It’s both parametrically intense and oddly invigorating to look at. It’s like jumping in the air through a small hole and coming out on the other side with all the knowledge of perspective while marching rhythmically outside the confines of an inverted parallelogram.
What is it? Surrealism. An artistic expression of the early 1900′s that captured the fantasy of la-la-la reality and spread it like thick butter on minds across the world.
Defining it as an offshoot of Marxism and Freudian thought limits and ultimately destroys the passions many of the artist were trying to capture…
Yeah, yeah, yeah. What I really want to show you is some of the coolest examples and the paintings that inspire me. They magnify the field of 3D CAD we’re in, in a way that even some artists could not imagine in their art.
Salvador Dalí
On of my favorites is Salvador Dali. My favorite is Dali. Take a look at Sleep (1937). What happens if a crutch is moved or falls. The depth, the shading. This painting captures a lot of details that 3D CAD users try to set up and control. More than that, it’s just plain cool looking.
Sleep – Salvador Dalí – (1937)
Differentiating your product design. What do you imagine it can be or how can it be formed to enhance the users experience.
The Elephants – Salvador Dalí – (1948)
Breaking up the design process. Have you explored the extent of pattern and repeatability in your design? How do you locate the most useful features to provide the greatest visibility/usability? (I so wish I had the image my wife, Maggie, did of this style. Sorry Dali, hers is so much better.)
Galatea of the Spheres – Salvador Dalí – (1952)
Depth, Isolation and your surroundings. Where do you apply your design and engineering to test it? What context do you put it in or design it around?
Sun Table – Salvador Dalí – (1936)
Philippe Halsman
How much could possibly be going on at once? The freedom of conceptual design or working within a rigid engineering environment can be so different. Putting one in the presence of the other can bring better understanding to both types of people and make the process a lot more interesting.
Dali Atomicus – Philippe Halsman – (1948)
George Grie
A modern surrealist artist with a poke at modern issues. Design can take current trends and make interpolations of what it could be if extreme cases were considered. What if that ‘vacuum cleaner’ design cleaned the entire house with one click of a button?
George Grie – Dehydration or global warming solution – (2004)
La Mouton
Phenomenal mix of materials, not only with the image that combines photo and illustration, but also with the materials that are provided in the unlimited possibilities of childhood.
La Mouton – I want a dog – (2007)
Some of these images inspired me before I even knew what CAD was and still do. They may have altered my thinking a bit, I dunno. Undoubtedly though, there are pieces of this art that apply to what we as designers and engineers are attempting to do in our daily reality that tend to ever so slightly slip us into the realm of the fantastic. Nothing wrong with that.
So, what inspires you?
Dali Scream and other Images via VirtualDali.com
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When you're down for SWWorld you need to go to the Dali museum in Tampa. It's only a short drive from Orlando. You'll be blown away when you see the actual scale and the real spooky 3D nature even of his flat paintings. Dali is wacked, 'Smack. Almost as wacked as Picasso, but surrealism is so much more fun, and Dali was massively 3D even on canvas.
Of course Cadaques, his home town, isn't far from Barcelona either…
: ) – one of the things that inspired this post. didn't get to go there on my first trip to barcelona, just went around looking at the incredible Gaudi creations. I saw one painting of his when Maggie and I were overseas and stared at it for about half an hour. awesome. you've got me stoked to go to the Dali museum in Tampa now!
Cool post!
I was always inspired by Escher he is the master of thinking outside the box, seeing things most people never thought about. He is also a master of making 3D sketches.
I especially like this one:
http://trese.cs.utwente.nl/taosad/SoftwareArchi...
more here:
http://trese.cs.utwente.nl/taosad/escher.htm
I've always loved Magritte – not everyone's cup of tea, but I never much cared for Dali and his dripping clocks and whatnot – Not too sure why – I think I just disliked the lack of accuracy in it. Magritte was different, wonderfully accurate, just put things together in a surreal manner and did some cool things with light that make you go.. “that's cool, but what's the poin…….. OH YEAH..”
http://www.grammardoc.com/eng214/MagritteEmpire...
The one thing I do love that Dali did is the Lobster Telephone.. I saw it on a school trip (too long ago) and stood there, looking at it, on a pedestal.. thinking “that's a telephone.. with a lobster on it… a telephone.. with a lobster… cool”
http://www.tate.org.uk/servlet/ViewWork?workid=...
TOTALLY love Magritte. glad you mentioned him Al. My fav is the Time painting with the train coming out of the fireplace. I love how exact everything sesms to be.
I don't like the dripping clock stuff of Dali so much either. It's just overdone. The depth and some of his more detailed work is what first got me. Thanks for sharing those links man.
Some Dali is surrealistically realistic, it's not all dripping clocks:
http://www.storybytes.com/images/a-dali/fullsiz...
http://www.storybytes.com/images/a-dali/fullsiz...
… or stunningly 3D
http://www.mcs.csuhayward.edu/~malek/Surrealism...
http://www.storybytes.com/images/a-dali/fullsiz...
He was a spatial genius. A little narcissistic maybe, but still a genius.
I guess I just don't get Dali – there's something about the brush work, how he uses paint that I just find a real turn off.. Sure, I can see why peeps see him as a Genius, but… I don't know, I just can't explain it – maybe Picasso got to me too early..
One of the things Dali was best known for is his spooky hidden images and optical illusions, kind of like escher. If you take a guided tour of the museum, they will point out some of the hidden faces, most notably the toreador:
http://www.3d-dali.com/Tour/toreador.htm
and Lincoln
http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Lincoln-in-Dalivi...
and Voltaire
http://psyc.queensu.ca/~psyc382/daliSlavemarket...
and shakespeare
http://www.gallery-diabolus.com/gallery/upload/...
and his dead brother
http://www.virtualdali.com/63PortraitOfMyDeadBr...
and some very disturbing stuff that might make Al uncomfortable:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/8/89/S...
http://members.lycos.nl/amazingart/E/artist4.html
Great post! Really made me stop and think about what I can learn across the board form art – lol not sure if that was the goal of the post, but that's what it did for me. I'm always looking for new connections and ways of seeing things, and this was a great exercise in that. Thanks!
I found this post from the Killer Titles Project. This post has an absolutely Killer Title. I fell asleep reading the rest of the 71 submissions so far. Good Luck!
Great post! Really made me stop and think about what I can learn across the board form art – lol not sure if that was the goal of the post, but that's what it did for me. I'm always looking for new connections and ways of seeing things, and this was a great exercise in that. Thanks!
I found your post through ProBlogger's group project and just thought I would stop by to say hello to the top 5 posters for the first day of the contest.
I like the Dali with the clocks…forgot the name. I think his paintings are a little mind blowing and definitely not for beginners.
I found this post from the Killer Titles Project. This post has an absolutely Killer Title. I fell asleep reading the rest of the 71 submissions so far. Good Luck!
Came in from ProBlogger – just the fact the you had Salvador Dali in your title made me click…I love his work! Great post, thanks!
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