The Artist_s Magazine 2016-03__

March 2016 49

Christianity, you were seen as a traitor. h e

more I read, the more I felt the Rebellion

embodied a tension between East and West

that I’ve felt in my own life.”

Actually, graphic novels have almost

become an ideal platform to express cultural

dif erences, expressed in words and images,

both. Modern classics like Persepolis, Marjane

Satrapi’s graphic novel exploring the Islamic

revolution of 1979 through the author’s eyes

as an Iranian youth, break down barriers of

expectation and stereotype through their

own portrayal. Young Islamic girls chant for

freedom, hold rock albums and sit with their

parents at the dinner table.

Clark Kent’s Many Faces

Dif erence is so often what’s chosen as the

ultimate protagonist because it’s something

we all feel. Perhaps the most iconic

American visual descriptor of this universal

dif erence has been cradled in our country’s

Sydney Padua

created an

animation of the

actual analytic

machine featured

in Lovelace and

Babbage—the

one called the fi rst

computer. “It’s an

incredibly complex

machine,” says

Padua. “Until you

understand the

purpose of all

the bits and how

they interact, it’s

just a mass of

metal—similar to

how it’s diffi cult

to do life drawing

without under-

standing anatomy.”

She fi rst scanned

Babbage’s plans

into a program

called Autodesk

Maya—software

used for fi lm

effects—before

building off the

plans to “puzzle

out a three-dimen-

sional model.” It

took her many

months to build

the version she

has now. “I hope

to eventually build

the whole thing,”

she says, “virtually,

that is!”

©Pantheon Books