A Glimpse of the Machine – paintings
The work “a Glimpse of the Machine” started as a series of sketches, which were further developed into two paintings called respectively; “inward’ and “outward”, intended to depict a mental landscape. This landscape was based on a simple analogue algorithm, of thinking in the opposite direction. Comparable with the dialectical ideas as they were interpreted by Hegel in his “thesis” and “antithesis” but than strictly visual and abstractly executed. Each decision during the working process generated associations where the least logical decision would form the chosen solution. This resulted in a continuous evaluation of each individual step to formulate and offset associations which were consequently used to generate a cascade of new associations. Each new move, took all previous moves into account and formed a new base of working, which were constantly influenced by change and contradiction. The rule which was included to merge these seemingly chaotic moves, was a form of hyper perspective. An amplified use of perspective as could be experienced when a normal scale goes into a micro world. Things there tend to get more extreme. The “Gestalt” theory was always apparent in a continuous alternation, shifting consequently the “figure-ground relationships”. The work tries to provide a personal interpretation of philosophical theories, using a form of visual dialectics in order to investigate reality, consciousness or even existence. The works were initiating a process of different works with the same ideas behind it.
A Glimpse of the Machine – video
When the paintings were made a desire to keep on working on this theme grew, but moving in a different medium started to become inevitable. The paintings were obviously based on materials like acrylic paint, canvas and a wooden frame. Material and physical elements. A relationship between the material and physical world and the virtual and digital world became a quest. Could the latent and ephemeral world of ideas bridge the gap between the two realm? Would it be possible to merge the two worlds and let them coexist in a new reality. One which entails the qualities from both. The choice firstly was to breakdown the paintings in digital images, which were forming the building blocks to start working with. The images were further broken down in blow ups of specific details, which were processed in an animation. Again the same theoretical formula above mentioned of the least logical decision was applied in an animation. The paintings were coming alive and required sounds as well. Recordings of daily sounds, which were exploring a different scale of objects were generated and collected. The micro world of small entities like flies, dragging stones, metal sounds, and industrial soundscapes, in combination with a nuanced background noise formed the palette of the sound composition. each sound was synchronized with the footage. Here the algorithm of least logical decision was not working and a more traditional approach was applied.
The film is positioned in between the two paintings, on a screen which has the length of the images’ height. The film and the paintings are investigating questions of logic and existence through a set of formulas and anti-formulas. The set up for these formulas can change accordingly and can provide a different set of parameters which can change the working of the formulas and anti-formulas. Thus allow the project to grow polymorphic in different spatial directions and in a seemingly random order. The nature of the work allowed to question the substance of artworks. Could a traditional medium like a painting become equally valued as a digital work, projected on a LCD screen? Could a work grow in different directions, using new media to express itself? Using the emerging qualities which sound possesses. The questions were of such a nature that many works will follow which are researching and producing works in its extension to possibly find answers to this.