First of all, when I read about this week's Art Explosion thing I due to situation-related decision making spontaneously thought about participating – didn't expect that but it happened to become quite an intense project. On the other side it's just one small step further – at least.
If anyone – for example those who ended up reading this article via #steemstem – wonders what the heck this thing here has to do with those things you are used to: Just continue reading, for now you can see it as some kind of methodological case study.
In this context it is to be said that the title Art Explosion is indeed pretty appropriate.
initial thoughts
To start with, I'll illustrate those first considerations for this entry in short notes on the (technical) approach to this topic of surreality. While 'planning' something like this is itself actually quite strange to me, the project technically really ended up taking this path quite precisely. The process accumulates various distinct layers of unconsiousness of both action and perception that are continously being reimplemented in the progress.
I would take a Sculpture that was originally materialized to test some sensoric potential of elastic elements to change the structure's behaviour according to humidity and leading to a system that – as a kind of 'hygrometer' would change its shape according to its surrounding weathering (wind, rain, sun). As always, this aim only served as an initial push to start with and to soon be released of all pre-defined purpose.
It is the same structure that has also been used for realizing the light installation that accompanied my introduction post – I'm sorry to say that the video will still take some more weeks for being published. Anyhow, the first task would be to demount those EL-Wires that – when unfolding the construction – were showing 'STEEMIT' in a sequence of big yellow letters.
The plan was to transform this sculpture to some 'random' shape – the bandwidth to do so is quite widespread and instead of spending energy on figuring out how to interact in detail I'd just improvise. The static but ephemeral shape resulting of this task should – despite being unexpected – still be seen as somehow harmonious.
I'm about to write an article about those kinds of transformation. It's a similar structure to the one in the video I uploaded to D.Tube some time ago. It is to be said that not only continuous radial/helical folding is possible but also changes of direction, more or less chaotic wave-like patterns as well as interlocking. It's about the variety of stabilization. Initially, this system was meant to be elastic but then started to develop a life on its own. First seen as a 'mistake', this side-effect was soon being seen as a main function. Very small differences define subsequent transformations, so unfolded states can still be seen as planned, folded ones as unplanned.
Next step would be to illuminate this shape – eventually with different colors by using and for the first time combining some lights that I got at some second hand store for an exhibition at Die Labile Botschaft in December. When working on my last graphical artpiece which also this project relates to, it was the first time that the yellowing of the material was seen as quite agreeable – I even started to like it. So now I was really wondering how the outcome would happen to be.
I'd take pictures of the installation, chose one of them and select a sector that would serve as the basis for the following steps. At that time I thought about maybe doing so with several sectors to check which one would 'fit better', but – surprise surprise – I didn't.
Continuing to handle this sculptural information on a graphical level I'd start to digitally play with it according to geometric principles I was already working on some time ago – you can find some explanations on this also widely unexpected development in an article I wrote last week.
Mirroring the chosen sector on its edges to finally fill the whole canvas should initiate the appearance of a whole 'universe' of unforeseen, more or less figurative shapes that would all be connected and only consist of lines being endless but never straight.
Due to the distance of the viewer perception is changing and different things would be seen on various structural levels. Interpretation of forms and figures could not be guided but subconsciously detected for then being knowingly experienced.
According to those initial thoughts, it would finally be possible to bring those detected figures to prominence by also implementing the latest approach of my graphical artwork's progress. Again on an analogue level and using the same sculpture being origin of the former steps, spray paint would be used to add additional empty space (..also to me that did sound quite weird..) in-between those figures directly on the now printed canvas.
Linear elements of the sculpture would cover it while spraying and provide 'channels' connecting those areas to be highlighted. So on the one hand additional information would be transferred from the sculpture to the graphical artpiece but, on the other hand, now this transfer would be reciprocal – the action, or let's say this 'communication' would also add information to the sculpture itself which would lead it from being only origin of the graphics to also being its offspring.
How would this information effect the sculpture? Due to the shape being projected in a folded state, color would only be covering a sector filled with parts of various elements – but their arrangement is unique in this ephemeral state. If the sculpture is being unfolded again, colored parts would be spatially dispersed and separated resulting in unexpected color changes and an appearance that's unknowingly generated.
