to
produce, edges and shapes were hard to make with a
simple hobby knife and it is therefore not as ‘sharp’
as the rest of the pieces.
We ended the course by looking at all the
constructions made in the class to see different
interpretations of the paintings and different ways of
working with structure and form.
The third piece, the diagonal structural version is
much more dynamic than the previous two. There is a
sense of chaos in it, that I, even though I had a
8
9
10
The Conclusion
From this whole experience I take with me a new
point of view on structure and form. By working with
both and looking at different examples from the
architectural world I learned that order and chaos
can work together much better than one of them
alone. I also learned that it can bring something
different and create a contrast in a sculpture or a
building if you combine something very structured
with something simple with a firm surface.
11
The Bibliography
Pictures
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=solsikke&um=1&hl=da&rls=c
om.microsoft:da:IESearchBox&rlz=1I7ACAW_daDK379&biw=1366&bih=615&tbm=i
sch&tbnid=Y0ZonRvih4qWsM:&imgrefurl=http://www.hyrdehoe
jbh.roskilde.dk/trommen.asp&docid=5iKqnHXZUkZqIM&imgurl
=http://www.hyrdehoejbh.roskilde.dk/pics/solsikke.gif&w=280
&h=300&ei=4HfjTpe8OsmEwa33I2xBQ&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=414&sig=115500849953619
436404&page=1&tbnh=117&tbnw=109&start=0&ndsp=24&ved=
1t:429,r:5,s:0&tx=61&ty=61
http://www.google.dk/imgres?q=sunflower&um=1&hl=da&sa=N
&rlz=1W1ACAW_daDK379DK379&biw=1366&bih=615&tbm=isc
h&tbnid=cGnaOzHMhCMevM:&imgrefurl=http://sunflowerdoula
.com/&docid=SW_Tda2jZSJTmM&imgurl=http://www.sunflower
doula.com/Sunflower.jpg&w=1024&h=768&ei=mULqTqDqC4eW
Oo22vZsI&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=765&sig=11452728037558175
0298&page=1&tbnh=129&tbnw=173&start=0&ndsp=21&ved=1t:
429,r:6,s:0&tx=76&ty=69
12