Towards the end of the Low Residency, I accompanied Janet, who had a meeting nearby. Jonathan was in the same building at a symposium. I could not join him. I sat down in one of the large plaster cast rooms and thought about trying out the new laptop with its stylus. I have hardly ever drawn on a tablet or with a stylus preferring pen, pencil on paper. If I have ever drawn on the computer, I have done so with a mouse. I feel the simple constraints of the mouse give it a sense that is its own, rather than trying to replicate the tablet-style. I recognise its value for others, but for me, the workflow of digital drawing is too full of stop-starts that limit my fluency and thoughts. The one thing having tried this method that I do like is the fact that the drawing is embedded in the computer, making it a neat way of bringing drawing into the digital ecology.
Instead of drawing the plaster casts, I was inspired to jot down ideas for the final show. Three, two ones that I would follow through and one which I may develop or not depending on where I have time and space – unlikely. The drawings are crude but work as memory aids.
On Tuesday afternoon, following the V&A visit we trundled off to the British Library where we were hosted by Matt (Lee) and his team manager Sotiris at the Qatar Foundation project. We were taken through the various stages of digitising books, maps, manuscripts and photographs amongst other things. Many of the items were administrative documents from the British Empire and the East India Company.
Retrieval
Each stage in the process is treated as a distinct process with its particular practitioners. The process begins with the retrieval of the item from the stores. The condition of each item is recorded before being passes onto the conservation department. Here Camille, a bookbinder, introduced us to the process, from passing the item as ready for the next stage to carrying out the minimum conservation intervention necessary to ensure the integrity of the document. There is a difference between conservation and restoration. The former attempts to halt any further degradation in the item. Restoration, on the other hand, is a process whereby the item is brought back to its original condition as far as possible.
Conservation
We were shown a book that had some invasive, non-reversable conservation/restoration twenty years ago sealing manuscript pages between sheets of paper using heat. I was surprised they were doing any of this twenty years ago. The idea of conservation has been around for at least forty years. I remember the conservation courses at the Institute for Art and Restoration in Florence, a great deal of importance was put on making all interventions both reversable and visible. There was no attempt to hide the repair or make it look like new. The repair would be discreet but clearly visible.
Another thing that also surprised me was that no one used gloves to handle the material. I realise that a lot of the material is only of research value but the manuscripts themselves were handled with bare hands. Now as everyone knows, hands are greasy and perspiration is acidic, both enemies of perishable fibres. I imagine that the low level of handling is considered within a certain threshold and that very little harm can come to the papers, particularly in proportion to what they have already gone through. But nevertheless, this seems to me to go against all the principles of conservation.
An interesting things was the fact that Arabic bindings do not have a spine and are stitched so that they lay out flat. This may explain why the grain of the paper runs vertically rather than horizontally; in order to keep them rigid and flat rather than floppy. Western folios on the other hand have spines and the pages are laid in such a way that they open out more that they would otherwise. This has difference has a consequence both in the durability and conservation of Arabic pages that have been bound in Western-style with the grain lying horizontally. In short, they do not open easily or widely and are more prone to damage. Arabic books were often rebound in this way for aesthetic reasons rather than practical ones.
Foliation
After the conservation comes foliation. This is the counting and marking of each leaf in a manuscript. This is different to pagination as it records each sheet, the verso and recto, as one. During foliation, any previous such record is added to the information retained on the item so that confusion does not arise when coming across variant foliations done by other workers.
Digitisation
Once this has been done the book, or what have you, is digitised using scanners, medium format cameras, and strobe flash. The images are captured and post-produced in Capture 1 software. The item is set up using modelling lights and the photograph is taken to a resolution of 400 dpi. Two formats are used: TIFF for archival up to around 90 MB and JPEG2000 for web use, obviously to save space and enhance web page loading times. When photographing, difficult pages are held back gently using clear acrylic ‘fingers’. The pages are opened as far as possible and not flattened physically or digitally. The result is that often the image of a page is curved. Sometimes some of the characters remain unseen near the guttering. It is acceptable to leave unreadable 3 or 4 characters.
QA
When something has been photographed it is passed onto Quality Assurance. This person makes sure that the images are in focus and complete and that there are no fingers showing or any other imperfection. Each worker is expected to complete about 600 images per day and the overall quota for the month is around 25,000 items; books etc.
SIPs
After the Digitisation stage the books are passed onto the SIPs (Submission Information Packages) specialists who collect all the metadata regarding the item, collected before and after digitisation and puts it into a data base ready for ingestion into the library’s Digital Library System (DLS). This also includes cataloguing the item.
