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Guy Maddin

Guy Maddin (born February 28, 1956) is a Canadian screenwriter, director, author, cinematographer, and film editor of both features and short films, as well as an installation artist, from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Since completing his first film in 1985, Maddin has become one of Canada's most well-known and celebrated filmmakers.

Maddin has directed twelve feature films and numerous short films, in addition to publishing three books and creating a host of installation art projects. A number of Maddin's recent films began as or developed from installation art projects, and his books also relate to his film work. Maddin is known for his fascination with lost Silent-era films and for incorporating their aesthetics into his own work. Maddin has been the subject of much critical praise and academic attention, including two books of interviews with Maddin and two book-length academic studies of his work. Maddin was appointed to the Order of Canada, the country's highest civilian honour, in 2012.

Maddin first served as a visiting lecturer at Harvard University's Department of Art, Film, and Visual Studies in 2015. Until then, he lived in Winnipeg.

Early life (1956–84)
Guy Maddin was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, to Herdis Maddin (a hairdresser) and Charles "Chas" Maddin (grain clerk and general manager of the Maroons, a Winnipeg hockey team). Maddin has three older siblings: Ross (b. 1944), Cameron (1946–63), and Janet (b. 1949). Maddin attended Winnipeg public schools— the Greenway School (elementary school), General Wolfe (junior high school), and the Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute (high school).

Maddin's early life was marked by tragedy—in February 1963, his brother Cameron killed himself on the grave of his girlfriend, who had died in a car accident. Maddin studied economics at the University of Winnipeg, graduating in 1977 without a plan to become a filmmaker. That same year, Maddin's father died suddenly after a stroke, and Maddin married Martha Jane Waugh. Their daughter, Jilian, was born in 1978, and Maddin and Waugh divorced in 1979.

After graduating, Maddin held a variety of odd jobs, including bank manager, house painter, and photo archivist. Maddin began to take film classes at the University of Manitoba. There, Maddin met film professor Stephen Snyder, who held regular film screenings of titles from the school's film library at his home. Maddin attended, as did some early collaborators, including his friend John Boles Harvie, the future star of Maddin's first film, and filmmaker John Paizs. Maddin appeared as an actor in two of Paizs' short films, as a student in Oak, Ivy, and Other Dead Elms (1982) and as a transvestite, homicidal nurse in The International Style (1983). Maddin drew early inspiration from the films of John Paizs, as well as experimental shorts by Stephen Snyder. Other early influences included L'Age d'Or by Luis Buñuel (in collaboration with Salvador Dalí) and Eraserhead by David Lynch. Maddin has stated that these films, along with the work of Paizs and Snyder, "were movies that were primitive in many respects. They were low budget, they used nonactors or nonstars, they used atmospheres and ideas, and were unbelievably honest, frank, and, therefore, exciting to me. They made moviemaking seem possible to me." Maddin also met film professor George Toles, who became Maddin's cowriter on many of his future films. Maddin's core group of friends from this period, who played various roles in the production of his early film projects, were known as "the Drones" and included Harvie, Ian Handford, and Kyle McCulloch (now a writer for South Park).

Maddin joined the Winnipeg Film Group around this time, and also became friends with producer Greg Klymkiw, with whom he began making a cable access television show, Survival (c. 1985–87). Survival was a satirical talk show centred around, as its opening credits noted, how "we must survive the inevitable social/economic collapse and/or nuclear holocaust". The show became a cult hit in Winnipeg and excerpts were re-released on the compilation DVD Winnipeg Babysitter. Maddin plays a masked character on the show named "Concerned Citizen Stan".

The Dead Father and Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1985–88)
Maddin's first short film (as director, writer, producer, and cinematographer) was The Dead Father, a 25-minute black-and-white film about a young man whose father dies but continues to visit his family and disapprove of his son's life. Its budget is estimated at CA$5,000. Maddin began shooting The Dead Father in 1982 and finished the film in 1985. Spurred by the work of Snyder and Paizs, and together with Harvie and Handford, Maddin decided to begin making films and founded a film company called "Extra Large Productions" (they first decided on the name "Jumbo Productions" and went to get a jumbo pizza to celebrate, but changed the name when the pizzeria in Gimli, Manitoba, only served "extra large" pizzas).

Maddin cast John Harvie in the lead role as the son, and University of Manitoba medical professor Dr. Dan P. Snidal as the dead father. The Dead Father (1985) was shot in black-and-white on sixteen-millimetre film. The style of the film owes much to the work of the Surrealists, with Maddin citing Luis Buñuel and Man Ray as its main influences. Critics routinely cite, as an example of Maddin's dream-like tone, the climactic scene of the film, where the son attempts to resolve his relationship with his dead father by uncovering his corpse (hidden to sleep at night in some nearby brush) and attempting to devour his father using a large spoon—since the dead father awakens, the son cannot finish eating him and must instead pack his body away into a trunk in the family's attic. Although Maddin did not feel that the film's initial, Winnipeg premiere had gone well, John Paizs convinced him to submit the film to the Toronto Film Festival and the festival accepted the film. At the festival Maddin met Atom Egoyan, Jeremy Podeswa, Norman Jewison, and began to form connections with Canadian filmmakers across the national scene.

Maddin next began work on his feature film debut, Tales from the Gimli Hospital (1988), also shot in black-and-white on sixteen-millimetre film. Kyle McCulloch starred in the film as Einar, a lonely fisherman who contracts smallpox and begins to compete with another patient, Gunnar (played by Michael Gottli) for the attention of the young nurses. Maddin had himself endured a recent period of male rivalry and noticed that he found himself "quite often forgetting the object of jealousy" and instead becoming "possessive of my rival". The film was originally titled Gimli Saga after the amateur history book produced locally by various Icelandic members of the community of  Gimli (Maddin himself is Icelandic by ancestry).

Maddin's aunt Lil had recently retired from hairdressing, and allowed Maddin to use her beauty salon (also Maddin's childhood home) as a makeshift film studio (Lil appears in the film briefly as a "bedside vigil-sitter in one quick shot [taken] just a couple of days before she died" at the age of 85. After Maddin's mother sold the house/studio, Maddin completed the remaining shots of the film at various locations, including his own home, over a period of eighteen months. Maddin received a grant from the Manitoba Arts Council for CA$20,000, and often cites that figure as the film's budget, although he has also estimated the actual budget to have been between CA$14,000 and CA$30,000.

Although Tales from the Gimli Hospital upset some of the residents of Gimli, who believed that the film made light of the historical smallpox epidemic that ravaged the community, and was rejected by the Toronto Film Festival, it nevertheless became a cult success and established Maddin's reputation in independent film circles. The film garnered the attention of Ben Barenholtz, who had successfully distributed other cult films such as the John Waters film Pink Flamingos and David Lynch's debut feature Eraserhead. Tales from the Gimli Hospital consequently succeeded on the festival circuit and screened for a full year as a midnight movie at a theatre in New York's Greenwich Village. Maddin received a Genie award nomination for Best Original Screenplay.

Archangel, Careful, and Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1989–97)
Having proven himself as a filmmaker and established a reputation outside of Canada, Maddin began work on a series of feature films produced on larger budgets and more traditional production schedules and processes. His second feature, Archangel (1990), fictionalizes in a general sense historical conflict related to the Bolshevik Revolution occurring in the Arkhangelsk (Archangel) region of Russia, a basic concept presented to Maddin by John Harvie. Boles, a Canadian soldier suffering from amnesia, arrives in the town of Archangel as World War I is ending (due to the Bolshevik uprising, it appears as if the townspeople have, like Boles, contracted amnesia and "forgotten" that the war is over). Boles confuses the warrior-woman Veronkha with his lost love Iris and pursues her throughout the fighting. Fellow "drone" Kyle McCulloch stars as Boles. The film marks Maddin's first formal collaboration with fellow screenwriter George Toles.

Maddin shot Archangel in black-and-white, on 16 mm film, on a budget of CA$430,000. Maddin modeled the film on the style of a part-talkie, an early cinema genre. Film critic J. Hoberman praised the film, and noted that such stylistic approaches were typical of Maddin's growing body of work: "Maddin's most distinctive trait is an uncanny ability to exhume and redeploy forgotten cinematic conventions." Archangel premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, and in 1991 was awarded Best Experimental Film by the National Society of Film Critics.

Maddin's third feature, Careful (1992), was styled after another early cinema genre, the German mountain picture (or Bergfilm) — a surprising choice, given that (as filmmaker Caelum Vatnsdal has noted), "Winnipeg's highest peak is, in fact, an artificial hill that had been created by laying sod over a garbage dump." Maddin was ordered by the producers to shoot in colour, and so Careful became Maddin's first colour film, shot on 16 mm film with a budget of CA$1.1 million. the colour style of the film emulated the two colour Technicolor movies of the early 1930s. Kyle McCulloch again starred, alongside other Maddin regulars such as Brent Neale and Ross McMillan. At one point, Martin Scorsese had agreed to act in the film, as Count Knotkers, but bowed out to complete Cape Fear. Maddin pursued casting hockey star Bobby Hull, but ended up casting Paul Cox.

Careful, also cowritten by George Toles, is set in the mountain town of Tolzbad, where the townspeople are forced to repress their behaviour pathologically, since the slightest expression of emotion can trigger a devastating avalanche. Brothers Grigorss (McCulloch) and Johann (Neale) seem secure of bright futures as butlers, but Johann becomes incestuously obsessed with their widowed mother (driving him away from his fiancé and towards a dramatic suicide). Grigorss, who is in love with Klara, begins to work for Count Knotkers, who also harbours love for Grigorss' mother. Klara convinces Grigorss to duel the Count, resulting in the death of his mother, Klara's father, Klara, and finally Grigorss himself. Careful premiered at the New York Film Festival and, although it was not a commercial success elsewhere, "single-handedly saved a struggling art-house cinema in Missoula, Montana" where "sell-out crowds had filled the house twice every night for two weeks".

