Swinglinwe4189 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm an art major and one of our projects in my 3-D design class is to come up with a piece that shows the passage of time. About a month before the quarter started I set up a 10 gallon nano and thought, "Perfect! I'll use my newly cycled tank as my subject and photograph the changes that take place within the next couple months"... my prof was not sold on the idea. He argues that there isn't enough "creative control" with a fish tank. My guess is that he assumes I just put water, rocks and coral in a glass box and watch what happens... Can anyone back my up here? Does anyone else feel that their tank is in fact a "work of art"? Link to comment
Flake Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 dependent on the scaping, I feel the tank can certainly be a work of art. I mean come on: Link to comment
Bill Nye Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Some people consider tanks art...mostly those guys who do the crazy freshwater planted tanks..I think they have galleries and stuff for this. Ive seen beams welded together and people call it art. Pretty much what im saying is that anything can be art. Now what your professor will accept for this project and what art is are two different questions . Link to comment
wrasseWrangler Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I have always concidered our tanks a work of art, a living work of art. Is that your current nano? It is absolutely beautifull! Just stunning! Link to comment
Gundad68 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Mine is art,sure is,the kind you buy a those dollar stores. Link to comment
pbjelly Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Check out some of the stuff being done by the guys at coral morphologic. http://www.morphologicstudios.com/ Not just the videos - they do installations, co-op works. Everything can be art - presentation and intent are what separate personal experience from public expression. Link to comment
Gundad68 Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 No joke,IMO every tank on here is art,no two are alike,they represent us,our likes,what we think looks pretty or good to us.So YES. Link to comment
uwwmatt Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Yes,I think it can be art. I think some of the best tanks I have seen the owner, knowingly or not, used artistic techniques in arranging rock work and selecting specific colors of corals to create balance. Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Try telling a few famous aquarists (Takashi Amano, Tom Barr, etc.) that fish tanks can't be art and they'll probably slice you up and feed you to their plants as carbon dioxide. The whole purpose of "aquascaping" is creating a work of art. Either way, art is very subjective. What may be considered art by one person may be considered a nice, warm, stinking heap of manure by another. Link to comment
ApiratenamedJohn Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 its all in the eye of the beholder. or some such thing like that.... Link to comment
Aquanist Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Art often imitates life - not the other way round. Link to comment
Swinglinwe4189 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 I think some of the best tanks I have seen the owner, knowingly or not, used artistic techniques in arranging rock work and selecting specific colors of corals to create balance. That's what I'm saying! I sort of want to submit it just to prove him wrong.. I mean it's no less creative work than taking a pic of myself everyday for the entire quarter (something he suggested). Link to comment
streetsong Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 As an artist here is my take. You are taking into consideration complimentary colors when placing corals, the "golden" ratio with aquascaping. Although some tanks are not aesthetically pleasing because the owner has not taken control, you can certainly be extremely artistic. Let us know what happens. Link to comment
RayWhisperer Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 dependent on the scaping, I feel the tank can certainly be a work of art. I mean come on: That's what I'm saying! I sort of want to submit it just to prove him wrong.. I mean it's no less creative work than taking a pic of myself everyday for the entire quarter (something he suggested).Are you serious? He suggested taking a picture of yourself everyday? Take a close look at the tank Flake posted. That is perhaps the most beautiful setup I have ever seen. Simplicity, beauty, serenity, in short, art. Whoever set that up had a mind toward making it living art. They were quite successful, IMO. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm really doubting that he wouldn't take this idea. One of my degrees is in studio art and when a professor would shoot down an idea it was more of a "prove me wrong" gesture and not a flat out "no." The double edge of that is you're going to have to hit it out of the park and wow him. I would consider a radical rescape using the golden mean and all the other principles of textures/scalings/etc. and the principles behind intelligent color composition. You want to show him that what you don't have control of has grown and matured into your vision. Link to comment
