Old Ford Car at the Ommegang Brewery Cooperstown, New York State.

Thanks to HackDNA for correcting me on the make of the car.

Here is a view of the Spomenik for resolutions, which I made for Dance with flARmingos: AR Tour & Raffle! in Queens, New York! The monument is also implemented in Geneve at 46.218528, 6.127866.

Geneva is a very special city; it does only house the ISO (international Organisation for Standardisation), but also the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), which are two major players in the setting of International Standards.

International Standards make things work. They give "world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency". They are instrumental in facilitating international trade and support innovation to “provide solutions to global challenges”. But Standards are more than just solutions that make things work; rooted within political, economical, technological and cultural backgrounds, they also involve compromises between different matters and actors.

These compromises and their inherently denied, alternative outcomes are often obfuscated or even forgotten. For example: when we speak about video, we refer to a four cornered moving image; we do not consider video with more or less corners (3, or 5, or 149++ corners), layers, timelines, or soundtracks. Color film and JPEG algorithms are racist. Fonts can only be implemented as monchrome typefaces, Ghosts can only communicate through analogue forms of noise and animals cannot own copyright.

Resolutions form a lens through which materialities are constituted. They resonate a tonality of functionality and inform material vernaculars. In short, resolutions inform both machine vision and human ways of perception. It is therefore of upmost important to realize that with every resolution, alternative implementations are unthought, forgotten or even lost and forever unseen. This Spomenik stands in for ghosts of resolutions, that would have given form to alternative futures passed.

A commission for the Queens Museum organized by Kristin Lucas.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint), and electronic drawing.

An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman, or draughtsman.[1]

A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[2] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface.[3] Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour,[4] while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.

Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies.

There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper, around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).

A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch.

In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.

Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.[5] It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invent of the written language,[5][6] demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.[7] These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts.[8] The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.

Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise.[9] Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings.[10] Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.[11][12] In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,[13] where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.[14]

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts.[15] Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises.[16] Modernism in the arts encouraged "imaginative originality"[17] and artists' approach to drawing became more abstract.

Drawing Outside of the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings.[16] Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.[16]

Notable draftsmen[edit]

Since the 14th century, each century has produced artists who have created great drawings.

Notable draftsmen of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries include Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Notable draftsmen of the 17th century include Claude, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Guercino, and Peter Paul Rubens.

Notable draftsmen of the 18th century include Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Antoine Watteau.

Notable draftsmen of the 19th century include Paul Cézanne, Aubrey Beardsley, Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Edgar Degas, Théodore Géricault, Francisco Goya, Jean Ingres, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Honoré Daumier, and Vincent van Gogh.

Notable draftsmen of the 20th century include Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Jean Dubuffet, George Grosz, Egon Schiele, Arshile Gorky, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Alphonse Mucha, M. C. Escher, André Masson, Jules Pascin, and Pablo Picasso.

The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead.[18] More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.

Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.[19] Papers can vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.

Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.

Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and become brittle much sooner.

The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.

Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.[20]

Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.

The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching—groups of parallel lines.[21] Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones—and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.[22]

Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.

Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.

Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on fixative to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.

Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.[23]

Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.

Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.

Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.

Form and proportion[edit]Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.

When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive shapes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic shapes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive shapes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.[24]

A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.

Perspective[edit]

Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective.[25] Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.

Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.

Obscuring the message

San Diego, California, brick wall with paint

AGAIN No change there then...

BY RIGHT-WING CON-MEN HOODWINKING THE BRITISH PUBLIC.

Outrageous shite on the front of the local "rag" this week.

(Its a 'paid-for' advert not the 'news')

(WHAT WILL THEY DO ABOUT THE POLLUTION WHICH IS MAKING ALL OUR CHILDREN COUGH FOR THE PAST 3 DAYS?)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=8vZzFwR4rVE

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

The project is developed using various pre-set text-to-image models, processing text prompt inputs. On the borderline between sensitive content and an easy slip into topics of violence, this project visualizes the depths of the subconscious of these models, excavating the influences of media and online information exchange. The quantified traces of reality and collective histories allow algorithms to generate content that recycles the past – building the spine of quasi-historical narratives – often obfuscated with prejudice and misinformation, along with the author’s personal bias. Generated outputs are presented inside a hypertext object – a tent that the audience can enter, as it were.

Photo: Florian Voggeneder

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

My super-rant ahead: The common belief of how trees became petrified is a myth of science. Petrified wood, and all the formations of the US Southwest, are brimming with strong evidence of a world-wide flood that covered the earth several thousand years ago, and quickly burried these trees under mud and sediment. The cystalization process was quite quick, compared to accepted scientific timeframes. (Info for that here: earthage.org/EarthOldorYoung/scientific_evidence_for_a_worldwide_flood.htm)

There is ample evidence for this account, but that evidence is ignored, so you won't hear any of it in the media. Or if you do hear it, it's derided with all manner of logical falacies and strawman arguments to discredit, and make the other positions look weak and ill-conceived. It's no wonder that the common man doesn't give such arguments a second thought, trusting "the experts" instead.

However, giving attention to the other side of such arguments would expose the flimsy foundations of mainstream science (i.e. beliefs like: everything came from nothing, big bang, evolution, universe/earth are billions of years old, no god, we are insignificant specs of dust in an endless universe, this reality and all you see is just convenient coincidence, etc).

Mainstream science is very much a faith-based religion, albeit a well disguised one. They have woven a false belief system with just enough truth sprinkled in to keep people invested in it, as the one-and-only possible view of how the world works and our place in it. This system continues to push the mainstream narrative without question, ignoring evidence, obfuscating, leading public opinion away from questioning the version of reality they're given, and away from the overwhelming proof of there being One true Creator of all things, our significance and our purpose in His design.

Science has been built on a foundation of deceit through its heavily controlled and funded, but extremely dumbed-down egocentric legions of scientists (scientific priests) for centuries to give the public a form of stiffled scientific advancement, while keeping them ignorant, and dismissive of anything that stands to question the foundational beliefs of science. Scientists who DO question and consider exposing the problems with their "on the shoulders of giants" textbook assumptions, face ridicule in their industries and career suicide.

This is why I always say, if you care to get closer to the truth of earth's past, humanity's past, the purpose of life, and where we're going, you have to accept that truth is never given so easily. But since most of us want it to be that easy, the con artists running this world are only too happy to oblige, at your expense.

Truth has to be diligently sought out, outside of mainstream circles. media, academia and the well funded religion of science will never admit that they've been wrong. Too much is at stake, too many jobs and industries, cultures, false religions and manmade institutions would be disrupted or dissolve entirely. That won't be allowed to happen, so the chrarade will continue.

Yeshua (Jesus) said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."

The road to the truth is in Him, and He reveals these things to us if we strip away the layers of nonsense we've been taught all our lives.

Crystal Forest,

Petrified Forest National Park

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint), and electronic drawing.

An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman, or draughtsman.[1]

A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[2] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface.[3] Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour,[4] while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.

Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies.

There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper, around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).

A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch.

In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.

Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.[5] It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invent of the written language,[5][6] demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.[7] These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts.[8] The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.

Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise.[9] Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings.[10] Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.[11][12] In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,[13] where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.[14]

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts.[15] Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises.[16] Modernism in the arts encouraged "imaginative originality"[17] and artists' approach to drawing became more abstract.

Drawing Outside of the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings.[16] Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.[16]

Notable draftsmen[edit]

Since the 14th century, each century has produced artists who have created great drawings.

Notable draftsmen of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries include Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Notable draftsmen of the 17th century include Claude, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Guercino, and Peter Paul Rubens.

Notable draftsmen of the 18th century include Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Antoine Watteau.

Notable draftsmen of the 19th century include Paul Cézanne, Aubrey Beardsley, Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Edgar Degas, Théodore Géricault, Francisco Goya, Jean Ingres, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Honoré Daumier, and Vincent van Gogh.

Notable draftsmen of the 20th century include Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Jean Dubuffet, George Grosz, Egon Schiele, Arshile Gorky, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Alphonse Mucha, M. C. Escher, André Masson, Jules Pascin, and Pablo Picasso.

The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead.[18] More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.

Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.[19] Papers can vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.

Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.

Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and become brittle much sooner.

The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.

Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.[20]

Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.

The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching—groups of parallel lines.[21] Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones—and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.[22]

Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.

Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.

Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on fixative to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.

Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.[23]

Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.

Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.

Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.

Form and proportion[edit]Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.

When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive shapes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic shapes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive shapes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.[24]

A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.

Perspective[edit]

Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective.[25] Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.

Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.

This was reproduced from and old ad in the 1959 Barnum Festival magazine. The Barnum Festival is held each year in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Meet Mr. Barnum

“There’s a sucker born every minute.”

—Origin Unknown

“The Prince of humbug,” they called him. “The Shakespeare of advertising,” “the king of adjectives.” He was a man with a genius for inspiring lucrative curiosity, like a circus parade lures spectators to the paid admission of the big top. He could convince hundreds of thousands to step right up and inspect the 160-year-old nurse of George Washington, the bearded lady, the smallest man in the world. With whirlwind tours of circus freaks, exotic animals and human feats, he cranked out humbug by the yard.

Phineas Taylor Barnum knew better than anyone else in creation that every crowd had a silver (dollar) lining. Barnum was the master mythmaker and he’s still a favorite subject of playwrights and authors because he was so upfront and amiable about his humbuggery. “There’s a sucker born every minute” is a Barnum quote entrenched in cliché history. Now more than 100 years after his death it’s in some ways fitting and in other ways sad that he is most esteemed and credited for that oft-parroted apocryphal expression. If he ever said it, no historian has ever been able to document it. The statement may have found its place as a corruption of a Barnum suggestion or attributed to Barnum by one of his circus rivals.

The real legacy of Barnum—showman, circus innovator, author, philosopher, humanitarian, public servant, humorist and even Bridgeport mayor—has been clouded over by the obfuscation of the man’s many promotions.

That old huckster impression lingering these many years overshadows his contributions to the entertainment profession and to Bridgeport. But as Barnum said, “I don’t care what they say about me if they only say something.”

Beneath the charm and extravagance of his circus persona is a man whose contributions to Bridgeport are unmatched. Barnum is quite simply the single most important contributor to the city’s history. He developed thousands of acres of city property, converting farm and pasture land into choice building lots; enabled the working class to purchase land and houses through an innovative payment system; donated a large part of Seaside Park, one of the first waterfront parks in the country; attracted numerous manufacturing companies; served as the president of Bridgeport Hospital, the local water company and the Pequonnock Bank (a predecessor of Connecticut National); donated the money to establish the Barnum Museum; established Mountain Grove Cemetery; and provided funding for Bridgeport schools, the library system, parks, and other civic ventures. Another side of Barnum was his drive to grant Blacks the right to vote and his sympathy for the women’s rights movement.

Bridgeport’s first citizen is best explained by his biographer A.H. Saxon: “P.T. Barnum has the paradoxical distinction of being one of America’s best-known least-understood phenomena.”

–Lennie Grimaldi

Author of “Only in Bridgeport: An Illustrated History of the Park City”

This one didn't quite come out like I wanted - I was playing with two ideas, one being the obfuscation of the text; I wanted to evoke the idea of how Daredevil doesn't see the world in the same distinct shapes and colors as sighted folks, but instead picks up outlines and masses. Also, I wanted to split the words in his name - I noticed some of his past logos seem to read "Dared Evil" as often as not...

The project is developed using various pre-set text-to-image models, processing text prompt inputs. On the borderline between sensitive content and an easy slip into topics of violence, this project visualizes the depths of the subconscious of these models, excavating the influences of media and online information exchange. The quantified traces of reality and collective histories allow algorithms to generate content that recycles the past – building the spine of quasi-historical narratives – often obfuscated with prejudice and misinformation, along with the author’s personal bias. Generated outputs are presented inside a hypertext object – a tent that the audience can enter, as it were.

Photo: Florian Voggeneder

I am staying in room 2718C - 301C - 277C. This is all to obfuscate away the pay per view porn on the bill.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

The i.R.D. is dedicated to researching the interests of anti-utopic, obfuscated, lost, and unseen, or simply »too good to be implemented« resolutions. It functions as a stage for non-protocological radical digital materialisms. The i.R.D. is a place for the »otherwise« or »dysfunctional« to be empowered, or at least to be recognized. From inside the i.R.D., technical literacy is considered to be both a strength and a limitation: The i.R.D. shows resolutions beyond our usual field of view, and points to settings and interfaces we have learned to refuse to recognize.

While the i.R.D. call attention to media resolutions, it does not just aestheticize their formal qualities or denounce them as »evil,« as new media professors Andrew Goffey and Matthew Fuller did in Evil Media (2012). The i.R.D. could easily have become a Wunderkammer for artifacts that already exist within our current resolutions, exposing standards as Readymades in technological boîte-en-valises. Curiosity cabinets are special spaces, but in a way they are also dead; they celebrate objects behind glass, or safely stowed away inside an acrylic cube. I can imagine the man responsible for such a collection of technological artifacts. There he sits, in the corner, smoking a pipe, looking over his conquests.

This type of format would have turned the i.R.D. into a static capture of hopelessness; an accumulation that will not activate or change anything; a private, boutique collection of evil. An institute that intends to host disputes cannot get away with simply displaying objects of contention. Disputes involve discussions and debate. In other words: the objects need to be unmuted – or be given – a voice. A dilemma that informs some of my key questions: how can objects be displayed in an »active« way? How do you exhibit the »invisible?«

Genealogy (in terms of for instance upgrade culture) and ecology (the environment and the affordances the environment offers for the dynamic inter-relational processes of objects) play a big role in the construction of resolutions. This is why the i.R.D. hosts classic resolutions and their inherent (normally obfuscated) artifacts such as dots, lines, blocks, and wavelets, inside an »Ecology of Compression Complexities,« a study of compression artifacts and their qualities and ways of diversion, dispersion, and (alternative) functioning by employing tactics of »creative problem creation«, a type of tactic coined by Jon Satrom, during GLI.TC/H 2111, which shifts authorship back to the actors involved in the setting of a resolution.

