| Online Chuck Close Filter | ||||||||||
| Dissected original Chuck Close paintings into thousand of tiles to create countless synthetic replicas. Upload your face to be transformed into a genuine digital mosaic. | ||||||||||
 |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
| It takes me approximately 8 hours to disassemble each Chuck Close portrait. I scan the original images from books at 600dpi, a high enough resolution to capture halftone dots used in printing color plates. Due to camera lens distortion, the images are not perfectly square. I search for barely visible pencil marks that define the underlying grid, using Photoshop actions to automatically separate all of the tiles.
There are certain laws that apply to the real world, but they do not necessarily apply to the art world. Other artists, most notably Sherrie Levine, have created "copies" of Walker Evans photographs that look identical to the original but are conceptually very different. I am not trying to rip off Chuck Close (imitation is the highest form of flattery). He has been quoted as calling computers "labor saving devices" and thinks technology does not save any time. Chuck Close is also very adamant about not accepting portrait commissions, so if you are not lucky or fabulous enough to be one of his sitters, you will never get to see your face immortalized in his signature style. I want to make Chuck's art available to the masses in a new exciting way. I believe my online digital filter is the next logical step this art movement needs to make, whether Chuck Close likes it or not. I have been following Chuck Close's work for 10 years. I've seen videos of him painting and photos of his work in progress. I understand how he creates his mosaic images, and believe my digital mosaics are right in line with what Chuck is doing. I have already dissected three Chuck Close images and created working demo of the online program. I actually started working on this project in 2003, but Internet connection speed is fast enough now to handle 2 MB downloads. I have been collaborating with a programmer, German Kolenov, to create the demo and discuss feasibility of project. I would like to add several features to the online program. German and I will work together on a 45-degree angle option to slant the mosaic, similar to how Chuck Close paints. We also want to add more color and grayscale tile options as well as ability combine groups of tiles into super-libraries. Finally, we would like to use the power of computers to go beyond Chuck Close's original scope by adding a transform option that rotates and mirrors each tile to increase mosaic possibilities 7 fold. I am not doing this art project to get sued. I respect what Chuck Close does. I think his art is great. I'd prefer to have Chuck Close's endorsement for the project, rather than battle a fellow artist in court. That being said, I would like to contact a lawyer to help clarify intellectual property rights. I also plan on hiring a writer to review my project, and help draft a letter to Chuck Close. |
||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