For his next feature film, written by Toles, Maddin attempted to make an operetta called The Dikemaster's Daughter "set in a nineteenth-century Holland populated almost entirely by opera singers and dike-building navvies" about "a short-lived romance between the titular daughter and a fey opera singer". The singer is killed and the daughter is forced to marry a dike-builder who is also killed. A local alchemist then constructs an automaton copy of the latter, which the daughter succeeds in having implanted with two hearts (of both her opera singer love and her dike-builder husband) and a lever that switches control of the mechanical body between the two hearts. The movie was to feature Christopher Lee and Leni Riefenstahl, but Telefilm Canada "declared the project a 'lateral move'" for Maddin and the movie could not secure enough funding, so was aborted.

Maddin consequently flirted with the idea of moving to Los Angeles to become a director-for-hire. He met with Claudia Lewis, who worked for Fox Searchlight, but Maddin found himself dispirited with the projects he was offered: "I remember one was a love story set in a TB sanatorium. The only thing odd or bizarre about it was the very off-putting sight of people horking up blood and phlegm into little paper cups, and these paper cups would accumulate in volume until there were moonlit paper cups of phlegm floating on a lake, and it was supposed to be very beautiful, but it was nauseating. I'm making it sound better than it was, actually." Maddin also directed the TV film The Hands of Ida (which he "later repudiated") and married Elise Moore in 1995 (the marriage ended in 1997), and directed the short film Odilon Redon, or The Eye Like a Strange Balloon Mounts Toward Infinity (which was commissioned by the BBC and won a Special Jury Citation at the Toronto International Film festival). In 1995, Maddin also became the youngest recipient ever of the Telluride Film Festival's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Maddin's fourth feature, also scripted by Toles and inspired by the novel Pan by Knut Hamsun, ended up being Twilight of the Ice Nymphs (1997), his second in colour and his first shot in 35 mm, on a budget of CA$1.5 million. Set in the fictional land of Mandragora, where the sun does not set, a newly released convict returns to his family's ostrich farm and is embroiled in a host of romantic complications involving a heavy-breasted statue of Venus. Twilight of the Ice Nymphs featured Shelley Duvall and Frank Gorshin; The film's star, Nigel Whitmey, had his name removed from the film's credits after Maddin chose to remove Whitmey's voice from the film and replace it with Ross McMillan's.

As seen in Noam Gonick's documentary Waiting for Twilight, Maddin was dissatisfied with the film-making process due to such creative interference from his producers, saying "just close the mausoleum lid on me" since he was possibly done making films. Maddin then entered a relatively "fallow period" although he continued to make short films, music videos (including the video for the song "It's a Wonderful Life" by Sparklehorse), and advertisements.

The Heart of the World, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary, The Saddest Music in the World (1998–2003)
During his break from making feature films, Maddin began teaching film classes at the University of Manitoba, where he met and encouraged the younger filmmaker Deco Dawson. After being impressed with Dawson's short films, Maddin hired Dawson to work on a short film for the Toronto International Film Festival — Maddin was one of a number of directors (including Atom Egoyan and David Cronenberg) commissioned to make four-minute short films that would screen prior to the various feature films at the 2000 festival. After hearing rumours that other directors were planning films with a small number of shots, Maddin decided that his film would instead contain over a hundred shots per minute, and enough plot for a feature-length film. Maddin then wrote and shot The Heart of the World (2000) in the style of Russian constructivism, taking the commission at its literal face value, as a call to produce a propaganda film. The plot of The Heart of the World concerns two brothers, Osip and Nikolai, who compete for the love of the same woman: Anna, a state scientist studying Earth's core. Anna discovers that the heart of the world is in danger of a fatal heart attack (which would mean the end of the world), and the brothers compete amongst the public panic. Nikolai is a mortician and tries to impress Anna with assembly-line embalming, while Osip is an actor playing Christ in the Passion Play and tries to impress Anna through his suffering. Anna is instead seduced by an evil capitalist, but has a change of heart and strangles the plutocrat, then slides down into the heart of the world, where she manages to save the world from destruction by transforming into cinema itself, the world's "new and better heart — Kino!" The Heart of the World won a 2001 Genie Award for Best Short, and the 2001 U.S. National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Experimental Film (the same award Maddin had won in 1991 for Archangel).

The success of The Heart of the World marked the beginning of a productive period for Maddin, who produced five feature films within the following eight years. Maddin's next feature deepened but also ended his collaboration with Deco Dawson, who was credited as "Editor and Associate Director" on Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary (2002). Maddin and Dawson had a falling out in the wake of the production and have not worked together again (Dawson nevertheless spoke kindly of Maddin's following feature, The Saddest Music in the World. Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary was budgeted at $1.7-million and produced for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as a dance film documenting a performance by the Royal Winnipeg Ballet adapting Bram Stoker's novel Dracula. Maddin elected to shoot the dance film in a fashion uncommon for such films, through close-ups and using jump cuts. Maddin also stayed close to the source material of Stoker's novel, emphasizing the xenophobia in the reactions of the main characters to Dracula (played by Zhang Wei-Qiang in Maddin's film). The resulting film was greeted with critical acclaim, with an 84% average rating on Metacritic and an 85% "Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Roger Ebert gave the film 3½ stars out of 4, writing that "so many films are more or less alike that it's jolting to see a film that deals with a familiar story, but looks like no other." Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary won first prize (Prague D'Or) at the 2002 Golden Prague Television Festival, two 2002 Gemini Awards for Best Canadian Performing Arts Show and Best Direction, and a 2002 International Emmy for Best Performing Arts. Originally a television feature, Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary was released theatrically in 2003.

Maddin's next feature, The Saddest Music in the World (2003) was budgeted at $3.8-million (a large budget in Canadian terms) and shot over 24 days. The film was Maddin's first collaboration with Isabella Rossellini, who subsequently appeared in a number of Maddin's films, and cocreated a film with him about her father Roberto Rossellini. The film also starred Mark McKinney (of the comedy troupe Kids in the Hall), Maria de Medeiros, David Fox, and Ross McMillan. Maddin and cowriter Toles based the film on an original screenplay written by Booker Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro, from which they kept "the title, the premise and the contest – to determine which country's music was the saddest" but otherwise re-wrote. The action of The Saddest Music in the World centres around a contest run by Beer Baroness Lady Port-Huntley (Rossellini) to discover which country has the saddest music in the world. Chester Kent (McKinney), a failed Broadway producer, returns home to Winnipeg and competes with his father Fyodor (Fox) and brother Roderick (McMillan) to win the contest and its $25,000 prize. It's discovered that Chester's girlfriend, Narcissa (de Medeiros) was Roderick's wife but forgot this due to amnesia resulting from the death of their son (Roderick keeps his son's heart in a jar that travels with him). Chester reunites with Port-Huntley, his former lover, who lost her legs in a car accident. Fyodor, who is in love with Port-Huntley, has built prosthetic legs for her out of glass (and filled with beer), which she loves although she spurns Fyodor, leading to his drunken death. As the contest proceeds, things end tragically. The Saddest Music in the World won a number of awards, including three Genie Awards (Best Achievement in Costume Design, Best Achievement in Editing, and Best Achievement in Music, Original Score) and Maddin was also nominated for Best Achievement in Direction. Maddin received the same nomination from the Directors Guild of Canada, who awarded the film Outstanding Achievement in Production Design, Feature Film, and Maddin won the Film Discovery Jury Award for Best Director at the U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.

Cowards Bend the Knee, Brand Upon the Brain!, My Winnipeg (2003–07)
While in pre-production on The Saddest Music in the World, Maddin directed Cowards Bend the Knee (2003), shooting entirely on Super-8mm film with a budget of $30,000. Developed as a series of short films, commissioned as part of an installation art project by Toronto art gallery The Power Plant that was curated by Philip Monk, these 10 short films, collected together, constituted a short feature, so that Maddin ended up completing and releasing two feature films in 2003. Cowards Bend the Knee is the first in Maddin's "autobiographical 'Me Trilogy'" of feature films starring protagonists named "Guy Maddin", the second being Brand Upon the Brain! (2006) and My Winnipeg (2007). Cowards Bend the Knee concerns the murderous exploits of a young "Guy Maddin" (played by Darcy Fehr), a hockey player whose forgets his beloved as she dies through complications during an illegal abortion. Guy becomes entwined in a love affair with the daughter of the abortionist, who compels him to murder her mother to revenge the death of her father. Guy meanwhile falls in love with the ghost of his dead lover, not recognizing her, and competes with his own father for her affection. Maddin based the film's premise loosely on the story The Hands of Ida and Euripedes's play Medea. Critic J. Hoberman of The Village Voice called the film "Maddin's masterpiece", noting that the film "not only plays like a dream but feels like one".

Maddin was next approached by the Seattle-based not-for-profit film production company called The Film Company and offered a budget to make any film he wanted, with complete freedom as long as he shot it in Seattle with local actors. Maddin ended up producing Brand Upon the Brain! (2006), from a script cowritten by Toles, shooting the film over nine days and editing it over three months with an estimated budget of $40,000. The plot concerns "Guy Maddin" (played by Erik Steffen Maahs as an adult, and Sullivan Brown as a child), whose domineering mother runs a lighthouse orphanage on an island where she and her husband perform scientific experiments upon the children in an effort to extend her youth. Brand Upon the Brain! was shot as a silent film, and premiered at the 2006 Toronto International Film Festival, where it was accompanied by a live orchestra, singer, an interlocutor (in the style of Japanese benshi), and Foley artists. The film was toured across North America in a similar fashion, with a host of celebrity narrators including Crispin Glover and John Ashbery. The film's normal theatrical run featured narration by Isabella Rossellini. In 2006, Maddin was presented with two lifetime achievement awards, the Persistence of Vision Award from the San Francisco International Film Festival and the Manitoba Arts Council's Award of Distinction. Roger Ebert wrote, of the film and Maddin's work in general, that "For me, Maddin seems to penetrate to the hidden layers beneath the surface of the movies, revealing a surrealistic underworld of fears, fantasies and obsessions."