Bit of an abstract landscape attempt

3690 18th st. @ Dolores

One of Four Radio Transcript Locations

Here is a view of the Spomenik for resolutions, which I made for Dance with flARmingos: AR Tour & Raffle! in Queens, New York! The monument is also implemented in Geneve at 46.218528, 6.127866.

Geneva is a very special city; it does only house the ISO (international Organisation for Standardisation), but also the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), which are two major players in the setting of International Standards.

International Standards make things work. They give "world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency". They are instrumental in facilitating international trade and support innovation to “provide solutions to global challenges”. But Standards are more than just solutions that make things work; rooted within political, economical, technological and cultural backgrounds, they also involve compromises between different matters and actors.

These compromises and their inherently denied, alternative outcomes are often obfuscated or even forgotten. For example: when we speak about video, we refer to a four cornered moving image; we do not consider video with more or less corners (3, or 5, or 149++ corners), layers, timelines, or soundtracks. Color film and JPEG algorithms are racist. Fonts can only be implemented as monchrome typefaces, Ghosts can only communicate through analogue forms of noise and animals cannot own copyright.

Resolutions form a lens through which materialities are constituted. They resonate a tonality of functionality and inform material vernaculars. In short, resolutions inform both machine vision and human ways of perception. It is therefore of upmost important to realize that with every resolution, alternative implementations are unthought, forgotten or even lost and forever unseen. This Spomenik stands in for ghosts of resolutions, that would have given form to alternative futures passed.

A commission for the Queens Museum organized by Kristin Lucas.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

Every rock and pebble in this capture shows as clear as a bell, can't be said for many of the other MSL pictures which often show airbrushed patches. Isn't that funny?

Credits: NASA / JPL Caltech / MSSS / Kevin M. Gill / F. John Geeris

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

youtu.be/9VBJtOCVc1g

☝️ Brown University Watson Institute presentation -- China and Russia: An Unlikely Brotherhood, featuring Prof (Emeritus) Lanxin Xiang from the International History and Politics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. A very informative talk. Prof Xiang had met with Russian President Putin numerous times before the Ukraine War.

eng.globalaffairs.ru/articles/the-peak-moment-for-china-r...

BEIJING AND MOSCOW BUILD A NEW MODEL OF GREAT-POWER RELATIONS

Observers in the West tend to underestimate the solid foundation of the current Chinese-Russian relationship. The intimacy between Beijing and Moscow is often referred to as a “marriage of convenience.” Both Beijing and Moscow, however, rank their ties as the “peak” in mutual history. We can look at this unprecedented phenomenon through two analytical frameworks: the conceptual framework of converging visions of the future world order and the effective operational framework of harmonized national interests.

EQUALITY IN PLACE OF HEGEMONY

In the conceptual framework, Russia and China share a strategic vision against the unipolar world: both see the United States in relative decline and the world already becoming multipolar. In the process of mismanaging its decline, the U.S. suffers from a psychological problem that is often labeled as Post-imperial Time Lag Syndrome (PITLES) and is manifest in the unfounded fear of rising powers. Moreover, both Beijing and Moscow consider their countries to be on the path of national restoration, hence a declining U.S. that is oversensitive to any sign of power challenge from potential rivals and poses a major obstacle to their objectives. The world is changing and the world order must be revamped. Pax Americana is over and Washington must adjust to the new world. Chinese culture is fundamentally anti-hegemonic, and its implication for global governance leads inevitably to competing interpretations of what is the global “moral center.”

If a morally corrupted system does not undergo serious reform, it will not be able to sustain itself for long. Looking from whatever perspective, Beijing’s external policies have raised the specter of a meaningful alternative to Western models of international order, for the first time in three centuries.

But the debates over whether China is going to comply with established (Western) rules of the international system miss the point and encounter at least two cognitive problems. The first problem is the intellectual habit, both in moral and practical sense, of applying Western standards for assessing the “proper” international behavior of a non-Western actor. Here the insurmountable difficulty is for the West to recognize the legitimacy of any alternative model of conducting global affairs based on an entirely different system of domestic governance.

There is no “order versus chaos” mental paradigm which is predominant in mainstream Western IR theories. Naturally, this Western paradigm always focuses upon the international power distribution, hence the need for establishing and maintaining a kind of mechanical power hierarchy in order to keep stability, defined either by hegemony or “balance of power.” In Chinese conception, permanent existence of hegemonic power in any political system cannot be sustained, as the hegemon will inevitably start to misbehave morally. But the new order is not recreated by another pattern of power distribution such as “balance of power” or war, but rather maintained by leaders whose behavior is morally correct. Beijing’s rapidly increasing economic and political power demonstrates that a non-Western actor is equally skilled, powerful and willing to perform on the global stage. In this respect, the acknowledgment of China’s legitimate role as an international actor implies, above all, the treatment of Beijing as an equal partner in the West-dominated international society.

Another cognitive problem is the lack of analytical tools or indeed the right language to explain this new development in international order as a result of China’s “rise.” To begin with, China does not consider itself to be on the “rise,” but in a historic process of national “restoration.” That means, as Henry Kissinger stated in his recent book On China, “the Chinese DNA has reasserted itself,” which explains why so much interest has been accorded to Beijing’s foreign policies, “confronting the new challenges of the twenty-first century, and in a world where Leninism has collapsed, Hu [Jintao] and Wen [Jiabao] turned to traditional wisdom.” The cognitive challenges to analyzing China’s foreign relations have left Western observers frustrated and they have to elicit allegories of animals to help interpret China’s external behavior, ranging from a cute and cuddling “panda” to a terrifying, fire-emitting “dragon.” In the Unites States, for example, pro-Beijing policymakers are labeled “Panda Huggers,” while those opposing China’s foreign policy are known as “Dragon Slayers.” These allegorical images do not clarify but obfuscate the understanding of China’s foreign relations. Such animal allegories confirm that IR theories seem to gravitate easily towards the realms of fiction and fantasy.

Coincidentally, the Chinese view on the world order at this historical juncture is shared and dovetailed by Putin’s Russia. Both sides hold the view that Washington’s alienation from both Beijing and Moscow is reflected by the deeply rooted fear of the U.S. losing hegemonic status as the “only indispensable superpower” (Madeleine Albright). The indications of the U.S. fear are plenty. From Beijing’s point of view, the U.S. decision to restart a Cold War containment machine with the pivot or “rebalancing strategy” in Asia was driven by misguided fear. From Moscow’s perspective, due to the blind American triumphalism over the Cold War, Washington has deliberately ignored the crucial contribution from the USSR to the ending of the Cold War. As a result, the Western alliance took the advantage of post-Soviet chaos to push the Western sphere of influence towards the Russian border.