Finally, when all has been done, the item is returned to the library stores by the same archive and retrieval personnel.
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The security is tight and valuable manuscripts are stored in vaults. The air is maintained at around 21 degrees in the store room where books await to be processed.
During our visit, Gordi showed us a collateral part of the project which entails recording paper watermarks which under normal lighting remain hidden. This is done by photography the paper in different lights, using racking angles to catch the contours, and these are superimposed. This helps in identifying the provenance of the paper, and therefore also the age of the item.
Dan kindly offered to photograph our cyanotypes for us to compile a book which will subsequently be filed in the British Library collection. This raised the hope of setting up a residency or series of residencies in the future.
I have always wanted to work in letterpress printing and enjoyed the workshop. Clearly, it was a laborious and slow process but with practice, the preparation of print would eventually ease into a relatively rapid work flow. Unfortunately, letterpress requires a large amount of equipment including the metal type itself making it an unviable part of my practice.
Much of the terminology used in letterpress has an etymology in the equipment and practice. This has carried on into the digital design arena, at time confusingly. Words such as points and leadings are still used.
The following is a list of some of these terms illustrated in the images that follow:
I see the experience on these gallery visits in three ways. My appreciation of the work, what I take away from the experience, and the opportunity to discuss things with others in the group. It is not common to spend an extended time with many people who have art practice in common. The cyanotype and letterpress workshops have been examples of seeing how others look upon and approach the same task. It is like undertaking lengthy experimentation over a period of time without ever having to do so all in one afternoon.
I have written a lot about the works I saw but decided to show a few of the pictures I took as aids to memory.
Victoria Miro Gallery: from Gattaca……to old LondonParasol UnitChristine Rebet – video projected on concrete plinthBeersBookarts BookshopRose Finn-Kelcey at Kate MacGarryHelen Knowles at ArebyteHelen Knowles at Arebyte: intervened by P
This group tutorial led by Jonathan was a repeat of last year’s session with one significant difference. Not necessarily the proximity of the final show and resolution of the two year’s work but an identification, on Jonathan’s request, of the strengths and weakness of the process as well as complementary reflective activities.
We were divided into groups of three. Two people doing one job. The system works with larger groups but not too large. There is a danger with just two questioners as the session can become rather intense. The original ideal number is four or five and is most effective over a three to four-hour session.
Ask only open questions
The questions must meet two (hypothetical) conditions:
you do not know the answer to the questions you ask;
questions are asked tohelp the person who brings the problem in search of answers.
This is based on two beliefs:
that we all have an inner teacher who knows what we need better than anyone;
that to access this teacher we need to be in community.
Community helps: to ‘hear you into speech’ (Nell Morton, a feminist theologian).
It is very difficult to ask honest, open questions. This supports the adage, great scholar = great listener. The approach is to have so much respect for what it is you are researching that you do not want to impose what it should be that you are listening to. On the contrary, you want to hear what the work is saying. This is the essence of research.
Structure
6 minutes of silence (think about a problem, challenge, choice to be made: what you want to know about your work.
20 minutes open questions from the other two in the group.
3 minutes to reflect and write thoughts (all three people)
Repeat the 20 minutes and 3 minutes
Do not give opinions or directions.
Feedback
This is a valuable exercise in reflective listening.
This does not work so well with practical/technical question because you are looking for a solution to a practical problem.
There is also a place for directional input which can help to avoid costly mistakes.
Silent crits also have their place because they avoid argument and give the listener time to assimilate what has been said without having to reply in the moment.
My Session
The session was interesting and helped me clarify certain aspects of my work and preparation for the final show. Unfortunately, the recording has been lost as have my notes for it.
I can remember though that I was able to resolve how to install the work in a light environment rather than a dark one. That the work be incised with words in some cases, that the trinity piece should be encased in a vitrine, the problem of how much should the narrative be explicatory. My responses were affirmations of what I was thinking, (thinking that I have documented since).
Pure Data appears quite daunting to start with but the session gradually led to a better understanding of what and how can be done, at least at a simple level. I soon abandoned note taking and just listened and tried to absorb as much of the process as possible. What I take from the workshop is a sense of the workflow and how elements relate to one another even if I do not understand things in detail.
The glossary link is very useful because there is one thing about a lot of open-source software, that is, the manuals and instructions beyond the very basic are often impenetrable due to the jargon used and assumptions made.
