chaos
posted by tom at 12:07 pm
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
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10 Comments:
hi tom, i like the depth you have created in this image, what size is it etc.
i was wondering why you had called it chaos as it looks a very regular and repeated pattern to me. also it takes committment to repetiition to do something like this which isnt really chaotic...i know about fractals but this seems regular and restrained. i would like to know your thoughts on it especially in light of the picture
of your room when we were already on this subject. peace and love
looking again i think you may be commenting on rgularity within chaos(?) look forward to hearing from you.
hi zaza, it's typed, and is 89 x 87 characters, which is about 20 cm square.
i've been experimenting with making typewriter drawings, and this one is of a still from some video feedback that i made about 6 years ago. i made it by passing a feedback loop through four screens and four cameras, and having one of the cameras in 'negative' mode. it combines a feedback loop with an infinate degrading effect (because of the imperfection in the method of reproduction), and the result is chaotic - the forms in it come completely from the process. i suppose you get more of a sense of this with the video rather than a still image, because it changes very rapidly, in a chaotic way.
there is order in the way it was typed - i use an underlying pattern to show the dark areas, and i don't type the pattern in the light areas. the pattern is made from a code that has three units, it was developed from an earlier one with two units. (a one dimensional version of the new code is: 112321212323232121232121232121232323212
123232321212323232121232121232121232323
212123211) i use this code a lot in my work.
the reason i came to typing this image was that, i was experimenting weith typing images, but they kept being too easy to see - i might start typing images with this in front of them, like a screen, to obscure them a bit. what i really want to do is make a typed animation of this feedback loop, perhaps with another image coming through behind it, or maybe a word. the idea is to make it ambiguous, almost like a subliminal message... maybe it will say something sinister, but in a sarcastic way.it will be a big project though - it took four hours to type this one.
so, yes, i think it is about order within chaos.
what do you think?
i would love to see the video with the rapid changes to get a sense of it. you always seem to know exactly what you are doing or is this with hindsight. do you just sit down to compose something and see what happens or do you come to the machine with any plan or ideas?
your ideas seem linked togethre (as you explain)
i like the technicality of the explanation video process. because i dont understand it and it baffles me which i like ,like listening to a foreign language and then bit by bit it becomes intelligible. AN INFINITE DEGRADING EFFECT is my favourite phrase...what does it mean (simpley)?
x
it's one of those things that sounds complicated when you start to explain it, but is actually not that complicated - language fails me a bit here, but i'll try -
when you point a video camera at a tv screen, you make a copy of what's showing on the screen, but there is a loss of quality because the process is imperfect - the resulting image is degraded slightly. when the camera is hooked up to the screen, with the screen showing what the camera is seeing, you get a feedback loop (the same principal as when you hold 2 mirrors opposite each other). imagine 4 tv screens in a row (1-4), each with a video camera(A-D) opposite it. camera A is focused on tv 1, but is connected to tv 2, camera B is connected to tv 3, and so on, with camera D being connected to tv 1 to make the loop. this combines the feedback loop with the degradation of the image - the information is taken from one screen to the next via the cameras, it goes round and round in a loop, and it changes slightly at each stage because of the loss of quality. it just sort of melts into a chaotic sort of pattern, which is unpredictable.
i'll try and find the video and see if i can post it for you to have a look - it's not all that interesting, but it looks quite nice.
i don't really know what i'm doing most of the time. i suppose my ideas are linked because i come back to old things that i made years ago and combine them with my new ideas, so they join together.
with the typing, because of the way the process works, i have to know exactly what i'm going to type before i start (well, the over all image, but not the characters i type it with).
i hope that answers some of your questions?
xxx
yes thankyou so much. that sounds absolutely fascinating and i would love to do something with you actually and use spoken word with it. it really intersts me. someytimes i just repaet a word or a phrase over and over for a set length of time (this is where my order comes in) it can be incredibly powerful.yes you have got me thinking here on two levels
1. order/chaos and 2.repetition...
and of course they are nicely combined in your work...yes i am inspired....jacob is enjoying his order in his life that he is getting from his job.
i like that you use a typewriter..mechanical but always under your control...i like old machines and what they can produce in comparison to new technology...it is nice to combine them. like early modern art combined the primitive with the experimental.
yes, it could be interesting to do something together.
i think a certain amount of repetition emphasizes, and makes something more powerful, like you were saying, but there comes a point when it makes it seem meaningless and numb. this is what i like.
yes i can see that...meaningless and numb like being satiated, and things do this dont they oscillate between the too or even the two things at the smae time. very intersting that you like the meaninless ness but you like the physical act of repetition...do you find it soothing or do you find that numbing as in anaesthetizing. even being meaningless and numbing can be positive or negative which i find intriguing. got me thinking again...abot the postive and negative aspects of being meaningless...like chaos isnt it...is it meaningless if so is that good or bad or both or neither etc...
i think it's because most things only have meaning in relation to other things. (there's that old maxim, 'in an all blue world there's no colour').
i like the escapism of it. and i like how it becomes something different through being the same thing. the process can become almost meditative,
and can mess with your mind a bit, if you force yourself to keep doing it, which is good i think.
yes that is a strong feature of repetition "almost different by being the same" but then i think we have already covered that.
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