In sharp contrast to mutual suspicion and deteriorating relationship between Washington and Beijing, the Chinese-Russian tie has proved to be a stable strategic partnership and by no means a marriage of convenience. It is built on mutual understanding, respect and national interests. Dramatic changes in international relations since the end of the Cold War have brought the two countries closer together. Nevertheless, neither side has interest in a formal alliance, because it is unnecessary. Since the end of the Cold War, the two sides have successfully resolved most of the historical obstacles such as thousands of border disputes and initiated and succeeded in building the first multilateral regional institution of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, which is hardly an anti-U.S. or anti-Western bloc. Rather, it provides a safe environment for the two countries and their central Asian partners to support each other through active cooperation. China even hopes this type of cooperation led by two major powers may offer a model for managing the great power relations, especially concerning the U.S.-China relations. The Chinese have offered the concept of “New Type of Great Power Relations” to Washington, but so far it has not been accepted by the American side.

HARMONIZING INTERESTS

On the operational level, the China-Russia ties have been evolving at a rapid pace in the past twenty years. Over this period bilateral trade and investment have expanded on a massive scale. In 2011, China became Russia’s largest trading partner. In 2014 alone, China’s investment in Russia grew by 80 percent—and the trend towards more investment remains strong. In the early 1990s, annual bilateral trade between China and Russia amounted to around $5 billion; by 2014, it came close to $100 billion. That year, Beijing and Moscow signed a landmark agreement to construct a pipeline that, by 2018, will bring as much as 38 billion cubic meters of Russian natural gas to China every year. The two countries are also planning significant deals involving nuclear power generation, aerospace manufacturing, high-speed rail, and infrastructure development. Moreover, they are cooperating on newly created multinational financial institutions, such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the New Development Bank BRICS, and the BRICS foreign exchange reserve pool. The One Belt One Road Initiative, disliked by Russia at first, is now linked to Moscow’s favorite project of the Eurasian Union.

Meanwhile, China has become one of the largest importers of Russian arms, and the two countries are discussing a number of joint arms research-and-development projects. Extensive Chinese-Russian defense cooperation involves regular exchange and consultations between high-level military personnel and joint training and exercises, including more than a dozen joint counterterrorism exercises during the past decade or so, carried out either bilaterally or under the auspices of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. As economic and military links have strengthened, political ties are getting ever closer. Since 2013, Xi and Putin have met 12 times.

Of course, China’s rise has been viewed worrisome among some in Russia. There is still talk in Russia of “the China threat,” Russia’s public opinion poll showed that around 60 percent of Russians were concerned that Chinese migration to Far Eastern border areas would threaten Russia’s territorial integrity; 41 percent believed that a stronger China would harm Russia’s interests. However, these concerns do not support the speculation in the West that Beijing and Moscow are alienated from each other. The crises in Syria and Ukraine indicate that China and Russia can effectively manage their partnership under difficult conditions. China did not take any side but expressed sympathy with Russia’s historical sensitivity to the Ukraine crisis. Chinese leaders are unambiguous about what led to the crisis, including the series of Western-supported “color revolutions” in post-Soviet states and the pressure on Russia that resulted from NATO’s eastward expansion.

On Syria, Beijing supports Russia’s claim that its military intervention at the request of the Syrian government is aimed at combating terrorist forces. China hopes that talks among parties concerned may help resolve the conflict.

* * *

China-Russia ties are at their best since the time of Catherine the Great. They are built on a solid foundation and will remain stable for a long time. Meanwhile, the Sino-American relationship will increasingly run into trouble. As no one seems able to persuade the American leaders to give up their hegemonic fantasies and policy, the strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow will remain a healthy check on Washington’s “unipolar folly.”

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

If Janet Yellen is sincere, she should ask her boss to stop U.S. efforts to decouple with China, the export control ban on advanced semiconductor, the import tariffs, arms sales to Taiwan, spreading lies about Hong Kong/Xinjiang/Tibet, etc. and to honor the terms of the Shanghai Communiqué.

Let's face it, those export control bans will have no effect on China's military development. It's all commercial competitiveness.

www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/yellen-calls-for-stabiliz...

Yellen Calls for ‘Stabilizing’ U.S. Relations With China Ahead of G20

BALI, Indonesia — Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen on Saturday called for stabilizing the United States’ rocky relationship with China and reopening regular lines of communication between the world’s two largest economies ahead of a global gathering next week where their leaders are expected to meet.

Ms. Yellen’s comments came as she prepared to meet with Yi Gang, the governor of the People’s Bank of China, at the Group of 20 leaders summit on Monday in Bali, where President Biden is expected to meet with China’s leader, Xi Jinping. The meetings will be the first in-person interactions between top American and Chinese officials since Mr. Biden took office last year, a period in which ties between the nations further deteriorated.

“I think stabilizing the relationship and trying to get it on a better footing while recognizing that we have a whole range of concerns, and we would like to address those,” Ms. Yellen said on Saturday in an interview with The New York Times aboard her flight to Indonesia when asked how the relationship could be improved.

America’s relationship with China frayed considerably during the Trump administration, when President Donald J. Trump imposed tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of Chinese imports. Soon after a deal to end the impasse was struck in late 2019, the coronavirus started to spread around the world and Mr. Trump blamed China for its emergence.

Despite the Biden administration’s less outwardly confrontational tone, relations with China have worsened in the past two years. The White House in October unveiled sweeping export restrictions to block China from gaining access to critical technology on national security grounds, and it has declined to roll back the remaining tariffs that were enacted by Mr. Trump.

Hostilities were inflamed this year when Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan amid concern in the United States that China was planning to forcibly reclaim the island, which operates independently. China insists that Taiwan is part of its territory and cannot exist as a sovereign nation.

White House officials said this week that Mr. Biden would discuss Taiwan, trade, human rights and North Korea when he meets with Mr. Xi.

Because of strict pandemic travel restrictions that China has put in place to contain the virus, the few meetings between American and Chinese officials since 2020 have been virtual. Ms. Yellen, who has publicly said that some of the tariffs were “not strategic” and should be rolled back, believes that the source of the tension between the two countries is rooted in the misconception in China that the United States is trying to hobble its economy.

“They need to understand, for example, why we take actions,” Ms. Yellen said. “I know their concern, for example, about our policies of banning sales of advanced semiconductors,” she said, referring to the new sweeping restrictions on exporting technology to China.

She added, “It’s important for us to explain why we’re doing things, how it’s delineated, that it’s not an attempt to completely paralyze China’s economy and stop its development.”

Despite Ms. Yellen’s hopes for better relations, she has in the past criticized China publicly.

In the spring, Ms. Yellen publicly urged China to pressure Russia to end its war in Ukraine and warned that its reputation as a global economic power could be eroded if it helped Russia evade sanctions. Ms. Yellen said that she was not certain if China had tried persuade Russia to retreat, but that she did not believe that China was evading U.S. sanctions.

This week, while traveling in India, Ms. Yellen promoted Biden administration’s policy of “friend-shoring” and urged India and other allied nations to diversify their supply chains away from China.

In a speech at Microsoft’s offices near New Delhi, the Treasury secretary highlighted China’s problematic human rights record and praised Apple for shifting some of its iPhone manufacturing from China to India. She also lauded investments that have allowed an American solar manufacturer to set up operations in India instead of China, noting that solar panel materials produced in China’s Xinjiang region are made with forced labor.

The Treasury Department has also been critical of China for obfuscating its foreign exchange practices. In a report on global foreign exchange practices this past week, the United States kept China on its list of countries that it watches closely.

