A Mosaic of Mosaics

A Mosaic of Mosaics

by Natalie Bloniarz

Natalie Bloniarz

Abstract

The paragraph should give a three to five sentence abstract about your entire London HUA experience including 1) a summary of the aims of your project, 2) your prior experience with humanities and arts courses and disciplines, and 3) your major takeaways from the experience. This can and should be very similar to the paragraph you use to summarize this milestone on your Profile Page. It should contain your main Objective, so be sure to clearly state a one-sentence statement that summarizes your main objective for this milestone such as "a comparison of the text of Medieval English choral music to that of the Baroque" or it may be a question such as "to what extent did religion influence Christopher Wren's sense of design?"

The aim of this project is to understand the techniques and materials needed to create a mosaic and apply that to a new digital medium. Using my skills from AR 1101, Digital Imaging and Computer Art, and my experience from high school using the Adobe Suite, I aim to create a modern mosaic in a digital format. Throughout this milestone I learned that much of the origins of mosaics are unknown and that mosaics can be made of virtually any material.

Introduction

I suggest you save this section for last. Describe the essence of this project. Cover what the project is and who cares in the first two sentences. Then cover what others have done like it, how your project is different. Discuss the extent to which your strategy for completing this project was new to you, or an extension of previous HUA experiences.

As you continue to think about your project milestones, reread the "Goals" narrative on defining project milestones from the HU2900 syllabus. Remember: the idea is to have equip your milestone with a really solid background and then some sort of "thing that you do". You'll need to add in some narrative to describe why you did the "thing that you did", which you'd probably want to do anyway. You can make it easy for your advisors to give you a high grade by ensuring that your project milestone work reflects careful, considerate, and comprehensive thought and effort in terms of your background review, and insightful, cumulative, and methodical approaches toward the creative components of your project milestone deliverables.

Section 1: Background

Materials

Tiling

This is the most important portion of the mosaic, as it is the most visible part of the mosaic. The oldest known mosaics are created from smooth pebbles of varying sizes, but this limits the precision of the artist to the available stones; pebble mosaics were popular with the Greeks and many of their mosaics are made from pebbles. Eventually the Romans popularized tesserae, the style of mosaic made of individual square cut pieces of stone and shell. The tesserae can be made of a variety of materials and have been as time has passed. The Byzantine Empire is known to use smalti, a type of enameled glass with pure colors, a uneven texture, and it reflects light very well. A separate form of smalti is gold smalti, which consists of gold sandwiched between two glass plates, it can also have many different textures, colors, and levels of reflective strength. Another material is Venetian (Vitreous) glass, which has less intense colors than smalti and a constantly smooth surface on one side. The Venetian glass is often used for more mundane works such as pools and bathrooms than the Byzantine smalti. Ceramic tile is great for outdoor use, for when it is glazed it is incredibly weather resistant, and the tile comes in a variety of colors and can be made with specialized designed within the tiles. Stone was a popular choice of the Romans and is more durable than other materials and it can have natural variance within the tiles. A more modern tile choice would be broken chine, picassiette. This style is unlike most tesserae because it is not often in a regular shape and size. Stained glass is another option that resembles the Byzantine smalti, though is transparent as opposed to opaque; this can lead to the surface of the background to show through and it is a relatively fragile material. Mirror is an interesting material for its unique pure reflective quality, but it can be subject to tarnishing over time diminishing its main quality. Aside from these main tiling materials there are many alternative options that can be experimented with like shell and recycled materials like buttons.

Base

The tiling must sit on a surface for it to be stable and the different options for bases can have an effect on the tiling and adhesive choice. For mosaics that would be inside, plywood or Medium Density Fiberboard (MDF) would be good because they are readily available. Furniture can also be used as a base for a mosaic, but the shape, material, and structural integrity must be taken into account to see if it can support the mosaic and if it is possible to adhere the tile to the furniture. Pottery, cement, and cement backer board are great for outdoor projects due to their durability. Metal can be used for both outdoor and indoor mosaics but warping can occur due to temperature variation. These are just a few base materials, but others such as glass or mesh, can be used to create a more custom work of art.<ref>Biggs, E. (2003). Mosaic techniques (1st ed., pp. 72-73). London: Cassell Illustrated.<ref>

Section 2: Deliverable

In this section, provide your contribution, creative element, assessment, or observation with regard to your background research. This could be a new derivative work based on previous research, or some parallel to other events. In this section, describe the relationship between your background review and your deliverable; make the connection between the two clear.

A Modern Mosaic

About the Mosaic

For my mosaic I decided to use a completely digital medium, akin to a collage. The tiles of my mosaic are photos of mosaics, taken by me and from the internet, that have been shrunken down to a relatively constant size. I then took my digital tesserae and using Photoshop, I created the image above. The digital medium I used allowed for more experimentation than would have been allowed by the traditional physical mosaic, as I could move photos whenever I wanted and undo my mistakes. I also had an unlimited supply of tile possibilities at my fingertips via the world wide web. MORE ABOUT THE IMAGE HERE

Gallery of Images Used in the Mosaic

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Conclusion

In this section, provide a summary or recap of your work, as well as potential areas of further inquiry (for yourself, future students, or other researchers).

External Links

If appropriate, add an external links section