Each tank will be transformed into a canvas, which will host a portrait image of a well-known personality. The image will not be painted in a photorealistic manner; it will be stripped down to a fairly abstract level. In four quadrants around the tank one is able to see the same image in four different image resolutions.
Referring to digital images, which are always based on pixels (aka Picture element – the smallest unit of a digital image, it holds only one color value in a square) the surface of the tanks will be divided into a grid of squares.
The four stages will show an evolving series starting in the quality of a color field painting, progressing to the status of a passerby stating, “This must be a portrait.“ and ending at a resolution where one can identify the name of the person.
The last two stages are based on two parameters. The first is given by the location. The viewer is able the see the tanks from rather far distances. The second is based on the original image material – carefully selected by the artist. The images are part of the American „collective image memory“ and therefore it is possible to recombine the image from the seen squares and the images „stored“ in the brain of the viewer.
The system of four stages per personality only works as a concept for the sides of the tanks. The tops, which can be seen best from an airplane or in digital via Google Earth will be treated in a slightly different form. The tank tops are divided into groups and the personality spreads out over one to four physical objects. In this way, the images of faces will come into focus from a bird’s eye view.
List of portraits:
tank #42 Samantha Smith
tank #118 Leon Leonwood Bean
tank #13 Harriet Tubman
tank 14 Benjamin Franklin
tank #105 Martin Luther King
tank #5 Thomas Edison
tank #28 Amelia Earhart
tank #111 Susan B. Anthony
tank #42 Milton Bradley
tank #118 Molly Spotted Elk
tanks #13, #14, #105 EB White
tanks #112, #113, #114, #207 Rosa Parks
tanks #102, #103, #101 Harriet Beecher Stove
tanks #111, #28, #5, #4 Marsden Hartley
Competition website http://www.artallaround.com
Maine Center for Creativity http://www.mainecenterforcreativity.org
plan for tank #105
location at Google Maps
and the winner is…
Test with projector
Overview
Sprague Energy Corporation overview
Proposal images
proposal view B (full scale)
proposal view B (full scale)
proposal view C (full scale)
proposal view D (full scale)