For the Angels

A detail from a work in progress - with a borrowed element from
Sandro Botticelli's (1489) Cestello Annunciation - © 2016, DS

It's the beginning of a new year... and one that is particularly welcome; especially after 2016, the year when, for many people (including myself), everything went to hell. We lost a lot people last year - the death of David Bowie was the first bad omen - and, all in all, it was a little creepy; you'd think they all were "abandoning ship" or something.

"For the Angels" was to be my last post of that year - as opposed to the first of 2017 - wherein I expressed my gratitude to certain friends of mine - the true angels - who helped me out in the past 6 months, literally saving me from an eviction, and figuratively saving me from the wolves howling at my door.

Actual poverty is almost like a disease; it's debilitating in more ways than a comfortably-placed person can conceive of. Society, for instance, treats poverty as if it were a crime; taking the self-righteous position that the impoverished are at fault for their own failure. Very often, those whom we refer to as friends take the same position; they see you drowning and advise you to swim. Your true friends, however, are those who throw you a line at the crucial moment, and it is to these friends - and they know who they are - this post is dedicated.

Artists, of course, are traditionally poor... "the starving artist" is so cliche that even some artists are under the impression they really can live on air alone. The "mad artist" in the garret is another cliche. And, as it was, I blogged about artists and mental institutions quite a lot in the second half of last year, most likely because the idea of residing in one became more understandable as the days moved on.

But, it is a new year... and, thus far, the worse that can be said about it is the surrealistic coronation of multi-millionaire billionaire King Donald in the coming week. As I mentioned in the previous version of this post, a man in Canada has predicted Trump will be behind bars before the end of the year... which would be the best-case scenario, had VP Pence  - known in Twitter circles as the "Man from Glad" - not been waiting in the wings. So, for most Americans - and most people in the free world - it looks like a lose/lose situation. Although I have little more to say about the matter, our friend Hawkwood over Shadows in Eden has written rather extensively (and accurately) about Agent Orange, and so I direct you here (and here).*

Oblique Strategies... and the Circles of Time

The first set of the "Platonic" Cyclohedra cast in 1988. (Photo: 2016, DS)
(click on photos to enlarge)

"Lateral thinking is solving problems through an indirect and creative approach, using reasoning that is not immediately obvious and involving ideas that may not be obtainable by using only traditional step-by-step logic. The term was coined in 1967 by Edward de Bono."

- Via the Wiki entry for lateral thinking.

"They were most famously used by Eno during the recording of David Bowie's Berlin triptych of albums (Low, "Heroes", Lodger). Stories suggest they were used during the recording of instrumentals on "Heroes" such as "Sense of Doubt" and were used more extensively on Lodger ("Fantastic Voyage", "Boys Keep Swinging", "Red Money"). They were used again on Bowie's 1995 album Outside, which Eno was involved with as a writer, producer and musician. Carlos Alomar, who worked with Eno and Bowie on all these albums, was a fan on using the cards, later saying "at the Center for Performing Arts at the Stevens Institute of Technology, where I teach, on the wall are Brian Eno’s Oblique Strategies cards. And when my students get a mental block, I immediately direct them to that wall."

- From the Wiki entry for Oblique Strategies, a card game created by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt and first published in 1975. David Bowie's personal deck (pictured above, inset, right) was found here.

Les stratégies obliques (and here)

"Allow an easement (an easement is the abandonment of a stricture)"

- The "oblique strategy" presented to moi when I clicked the link for the online version of Brian Eno's Oblique Strategies. (English only, but there is a French version on the web somewhere... at least there was... as well as a Japanese version.)

"As it happened, the subject of maps came up that day, during a game of Triakis, a game which was fairly new to the Prince, and one for which his uncle insisted he needed training. As it was, he'd just made, what he thought, was a strategic move, but when his uncle's turn came, the boy lost another avatar.

"You will never understand this game, Nathaniel," his uncle grinned, flipping the tetrahedron in the air and then catching it, "until you look at the board as if it were a map."

