Awash in Gouache

Though this posting is not strictly in relation to an assignment for BUS 317 (31.7) New Media & Business, it is concerned with media, in this case, arguably old media, rather than new.

This semester has been one of great challenges accompanied by rewarding gain in skills and insight. As a CUNY Baccalaureate student, I am availed of an almost intimidating breadth of curriculum that spans all of the senior colleges (four year institutions) under the CUNY umbrella. My interdisciplinary major straddles the line between computer science and visual art (with a touch of business thrown in for good measure).

As the vast majority of my experience in the arts are in the performing arts (I have worked  both as actor and musician), I am having to fill in my skills in the arena of visual arts. This semester I am taking a course called ADV 1100 Design & Color with Professor Jenna Spevack at New York City College of Technology. The experience has been both terrifying (owing to my lack of experience) and immeasurably rewarding (I am painting with gouache for the first time in my life). I cannot overstate the challenge of working in the medium of gouache for a person who, prior to this point, had extreme phobia of even drawing using graphite pencils. In fact, it is still my feeling, though less so than before, that I cannot even draw a straight line, let alone any complex abstract forms.

"Aural Landscape"—this abstract free study, based on a spectrogram of my voice saying my informal name, "Bobby," was rendered with Pigma Micron pens.

This course is introductory in nature and certainly does not aim at creating visual artists; rather it aims at introducing basic design concepts and color theory (sophisticated enough for me at my present level of development). Interestingly, given my background in performing arts, I have found that the same creative and expressive urges that find their way into performance have been translated into my propensity to create complex compositions within the context of each required project in the course.

The real point of highlighting my activities in this course is that as I slowly begin to absorb new skills (working with graphic Pigma Micron pens, graphite pencil sketching, and most challengingly, painting with gouache), I begin to see and feel the interconnectedness of these media.

A medium, in the purest (and purist) sense, is a means of conveyence, a venue for expression of ideas, sentiments, philosophies. My ultimate aim is to create well-integrated interactive web sites that are aesthetically pleasing as well as functionally rich.

The parallels and intersections between the more organic forms of media such as the human body in theatre, the vocal cords and/or musical instruments in music, graphite, water color, gouache and acrylic in visual arts, and the more recent counterpart of graphic paint and/or photo software are myriad. They are all media whose aims point to a common arena—that of the realm of human feelings, experience and ideas. In other words, they all aim at clear and expressive communication, and though some may be considered "new media," the new forms that are intrinsically linked to their underlying technologies are no newer in intent than the ancient media of water color and/or gouache.

This semester has opened a whole new world, exposing me to totally new (despite their historical antiquity) means of expression that can only enhance and strengthen not only my efforts in the realm of computer science, i.e., computer programming for the web, but also my lifelong work in the performing arts.

Within the next couple of days, I will be posting my summary definition of new media. I welcome your comments on this posting, as well as any other of my postings up to this point.