There are a number of tutorials on youtube which show step by step how to create a patch (a piece of functional software that can be added to others in a connected flow of actions or stands alone).
Whether I use pure data in the final show or not depends on what will be the final sound elements. I just cannot afford to spend the time learning how to use it at the expense of making the work. There are always workarounds. However, I may still use some pure data in the work, and certainly in the future.
This workshop built on an IP workshop during the 2019 Low Residency. Roxanne works at UAL in the area of rights, intellectual property and ethical practices. Adam delivers zine workshops and puts the outcomes on ual.amazines Instagram account… but only after asking permission from those that make them.
The starting question, What is the value of sharing work on social media? started off a morning considering the implications of showing work online and using others’ work as a source. This was followed by a fast-moving hour making an eight-page zine from scratch using random printed material.
Kelda delivers a zine-making workshop at her primary school about twice a year; it gives children the freedom they do not normally have. Ken Robinson says that we need to think differently about education and go back to a childlike curiosity and not worry so much about how it looks. Feedback from workshops is that it is a nice therapy. 26 students at Conway Hall worked for 2 hours in silence. It was a way of getting ideas out them and relax at the same time.
Zines are a way of reapproaching digital work and subjectively asserting one’s own values.
Example of Intellectual Property Issues
Questions arise when appropriating the work of others; are their rights being infringed? There are cases when this is debatable. For example, working on a manifesto, the public interest may override other considerations. How to identify and balance priorities becomes important in the context of how we treat each other and not compromise one another.
Examples of IP issues
Students creating mashups or parodies using different sources in pop culture wanting to create T-shirts. One student keen to make sure he did not infringe copyright, getting interest from the US market contacted a lawyer. He was advised that you do not always necessarily need to get copyright, under fair dealing which covers parody. One can also contact the copyright owner with the intention of entering into a contract for permission to use their material. The important thing is transparency.
Apparently, you do not own your copyright if you include your work in a zine of your own making and still obviously do not own the copyright of other appropriations.
There is a case of an industry partner having been inspired by a student’s work and not credited the student’s work.
The UK does not have a law controlling image rights law when it comes to the likeness of someone. This, however, does not apply to the image itself.
This can create a problem when using a likeness for endorsement without the permission of the person whose likeness it is. This can lead the public to believe that the person in question endorses that idea or product.
Pertinent Questions to ask myself when summing up my practice
Who or what motivates you to create?
Who are you inspired by and why?
Identify three words/sentences that sums up your creative practice
Zine-making Activity
Talked about the ethics of practice and how it affects others. This is a very large area for discussion (in the context of how do UAL students ask this question).
There is also work being done on unconscious bias in the context of unconscious infringement of someone else’s values or rights.
Regarding Social Media
What is the value of sharing your work on social media?
What are the questions you have about social media and IP
Also look at the idea of value. Explore the word value.
Talked about the ethics of practice and how it affects others. This is a very large area for discussion (in the context of how do UAL students ask this question).
We were given one hour to complete a zine. I was concerned about how I would make a zine on seeing the material available. I took this as a challenge. It required concentration and speedy thinking. It was immensely enjoyable and satisfying resulting in something, considering the condition I am pleased with.
This exercise has made me want to do more of this kind of work and perhaps make a collection of small, informal publications on a variety of themes.
Hosted by Senior Curator Doug Dodds and Curator of Digital Art Melanie Lenz.
The V&A visit was something that I was intrigued about. What impression would I get from seeing art generated by machines, both mechanical and computational? I was pleasantly surprised by the delicacy of the early work. Reminiscent of Harmonographs and their derivatives. The works gave me a sense of nostalgia: a throwback to the sixties and science fiction, textbook illustrations and works that were on the edge of acceptance. There was a strong sense of aesthetics running throughout all of the drawings, prints, plots.
I think that the fact that most of the works were drawn in ink on paper, often art paper, gave them a sense of clean style and deliberately orientated towards creating an artistic outcome. It was interesting that the last two prints by Lomas and Latham were appreciated somewhat less. Albeit that Lomas’ work is exquisitely wrought by the algorithm that generated it, somehow there is a sense of ordinariness about it. Perhaps because they are photographs and they do not possess that material feel left by the traces of a pen with ink. Perhaps it because of the ubiquity of the plethora of complex imagery that floods our sensory world today. Or maybe the earlier works have that aura of uniqueness, often being sole samples of a machine’s restrainedly stochastic production.