So basically, that were those tasks having considered before starting to physically work on this project. To the note 'Let's see how the outcome will differ..' it is to say that in some ways it does. On the other hand, especially details, questioning of planned tasks or the importance for other projects could not have been predicted. It is also to say that a 'plan' like this is not being present during the process itself, it doesn't guide. After those considerations it stays far in the background – which after all does lead to slightly being surprised anyway.
sculpure to graphics
The whole thing was started as expected on my roof – in the background of some pictures you can see the city of Vienna. It took some time to remove those EL-Wires and due to low temperatures also tea and gloves were needed.
As explained above, transforming the structure by interaction is following its own dynamic properties while the exact way it will take can not be foreseen. Smallest differences lead a knot to fold either up- or downwards which subsequently effects all further movements. To circumvent formal decision making this process was started without facing the structure, various parts were interlocked randomly to finally turn the object upside-down. It indeed ended up somehow harmonious.
Back to the inside of the house, the sculpture was placed on some black textile and illuminated in green, red and blue using those lights mentioned above. After taking dozens of pictures while sometimes changing angles of the lights, one of those photographs was selected to continue.
Again, to minimize energy used for decisions, I took the same geometric shape already used when I worked on graphics like this for the first time – due to different pictorial information it would indeed lead to a different outcome. This half of a hexagon is not yet ready to fill the whole canvas but first needs to be mirrored only in parts which then anyway seemed to be processed differently.
It's like creating a window to something that's 'not from this world' – and this was to be the first time doing so while already knowing that those different 'worlds' can be shown. Every sculpture, every picture, every section leads to different insights. Note: “Let's see which one this participation opens up”
So this whole translation seems to be an interplay of conscious and unconscious aspects. By willingly copying and mirroring sectors, linear elements are assembling unexpectedly so that all figurative interpretation is subconsciously detected. Still, those appearing shapes are consciously perceived.
While processing those graphical tasks it didn't seem like it would end up being as figurative as last time so I was wondering what else it would be. On the other hand, even on that first one there are still new things being found which means that there will probably be much time for exploring regarding this one (..haha, now I know better).
Having finished filling the whole (potentially endless) canvas, it was time to find an adequate sector that's not too symmetrical but could still indicate the over-all appearance. ..and soon there it was – “..so bleibt's.”
At that time it did happen to seem more abstract than the one before. Sure, there could be objects found, even such that resemble things from our world. Parts could also be associated to pictures from outer space, but anyhow,.. ..it's a world that – thus initiated by actions – is coming from beyond imagination.
I went to some printing company to put the graphics to paper. Various printers use different kinds of paper leading to different outputs so I ended up having two versions differing in both size and intensity of color. I mounted both to wooden plates – the third picture you see is showing me at some performance in Venice.
I soon really liked them and thought about that there was no need to continue with the last step. Even the big one seemed to be perfect and I was afraid it would lose strength – I anyway had another plan for putting paint on the sculpture used here.
Thoughts like this come pretty often in widely different fields – being afraid of losing strength by continuing until overcoming those worries after some moments. To outline one of those situations; there was this one time where I happened to get 180 points with only 3 darts. It happened again on the same day I was now working on those graphics to a friend who was visiting – in a slightly different way. The second arrow got, 'Robin Hood Style', stuck right on top of the first one hitting again the 20. It was really beautiful to look at, so should you really continue? ..some seconds later the third arrow hit the 60.
Exploring
Only after printing and mounting the graphics and when putting them on some chair to look at it more freely, I did start to see more figurative things. Suddenly there was some insect-like guy wirily standing there and looking out of the picture.
I wasn't really surprised. There was this similarity coming to my mind where I was working on transformations of cubic structures that I already explained in an article some weeks ago – it took me about one year to even think about finding the smallest possible state. Often it takes time to find those interesting things in the spectrum being observed – once again this highlights those close methodological interrelationships of all kinds of different fields.
As said before, I even find new shapes in older pictures, but, haha, a little later you can also read about how to corrupt this potential :)
One aspect related to those findings of shapes and figures which I have also explained in another article is that interpretations are related to the distance of the viewer to the picture. Now – having different versions of the same picture – it got clear that this is not only about the distance but more generally about the scale regarding the perception. The bigger one section is shown the more detailed you can look at it and conceptualize those different parts.
Another reason why I saw those figures now but not before is that perfect symmetry seems to take all your attention. Now – limited to an asymetric section – concentration can handle more remote information.
No, I cannot draw well but I due to the rising amount felt the need to document those figurative shapes coming to my mind. I'll report some of them in short notes:
- There's this funny looking insect guy standing upright.
