MARIE LAVEAU, CY TWOMBLY, XXX

On a recent trip to New Orleans, Maria and I visited St. Louis Cemetery #1, the oldest cemetery in the city, dating from 1789. Truly a fascinating place, this city of the dead, with above ground tombs - some bright white and brand new in shapes of pyramids and obelisks, many old and repaired, and many in disrepair, possibly forgotten by time. ( The crypts are not kept up unless a continuing care package is maintained ).

We saw the grave of Marie Laveau - or the supposed grave, it wouldn't be a surprise if the identity of its true occupant were lost to time as well. Laveau and her daughter, Laveau II were famous Voodoo practitioners in Crescent City in the 19th century. Voodoo practitioners were not taken lightly in the eclectic and ever-unique city of New Orleans and achieved considerable clout and fame.

The grave attracts tourists and fans, many of whom mark three X's (xxx) on the grave in the hopes that the spirit of Laveau will grant them a wish.

The result is something really lovely, which I compare here to a Cy Twombly ( or rather, the other way round ) - an old grave, a shrine to Laveau and a place for a small act.

Recently, I've been interested in the small act. Is this wishing an act of fancy, a small act of grace or art or aesthetics? Collectively, the XXX's and the xxx's and those inbetween take on a meaning that's full of tension and intrigue. And beautiful - physically and in what it represents - the wishes of dozens of strangers, the anointment of a location as a place of significnce for these acts.

Can this be reproduced? And how small of an act can have meaning and aesthetic value?

What's the smallest artistic act?

xxx

THE HUMAN FACE, RENDERED

Naturalistic human facial expression is becoming more convincing as the technology evolves and the creators of these analogs build in more detail - the muscles of the brow and around the corners of the mouth are represented more fully and faithfully. Like this video of a Japanese humanoid that has been floating around the internet recently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7tYwnqot6M


There's that Uncanny Valley, where if something looks like a human but not quite like a human the representation leaves you cold, even a little queasy in my case.

3d graphic representations of people have, up until recently, always landed in the Valley for me. No matter the skill of the texturing of the skin and drapping of flesh on structure, they often seem hollow, moving but without a soul and maybe without internal organs. The Tom Hanks character in the Polar Express I found particularly grotesque because the empty humanoid emanated such a familiar and everyman voice.

It's instructive to go back to the early days of a medium and see the creators just beginning to manipulate a form that in retrospect, feels an inevitable evolution that is now familiar.

I ran across this video of early 3D modeling of the human head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SPMFhcC4SvQ&feature=related


The video is really creepy, and sometime playful, like around 2:17 where the animator distorts the features beyond the boundaries as a show of technical prowess. It's also a little surprising how advanced this head is for 1974. They could do that in 1974? I wasn't even born!

Of course, people - artists and actors - have been depicting and manipulating the human visage since the dawn of art. Here is one of the most powerful examples in human history -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Caravaggio_-_David_con_la_testa_di_Golia.jpg

The young warrior David, having slain the giant Goliath, looks at the work he holds in his hand with a subtle expression. Maybe it is sympathy or concern or a bittersweet reflection on what's required in conflict. Goliath's head is a grotesque and humanized monster, the brow tensed and palpable as a real human brow would be. But this depiction created with the not-so-simple tools of canvas, pigment, medium, adhesive.

What will be the next generation of depictions and analogues of the human face?