In the few works that we were shown, the transition from analogue drawing to digital rendering is a distinct boundary in the development of machine art. In some cases, however, the means of production are practically indistinguishable. The earlier works were often made as exploratory curiosities, often prized by their makers but derided by the general public as travesties of art. There is the case of Harold Cohen, celebrated painter, Venice Biennale representative for Britain, descending into near obscurity having set aside his brushes and paints in favour of programming and mechanical hardware. His turtle drawings have the look and feel of something having been drawing on a tablet today, save for the fact that the ink is delivered from a pen attached to a moving bot programmed to choreograph the lines.
There does seem to be a difference in feel between plotted lines from a pen and scans across the paper by an array of nozzles or laser light sources. Perhaps the difference is academic, maybe a subtle variance in aesthetic, or simply, a pen held by a mechanical ‘hand’ or a human hand has a physicality, that today’s printers cannot or do not emulate.
Whatever the training or vocation of each individual, it is clear that in each case the intention was an aesthetic one. Today’s idea of process or concept overriding outcome does not seem to be the thing. It could be that the workers were intent on proving that a machine can be used to produce something beautiful with sensitivity in the face of criticisms that say, ‘this is not art’. In some cases, the stated intention was to codify the aesthetics and beauty contained in maths. In other cases, to codify the growth of organic form and or see how far they could go in humanising the machine.
I see it principally as a quest based on curiosity. What can be done using a machine, how can we humans, the rule-makers regarding beauty, deal with machines making manifest those rules or even making the rules themselves: what is the nature of nature and creativity. It is an expression of reaching for the divine by being the ex Machina of the machine and perhaps even giving/allowing it a will of its own.
The question still remains in my mind. How does this compare to art created by humans? To my mind, the works created by machines, generative art, plotted art, the programmed design seems in retrospect rather whimsical. Today’s complex marvels may also appear whimsical in the future. The production of imagery today, approaches perfection of making to my eyes, is this too much, even when it appears chaotic? Whether future generations will crave the imperfection of limited hand-making in a perfectly designed, manufactured machine world, where the imagination is matched by the possible, who knows? No doubt there is room for both. They satisfy different paradigms that exist in a fluctuating relationship within a broader field. Artists and artisans have strived throughout history to create the perfect thing. That task has been taken out of our hands. The divergence of the ‘perfect’ and the ‘imperfect’ has now acquired a new meaning. We have entered a new world moved on from the Renaissance humanism. It appears we no longer focus on the divine in the human but search for what is human in the machine.
Interesting seminal catalogue: Cybernetic Serendipity, ICA, Studio International, Special Issue 25s
The workshop, taken by Dave from the South Kiosk Gallery and Barney, took place in two parts. The first was about background and technical information about working with sound in general and multichannel working in particular, including technical matters. The second part was a practical group activity to conceive of and bring about a short acoustic work using multichannel techniques.
Multichannel Software
Cakewalk is free
Reaper is free but after the trial period a pop up reminds you to pay for a licence but it continues to be free. The licence is $60 for non-commercial use and $225 for commercial use. Reaper routing is simpler than Ableton.
Ableton Live 10 not free. 3 licences: Basic £69, Standard £319, Suite £539. This is the most powerful software, especially for live mixing. If not, Pure Data live can be used but it is less intuitive.
Fruitiloops is not free- full feature £700, basic £150 The full feature has fruitloop plugins.
Introduction
Setting up your own system.
There are different ways of doing multichannel work
Speakers Not all speakers in a system have to be of the same type. Passive speakers are not self-powered. Their advantage is that you do not have to have a power supply for each and you do not have to protect power cables when working outdoors. Active speakers, on the other hand, can be jacked into an audio interface directly without the need for amplifiers. Canopy speakers are contained in boxes sealed from the environment. Speakers can look different and they don’t have to be in black boxes. They can form part of an aesthetic to suit specific aims and needs. Tweeters carry high frequencies and are the smallest part of a speaker system.
Spaces It can be difficult to find a space that is suitable for a given sound work. Sometimes it is better to work with the space and create work specifically for it. It is important to experiment in the space which requires more time than importing a finished work – this has to be allowed for. Most galleries are not acoustically treated so it can be difficult to create multichannel work and sounds can end up in a mess.
Cabling Cable management is important. It can be done informally or aesthetially tidy. Beware that, daisy chain connecting can be messey, lossey and introduce noise.
Audio Interfaces Are for audio to digital conversion. The interface connects to the amplifier. It allows you to put microphones into the computer , record and output to speakers.