Maddin's next feature stemmed from a commission to produce a documentary film about his hometown of Winnipeg, for which Maddin's producer directed "Don't give me the frozen hellhole everyone knows that Winnipeg is." Taking what he described as a "docufantasia" approach that melded "personal history, civic tragedy, and mystical hypothesizing", Maddin produced My Winnipeg (2008), with a budget of $500,000. Maddin re-cast Darcy Fehr in the role of "Guy Maddin" and structured the documentary around a metafictional plot whereby "Guy Maddin" attempts to "film his way out" of the frozen city. Maddin rents out his former home and hires actors to play his family (including Ann Savage as his mother) in the recreation of pivotal scenes from his memories of youth. Along the way, Maddin documents facts, rumours, and fabricated myths about Winnipeg, including the demolition of the Winnipeg hockey arena (during the period after the sale of the Winnipeg Jets had left the city without a national hockey team), an epidemic of sleepwalking, the ghosts of frozen horse heads returning every winter when the rivers freeze over, and If Day (an actual historical event when a faked Nazi invasion of the city was mounted during World War II to promote the sale of war bonds). My Winnipeg received the award for Best Canadian Feature Film from the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival, Best Documentary from the 2008 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards, Best Canadian Film from the 2008 Toronto Film Critics Association Awards, and Best Experimental Documentary from the 2009 International Urban Film Festival, Tehran. In 2007, Maddin also became the first artist-curator of the UCLA Film and Television Archive.

Keyhole, Hauntings, Seances, The Forbidden Room and The Green Fog (2008–2017)
Maddin soon received two other career awards, the Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the 2009 Provincetown International Film Festival and the 2010 Canada Council for the Arts Bell Award in Video Art for lifetime achievement in the field. Maddin then returned to installation art with a commission to celebrate the opening of the Bell Lightbox cultural centre in Toronto, producing an installation series titled Hauntings based on the concept of reimagining lost films from the silent film era that are known to have existed or been planned by influential filmmakers, but either destroyed or not produced. In December 2010, Maddin married the L.A. film critic Kim Morgan, and they separated in 2014.

Maddin shot his tenth feature film, Keyhole (2011), digitally rather than his usual method of shooting on sixteen-millimetre or Super-8. Filming began in Winnipeg on July 6, 2010. The film screened at the 2011 Toronto International Film Festival and the 2011 Whistler Film Festival, where it won the Best Canadian Film Award. In 2012, Keyhole screened at the South by Southwest Film Festival, the Independent Film Festival of Boston, the Wisconsin Film Festival, Fantasporto, and the Berlin International Film Festival. The film was released theatrically in 2012. Keyhole stars Jason Patric as Ulysses Pick, a gangster who leads his gang to break into his former home and odysseys through the haunted house (in a plot inspired by Homer's Odyssey), searching room-by-room to find his wife Hyacinth Isabella Rossellini. The film was cowritten by Maddin and Toles and also stars Udo Kier, Brooke Palsson, David Wontner, Louis Negin, and Kevin McDonald from the comedy troupe Kids in the Hall.

Also in 2011, Maddin participated in Performa 11 wi th Tales from the Gimli Hospital: Reframed , an ambitious live performance that reframes the original 1988 film. Maddin and the composer Matthew Patton gathered a group of musicians to compose and perform the new score which centered on Icelandic musician Kristín Anna Valtýsdóttir.

In 2012, Maddin produced another installation for the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Only Dream Things, for which he recreated his childhood bedroom and produced a short film by manipulating his family's home movies.

Maddin expanded the approach of his Hauntings installation into another film/installation project, Seances, which combines "a film shoot, an experience and an installation, which will subsequently become an interactive work". Maddin started shooting Seances in 2012 in Paris, France at the Centre Georges Pompidou and continued shooting at the Phi Centre in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The film shoots themselves were presented as art installation projects, during which Maddin, along with the cast and crew, held a "séance" during which Maddin "invite[d] the spirit of a lost photoplay to possess them". Seances will be launched online by the National Film Board of Canada in 2015, in an interactive web project that allows users to randomly generate a combination of the 100 short films, "connected together into a paranormally eerie, semi-coherent whole." The number of films will ensure "hundreds of billions of unique permutations".

Maddin and Galen Johnson also co-directed and shot, concurrently, a feature film titled The Forbidden Room, with the same writers. Although often misreported as the same project, The Forbidden Room "is a feature film with its own separate story and stars" while "Seances will be an interactive Internet project." The Forbidden Room is Maddin's eleventh feature film, with its world premiere in January 2015 at the Sundance Film Festival.

Maddin's most recent feature film, The Green Fog (2017), premiered at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 16, 2017. The film features a score by composer Jacob Garchik, performed by Kronos Quartet, and is a collage-film, "a scene-by-scene reimagining of Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo comprisedentirely of [sic] Bay Area film footage from a variety of sources — '50s noir, experimental films, '70s prime-time TV, and more."

Installations
Guy Maddin has cultivated a career as an installation artist alongside his film-making career. Maddin's installations generally include short films screened in unusual fashions, and tend to draw on both his autobiography and on the history of cinema.

Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)
Maddin was commissioned by The Power Plant gallery in Toronto and, in an installation curated by Philip Monk, produced a series of ten short films. The exhibition premiered at the 42nd International Film Festival Rotterdam from January 22 to February 2, 2003, where the catalogue described it as "A firstofitskind, tenpart peephole installation jampacked with enough kinetically photographed action to seem like a neverending cliffhanger." Each six-minute film is viewed through a peephole and together present a fictionalised autobiography, whose main character (named "Guy Maddin") is embroiled in illegal abortion, murderous intrigue, sexual rivalry, and hockey. The installation was also exhibited at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto from March 22 to May 25, 2003. A literary screenplay for the film was also published by the gallery, and the short films were collected together as a feature film (released theatrically and to DVD).

Hauntings (2010)
Maddin was commissioned to produce an installation for the opening of the Toronto International Film Festival's Bell Lightbox, a cultural centre and skyscraper, and configured eleven screens to show a series of original short films. The films consisted of reimagined "lost" films by famous directors that have been lost, destroyed or unrealized. Maddin stated in the press that "I've been literally haunted by the idea that there are these really intriguing titles by some of my favourite filmmakers that I'd never get to see [... and] I told myself years ago that the only way I'd get to see any version of these is if I made the adaptation myself." The installation was also exhibited at Winnipeg's Platform Gallery from September 2 to October 2, 2011, for the WNDX Festival of Moving Image and at Concordia University's FOFA (Faculty of Fine Arts) Gallery from June 1–10, 2012.

Only Dream Things (2012)
For a 2012 installation at the Winnipeg Art Gallery, Maddin re-created his teenage bedroom. On the wall of the re-created bedroom screens a 19-minute short film Maddin produced by digitally distressing his family's home movies.

Seances (2012–2015)
Expanding the approach of his Hauntings installation, Maddin's ongoing film/installation project, Seances. The film shoots were open to the public and streamed online, and thereby presented as live art installation projects, during which Maddin, along with the cast and crew, held a séance "invit[ing] the spirit of a lost photoplay to possess them". The cameras used to record the shoots also live-streams their video online. Other writers on the project include Evan Johnson, Robert Kotyk, film critic Kim Morgan, and US poet John Ashbery. In 2015, the Maddin and National Film Board of Canada will release "Seances [as] an interactive Internet project".

Books by Maddin
Guy Maddin is also an author, and has published three books, two of which are literary companions to his feature films.

From the Atelier Tovar: Selecting Writings (2003)
Guy Maddin's first book (followed the same year by Cowards Bend the Knee) contains selected "journalism, treatments for films made and unmade and [. . .] selection[s] from the director's [. . .] personal journals" and also "candid photos and unpublished storyboards". The book is introduced by film critic Mark Peranson and published by Coach House Books.

Maddin's journalism features reviews of a variety of films, from Minority Report to The Seven Samurai, an article on the making of Maddin's feature The Saddest Music in the World, and writing on Bollywood melodramas. The book contains four film treatments, for the short films The Eye, Like a Strange Balloon, Mounts Towards Infinity, Maldoror:Tygers, and the feature film Careful. The longest treatment is for an unmade film called The Child Without Qualities, an autobiographical work that reads like an experimental short story. This unfinished short film's title alludes to the title of Robert Musil's unfinished novel The Man Without Qualities.

Cowards Bend the Knee (2003)
Guy Maddin wrote a lengthy treatment for the feature film Cowards Bend the Knee, which he published as a book through The Power Plant, the public art gallery in Toronto that commissioned the installation art show that both served as Maddin's first major foray as an installation artist and for which Maddin produced the series of film "chapters" that collectively make up the feature film.

The book contains a foreword by Wayne Baerwaldt (then-Director of The Power Plant) and an introduction by Philip Monk, who also edited the book and curated Maddin's installation. The main text is followed by an interview with Guy Maddin conducted by Robert Enright. The book also contains stills from the film and a list of credits for the film.

