Living Bridges project is showing how some parts of our cities could look like. Some of the ideas seem only dreams but why not make a few of those dreams come true.

Within the next moths I want to focus on creating hyper-realistic bridges from my sketches because photography, photoshop and 3D visualisation programmes can present in a convincing way my ideas.
It would be great if my project had a ‘second life’ (contrary to the web’s Second Life) in real life in the close future.

Bibliography
Peter Murray & Mary Anne Stevens „Living bridges – the inhabited bridge, past, present and future” (Prestel – Verlag, 1996)
Simon Sadle „Archigram – architecture without architecture” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005)
Emilio Ambasz “Casa de retiro espiritual” (Skira, 2005)
David J.Brown “Bridges, three thousand years of defying nature” (Reeds International Books Ltd, 1993)
Ulrich Conrads & Hand G.Sperlich „Fantastic Architecture” (The Architectural Press, London, 1963)
Christophe Canto & Odile Faliu „ The history of the future” (Flammarion, 1993)
Marianne Butler „ London architecture” (Metro Publications, 2006)
Jason Hawkes “Over London. A century of change” (HarperCollins, 2000)

For starting I decided to develop idea of unfinished spaces into my powerbook titanium which I want recreate as unfinished object.
So probably on a final show you can also see my powerbook covered by real wood. It can be part of my final show presenting process of creating living bridges from sketches, photographs, retouching and 3D objects creation.

Working title: Unfinished spaces

Aims
Unfinished spaces is a working title for a series of compositions where the main research questions will be: What we could change around us?
How computers change the real world?
How we can visualize objects/urban links of the near future?
I would like to explore mainly the impact which computers have on new ways of seeing objects.
The project will be composed using 2 main creative methods:
recreation – composing, multiplying objects in a new contexts,
creation – creating new objects in 3D programs.

I am interested in the idea of seeing a picture of the future today and how our imagination and computer can help us in the visualization of ideas. (da Vinci – created the idea of plane long before it was possible to make it technically.)
World around us is permanently changing. Right now I am in London, a city that is a mixture of not only different styles in time but cultures as well.
The city of London has one thing which always was here – the Thames River.
The Roman town Londinium was created near the river because of ease of transport. The river was not only an advantage but also a barrier. Romans were the first to create a wooden bridge across the Thames River that was subsequently rebuilt uncountable times. This Old London Bridge was the only one to exist in London until 1739.
The London Bridge is for me the symbol of an unfinished object, the full story of which has never been written. From at least the 11th century till the 18th century it was not only used as a transport road but also as a market place and the home of many people. The idea of a living bridge seems for me very interesting especially that it was abandoned for a while but not forgotten.

I am interested in developing creatively existing city landscapes (buildings, roads, cars, parks etc.) especially those where gravity is questioned. This idea can include such objects like e.g. the electromagnetic train which moves upon earth’s surface, simply floating above the ground. By using electromagnetic energy we could create new reality, for example we could shape the water flowing out of fountains to obtain curves and other forms seeming up to now impossible, born in wonderlands.
But still I wouldn’t like my work to be too technical, too far from real objects; I prefer when the viewers have the feeling of floating between past, present and future when they look at my works.
The series of works will help to see the impact of time over objects, especially that the changes are sometimes so slow that we even don’t notice them.

Objectives
Showing the tension between 3 D (future) and reality (past and present).
In my work I would like to focus on the idea of recreation of city landscapes.
The computer with software is helping me right now to visualize ideas, dreams. Up to now I have been working only with Photoshop, which is a tool to visualize ideas based on existing objects.
With Virtual reality programs (like 3d studio max, Maya etc) we can create a picture of objects existing only in our imagination.
One of successful projects already realised with the help of CAD (Computer Aided Design) – a 3D program adopted for architects and constructors needs – was a very complicated and huge project of covering the British Museum with a glass roof where none of thousands of glass triangles is the same as another. Without computer it would be impossible to design the shape and size of each glass element is such a way.
The realisation of the created object/artwork has not been finished yet. Sometimes ideas like Yona Friedman proposal for a bridge for Paris were not realised right away but inspired many other architects, and one of them built a similar construction 20 years later (building across the railway air rights). In this case some of the ideas of Friedman were realised without using computer in simpler versions. But right now we can visualise even the most complicated forms, which existed before only on sketch or in the imagination of the artist.
In 1996 in London took place a limited competition of 7 leading architects/visionaries for creating a living bridge near South Bank (close to London Eye, then not yet existing). None of the projects were yet realised.
In one of my works I would like to create a bridge which would be combining several functions – garden, skate park, restaurants, shops, apartments and many other uses. I think that right now it is good time to come back to the idea of a living bridge because London really needs a strong vivid connecting point between its two riverbanks.

