TECHNOBOT 2000

Anaglyph Fine Art Prints at Leander McCormick Observatory

University of Virginia, Charlottesville

Opening September 1 and running through November, 2000, the Leander McCormick Observatory is presenting an exhibition of my stereoscopic art. Over twenty of my anaglyph art prints, posters, and phantograms will be on display. About half of the images are new in 2000 and have not been exhibited before. The subject matter includes computer generated futurist fantasies, action photos, a landscape, clouds (aerial), a flower(!!), and photo abstracts. This broad range of imagery is testimony to my ongoing introductory experimentation with stereoscopic imaging.

The observatory and gallery is open to the public on the evenings of the first and third Fridays of each month. Before daylight savings changes the hours will be around 9 to 11PM. Later in the fall, the hours may be 7 to 9PM. Just come after dark is a good idea. I am planning a private afternoon showing with a stereoscopic slide presentation. This event would take place towards the end of the exhibition on or around November 25.

During the public open house nights, weather permitting, astronomical observations are conducted using the venerable 26" refractor (built in 1883) and with smaller and more modern 'scopes in a separate building. In addition to the art gallery, the observatory houses a small museum that outlines basic astronomical concepts and equipment. For directions, you may call the Astronomy department, 804 924-7494. For more information about the exhibition you should make contact through the mail form.

Please let me know if you are able to visit, or if you are interested in attending the slide show.

Click on thumbnail for preview.
Anaglyph artifacts are camouflaged.
Texture obfuscates the anaglyph artifacts.
Anaglyph artifacts are incorporated into composition.
Older computer generated imagery.
Phantograms Very strong depth. Phantograms appear almost like holograms. Click here to read more about this print format.

Please Note: the color and contrast of the images visible via your computer monitor will probably not match the color and contrast of the prints. Everyone's monitor will be different. I am showing source files for the prints on this site, but the printing process, and the use of archival pigmented inks on watercolor paper, gives the prints a more muted quality.

About the Anaglyph as a Fine Art Medium.

I have become most excited with the artistic possibilities and challenges in anaglyphs. My experience in exhibiting my works to the public, and in particular to the art-buying public, has shown me that anaglyphic prints may well be the only affordable medium for bringing stereoscopy to a broader audience.

It is well and good that a substantial market of enthusiasts exists for the purchase and appreciation of stereo slides and stereo cards. But this market has been self-contained and relatively static for many years. This is because these traditional stereo formats are not as "accessible" to members of the art-loving general public, who may not have had any contact with stereoscopic imaging before. Why? Because in the larger world of fine art, product is bought and appreciated for display purposes, and this is where the traditional stereo formats are particularly deficient - you cannot hang a stereo slide on the wall of your office or home, and stereo cards are only a little better for this purpose. I want to bring the magic of fine art stereoscopic images to a broader audience.

Anaglyphic prints suffer from their own problems, of course, not least of which is the heritage of usage in comic books and in the commercial/novelty realm. I expect that there are very few artists using this format for fine art presentation - but that is part of the challenge which I accept and which motivates me. Aside the historical connotations of marginality in any anaglyph print is the technical problem of color - the color filtering needed at the eyes makes the design of a color image particularly difficult.

My newest works address both of these problems. Accepting the challenge results in the development of a new style.

I defeat the historical burden of marginality that anaglyphs carry by hiding within my prints the very thing that makes them anaglyph: the color fringing along edges in reds and blues which is caused by the parallax / depth within the image. In The Kiss, the fringing is obscured by the fact that objects of depth are blurred. The red/blue edges become part of motion blur and are effectively obscured - camouflaged, if you will, by their softness. In The Dream the fringing becomes part of the composition: the abstraction of floating discorporeal hands in space only further supports the abstraction of separation of colors through parallax. Thus the fringing appears a deliberate part of the "flat" composition. Ultimately, the print may not even reveal an actual real object(s). The abstract prints appear totally flat - even more so because of a lack of any other depth cues - then the use of 3-d glasses becomes a special revelation, revealing not only depth, but tangible objects otherwise rendered invisible.

1999.

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