Flora and Fauna

of the City of New Westminster

Children's Park

 

JANUARY 2012 -Iconic images of flora and fauna that are natural, or naturalized, to the area are used in the mural. Removing the background of the images of flora and fauna emphasizes the organic shapes. It also helps transform the mural into a lesson on the local environment. The flora and fauna images were chosen with Gary Williams, Biologist, GL Williams & Associates, to ensure scientific accuracy and geographic relevancy.

 

When creating the mural, how the Pier was designed and developed was integral to the project and the design of the mural. The Pier was created with recent construction technologies to minimize harm to the enviornment. In fact, the Pier Development Project sustains the City of New Westminster's natural river-front ecology, and has won several awards for its responsible stewardship of the waterfront and coast."

 

The photography in the mural has been processed with advanced software, that takes low resolution, pixel-based images and redraws them into vector images. The benefit is that when they are enlarged 1200 per cent, to match the mural size, there is no degradation in quality. 

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Images of iconic flora and fauna that are natural, or naturalized, to the area are used. Cropping of flora and fauna, and plenty of white space emphasize the beautiful organic shapes, transforming the signage into both an education on the environment and a compelling design.

 

When creating this mural, the entire project was considered. The Pier was designed and is to be built according to the latest and most advanced technologies that minimize harm to the enviornment. In fact, the Pier Development project helps to sustain the City of New Westminster's natural river-front ecology. Photography, and in particular digital photography, is a modern and state-of-the-art visual technology that has evolved from mathematical, scientific and computer advances, just as the planning, architecture and design of the Pier was made possible due to advances in technology.

 

The photography in the mural has been processed with advanced software, that makes the photographic images appear hand-painted, and the colour is subjectively intensified. The division between nature (hand-painted) and culture (technology) is blurred.

 

Is the most advanced technology one that creates a hand-painted, or natural appearance? Just as the most advanced technology of science seeks to follow nature's inherent ability to create sustainable environments.