Abstract Program...
24 April 2007
Wates House
London
Some thoughts on how to take the ideas from concept to physical constructions.
First some definitions:
LITERATURE:
1. Writings in which expression and form, in connection with ideas of permanent and universal interest, are characteristic or essential features, as poetry, novels, history, biography, and essays.
2. Literary work or production.
TEXT:
1. Linguistics. a unit of connected speech or writing, esp. composed of more than one sentence, that forms a cohesive whole.
2. The main body of matter in a manuscript, book, newspaper, etc., as distinguished from notes, appendixes, headings, illustrations, etc.
3. Any of the various forms in which a writing exists.
LANGUAGE:
1. Any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures, or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion, etc.: the language of mathematics; sign language.
2. Communication of meaning in any way; medium that is expressive, significant, etc.
3. A particular manner of verbal expression.
ALCHEMY
1. a power or process of transforming something common into something special.
2. A form of chemistry and speculative philosophy practiced in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance and concerned principally with discovering methods for transmuting baser metals into gold and with finding a universal solvent and an elixir of life.
3. an inexplicable or mysterious transmuting
Work Interests:
Literature
Text
Language
Motion
Imagination
Surrealism
Cybernetics
Alchemy
Collections
Literature, Text, Language, and motion
Literature is the system that interests me the most. Literature is a machine consisting of many parts. At its heart it is a cybernetic system. This is because it primarily transmits messages from the author to the reader through the medium of language (in this case, text). The parts of this system that become interesting are the hidden aspects that the system contains, specifically aspects of motion. For me, the most interesting motion that occurs in the literature machine is not obvious. It is the motion of the ideas of the author that transmit through space to the reader and the construction of these ideas in the imagination of the reader. It is this construction that lies at the heart of the hidden aspects of motion text.
The imagination
This is the key part of the work. It is in our imagination that we construct a world that does not exist anywhere else. This construction is made up not of objects, but of non-objects. Theses non-objects consist of the act of the construction itself. The imagination does not construct physical, tangible things. The things that it constructs are the constructions themselves. So, everyone is constantly constructing and re-creating the world in their mind, through their imagination. But the imagination is not valued as legitimate in our society. It is seen as childish or foolish because it lacks logic and rigor. This could not be further from the truth, for the imagination is the most valuable construction tool we posses.
Surrealism
The works of the surrealists are extremely important, for it is surrealism that first began to explore the imagination in any serious way. Surrealism can be seen as an unfinished arm of the modernist movement. The surrealists were primarily concerned with the imagination and its ability construct. The work of people such as Dali, Duchamp, Ernst and Ray were not interested in the objects that they created but were more interested in how these creations affected the observer of their work. They wanted to engage the imagination not only of themselves, but also of the observer of their work.
Cybernetics
Language, Text, Literature...These are all cybernetic systems. The interest in cybernetics stems from Norbert Weiner’s definition saying that cybernetics deals with the sending and receiving of messages. It is about how messages are sent and received, and more importantly, how these messages are interpreted and imagined by the observer. This is the key component to literature, text, language, and the system of the Library of Motion: the Theater of the Imagination.
Alchemy
There’s a small interest in Alchemy with this work as well. Alchemy’s main purpose is to search and discover the prima material. This was done by fusing logic [science] with the imagination [myth]. Alchemists were not pure scientists. They were scientists, poets, artists, blacksmiths, and philosophers all wrapped up in one. They merged ideas based in logic with experiments of the imagination in order to explore the essence of the world. There desire and passion for obsessive experimentation and the logic of being illogical is something worth considering when dealing with issues of the constructions of the imagination.
Collection
We construct ideas based on our past experiences. Everything we do, everyplace we go, and everyone we meet has the capacity to change and influence the way that we perceive the world around us. The idea of the collection plays an important role in this work. Our imaginations are heavily influenced by the experiences of our past. Collections have the capacity to trigger the imagination in unexpected ways. People such as Joseph Cornell and Salvador Dali understood this. Their work, specifically Cornell’s ‘memory’ boxes and Dali’s Theater Museum in Fugges, was conceived as collections intended to stimulate and activate the imaginations of the people who experienced these works. These collections were not about the objects themselves, but about how these objects of the collection affected the imagination of the observer. The Library of motion: The Theater of the Imagination can be seen as a collection of objects and non-objects who’s main purpose is to spur the imagination into unknown territories.