“China’s failure to publish foreign exchange intervention and broader lack of transparency around key features of its exchange rate mechanism make it an outlier among major economies and warrants Treasury’s close monitoring,” the report said.

Ms. Yellen said that her meeting on Monday with Mr. Yi, the central bank governor, would be informal and that they would most likely discuss macroeconomic issues. She hopes that more communication about their mutual concerns will improve the bilateral relationship.

“We have national security concerns and if our policies are having unintended consequences more broadly for China, it’s important to be able to hear what their concerns are and potentially to respond to those,” Ms. Yellen said. “We have concerns about their economic practices as well.”

As dusk fell Thursday night on the Snake River, Julian Matthews, Elliott Moffett and other members of the Nimiipuu (Nez Perce) tribe gathered at Lower Granite Dam with stories about why a free flowing river is critically important for tribal sovereignty.

Their messages were amplified with an illuminated banner that says “Honor Treaties” and spotlights projecting messages to save wild salmon, respect treaty rights, and remove the 4 dams on the Lower Snake. Backbone Campaign artful activists Steve Parker and Bill Moyer executed the projection with support from the Backbone Team Amy Morrison, Laura Daughenbaugh and Justin Brandimarte.

The purpose of this action was to inspire everyone who cares about the future of wild salmon and wild rivers to urge Senators Murray and Cantwell (D-WA) and Washington State Governor Jay Inslee to remove the 4 dams on the lower Snake River and earmark Biden infrastructure plan funding to support the Columbia Basin Initiative, aka "Simpson Plan" developed over many years by Congressman Mike Simpson (R-ID).

"We are tired of the obfuscation of our so-called leaders who are seeking infrastructure funding to subsidize culverts* rather than join a bipartisan initiative to remove these extinction machines on the Snake River," stated Bill Moyer of Backbone Campaign.

*In 2018, the US Supreme Court affirmed the NW Tribes position that the state of Washington is already obligated to remove culverts that impede salmon migration.

The federal Army Corps of Engineers owns and operates the four Lower Snake River Dams and their removal has been deemed essential for saving endangered salmon, steelhead runs as well as the orcas of the Puget Sound who rely upon the Snake River Chinook for sustenance.

Ben Herndon took the photographs included here.

Share these photos and please contact Senators Murray and Cantwell and Governor Jay Inslee to urge action for the Simpson Plan as was recently done by the Affiliated Tribes of NW Indians in the resolution available at: indiancountrytoday.com/the-press-pool/affiliated-tribes-o...

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

001,006, shot of a group of people sitting in an administrative or recreational environment, sitting or standing at a row of tables and chairs. In focus are a man and a woman. Woman wears a dress and has short dark hair. Man has short dark hair and wears a plaid shirt and has a watch on his wrist. People in the background wear semi formal clothing. Man and woman have nametags. Male's nametag reads DON WILLARD. Female's name is obfuscated. 002,004,005,008,009,018, six wide shots of a group of people sitting at tables and chairs, while others stand. All of the group appears to wear semi formal clothing and have plastic cups and plates of food in front of them. Some of them clap their hands. 003, shot of an older woman wearing semi formal clothing looking at scraps of newspaper with various drawings on them. Plates of food, cups and ashtrays litter the tables. Various other people sit around her wearing semi formal and formal attire. 007,010,011, three wide angle shots of a group of people sitting at rows of tables and chairs, staring at a screen with a man's face on it, on a stage along a wall of plaques, a podium, flanked by two flags, one the American flag and another flag. On the wall is a large black board with a series of numbers on it. 012,016,017, three shots of an older woman in a floral pattern dress and wearing a nametag with the name OPAL SKOLNICK on it, holding a plastic cup with ice cubes in it and a plate of food on the table she is sitting at. 013, shot of older man and woman sitting at a table with plastic cups and plates of food on it. They wear nametags that read H.C. STEINMETZ and ESTHER WHITE on them. 014, shot of two men sitting at a table with a pile of papers on it and speaking with one another. One man wears a white shirt and vest and has light hair and a mustache. Man on the right wears a plaid pattern shirt and a nametag that reads DAN FINNIGAN STATE SENATE. 015, blurry photo. 019,020, two shots of a man standing in a possible administrative or recreational environment. Group of people there sit possibly at tables and chairs. A sign on a post reads DEDDELL on it. A trophy case lines the back of the wall. 021, shot of a group of people sitting down, wearing formal clothing and looking at something. Two people in focus is a white woman with short light hair, and African American man with short dark hair and beard, both wearing formal attire.

Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint), and electronic drawing.

An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman, or draughtsman.[1]

A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[2] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface.[3] Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour,[4] while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.

Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies.

There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper, around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).

A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch.

In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.

Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.[5] It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invent of the written language,[5][6] demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.[7] These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts.[8] The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.

Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise.[9] Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings.[10] Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.[11][12] In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,[13] where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.[14]

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts.[15] Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises.[16] Modernism in the arts encouraged "imaginative originality"[17] and artists' approach to drawing became more abstract.

Drawing Outside of the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings.[16] Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.[16]

Notable draftsmen[edit]

Since the 14th century, each century has produced artists who have created great drawings.

Notable draftsmen of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries include Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Notable draftsmen of the 17th century include Claude, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Guercino, and Peter Paul Rubens.

Notable draftsmen of the 18th century include Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Antoine Watteau.

Notable draftsmen of the 19th century include Paul Cézanne, Aubrey Beardsley, Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Edgar Degas, Théodore Géricault, Francisco Goya, Jean Ingres, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Honoré Daumier, and Vincent van Gogh.

Notable draftsmen of the 20th century include Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Jean Dubuffet, George Grosz, Egon Schiele, Arshile Gorky, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Alphonse Mucha, M. C. Escher, André Masson, Jules Pascin, and Pablo Picasso.

The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead.[18] More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.

Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.[19] Papers can vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.

Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.

Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and become brittle much sooner.

The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.

Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.[20]

Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.

The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching—groups of parallel lines.[21] Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones—and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.[22]

Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.

Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.

Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on fixative to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.

Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.[23]

Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.

Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.

Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.

Form and proportion[edit]Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.

When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive shapes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic shapes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive shapes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.[24]

A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.

Perspective[edit]

Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective.[25] Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.

Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.

This Weird Place, new work by Lane Hagood, Alika Herreshoff, Cody Ledvina, Lee Piechocki, Anthony Record & Eric Shaw. All six artists engage the unsteady ground between figuration and abstraction using diverse, unique means. Through the flaying of representation through abstraction (and vice versa), both are dissected, and we are allowed a teetering view between revelation and obfuscation.

Anthony Record’s images are wrung from the awkward pixels of primitive computer drawing programs, and re-rendered with fastidious care into paintings and needlepoint rugs, which both counter and exalt their origins. Both Eric Shaw and Cody Ledvina work impulsively, in an elemental and pseudo-psychedelic re-examining of the familiar figure through rhythmic amalgamation and deconstruction. Lee Piechocki and Alika Herreshoff’s work serves as a counterbalance, meditative and responsive to the inherent concerns of painting, color, and line (and hinting at, rather than blatant in relation to figuration and intent). Lane Hagood’s approach is scholarly, and rooted in cavernous literary reference which leads to work that both contradicts and acknowledges the post-modern paradox of inescapability from quotation and never-ending intellectual reiteration.