Rationale
In my work I want to focus on pictures – digital high resolution photographs of London city and my picture library (from different countries), especially when I want to show the stages of development and changes of the CITY.
In my project I would like to show the past, present and future of mostly city landscapes.
London has been for many centuries the center for distribution of goods. London docks were developing and extending till beginning of the 20th century. In the 19th century there were kept the most relevant new basin works to meet the expectations and need of the industrial society. In the middle of the 20th century docks were mostly unused and waiting for rebirth.
Canary Wharf was one of the main distribution centers. For the whole 19th century it was a vivid place where you could feel tastes and scents from around the world. But once colonies started to get independence from Great Britain the docklands slowed down and in the seventies they were mostly abandoned. It is hard to imagine how the Isle of Dogs looked like in London in the past. This place has had a period of so extensive construction and renovation works that to imagine how it looked just 20 years ago we have to go to some other dockland areas which still await to be modernised.
Huge improvements sometimes are launched by a cataclysm – flood, fire, war.
This was the case of London rebuilt after the 1666 fire, which destroyed most of the city (about 75% of buildings were burned). It was the ideal time for such a visionary as Wren who designed the New St Paul Cathedral (among almost 50 other churches) after the old gothic one was destroyed.
Flooding and icing were especially dangerous for bridge constructions. If a bridge wasn’t destroyed by an unexpected event it would be difficult to find an excuse for important changes.
Right now I think is even harder to make changes in places like city centers.
The second world war was much less destructive for London city landscape comparing to the 1666 fire but also cleared some spaces where new ideas developed. When the Festival of Arts was held in 1951 it gave strong impulse and green light for changes and modern architecture.
Now we can have of course mixed feelings about what was created but it was a real revolution after the very long reign of Victorian and post-Victorian architecture.

Outcomes
First of all, a final show that will be presenting my vision of changes around us.
Some of my ideas are more surreal but still have some connections with real life.

Here are a few examples of works which I would like to develop and show at the final show.

In one of my works I would like to use a liner ship (about 200 meters long – as the one reaching Tower Bridge – Crystal Symphony). I would like to put it across the river on probably four stands inside which will be also moving stairs to access the platform/museum/restaurant etc. from different directions. (Looking a little bit like the moving City of Ron Harren’69 / Archigram)
The liners are created as independent “cities” so inside you can find everything to enjoy living in the city – theaters, cinemas, shops, swimming pools, and gardens on the top desk.
This would be a smaller copy of Titanic or another museum ship. But maybe it will be constructed from the beginning as new building using lighter materials.
But maybe it will be only a photocomposition with the help of 3D visualisation.
While making the sketches artists shouldn’t always think about utility. Maybe some of those ideas will be used in future, maybe they will inspire later on. It was like that in case of Archigram architecture group, which created in the sixties, still inspires new generations of architects and artists.
In my past work I found many inspirations from surreal painting, especially once from Magritte, Chirico, Delvoux, Man Ray and others. The idea of using a free mind, unconscious of limitations of our daily lifes opens our way of thinking and creating interesting objects. Maybe some of them will be without academic explanations.
Giorgio de Chirico metaphysical period seems especially inspiring for me while most stories are told in cityscapes and the past (old classical buildings) and the present (train) are crossing by.

Man Ray once looking at racing bicycles saw like in reflection glasses in shapes from bicycle tires. This inspired me to recreate the London Eye into a bicycle of old kind (with one smaller wheel) where the adjustable/routable sit will be above the wheels creating an ideal platform for seeing London. The transport inside the wheel will be through high-speed elevator giving speed access to the desk which could be also a restaurant (like in Brussels’s Atomium).

