FMP - Artists Research

In today's session I looked at two artistic influences that I would like to take into account when creating my empire. These two two influences being Punch magazine, which I have looked at before in my past projects, and Mimar Sinan, a famous Islamic architect that designed many famous buildings and structures for the Ottoman empire. But first lets talk about Punch magazine; originally a blatant copy of a French satirical magazine called "Le Charivari" the influence of this little political, social satire comic had a huge influence over the graphic industry and even pegged the name of cartoon. What I found to be interesting about this one political satire magazine is how much of a product of its time it is, for example it makes, what was, early pop cultural references to the rising martial arts of jiu jitsu that was spreading throughout western culture at the time. Plus, it has certain racial stereotypes that have not aged well such as calling all their black characters "Sambo" and having them only speak in Ebonics, which wasn't considered racist at the time and in fact I think this magazine was slightly more progressive then others since it didn't embrace all stereotypes and even had some sympathy for the slaves at the time but, like Mr Yunioshi from Breakfast at Tiffany's, some of the stuff displayed here can be quite uncomfortable for a modern politically-correct audience, which is why I specifically chose it.

My second artistic influence was a Islamic architect known as Mimar Sinan, or Great Sinan by admirers, who created mosques and other impressive structures in the favour of the Ottoman empire. It should also be noted he assisted in the design of the Taj Mahal in India which is considered to be one the most famous buildings in the world. What I to be interesting about his particular work was the sheer amount of dedication and commitment that went into every building that he made. He would create religiously significant foundations because of his commitment to Allah rather then for his own sensibilities, he reimagined the Golden Proportion in a new and exciting way by making it applicable to a three-dimensional plain rather then just a two-dimensional plain like other architects at the time, and he even built in airways, drainpipes, and sewers into his building that seemed invisible just so it wouldn't intrude on your personal experience of the building. What I would like to take away from him is particular grand and epic style that was clean and intricate making it almost like the building appeared naturally into the world.