Object-Based Mixing Is where one speaker is dedicated to one sound or channel. This way of working is cleaner, easier to balance sounds and individuals can be moved around to improve the acoustic response.
Amps 8 channel amp is very versatile [but can be expensive]
Ambi sonics This is a method of working with sound, recording, and outputting domes of sound where the sound is 360 degress rather than just horizontal.
Max MSP A single licence can be used with multiple logins on any computers which makes it ideal for group buying.
Windows vs Mac Windows is less integrated with lots going on behind using third-party software. Mac is much easier as you can do everything on the one system.
Sound Vibration in air but it can travel through liquids faster [2.5 times]. Hearing frequency is between 20 – 20000Hz
There is infra (low) and ultra (high) sound. Insects use both ultra and infrasound.
Stories about sound.
Tandy Haunting British It engineer and lecturer. He felt somebody was standing behind. When he turned to see, they had gone. This was infrasound. When he returned to the lab the next day, He saw there was a fencing saw vibrating in the lab at around 20Hz due to a fan nearby. This created the sensation of something invisible in the area. This points to the physicality of sound. Need very large monitors. Infrasound can cause optical hallucinations, feel as though you are touched. Feel sad, that is pressure on the chest. Depressed and heart. This has ethical implications when using sound in a public context.
Alternative Well-being
Alvar Aalto Paimio Sanatorium. He created a sink at a specific angle so the sound of water hitting the basin was minimised making it was almost unhearable. He created window blinds that block sound from outside and do not move against each other or collect dust.
Brian Eno and John Hopkins – Wavepaths Using multichannel lights and sounds replicated brain waves demonstrating how sound can be created to influence people.
Sensory depravation, sorounded in silence is also something used in aerial Relaxation Pods.
Nelo Akamatsu – Chijikinkutso Using geomagnetism to create sounds by hitting magnets against cups – changing magnetic fields [the hum of a transformer?].
There is a responsibility when using sound because it can affect people psychologically. Sound processing disorder, not talked much about.
Noise Abatement Society
Sound describes the uncanny
Lawrence Abu Hamdan Sound researcher, talks about sonic spaces where politics are worked out.
The Bloop In 1997, the bloop was heard in Pacific stations over 5000km apart. This captured the imagination. Theories emerged about monsters, prehistoric creatures etc. The sound was not Man-made. It turns out that it was an icequake.
Mass Strandings [Sound has a psychological effect] can make people feel sick, scared. Whale mass suicides due to the sound of ships. The metal of the ships acts as speakers.
Acoustic Defence
e.g. Psychotherapy -Music played outside noisy night clubs used different forms of sound using multichannel sounds to change people’s aggressive behaviour as well as music to deter young people from congregating in public areas such as shopping malls.
Acoustic defences using parabolic shells used to listen for enemy aircraft at the start of WWII.
Palaeolithic Caves were chosen for their acoustics, reverb, like churches. It has been suggested. The caves are deep and echo so when an intruder enters they can be heard: a form of alarm.
The Ear
Is a sonic instrument
Ear canal hears 60% and the cranial bone about 40% which is how cochlear implants work [and swimming headphones].
Organ of Corti – Fransces Crow and David Prior using Photonic Crystal array.
We are not always aware of how sound is affecting us, and we are continually processing a great deal of information which affects us physically.
There is a parallel between speaker and microphone, they are the same in fact and are analagous to how the ear works.
The main part of the brain affected by sound is the Limbic system comprising the hyptohalamus, Thalamus, Amygdala and Hippocampus.
Thalamus: processes sense except smell and divides it out,
Amydala: emotional responses
Hypocampus: memory, interacts with amygdala,
Hypothalamus: controls flight or fight. (concern for sound outside the visual perimeter where its source cannot be identified.
Music Boosts Brain Activity
Linda Maguire (music and dementia patients) Music can evoke emotional responses that provokes memory and intellectual activity.
Workshop Brief
2 minute sound work for an 8 channel (8 speakers) sound system
Think about creating space and distance
Workshop work
Readings of text in contradictory ways and playing these simultaneously.
The purpose of this collaboration, was to explore the process using words
The group comprised: Pav, Betty, KK and myself.
Methodology
The collaboration started with the process and not the content. The use of words as acoustic elements were chosen to confer meaning to this process. We were not sure of the purpose at the start which gradually emerged during the making. In the context of this process, the audience is invited to physically participate in a choreography of their own making. In the end, there is perhaps no clarity in the narrative which might reflect on the nature of communication itself.
