Mental Contagion

Igor Olejnikov

2006-03-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

I love his illustrations. The most difficult thing with posting a link to Igor Olejnikov is choosing which image to use. Each piece is so lush and expressive. Don’t miss the little “previous” link on the bottom of the pages — they lead to more and more illustrations. You're gonna love these.

3D room illusion

2006-03-01T10:15:00.000-08:00

This is something Goo just shared with me. Below are pictures of rooms painted to create the illusion of a 3D effect. Some camera perspectives were shot so you can tell exactly where lines and shapes were painted, and then another "head-on" perspective photo was taken so you can see how the artist originally intended it to be viewed.

More photos and explanation are located at http://www.2loop.com/3drooms.html.

Rupunzel looking corpse

2006-01-27T17:35:00.000-08:00

(if you're unfamiliar with the exquisite corpse, you may want to read the previous posts before this one)

i like this corpse very much. it's a four section corpse (equal quarters from top to bottom). transitions are seamless. i did the bottom section. its my favorite one i've participated in so far. everyone LOVED this corpse from the feedback i received in the forum where i communicate with other corpsers, although personally, i feel my section is the least cohesive of the group.

from what i saw in the strip i received from the player before me, i tried to continue the small sample of the color scheme i saw and the feel of the black lines. i made the tree things to carry on those elements. but i wish now that i would've continued the streaks of color from the strip downward behind the tree/knot/woman things i added. i'd like to lose the black circles too. see what i'm saying? but i woulda coulda shoulda a lot of things in hind sight like buy stock in yahoo.

and the name is FANTASTIC! we each named our own sections and then put them together in the order our sections were made. when we united the sections: starting from the top section named: roaming / brings divinity / organic opportunity / great googally boogally! the last name is my addition b/c i did the last section. get it? it's makes sense which is surprising since we had no knowledge of eachother's titles. it's like she's roaming through the trees, bringing divinity with organic possibilities to the world, and singing GREAT GOOGALLY BOOGALLY!! (my frank zappa refrerence.)

Ideas for Paintings:

2006-01-21T19:40:00.000-08:00

I made this image in PS trying to come up with a painting idea that would juxtapose traditional techniques, like painting a portrait in oils, but painting the portrait with a subject that was the modern trend of creativity and opposite like technology or graphic design. I think it would be cool to paint a "portrait of a pc" in oils. It's current, unique, and sexy... in a geeks kinda way. don't you think?

More Secret Messages

2006-01-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

Goo, thanks for setting off such a creative flurry in my mind with these typography exercises. For some reason, working with type as a means for making art is a much more facile approach for me. I can't quite put my finger on what exactly I love about it so much, but it might have something to do with the structured approach. You have 26 characters, and X number of fonts. Get to work! One one level it can seem to be a very constrained form of creativity, but much like music theory, one simple set of rules can produce some incredible artwork.

This is my Secret Message. Tell me if you can decipher it. Hint: The message has something to do with why it's taken me so long to complete my own first Secret Message work.

Comments?

Brick Kick Cosmik

2006-01-07T14:14:00.000-08:00

This is a four player Exquisite Corpse I participated in. I did the second section down from the top. It's hard to see where one section ends and where another begins, but if you imagine it divided into fourths from top to bottom, it helps. Mine has the boots, bricks, 23, t-shirt and octopuss arms. I am so anal abouut people leaving "seams" in their transitions... it drives me crazy. Every time I look at this one, my eye goes right to where the person below me (3rd section from top) widened the bottom of my t-shirt and left those two bumps on each side. Ug. I'm too critical maybe? But it did turned out cool overall. I love finally seeing the unified sections. It's like Christmas... you never know what you're going to get. (Or is that like a box of chocolates? I forget.)

WERDart series

2005-12-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

Can you read the secret messages?

What do you guys think??

Surreal Illustration

2005-12-27T21:15:00.000-08:00

Hey, I've taken a short break from doing Exquisite Corpses and thought I would share some surreal inspiration with y'all. Via Via is Lennard Schuurmans from Rotterdam. Check out his site for some real trippy drawings. Click on the plus signs to see the various pages of work.

Daniel Simon - Fantasy Designer

2005-12-23T19:34:00.000-08:00

I came across this designer and I wanted to share his work with everyone here. He is a superb artist and his 3D work is so amazing! According to his bio, he grew up in East Germany and didn't have exposure to Star Wars, Batman, and Star Trek (the stuff sci-fi nerd fantasy is made of).

Anyway, check out his site:

http://www.danielsimon.net/

Be sure to check out the 3D work in the fantasy design section.

EC3 - Carnal Savagery - [players:goo/dan/jon]

2005-12-12T18:45:00.000-08:00

This corpse was done by three players: the first section by me (Goo), the second by Daniel, and the third and bottom section was done by Jon. This was Jon's first experience doing a digital collaboration. I think he did a super job with his piece and transition. It seems he has a real understanding for this sort of thing and as he put it best; "It's interesting to see how people react to just a little bit of information." The transition from my section to Daniel's was intentionally hard. I know Daniel is a professional designer and I wanted to challenge him a bit. I shall elaborate more in the comments section once I have a chance to look at the finished piece a bit longer to form more of an opinion of it. I encourage others to give their impressions of this piece an perhaps help us name it!