A Sea of the Dead by Holly Pike, postgraduate researcher in the School of Language, Cultures, Art History and Music

This image represents my research on writing by female political prisoners incarcerated during Spain's Franco regime (1939-1975). As so-called transgressive citizens imprisoned by a repressive dictatorship, those men and women sentenced to time within Francoist prisons endured a myriad horrors of torture and abuse, horrendous conditions of overcrowding and lacking amenities, and ongoing societal stigma. Although the regime sought to obfuscate these brutalities that affected up to one million individuals, some of the prisoners themselves have told their stories. These texts, many of which remain out of print, demonstrate crimes of the regime and explore how the prisoners have used narrative to both highlight and move beyond the experiences of incarceration that are still integral to their sense of self. This is depicted within this image, featuring a photograph of barbed wire atop a fence by a leafless tree, alongside a photograph of some text. The text is a poem written by Ángeles García-Madrid, imprisoned for political activism at the end of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Entitled 'Un mar de muertos' [A sea of the dead], it begins:

A sea of the dead.

That’s what this is. A sea of the dead.

They feign breath, but they deceive.

Here nobody inhales. Nobody exhales.

Look closely at them: they form a beach,

Without oceans, nor waves, nor ebbing and flowing.

García-Madrid, Ángeles, 'Poemas testimoniales' 149-162, Gómez Blesa, Mercedes (Ed.) Las intelectuales Republicanas: la conquista de la ciudadanía, Madrid: Biblioteca Nueva, 2007. Translated by Holly Pike with permission from the publisher.

The next part of my UK tour was another splendid evening out with super cool doods Fast Chris and Fade To Black.

Completely un-edited custom white balanced long exposure trickery.

My super-rant ahead: The common belief of how trees became petrified is a myth of science. Petrified wood, and all the formations of the US Southwest, are brimming with strong evidence of a world-wide flood that covered the earth several thousand years ago, and quickly burried these trees under mud and sediment. The cystalization process was quite quick, compared to accepted scientific timeframes. (Info for that here: earthage.org/EarthOldorYoung/scientific_evidence_for_a_worldwide_flood.htm)

There is ample evidence for this account, but that evidence is ignored, so you won't hear any of it in the media. Or if you do hear it, it's derided with all manner of logical falacies and strawman arguments to discredit, and make the other positions look weak and ill-conceived. It's no wonder that the common man doesn't give such arguments a second thought, trusting "the experts" instead.

However, giving attention to the other side of such arguments would expose the flimsy foundations of mainstream science (i.e. beliefs like: everything came from nothing, big bang, evolution, universe/earth are billions of years old, no god, we are insignificant specs of dust in an endless universe, this reality and all you see is just convenient coincidence, etc).

Mainstream science is very much a faith-based religion, albeit a well disguised one. They have woven a false belief system with just enough truth sprinkled in to keep people invested in it, as the one-and-only possible view of how the world works and our place in it. This system continues to push the mainstream narrative without question, ignoring evidence, obfuscating, leading public opinion away from questioning the version of reality they're given, and away from the overwhelming proof of there being One true Creator of all things, our significance and our purpose in His design.

Science has been built on a foundation of deceit through its heavily controlled and funded, but extremely dumbed-down egocentric legions of scientists (scientific priests) for centuries to give the public a form of stiffled scientific advancement, while keeping them ignorant, and dismissive of anything that stands to question the foundational beliefs of science. Scientists who DO question and consider exposing the problems with their "on the shoulders of giants" textbook assumptions, face ridicule in their industries and career suicide.

This is why I always say, if you care to get closer to the truth of earth's past, humanity's past, the purpose of life, and where we're going, you have to accept that truth is never given so easily. But since most of us want it to be that easy, the con artists running this world are only too happy to oblige, at your expense.

Truth has to be diligently sought out, outside of mainstream circles. media, academia and the well funded religion of science will never admit that they've been wrong. Too much is at stake, too many jobs and industries, cultures, false religions and manmade institutions would be disrupted or dissolve entirely. That won't be allowed to happen, so the chrarade will continue.

Yeshua (Jesus) said, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through Me."

The road to the truth is in Him, and He reveals these things to us if we strip away the layers of nonsense we've been taught all our lives.

Crystal Forest,

Petrified Forest National Park

Nbr is 210304. Ed. And now a mystery or three! VDAs in Hornby's range are mostly referred to as 45t. This is fine if correct, but is it? This wagon seems to show 24.5t. Now I just looked for Bachmann's offerings - and they are listed as 22t. Chat GPT was prone to lying and obfuscating when asked to explain the differences, clearly using minimal research such as confusing wagon types in its explanations, stating that these were later developments (1 year later ie 1962 onwards as opposed to 1961 for the 22t batch) and were used for coal and ore!!! Anyone with any actual knowledge please come forward and enlighten us all! Oh, mystery number 2 - the number on this wagon is 210304. However, in searching for this wagon online, it seems one variant is listed as having running number 201304 - cat. R60099 though. And mystery 3..... when I look at this wagon number in the Hornby Collectors Guide, it is listed as a 45t "GLW" wagon number 210304. However I have seen a box end for R.247 on ebay that states 45T VDA... so now searching for R.234 box ends!! How sad! Update! Found it! It is listed as 45 Ton G.L.W. Closed Van!! Update 2 Ok I think I have it: Gross Laden Weight is the key - many wagons are listed as x tons GLW. This is the maximum load weight plus the tare or empty wagon weight - and there are varieties of this sort of van, eg. 35t GLW VAA vans, 29t, 46t and others! It is confusing! Addendum May 2025: just was correcting a couple of typos above and reading through this again, and thought I would check on Hattons which is what I do now.... ok searching for this number brings up one listed as R235-0010 which has closed axle-boxes, so is a later model than this (but not found on Hornby Collectors Guide!) Also, 201304 is listed and that is even later again, having the catalogue number R60099 with extra lettering on the sole-bar (again, not on the Guide but definitely on ebay!) And there is this one - R.234! Yeah! Oh, and at least 28 other livery variations, only a couple of which I have!! Here's a railfreight variant: flic.kr/p/KV19SL

Drawing is a form of visual art in which a person uses various drawing instruments to mark paper or another two-dimensional medium. Instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, various kinds of erasers, markers, styluses, various metals (such as silverpoint), and electronic drawing.

An artist who practices or works in technical drawing may be called a drafter, draftsman, or draughtsman.[1]

A drawing instrument releases small amount of material onto a surface, leaving a visible mark. The most common support for drawing is paper, although other materials, such as cardboard, plastic, leather, canvas, and board, may be used. Temporary drawings may be made on a blackboard or whiteboard or indeed almost anything. The medium has been a popular and fundamental means of public expression throughout human history. It is one of the simplest and most efficient means of communicating visual ideas.[2] The wide availability of drawing instruments makes drawing one of the most common artistic activities.