JaneG Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Fish tanks can definitely be art. Here's a really good example: Like someone else said, no two tanks are alike. Some prefer the fluorescent colors of 20000k lighting, while others (like the one I posted) prefer a more natural look. Some like softies, while others prefer SPS... the list goes on. Someone who isn't involved in the reef hobby (like your professor) most likely doesn't know about the variety of corals, rockscaping, etc... but I'm sure if you would show them some examples he would agree. Link to comment
Swinglinwe4189 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm really doubting that he wouldn't take this idea. One of my degrees is in studio art and when a professor would shoot down an idea it was more of a "prove me wrong" gesture and not a flat out "no." The double edge of that is you're going to have to hit it out of the park and wow him. I would consider a radical rescape using the golden mean and all the other principles of textures/scalings/etc. and the principles behind intelligent color composition. You want to show him that what you don't have control of has grown and matured into your vision. I agree, if I'm going to do this I really need to kill it. My main concern is the time constraint. Do you think 2.5 months is enough time for corals to noticeably mature? I was thinking of sticking mostly with soft corals, but am open to suggestions? My other fear is that, as a noob, I will make some stupid mistake and wipe out my entire tank half way through the quarter.. but I guess that is a chance I'm willing to take for the opportunity to justify spending loads of time/money on my tank Link to comment
Bishop Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Does your prof even know what a reef tank is? Before I got into salt water you couldn't even explain what a coral was to me. Is it art? There is nothing artistic about paint or a canvas it's what the artist makes of them. Even if it can not be seen by others because my artistic abilites suck, I didn't just randomly place rock, coral, sand and livestock into my tank. I took all of it and created a scene. Link to comment
Rehype Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Is it art? There is nothing artistic about paint or a canvas it's what the artist makes of them. Even if it can not be seen by others because my artistic abilites suck, I didn't just randomly place rock, coral, sand and livestock into my tank. I took all of it and created a scene. I totally agree... Link to comment
Swinglinwe4189 Posted October 16, 2011 Author Share Posted October 16, 2011 Does your prof even know what a reef tank is? Before I got into salt water you couldn't even explain what a coral was to me. Is it art? There is nothing artistic about paint or a canvas it's what the artist makes of them. Even if it can not be seen by others because my artistic abilites suck, I didn't just randomly place rock, coral, sand and livestock into my tank. I took all of it and created a scene. Well put. Link to comment
JaneG Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I think 2.5 months is enough for a softies tank to mature (to an extent). However, it wouldn't be long enough for SPS or LPS in my opinion. You could try a pom pom xenia dominated tank, which I think would look amazing (and would most likely be the quickest growing). When I first got started my tanks I thought that pom pom xenia was, by far, the most interesting/beautiful of all corals: It also grows extremely fast in most tanks. Green star polyps and kenya tree corals also look amazing and grow really quickly for most people. Here's a really great softies tank that you could look at for some ideas. Like others have said, I would suggest focusing on your aquascaping (as you can control it most readily). Good luck! Link to comment
ThePhilosopher Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I'm probably going to get shot down on this, but I would really recommend a freshwater tank with plants instead. It's more difficult for a newbie to screw up, and a high light tank with adequate CO2 needs to be trimmed down every 2 weeks or so, meaning that you'll have more than enough time to mature your aquascape. Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 I agree, if I'm going to do this I really need to kill it. My main concern is the time constraint. Do you think 2.5 months is enough time for corals to noticeably mature? I was thinking of sticking mostly with soft corals, but am open to suggestions? My other fear is that, as a noob, I will make some stupid mistake and wipe out my entire tank half way through the quarter.. but I guess that is a chance I'm willing to take for the opportunity to justify spending loads of time/money on my tank I would definitely research faster growing coral. If you killed it, just say Mark Rothko was a major influence in your work Link to comment
JoelRHale Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 Also, I'm not really sure how you're planning to show the growth, but a daily or more frequent shot of it using the exact same camera settings and turn it into a really nice animated .gif would be a good way to do it. Link to comment
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