Most of the text is Maddin's treatment for the film, which follows the same plot. In the words of Baerwaldt, the story is a fictional "autobiography [that] features a diabolical plot surrounding a coward on a mission [named Guy Maddin] that resembles a cycle of dark spectacles dressed up as, among other things, lewd seduction, Canadian hockey, murder, amputations, hair design, general mayhem, fetish attractions and heartfelt loss."

In the interview with Enright, Maddin notes that the book's genesis began with Maddin's intention to clarify the narrative of his films, since "'it is a source of continuing frustration that people would say --- and it was always a compliment --- we really like your films, they're so non-narrative. So I thought, damnit, I'm going to get a story that people are going to recognize, something that has legs. I started reading Greek tragedy, Electra, Medea and stuff like that, and basically I just took some premises from these super-durable stories. The things I end up layering around these rock-solid premises are invariably pure autobiography [. . .] once I slipped away what little remained of Euripides, what was left was some core sample of me.'"

Maddin's book treatment is written in a highly literary fashion that is not typical of screen treatments, so that the text reads like a literary work rather than a blueprint for the film: "It is the night before the [Winnipeg] Maroons' first game against the Soviets. Meta and Guy lie in bed, in the midst of a particularly spectacular recital of what could be called THE LIMBO-DANCE OF SELF-PITY --- a verbal choreography performed by lovers who manipulate each other through complicated displays of insincere self-loathing. Participants enter the Limbo in hopes of restructuring the unspoken terms of their relationship."

My Winnipeg (2009)
Guy Maddin also released a book titled My Winnipeg (Coach House Books, 2009). Maddin's book contains the film's narration as a main text surrounded by annotations, including outtakes, marginal notes and digressions, production stills, family photos, and miscellaneous material.

The book contains a "Winnipeg Map" by artist Marcel Dzama featuring such fictional attractions as "The Giant Squid of the Red [River]", various poster designs for the film, and short articles about working with Maddin by Andy Smetanka, Darcy Fehr, and Caelum Vatnsdal. Maddin also includes an angry e-mail from an ex-girlfriend, collages and notebooks pages, and an X-ray of the dog Spanky from the film.

The book also includes an interview with Maddin's mother Herdis, conducted by Ann Savage, and an interview with Maddin conducted by Michael Ondaatje.

Books about Maddin
Maddin's work has been the subject of critical attention, including the following substantive (book-length) works.

William Beard: Into the Past: The Cinema of Guy Maddin
William Beard, a professor in the Department of English and Film Studies at the University of Alberta, authored a critical book focused on Maddin's work up until 2010, focusing chapter-by-chapter on Maddin's feature films and also discussing his short film work. Beard previously published books focused on filmmakers Clint Eastwood and David Cronenberg.

David Church: Playing with Memories: Essays on Guy Maddin
David Church, a film historian affiliated with Indiana University, edited a collection of essays about Maddin's work through 2009. The book contains both new and previously published essays by critics and scholars, including William Beard, Dana Cooley, Donald Masterson, David L. Pike, Steven Shaviro, Will Straw, Saige Walton, and others. Essays by several of Maddin's friends and collaborators, including George Toles, Stephen Snyder, and Carl Matheson, are also included.

D.K. Holm: Guy Maddin: Interviews
D. K. Holm edited a collection of interviews with Maddin, selected from various sources, including the more comprehensive interview book by Vatnsdal. Holm also selects excerpts from Maddin's DVD commentaries.

Caelum Vatnsdal: Kino Delirium: The Films of Guy Maddin
Caelum Vatnsdal, a director, producer, author, and actor (who has appeared in a number of Maddin's films, most notably in The Heart of the World), published a book of interviews with Maddin discussing his filmography film-by-film (the book covers Maddin's career up to 2000).

Darren Wershler: Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg
Darren Wershler, a Canadian avant-garde poet, critic, and full Professor in the Department of English at Concordia University, has published an academic monograph on My Winnipeg. This book-length work contextualizes the film in relation to avant-garde literature and art by drawing on media and cultural theory. In Wershler's words, "I argue that Maddin's use of techniques and media falls outside of the normal repertoire of contemporary cinema, which requires us to re-examine what we think we know about the documentary genre and even 'film' itself. Through an exploration of the film's major thematic concerns – memory, the cultural archive, and how people and objects circulate through the space of the city – I contend that My Winnipeg is intriguing because it is psychologically and affectively true without being historically accurate." In the context of its Canadian production, My Winnipeg's difference from the documentary genre also marks the film as distinct from the work historically advanced by the National Film Board of Canada. Maddin has called My Winnipeg a "docu-fantasia" and Wershler similarly points out that the film's "truth" lies somewhere "in the irresolvable tension created by the gap between documentary and melodrama".

Awards

 * 1991—U.S. National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Experimental Film for Archangel.
 * 1995—Telluride Medal for lifetime achievement in film at the Telluride Film Festival.
 * 2001—U.S. National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Experimental Film for Heart of the World.
 * 2001—Genie Award for Best Short for Heart of the World.
 * 2002—International Emmy for Best Performing Arts for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.
 * 2002—Gemini Awards for Best Canadian Performing Arts Show and Best Direction for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.
 * 2002—Prague D'Or (first prize) at the Golden Prague Television Festival for Dracula: Pages from a Virgin's Diary.
 * 2006—Persistence of Vision Award for lifetime achievement in film given out at San Francisco International Film Festival.
 * 2006—Manitoba Arts Council's Award of Distinction for lifetime achievement in the arts.
 * 2007—City TV Prize for Best Canadian Film at the Toronto International Film Festival for My Winnipeg.
 * 2008—Toronto Film Critics Association Best Canadian Film for My Winnipeg.
 * 2009—Filmmaker on the Edge Award at the Provincetown International Film Festival.
 * 2010—The Canada Council for the Arts Bell Award in Video Art, for lifetime achievement in the field.
 * 2018—Golden Lady Harimaguada Award from the Las Palmas de Gran Canaria International Film Festival for The Green Fog
 * 2018—Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, The Douglas Edwards Experimental Film Award for The Green Fog

title: Guy Maddin


text:
Erosion (morphology)

Erosion (usually represented by ⊖) is one of two fundamental operations (the other being dilation) in morphological image processing from which all other morphological operations are based. It was originally defined for binary images, later being extended to grayscale images, and subsequently to complete lattices. The erosion operation usually uses a structuring element for probing and reducing the shapes contained in the input image.

Binary erosion
In binary morphology, an image is viewed as a subset of a Euclidean space $$\mathbb{R}^d$$ or the integer grid $$\mathbb{Z}^d$$, for some dimension d.

The basic idea in binary morphology is to probe an image with a simple, pre-defined shape, drawing conclusions on how this shape fits or misses the shapes in the image. This simple "probe" is called structuring element, and is itself a binary image (i.e., a subset of the space or grid).

Let E be a Euclidean space or an integer grid, and A a binary image in E. The erosion of the binary image A by the structuring element B is defined by:
 * $$A \ominus B = \{z\in E \mid B_{z} \subseteq A\}$$,

where Bz is the translation of B by the vector z, i.e., $$B_z = \{b+z \mid b\in B\}$$, $$\forall z\in E$$.

When the structuring element B has a center (e.g., a disk or a square), and this center is located on the origin of E, then the erosion of A by B can be understood as the locus of points reached by the center of B when B moves inside A. For example, the erosion of a square of side 10, centered at the origin, by a disc of radius 2, also centered at the origin, is a square of side 6 centered at the origin.

The erosion of A by B is also given by the expression: $$A \ominus B = \bigcap_{b\in B} A_{-b}$$, where A−b denotes the translation of A by -b.

This is more generally also known as a Minkowski difference.

Example
Suppose A is a 13 x 13 matrix and B is a 3 x 3 matrix:

1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1            1 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1                     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1               1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1               1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1               1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1             1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1         1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1

Assuming that the origin B is at its center, for each pixel in A superimpose the origin of B, if B is completely contained by A the pixel is retained, else deleted.

Therefore the Erosion of A by B is given by this 13 x 13 matrix. 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0      0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0      0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0      0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 This means that only when B is completely contained inside A that the pixels values are retained, otherwise it gets deleted or eroded.

Properties

 * The erosion is translation invariant.
 * It is increasing, that is, if $$A\subseteq C$$, then $$A\ominus B \subseteq C\ominus B$$.
 * If the origin of E belongs to the structuring element B, then the erosion is anti-extensive, i.e., $$A\ominus B\subseteq A$$.
 * The erosion satisfies $$(A\ominus B)\ominus C = A\ominus (B\oplus C)$$, where $$\oplus$$ denotes the morphological dilation.
 * The erosion is distributive over set intersection

Grayscale erosion
In grayscale morphology, images are functions mapping a Euclidean space or grid E into $$\mathbb{R}\cup\{\infty,-\infty\}$$, where $$\mathbb{R}$$ is the set of reals, $$\infty$$ is an element larger than any real number, and $$-\infty$$ is an element smaller than any real number.

Denoting an image by f(x) and the grayscale structuring element by b(x), where B is the space that b(x) is defined, the grayscale erosion of f by b is given by

 * $$(f\ominus b)(x)=\inf_{y\in B}[f(x+y)-b(y)]$$,

where "inf" denotes the infimum.

In other words the erosion of a point is the minimum of the points in its neighborhood, with that neighborhood defined by the structuring element. In this way it is similar to many other kinds of image filters like the median filter and the gaussian filter.

Erosions on complete lattices
Complete lattices are partially ordered sets, where every subset has an infimum and a supremum. In particular, it contains a least element and a greatest element (also denoted "universe").

Let $$(L,\leq)$$ be a complete lattice, with infimum and supremum symbolized by $$\wedge$$ and $$\vee$$, respectively. Its universe and least element are symbolized by U and $$\emptyset$$, respectively. Moreover, let $$\{ X_{i} \}$$ be a collection of elements from L.