But, all the Prince really saw when he looked at the diamond- shaped board was a mosaic of triangles, and he said so.

"Well, yes, the board is composed of triangles, but, look closely: those triangles are really portions of hexagons, and it's by the hexagons one calculates the most advantageous moves to make," explained his uncle.

"But, that's not like real maps," Nathaniel complained, "not like the ones of Elidon Wold you have in the library." 

"Well, no," laughed his Uncle, "not like those I own, but precisely like the ancient maps that were made by the Avians."

"Avians? Do you mean, actual birds?" his nephew asked incredulously. "Birds made maps?!"

"The Avians weren't exactly birds, Nathaniel", explained his uncle, "but, like birds, they could fly. Ultimately, it was they who discovered Elidon Wold, and gave it its name. But that was in a different circle of time..."

"Do you mean, when you were a boy, Uncle?"

"Oh no," said his uncle, "I was never a boy. I was as you see me now... as I always have and always will be seen. I merely meant a circle of time in which boys like yourself were not physically located."

- Excerpt from the prologue of "The Last Chronicle of Elidon Wold,"  2013, Dia Sobin.

***

As you might've noticed, my usual modus operandi these days is to start a post and then leave it hanging there, unfinished... for days. I'm trying hard to break this habit, but, as of late, there seems to be a large disconnect between my impulses and ideas and my ability to translate them into hard copy. Moreover, by the time I've found the words, I've forgotten the point. The reality is, while "lateral thinking" - the sort of thinking that Brian Eno hoped to induce with his Oblique Strategy cards - might be useful for spontaneous, creative leaps of the imagination and breaking though mental blocks, etc., in the end, it doesn't, in itself, produce anything tangible. It takes a certain amount of logic - that is, linear thinking - to bring any "project," large or small, to fruition. In other words, to truly successfully hatch anything into the world, one has to effortlessly glide between the two modes of thought, the two modes of activity, utilizing each at the proper moment. And it takes a certain amount of faith in yourself to pull this off. The minute your faith falters... well, it's like with any other skill - riding a bicycle, perhaps, or ice-skating - you fail... you fall. Or, worse still, you flounder...

Sacred Geometry, Chirality and the Cyclohedra

Tetracyclohedron on a mirror - cast figure - DS 1988

"We live on a planet which is essentially a rotating sphere, in a system comprised of other rotating spheres. These revolve around a rotating ball of burning gases in orbits that roughly describe a series of concentric rings. This system, in turn, is rotating within a spiral galaxy, which, in itself is also rotating with a host of other spiral and spherical galaxies in what some hypothosize to be a circular universe. In view of this, how else can the "phenomena of life" behave? How could it possibly extricate itself from the "spiral urge"? Worlds turn, cells divide, and flowers bloom using rhythmic processes not wholly deciphered by mechanistic equations. Physical laws and physical life must, by necessity, share a common ground, and this "ground", this mysterious omphalos, appears to be round."

...

"In the end one cannot help but sympathize with old Archimedes who, while drawing circles in the sand, allegedly remarked to a passing Roman soldier - and, presumably these were his Famous Last Words - 'Don't step on my circles!'"


- two excerpts from the intro to Cyclosymmetrics, The Implicate Geometry of the Circle - 1993, Dia Sobin

***

Geometry confounds, but it never lies. And, when the going gets tough, the tough draw circles. Which is why I'm posting geometry today, despite its obvious departure from recent material.

Above is what almost seems like a Brancusian structure. What it really is, however, is a photograph of my first casting of a cyclohedron - specifically, a tetrahedron -  sitting on a mirror.  As for Constantine Brancusi, I discovered today he was Romanian, born in a similar place in the vicinity of the Carpathian mountains as both sets of my grandparents. He was a very spiritual man, and I find it interesting that geometry and the spiritual seem to intertwine in so many respects. Geometry is so subliminally present in so many aspects of life, it's not unusual that it was always, an still is, a "sacred" discipline. 

