I'm really excited to have an Isaura in the mix and I enjoyed your mission statement/visualisation, particularly the way you're able to align it with mining towns etc. and also your rationale for the religious fervour surrounding the water. I like too the idea of the 'old heart' of the city being somehow surrounded by increasingly big and modern iterations of the original technologies for sourcing the water. I wasn't as sure about the rationale for the trio of cultures - Indian, Greek, Venetian - at the heart of your city, as perhaps this represents an unnecessary complication of that prime idea of yours about the old centre and the outward radiating of newer technologies. My instinct would be to settle on a single ethnic 'stem cell' that is characterful and easily read, and also makes geographical sense perhaps of why water is so important and why it has to be mind from so far below (which suggests it is otherwise scarce in terms of rain fall and climate). It might be that you totally embrace the 'wild west' aesthetic completely in this respect, or the Indian influence completely or...
In terms of the religiosity, in visual terms, I can't help feeling that it might be more immediate and visual to think about making the worship of the means by which the water is sourced a prime image in your world - so the machines/drills/platforms etc are given special status - a little bit like the way that cities grew up around the cathedral, Isaura's other buildings might be dwarfed by the pump-houses etc and that the reservoirs are like massive holy fonts etc.
In visual terms, Calvino really paints a picture of an almost 'aerial city' - a place of stilts and platforms and elevated gantries - you might consider flipping your 16:9 canvas from horizontal to portrait when it comes to thinking about getting this information into your image. I must say I do like your moody thumbnails, Ollie - that second thumbnail of the lone figure amongst the verticals is very expressive and I think this is surprising and encouraging given your apparent aversion to 'drawing'!
There is an implied kineticism about Isaura - lots of moving parts - and you might be interested in taking a look at automata as an aligned visual reference in terms of visualising some of the older styles of tech in the city:
In terms of your 'interior' I'm very drawn to that bit of trivia about visions being triggered by chemical vapours, so maybe, as a contrast to all the moving parts and industrialised aesthetic, you might indeed choose this inner sanctum at the very heart of the old city - something perhaps deriving from the geography of the original site - a naturally occurring spring or well or cave - the site of the oracle or whatever - the most ancient place - the 'stem cell' from which the entire city ultimately developed.
Short version - I think you've identified some real ideas-driven responses to Isaura and I think your job now is probably to streamline some of those ideas so they can communicate themselves with immediacy and look for opportunities between the three paintings to engage with the contrasts you describe - so the ancient and the religious to the modern and the industrial. Onwards!
OGR 06/09/2017
ReplyDeleteHey Ollie,
I'm really excited to have an Isaura in the mix and I enjoyed your mission statement/visualisation, particularly the way you're able to align it with mining towns etc. and also your rationale for the religious fervour surrounding the water. I like too the idea of the 'old heart' of the city being somehow surrounded by increasingly big and modern iterations of the original technologies for sourcing the water. I wasn't as sure about the rationale for the trio of cultures - Indian, Greek, Venetian - at the heart of your city, as perhaps this represents an unnecessary complication of that prime idea of yours about the old centre and the outward radiating of newer technologies. My instinct would be to settle on a single ethnic 'stem cell' that is characterful and easily read, and also makes geographical sense perhaps of why water is so important and why it has to be mind from so far below (which suggests it is otherwise scarce in terms of rain fall and climate). It might be that you totally embrace the 'wild west' aesthetic completely in this respect, or the Indian influence completely or...
In terms of the religiosity, in visual terms, I can't help feeling that it might be more immediate and visual to think about making the worship of the means by which the water is sourced a prime image in your world - so the machines/drills/platforms etc are given special status - a little bit like the way that cities grew up around the cathedral, Isaura's other buildings might be dwarfed by the pump-houses etc and that the reservoirs are like massive holy fonts etc.
In visual terms, Calvino really paints a picture of an almost 'aerial city' - a place of stilts and platforms and elevated gantries - you might consider flipping your 16:9 canvas from horizontal to portrait when it comes to thinking about getting this information into your image. I must say I do like your moody thumbnails, Ollie - that second thumbnail of the lone figure amongst the verticals is very expressive and I think this is surprising and encouraging given your apparent aversion to 'drawing'!
There is an implied kineticism about Isaura - lots of moving parts - and you might be interested in taking a look at automata as an aligned visual reference in terms of visualising some of the older styles of tech in the city:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kv1CpJi60xQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz8TV7gkeT0
In terms of your 'interior' I'm very drawn to that bit of trivia about visions being triggered by chemical vapours, so maybe, as a contrast to all the moving parts and industrialised aesthetic, you might indeed choose this inner sanctum at the very heart of the old city - something perhaps deriving from the geography of the original site - a naturally occurring spring or well or cave - the site of the oracle or whatever - the most ancient place - the 'stem cell' from which the entire city ultimately developed.
Short version - I think you've identified some real ideas-driven responses to Isaura and I think your job now is probably to streamline some of those ideas so they can communicate themselves with immediacy and look for opportunities between the three paintings to engage with the contrasts you describe - so the ancient and the religious to the modern and the industrial. Onwards!