working artists


Ned Meneses

artist statement | technical statement | process


Base 1. SCHEMAS -Tiling and Reverberation

A schema is an in-built system that activates and drives something visually or otherwise. This picture starts out with a definite plan, but the end of the journey is left very much a mystery. I started out by aligning the images in the radial cells and directly applying them to the center. For each section, in Photoshop, I placed the primary elements and proceeded to order layers and set sizes. I often use the images themselves as brushes; they take unique aftereffects. The source images here are different from each other, yet rather homogenous, more related to texture than form, and more neural and digital than defined in shape. This was much more rigorous than I thought, but I found many interesting functioning transitions. A ëZen' mindset keeps thoughts from getting in the way. Lastly, when the images were combined and worked aggressively, it was very difficult to predict what would result. This is a matter of spontaneous composition. Our visual perception guides the process but it will not provide consciously formulated answers until we know most of its mechanisms.

Base 2. SYMBOLISM -The Uncertainty Principle

The artistic ideal is rooted in ëknowing' that the image will come together. The parts one starts with are very defined in themselves. They are not traditional elements since they can each stand on their own, keeping something of their original nature (unlike Schema where they acted as broad inflections). One component is a photograph taken in the Bolivian Andes, another is a watercolor dubbed and filtered (Edge Detect and some tweaking to offset 3 constituent layers), and third, the main anchor image, a composite designed from scratch. They seem very separate, but at the subconscious level higher order is possible. This falls in the domain dynamicist cognition; it traces some connectionist and symbolic modes of AI. These were the simultaneous ends in mind. Though less abstracted, they preserve the outcome: a self contained, stabilized composition. The key stage is in initially selecting what is to come together without knowing a predicting factor such as the validity of theories, (an uncertainty principle). When it is done, it should be left alone to hold its space. The process becomes really endless when newer forms are introduced.