Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Mola: Center the main figure and fill the leftover ground with maze-like slits
- Type
- Set in Mola's manner (Run several contours around the figure at even spacing), and let Tablature's lettering (Numbers sit on the lines, one line for each string) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Mola's material (Stack colored cloths, cut down from the top, turn the edges and stitch); bring in exactly one thing from Tablature (Tuning and capo stated at the head, the instrument named).
- Colour
- Build on #c59414, #932628, #32231f and admit one accent from #fafafa, #888888, #1b1b1b.
Where they fight
- Mola and Tablature stand roughly 400 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle.
Caution
- Mola Fewer layers and a single contour stop the color from emerging through the cuts, and the panel goes flat.
- Tablature Fingering written without rhythm leaves duration unrecoverable in an unfamiliar tune, so the tab only serves someone who already knows it.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Mola (technique, late 19th century–) and their accent from Tablature (style, 15th century–). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Mola exists for: building an image in cloth where contour thickness itself does the work, or setting imagery into a garment meant to be worn every day. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Mola - Layered reverse appliqué - Multiple contour lines - Maze-like ground filling - Animals and geometry Composition: Center the main figure and fill the leftover ground with maze-like slits. Type and lettering: Run several contours around the figure at even spacing. ## Accent comes from Tablature, used sparingly - The string-and-fret grid - Letters and numbers for finger positions - Instrument-specific formats - Action encoded directly Let one material quality come from it: Tuning and capo stated at the head, the instrument named. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #c59414, carry the structure in #932628 and #32231f, and let a single accent come from #888888. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: play, intimacy, exhilaration, technique. ## Where they fight - Mola and Tablature stand roughly 400 years apart. Keep one of them recognisably period rather than letting both drift into the middle. ## What goes wrong - Mola: Fewer layers and a single contour stop the color from emerging through the cuts, and the panel goes flat. - Tablature: Fingering written without rhythm leaves duration unrecoverable in an unfamiliar tune, so the tab only serves someone who already knows it. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Mola late 19th century– / Technique / Textile Traditions
Guna women in Panama make reverse appliqué. Layers of colored cloth are cut back and stitched down until every contour ripples in several lines, printmaking in fabric that is worn daily as the panels of a blouse.
- Tablature 15th century– / Style / Notation Systems
Notation from the player's point of view: not what pitch, but where the fingers go. From lute letter-tablature to guitar TAB, the lineage of practical writing that encodes bodily action directly.
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