Everydays: A Sequence of Graphic Renders
An experiment in rendering daily representations of mediation and it’s transcendent nature through time and space, using Cinema 4D and real time rendering in Octane Render.
The medium I chose to use, was to work with digital render art, as I have experience with the tools Octane Render and Cinema 4D. These works I would render would be part of a four day period project where I would render imagery linked to the concepts discussed about media in both through a dystopic and media centric lens, with references to scholarly schools of thought as purported by the Frankfurt School of Media. I was also inspired by the works of Mike Winkleman or ‘BEEPLE’ as he is known widely in the digital art community for creating renders using the everyday scheme. The everyday scheme is now a common theme on most social media based digital art blogs. An everyday is the process in which an artist would render something from mind or inspiration spontaneously, taking a good chunk out of their day to model, UVW map material (the process of which a material is mapped to a 3D object via the unwrapping of UV points on an object), normalize and finally render to a digital jpeg image. Winkleman did this for approximately 365 days without missing a beat and he still continues to do so as his
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DAY 1
The Day 1 render I have done is of a printer array, in the place of concept being up to interpretation. The theme for this render is surveillance from an authoritarian standpoint, as I was inspired by the concept of the soviet era printer regulation that was depicted by Hans Magnus Enzensberger, depicting that printers could start revolutions if not regulated, due to potential anti-propaganda for revolutions. Ideally the process of which technology and mediums of media and channels of distribution are key in reversing the relations of power by taking control of the technological means of production. What I have rendered depicts the array being digitally attacked or technologically being overthrown by an unknown entity or virus. The majority of printers in the array are portrayed as monochromatic and have a red screen panel, identifying them as non-corrupt and business-as usual machines printing propaganda and other literature in a cold but programmed manner. Whereas the outlier has symptoms of infection as the screen panel is green to depict a liberation through external influence, while the printer’s external organs are overlaid in graffiti like colours, the process in which the printer was UVW mapped with a graffiti image from google, then adjusted accordingly with UVW scale and rotation parameters. Showing a less subtle change as if in the contemporary media based state, these machines are still susceptible to attacks, despite the propaganda put out by big data security corporations who claim their software is impenetrable and un-hackable. The 3D printer (obj. files) are modelled in Cinema 4D, with materials from Sketchfab.com and subsequent material rendering through the Octane Render external real time render engine.
Wire frame pass Matte pass Final
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DAY 2
Following this Orwellian fantasy based theme, the 2nd day render was based on a conceptualization of what a dystopian reality would look like, ideally again up to interpretation, I was very inspired by the industrial zones seen in renditions of cyberpunk societies by movies such as Bladerunner and Ghost in the Shell. What I would describe it as is the surface of a Dyson sphere harvesting the energy of a collapsed star in the distant future. To create the landscape I used a displacement map and extruded it, while the displacement material was added to a plane, creating the industrial cyberpunk texture and imagery. The addition of Adorno Inside as a monolithic glowing text, in the form of a dystopic future corporation name, was inspired by the contemporary, intel inside slogan plastered on the motherboards of computers. This concept I chose to embed is also akin to that of the corporatization of technological mediums. The way in which through a dystopic lens, mega corporations dictate society through the formation of corporatocracy through media conglomeration and then the ongoing process of the acquisition of other systems and mediums, to centralize and mainline societal processes. The Orwellian fantasy also has a heavy imposition on surveillance, so it is implied, in regards to the render, that this foundry process is heavily surveilled, and we can infer this by the light projections that I added to the displacement map texture, as well as what the rest of the ‘world’ beyond this in this aesthetic could look like.
Normal map pass Wire frame pass Matte pass and no specular
Material Node editor
Final
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DAY 3
The 3rd day render is a rendition of art work inspired by retro-wave, a theme that mixes elements of vaporwave with that of then-contemporary 80s themed elements. I wanted to do a more Euro-German centric retro-wave aesthetic, so I placed a key german automotive icon from the 80s, the BMW 850i in the centre of the scene as if it was traversing through a digital autobahn. The scene is supposed to convey a sense of wonder with an homage to the late 80s transition into the pre-broadband era. The autobahn is a metaphor for the surge in hyper connectivity. A stylized graphic representation of Mcluhan on the process of the reorganization of culture through the unprecedented evolvement of connected tech at the time, which supersedes the era.
Wire frame pass Final
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DAY 4
The fourth day render is very much a more literal rendition of the concept of the dying medium. The overarching figure that is communication, as portrayed in a more sci-fi abstract form of the monolithic communication reactor combined with the pseudo organic architecture of ancient aztec pyramid architecture, to portray the evolution and retention of materials and mediums through the ages. Aztec pyramids had multifunctional uses, next to platforms for for pre-cursor figures of authority to speak from, so I saw this as an opportunity to show a stark difference in era between mediums and the transcendent nature of it through time. The Aztec pyramid was formed through the use of shapes and textured materials were UVW mapped to make the specular and glossy material channels show more weathered rock detail. Using a displacement map I managed to make the structure fragment, as if the reactor on top was siphoning it’s life force and foundation. The overall feel was made to evoke the sense of the zombification of the archive as a whole. Emissions were used to make the beams look reactive and glow, as well as the embers on the pyramid to create the effect of internal combustion. When we step back, we can interpret this as the structure evolves to the next tier and surpasses that of the precursor mediums.
Wire frame pass Final
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