- On the right side some flight device appeared showing similarities to a flying fox ore even to a dragon, but.. ..what's that thing going crosswise? Maybe it could provide some uplift?
Some additional things have to be mentioned here. First, some months ago I did start to build a dragon together with my good friend Tamara Blickwinkle. The idea seemed to be so odd to me that it had to be followed. You know, normally I don't build things with shapes that already exist, but eventually a dragon is something that is not.
Furthermore, it's something like building a big pyramid. Imagine being an ancient culture planning to do so – there are so many tools to be developed that all can serve many more applications than just this one.
Recently I also started to use the dragon project to continue older lines of development by implementing them. Some designed adaptive tensegrity strucure once happened to have the same elements as a spinal column. Also – it's not that weird to me – in my very beginning of designing constructions experimentally I thought about reusing a structural solution to realize wings for myself. I now had the plan to continue those developments by relating them to this dragon project.
So what about this additional thing now? Imagine a structure that could learn on its own – I just finished building my first analogue artificial neural network so I cannot say that it wont work. Still, learning how to fly would definitely take some effort and, instead of just varying wing beats, an additional device with functions of Rudders, Elevators or Ailerons could definitely help stabilizing.
First I imagined to see this as some kind of weird looking flat snout – definitely nothing that flying foxes have. But then I realized that birds – from a functional point of view – do have something like that, only not in the front but they got retrices at the back of their bodies. Regarding a dragon this could mean that parts of its tail that would have a purpose of defense could also contribute to its ability to fly.
Besides that, quite some time later I even found structures on the graphics that resemble air pads connected to those wings.
Now back to those various figures. The same shape having mentioned at first does even look like an insect when turned around – a more 'real' one that's not standing upright anymore.
Another animal-like creature; at least it seems to have antennas like some insects do. And it seems to be moving.
I guess that many things could be found in all those asymmetrical arrangements. While in the beginning I couldn't figure out what exactly, a little later I discovered some weird person making squats.
Furthermore, sectioning itself seems to be relevent even regarding other aspects. There are also parts of bodies to be found of which the rest is only imagined while being outside of the canvas – they would quite unlikely be interpreted like this if the graphics did continue. Something like this also happened once before when I started to work on graphics like this and I thought that I would see an owl. I tried to enlarge the section to see it more clearly but instead, that surprisingly made it disappear.
An aspect without figurative interpretation is that some linear elements appear as even darker than the black background of the picture – which is indeed interesting. I guess they illustrate a shadow sided area that got even less ambient light than the background. This can only be seen on the larger version which is another reason to define it as legitimate.
Another thing. I've seen space ships like this in some science fiction movie – and even a ray-like fish could look like that while beating its fin.
I'm quite sure that when other people would look at this canvas they'd find completely different shapes and figures. There's this piece of wood that's showing thousands of silhouettes of faces that look to the side – a friend of mine was surprised when I told her about that because for her there were thousands of faces looking right at the viewer.
..so what?
You see, artistic research doesn't stop – even if I seemingly go this far from substantial relevance. I always see it as a potential to generate scopes to interpret, it's about gaining all those unexpected new insights. You can never know what to recognize next and it's obvious that it more or less doesn't really matter where you look at – there's something to find quite everywhere.
Again, there's a connection to those cubic structures I work on. Sometimes you know where you can look at because you know that there are many unknown things to find out. It's possible to knowingly look for things you don't know – therefore I kind of follow the plan not to plan. Sure, here I could also mention the principle of so-called 'Serendipity'.
Ad Steemstem and those who happen to find the article following this direction: Maybe you're still wondering what this all has to do with other things you normally happen to find – but in my opinion it should be quite clear already. There would happen to be interrelations to more 'artistic' topics anyway, so I just start quite heavily :)
I guess here on steemit there shouldn't be many of those who think that strict separation of differend fields and disciplines is really to be enforced. Also for me it's about the same topic of inter- or transdisciplinarity – not only about their inner disciplines but so called 'art' and 'science' in general. Actually, I don't only want to bring them together – I cannot even distinguish between those two fields (Sure, maybe it's 'architecture' that naturally combines them). To me, both are seen as external terms while a widely own approach is for a long time now understood as carrying along the most potential. (Ad @Mammasitta → I guess what we see here is part of my 'decentralized mind' :) ) What I do see clearly is that whatever those concepts seemingly are, there's a high reciprocal potential and – even if distinguished – there's a need to make use of the other side.