An erosion in $$(L,\leq)$$ is any operator $$\varepsilon: L\rightarrow L$$ that distributes over the infimum, and preserves the universe. I.e.:
 * $$\bigwedge_{i}\varepsilon(X_i)=\varepsilon\left(\bigwedge_{i} X_i\right)$$,
 * $$\varepsilon(U)=U$$.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Erosion (morphology)


text:
Talk:Batik

Batik Production
How is it said that the batik dye comes. BatmobileFire (talk) 14:39, 1 July 2016 (UTC)

Pronounciation
How is batik pronounced? BA-tik or ba-TIK? Could be useful to add that to the text.

Stress is generally predictable and non-contrastive in Indonesian and Malay, so both pronunciations are acceptable. Syedhusni (talk) 22:44, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Why is the IPA given only for Malay, with no indication of Indonesian? Especially strange because most of the text is about Java. Martindo (talk) 11:30, 21 August 2009 (UTC)

Batik software
The Batik SVG software has nothing whatever to do with this topic. It is simply a product name, albeit a cute one for Java software.

--

The Java XML 'Batik SVG Toolkit' is also the first hit on Google for 'batik' - try http://www.google.com/search?q=batik

Perhaps a disambiguation page would help those looking for summary info on http://xml.apache.org/batik/ - just checked and no entry for same in Wikipedia, nor FOLDOC.

Search of Wikipedia for 'batik svg' yielded 2 hits: Scalable Vector Graphics and Apache XML

Dutch spelling
Why use dutch spelling for canting? I think it's inapropriate202.69.101.170 09:50, 20 March 2006 (UTC)
 * indonesian language used to have dutch spelling in every latin words, even today some of the words still being used. dutch spelling is part of indonesian spelling also.HoneyBee 20:40, 11 August 2006 (UTC)
 * But we are no longer using that kind of spelling. The solution would be mentioning "canting" with "Dutch spelling:tjanting" in brackets.202.180.52.37 09:34, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
 * "tjanting" is not a Dutch word. Not in my version of the van Dale anyway. I believe it to be either Indonesian or Javanese, not sure though. Anyway, it is just the way it is pronounced. As far as I know this pronounciation is still current, therefore I rolled back the removal of the pronunciation. ʍαμ$ʏ5043 17:08, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
 * To add to my previous comment: "tjap" is in my dictionary. But, I think that what the dutch spelling is, is not relevant for this article. The more important aspect of the terms canting and cap is that the pronunciation of these words is different from what your average english speaking reader would expect. Therefore, the emphasis should be on the pronunciation of these words. Entymology of these words is hardly relevant here and should belong on the wiktionary. ʍαμ$ʏ5043 17:36, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

External link again
Please, if you want to include an external link, find a reliable source, non commercial and really really add additional information. Simply put a link to any website without proper reliable authors of who made the article in the website is not good enough. — Indon ( reply ) — 08:07, 8 March 2007 (UTC)

General Suggestions
The History section is starting to firm up. It would be good to see a greater diversity of sources. However, a more significant concern is that the lead (introduction) focuses on Indonesia but the History section has only speculation about Indonesia until the 12th century CE. If that is the best we can determine from written records, then it would be ideal to explain why the technique became more famously associated with Indonesia. Was intricacy the key factor?

The article is growing nicely and some sections might be created to support further expansion. For example, the last paragraph of History could be split off into a new section on Uses, perhaps with a few photos of non-clothing applications. Also, the last part of Procedure is really about modernization of techniques (cap and then automated printing), which could be separated into a new section on Industrialization (or a similar heading). The new section would show examples of cap versus tulis, thereby educating the public (and potential buyers) about how to tell the difference. Keep up the good work, Aireen! Martindo (talk) 22:58, 18 September 2009 (UTC)

Sorry, I just read the message. Like the new sections. I have moved the last paragraph to the culture section. Not sure whether that is correct, but I think a new section should be created when there is more infos included by other users. Right now, I have run out of ideas, thanks for the batik variates section. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Aireen Deviani Harsoyo (talk • contribs) 10:07, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Was intricacy the key factor
I think there are 3 things contributing to why it is associated with Indonesia. 1. Good quality 2. Raffles mentioned it the first time that it came from Indonesia 3. The Dutch were really serious in doing the textile business in Indonesia, (got the info from Dutch Wiki) but I can't really deciper what they are saying, only fractions of words. It's good if there is a Dutch to explain it. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.126.130.140 (talk) 10:22, 5 October 2009 (UTC)

Internationalization
While modifying Gunkarta's recent modification of the text on Nelson Mandela, I started wondering if this paragraph is overblown. The fact that Mandela's trademark Madiba shirt was designed by a white woman from South Africa in the 1990s is only a minor issue. IMO, the major issue is the use of famous people in this paragraph to "prove" the internationalization of batik. Surely, President Obama's late mother was not the only person to collect batik. What exactly is the point of mentioning her?

Perhaps we should cut that paragraph entirely?

It seems to me that widespread use of batik (or other wax resist techniques) in a given country would be a clearer sign of dissemination. History is not just a story about famous people. The History section of this WP article mentions Yoruba and other African use of wax resist. I'd like to see that aspect expanded, because it might show old cultural interaction.

Also, let's be cautious about making this article too political. True, there has been a very controversial dispute this year, but WP articles last a lot longer than one year. Bear in mind that there are many cases of cultural transmission that go so far back that it is hard to prove who gave what to whom. See for example claims about mancala versus congkak. Martindo (talk) 01:57, 9 October 2009 (UTC)

Photos
Gallery is great! Can we keep an eye out to avoid flooding it with modern fashion? Say, a general guideline to have 50% or more of the images show traditional batik, which is still far more prevalent.

BTW, isn't the Tarim Basin photo "wax resist dyed cloth" as clarified in a recent correction of History section? It's not called batik locally, so I think we should use the generic term in the caption. Martindo (talk) 01:28, 18 October 2009 (UTC)

Agreed, we should emphasize more on traditional and cultural aspects of batik. Nevertheless displaying example of batik in modern fashion shows that batik is dynamic and evolve well into modern day Indonesian fashion.

About Tarim Basin, should we differentiate "batik" with "wax resist dyed cloth"? "Batik" is Javanese origin term, but wax resist dyed cloth is far older and spread wider.(Gunkarta (talk) 12:06, 19 October 2009 (UTC))

I corrected the caption to match the text of history section, which treats "was resist" in general, showing the broad geographical range of the technique.Martindo (talk) 00:21, 20 October 2009 (UTC)

 * It now appears that only 2 of the 6 photos in the Gallery section show ordinary people. Can we delete the last two "modern" ones, retaining only the black-white and the Miss Indonesia?
 * Okay I'll delete those batik fashion pictures. Another picture of Indonesian batik school uniform would be great. (Gunkarta (talk) 23:06, 22 November 2009 (UTC))

 * Alternatively, we could make a new page called "Batik Fashion" or "Modern Batik Fashion" and put those photos there, with a link from this page. The new page would allow MANY variations, such as patchwork batik (in style in the 1990s). Martindo (talk) 22:53, 22 November 2009 (UTC)
 * That's a good idea. (Gunkarta (talk) 23:06, 22 November 2009 (UTC))

Well done. I think a school uniform photo, as well as a government official (or a middle class person at a wedding or other formal affair) would be more appropriate than a slew of fashion images. Martindo (talk) 23:24, 22 November 2009 (UTC)

thankyou! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 212.159.43.167 (talk) 18:37, 8 February 2011 (UTC)

From Indonesia
The lead should mention that batik originated in Indonesia. As it is now, it says that batik is "found in Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, China, Azerbaijan, India, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Nigeria, Senegal, and Singapore". Batik is an Indon-Malay tradition. Similar types of patterned cloth may be found in these other countries, but to categorise all of them as "batik" is like saying all dance-dramas are ballet. Morinae (talk) 14:26, 4 July 2012 (UTC)
 * If you can verify this conclusively with reliable sources, then by all means make the appropriate change. WP:BEBOLD. Or ask for assistance. cheers --Merbabu (talk) 21:56, 5 July 2012 (UTC)
 * That sentence has been bothering me for a little while. It looks like a "coat-rack" with a variety of countries hung on it at random. I've moved it to the "Culture" section, and tagged it as needing citation. __ Just plain Bill (talk) 23:34, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

To put it simple, batik isn’t 100% from Indonesia. We can’t simply point out that batik originated from Indonesia. According to UNESCO, the origin of batik is unknown. The concept of batik varies, it can be for clothing, sculptures or even canvas painting. Batik is an abstract concept of both tradition and arts. We can’t claim that this one country holds the ownership of batik when the UNESCO doesn’t even point out the real owner & the real concept behind batik. Exiledexhillium (talk) 01:33, 20 September 2019 (UTC)

To put it simple, batik isn’t 100% from Indonesia. We can’t simply point out that batik originated from Indonesia. According to UNESCO, the origin of batik is unknown. The concept of batik varies, it can be for clothing, sculptures or even canvas painting. Batik is an abstract concept of both tradition and arts. We can’t claim that this one country holds the ownership of batik when the UNESCO doesn’t even point out the real owner & the real concept behind batik. Exiledexhillium (talk) 01:33, 20 September 2019 (UTC)

Should we moved the "Types and variation of Batik" section below "Indonesia"?
The article seems broke, starting with Indonesia, then other countries, and then Indonesia again (the batik types mentioned in the section are all Indonesian). So, is it a good idea to move this section below Indonesia? That way, the other country can created their own "type and variation" section specific to their own country. I think I will do this if no body objected.--Rochelimit (talk) 13:47, 6 July 2013 (UTC)