Drawing is one of the major forms of expression within the visual arts. It is generally concerned with the marking of lines and areas of tone onto paper, where the accurate representation of the visual world is expressed upon a plane surface.[3] Traditional drawings were monochrome, or at least had little colour,[4] while modern colored-pencil drawings may approach or cross a boundary between drawing and painting. In Western terminology, drawing is distinct from painting, even though similar media often are employed in both tasks. Dry media, normally associated with drawing, such as chalk, may be used in pastel paintings. Drawing may be done with a liquid medium, applied with brushes or pens. Similar supports likewise can serve both: painting generally involves the application of liquid paint onto prepared canvas or panels, but sometimes an underdrawing is drawn first on that same support.

Drawing is often exploratory, with considerable emphasis on observation, problem-solving and composition. Drawing is also regularly used in preparation for a painting, further obfuscating their distinction. Drawings created for these purposes are called studies.

There are several categories of drawing, including figure drawing, cartooning, doodling and shading. There are also many drawing methods, such as line drawing, stippling, shading, the surrealist method of entopic graphomania (in which dots are made at the sites of impurities in a blank sheet of paper, and lines are then made between the dots), and tracing (drawing on a translucent paper, such as tracing paper, around the outline of preexisting shapes that show through the paper).

A quick, unrefined drawing may be called a sketch.

In fields outside art, technical drawings or plans of buildings, machinery, circuitry and other things are often called "drawings" even when they have been transferred to another medium by printing.

Drawing as a Form of Communication Drawing is one of the oldest forms of human expression, with evidence for its existence preceding that of written communication.[5] It is believed that drawing was used as a specialised form of communication before the invent of the written language,[5][6] demonstrated by the production of cave and rock paintings created by Homo sapiens sapiens around 30,000 years ago.[7] These drawings, known as pictograms, depicted objects and abstract concepts.[8] The sketches and paintings produced in prehistoric times were eventually stylised and simplified, leading to the development of the written language as we know it today.

Drawing in the Arts Drawing is used to express one's creativity, and therefore has been prominent in the world of art. Throughout much of history, drawing was regarded as the foundation for artistic practise.[9] Initially, artists used and reused wooden tablets for the production of their drawings.[10] Following the widespread availability of paper in the 14th century, the use of drawing in the arts increased. At this point, drawing was commonly used as a tool for thought and investigation, acting as a study medium whilst artists were preparing for their final pieces of work.[11][12] In a period of artistic flourish, the Renaissance brought about drawings exhibiting realistic representational qualities,[13] where there was a lot of influence from geometry and philosophy.[14]

The invention of the first widely available form of photography led to a shift in the use of drawing in the arts.[15] Photography took over from drawing as a more superior method for accurately representing visual phenomena, and artists began to abandon traditional drawing practises.[16] Modernism in the arts encouraged "imaginative originality"[17] and artists' approach to drawing became more abstract.

Drawing Outside of the Arts Although the use of drawing is extensive in the arts, its practice is not confined purely to this field. Before the widespread availability of paper, 12th century monks in European monasteries used intricate drawings to prepare illustrated, illuminated manuscripts on vellum and parchment. Drawing has also been used extensively in the field of science, as a method of discovery, understanding and explanation. In 1616, astronomer Galileo Galilei explained the changing phases of the moon through his observational telescopic drawings.[16] Additionally, in 1924, geophysicist Alfred Wegener used illustrations to visually demonstrate the origin of the continents.[16]

Notable draftsmen[edit]

Since the 14th century, each century has produced artists who have created great drawings.

Notable draftsmen of the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries include Leonardo da Vinci, Albrecht Dürer, Michelangelo and Raphael.

Notable draftsmen of the 17th century include Claude, Nicolas Poussin, Rembrandt, Guercino, and Peter Paul Rubens.

Notable draftsmen of the 18th century include Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, and Antoine Watteau.

Notable draftsmen of the 19th century include Paul Cézanne, Aubrey Beardsley, Jacques-Louis David, Pierre-Paul Prud'hon, Edgar Degas, Théodore Géricault, Francisco Goya, Jean Ingres, Odilon Redon, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Honoré Daumier, and Vincent van Gogh.

Notable draftsmen of the 20th century include Käthe Kollwitz, Max Beckmann, Jean Dubuffet, George Grosz, Egon Schiele, Arshile Gorky, Paul Klee, Oscar Kokoschka, Alphonse Mucha, M. C. Escher, André Masson, Jules Pascin, and Pablo Picasso.

The medium is the means by which ink, pigment or color are delivered onto the drawing surface. Most drawing media are either dry (e.g. graphite, charcoal, pastels, Conté, silverpoint), or use a fluid solvent or carrier (marker, pen and ink). Watercolor pencils can be used dry like ordinary pencils, then moistened with a wet brush to get various painterly effects. Very rarely, artists have drawn with (usually decoded) invisible ink. Metalpoint drawing usually employs either of two metals: silver or lead.[18] More rarely used are gold, platinum, copper, brass, bronze, and tinpoint.

Paper comes in a variety of different sizes and qualities, ranging from newspaper grade up to high quality and relatively expensive paper sold as individual sheets.[19] Papers can vary in texture, hue, acidity, and strength when wet. Smooth paper is good for rendering fine detail, but a more "toothy" paper holds the drawing material better. Thus a coarser material is useful for producing deeper contrast.

Newsprint and typing paper may be useful for practice and rough sketches. Tracing paper is used to experiment over a half-finished drawing, and to transfer a design from one sheet to another. Cartridge paper is the basic type of drawing paper sold in pads. Bristol board and even heavier acid-free boards, frequently with smooth finishes, are used for drawing fine detail and do not distort when wet media (ink, washes) are applied. Vellum is extremely smooth and suitable for very fine detail. Coldpressed watercolor paper may be favored for ink drawing due to its texture.

Acid-free, archival quality paper keeps its color and texture far longer than wood pulp based paper such as newsprint, which turns yellow and become brittle much sooner.

The basic tools are a drawing board or table, pencil sharpener and eraser, and for ink drawing, blotting paper. Other tools used are circle compass, ruler, and set square. Fixative is used to prevent pencil and crayon marks from smudging. Drafting tape is used to secure paper to drawing surface, and also to mask an area to keep it free of accidental marks sprayed or spattered materials and washes. An easel or slanted table is used to keep the drawing surface in a suitable position, which is generally more horizontal than the position used in painting.

Almost all draftsmen use their hands and fingers to apply the media, with the exception of some handicapped individuals who draw with their mouth or feet.[20]

Prior to working on an image, the artist typically explores how various media work. They may try different drawing implements on practice sheets to determine value and texture, and how to apply the implement to produce various effects.

The artist's choice of drawing strokes affects the appearance of the image. Pen and ink drawings often use hatching—groups of parallel lines.[21] Cross-hatching uses hatching in two or more different directions to create a darker tone. Broken hatching, or lines with intermittent breaks, form lighter tones—and controlling the density of the breaks achieves a gradation of tone. Stippling, uses dots to produce tone, texture or shade. Different textures can be achieved depending on the method used to build tone.[22]

Drawings in dry media often use similar techniques, though pencils and drawing sticks can achieve continuous variations in tone. Typically a drawing is filled in based on which hand the artist favors. A right-handed artist draws from left to right to avoid smearing the image. Erasers can remove unwanted lines, lighten tones, and clean up stray marks. In a sketch or outline drawing, lines drawn often follow the contour of the subject, creating depth by looking like shadows cast from a light in the artist's position.