Coming closer to surreality, the scope of thinkable possibilities or let's say those particular possibilities belong only to the time where they are made up. Fiction is based on things that already passed and leads to changes that themselves have not been part of this basis. One could say that every fiction is about to be history right away. Like whatever I can imagine being capable to build – this spectrum changes fundamentally with every new solution to realize structural details of constructions.
In this course Elie Ayache's 'Blank Swan' has to be mentioned. I for mylelf am still at the beginning of engaging in the current theoretical discourse, but those who know his work can probably refer to what I'm talking about. I skimmed over this book and for sure need to read it again – but despite some difficulties with technical English and basic knowledge of philosophical issues it kind of felt quite close to my own approach of being part.
Now back to the topic of surreality. To me theory is meant to be implemented in the progress. Therefore, no theoretical direction can be excluded, interrelationships are to be found everywhere – from this perspective philosophy is seen as a kind of 'tool'. But looking the other way it's the same thing: all practical tasks are meant to be source of theoretical potential. On both sides it's about 'losing yourself'.
So what we see in this project is pushing this concept to the edge. Who knows, maybe the highest potential is lying where you know the fewest. Now, 'real' could be defined as only those materially existing things, but most would agree that also ideas and concepts are to be seen as real. But what we're looking at regarding this project is going even further. The 'world' where we gain those insights from is lying outside of that – sure it's a result of former actions, but still, it's from beyond imagination. From this viewpoint, imagination can be seen as a tool to communicate with this so-called surreality (..which is indeed also an external term to me).
Even in an older article I was referring to another graphical work that led to figurative interpretations. But now for the first time those interpretations also had functional components potentially leading to new structural investigations – who knows where those thoughts on aerodynamics will lead to. My methodological approach generally aims at generating unexpected side-effects that are potentially to be connected to usages and thus constituting new functions that noone – at least not me – has thought about before.
It's evolution – imagine dogs on an island and suddenly there are no more cats to eat. Swimming – a former side-effect – could become most important over generations and those capable of doing it well and thus catching more fish are lucky to survive more likely. It's the re-stabilization of selection criteria that leads to new directions of development.
back to fighting the concept
Now back to the project. At that time it should stay as it happened to be, without additional cover. But the need to also realize the subsequent state was strong because it did already exist as a concept that was only to be materialized.
Whatever I see would also define a negative space meant to be outlined by curves while implementing additional information of the sculptural basis.
I like to manipulate myself and thought about circumvent this quite big step by simply starting to think about which curves would fit between those shapes. I then also interpreted those lines – they somehow illustrated some person without a head which made me realize that interestingly even before there were quite a lot of headless figures being perceived.
I continued to search and to find more legitimation, so I wanted to try out this new spray paint I got the day before. I tested it on the first canvas I sprayed on before and thereby realized that the paint is being sprayed more slowly which means that it's not only those lines I can draw but also less sharp gradations. ..back to the sketchbook..
You know, if I'd make both and reprint it the next day – why should I wait until tomorrow to continue? If I start now I could still be able to get back to this state – sure, I didn't do so.
Next pacification. It's true, to feel sorry for losing this current state would be the same kind of feeling sorry as if I would cry about all those other photographs and sections that I haven't even developed further.
At that time I had already demounted the state of the sculpture having implemented before, now I would transfer the information from its spiral shape. Even this could be conceptualized, as endless blablabla.. ..I didn't need that as a reason.
Actually, from a technical point of view I had no idea how the mounted paper would interact with the color being sprayed on it. I didn't know if it would be more like untreated wood sucking up most of it or if it wouldn't. Also the little amount of clear laquer could have an effect. The graphics were printed using a laser printer which wouldn't have that much of an influence to shield from the paint. Blablabla...
One good reason is that it would be some kind of fairness. You can't just take information without giving, can you? ..from sculpture to graphics and from graphics to sculpture, give and regive. For some time now I don't like that 'give and take' thing – imagine everybody who thinks to deserve something to just take it. To me it's about giving and getting. Then recently – don't know where – I read about 'to give and to regive'. I kind of like that.
Did it.
Again it took some time to see those various peculiarities created. In the beginning I even thought that there's only a very small amount of information being transferred from the sculpture, but then I found some very distinct and very beautiful new curves. Some of then seemed to match with others that have already been there. I also found out that the very black areas are best in +showing the structure* of the graphics that has been engraved when being printed on the paper.