When looking at objects we sometimes can see a new meaning.
When visiting Victoria and Albert museum I found really interesting Bass Viol instrument from 1700. On the end of the hand of the instrument there is a detailed shapes face. It reminds me the old ship faces so I decided to find a new use for this object – a ship that will float on sea. I want to use other parts of this instrument to create the deck and ship body. But I don’t have to do too many changes. It is just enough to look at this object from different perspective.

Final works will be shown as series of artworks which will visualise my ideas.
I will decide how I will hang my works when I will have ready the final pieces.
Many of my artworks will have reference to the Thames river so probably it would help me to find connecting points between them.

Final work must have the high-end finishing quality so the viewer has the feeling of seeing the real world (past, future, present).
In some cases I would like to show the idea of an object without too much concern on details. I can achieve this by using my experience in photography and photocomposing – strong back light, fog etc.

When finishing this project, I plan to be able to demonstrate:
an ability to research in an appropriate way according to the context and cultural background of my subject
practical skills in computer programming, especially in combining 3D with 2D (photographic + retouched)
practical way of managing project

Media
Hardware: Apple Macintosh G4 + G5

Software: Photoshop, 3 D Studio Max and Cinema 4D

Methodologies
For this project before starting to create the final pieces will be helpful to see models of living bridges exhibition if possible.
In this way I can see how ideas were transformed from sketches to models (real 3 D models).
I also would like to contact with architects involved in the Living Bridges competition to see their way of creating objects, especially processes involved in developing of ideas.
I would like to cooperate while creating my 3D models with a professional 3D visualiser working for an architect group in Warsaw, Poland. ( I can upgrade my knowledge about 3D programs in the meantime).

Risk assessment
No specific risk assessment.
I will just install my works on walls. They will be (as I know right now) printed and framed without glass so I will just ensure that they are well attached to wall surface.

Timetable
2007

January – February :
researching, contacting with architects involved in the Living Bridge competition and with Archigram architects and visionaries.
Developing my technical skills in 3D studio max.

March:
starting to take pictures needed as background
choosing the sketches which I would like to realise

April- May:
building 3 D objects and photocomposing + retouching with photographs
June:
preparing about 8-10 final artworks which will be presented as series.

Bibliography
Lev Manovich „The Language of New Media” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2001)
Peter Lunenfeld „The digital dialectic” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology,1999)
Bob Cotton & Richard Olivier „Understanding hypermedia – from multimedia to virtual reality” (Phaidon Press Ltd, 1993)
John Vince „Introduction to Virtual Reality” (Springer- Verlag , 2004)
Cynthia Goodman „Digital visions” (Harry N.Abrams, 1987)
Marc Giambruno „ 3D graphics and animation” (New Riders Publishing, 1997)
Jerry Uelsmann „Photosynthesis” (University Press of Florida, 1993)
Michael Robinson „ Surrealism” (Flame Tree Publishing, 2005)
Ulrich Conrads & Hand G.Sperlich „Fantastic Architecture” (The Architectural Press, London, 1963)
Christophe Canto & Odile Faliu „ The history of the future” (Flammarion, 1993)
Marianne Butler „ London architecture” (Metro Publications, 2006)
Peter Murray & Mary Anne Stevens „Living bridges – the inhabited bridge, past, present and future” (Prestel – Verlag, 1996)
Simon Sadle „Archigram – architecture without architecture” (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2005)
Dennis Crompton „Concerning Archigram” (Archigram Archives, 1998)

UNFINISHED SPACES

World around us is instantly changing, sometimes we even didn’t notice it.

Unfinished spaces is a working title for series of compositions where the main research questions will be: What we could change around us?
How computer change the real world?
Mainly I would like to explore the impact which computers have for new way of seeing objects.
I would like to divide it into 2 main creative methods:
recreation – composing, multiplying objects in a new contexts
creation – creative not existing objects in 3D programs.
I am interested in idea of seeing the future today and how our imagination and computer can help us in visualization of ideas.(da Vinci – created the idea of plane long before it was possible make it technically.)
I am interested especially in developing of city landscapes (buildings, roads, cars, parks etc.) without gravity limitations.
But still I wouldn’t like my work to be to technical and I would like the viewer to have a feeling when looking at my work will be floating between past, present and future.
The series of work will develop from seeing the impact which time, developing of civilization have on us and world around us especially that sometimes we even don’t notice the changes.

