Photograph of Jackson Pollock's "Number 1", 1949.

Reducing Pollock’s “Number 1” to a Familiar Language of Symbols

Jackson Pollock’s Number 1, painted in 1949 via his revolutionary “drip” method, is essentially incomprehensible. As it hangs on the wall at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) in Downtown Los Angeles, countless visitors stare at its incredible depth. Rich, layered details of varying colors form a multitude of shapes, intertwined to create a work that is considered art. The…

Sculpting “The Other Tiger”

This essay was originally written for the course “Symbols and Conceptual Systems”, with Professor Roberto Díaz at the University of Southern California. It is relevant here for its interactive format and interdisciplinary approach, and the underlying topic of abstraction in visualization. “The Other Tiger” by Jorge Luis Borges conjures a tiger with its text. Next, Borges compares his imaginary tiger…