awww...write the book Chris. Great stuff, thanks.
- Peter
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On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 1:33 AM, Chris Jones <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I promised Judy bc I would write some notes on working with more then
> one media at the same time for a single art project. I had to think
> about it first, because it is a bit like trying to summarise some five
> years training in writing and media arts.
>
> We can begin with space and the new ideas of space that emerged during
> 20th century modernism in the arts. Space was perhaps the great theme of
> this century.
>
> First, the old idea of space we see in Kant and which goes back to
> Aristotle, is that of space as being extensive and quantitative. This is
> a space that exists a-priori and can be divided infinitely without
> changing in quality and can be drawn as a grid which extends to infinity
> or if divided remains constant and does not change size after being
> divided. You can walk away from this space and come back to it and it
> will remain the same or constant. This is the metric space of Newton's
> Law; F=ma.
>
> The new idea of space understands space as something that grows or
> diminishes along with matter and if there is no matter there can be no
> space. So space is created along with matter in time. This is a dynamic
> and fluid space.
>
> The older idea of metric space is still needed to design buildings,
> build bridges and high ways and so forth but this metric space is a
> division of blip functions which separate one bit of space from the
> other and as such complies with the classical law of the excluded
> middle.
>
> The new idea of space does not have these infinitely small blips that
> divide space into metric units but is continuous and fluid space which
> is constantly being made and unmade and breaks the law of the excluded
> middle. It could be said this sort of space is always happening in the
> middle and takes on a more qualitative aspect. (Although not strictly
> purely qualitative the idea of a qualitative space gives a sense or
> feeling of what this space is like as a perhaps qualitative growth in
> extension.)
>
> When it comes to art, matter is the media used to make art space with
> this sort of fluid constantly flowing, growing bigger and growing
> smaller, often at the same time in many and various ways. It is also a
> space that has to be made with art media or matter. It does not exist
> before or a priori. Basically this is modernist space, at least in
> summary.
>
> Every time this modern idea of space is divided it changes in quality
> and this is important to understand since an intuitive feeling for the
> way this space changes needs to be cultivated or learnt, usually through
> practice (as well as being lucky enough to have skilled teachers, in my
> case.) It is also a space that cannot be logically indexed since it more
> or less throws attempts at index off, always being in the middle.
>
> This modern space is what Deleuze calls virtual space or smooth space
> and not to be confused with computer networks and virtual or cyberspace.
> Cyberspace is a projected metric (Kantian) space or in D&G terms
> striated space which is the space of metric extension. This is
> important, since computer functions such as interactivity, feedback and
> cyberspace which are Kantian metric space, as I have read more then once
> become confused with the fluid modern notion of space. (A computer is a
> Kantian mechanism. It uses metric space. It is not virtual space in
> Deleuze's terminology nor is it a modern fluid idea of space. Hence,
> computers are an older more archaic technology.)
>
> The modern fluid dynamic unfolding into extension and folding into
> itself and diminishing space happens in time. Understanding time here in
> the way Henri Bergson and William James understand duration as that
> which is always changing so the present is also a fold of the past and
> of the future without being divided into discrete units. The past,
> future and present all happen together and at the same time so the
> present can be both future and past and the future can change the past
> as the present makes the past and opens onto the future. This makes or
> creates difference, since difference cannot be given a priori.
>
> Once we have this basic idea of space then we can see that working with
> two different media, say spoken text and video images, means that the
> image and the sound track or spoken text are separate from each other
> and what draws them together are resonating series which are the
> composition of two or more rhythms, the sound rhythms and the visual
> rhythms, for image and text.
>
> So the most basic is first to give each media, sound and image, its own
> space which it creates itself as difference. Let them create their
> differences, so to speak. Let them have their own rhythms which like
> modern jazz cross over each other and make unpredictable improvised
> resonating series.
>
> Second, don't attempt to make the image the cause of the text or spoken
> words or the other way round. Let both media have their time and space.
> So don't attempt to simply illustrate with an image what the words say
> or again the other way round.
>
> Anyway, that is the basic idea, hopefully abstract enough not to be a
> set of formal rules but a general way of working which can be shaped to
> particular media and projects. The other problem is that in our
> saturated media world there appears no free or open space from which we
> may proceed. For this I use an abstract idea of absolute deviation,
> absolute meaning without relation, and so abstract it cannot be
> abstracted any further. This is like a little lever that can insert
> itself in between the saturated media environment we live in and proceed
> to open up a space for the art works to emerge.
>
> anyways, better stop here before I write a whole book, Chris Jones.
>
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