Comments about EC2 by Creativeruiny

2005-12-05T19:31:00.000-08:00

I am commenting on EC2 - Woe of the Mother dreamer which is shown in its finished state in the previous post. This Exquisite Corpse (EC) seems to suggest Mother Earth's Utopia being destroyed by the industrialization of man.

Studying Goo's example, and the strip Daniel and she exchanged, it's easy to see how the transition meshes between their sections. Looking at the first strip, it's very suggestive of a steely grey industrial city scene. She did a wonderful job with making a transition from Daniel's piece into her own piece, with somehow managing to keep a sense of continuity. Daniel's black-to-white gradient background was a nice cue, as was the single wireframe burst of color in the sky. That was good food for continuity on Goo's composition.

Goo picked up on the red flavor and painted the black-to-white gradient background with splashes of red leaves. The nature theme was certainly rooted in this example, right down to the extra-fingered ficas tree hand growing from the steely grey bricks. The drop of red blood dots the i in this composition, which is definitely suggestive of industry's victory over nature.

The strip that Rob was given in my opinion seems harder to read. What I am definitely able to see are grey bricks and brown hair. The red leaves are a bit harder to identify, and the green corner of the woman's chin is hardly able to be identified as such. However, when added together, I definitely see some sort of green and red vegetation object of a sort.

The transition here is a bit more awkward. A bit more blending would benefit the transition overall with more of the canvas filled or the negative space minimized to a degree. Usage of some of the other techniques in making digital ECs, such as pattern replication and photo layering, could have also been employed.

Each composition in this EC threesome starts off standing on its own merits. Overall, the unification wasn't completely there.

Suggestions:

1) We can do a wiser job pairing up or grouping artists for digital ECs. While I don't dislike the idea of having 3 or more artists work on one piece of work, we should leave more complex collabs to artists who are more experienced with the process of making ECs. Perhaps, we can invite novices like Rob and myself who wish to take a hand at future ECs to start off new ECs instead of having to feed off of what is given to us. This will give the inexperienced an opportunity to interpret the thought process of the finishing or continuing artist.

2) While creating your composition, keep in mind the bigger picture and remember that your section is a continuation of a larger image. Therefore it needs to have a transition area that is a tangible part of your work as well as your partner's work. This will remind you to think more collaboratively. Look at this as an opportunity to share your artistic technique and style with other artists.

3) From this point forward, we don't need to be as long winded with explanations of technique and sharing the slices we pass back and forth. It's understood now that everyone who wants to participate in these corpses understands the creative process.

Now let's make more corpses. :)

EC2 - Woe of the Mother Dreamer - [players:dan/goo/rob]

2005-11-25T19:57:00.000-08:00

This is a three section corpse done from left to right by daniel, goo, and rob. We would appreciate your critiques, interpretations, and comments.

Connected Subconscious

2005-11-21T19:14:00.000-08:00

Here's a corpse I worked on recently with a friend. Daniel did the left half, I did the right. It's not finished though. Rob will be doing the third and final section which we will attach on the right of mine, making mine (the girl/hand/bricks) the middle section. I intend to post it when finished. Rob will not see these sections until he is finished with his and then we can put all three pieces together. Already between daniel and I, there seems to be some fantasticly similiar themes going on.

Isn't it interesting how there seems to be theme even though neither one of us saw the others work until we were done? I wonder if Rob will be as intuitive when he works from the "strip" I give him to work from.

Here is an example of the "strip" daniel sliced off the side of his section and gave to me to work from. The "strip" he gave me was very challenging to think of what to create to attach to it with (example of strip on left). All that I could see besides the gray gradiation was just a few small sections of that spiraly shape a few straight lines and a dark cubicle shape at the bottom. I took cues from grey colors and few stark shapes that I could see and just built upon their suggestions. For instance at the bottom of his strip are some cube like shapes. I interpreted those as some kind of buildings from his side and extended by repeting those shapes into a city skyline for my section. Little did I know he had an industrial thing going on in his and it was actually his version of a factory. Our sections amazingly compliment eachother in other ways too. Its funny, before I saw his whole section, I was looking for some kind of pipe to photoshop at the end of the funnel where te hand is and I almost used a picture I found of a smokestack because it was the perfect shape, like a cylinder. I don't know why, but I used the glass tube instead. What an amazing coincidence it would have been if I had used smokestacks too.

I also continued with the red color I saw in the strip at the top. It was such a small glimpse of color in an otherwise gray image so I made it become a focus color in my panel and used it the bright red leaves. I also used a continuation of his grey gradation area with what appears to be powerlines for my background. That too complimented my skyline concept.

