Proof of Concept

Presentation
05-02-2018
Rachael Holyhead
 Proposed Dissertation Enquiry:
‘An Argument in Realism’
REALISM AND REPRESENTATION
For my dissertation, I wish to explore the placement of ‘realism’ in relation to the industry of computer arts and animation. Specifically the relationship between
‘truth’ and ‘realism as the ‘function’ of art changes.
This means discussing the relationship between ‘true reality’ to the fictitious one in narrative based fields of work (i.e. animation); with the changing ideas around
‘drawing’ as a form of accurate depiction (with ‘aestheticism’)- to drawing responding to photography with ‘Art for Art’s Sake’.
The effect of the changing values of certain practices over others, with naturalism and realism as influenced by technology and viewer ‘needs’- in concept and in
practise.
I intend then to discuss this field with it’s opposite counterpart: ‘Stylisation’ and caricature (political stylisation)- the role of which is arguably so not to offend the
audience (i.e. as discussed by Ralph Steadman).
From here I wish then to discuss these preceding ideas within the modern context of ‘3D animation’.
This means discussing ‘3D’ as a tool to ‘imitate’ life (i.e. realism), and programs such as Maya responding to an increasing emphasis on ‘realism’ within 3D
animation (as seen from Arnold). The two (style and realism) grappling with each other to achieve both successful (communitive and relatable), and ‘uncanny’
results.
Incidentally this relates to interpretation, and again, the emphasis on viewer and author within the text they create/consume. How does the author’s own ‘reality’
towards the commonly referred to: ‘true reality’ differ from the ‘viewers’?
We see realism potentially as ‘truth’ and a means to relate to a proposed idea.

How then, does our other prior ideas concerning the values around ‘Beauty’ and ‘Aura’ exist now in the 3D world?
How does 3D pose issues around hyperreality, with the ‘imaginary’ world becoming almost inseparable to the ‘true’ world?
And, how does human contribution fit in with traditional art compared to modern 3D programming, (is it possible to boil human nature down to a single formula
wherein computers are able to replicate that easily?).

Please note that in this discussion ‘realism’ does not necessarily mean just ‘looking the same’ but rather the element of believability and accuracy in imitating reality.
(I.e. Something that ‘strikes a chord’ often does so with an element of relatability or understanding towards a conceptual idea, present through visual means).
Key Images

The Aura
This image is an example of
distanced reproduced work, as
the image on your screen is
not alike the painting original,
in that the context, and
platform it’s being presented
on differs, and influences your
interpretation as the viewer.
‘SELF-PORTRAIT’ (1659) | Rembrandt van Rijn
 ‘THE THREE TREES’ (1643) | Rembrandt van Rijn

Author’s perception of reality differing from another's (i.e. Rembrandts etchings that were
reworked into often didn’t always stay true to the original lines, and so gradually changed
from original- which may have a set degree of emphasis on ‘realism’).
‘GRAY’S ANATOMY’ (1858) | Henry Vandyke Carter ‘THE ANIMATOR’S SURVIVAL KIT’ (2001) | Richard Williams

Realistic depiction so to capture

structures for medical use/education
vs. for means of believability to
modern animation.
This Emphasis on ‘realism’ existed as far back as the Caveman era. Perhaps as a generational means for passing on information. Hence
the greater emphasis on ‘realism’ compared to later imagery where-in artists painted what they thought was there, as opposed to
what was actually there

‘CAVEMEN WERE BETTER AT DEPICTING QUADRUPED WALKING THAN MODERN ARTISTS: ERRONEOUS WALKING ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE
FINE ARTS FROM PREHISTORY TO TODAY’ (2012) | Horvath G, Farkas E, Boncz I, Blaho M, Kriska G
‘ROGUE ONE’ (2016) | Edwards, Gareth

Moral and technological issues around extreme ‘realism’. When done correctly it
become too subtle to notice, but if noticeable can break viewers from their
immersion. Issues around ‘memorial’ re-enactment of actors performance beyond
his knowledge/control.
 ‘Paprika’ (2006) | Satoshi Kon