Sometimes the artist leaves a section of the image untouched while filling in the remainder. The shape of the area to preserve can be painted with masking fluid or cut out of a frisket and applied to the drawing surface, protecting the surface from stray marks until the mask is removed.

Another method to preserve a section of the image is to apply a spray-on fixative to the surface. This holds loose material more firmly to the sheet and prevents it from smearing. However the fixative spray typically uses chemicals that can harm the respiratory system, so it should be employed in a well-ventilated area such as outdoors.

Another technique is subtractive drawing in which the drawing surface is covered with graphite or charcoal and then erased to make the image.[23]

Shading is the technique of varying the tonal values on the paper to represent the shade of the material as well as the placement of the shadows. Careful attention to reflected light, shadows and highlights can result in a very realistic rendition of the image.

Blending uses an implement to soften or spread the original drawing strokes. Blending is most easily done with a medium that does not immediately fix itself, such as graphite, chalk, or charcoal, although freshly applied ink can be smudged, wet or dry, for some effects. For shading and blending, the artist can use a blending stump, tissue, a kneaded eraser, a fingertip, or any combination of them. A piece of chamois is useful for creating smooth textures, and for removing material to lighten the tone. Continuous tone can be achieved with graphite on a smooth surface without blending, but the technique is laborious, involving small circular or oval strokes with a somewhat blunt point.

Shading techniques that also introduce texture to the drawing include hatching and stippling. A number of other methods produce texture. In addition to the choice of paper, drawing material and technique affect texture. Texture can be made to appear more realistic when it is drawn next to a contrasting texture; a coarse texture is more obvious when placed next to a smoothly blended area. A similar effect can be achieved by drawing different tones close together. A light edge next to a dark background stands out to the eye, and almost appears to float above the surface.

Form and proportion[edit]Measuring the dimensions of a subject while blocking in the drawing is an important step in producing a realistic rendition of the subject. Tools such as a compass can be used to measure the angles of different sides. These angles can be reproduced on the drawing surface and then rechecked to make sure they are accurate. Another form of measurement is to compare the relative sizes of different parts of the subject with each other. A finger placed at a point along the drawing implement can be used to compare that dimension with other parts of the image. A ruler can be used both as a straightedge and a device to compute proportions.

When attempting to draw a complicated shape such as a human figure, it is helpful at first to represent the form with a set of primitive shapes. Almost any form can be represented by some combination of the cube, sphere, cylinder, and cone. Once these basic shapes have been assembled into a likeness, then the drawing can be refined into a more accurate and polished form. The lines of the primitive shapes are removed and replaced by the final likeness. Drawing the underlying construction is a fundamental skill for representational art, and is taught in many books and schools. Its correct application resolves most uncertainties about smaller details, and makes the final image look consistent.[24]

A more refined art of figure drawing relies upon the artist possessing a deep understanding of anatomy and the human proportions. A trained artist is familiar with the skeleton structure, joint location, muscle placement, tendon movement, and how the different parts work together during movement. This allows the artist to render more natural poses that do not appear artificially stiff. The artist is also familiar with how the proportions vary depending on the age of the subject, particularly when drawing a portrait.

Perspective[edit]

Linear perspective is a method of portraying objects on a flat surface so that the dimensions shrink with distance. Each set of parallel, straight edges of any object, whether a building or a table, follows lines that eventually converge at a vanishing point. Typically this convergence point is somewhere along the horizon, as buildings are built level with the flat surface. When multiple structures are aligned with each other, such as buildings along a street, the horizontal tops and bottoms of the structures typically converge at a vanishing point.When both the fronts and sides of a building are drawn, then the parallel lines forming a side converge at a second point along the horizon (which may be off the drawing paper.) This is a two-point perspective.[25] Converging the vertical lines to a third point above or below the horizon then produces a three-point perspective.

Depth can also be portrayed by several techniques in addition to the perspective approach above. Objects of similar size should appear ever smaller the further they are from the viewer. Thus the back wheel of a cart appears slightly smaller than the front wheel. Depth can be portrayed through the use of texture. As the texture of an object gets further away it becomes more compressed and busy, taking on an entirely different character than if it was close. Depth can also be portrayed by reducing the contrast in more distant objects, and by making their colors less saturated. This reproduces the effect of atmospheric haze, and cause the eye to focus primarily on objects drawn in the foreground.

Here is a view of the Spomenik for resolutions, which I made for Dance with flARmingos: AR Tour & Raffle! in Queens, New York! The monument is also implemented in Geneve at 46.218528, 6.127866.

Geneva is a very special city; it does only house the ISO (international Organisation for Standardisation), but also the IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission), which are two major players in the setting of International Standards.

International Standards make things work. They give "world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency". They are instrumental in facilitating international trade and support innovation to “provide solutions to global challenges”. But Standards are more than just solutions that make things work; rooted within political, economical, technological and cultural backgrounds, they also involve compromises between different matters and actors.

These compromises and their inherently denied, alternative outcomes are often obfuscated or even forgotten. For example: when we speak about video, we refer to a four cornered moving image; we do not consider video with more or less corners (3, or 5, or 149++ corners), layers, timelines, or soundtracks. Color film and JPEG algorithms are racist. Fonts can only be implemented as monchrome typefaces, Ghosts can only communicate through analogue forms of noise and animals cannot own copyright.

Resolutions form a lens through which materialities are constituted. They resonate a tonality of functionality and inform material vernaculars. In short, resolutions inform both machine vision and human ways of perception. It is therefore of upmost important to realize that with every resolution, alternative implementations are unthought, forgotten or even lost and forever unseen. This Spomenik stands in for ghosts of resolutions, that would have given form to alternative futures passed.

A commission for the Queens Museum organized by Kristin Lucas.

Photo by: Katharina Träg www.kate3000g.tumblr.com

The panel hosts artists who have been consistently developing practices of obfuscation through their projects.

From my series of photos of

the divine and legendary

Mr. Billy Beck, here's one taken

in his front yard in Silverlake. This

was one of the very first shots I took

on this delightful sunbright day in

early November which was not too

hot or too cool. Famous as an actor in

movies, back in the 40s he was a clown

at the Cirque Medrano in Paris - this is

the first time in many decades - as

I have written in all these captions

about him - that he became

the old tramp once more.

He was in France with the

American army during the war,

as was my father

(who wrote a fine novel

about it called "Prisoners),

but unlike my old man,

Billy remained,

and became a famous clown.

He knows French,

and in his honorable

honor, allow me this:

Sienne est grace,

élégance,

poésie

et grandeur.

I am staying in room 2718C - 301C - 277C. This is all to obfuscate away the pay per view porn on the bill.

This looks more confusing than it really is - or is it unnecessarily obfuscation? Either way, it's a lot of route shields.