I could go on and on... Do you see the reclining women in the spiral smoke looking stuff on Daniel's side? I didn't notice that at first. What's your interpertation of what's happening in this image? What do you suppose that girl is doing?

Greetings and Mission Statement

2005-11-06T19:03:00.000-08:00

Hello!

Welcome to Mental Contagion. This blog was created by myself and Goo to serve as a location for other likeminded artists to come share their knowledge of art as well as other associated interests. Goo and I wish to use this blog as a location for us to offer commentary on art related subjects as well as a place to post our collaborations with Exquisite Corpses and other artistic collaborations. Goo wants to make a posting with regards to some background information on the history & method of creating Exquisite Corpses (there are various forms of Exquisite Corpses), so I will save the elaboration on that subject for her.

Our hope is to encourage other artists to contribute content and commentary to our blog so that this effort can serve as a true mental contagion, with ideas spreading across the minds of creative people like wildfire. The commentary and concepts shared here can range from philosophical to comical, and everything in between. We also hope to create an environment where everyone can join in the collaborations of Exquisite Corpses and other art projects. As with all things, we'll start slow and eventually build momentum into becoming a formidable creative juggernaut. *smiles*

So, greetings to one and all. May this blog be both entertaining and resourceful for all.

Calling all creative people:

2005-11-06T15:33:00.000-08:00

Us here at Mental Contagion are looking for creative people to participate in digital collaborations called an Exquisite Corpse. When finished, the images will be proudly displayed in all their surrealist glory for the world to see here at Mental Contagion.

The general idea is to collect interested individuals to be a part of these collaborations. An Exquisite Corpse is constructed by 2 to four players. Each player fills an equal portion of the Corpse canvas. Players are cued only by a small slice of the previous player’s work. The goal is to create a unified image that encompasses the sensibilities and styles of all the individuals who participated as a collective subconscious. Unconscious echoes of imagery, tone and subtext will occur of their own volition.

History of the Exquisite Corpse:

Can be read here.

The process here at Mental Contagion has been digitized. It is a collaboration between a small number of artists, each with little to no idea as to what has gone before, hopefully creating a single, unified and unique artistic work that is simmiliar to the processes of the surreal artists of the 1930's such as Man Ray and Miro.

What you need to participate:

Graphic skills are important but aren’t totally necessary to participate. Though, creativity, humor, and open-mindedness are indispensable. Also required are a computer, an email account, and image editing software like Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw, or whatever.

The process:

#1) First email me your name and email address to be used for sending images here (email to be posted soon). We will not abuse the use of your email nor share your information with anyone else. I promise, cross my heart, hope to die, stick a needle in my eye.

#2) Wait to be contacted. Once we have your email you are eligible for participation in a corpse. Depending on the number of available players, you will be assembled in groups of two, three, or four, to begin a collaboration. One person will be contacted by email to create the first section. The first participant, or we'll call them Player 1, will construct an image 450 pixels wide and 200 pixels across 300dpi which will be the first section of the corpse. It is important that the beginning section not be a complete image in itself but has trailers and dangling parts touching the bottom which will cue the next player's contribution. If the first section doesn’t have these things then the second player will have nothing to expand upon and the process will not work. Another tip is that there is no limit to how you create your corpse section. You can use photographs, drawings, anything scanned, web images, text, clip art… whatever as long as your section ends up as a 450px by 200px .jpg 300dpi.

here is an example of how to begin a corpse. see how the bottom leaves room for collaboration? (these dimensions are different- for example purposes only)

#3) Then the first section is submitted by player one back to this email address (to be posted soon). Once we check the image for the correct dimensions and format, we will slice off the bottom 20 pixels of the section and send it to the next randomly selected player. When player 2 receives the 200px by 20px strip they will use whatever information and inspiration they can gain from the 20px strip to begin their own section.

this is an example of a strip

#4) Player 2 continues the corpse. Using the strip they have received, player 2 now has to fill a 450px by 220px section of their own making the top 20px of their section the same 20px they received from player 1. These 20px will later be cropped so that all sections of the corpse will be an equal 450px by 200px. The purpose of putting the strip at the top is to make it easier to extend existing lines or blend seamlessly from the first panel into their section creating the desired surrealistic effect. Everyone will find their own way to incorporate and modify the strip in his or her section. Player 2 should keep in mind, however, that the strip will be removed from their image section and is only a tool to connect with the image above it. Seamlessness is desired and that’s the trick that makes these images successful and fun.

#5) Steps 2 through 4 are repeated for Players 3 and 4 until all four sections are completed. Note: Sometimes corpses will be made with less than four people when participants are few. Dimensions will be adjusted and instructions will be sent in these instances with the new corpse construction notification. When the last section comes in, the pieces will be assembled into the final, complete corpse and posted for all to see at which time there will be discussion and rejoicing all around!

practicaly seamless! surreal! bootiful!

Notice: There is a time limit of seven days. Also, figures to illustrate above directions will be posted soon. This site has just been started, but will be complete and functioning very soon. Bookmark us now! Comment and let us know you're intersted.