Objectives
Showing the tension between 3 D (future) and reality (past and present)

Rationale
In my work I want to focus of pictures – digital high resolution photographs of London city and my picture library(from different countries) especially when I want to show the stages of development and changes of CITY.
Final work must to have the high-end finishing quality so the viewer had a feeling of seeing the real world (past, future , present)

Outcomes
First of all final show presenting my vision of changes around us.
Hardware: Apple Macintosh G4 + G5

Software: Photoshop, 3 D Studio Max and Cinema 4D

Methodologies
Theory: new media (Manovich , Lunenfeld, Cotton&Olivier),
surrealism (Breton, Freud – irrational subconscious)

Galleries (Tate Britain & Modern, Picture Gallery and many smaller) looking at final artworks but also sketches of artists

Museums (British Museums – to have wider perspective, Museum of London- history of London from prehistoric times)
looking at visualizations (3 D and drawings) showing the past

Movies – special effects, the most sophisticate methods of creating virtual realities

Contexts:

Movie
1. Blade Runner (lighting and using of color)
2. Jurassic Park (first movie with real looking 3 D characters merged into real world)
3. 5th Element ( real and 3D architecture, gravity)
4. Matrix (idea of virtual/real world, gravity)

Paintings
old masters (especially Renaissance painters, perspective)
surrealizm + cubists ( Picasso, Braque, Magritte, Chirico etc)

Photography
the history of montage/collage (bauhaus)
Uelsmann
Szurkowski
and traditional photographers ( Leibowitz , Tomaszewski etc)

Risk assessment
I have to focus in selected pictures and sketches. Creating the final piece is time taking so I have to decide which ideas I will realize.

Remi Piechura
Artist Statement

As a photographer and digital manipulator I would like to further develop my abilities in contemporary design by undertaking not clearly defined studies like Photography or Graphic Design as I have chosen in the past, but an interdisciplinary course focused on Digital Media and involving also typography, editorial design, interactive digital media design. This unique set perfectly matching my interest is part of the MA Communication Design Course; the priority would be in such case to broaden my software portfolio especially with 3D digital manipulation programmes, simultaneously exploring new key areas in the contemporary visual communication profession. Communication channels are under constant and rapid evolution and for me, as a designer, it means that my work will often be difficult to define within just one area of design, fluently involving a bit of them all.

Visual communication is a language within itself, very similar to written and spoken language, with its own rules and elements. As a visual communicator and an artist for the last 10 years, my primary goal at all times is to design and communicate a message to a specific audience using the language of visual communication, fascinating as a global and lively tool rapidly evolving with new technologies. Much like a poet puts together a poem using words, I try to create a deeply meaningful visual composition. This goal is achieved so far through a process involving photographic work and compositional arrangement of the images, arriving at the final visual message, which I call a “photocomposition”.

When gathering a pool of visual material for my artwork, I perform myself all the stages of the process: research, imaging, image selection, analysis and manipulation. In all cases I do not differentiate between “old” and “new” technologies, making digital media my first choice for pure commodity and individual fascination with the new possibilities that follow this, one of a few, tool of communication.

The final composition is the outcome of interconnections between reality, imagination, education and experience, often inspired by the works of Rene Magritte, Jerry Uelsmann, Ryszard Horowitz and others. However, when choosing my path I tried to combine artwork and advertising projects, completing MFA in Photography and Graphic Design studies in Poznan (Poland) with a more pro-client approach of a MA in Photography course at the renowned Lodz Film School (Poland) and of a partly completed MFA in Creative Photography course at California State University, Fullerton (USA). This match of different experience gave me a unique perspective on visual communication, integrating a sound art background typical for art studies in Eastern Europe with a touch of a more pro-technical American approach.

