talkcreativity

The word computer conjures up notions of something sterile, systematic, devoid of human imagination. However, computers are intimately associated with invention either explicitly (e.g. Internet) or implicitly (e.g. code breaking). In each of these cases, computer power (brute force processing speed)  is harnessed and directed by human qualities (ingenuity, vision, artistry) to result in a creation.

Forerunners of the computer go back to Charles Babbage’s ideas and creations of the 19th century.

Bababage was inspired and assited by his MUSE (see OCTOBER post ) Lady ADA LOVELACE  (daughter of poet Lord Byron).

In a male dominated world Ada’s work on the Analytical Engine include what is considered by some to be the first ever “algorithm” (a coded process intended only for a machine). Her vision for the machine probably extended beyond Babagge’s at that point.

The broad principles of his Difference Engine were conceived in 1812. Attempts at its production were later made in the early 1820s but subsequently abandoned due to technical production difficulties.

Babbage's Difference Engine

In essence the machine was a mechanical calculator capable of polynomial (logarithmic and trigonometric) functions, making it crucial in calculating many useful but complex sets of numbers.

A more complex machine – the Analytical Engine – began to grow out research and ideas discovered from working with the Difference Engine.

Babagge's Analytical Engine (as realised after his life

The Analytical Engine is often regarded as an early prototype of the computer since it could perform a variety of mathematical operations and also had a capability for inputting data, overseeing calculations, sorting numbers, and providing output. These are four fundamental features of a computer.

The idea of a muse is one of inspiration. It can be a connection that is platonic but also is frequently associated with being in love or obsessed with an individual. The intensity of feeling generated by a muse can stimulate thinking that would not otherwise have been reached.

Pre-Raphaelite painters (in particular Rossetti) used Lizzie Siddal as inspiration and artist's model. She was spotted at the age of 20 when working as a milliner in London

Gala Dali (wife of Salvador Dali)

Dora Maar, lover and muse of Picasso

Edie Sedgwick (with Andy Warhol). She inspired the Velvet Underground's Femme Fatale.

However, the concept of a muse seems underdeveloped.

There is a notion of ‘direction’ that originates from the nine Greek muses and provides a discordant emotional context to ‘influence’ which is different from the modern one we recognize.

The 9 Greek muses

Statues of some of the muses

There are instances when an artist projects onto something which in turn acts as an influence e.g. Louis Wain’s obsession with cats. Wain maintained his deep interest in cats and the subjects appear in many different forms over his life’s work.

An early, realistic Wain cat

Wain cats playing golf

Later Wain cat charged with energy

Degas’ dancers show that the concept of a muse can extend beyond an individual as passion is focused on the movement of a certain type of dancer – the dancers become the inspirational frame on which Degas can play with the idea of movement in painting (through rhythmic repetition of arms and legs).

Degas: Dancer Slipper

Degas: Ballet Dancers on the Stage

Degas: Dance opera

(Euphemism for obsessive individuals who spend time thinking and making in their sanctuaries.)

Essence of men in sheds

Trevor Baylis invented the clockwork radio in his shed workshop

Hershel's home workshop for grinding mirrors

Hershel's home projects eventually evolved into Royal sponsorship and innovation on a larger scale

Inside Dylan Thomas' writing shed

Outside view of Dylan's writing shed

Home workshop of Barnes Wallis, inventor of the bouncing bomb

Bletchley Park Codebreaker's minimal wartime working environment created a shed-like sanctuary

Innovative recruitment at Bletchley included crossword and chess experts

A 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six, covered in Plexiglas, was recently put up for auction. The car, originally made for the 1939-40 New York World’s Fair, was conceived as a vision of the future. Transparency apparently indicating the future in much the same way as a silver jumpsuit.

Ghost car from 1939

A see through skin invites us to wonder about any revealed workings and structures. At the same time it maintains a tension between the covering skin (which remains visible) and whatever is revealed beneath. In this fashion we can look through and on, seemingly at the same time – somewhat as if we have a godlike and ubiquitous view of the world, able to perceive multiple viewpoints in the same glance.

The mysterious nature of what gets revealed once we transform the surface of an object into a transparent membrane also prompts metaphors for the new configurations revealed. So that, for example, the see through telephone becomes increasingly organic when we scrutinise the networks of cabling inside.

See through telephone of the 1960s

See through skins – which we generally associate with the 20th century – are historically preceded by types of technical or measured drawing. Perspective line drawings, for example, reveal a multiplicity of viewpoints as well as layers of realisation. So that we can look now at a front wall and now at a back wall (otherwise hidden) and then to a garden (doubly hidden) and so on.

Another type of drawing – the cutaway – is sometimes deployed to do much the same thing. The camera drawing shows fractions of the camera’s skin and layers of the internal workings of the camera’s mechanisms.

Cutaway drawing of a camera

Creativity is always boosted by mystery. What could be more mysterious than a stair case that apparently leads nowhere?

A stair case in a relative’s converted mansion flat led down to what may have been an old cellar. However, it was encased on both sides and in front with plastered walls and richly covered in a thick red carpet. This existence of such a stair case covered in the same rich carpet, which also decorated the rest of the maisonette (no delineation between these stairs and any others in the living areas), stimulated many feelings. Feelings drove many ideas and questions. Where could it have been going? What might be at the other side of the white walls at the bottom? Why is it there?

The answers aren’t important – only the feelings and what they lead to.

Staircase inspiration for bookshelves

Stairs between two halves of the rock appear to stitch it together

The Penrose  illusion shows us stairs that go nowhere – they circle back to their beginning.

Penrose stairs

These stairs were the basis of many of Escher’s drawings and more recently a series of paintings by Alastair MacKinven titled: Et Sick In Infinitum.

Rectangular version

Circular version

See the paradox of stairs intended for dream architecture in the film Inception

Penrose stairs from the film Inception

Pic 9

Berlin Victory Column

The image of a famous German landmark becomes something more abstract suggesting tremendous creative possibilities for a few seconds as the window of opportunity to take the photograph from within a moving vehicle is slight and perishable. The movement presents the observer with a brief moment to see and realise what could be and what questions it raises.

The traffic light moves in on the column

The traffic light now obscures the statue of Victoria at the top of the column

If one looks past the obvious new configuration and more closely at its component elements you can start to broaden your perspective.

For example the eye is drawn more keenly to the ‘cake-like’ nature of the Columns segments….Rather like

Traditional wedding cake with layers, columns and statues

By noticing aspects of the new combination of column and traffic light you are stimulated to continue inquiries. For example, the traffic light black frame becomes more important.  It seems to frame what has become a new statue – a statue in the form of three lights. This makes one think of the form and function of traffic lights in general.

Questions also arise as our noticing and scrutiny continues.

Why do the coloured lights always have to be housed in a black rectangular box?

Why do columns have statues on the top? Do such statues always have to be of people?

This might lead us to think about alternative traffic lights:

Traffic lights for the colour blind

Traffic lights appear on a parking aid in the form of an oval

Traffic light sculpture at Canary Wharf