@Phil Late OGR

 Thekla-Invisible Cities

 I decided to pick the city Thekla because the other cities didn't interest me as much, I really liked the idea of rather than a city already built the idea of a city constantly being built on but not finished was interesting besides this base is what a city is built up of in the first place..and it is focused on the interesting structures,shapes the wooden catwalks, walkways.. i looked at the details for my inspiration board to try and keep this details whilst finding my own view on it..and i felt could be visualized in lots of ways. When i read about this city i thought it had quite a mystery about it a code of enigma..lots of unanswered questions. Which leaves it more open. For example the people building have this kind of anxiety about the construction falling as everything is described as supporting one another e.g. the part looking through the fence seeing the scaffolding supporting other scaffolding etc. ..This makes me think i should look at temporary builds too that are only necessary for further building and not inhabiting. The city's blueprint is the stars and the sky which means this is a really important detail for the mood and telling the story in my own way..Some people have taken this as the structures following shapes that of star constellations and taken a more science fiction,pattern approach whilst some have gone more print based and completely imaginative. The work stops only at sunset and even when asking about the city in progress they are still working this kind of reminds me of metropolis because i can imagine the same kind of color schemes and the workers constantly going towards one goal could it be to get higher?, Or is it supposed to look unfinished? Is that the beauty of it. I like how this city had a lot less description than the other cities in the book but it kept me questioning it.

This Influence map was a generic start but it did inspire alternative ways to visualize it and i found myself looking at references, sculptures,prints,constellations.

These Thumbnails were not very stylistic, Just more about how i could visualize the spaces of the city for example more claustrophobic or through a crack in a fence as it describes..i tried to put something like a beam or a pipe in most to describe what it was thinking about the foreground mid ground and afar and to focus on the anxiety they have about it falling and causing destruction..Maybe this has happened before? maybe that's why its never finished? But this is what i got from these i think some are too built up or too vague but it was a start.

I looked at more references in terms of objects and height,angles and small details described these helped me with my thumbnails to get an idea of what it would look like.

  

These Thumbnails are rather crazy and quite kinetic but i went full fictional and just drew whatever shapes and parts i could visualize with the sci-fi element to see what i could get personally..this is to fictional and doe-sent work too well either both are not the right balance but it did make me think about more interesting ways i could change the structures so that they are not bland.

After Reading about this city in the book and being in the film analytical lessons and essay structure ones we spoke about social and historical context when sat that i though to myself what could be interesting what could i try that i would want to visualize and in the blurb of the book it says about Italo Calvino being a post war Novelist and i thought incorporating structures influenced by these kind of buildings would be interesting maybe the people are trying to build everything up back from conflict either way i thought it would give more of an interesting take on this city. This allows references like Italian postmodern buildings, the debree the mix of old and the new like it cannot be forgotten or it is all but repeated all the time. In the digital painting sessions i get really inspired because the ways in which they build a narrative or more structures by chance or from previous ideas..The digital paintings i ended up with were done from thumbnail drawing went over and tweaked around with to build up these quick pieces better to help visualize it all.

The Megalomania video got me interested in how it looked kind of like a hybrid of structures gave

unity and variety. cranes overcunumbered and this atmosphere from the light and the noises gave an anxiety or idea of the work this inspired me because when a building did fall it created another structure which was open to the viewer to contemplate whether it was beautiful or not or what the structures do after being worked on also decoding structure that video pushes the idea of the shapes and the angles with the repetition and pattern. I like the idea of a really dark undertone to the city that makes it anxious or like it has a background but also ironically aesthetically pleasing to see.

Looking at all of this helped with getting me thinking more about what i can put together and how i can invest in it. The idea of using Post war as a reference can give me ideas of texture like grain lighting and make same think things like maybe the stars that are the blueprint is post war in terms of star icons in the war maybe those are the fallen in the sky, maybe the structures are monuments. Maybe its an anxiety about past tense and maybe its closer to home than expected.

In the early twentieth century had a rise of fascism after rallying after Benito Mussolini who had a lot of dominance in terms of his power in the government and so he had his own personal dictatorship. Once he was defeated after World War 2 Italy could then move forward from this. However he had 'brown shirts' which were his foot soldiers and they rose to power in what was called the chaotic period After all of this there was a lot more followed by it but it resulted in an economic recovery and rebuild. This made me think chassis of buildings etc the wire frame would be a good place to start and just researching more and developing my own city views.