Re: cyclohedron. You won't find the word in Wiki, or anywhere else for that matter (but here, presently)*, because it's one I coined to describe a set - specifically, the Platonic cyclodhedra - which describe a regularly convoluted set of polyhedra - I inadvertently discovered in the 1980's during the course of a design project. I've tried to document them myself - the quotes above come from its introduction - but, as I have had no intensive mathematical training, I never attempted to publish my "treatise". I did have a web-site several years ago - "The Circle Zone"  (I've just up-loaded its home page graphic here...) -  but apart from one Chinese teacher (and new media artist) Zhang Yanxiang - and Petral, if you're out there, I am eternally grateful - it didn't attract a great deal of attention. Why those from the East might find the cyclohedra attractive, is not unusual. The figures emerge from the circle and its infinite symmetries, and the East has an intimate relationship with the circle, in ways the cruciform-fixated West could never quite comprehend. (see Mandala)

Page 65 from Contemporary Art of Science and Technology - Science Press - 2007
Funded by: China Association for Science and Technology, and the
National Philosophy & Social Innovation Base for Sci-Tech History & Sci-Tech Civilization

Specifically the figures literally enfold from an expansion of an ancient pattern called the "Flower of Life", or, as sacred geometer, Charles Gilchrist, refers to it: "Natures First Pattern."  There a number of correlations that are drawn - either metaphorically or demonstrably -  to this pattern and the natural world... but, allow me to add another one: quantum entanglement. 

Chirality, on the other hand, is a word most often used in physics and chemistry to describe symmetries that are applicable to those disciplines. But, chirality also describes what differentiates the cyclohedra from their rectilinear counterparts - the regular polyhedra - in that, two orientations of the planes are possible... a left-handed twist, and a right-handed one. The two "pinwheels" I created from the tetrahedron photo, for instance, are "spinning" in opposite directions. They're admittedly odd formations...almost alien really... and I often muse about an intelligent alien race - or perhaps just a parallel one - which developed along the devious, organic lines of a cyclohedron as opposed to those static, antiseptic rectilinear planes of the regular polyhedra, or Platonic solids, we know so well.

Rotational symmetry - (top) 6-fold - (bottom) 8-fold - DS 2012

Fractals, of course, are a visual example of organic geometry... the cyclohedra are another. Demonstrably, the circle is the mother of all geometrical figures, organic or inorganic - the dynamic of the material world... and whether you are an artist or a scientist, your inquiries inevitably resolve themselves in her domain. My geometrical muse is adamant about this, and I trust this muse implicitly. As I said, geometry never lies.

A second set of Platonic Cyclohedra cast in 1993 - DS

Cast tetracyclohedron & octacyclohedron (using 120 degree arcs) on a mirror
1993, DS

Vesica Piscis

*  Recently (2/28/14) I found this entry for the word "cyclohedron" on Wolfram. I have no idea when it appeared, when the word was coined, or, in fact, what it's referring to... however, I am continuing to use the word regarding the solids depicted here.

More Artifice: "The Flower of Life" (Updated)

I was digging through some old files today when I came across the "fabric swatch" above. I thought it might be a good addition to my other posts regarding faux items created digitally.

It's an optical illusion, of course. The "folds" in the fabric are not really there at all. I simply "airbrushed" a static pattern of mine over a solid black ground to create an illusion of rippling fabric.

(That "static pattern" incidentally, is based on the geometric pattern referred to as "The Flower of Life". For more information on this pattern - and the graphic below - see this Trans-D post.)

Hint: the simpler your initial tile is, the better it flows. Avoid rectilinear, "cubic" designs, such as my faux lace pattern. Circles and hexagons fill space far more seamlessly!

