Infinity & Research.

'Infinity'- Numen

Introducing the aspect of Infinity 

Infinity is an aspect that I wanted to further explore on due to the impending idea that no matter what there will always be an infinity of matter, and my thoughts into how to represent this are beginning to transpire. During the lecture, I thought of the possibility that haunts us all in my opinion. The fact that when we're no longer present on Earth or before we even are born, life goes on infinitely regardless, it continues in a cycle of Void>Life>Void, no matter how famous you are, who you are or what you did, the fact that our lives do not go on forever is partnered by the haunting thought that no matter what, life as a whole, whether it be bacteria, livestock, planets, stars - will be there forever.
Without the form of life or matter, there is nothing. Another void that I find extremely transpiring, but I am transfixed with the thought of trying to visually represent the idea of life living infinity in whatever form it may take.
Defining infinity

To me, my infinity is the thought that life will never die, not truly, as long as there is always a continuous loop of life that follows, but whether it is this universe or the next, life will always remain.

In the filtered morality's idea of infinity, it perhaps resembles the yearning for infinite life; immortality. Immortality is a thought that I think gets into the mind of many of mankind, a lot of people don't want to die, and with people such as me, death is hopefully something that is a long way away, meaning it doesn't often come to mind of how spontaneous it can be.

"Some infinities are bigger than other infinities"-John Green (Writer)

The Microsoft Infinity Room 

Personally when I try to visually represent in my head the aspect of infinity I think of an infinity mirror. A mirror that is designed to refract the light at alternate angles to give the appearance of different realms of repetitive worlds, my first inspiration being the garden exhibit featured in my sketchbook and the Microsoft Infinity Room which successfully immerse the viewer into a different layered world.

To me the idea of infinity represented in a visual manner would be:

• Repeated shapes, forms or patterns, asymmetrical or symmetrical
• Consistent speed
• A loop - repeated timing of animation
• Elongation of shape and pattern, deformity of matter.
• Looped shapes i.e Circles, Ovals, Arcs, Infinity symbol.

I have collected some images and short clips of things in my everyday life that I feel visually represented the idea of infinity as part of my research.
A key example that I found on the idea of infinity in my own life, was this clip that I filmed of bubbles in the saucepan. Although a very simplistic source of inspiration, I liked the way the bubbles repeated at alternate speeds whilst there seemed to be an almost void like resemblance in the centre of the bubbles. Capturing such resemblances of infinity in my opinion will further captivate what I am meaning to explore in my project.
Optical Illusions & Stereograms
When first looking into the aspect of Void. Life. Void. and the further element of Infinity, I came across the idea of optical illusions, and stereograms, and how repeated patterns mimic infinity in some ways, and give the impact of a thought provoking composition overall. What fascinated me was the fact that the optical illusions give the effect of motion by challenging the process of your eyes.
I have briskly researched some stereograms and illusions and will take away the abstract forms of motion that this has taught me. I think however that these forms represent an aspect of life more than the aspect of infinity that I'd rather achieve.



Minimal Art

"Simplicity of form is not necessarily simplicity of existence" -Robert Morris

In reaction to the initial idea of exploring infinity and the aspect of curiosity, I looked into researching existing installations that retain the same impact. Installations and existing artists that transpire a deeper depth of thought that could relate to Existentialism.

Frank Stella- 'Die Fahne Hoch'
1959

I extracted alternative resources via the library where I took out a book by Daniel Morzona 'Minimal Art' (VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn, 2004) which was an anthology of alternate examples of minimal art. I personally like the idea of minimalistic forms of art when in relation to this brief, as the idea of representing something so complex with something so basic is very inspiring. The fact that some of the installations include blank spaces, and simple shapes represent an idea of nothingness. Nothing is shown, yet the viewer fills in the gaps and is interpreted differently by each and every person that visits the exhibition. This is one of the values I would love to capture in my own installation, a piece that makes each viewer question the meaning of existence and fill in the gaps to provoke their own thoughts.
Pieces such as Frank Stella's 'Die Fahne Hoch' involved the aspects of contrasting dark and light as well as right angled line structured which I believe retains an ominous purpose. The piece is meant to allow the viewer to think of their own meaning and their own purpose of the art and why it is effective. The book is well set out and inspiring as it explains how art challenges visual meanings, and how each visual element is paired up with the viewer's imagination and their personal opinion of the artwork produced. An important quote I saw when reading through this book was:

"What you see, is what you see" -Unknown

I found that this quote amplifies the idea of personal preference, even small factors of the viewers day could alter their perception of the view, what they've eaten, who they've spoken to, how much sleep they've had, as well as more permanent features of their perspective such as personal preference, upbringing and moral values.What inspires them? What to them do these shapes represent? This idea linked to the animation that Rick showed us that is supposed to transpire alternate perspective, it was a variety of geometric shapes fighting against each other, and it depended on each of our perspectives of what we thought was happening, and who we thought the geometric shapes represented (for example, triangles male, circles female and vice versa)

Jo Baer - 'Primary Light Group: Red, Green, Blue'
1969

In addition, the Minimal Artist Jo Baer was an artist who in the book stood out for me, as her large scale synthetic polymer on canvas pieces were 3 panels consisting of a blank white central piece, with a border on each piece differing in the 3 colours, one for each, red, blue and green that I believed would transpire further thoughts.

"Baer's Minimal paintings reveal her substantial knowledge of physiological perception"

After being a studious woman who studied Physiological Psychology at the New School for Social Research, Baer was obviously equipped with a better understanding of what impact her work could produce on alternate forms of perception. Not only did she physically want to enhance the optical nerves of the eye (something she studied- relating to the colours produced) but she wanted to emotionally challenge their perspective and see what the outcome actually was.

"I use this new colour spectrum so that no illusion of depth is possible at all"- Jo Baer

Personally this has helped further enhance to me the importance of space, because each viewer has the imagination or depth of thought to fill the space themselves with their own thoughts, feelings and viewpoints, allowing a further meaning that is not defined as a whole. Therefore I believe such artwork would beautifully reflect the idea of Void. Life. Void. and my further concept of infinity due to it being so ominous.

The Visual Art of John Cage

River, Rocks and Smoke - John Cage 1990

In further exploration of the Minimalistic art front I had stumbled across in the library, I also came across the book 'Every Day is a Good Day - The Visual Art of John Cage' (Hayward Publishing) which described an artist that was 'one of the twentieth century's most influential figures' John Cage seemed interesting me as he wasn't just an artist but a composer, and composed the art of not only music but the visual representation of other art forms. Cage used his paintings to represent his music and vice versa, and believed that such movements would be a perfect connection between the viewer and their thoughts.
This point is something I have wanted to elaborate on throughout the project and therefore would like to apply such a technique in my own work. I'd like to consider how sound and visual representations can be explored.
Personally, through the context lectures and throughout college etc. I have always been fond of creative writing, especially descriptive writing which is something that I'd like to bring to the table for this project. My initial idea here is so use the research on John Cage and my own primary research of existentialism, enlightenment and void, life, void and applying it to my installation and idea of infinity.
Existential Animation by Eoin Duffy (Influence of Narrative)

Upon research into Existentialism, I stumbled across the workings of animation by Eoin Duffy, an Irish animator who managed to capture the essence of life's questions, but trying to disguise such a meaning in the form of a children's tale. Duffy disguises such existential messages in his simplistic looking animation by making it appear to be a usual naive piece.
'The Missing Scarf' follows the life of Albert, a naive looking squirrel who's lost his scarf, something that ultimately is quite generic in a children's animation, as the animation is first meant to appear. Duffy who states that the usual Vector animation is typically used for light hearted messages or children's fables was meant in this animation as a source of manipulation:

“I wanted to lull the audience into a false sense of security only to punch them in the face with some existentialism,” 

The fact that they manage to absorb the audience, thinking that it is just an innocent animation is part of the beauty of it, the fact that normally the children's fables are to keep the truth of life's questions hidden is ultimately ironic when this animation completely uses this technique to expose it.

The narrative for this piece I believe is just as powerful as the animation itself, and I would personally like to produce the aspect of narration in my own installation, and to see what effect it could have in terms of existentialism.