Digital Medievalism

Originally posted on my Cityside blog on Wed, 05/04/2006 - 10:00am.

I've mentioned to a few people my latest little project - a piece of digital medievalism. Namely, a geometric design based on medieval rose windows, executed in digital form and with digital photos of roses in place of the stained glass:



Here are links to the digital rose window, an article on creating the digital rose window, and an article on digital sacred geometry in general. (Sadly, somewhere in the process my diagrams lost weight and they're quite hard to read.)

Why would I do something like this? Well, because I want to bring a degree of medieval sensibility - something more organic and less mechanical - into digital art. Digital art is usually modern or postmodern, because, after all, what we have here is cutting-edge technology and so it should look technological, shouldn't it? Except, now it's not cutting-edge, it's been around for twenty years. It's just technology, and we can use it like we would any other technology - like a compass and straightedge with pen and paper, for example.

As I point out in the first article, it's not that hard to do, either. And because natural forms are generally geometrical or mathematical in basis (but not built on a grid), even when we use digital means to create art based on geometry it has an "organic" feel to it.

I like the result and will probably do some more like this. I'm planning to get an art print made at some point so that I can hang it on my wall - if anyone else would like one let me know and I'll have several done (about $70 for A3 and $90 for A2).