It became clear that the information you see is widely depending of the angle the viewer has. The reflection of light does change the picture's appearance significantly, so from some perspectives the planar really looks spatial. Good to know.
..Experimentation started again – back 'in my element'. Here I have to illustrate a close connection to traveling: Often it's hard to start, to leave a place – but for example 30 minutes after walking from home and carrying all you need for living my whole being changes. I'm traveling again. Even right now I'm getting goosebumps only from thinking of it.
Yes, one more layer of clear lacquer – maybe it makes a difference that now there's additional color partwise. The back layer is reflecting more and the new layer would due to grounding potentially stick better to the color – who cares, next step, keep looking for those differences, every result is to be seen as a new starting point.
So what about this white color that I got? ..sure.. Curves were painted as loops which means that now even the basic sculptural topology has been transferred. You cannot see them on the picture without seing the initial background – next connection.
Black, then white, now black again. Some more clear lacquer – then I first thought about having put on too much of it but saw that as a new basis and started using the sculpture as an active tool by pushing it into this wet area,...
Nebulisation
What becomes more and more obvious is the picture's uniqueness, the multiplicity of stages. Before all was somehow separated, background, black areas, white areas,.. ..now everything started to be mashed together.
Also surreality can happen to end up as background like gained insights are being more and more distant to now. Everything started to disperse, all conceptualized rules happend to be obsolete. Everything is background and foreground at the same time. Everything is active and passive. Everything is anyhow. No way to detect this flying thing – it's just some kind of vague memory.
Still, like the folding pattern of those parts that have gotten pretty wet – its waves are still following initial graphical densities. Even if you cannot see the fundamental information it still has an effect on current and future processing.
There's no reason for being nostalgic. Also surreality seems to be ephemeral. One could say that what's surreal continues to exist as subrealiy. Who knows, going even further it may again be self-reflected.
It's about opening up 'new worlds' where you slowly start to orient yourself. Then you start messing it all up until again getting lost. Who would want to stay at a place while knowing all its details? My personal need to explore would for sure not be happy with that. Sure, continuing does also mean that you potentially keep yourself from finding those remaining things still being there to explore – but there's no need to worry, some other things can be found in all those other places.
what else?
After all, even this deeply processed piece is not to be seen as standing alone. Several times it has been communicating with both its sculptural counterpart and its smaller 'brother'. They do belong together. This can also be seen regarding time. All those states are being part of this one, everything comes together, everything is still present. Also this project is not standing alone but even serving as a junction. As I said, on the one hand it's just one step further – but it's connecting at least two existing lines of development.
One last thing. Also when working with sculptures, with mechanisms and geometrical transformations there are no conventional mathematical definitions being presented. No calculation is made before building because that would take too much of my time that can be used to find new things. It would keep me from exploring new fields, would make me get stuck. I don't make detailed documentations how something is, but how it happened to get there – it's a documentation of the process. Some would probably say that this makes it less relevant for other fields but from the progress itself it's possible to learn about fundamental principles occurring in all kinds of processes. It doesn't really matter what you learn because you can always lean something about learning itself.
You know, categories is not my favorite category. For some time now – not very long – this surreal thing gained some of my attention. Still there's sometimes the question in which category to be put so I thought about maybe, maybe it's this one. I'm for example not just an expressionist, whatever is expressed develops a life on its own, is being perceived and thereby implemented etc. ..that's much more interesting to me.
One other thing is my concept of 'nature' which is for example also effecting my view on bionics and other fields. It's not about copying nature, not about looking like nature – maybe it's about functioning like nature from a methodological point of view. It's simply about being nature. In the architectural field I could be seen as forwarding the tradition of Frei Otto – only not mainly from a cellular but also from a molecular and process related perspective. In the field of art there may be similarities to Jackson Pollok. So from this point of view that this project is related to, it's still about generating patterns, about interpreting patterns, about abstraction. And to me even surreality is part of nature. Surreality is nature itself.
Still, one could say that not every nature is surreal – ..or is it?
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All content created for this account is produced by Kristoffer Stefan | @EvoStruct (exceptions are mentioned). They are 100% original. – all rights researved –
[This article took some more time than expected so I did publish the post on Sunday, March 25th and will use the following week - minutes, hours, days - for further editing. However, I also realized that 3 pm EST was already over. Still, Art Explosion 33 is and will stay the basis for this work.]