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Good source
This BBC piece goes deeply into the history of batik in Indonesia, and the link to West African fabrics. Wax Print. 112.119.117.119 (talk) 20:00, 27 June 2020 (UTC)

Batik in English
The batik word has been absorbed into English. Furthermore, batik is an English loanword from Javanese or even Indonesian/Malay baṭik. Thus the "batik" word does not need to be italicized in the article and its title. —Ibra Bintang (talk) 11:53, 23 January 2021 (UTC)
 * References

Adding a section on some of the popular batik motifs in indonesia and an explanation on its origin and meaning
Hi everyone! As i read through this wikipedia article, I notice that it seems to miss another important factor on what makes batik so special, and I am planning on adding a table containing 10 of the most popular batik motifs in Indonesia whereby I'll be adding its explanation since I think it would help others who read this page to further understand how distinctive batik is and how each one is vastly different from the other! I am pretty new to Wikipedia, so I do apologize if there are any mistakes, but if there are please feel free to edit them or message me about it, as I am always willing to learn! Thank you --CarmenBanks (talk) 08:23, 3 August 2021 (UTC)

GA and POV pushing
Hi I hope you've been well. I've looked through this article, and I have to say, a lot of it contents no longer bear much resemblance to the version you reviewed and passed as GA a number of years ago. While it is good to see that some of the content concerning the varieties of batik clothing and techniques have been expanded, I can't help but observe that quite a few editors have resorted to WP:SOAPBOX behaviour and have been largely been preoccupied over steering the POV of the article's content to suit their own preferences. Most problematic was the lede, which I have since edited to remove nationalistic language and more closely match the prose of the original reviewed version. What are your thoughts on how to cleanup any questionable content on the current version of the article and ensuring that it still complies with GA criteria and a neutral POV? Haleth (talk) 11:56, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

 * You seem to have fixed it, really. The article as a whole is not in a bad shape, though much expanded. I've fixed a few small issues but most of the material seems broadly apposite. I'm not sure about the quality of the sourcing; that's not POV but may indicate that some of the more scholarly materials on batik that abound in textbooks and journal articles would be better choices. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:28, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

 * A specific issue is that many web sources do not indicate their publisher (or author, not that that'd help a lot here). We ought not to be using anything from a batik shop, for instance, or a private individual's website or blog. Chiswick Chap (talk) 12:35, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

 * Thank you, and I agree, unless they are demonstrated to be published subject matter experts. I have already discarded a few of those as sources, but within the original context of their usage cited to problematic prose, it appears to be an attempt to demonstrate its perceived "Indonesian-ness" outside of its borders. Haleth (talk) 12:49, 20 August 2021 (UTC)

The theme
Show the themes 41.223.73.234 (talk) 18:04, 18 September 2022 (UTC)

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0715468804 2C0F:FE38:2105:8246:1:2:C413:F9B0 (talk) 04:36, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

0715468804 2C0F:FE38:2105:8246:1:2:C413:F9B0 (talk) 04:36, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

title: Talk:Batik


text:
White Horse Temple

White Horse Temple is a Buddhist temple in Luoyang, Henan that, according to tradition, is the first Buddhist temple in China, having been first established in 68 AD under the patronage of Emperor Ming in the Eastern Han dynasty.

The site is just outside the walls of the ancient Eastern Han capital, some 12 - 13 km east of Luoyang in Henan Province. It is approximately 40 minutes by bus No. 56 from Luoyang railway station. The temple, although small in comparison to many others in China, is considered by most believers as "the cradle of Chinese Buddhism". The geographical landmarks to the south are Manghan mountain and Lucoche River.

The main temple buildings, a large complex, were reconstructed during the Ming (1368 to 1644) and Qing (1644 to 1912) dynasties. They were refurbished in the 1950s, and again in March 1973 after the Cultural Revolution. It has numerous halls divided by courtyards and manicured gardens, covering an area of about 13 ha. The display plaques in Chinese and English give ample descriptions of the Buddhist deities installed in the halls. Significant statues include Śākyamuni Buddha, Maitreya (the laughing Buddha in China), Amitābha, the Jade Buddha, Bodhisattvas such as Guanyin, and arhats and stone statues of the two white horses which brought the Indian monks to China and two mythical lions at the entrance. Under international funding, the temple has undergone many changes, both structurally and internally. The most recent cooperative project, with India, was completed in 2008 when the Sanchi Stupa and the Sarnath Buddha statue were erected.

Etymology
On arrival of the two monks from India, they were housed in the temple. This temple was called the "White Horse Temple", where means "white",  means "horse", and  means "shrine, temple, monastery".

Notably, the emperor ordered the suffix  to be used in the temple's name, as a display of respect. This character had been used to denote the ministries of the government. In later periods, all temples, even mosques, came to use this character in their name and it was dropped from the names of government ministries. As a result, the temple's name is sometimes translated as White Horse Ministry, a translation true to the time. White Horse Temple is the modern, literal reading.

However, this may be a folk etymology as there were other early temples in different centres with the same name. The monk Zhidun (or Chih Tun) (314–366), who was a famous propagator of Buddhism in the southern capital is recorded as having discussions with Fenghui at the Baima si (Pai ma) monastery in Jiankang (previously Jianye), the capital of the Eastern Jin (317-420). There was also a Baima si at Xiangyang where Daoan and his disciples stayed c. 365. To further complicate the search for the origin of the name, there were peoples known as the 'White Horse Qiang' and 'Di' who lived in the 'White Horse Valley' on the upper reaches of the Min River, which flows south from the Min Mountains near the town of Zhangla ([Chang-la]: 32.50° N, 103.40° E) and there are still people calling themselves the 'White Horse Di' living there. It is possible, but unprovable, that the name Baima derived from some of these peoples, who may have been influenced by Buddhism at an early period, rather than from literal white horse(s) carrying scriptures.

Background, legends and importance
Here are several forms of the legends relating to the foundation and naming of the temple:

 * Following Emperor Ming's dream vision about a Buddha who established Buddhism, two of Ming's emissaries departed to search for Buddhist scriptures. They encountered two Indian Buddhist monks in Central India and persuaded them to join them and return to China, bringing their book of Buddhist scriptures, relics and statues of Buddha with them on two white horses. Pleased with their arrival in China, the king built a temple in their honour and named it the White Horse Temple or Baima Temple, as an appreciation of the white horses that had carried the monks. The monks resided at the new temple and here they translated the Buddhist scriptures into the Chinese language. The Buddhist religion prospered from here and with the arrival of Bodhidarma, another monk from South India in the 5th century, Chinese Buddhism evolved, spreading to other countries.

 * At the invitation of the Chinese Emperor Ming Di, two Indian monks named Kasyapa Matanga and Dharmaratna or Gobharana, translated the Buddhist classics at the Baimai Temple at Luo Yang, which was then the nation’s capital. They translated many scriptures, the notable of these was the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters (四十二章經), which was translated by Matanga. This was the first Buddhist sutra in Chinese and has the pride of place in the history of Chinese Buddhism. Gobharana translated the 'Dasa Bhumi' or the 'Ten stages of Perfection', apart from five others. The temple then increased in importance as Buddhism grew within China and spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. The introduction of Buddhism in China was a significant influence on Chinese morals, thought and ethics.

 * The temple's story begins with the dream of Emperor Mingdi and his establishing the temple in 68 AD honouring the two Indian monks and the white horses that brought them to China with Buddhist scriptures. The two monks translated many scriptures while living in the temple, which was named as White Horse Temple. They died in the temple precincts and are buried in the first courtyard of the temple. Following the establishment of the temple, 1000 monks lived here practicing Buddhism.

According to 'The Chapter on the Western Regions' of the Hou Hanshu (Book of Later Han), which was based on a report to the Emperor c. 125, but was not compiled until the 5th century:
 * "Tradition is that Emperor Ming dreamt that he saw a tall golden man the top of whose head was glowing. He questioned his group of advisers and one of them said: "In the West there is a god called Buddha. His body is sixteen chi tall [3.7 m], and is the colour of gold." That is why the Emperor sent envoys to Tianzhu [South or Central India] to inquire about the Buddha’s doctrine, after which paintings and statues [of the Buddha] appeared in the Middle Kingdom."

There are differing accounts explaining how the temple was established. Yang Hsüan-chih says in the preface to his book, A Record of the Buddhist Monasteries of Lo-yang (completed c. 547 CE), that, after his dream, Emperor Ming ordered that statues of the Buddha be erected at the [K'ai-]yang Gate (Opening to the Morning Sun Gate) of the Southern Palace and on near the [Ch'ang]yeh Terrace (The Eternal Night Terrace). He, however, makes no mention of the temple.

The Emperor is said to have sent a monk or monks to India or Scythia who returned carrying the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters on a white horse. The Sutra was received by the Emperor and housed in a temple built outside the walls of Luo Yang. It was China's first Buddhist temple.

Other versions mentioned in the book Indian Pandits in the Land of Snow by Sri Sarat Chandra give the following legendary versions:

The legends related to this temple have direct link to the emergence and spread of Buddhism in China. Two visions are stated in this context.

The first vision was witnessed by Chow Wang, the fifth ruler of the Tang dynasty. The Emperor saw, in the southwestern region of China, a very bright light in the sky, like a halo or aureola from the west which lit the whole space. The astrologers of his court predicted that a saint was born in that quarter of the world where he saw the bright halo light. It was also prophesied that the religion practised by the saintly person, would spread to China. This was recorded by the king in his royal register. This year happened to be the year when Gautam Buddha was born in Nepal.