Art drawn from reality to expand ‘authenticity’ and ‘originality’… and ‘reality’
being the main point of discussion and thus relevant to the concept.
Other unused key images:
‘Pieta’ (1499) | Michelangelo
Biblical and Religious content, as leeway for interpretation.
Religion seen as the ‘truth’, and thus represented in realistic
terms. Piete is Michelangelo’s ‘reality’ of religion (i.e. his
interpretation), This reality differs from the ‘true reality’ of this
historical story.
'A Revery’ (1892) | Moore, Albert
‘Loving Vincent’ (2017) | Kobiela, Dorata and Welchman, Hugh
The ‘ritual’ or act of making something (particularly traditionally and
with great painstaking effort) relating to old ideas around ‘realistic
portrayal’ nowadays. Realism existing as acknowledging itself as a
‘dying’ medium, that needs to be saved.
The ‘Aestheticism’ movement of the late
nineteenth century that “championed pure
beauty and art for art’s sake’ emphasising the
visual and sensual qualities of art and design over
practical, moral or narrative considerations”.
'Fountain’ (1917) | Duchamp, Marcel
 Key Themes of Discussion
1- The history of art’s function (determining how ‘realistic’ art was/is to what we consider the ‘true’ reality)
2- Where ‘realism’ is now, in contemporary culture (particularly within the narratively oriented field such as animation).
3- Author and Reader’s ‘Realities’ at play.
➢ Aura
Value of physical, traditional art. Pro: It’s
presence is time and space (the history, i-
changes in physical condition and ii-changes in
ownership… provenance- presence of author and
who owned it. Authenticity etc.)
“With the advent of the ability to reproduce art
by mechanical means, the works of the past lose
their aura, that is, the halo that surrounds them
and isolates them… from the rest of existence”-
Gianni Vattimo -‘The Death or Decline of Art’.
> ‘The aestheticsation of Politics’- Fascism and
Communism.
Stylisation and caricature.
➢The presence of viewer
Selective reading (Rosenblatt), and varying
‘realities’ during the reading process.
➢Art History and our changing frameworks of
Interpretation
Critical Realism- “a critical realist believes that there is a
reality independent of our thinking about it that science
can study”. “the critical realist is critical of our ability to
know reality with certainty”.
Vs. ‘Subjectivist “who would hold that there is no external
reality- we’re each making this all up!
Positivism as limiting means of Interpretation. Relating
purely to the beneficial qualities that help/hinder humans.
Ignoring what cannot be measured.
Positive as false/biased idealism. “Beauty is portrayed in
it’s most pristine form, with the trees in it’s greenest state
and seas abound with fishes and marine life and nature
that is free from destruction”.
> Death of the Draughtsman?
The Death of Drawing? Technology vs. Human
Drawing
Drawing as a tool to ‘imagine’ alternative non-
existing realities.
> The presence of author
If the goal was merely to replicate, then we would just rely upon
technology to do so.
Representation as relevant to ‘humans’ with work made by humans,
for humans. Role of human vs. Technology Advancing or declining?
‘Can We Find the Remnants of Realist in Contemporary Art?’: “The
movement [realism] had changed and enhanced the connotation of
realism, being more concerned with the content of the painting
than the absolute, detailed truthfulness of visual representation.”
“If we take the truthfulness of representation as a parameter for
identifying realism in contemporary art, we will find a certain
number of draughtsmen who have these extraordinary skills for
creating paintings reminiscent of photographic imagery. For them to
be regarded as contemporary artists, nonetheless, craft is not
enough. Therefore, most of these artists combine realistic
representation with the content that seems to be unexpected, using
contemporary art’s latent disinterest in traditional techniques to
confront it with the subjects that it could care about, such as the hip
hop culture in portraits by Kehinde Wiley, or augmented objects in
the works of Vija Celmins, or James Neil Hollingsworth” – TATE
Proposed Theoretical Frameworks
- ‘The Aura’
- Post-modernism; Art for Art’s Sake
- Hyperreality
- Gadamer’s Aesthetics
- Gianni Vattimo’s discussions around Hermeneutic Theory/philosophy in relation to art.
- Aesthetics/Aestheticism
-Sigmund Freud- ‘The Uncanny’
Proposed Chapter 3 Case Study

