Wine And Dine

First Concept Telescoping Dining Table with Birds  

My interest in animal experimentation is a steady source that provides me with all sorts of visual imagery. In this attempt I would like to see a variety of birds that get together for a fancy dinner party. Arriving one after the other, to take up ever inch of free space they accumulate by sound and personalities a peak that will shatter all tableware. Leaving a complete and devastated mess behind. It would be fantastic to record this event in real time. The birds with their unpredictable behavior might count for some unexpected events. Will it work? Or is it a lost case to begin with? And should I make an attempt to get some serious SGI guys onboard?  Or it might be a mix of both, doves seem to be rather friendly in comparison with Toucans or other Parrots. So maybe they could be added in a digital way? I have to get more information about the possibilities and what species I would like to use. To be continued...

Green Light at Rietveld

Expect the best, be prepared for the worst, 

fuck what others think and do your own thing!

Entrance of my installation

It has been two weeks since the Green Light assessment. I received the Thumbs Up for the upcoming months! The entire group of 5th year; teachers and students went out to dinner. The vibe was electric. Many happy faces with the expression of relief from the hard work that got us all tied to a knot. We had a change to enjoy great food and nice wine, to chit-chat with each other and to celebrate the fact that the final stage had begun. I decided to read the comments from the eight headed dragon committee when I was at home. The evening was all about having fun, sharing stories and to unwind.

Now that the dust has settled, it's time to pick up  and integrate their comments and advise. One thing that stands out is a more refined grip on my talent, the ability to step back from the work and to look at it again from another point of view. It is their belief that it will be very beneficial to gain a certain distance. Point taken. But most of all and most importantly I realized how conditions form  the outcome of my work. A certain field of energy is projected into the subject of attention. To master thát field is where a lot of knowledge can be gained. I want to use these last months to get a grip on this process, not to be directed to a certain position where I do not want to be but to mold and experiment and create ONE THING that really is a great piece of art. Strong, tangible and solid!

One part of the Green Light installation 

Chaos creates Order

My desktop 2012

The bindery has received all the information to make my thesis books. I have to wait until they'll arrive next week. My thesis separates the written language (at the left side) from the visual language (right side). Just as our brains are separated into two hemispheres. When I closed my internet windows I looked at my desktop and saw a strange phenomena, I had dragged all the images to the corners of the screen. Some were distinctive, most of the time they were on top of each other. To think that my subject is about 'the human desire to order' seemed somewhat far fetched if you take a look at how chaotic my Mac is! 

Try out 'cover' print 2012

But then again, there is a philosophy that calls upon symmetry as the fundamental base for asymmetry. In that perspective this chaotic desktop brings ordered shapes to life. The enclosed creates the excluded. The left creates the right. This is one of the thrills that my research echoes back. I've printed a version to show to the teachers at school. In general they were quite excited about it but some thought it was more about design and not so much about the text anymore. I laughed because there is a certain Rietveld consensus, a way 'art' should look and feel like. Isn't it funny that those who teach us to go beyond our safety zone remain there themselves. Everything that presents itself slightly 'well made' is looked at with suspicious eyes. It is my believe that art will change, alter and presents itself differently over time. It is a dynamic force, certain works of art that once were considered 'not done' can get a very different connotation in the future...

Classification

Left and right have symbolic meanings in many different societies. Even classical Greek philosophy and science are associated with right-left symbolism. Pythagoras said one should enter a sacred place from the right (Odd) and leave from the left (Even). The first anthropologist to think seriously about the meaning of left and right was Robert Hertz who published in 1909 a monograph on the symbolism of left and right through different societies.  As he puts it in his almost poetic introduction:'To the right hand go honours, flattering designations, preogatives: it acts, orders and takes. The left hand, on the contrary, is despised and reduced to the role of humble support; by itself it does nothing, it helps and holds.' from R.Hertz 'Death and the Right Hand' 1960

Aristotle described the ten Pythagorean principles as followed: 

1. Odd          Even
2. One          Plurality
3. Right        Left
4. Male         Female
5. At rest      In motion
6. Straight    Crooked
7. Light        Darkness
8. Good        Evil
9. Square     Oblong

Herts understood biology and saw that there was no known society in which the majority of people are left handed. By observing the structure of the organism he came to the conclusion that the natural favours towards the right side. A notion that became popular in writing lessons for children, left handedness was something that couldn't be tolerated and children were punished and trained to make the right hand dominant over the left. 

