Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Showcase Concert - Congratulatory End


Hi friends and followers, I would just like to thank and reiterate the kind feelings already expressed by others already, with regard to the Showcase Concert that I was involved with and that transpired Saturday night.



First of all, congratulations to my collaborators Livio Forza, Siobhan Owen and Mark Sandon for their talented efforts, in achieving a fantastic night of musical and artistic flair. Furthermore, many thanks to Livio for organising the showcase and inviting me to be a part of it. Lastly a big thank you as well to those who assisted in preparations and of course to everyone that supported us and attended the showcase. We greatly appreciate it.



In addition, as I previously stated here, on my Facebook page and the showcase concert’s Facebook page, below are the final iterations of my artworks that were presented on the night.  



To expand upon the works, included are extracts from the concert’s program booklet of my exposition for the art:




 Requiem Binary

(As is already present in my portfolio, under the "scenario scenes" heading tab)


Requiem Binary is a concept art/design piece which depicts an original narrative I’ve been conceptualising for a few years, as the proposition for a new game or film. The story centres on a deceased soldier whose mind and soul are surgically manifested into the body of a bipedal mech in order to create the world's first autonomous machine. Despite this breakthrough for humanity it however creates torment for the protagonist, as upon awakening he initially thinks he has been brought back to life. Instead he witnesses a shattered reality, caused by the surrealism of the mech's interface and mainframe that distorts his perspective. The story is intended as a social commentary about our ongoing consumption of technology and dependence on it. It expresses that technology could fatality harm us mentally and physically, while removing the primal instinct of man to progress in life.

Concerning the palette, I utilised warm colours in the form of a lens flare that is cast over the mech’s shoulder which signifies the illusion of the character’s initial belief of being resurrected. Furthermore, the remaining objects are rendered using cool hues to signal the foreboding truth and dissolution of the human mind into the machine.

In essence, this piece visualises the birth of autonomous mechatronics, created by the manifestation of the human mind, while hinting at the possible issues that could arise from such a life threatening procedure. This notion is explained, through this art piece’s intentionally cryptic title: Requiem Binary. Requiem - The loss and remembrance of the deceased and Binary - The computational code that dictates a machine’s programming. This contextually means a machine that is the surrogate of an organic mind, connected neurologically with its human host, which causes conflict of remembering a forgotten past in an ulterior life, whose recollection is now translated into broken binary.
   



Extraordinaire


This artwork visually portrays Livio’s tribute to Claude Debussy. More specifically, I aimed to convey Debussy’s promiscuous desire for women, by making it evident in the artwork that Debussy has only one thing on his mind at all times.

To capture this idea, Livio supplied me with an image of Debussy, who exhibits a subtly satisfied expression that suggests perversion combined with a look of pride. This suitably reflects the personality of Debussy who is an illustrious figure within the music history but has an amorous side to his character. Through observation I recreated this photo, but altered it to include a glimpse inside the mind of this man. Included is a faded sheet of music, which he famously wrote that recedes into the background of this portrait. This helps people who are unfamiliar of Debussy to assume that he is a composer, but more importantly this particular piece was used, as it's arguably his most well known and controversial composition. Moreover it implicates hedonistic meanings, which hints at his persona. 

In terms of colour, no higher purpose was considered for this piece apart from selecting tones which closely resembled and appropriately captured what was drawn i.e. colour that resembles skin colour, garments, and the architecture displayed in his imagination. 


Ultimately this piece strives to illustrate the dichotomy of Claude Debussy's reputation, a highly regarded composer and womaniser.



Theme and Variation of Dies Irae


To elaborate and paraphrase Livio’s intentions, Dies Irae is supposed to embody our feelings of uncertainty about death. To visually portray this notion, I extended this concept to a brief narrative scenario that involves a surreal scene of a deceased woman.

This woman is the wife of a beloved husband and is forced to part from him. As she ascends to the after world her partner tries, with little success, to keep her. In the end her fate is impossible to reverse and so he says his last goodbye and watches her leave him. Their memories however will never be forgotten as I incorporated a staircase into her form, which symbolises a binding spiritual and mental connection between the lovers.

Regarding the palette, the colours I chose each hold significant purpose. Hues of black signify the western funeral tradition of mourning while white tones represent purity and celebrating life. In this case, the form of the columns and mist that portray heaven, merely serve to replicate the now pale skin tone of the wife who is now deceased.