Consistently following both paths, on the one hand I exhibit and sell artwork, mainly in the USA, where I am represented by the Studio Gallery, Irvine, CA, and by the Kolibri Art Studio, Pallos Verdes, CA. On the other hand, I have gained professional experience as a freelancer in advertising starting in 1995 with local Poznan advertising agencies to work at present for the biggest world network agencies in Warsaw, Poland (since 2000) with my own photographic and computer studio (The Apple Garden Studio). More details concerning my advertising work and selected clients such as Saatchi and Saatchi, Grey, Leo Burnett and projects for, among others, Toyota, Heineken, Finlandia, LOT Polish Airlines are available at my personal website HYPERLINK “http://www.remipiechura.com” www.remipiechura.com.

In the longer term I plan to create a production house and retouching studio for worldwide most demanding clients, without need for eye-to-eye meetings but rather undertaking all steps of production communication online. The studio will group a team of leading professionals from Eastern Europe and, when possible, it will make use not only of the ideas proposed by the client’s art directors, but also of the team’s own creativity.
Study proposal(previous)

Ideas and subject matter that I wish to explore and develop:

The Communication Design course addresses a number of areas that I wish to develop; my main interest area is the Digital Media pathway, with special attention to 3D manipulation techniques and newest software developments, including interactive digital media. These last two subject matters are the ones I have least experience in and wish to incorporate into my activities as a visual communicator. My goal is to be flexible as an artist, to respond to the needs of the rapidly changing digital communication environment and to enrich my work making use of modern multi-disciplinary technological developments.

With this same purpose in mind, I would like to explore at the same time other key areas of design as editorial design, typography, information design; this is the reason why I chose a multi-disciplinary course, emphasising research and experimentation in those forms and structures of communication that are perfectly complimentary to my current knowledge and abilities.

(b) My knowledge and experience of making work in this and related areas

I have had so far the opportunity to study in detail Photography and to develop my abilities as a digital image manipulator (Photoshop software) for the last 10 years – in the first place by completing MFA in Photography and Graphic Design studies in Poznan (Poland), a MA in Photography course at the renowned Lodz Film School (Poland) and partly completing a MFA in Creative Photography course at California State University, Fullerton (USA); in the second place by gaining professional experience successfully exhibiting and selling my works, which I call “photocompositions”, in Poland and abroad, working both with art galleries and advertising agencies. I will be happy to share my experience in these domains, while gaining expertise in other disciplines of visual communication.

(c) Longer term career objectives and / or intentions

As an artist I am very much interested in an exchange of experience not only interdisciplinary but also international; I have a hunger of exploration. My future plans of heading a production house and retouching studio for worldwide clients require I constantly develop my abilities, open my mind to international markets and explore new ideas and forms of communication through experimentation, practice and debate in new social contexts.

(d) Skills I wish to acquire

Visual communication requires not only imagination and design abilities but also technical skills; when it becomes digital it requires constant development of software knowledge and practice with the newest technologies.

I wish to develop my skills in digital media by broadening my software portfolio (especially 3D programmes and interactive media design, Illustrator and newest technological developments) and by analysing and discussing contemporary processes in new media. Thanks to research and experimentation in other forms of visual communication, I wish to acquire skills in a set of key design areas: typography, storytelling using a blend of communication channels, editorial design and information design.

Facilities and support

Computer laboratories: 3D, Photoshop, Illustrator and other visual design software; image development laboratory: hand and digital techniques; support and context for experimentation, practice and debate; support for lively exchange of experience with high level professionals, possibly including successful practitioners from outside the course.

Additional information

While completing my studies with the Communication Design course, I plan to explore as well other knowledge and experience resources: unique London modern art galleries and museums, meet contemporary artists and design professionals, travel around the country to add to my 40 000 stock photo library new works, inspired both by the landscape and by the impressive and unique cultural heritage of Great Britain, one of the world leading art centers.

Up to now I have visited and presented my works at some leading post production and retouching houses in London (Saddington&Baynes, MPD, Nexus, Taylor&James) what has been a good opportunity to make myself known and to observe their work in the process of production of high-end digital photocompositions. To add to my experience I would like to undertake a part-time job with one of such world leaders in commercial design.

The course at one of world’s best art colleges together with its London entourage will be an invaluable experience and inspiration for both fine art and commercial work, giving a British and international dimension to my career.