Napier's King Kong and Durieu's Giraffe and Oeil Complex

Have been playing with Mark Napier's "King Kong" piece at http://potatoland.org/solid/kingkong .

I am very fond of this piece. Some things I like about it:

The big picture would seem to allude to 9/11. This is by no means uncommon. But this piece is
particular. The reference is indirect. And the statement is somewhat cryptic in some ways but
clear in others: this building springs back; you can't destroy it. Napier is a New Yorker and I
imagine he must be proud of his home city.

The building is sort of like a building but also sort of like a person. If you play with it for
a while, that emerges.

There's something about the physics that gives the building an impression of size in some
circumstances, such as when it sways. As though it were quite large. At other times, the physics
seems more like the human body.

And it is a lot of fun to play with. The responsive quality is extrordinarily strong. Lots of
character. You can feel the material. And you can fling that thing around from side to side like
crazy. Or you can be more delicate with it and see just how much it can stand before it tips. Or
give it a helping hand up if it starts to tip. It's at this point that it behaves like a human
body quite dramatically, as though it were a body whose arms were tied. And you can try to
scrunch it down, at which point its internal 'strength' becomes apparent (as opposed to its
flexibility).

I never found myself wishing it were something other than wireframe.

Indeed the wireframe gives the impression of artistic distillation down to the rub. And the
geometric quality of the piece goes with the other pieces in "Solid" at
http://potatoland.org/solid .

The name of the piece, "King Kong" is funny. Because we are King Kong. The title is only
indicated by an alt tag and in the URL. Very minimally indicated. Like the pieces themselves are
of a minimal aesthetic.

The background of "King Kong" is quietly important to the piece. Think of the backgrounds you
see in other such pieces. This is dynamic and provides a sense of the building apart from
wireframe. But the red reminds me of 9/11, also. However, it is dynamic, constantly changing.
And, again, it goes with the other pieces in http://potatoland.org/solid .

Here we have some very successful 3D art. What other successful 3D art pieces can you think of
on the Web that involve 'living entities'? Frederic Durieu's giraffes are very popular at
http://www.lecielestbleu.com/html/main_lceb.htm . They bear relation to Napier's "King Kong". My
favorite piece by Durieu is called "Oeil Complex" at
http://www.lecielestbleu.com/media/oeilcomplexframe.htm . I find this piece much more highly
charged and intelligent, vivid as a creature, responsive as a program, and profound as an
artistic realization than his giraffes. But the giraffes are popular. Cute. Etc.

Just as Napier's "King Kong" reminds one of 9/11, Durieu's Oeil Complex reminds one of the
Platonic Solids. Durieu's creature emerges as a meditation on the solids and is a kind of
improbable Platonism from the realm of the forms, but oh so partially human. Those eyes. To me,
this piece is magnificent. Art as idea entity. Art as animism. And certainly Durieu is a master
of 'imaging Lingo'.

"Oeil Complex" may be 'difficult' in some ways: the nature of its meditation on the Platonic
solids and the role of mathematics and programming–and the image–in art is perhaps not for
those squeamish on the matter.

What we see in these pieces is that it isn't so much the verisimilitude or detail of the 3D that
makes it interesting as the responsive physics of the body, the creature, the entity, the living
thing within the space. And, of course, at least as importantly, the richness of the concept and
situation. The 'situation' of Napier's piece is 9/11, a building, and a body. The 'situation' of
Durieu's piece is the monitor on your table, the computer hooked up to it, and the
transformation of idea to entity.

ja