 


Spiralling into the Looking Glass


The popular fables 'Alice in Wonderland' and its sequel 'Through the looking glass' are the inspirations for this art piece and Livio’s related composition. I wanted to showcase an image closely related to Livio's composition, but further embodies the sensation of descending into madness in the form of cowardice. More specifically, Alice escaping her miserable life and mentally forming the exotic yet dangerous world that is “wonderland.” It is this wonderland that Alice escapes from her harsh existence.

To convey this escapism and its lasting severity, I illustrated a composition that demonstrates Alice from her time as an infant to a young woman. The major influences of her psyche manifest into the popular supporting characters that surround her: the Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, and the antagonist the Queen of Hearts. I was aiming to reflect the fear and anxiety that has engulfed her from birth, signifying that her whole life is terrible and that she repeatedly escapes to this evocative and surreal wonderland. The particular manner that I’ve adopted to compose this image is inspired by the works of Drew Struzan who is known for creating posters of famous films such as: Star Wars, Indiana Jones and Back to the future.

The palette contains many cool colours that I utilised to portray the foreboding mood with contrasting warm colours to signify feelings of explained escapism. In the end my ambition was to create a piece that is magical, confronting, and alluring to the viewer. Although it inhabits sensations of augur, my hope is that my piece instills the possibility that escapism is possible and to not forget to return to reality, where support is guaranteed.


Overall I hope you have all enjoyed this body of work and please look forward to the next given post.

Also please like and follow my other domains at:  



https://www.facebook.com/MarcForzaDesign

http://au.linkedin.com/pub/marc-forza/1a/681/b78
http://dbvc-grad.com/students/marc-forza

http://marcforza.cghub.com/
http://www.sketchtheatre.com/profile/

I also do in fact have a DeviantArt profile, but please keep in mind that it has yet to be updated properly. You can find it below at:

http://mforza1987.deviantart.com/


Please feel free to leave your constructive opinions and advice below and on the blog.
   

Thank you.


Monday, October 14, 2013

Journal Ambience (JA) #15 - Life Drawing, Showcase Concert Update & Other Pivotal Highlights

Hi friends and followers,



My apologies for the long hiatus, but during this time I have been busily engaged with a variety of projects and other pivotal things that I am finally happy to be able to share with you all.  



First of all, below is an assortment of life drawing studies that I drew during a few classes, at local Adelaide based concept art/ design school Concept Design Workshop Studios (CDW Studios):













Furthermore, a recent update was made to the Showcase Concert event page that displays early compositional and ideation illustrations that I drew, which have led to the final art works that will be presented on the night.    



Below is a link to the page and the illustrations that I previously drew
:

https://www.facebook.com/events/617935628228890/





I will post the final artworks at a date after the Concert, which as a reminder is on this month on Saturday the 26th (Two weeks from now) at 7pm - The Manse at Clayton-Wesley Uniting Church in Beulah Park.



In addition, I won’t be able to share at this time my exposition for this work, but I’ll do so at the same date I present my final art works online.



Lastly I am pleased to share that through meetings that have transpired over this time, I will soon be volunteering my skills in teaching at Adelaide based catholic secondary school: Christian Brothers College, in their art and design departments and I have begun to review games for the website Retrospekt and possibly also for the site called Player Attack. Please look forward to my review that will soon be published on Retrospekt, in which I critique the cult title by Hideo Kojima: Policenauts.    



Overall I hope you have all enjoyed this body of work and please look forward to the next given post.

Also please like and follow my other domains at:   



https://www.facebook.com/MarcForzaDesign

http://au.linkedin.com/pub/marc-forza/1a/681/b78
http://dbvc-grad.com/students/marc-forza

http://marcforza.cghub.com/
http://www.sketchtheatre.com/profile/

I also do in fact have a DeviantArt profile, but please keep in mind it has yet to be updated properly. You can find it below at:

http://mforza1987.deviantart.com/


Please feel free to leave your constructive opinions and advice below and on the blog.
   


Thank you.

 


About Me

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Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
From a young age, Marc Forza has always had a creative flair. He specialises in concept art/ design, graphic design, illustration and industrial design, with interests in fine art, consumer electronics, biomimicry, automotive design, branding and science fiction. Marc also enjoys creating portraits for clients. Marc shares his portfolio, process and development on this blog, as well as on facebook, at Marc Forza Design. I hope you enjoy what you see and return often. Thank you.