ESSAY RESEARCH AND SOURCES

I thought to look into Eastern perspective first as I was previously aware that Linear Perspective had been brought to them quite late. I discovered that in Japan perspective and depth had been brought to the visual arts, through literary tradition, from 'Waka' poetry. This source of descriptive short-form poetry allowed Japanese artists of the time to clearly envision the scene described by the poets and so led to the creation of the first Japanese woodblock prints that are now commonly known as Ukiyo-e.

 From There, I looked at why this sense of space faded in the East and began changing to the more scientific but less descriptive western perspective as Japan moved ebbed to the 1900's. This, I found, was largely due to the open trade of photographic images and therefore a growing interest from the Japanese people into this new form of 'perfect' perspective. 

 From This I looked at how cinema has achieved building fictional space over the century that it has been a predominant form of mass entertainment and discovered the tried and tested method of doing this was in miniature building. With the first serious use of miniatures in films being documented from the very beginning of the cinematic industry over a century ago and the technique still being widely used across multi-million pound productions, I thought this would be an interesting route to take.

 This finally brought me on to the art of miniature making and the worlds that can be built and made to be believable, allowing the artist complete control. At this, I found a good stopping point for my essay and a fantastic starting point for my practical work.

 With so many possibilities in making fictional space I want to try and practice with each process I have learned about and discover what works and can be properly assimilated into my processes of printmaking and what can't.