0 comment Friday, May 23, 2014 | admin
In 1960, Roman Opalka began on a journey, painting the numbers from 1 to Infinity.
Opalka once said that he would be happy to reach the number 7,777,777 which is a number he said had "profound meaning".
Unfortunately, Roman Opalka died on the 6th of August 2011 and is thought to have reached just short of 6,000,000.
Opalka's work essentially illustrates the passing of time, stroke by stroke, day after day, year after year.
The artist described his work as a journey "a philosophical and spiritual image of the progression of time and of life and death�.
Time as we live it and as we create it embodies our progressivedisappearance; we are at the same time alive and in the face of death�that is the mystery of all living beings. The consciousnessof this inevitable disappearance broadens our experiences withoutdiminishing our joy. There is always the omnipresent idea ofnature, of its ebb and flow of life. This essence of reality can be universally understood; it is not only mine but can be commonlyshared in our unus mundus. (Trad. Mark Selwyn) Roman Opalka - "Rencontre par la séparation", AFAA, Paris, 1987
Time is a concept we can all relate to, most of us have witnessed a clock ticking and celebrated a New Year. However, Opalka took it upon himself to show this passing of time very physically.
The concept of infinity and endlessness is a terrifying prospect for me, personally. As a child, I was introduced to the concept of endless time and space, and the idea blew my tiny little mind! I could not think about anything related to space for a long time without feeling anxious.
However, in the last year of my undergraduate degree, I decided to confront my fear in a similar way to Yayoi Kusama, through repetitive art practice. Compared to Roman Opalka, my efforts were puny, but I spent two months repetitively winding wool to create a large chain sculpture.
The repetitive winding put me in to a calm state of madness leaving my brain feeling a little fried after each winding session, I could not keep up the project for longer than two months and was glad to see the back of it.
It is therefore, astounding to me, that an artist could dedicate over fifty years to continually painting numbers.
The Telegraph wrote an obituary for Roman Opalka which you can read here.
Opalka once said that he would be happy to reach the number 7,777,777 which is a number he said had "profound meaning".
Unfortunately, Roman Opalka died on the 6th of August 2011 and is thought to have reached just short of 6,000,000.
Opalka's work essentially illustrates the passing of time, stroke by stroke, day after day, year after year.
The artist described his work as a journey "a philosophical and spiritual image of the progression of time and of life and death�.
Time as we live it and as we create it embodies our progressivedisappearance; we are at the same time alive and in the face of death�that is the mystery of all living beings. The consciousnessof this inevitable disappearance broadens our experiences withoutdiminishing our joy. There is always the omnipresent idea ofnature, of its ebb and flow of life. This essence of reality can be universally understood; it is not only mine but can be commonlyshared in our unus mundus. (Trad. Mark Selwyn) Roman Opalka - "Rencontre par la séparation", AFAA, Paris, 1987
Time is a concept we can all relate to, most of us have witnessed a clock ticking and celebrated a New Year. However, Opalka took it upon himself to show this passing of time very physically.
The concept of infinity and endlessness is a terrifying prospect for me, personally. As a child, I was introduced to the concept of endless time and space, and the idea blew my tiny little mind! I could not think about anything related to space for a long time without feeling anxious.
However, in the last year of my undergraduate degree, I decided to confront my fear in a similar way to Yayoi Kusama, through repetitive art practice. Compared to Roman Opalka, my efforts were puny, but I spent two months repetitively winding wool to create a large chain sculpture.
The repetitive winding put me in to a calm state of madness leaving my brain feeling a little fried after each winding session, I could not keep up the project for longer than two months and was glad to see the back of it.
It is therefore, astounding to me, that an artist could dedicate over fifty years to continually painting numbers.
The Telegraph wrote an obituary for Roman Opalka which you can read here.
Labels: Algorithms, Anxiety, Arrow Of Time, Art, Endlessness, Entropy, Eternity, Infinity, Mathematics, Melanie K, Numbers, Painting, Philosophy, Roman Opalka, Time, Yayoi Kusama
0 comment Saturday, May 17, 2014 | admin
Currently, the artist duo Semiconductor have an exhibition at FACT Liverpool.
Semiconductor's latest artwork is a collection of videos called Worlds In The Making which explores geological patterns such as crystallization and volcanic activity.
The piece "Worlds In The Making" is the result of many years of work, collaborating with scientists from all over the world.
Kindly, Semiconductor have provided a preview of their exhibition on Vimeo:
Worlds in the Making - preview from Semiconductor on Vimeo.
Personally, I find Crystallised (2011) intriguing. Crystallised is a series of animations created by recording the sound of ice crystals, working out the algorithms of their formations and generating a digital animation based on the information. This was an extremely long process, as the software alone took six months to write!
This piece of work is incredibly interesting, because their research is re-contextualising science based art. The artists are not simply illustrating the work of scientists, nor are they trying to achieve a scientific discovery through arts based practise.
Gerhardt says of his work:
"Everyone is very familiar now with the very standard format of creating a narrative and a way of documenting science, and hopefully we're challenging this." source.
Labels: Algorithms, Art, Crystal, Crystallised, Crystallization, Fact Liverpool, Joe Gerhardt, Liverpool, Ruth Jarman, Science, Semiconductor, The Guardian, Volcanic, Volcano, Worlds In The Making
0 comment Thursday, May 1, 2014 | admin
Okay, so you know about Fibonacci, but have you heard about Fibonacci haiku / poetry?
Instead of the original haiku sequence of:
5-7-5
Poets have started to use the Fibonacci sequence to inspire poetry:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,
Here are some examples
Source: The Silent K
This is a great article about Fibonacci Poetry.
Feel free to comment with your own!
Instead of the original haiku sequence of:
5-7-5
Poets have started to use the Fibonacci sequence to inspire poetry:
0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89, 144,
Here are some examples
Source: The Silent K
This is a great article about Fibonacci Poetry.
Feel free to comment with your own!
Labels: Algorithms, Art, Fibonacci, Haiku, Literature, Mathematics, Number, Poetry, Science, Sequence, Words
0 comment Friday, March 28, 2014 | admin
Omid Kashan's "Timeline Of The Universe" has been featured on Information Is Beautiful which is a website run by David McCandless. David McCandless is a data journalist and information designer who is passionate about visualizing information.
It is easy to see why Omid Kashan's design appeals to David McCandless, as creating a "timeline for the universe" is an ambitious task, yet executed beautifully. The finished design is sleek, the circular design helps to simplify the information, whilst the colour palette evokes a night sky.
The concept of visualizing data is an interesting one, data in its raw format can be terribly boring. For example, Omid Kashan used a Wikipedia page to construct his timeline. However, the Information Is Beautiful website shows that data doesn't have to look dull. The algorithms constructed by data can be processed in a creative way, making new patterns and designs that would be hard to devise from imagination alone.
This type of data presentation is already being used successfully as a type of interactive exhibit at The Wellcome Collection. In July 2011, I visited The Wellcome Collection and was able to see my biometric identity in the shape of a star!
Labels: Algorithms, Data, David Mccandless, Graphic Design, Information Is Beautiful, Omid Kashan, Patterns, The Wellcome Collection, Timeline, Universe, Visualization