A graphic created for "The Circle Zone" - 2008 - DS 

The Language of Form - Part 2

Fractal, Form and Field - the Inevitable Symmetries

The interesting thing about fractals (example shown above) is that they illustrate more than just pretty patterns. They, too, employ the same language of form we're discussing, as well as mathematical equations and/or sequences. A new science - the Science of Chaos - is gradually emerging. and fractal theories have been absorbed within that paradigm. But don't be deceived. "Chaos" in this sense, is really the intimations of a higher order, specifically the orders of symmetry, and the fractal nature of the physical world at large. Fractals, in other words, bridge the micro to the macro, and do so by the marriage of mathematics to the language of form. Symmetry, on the other hand, has become the catch-word across the board; in all areas of science, as well as art, music, history and societal analysis. Symmetry, in other words, is a very transdimensional term. It describes both the singular entity and the encompassing field. It can take us from a simple geometric figure to a parallel universe. We can follow it from the atomic to the galactic, from the child's "cat's cradle" to the Super-string universe and beyond.

Artists, of course, generally take both the fractals, the strange geometry, and the form language for granted in their work - for them it is an instinct - and this has been the case since pre-history. Whether it was a lattice or spiral drawn on a cave wall or the crystalline structures tiled onto the walls of the great mosques, artists, intuitively, have generally "been there first" on an unconscious level.

For another intimation of the modern "fractal" for instance, we need only look at some of the illustrations of German naturalist, Ernst Haeckel, (1834-1919). Consciously, he was "drawing from life"... but, observing his work (an example is shown above), I can't help but feel that, once again, on a more unconscious and metaphysical level he was trying to intuitively connect the dots, so to speak, to a larger, more profound picture... the organization of the organism, if you will, its inherent symmetry, and its relation to all phenomenal form.

When it comes to attempting to define a form language, however, it is a mistake to take any form too literally and so superficially that one overlooks the primary source - and/or the larger picture. I'm afraid that those in scientific fields and mathematical fields often have a habit of doing just this. For example, take the Sierpinski "gasket" (my version) shown above. It needs no explanation for the mathematician, but for an artist, myself in particular, the complexity in which it's presented and the way in which it's developed and described is rather daunting and off-putting. In actuality, this triangle describes a portion of a very simple grid, the very same grid from which the Platonic solids emerge. This grid, in turn, is created from a very simple field of inter-penetrating circles, the very same field from which my geometrical figures - the "Platonic" cyclohedra - arose and/or emerged (in 1984). (A graphic of these figures is shown below. Sorry, I no longer have my documentation of these figures online, as there was a decided lack of interest previously shown; in the U.S.A., that is. Interestingly, some of my related diagrams were published in China in 2007, with my permission.) 

The Cyclohedra

The point I'm trying to make, using simple geometrical observations, is that the language of form is inherently transdimensional. Both figuratively and demonstratively it is an emergent - and yes, I am referring to the theories of David Bohm - and, as such, describe form as both a singular entity and the component of a field. In other words, there is symmetry, and then again there is field symmetry. There is the stratum of one dimension as the component of higher dimensions, and what we "see" and cannot "see" is relative to our placement in that stratum... a sort of "Flatland" fable.


Fractals, and geometric observations aside, the interesting thing about more transfigurative forms in artwork - Dali and H. R. Giger come to mind - alchemical symbols and drawings, even the illustrative work (like Haeckel's) often have a "dirtiness" about them. This type of "dirtiness", I think, is the type of "dirtiness" Matta refers to when he speaks of "hallucinations" - that is, inspired images which are inseparable from the unconscious repertoire from which they arise. That symbols from unconscious and imaginal origins ultimately obey the same "laws", the same unwritten code that is used to represent the actual, phenomenal world, is our "cause for pause", so to speak. In my opinion, it intimates one way in which we might someday come to understand the Transdimensional quality of the form language, whereby shapes, patterns, fractals, and "diagrams of forces" become the keys to unlock perceptional doors to a more profound concept of space - and its hidden symmetries - that is, as a tissue, a fabric, a synchronistic and living connective.


Credits:


Fractal form: found here.
Mosque photo: found here.
Ernst Haeckel illustration: found here.


Also: another Fractal link.


"Language of Form" post links: Part I, Part 3