Library of Motion: The Theater of the Imagination
Programmatic Components [In no particular order]
Here is a listing of possible components of the system and how they operate, taking the abstract ideas I have and constructing them through my imagination and interests to produce a physical spatial construction; the library of motion: the theater of the imagination.
**Some editing, as well as further definition, will need to take place, but I wanted to include all of the ideas for now**
Debris Machine: collection of the unseen
The Debris Machine is a vehicle that moves through the space of the library, reclaiming the hidden motions in half made constructions. It is closely related to the Differ(ea)nce Generator. The Debris Machine extracts fragments uncovered by the Differ(ea)nce Generator and transports them through the space of the library, transforming and allowing its pieces to overlap across the library and itself.
**HOW**
How does this piece reclaim the hidden motions in half made constructions?
What does it do with the debris it collects?
How does it move?
What affects its movement in the system?
**WHAT IS IT LIKE**
Exploded collage
Made of castings of objects and objects themselves
Has a feeling like a strange found object
It is familiar but at the same time strange
Differ(ea)nce Generator: Presencing Absence
The Differ(ae)nce Generator constantly reads and rereads the system, but it never sees things the same way twice. Difference works off absence. It reads the system of the library and produces constructions based on its observations, but these constructions are never complete. They are only half constructions; fragments of things never completed; ideas only half realized.
*HOW**
How does it read the system?
How does it build constructions based on what it sees?
Writing Apparatus: Flaubert’s Filter
The Writing Apparatus is a device that looks at and deals with writing as a form of communication. It exemplifies the differences between text and language. In doing so it also discusses and reveals the hidden motion of language. What is written and what is understood is not always the same thing. It writes in different ways, not always concentrating on discernible text. It takes motion and translates it into text. At the same time, it takes text and translates it into motion..
**HOW**
What does it write on?
What is its imput?
How does it write?
What is it made from?
Reconstruction Apertures: Textual Space Grafting
Throughout the Library exists a series of Reconstruction Apertures. These apertures constantly translate motion into space. They interact with the Debris Machine to form a network of observation, collection, translation, and finally construction. These apertures exist within the framework of the library itself: on a bookshelf, in a doorframe, at the writing desk. They take what is collected by the Debris Machine and physically alter the space of the library that they exist in.
Invisible Archive: Linguistic Indexing
The Invisible Archive is where the lost pieces go to be reclaimed at a later point in time. It adds an aspect of delay into the system. Pieces are held for an indeterminate amount of time and then cast back into the system. It is a home for the homeless. Sounds throughout the system are collected, indexed, and re released at a later point.
**HOW**
How does it hold things?
How does it index them?
How does it release them into the system?
How does it decide what to collect?
Language Shredder: the [De]construction of Language and the [Re]construction of Thought
The language shredder does just what it implies; it takes apart language and reconstructs thought. It takes the output of the system of the library and deconstructs it.
Orchestra Pit: The Fine Tuning of Language
The orchestra pit is where the language of the system is born and tuned. The system as a whole operates as an orchestra in a theater. Pieces and connections are musical devices. The sounds and noises that are made by the constructions and connections in system are formulated by the orchestra pit into a new language, the language of construction.
**HOW**
How does it tune?
What does it collect?
What does it do with its output?
The Mask and the Masked: The Medusa Complex
The mask serves a dual role. It both hides and reveals what lies behind. Objects and motion in a text are not able to be directly experienced. The reader can not observe what the text is describing first hand. Here, these descriptions must be reconstructed in the reader’s imagination. Language masks and hides text. It is language that masks these descriptions from the reader by not allowing a one to one relationship between the two. This is because language is slippery. Language has no set and true meanings. Words can mean multiple things at the same time. Their meaning is completely dependent on the interpretation of the reader [observer]. At times the mask of language is clear, allowing the reader to understand the meanings intended, but this is a rare occurrence. Most often the multiple meanings of words gets in the way of their understanding. This makes the reader have to infer the actual meaning behind the text based upon his/her imagination and the context that the word is used in. Here, the masking of text by language forces the reader to construct the text in their imagination.