For my third chapter I aim to identify and discuss modern examples of ‘realism’ in play within film
and animation, starting with Satoshi Kon’s ‘Paprika’ (2006) as it uses ‘realism’ for purposes of subject
matter and shock value; ‘Rogue One’ (2016) whose uses 3D simulation for character’s whose actors
have died prior to, to retain existing rules of storytelling typical to the series and ‘memorialized’ in
film; and ‘The Giant Dinosaur’ (2016), a documentary that needs the 3D medium to retell historical
fact in a visually ‘accurate’ way. Such examples aim to show ‘realism’s’ existing presence within the
current film/animating industry, from it’s original dominating presence in renaissance art, to it’s re-
established role/function today in a more conceptualised and doubtful culture.
Books
- ‘Introducing Postmodernism’ (2004) | Appignanesi, Richard; Garratt, Chris; Sardar, Ziauddin and Curry, Patrick
- ‘Art, Truth and Reality’ (1964) | Louis Arnaud Reid
An argument for fictitious reality: with art as a means of bettering our understanding of life.
- ‘Simulacra and Simulation’ (1981) | Jean Baudrillard
- ‘Art’s Claim to Truth’ (1985) | Vattimo, Gianni
- ‘Meaning in the Arts’ (2002) | ‘Louise Arnaud Reid
- ‘Myth, Meaning and Performance: Towards a New Cultural Sociology of the Arts’ (2006) | Ronald Eyerman and Lisa McCormick
The presence of author: cultural to culture (reflection and influence of).
- ‘The search for aesthetic meaning in the visual arts: The need for the aesthetic tradition in contemporary art theory and
education’ (1947) David Kenneth Holt
“Post-modern art theory is characterised by a denial of the validity of a formalistic evaluation of art. Post-modern critics emphasize
the contextual meaning of the work of art and often elucidate its personal or political meaning. Many Post-modern critics believe that
High-modernism had become restrictive, elitist, conservative, sexist or out-dated”.
“Arthur Danto in After the End of Art’ states: “contemporary art unlike all art prior to it, is post-historical, that is, it lacks a stylistic
unity and narrative direction”.
- ‘Introducing Aesthetics’ (2007) | Christopher Kul-Want Piero
“Venturi’s acceptance of this tradition, that art can be adequately understood only considering it to be concerned with intuitive
activity is, of course, in direct opposition to contemporary Post-modern views on art and aesthetics. A central concern for
Venturi was that a growing Postivism (as practiced by theorists such as Hippolyte Taine), was having the detrimental effect of
creating an age where one had lost the consciousness of the autonomy or specialness of art that had existed since classical
times. It was the absolute determinism of Postivism that eliminated both the autonomy and distinctiveness of aesthetic
experience from other cognitive experiences. Art had become predetermined not by the genius of the artist but by race and
environmental factors. The concept of art as an intuitive and transcendent activity was being threatened”. – The search for
Aesthetic Meaning in the Visual Arts – David Kenneth Holt

- Sigmund Freud – ‘The Uncanny’

(the truth we’ve been familiar with, resurfaces an element of itself that hadn’t otherwise been noticeable).  Relating to the
‘uncanny valley’ and the immersivity (‘Ludonarrative Dissonance’ (2007) – a “disconnect between the story told by the games
mechanical interactions, and the story told by the games narrative interaction”).
- ‘On Beauty: And Being Just” (2000), “Elaine Scarry” & ‘On Beauty: A History of A Western Idea’ (2004) Umberto Eco.
Beauty as prompting a copy of itself (the visual act of ‘staring’ as appropriated in the arts as “the act of replication”. “Wittgenstein
says that when the eye sees something beautiful, the hand wants to draw it”. (Selective choice on ‘author’s’ part of ‘reality’) –
negatively seen as the cause of groups of people imitating existing ‘styles’ and aesthetics, but positively as a motivating force to
‘creating’ and ‘making’ things.
‘Truth’ as being influenced by societal expectation and the framework of the human mind (human nature). Truth= ‘Good’.
Beautiful= ‘Good’
- The sublime (2006) | Philip Shaw
Essays
- ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’ (1936) | Walter Benjamin
- ‘The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality’ (1853) | Nicholas G. Chernyshevsky
Art as a tool made by humans for humans. Noncomparable to ‘reality’ in terms of ‘better’ or ‘worse’.
- ‘Aura’ (2004) | Yong, Mike (The University of Chicago)
- ‘The Aesthetic Relations of Art to Reality’ (1853) | Nicholas G. Chernyshevsky (Transcribed by Harrison Fluss, 2008)
Magazine Articles, Papers and Journals
Helen Charman and Michaela Ross, 'Contemporary Art and the Role of Interpretation', Tate Papers, no.2, Autumn 2004,
http://www.tate.org.uk/research/publications/tate-papers/02/contemporary-art-and-the-role-of-interpretation, [Accessed Date:
28/01/2018]

‘Philosophy Now’ (No Date Provided), ‘What is Art? And/or What is Beauty?’ [Online]. Available at:
https://philosophynow.org/issues/108/What_is_Art_and_or_What_is_Beauty [Accessed Date: 28/01/2018]
“In the context of art, beauty is the gauge of successful communication between participants – the conveyance of a concept between
the artist and the perceiver. Beautiful art is successful in portraying the artist’s most profound intended emotions, the desired concepts,
whether they be pretty and bright, or dark and sinister. But neither the artist nor the observer can be certain of successful
communication in the end. So beauty in art is eternally subjective.”
Harbison, Isobel and Charlesworth, JJ (2016), ‘Does beauty still matter in art?’, [Online]. Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/context-
comment/articles/does-beauty-still-matter-art [Accessed Date: 03/02/2018]

Scientific American (2014), ‘Living in an Imaginary World’, [Online]. Available at: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/living-
in-an-imaginary-world/ [Accessed Date: 28/01/2018]

The mental space of daydreaming as a means of creativity action; fictitious reality vital for functioning in ‘true’ reality. We live in a
world made by humans for humans- the degree of ‘realism’ varies in creative practise and ‘believability’ helps better visualise these
alternative ‘realities’.