Are you behind schedule?

And I'd say 'no' because accepting there is a schedule would already place me somewhere along it's timeline, instantly relating me to others timeline and thus confronting me with a sense of good (going fast) and bad (going slow) while the truth is that everything is in time. I'm right where I should be. Working my way through the process of writing, collecting and abstracting from vast amounts of information those things that have a coherence with my aspirations for the thesis that has the work title:

The Order of the Order to Order the All That Is

So while I do my Jackrabbit research or I investigate mold making, there is a consistent vibration in my head that keeps on working on the thesis. It started spinning a united field that is replied to every corner of my mind. And it works its way out through my mouth and my hands. A big part in my thesis is reserved for art history in relation to the need for order. I'm connecting historical elements with artists, nature, landscape, city, buildings and personal passions.  Everything falls together seamlessly, now i have to write some more....

Renaissance Research

Folding a building

The copy will be exactly the same 2011

To begin again at the beginning

Benedictine abbey of Sint Benedictusberg

Dom Hans van der Laan described his career as a 'quest'. Through a long life as architect and monk he devoted himself to search for the primitive origins of architecture. His church at Vaals was designed between 1956-1957 and build 1961-1968. He invented a chain of proportions that binds the largest dimension (of the church) to the smallest, the wall-thickness.  His form-bank (plastic number) consists of blocks, bars, slabs and white forms with the basic proportions: 1/1 3/4 4/7 3/7 1/3 1/4 3/16 1/17 together with the deducted proportions 6/7 2/3 1/2 3/8 2/7 3/14 1/6 1/8 these 16 proportions can create a house, a town, a world.

Form-bank

Unlike the Golden Section or the Modular proportional system of form by Le Corbusier the plastic number is not flat but a three-dimensional system based on a sense of small, medium and large. A complex system where one form relates to another. Van der Laan compared the form-bank to the color-spectrum. Block, bar and slab corresponds to the three primary colors and the other forms to the various nuances of color.


' THE INTELLECT IS NOT, THAT IS, JUST THE PASSIVE RECIPIET OF WHATEVER FALLS INTO IT, THROUGH THE SCENES, FROM EXTERNAL WORLD, BUT ACTIVELY DRAWS INFORMATION FROM THAT WORLD.'

The atrium with the stair leading to the colonnade of the Church.

Arriving at Vaals on a sunny autumn friday has a peaceful effect on me. I stand in front of a big wooden door. The abbey is behind it. It all feels very solid, like a fort. There is a doorbell but I rather stand here for a while taking it in. Suddenly the door opens and a young blond man with a big camera around his neck steps through the door. I smile, for the image confirms that people from all over the world still come here to observe what has been build many years ago.

The keys to my room (8) 

What does it mean to inhabit a space? I will ponder that thought the coming days while I'm being greeted by a monk. He introduces himself and when I tell him my name he knows I will be a guest. He guides me through the inner courtyard, through doors and hallways that echo our footsteps. When we enter the room where I will be sleeping he shows the daily schedule and the different books for prayers. He leaves with a gentle smile addressing the fact that there will be coffee in the round tower in 15 minutes. I take the leaflet from the table and look at it. The first prayer begins at 05:00 (Metten)  and the last one will be at 20:30 (Completen). A warm meal in the afternoon together with the monks and bread in the evening with the other guests. I go for coffee and will come back later to read a bit more about the rules and regulations. 