The Medusa Complex asks the same. Parts of the system are hidden from view. The system only allows small clues to come across to the observer: a sound here, a flash of light over there, a momentary reveal of an object up there. The observer in the system is forced to infer what is happening behind the mask, making the observer participate in the construction of experience within their own imagination. And by doing so, the medusa complex makes the observer aware of this construction that is taking place because what is behind the mask can never be fully revealed. For if it was, the observer would no longer be free to fully construct the experience in his/her mind. The Medusa Complex exploits this idea and forces the observer to become very aware of their imagination’s role in the construction of the system itself. The Library of Motion: Theater of the imagination does not exist in real space made up of real objects; it exists in the imagination of the observer themselves.
**HOW**
How does it mask?
What does it mask?
What does it reveal?
How does the mask work?
How does the mask affect the observer?
Linguistic Anchors: the Constraints of Language Space
Several pieces in the system are connected to linguistic anchors. These anchors restrict the motion of parts of the system. Connected to weights and other pieces of the system itself, they both restrict and affect the operation of the system as a whole. The anchors function in a similar way as language, they do not allow the parts of the system of the library to function as expected. Language is not an exact science and is left up to interpretation by the reader, and this interpretation, more so than not, is full of unexpected results.
**HOW**
How do the anchors attach themselves to the system?
What are they attached to?
How do they restrict the system?
What happens to the system when it is restricted?
Drop Zones: the Opening Up of the Imagination
The system contains a series of Drop Zones. These drop zones act as a way of letting the observer look through the system very quickly in order to experience its inner workings. They happen very quickly and only occur for a very brief period of time. They may not be noticed at first, but when they are discovered, the imagination is allowed to explode in ways never before thought. The Drop Zones bring the observer straight into the heart of the project, altering their experience forever.
**HOW**
How precisely do they work?
How is the observer’s point of view altered?
What happens to the system when these drops appear?
Nicod’s Traveling Theater: Act I The Object Act II the Non-Object
How are objects in text constructed by the reader? According to Jean Nicod, objects can be constructed from the sensory perception of geometry. It is the relationship between sense perception of an observer and geometry that make objects able to be explored without a direct relationship to the object itself. Unlike Nicod, here the interest is in the motion between the text and the reader. If an object is looked at, not for the object itself, but through the object, its construction, then a new experience of its essence can begin to be discovered. It is in this way of thinking that the object is allowed to be liberated from its physical form, letting the focus shift to the construction of the object instead of the object itself. Nicod argues that geometry [objects] can be understood as a series of lines separated by distance. This is an object’s fundamental state. When looked at in this way, the object is no longer needed in order to understand its geometry; its essence becomes a series of object-lines. Nicod’s traveling theater silently traverses these lines, moving back and forth, constructing and altering the foundations of the objects themselves.
These lines project out from the center, providing the theater with a means of travel. These lines travel throughout the system; at one time appearing as a single line in space and at other times appearing as multiple lines in multiple spaces. The theater’s foundation exists on these object-lines of geometry. Closely linked to the Reconstruction Apertures, these lines record and transfer the motion and constructions of the theater to the larger space as a whole. These new constructions of the theater now exist at the edge of the observer’s sight, the periphery of visual experience.
**HOW**
How does the theater construct?
What does the theater construct?
How do these constructions alter the operation of the system as a whole?
How does the theater move in the system?
What drives its movement?
The Language Lion: Conquering the Unconquerable
The Woman in Black: the Librarian: the Language Warden
The woman in Black is the governor of the system. She sits silently in the corner, watching all that is happening. Like a librarian, she waits for any opportunity to correct wrong doing. Waiting to pounce at the first chance she gets, the woman in black alters the system when the system becomes to regular. When things begin to become too clear, she blows her whistle, releasing pressure from the system and altering its operations.
**HOW**
How does it relate to the system?
What does it look for?
How does it determine when to disrupt the system?
**WHAT IS IT LIKE?**
Highly polished black smooth form
Plastic?
Black granite?
Black Marble?
Soft form relates to the body
Black rubber?
Size relates to the human body
Similar to a car or ship body
Reflective in an unusual way
References
Ann Hamilton
Marcel Duchamp
Salvador Dali
Theater Muse Dali, Fugges, Spain
Joseph Cornell
Surrealism
Wittgenstein
Derrida