The ideal acoustic vision for the work is to have a confusing muddle in the middle of the room. As you approach different areas of the room you begin to distinguish the individual voices and perceive the contradictory words that are being spoken.
The text is contradictory, and the variance is further underlined by the spectrum of voices and intonations pronouncing the words.
The voices allude to the manifold nature of meaning and inference.
The recordings were made in situ, and environmental intrusions can be heard as a disruption layering a contingent element over the linear narrative, such as the siren may suggest an altered context than might otherwise be inferred.
The words were chosen as representations of antithetical ideas which become evident as one approaches each individual pair of speakers precipitating out of the chaotic but ordered noise.
The tracks were left with their background noise to indicate the lack of clarity inherent in verbal communication.
Smile Sun Courage love Full Safe Certainty Early Pride Hero Life Silent Friend Construction Single Beautiful Thought Fire Growth Black Interesting True Neat pure
frown Rain fear Hate Empty Dangerous Uncertainty Late Humilty Villain Death Noisy Enemy Destruction Multiple Ugly emotion Water Decay White Boring False Diluted tainted
Two lists of work recorded by each one
Sample Recording The sample below is a part of the recordings made for multichannel live play. An eight channel mixed down into one stereo track cannot demonstrate the balancing and panning of each channel.
Title Precisely Inexact The words are exact but the meaning is inprecise.
Responsefrom others
The audience’s response waned towards the end and one has to find a way of maintaining interest.
This was an interesting day. It started with finding that the database on my blog had disappeared. I was presented with a blog site that looked as though I had never posted a single word on it or changed any aspect of the design. So what to do. Take a deep breath in the knowledge I was fully backed up, something I checked in the evening. It was strange because there was no sign of a hack. A day later I checked the files on my host and found that all the images in the media library and other files were on the face of it intact. The only thing I can think of is that someone hacked the database for some reason, no real advantage would be gained from this, or my host had misplaced the data in some way. Perhaps changing the location of the database to another server and losing it along the way. In any case, with the backup file, which includes the last post I made, I can restore the site and even load the information onto another blog, even wordpress.com. Thank goodness for backing up. When I return home, I shall follow up the host and find out what has happened, then I can proceed with the correct approach to bringing the blog back to life. In the meantime, I shall continue writing the blog content on the laptop ready for transfer.
Subsequent to this, on returning home, I found that the database has indeed been hacked and erased and that I was not fully backed up. I did have a record of the post coding, however. Together with the image files, I was able to painstakingly reconstruct the site as I have documented previously.
Kaori Homma, started by clearly stating that she was interested in how the work we are engaged in will translate into future practice. I began by giving a brief overview of my background, how I came to work the way I do, what I hoped to gain from the course, and finally the delineation of a future trajectory.
Having found I had no blog to refer to for my tutorial, and knowing that showing unprepared images can badly affect the flow of a talk, I decided to describe in words the what, the why and the how of what I do.
I was able to record the session which will prove invaluable when I come to revisit the experience.
Right now I should like to focus on the salient issue that Kaori identified from my description. I explained that words, in the form of writing had become a greater part of my practice. Writing has become a thread that ties together what I had described at the beginning of the course as the disparate nature of what I do. It is a way of clarifying ideas, intentions and responses. In this regard, it is at the rational end of my activities. I also described how the work has moved from Chaos Contained as an externally derived, rational approach with an internal motivation to something more internal and poetic.
Kaori expressed a concern that I am creating a division between the rational and the irrational, using language at one end of the spectrum and the work at the other. Janet has also expressed this a number of times. Kaori also stated her idea that language not only takes the form of words but also other forms and means of expression. I totally agreed with this and went on to explain that I see my use of words as running along a spectrum, from the irrational utterings of Glossolalia which attempt to convey meaning without sematic significance all the way to critical writing. There is a meeting point between the two ends where I have engaged in poetic prose which uses the rigour of syntax and grammar to express ideas that can be irrational, about feeling and emotions that are difficult to articulate. I do not see the two domains as separate but as parts of a spectrum, or better described as a nexus. The word nexus better indicates a layering of spectra and intersections that are too complex to disentangle: a form of chaotic order.
What I take from this conversation is that I must be aware when explicating what I do, and in the work itself, not to create an implied dichotomy but to make clear that words are just one form of language and that I do not use them only rationally. What this has led me to think is how to incorporate the physical manifestation of the word in the large sculpture. I have had an idea which will enrich the work and engage at two levels, distance and conceptual.
For example, this has subsequently taken the form of the incorporation of text onto the surface of Logos.