Round tower that is used for reading, breakfast and recreation

As soon as i set foot in the round tower the symmetry strikes me. My research has begun... The other guests look at me and I sit uncomfortable at the head of the table. We have a little conversation about the duration of my visit and my motivation to be at the abby. When the church bells interrupt, everybody cleans their place and heads of to their room. They appear with little green books, so I'll bring mine to. In silence we walk to the courtyard, up the steps and into the church. I see rituals everywhere, and try to fit in. You bow before you sit, you stand when the monks come in and you bow again when the words Spiritus Sanctus or Sanctum Domini are spoken. The service is in Latin and I find it hard to keep up. My eyes wander around, without decorations this place is filled with meaning and measure that you can sense but not obviously see. 

There is an intense energy when the service is over and people remain seated. In silent contemplation. While the world outside darkens quickly I rise, bow and walk my way back to my room where I have to make my bed and drink a glass of water. I close the curtains. Find my place at the desk and start unpacking my books. There is a very comfortable silence here. For today I see there is a bread meal served with the monks at 19:30 and afterwards is the last service of the day. Written underneath 

Desk, chair and closet

is the text: we would like to have silence in the house from 20:30 until the morning. I start reading and making notes. Van der Laan sees art, not as an imitation of nature or a continuation of its process, but as our reaction to a conflict between ourselves and the natural world. Nature is the starting point of art, but it does not follow that the work of art should have a quasi-natural character. He sees art as:

'A CONTINUOUS PROCESS OF PROJECTING, TESTING AND CORRECTING'

It's a nice thought to keep in mind when I go to the dining room....

-to be continued-

2 make a couple

‘Well-proportioned, well-balanced’ are just a few words that describe symmetry. For my thesis I’m researching how we measure our position in this world through art. I see art as a visual langue and therefore it can be found all around us. But foremost I’m interested in how symmetric and asymmetric can influence us while we may be unaware of it. This world has so many things to offer that we easy can be confused. We create a certain order so we don’t get lost in the chaos. We have done this for ages. I believe we were ordering our lives even before we had a spoken langue. It might even be introduced into this world before the first humans existed. A natural preference. There are scientists who claim that programming a symmetric form for life uses less code than a form of life that is asymmetric.

Back to the now...for last week I saw this image on the news of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who addressed the Bundestag on the European Union plans to save the euro. Since I’ve lost interest in the news for a while I only encounter it at the gym when I work out. So while I’m working on my condition my eyes get a change to wonder over the screens in front of me. Sometimes there is sound and it’s even better when the sound is off. This enables me to use the visual information only. Without the chitchat of reporters I have the idea that I get a better understanding of what it is really going on. My ‘thesis research state’ is one that works continues. And seeing this great room where (so called) important things are being discussed left me in awe by the force of the symmetric dominance. Is that a spread winged eagle in the back? Are we living in 2011? I understand that symmetry and beauty are often linked, particularly by mathematicians and scientists but in this case I felt they were worlds apart. Here symmetry is used to be an obvious feature of good, practical and effective design. The only problem is that I don’t believe it. It’s like they went through enormous effort to make sure everybody gets the importance of this space. But I believe it’s a false message. I think this once was believable in the mid 1990’s but not anymore. Therefore the message that comes from this place in our current time will not be believable. I would like to quote from an article by the art historian Dagobert Frey about the tension between symmetry and asymmetry:

Symmetry signifies rest and binding, asymmetry motion and loosening, the one order and law, the other arbitrariness and accident, the one formal rigidity and constraint, the other life, play and freedom.


While the tension between symmetry and asymmetry is recognized there is also an argument that symmetry forms the basis on which asymmetry can be built, manipulated and used.  The philosopher and aesthetician, Theodor Adorno saw the relationship between the two as a sort of dialect: 'In artistic matters, asymmetry can be grasped only in relation to symmetry.' Symmetry is the basis on which asymmetry can be built, just as the curves, irregularities and organic forms of a Gaudi building are relaying on the geometry of horizontal and vertical structures. 

Even the division of two oranges can look symmetric but as individual pieces there are many differences. To explore this relation even further I will travel to Vaals in the south of Holland next week. Where Dutch Benedictine monk and architect Don Hans van der Waal aimed to come closer to nature, by seeking a formal language of building which has the same scale one finds in natural growth. Numbers are the key to his work and he made his own number sequences in order to achieve a wider range of combinations and possibilities.