REALITY CHECK

"See the funny bats that come out around me sometimes? They are not just in my imagination."	My son Joe	My friend Hal, early on a fishing morning	Lightening strikes at my friend Hal, in the water by his dock. A guy who emerges OK from anything, he was fine.	"A strange man put that up yesterday. I don't know what he is trying to say by leaving it here like that."
"Don't know what it is, Crashed down last night and wrecked the fence. Some kind of stone fish, I think. My back hoe won't budge it."	When I was a kid, there was this artist that made my face in clay.	Me recently, as embossed on tin from the inside of a big beer can.	She is a heavy chick, indeed. I have to take her seriously, or else.	"Cupid bashed the building right in here. He was traveling mighty fast and not looking where he was goin."
"I guess they think if they can calm themselves down and get centered enough, the engine will start for them."	Late afternoon girl's hang-gliding club event	There is one particularly big bug that flies around in Lake Winnipausakee. Scares the tourists some times.	"Damn Pyrash thing likes to hang out over my dock. Its OK by me but I goddah keep explaining it to visitors."	"Daddy, what are those creepy stone things?"
"All kind of wierd things grow here in the Upper Amazon."	"Damn, but those weeds have grown incredibly since yesterday."	View under the bridge	"Them big baloons or whatever they are, they can be a navigation hazard. If you stick one, you get sprayed with all kinds of gunk."	"I wonder what that is."
"OK dad. I believe you now. It really is a very strange weed. Now, lets paddle hard."	"Yeah, I can see just fine. But where exactly did you say we are right now?"	"No, I am not cold at all. In fact, I am quite comfortable."	"Harold, whatever they might be they are definitely making me nervous. Please manage to get the engine started and get us out of here. Please."	"We are used to them in these parts. They just come down sometimes. Nobody has figured out from where. By morning, they will all have sunk."
"That girl. She always likes to be on center stage."	"Excuse me sir. Would you have a spare cigarette?"	"Well, its getting dark now. They have been that way since morning, and are still praying."	"I do not like to judge people so this is hard to say. He is not a nice person. And his place is not that nice either."	"Daddy, what is a Lantorkle? Do they bite? Are they like Pyrashes?"
"Well, to be perfectly direct, I was just sitting here waiting for a ride somewhere."	"Let's not say anything about this to mom and dad. They will think we have been hitting the weed again,"	"That pesky Pyrash keeps following us. Makes me nervous. Are you absolutely sure it is harmless?"	"Sets you to wondering where they are from. And what do they want? Could be dangerous, I guess."	"That definitely is the biggest Pyrash we have seen so far this season."
"Ok. Ok. You say the Grytzz is attacking the Gnarkle?"	"They do come out here from time to time. Looking for their history, I think."	"Honey, that funny rain thing is coming again."	"They grow in the late Fall and disolve over the winter. Way too big to hang on our Christmas tree."	"Them small Pyrashes have an affinity for boats. Seems there is generally one hanging out here in the boat yard."

 What is this about?

The intent of this gallery is an exploration of reality and existence.  To deal visually with questions like what is real?  What exists?  What could be real?  Further, more profoundly to ask: What is reality anyway?  Do some images show things that are real and other not?  What is honesty in art?  Can images be truthful or lies?  Or is it that all images, including what we see when we look with our eyes, are merely 2-dimensional projections of something out there which we call reality but which is basically unknowable?  Perhaps all images are lies, just good lies and bad lies, useful ones and useless ones..

One reason why these questions are important is that movies are increasingly based on a blend of 3-d modeling and photography.  So are online games preoccupying the time of millions of young people.  One second you are looking at a filmed image of an actress, the next second you are looking at a 3-d model of the same person entirely created by computer.  You can’t tell when the transition takes place.  And computer actors and actresses will increasingly replace the “real” ones, if for no other reason than that they don’t require work contracts and are remarkably free of personal problems.

The images in this gallery are mostly combinations of photographic picture segments and images generated by 3-d modeling.  Some are only of one kind or the other.  A photographic image is a 2-d projection of a 3-d “reality, ” created by optical rays which bounce off of objects (sometimes multiple times) and are focused by glass lenses on film (or on the sensor of an electronic camera).  All the laws of optical physics come into play, including optical properties of surfaces like reflexivity, color, refraction, texture characteristics, etc.  The image is not the reality; it is a specialized projection of reality  from a particular viewpoint and perspective. 

An image derived from 3-d modeling starts with a mathematical characterization of some “reality,” say a scene including mountains, vegetation, sky, rocks, and rippling water.  The modeling program, when properly directed, uses the same laws of physics to render a 2-d view of the scene from a particular viewpoint and perspective under particular lighting conditions, just like taking a photo.  The resulting image is also a specialized projection, but the underlying reality is a mathematical model if what could be real in this or in some alternative universe, and possibly of what is not real in this universe. 

Combine, mix-and-match and confuse among the photographic and modeling-derived images, a typical deft move of Art KOU KUO,  and what do we get?  Re-fractalized reality or re-fractalized fantasy?  Clever lies, or alternative models of things that are more profound? 

The images ask the questions.  The boats are mostly from pictures taken on Lake Winnipausakee in New Hampshire where I spend as many summer days as I can.  The mountains, sky and water, and things like airplanes?  well you guess which are which.  Some are from photos and others from 3-d modeling.  The people cast in stone?  Cave carvings perhaps, or what exactly?   The other people?  Lost in some hyperspace?    Same for the strange objects, mechanical monsters, unlikely plants and insects.  Enjoy, think, and write me if you are so inclined.

This music and all the music associated with the images in this gallery is played by Mark Giuliano.

For fun and to bring out alternative perspectives, each image is show both as I made it and as affected by a dynamic transformation.

Please write me about your reactions to my Art KOU KUO at vegiuliano@comcast.net