The second vision happened at Luo Yang during the reign of Mingdi, the second emperor of the Eastern Han dynasty. In 60 CE, on an auspicious day, the Emperor had a vision (dream) of a saintly person of golden complexion with the Sun and the Moon shining behind his back came near his throne from the heavens and then circled his palace. This incident was correlated with the ancient recorded version and the events were interpreted to mean that the period prophesied in the past, of Buddhism coming to China, was now. History chronicler Fu Hi interpreted this vision as that of the divine person known as Buddha who was born in a place to the west of China in India. Emperor Mingdi forthwith selected emissaries named Taai Yin, Tain King, Wangtrun and others, in all 18 people, to go toward the west to India in search of the religion practiced by Buddha. After travelling through several countries bordering India such as Getse and Yuchi (the Saka Tartars), they reached (Gandhara country) where they met two Buddhist monks (Arhats) named Kasyapa Pandita (a Brahmin from Central India) and Bharana Pandita from South India. They accepted the invitation of the emissaries to go to China. They then proceeded to China on two white horses accompanied by the emissaries. They carried with them a few sacred texts of sutras — the Sutra of Forty-two Chapters — statues of Buddha, portraits and sacred relics. They reached Lou Yang where they were put up in a temple. The king met them in 67 CE, with due reverence and was pleased with the presents the monks had brought for him. It was the 30th day in the 12th month of Chinese calendar. The Emperor was particularly happy with the Buddha image which had striking similarity to the one he had seen in his dream vision. At this time, the monks performed some miracles, which further strengthened the belief of the Emperor in Buddhism.

However, some Taoist priests protested and wanted the Emperor to test the merits of both parties. The Emperor agreed and convened a meeting at the southern gate of the White Horse Temple. He ordered that the sacred texts and religious paraphernalia of the Taoists be placed on the eastern gate and the sacred texts, relics and Buddha image of the westerners in the hall of seven gems on the west. He then ordered that the objects be thrown into the fire, and whichever documents survived the fire then that religion would receive his patronage. The Taoists expected that their texts would survive. This did not happen as all the texts of Taoists were burnt and that of the Buddhists from the west survived. With this test, the Emperor was convinced of the Buddhist religion. He with all his entourage of ministers and kinsmen embraced Buddhism. He built several temples, which included 'Pai-masai', the White Horse Temple and three convents for nuns.

Now that there are many contradictory versions of this story, most modern scholars accept it as a Buddhist fable and not a valid historical event. The White Horse Temple is not recorded in contemporary sources before 289. However, there is a Poma si mentioned in Chang'an in 266 and another of the same name at Jingcheng in central Hubei at about the same date.

It is said that the next year, the Emperor ordered the construction of the White Horse Temple on the south side of the Imperial Drive three li outside the Hsi-yang Gate of the capital Luoyang, to remember the horse that carried back the sutras. After the death of the Emperor a meditation hall was built on his tomb. In front of the stupa luxuriant pomegranate and grape vines were grown which were said to be larger than those elsewhere.

Buddhism evolved in China after arriving from India, as a blend of Chinese beliefs and needs, particularly in respect of its folk heritage. It is Mahayana Buddhism practice, which is widely followed even though the Theravada or Hinayana came to China first.

Early history
In 258 a royal Kuchean monk, Po-Yen, translated six Buddhist texts into Chinese at the temple, including the important Infinite Life Sutra.

The famous Indo-Scythian Buddhist translator Dharmarakṣa, active ca. 266–308 CE, came to Luoyang in 266 and resided at the White Horse Temple from at least the spring of 289 to 290 CE.

Furthermore, the renowned monk Xuanzang of the Tang dynasty, who spent 16 years on a pilgrimage to India (630–635 CE) as a result of his desire to visit the Buddha's homeland, started his pilgrimage from this temple. On his return, Xuanzang remained the abbot of the White Horse Temple until his death. During his stay, apart from his teaching duties and other religious activities at the temple, he translated many Buddhist scriptures that he had brought from India, skillfully rendering Sanskrit into Chinese.

In 1175, an inscription on a stone tablet next to Qilun Pagoda—a 35 m tall, multi-eaved square-based tower to the southeast of the White Horse Temple—stated that a fire occurred five decades previously and destroyed the temple and the Sakya Tathagata sarira stupa, a predecessor to the pagoda. The same inscription of 1175 stated that a Jin official had the stone Qilun Pagoda erected soon after. The pagoda is built with the design style imitating the square-based pagodas of the Tang dynasty.

Between the 13th century and the 20th century, the temple underwent restoration/renovation under the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) and the Qing dynasty (1644–1911). Significant restoration took place in the 16th century and some buildings date to this period, although some have since been renovated.

Modern history
Under the People's Republic of China, the temple has seen many renovations in the period between 1952 and 1973 following the Cultural Revolution. The Cultural Revolution had left the temple ravaged and emptied of relics, with many buildings burnt down.

In 1973, Prince Norodom Sihanouk of Cambodia visited the temple. Cambodia was a communist ally of China and Prince Sihanouk was staying in a palatial residence in Beijing. He was permitted to visit parts of the country on a tour for propaganda purposes, to show to the outside world that all was normal within China. As an ardent Buddhist, Sihanouk expressed a wish to Premier Zhou Enlai to visit the White Horse Temple. This put the administration into a frenzy, since many parts of the temple had been damaged during the Cultural Revolution and items were missing. Post haste, 2900 artefacts, which were in other palaces and museums in China, such as the Palace of Benevolent Tranquillity on the western side of the Forbidden City and statues in the Arhat Hall (Luohan Tang) of the Temple of Azure Clouds in Beijing's Fragrant Hills were secretly shifted to the temple, and the White Horse Temple was fully restored. The newly restored temple impressed the Cambodians, who were oblivious to the events that had gutted the temple. The shift of artefacts to this temple was announced as permanent by Premier Zhou Enlai when the original owners wanted the artefacts to be returned.

In 1992, with the assistance of Thai and Chinese donors, the Hall of the Thai Buddha was constructed slightly west of the old temple.

India-China cultural cooperation
The symbolic importance of the temple for the ancient cultural relations between China and India was demonstrated when the Prime Minister of India P.V. Narasimha Rao visited the temple in 1993. A decade later, in 2003, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee also visited the temple.

To enhance the Buddhist cultural links between India and China, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed on 11 April 2005. It stipulated that India would build an Indian-style Buddhist temple to the west side of the White Horse Temple, in the International Garden of the complex. Under this agreement, India was to provide the architectural design, material for construction, the Buddha statue, landscaping and technical advice from architects and experts during construction. Chinese authorities were to allot a piece of land of 2666.67 m2.

Following the MOU, a Buddhist shrine that is a close replica of the Sanchi Stupa was completed in 2008. Its presence in the precincts of China's first temple was inspired by Buddhist saints from India. The architectural features of the new temple closely recreate those of Sanchi's Stupa, including Sanchi's east gate. An image of the Buddha was transported from India and consecrated in the new temple, in conformity with the Indian Buddhist tradition. It is worth noticing that this temple was built on land donated by the Chinese government. The shrine is a two-storied structure with circular walls on both floors. Its circular walls are embellished with murals of scenes from the Jataka tales and the life of Buddha. The temple was executed in close co-ordination with the Indian design experts selected for the project, and Architects Akshaya Jain & Kshitij Jain made several visits to the site in relation with their work as consultants.

The Buddha statue was designed following the pattern of the 5th-century image of the Buddha kept at Sarnath, and it has been consecrated in the temple's central congressional hall. The president of India, Pratibha Patil, inaugurated this temple on May 27, 2010. The new temple incorporates features from the most revered Indian Buddhist shrines of Sanchi and Sarnath.

Architecture
The temple faces south and is aligned along a central axis starting from the entrance gate followed by several halls and courtyards in succession. The temple compound covers an area of 200 mu (13 ha) and faces south. A stone paifang (archway), a three-door covered archway, has been recently built, 150 m in front of the original gate. The stone horses at the front of the temple are in the Ming architectural style, representing the white horses which carried the scriptures and the Indian monks to China. Between the archway and gate lies a pool with fountains, crossed by three stone bridges. The two horses at the entrance gate facing each other are made of green stone dated to the Song dynasty (960–1279).

Entering the temple today, plaques (in English and Chinese) and signposts are seen, which guide the visitors and pilgrims through the halls. The plaques briefly explain the statues in each hall. The halls are discerned in the inscriptions on the plaques, include the 'Hall of Greetings', 'Hall of Six Founders’, 'Hall of jade Buddha', the 'Hall of Heavenly Kings', Hall of Mahavira and Hall of Changing Ge (repository of ancient scriptures).

In addition, the 'Cool and Clear Terrace' known as the 'Qingliang Terrace' is behind the main hall, the place where the original sutras were translated. This terrace is amidst bamboo forest of old pine trees and has halls which are interconnected. Four sides of the terrace are piled with green bricks. The central building of the terrace is the Vairocana Pavilion, which was originally constructed during the Han dynasty. The present building dates back to the Ming dynasty and was built with a xieshan style roof with double eaves. The pavilion principally enshrines statues of Vairocana Buddha and the Bodhisattvas Manjushri and Samantabhadra. In addition, a total of 5,050 wood-carved Buddha statues, made with incense ash, are enshrined on both sides of the pavilion. The terrace also has the Kunlu Pavilion with halls on its east and west that house the statues of the two eminent monks, She Moteng and Zhu Falan. They were buried inside the temple gate after they died here; the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower, in front of their tombs, were once prominent sights of Luo Yang City. In the courtyard, large burners are kept for worshipers to light incense sticks, creating a pungent odour. In the Main hall and other halls where images are worshiped, the altars are filled with fruit and other offerings made by the devotees. Multicoloured tapestry hang from the ceilings of the halls and lighted candles float in the basins, presenting a divine spiritual setting.

