Assignment 7, Problem 2

This piece is an imitation of Duchamp's "Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2" (1912). (Again.) The concept and construction of this particular piece - compared to some other works - are relatively simple, as it involved merely extracting the central figure of Duchamp's original work, and then using PHP to allow this figure to literally descend the viewer's screen.

One of the interesting aspects of this assignment ("Count to 100 in a Duchampian style") is that I have produced three variations on the subject at various points of the course. There are elements that can be found in each iteration, such as variations in the placement of the digits.

At the same time, one can detect progress in the works as I attempt to capture the Duchampian ideals of motion in different ways. What started out as a haphazard triangular placement of numbers evolved into a smooth parabolic "staircase." Then, as I gained little more proficiency in PHP, a Duchampian figure was made to literally descend this staircase.

Brian, a fellow student in MAS110, once remarked in class that from "art" he expects a balance between vision and technical excellence. I personally believe this work to be a case in which vision is ill-supported by the chosen technology: while my goal was to literally translate Duchamp into a digital form - with the additional power of animation - the crude means in which I accomplished that task (through forced browser refresh) detracts from the experience.