The smallest hall is known as the “Hall of greetings”. It is a relatively new building that was built during the 9th year of Guangho period as replacement to the original hall which was burned down at the beginning of the Tonghzi period. This hall has deified statues of three western paradise (Indian) saints. Amitabha, the founder, is at the centre and is flanked by Guanyin on the left and Mahasthamaprapta on the right.

The founders of the temple whose statues are worshiped in the ‘Hall of Six Founders’ belonged to the sect of Chan. The names of the founders as displayed in the order of their succession: Bodidharma, the first founder who hailed from ancient India where he was the 28th generation patriarch preaching the Buddhist philosophy; the second was Huike; the third founder was Sengcan; the fourth was Daoxn, the fifth founder was Hongren; and the sixth was Huineng. Subsequent to Huineng, five schools of Buddhism and Seven Orders were established.

In the "Hall of the Jade Buddha," stands an image of the Sakyamuni Buddha. The 1.6 m tall image made in jade was donated in 1988 by a Chinese man who had settled in Burma. This elegantly sculpted and cherished statue has a precious stone embedded in its forehead. Before it was shifted to this temple in 1992, it had been stored in the Pilu pavilion.

The first large hall in the temple complex is known as "The Hall of Heavenly Kings," where a statue of the Maitreya, known in China as the laughing Buddha, is the main deity located in the hall's front. This statue is flanked on the eastern and western sides by four heavenly kings, each representing one fourth of the universe. The eastern side is ruled by Chigua (guardian of the State) carrying a Pipa, the western side is controlled by Guangmu (Sharp-seer) with a dragon in his hand, the southern direction is represented by Zengzhang (Growth Protector), carrying an umbrella and the northern direction is represented by Duowen (Knowledge Preserver), carrying a Pagoda. In addition, there is a statue of Wei Tuo (a high ranking heavenly general and defender of Buddhist law) at the rear of the Maitreya statue.

The Hall of Changing Ge, built in 1995, is a repository of ancient scriptures, which has more than ten types of Buddhist texts, including the Longzang Jing Dazong Jing, the Dazeng Zong Jing, the Tibet Jing and so forth. An ancient Buddha statue of China is installed at the centre of the repository. The making of this Buddha statue is traced to the Eastern Han dynasty. The statue was misplaced at the early 20th century. However, it was later found in Thailand and was replicated in bronze into two 97 cm tall statues and then gilded. One of these is deified in the library and the other was sent to Thailand. The Mahavira Hall enshrines the statues of three principal Buddhas. The central image is of the Sakyamuni Buddha. This statue is flanked on the left by Bhaisajyaguru and on the right by Amitabha; these in turn are flanked by two heavenly generals named Wei Tuo and Wei Li. Statues of the Eighteen Arhats adorn the side of the hall. All the statues were made in ramie-cloth during the Yuan dynasty. The walls on both sides are adorned with carvings of ten thousand Buddhists. A statue of Jialan is installed facing north of the backdoor.

In the Main Hall, at the altar, there are three statues, the central statue is that of Sakhyamuni Buddha flanked by statue of Manjushri and Samantabhadra. There is a very large bell weighing more than 1 tonne (a figure of 2.5 tonnes is also mentioned), installed during the reign of the Jiajing Emperor of the Ming dynasty, near the altar, which is struck in time during the chanting of prayers by the monks. A community of ten thousand monks resided here during the Tang dynasty. The inscription on the bell reads: "The sound of the Bell resounds in Buddha's temple causing the ghosts in Hell to tremble with fear."

The living quarters of the monks are in an exclusive pagoda, with restricted entry, called the "Qiyun Ta," or Qiyun Pagoda. It is approachable after crossing the manicured garden and a bridge to the left of the main temple. This pagoda was built in the 12th century in the fifteenth year of the Dading reign of the Jin dynasty (1115–1234). It is a 13 tiered, 25 m), high cubic shaped brick tower. It has been renovated in subsequent periods.   The tomb of the famous Tang dynasty official Di Renjie is also located in the eastern end of the complex.

Although the temple is open to the public, visitors are closely monitored for security purposes. While the chief abbot stays informed about the country's political situation through a TV installed in his room, monks dwelling in this facility are required to carry an identification card at all times.

Statue of Maitreya
A stone statue of Maitreya, which was made in the 6th century, was stolen and lost to the United States, now it is preserved at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

Peony Festival
Peony Festival (mudan huahui) is an important flower festival, which is held in Luoyang every year on April 10–25 and which attracts large crowds to the city and the White Horse Temple. The legend linked to this festival is that peony flower did not follow the orders of the queen Empress Wu of the Tang dynasty to bloom during winter and she became enraged that it did not obey her command. As a result, she ordered that peony flowers be banished from Xi'an to Luoyang. It is this banishment which is celebrated as the Peony Festival in Luoyang.

title: White Horse Temple


text:
Dilation (morphology)

Dilation (usually represented by ⊕) is one of the basic operations in mathematical morphology. Originally developed for binary images, it has been expanded first to grayscale images, and then to complete lattices. The dilation operation usually uses a structuring element for probing and expanding the shapes contained in the input image.

Binary dilation

In binary morphology, dilation is a shift-invariant (translation invariant) operator, equivalent to Minkowski addition.

A binary image is viewed in mathematical morphology as a subset of a Euclidean space Rd or the integer grid Zd, for some dimension d. Let E be a Euclidean space or an integer grid, A a binary image in E, and B a structuring element regarded as a subset of Rd.

The dilation of A by B is defined by

 * $$A \oplus B = \bigcup_{b\in B} A_b,$$

where Ab is the translation of A by b.

Dilation is commutative, also given by $$A \oplus B = B\oplus A = \bigcup_{a\in A} B_a$$.

If B has a center on the origin, then the dilation of A by B can be understood as the locus of the points covered by B when the center of B moves inside A. The dilation of a square of size 10, centered at the origin, by a disk of radius 2, also centered at the origin, is a square of side 14, with rounded corners, centered at the origin. The radius of the rounded corners is 2.

The dilation can also be obtained by $$A \oplus B = \{z \in E \mid (B^s)_z \cap A\neq \varnothing\}$$, where Bs denotes the symmetric of B, that is, $$B^s=\{x\in E \mid -x \in B\}$$.

Example
Suppose A is the following 11 x 11 matrix and B is the following 3 x 3 matrix:

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0    0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0        0 1 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 1 0       0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0     0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0              1 1 1     0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0              1 1 1     0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0              1 1 1     0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 1 1 0            0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0        0 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0 0        0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

For each pixel in A that has a value of 1, superimpose B, with the center of B aligned with the corresponding pixel in A.

Each pixel of every superimposed B is included in the dilation of A by B.

The dilation of A by B is given by this 11 x 11 matrix. 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1    1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1       1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1     1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1     1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1            1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0        1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0 0

Properties of binary dilation
Here are some properties of the binary dilation operator

 * It is translation invariant.
 * It is increasing, that is, if $$A\subseteq C$$, then $$A\oplus B \subseteq C\oplus B$$.
 * It is commutative.
 * If the origin of E belongs to the structuring element B, then it is extensive, i.e., $$A\subseteq A\oplus B$$.
 * It is associative, i.e., $$(A\oplus B)\oplus C = A\oplus (B\oplus C)$$.
 * It is distributive over set union

Grayscale dilation
In grayscale morphology, images are functions mapping a Euclidean space or grid E into $$\mathbb{R}\cup\{\infty,-\infty\}$$, where $$\mathbb{R}$$ is the set of reals, $$\infty$$ is an element greater than any real number, and $$-\infty$$ is an element less than any real number.

Grayscale structuring elements are also functions of the same format, called "structuring functions".

Denoting an image by f(x) and the structuring function by b(x), the grayscale dilation of f by b is given by

 * $$(f\oplus b)(x)=\sup_{y\in E}[f(y)+b(x-y)],$$

where "sup" denotes the supremum.

Flat structuring functions
It is common to use flat structuring elements in morphological applications. Flat structuring functions are functions b(x) in the form

 * $$b(x)=\left\{\begin{array}{ll}0,&x\in B,\\-\infty,&\text{otherwise},\end{array}\right.$$

where $$B\subseteq E$$.

In this case, the dilation is greatly simplified, and given by

 * $$(f\oplus b)(x)=\sup_{y\in E}[f(y)+b(x-y)]=\sup_{z\in E}[f(x-z)+b(z)]=\sup_{z\in B}[f(x-z)].$$

(Suppose x = (px, qx), z = (pz, qz), then x − z = (px − pz, qx − qz).)

In the bounded, discrete case (E is a grid and B is bounded), the supremum operator can be replaced by the maximum. Thus, dilation is a particular case of order statistics filters, returning the maximum value within a moving window (the symmetric of the structuring function support B).

Dilation on complete lattices
Complete lattices are partially ordered sets, where every subset has an infimum and a supremum. In particular, it contains a least element and a greatest element (also denoted "universe").

Let $$(L,\leq)$$ be a complete lattice, with infimum and supremum symbolized by $$\wedge$$ and $$\vee$$, respectively. Its universe and least element are symbolized by U and $$\varnothing$$, respectively. Moreover, let $$\{ X_{i} \}$$ be a collection of elements from L.

A dilation is any operator $$\delta: L\rightarrow L$$ that distributes over the supremum, and preserves the least element. That is, the following are true:
 * $$\bigvee_i\delta(X_i)=\delta\left(\bigvee_i X_i\right),$$
 * $$\delta(\varnothing)=\varnothing.$$

title: Dilation (morphology)