Dear Charmides

Science and Nonduality

2009-09-14T17:01:00.011+01:00

Dr. Stuart Hameroff Photo credit: Google images

I've been a fan of Stuart Hameroff's work at the University of Arizona (his comment about quantum science looking a lot like Zen, got my attention). An MD, he began his quantum scientific explorations through the field of anesthesia. His website is always packed with brilliant and insightful writings. He'll be one of the featured speakers at the upcoming Science and Nonduality Conference in October.

The organisers description of the conference is an exciting signal that a "quantum" relationship between these disciplines, artifacts and sciences, is now being acknowledged:

...the discoveries in quantum physics, brain sciences, consciousness studies, biology, cosmology, psychology and other fields have revealed nonduality in science as well, suggesting mysticism and science share a common source. Applying nondual perspectives in science, and scientific perspectives in Eastern spiritual approaches are the twin goals of this, the first public conference on the Science of Nonduality. Join us for three days seeking fundamental oneness in quantum physics, philosophy, consciousness studies, cosmology, art, Buddhism, psychology and spiritual metaphysics.

The Anniversary of Colouring Outside The Lines

2009-08-22T09:18:00.007+01:00

Painting with my son, 2002, Gabriel Knecht (7 yrs.) and L. Vandegrift Davala

Harry Chapin recorded "Flowers are Red" on August 19, 1980. Eleven months later, he was dead. His heart wrenching and poignant song beautifully captures our individual and collective struggle about our creative needs and worth, and the way we pass this on to our children. I think that Chapin would endorse this beautiful, very short film; if you follow no other link in this post, please have a look at this.

I wonder what Harry would make of our present information and tech-centered culture, which increasingly incorporates "design thinking" and the creative approaches of artists into the management and production of products and services. An how about the artists and creatives themselves? The concept of the "portfolio career" for creative professionals is now mainstream. Artist's are now sharing the benefit of their whole brain approach, molding and shaping space, concepts, technology, speaking at TED. What does your creative "portfolio career" look like? Comment and let me know what you are doing.

Maybe our guilt about not spending every waking moment in the studio can be lessened when we realise we are embodying Harry's message: we don't colour between the lines, for that matter, we can't even keep it all on the canvas.

Gaudi's String Theory

2009-07-07T13:54:00.016+01:00

Photo credit MIT.edu, Gaudi Catenary arch model

The Catalan architect Antonio Gaudi was equally admired and ridiculed for his, some might say, obsessive and eccentric practices. Ultimately his unique vision, nourished by a generous patron, won the hearts of the citizens of Barcelona - and beyond. Can he possibly have been tuned into something more quantum when he developed the Catenary string models for his re-design of arches? Do we mirror the patterns that are now being described as string theory and fractals, when we work in a state of "flow"?

Apparently the same sort of Catenary system of arch design and construction had been used in the Catalan region of Spain for centuries. Gaudi's innovation enabled him to achieve complex and demanding specifications which exceed modern technical tools. A group of MIT students (Dan Chak, Megan Galbraith and Axel Kilian) took on the challenge to create a technological solution akin to Gaudi's which could be used by architects, and wrote the following in their presentation on CatenaryCAD: An Architectural Design Tool about the traditional centuries-old Catalan technique

...if a Catalan stair has to be constructed it is not detailed by the planners or architects. Instead, the masons on site hang a rope between the point of departure and the point to be reached, trace the shape and flip the curve over to use as the guide for constructing the masonry arch that carries the stairs. The rope is in pure tension, as it can not take any compression due to its flexibility. Therefore the form it finds contains the pure tensile force within the envelope of the string.

That gives you the basis of the original Catenary theory. Here is Gaudi's innovation:

A design technique created by Antonio Gaudi allows an architect to design complex structures based on Catenary systems, whose curves are formed by perfectly flexible, uniformly dense strings suspended from their endpoints and weighted under gravity. He created many amazing structures with pieces of string that architects would be at a loss to reproduce using today’s most advanced design tools.

Antonio Gaudi developed the system of catenary string statics into a spatial design system. He constructed scaled models of his design ideas by developing forms through a weighted string form-finding method. In his case, the models are spatial and are much more complex then the catenary staircase example. Gaudi achieved the desired forms through the control of three variables - anchor points of the strings, the length of the strings, and the weights attached to them. By designing his forms this way, Gaudi knew that the resulting geometry would act purely in compression when inverted. He also had a pretty precise estimate of the loads necessary on the different members of his construction. Beyond structural form finding, Gaudi also used this method for rendering the interior and exterior shapes of the buildings. He imagined them by painting and tracing over the “wire frame” models of lines in photos.

As the photo above illustrates, Gaudi used a very tactile, haptic (no-mind, mushin) approach to achieve this innovation. He made this model with little weight bags, and string covered in pork fat!

Within a week - mice ate most of his original model.

This, That and the Other

2009-07-06T10:58:00.006+01:00

That "theory of everything" is looking very plausible. I thank Lea Walters for sending me the link to this exciting article, The Spooky World of Quantum Biology by Michael Garfield published in June by h+ magazine. Well worth the read. An excellent companion to this piece is the short an very inspiring TED conference video of Janine Benyus on bio-mimicry.

Photo credit Fern by Gabriel Knecht

Edges, Fractals and Doorways

2009-05-27T17:53:00.016+01:00

The first doorway I have to acknowledge tonight is the one enabled by the brand new satellite dish outside my window, which, after a three year wait for this piece of technology (and the broadband company that was finally able to provide it) enables me to blog in relative technological comfort. Apologies for the infrequent postings of late.

Richard Taylor, associate professor of physics at Oregon University, has discovered a relationship between the "drip" paintings of Jackson Pollock and Benoit B. Mandlebrot's geometric fractals. Using a computer program the "repetitions of patterns at different magnifications" became apparent. Taylor went on to say:

Pollock wouldn't have known that fractals were out there, and he certainly wasn't a mathematician. He must have tuned into some natural process to create these.

Taylor also inferred that his exploration into Pollock's fractal-like working method could help scientists to authenticate works of art.

From my work in making marks and images, there certainly is a point at which you arrive, a tuning-in to a natural process or a state of no-mind (mushin). You feel it much in the way that you know you are "in the zone", intention, action and energy unite. Previously undreamed of possibilities emerge. And yeah, it will be authentic in every sense. This transcendence in Pollock's work from the time of the "drip" paintings onwards has always bothered art historians. The aesthetic progression and development of this artist just didn't jive with the sudden greatness of his achievement. I believe that Jackson Pollock attained mushin (the no-mind, fractal-like zone) that has been the conduit of many of the arts, artifacts and disciplines I have discussed in Dear Charmides. These paintings were the byproduct of that experience. We have all experienced these moments, if only briefly.

Celtic culture abounds with quantum/chaos/fractal references. Several years back I thoroughly enjoyed reading Mary Pat Mann's article Doorways to Other Worlds, The Infinite Fractal Edges of Faery (Parabola, Fall 2003). In it she says:

Rational order is not a prominent feature in Celtic myth. Heroes and seers who deliberately sought out other worlds in quest of power, inspiration or both, inevitably found the strange and unpredictable. Those who returned told tales of beautiful people who never aged, but also of sheep that changed from black to white and back again by jumping over a fence, shouting birds, giant ants and wondrous beasts that twisted their bones within their skins and their skins over their bones. Among Celtic people today, the doorway between ordinary reality and these other lands are still ajar. At any time, ordinary people can find themselves, suddenly and without warning, in the presence of magic.

She goes on to say:

Edges are rich environments...setting the stage for interactions and exchanges that happen nowhere else. In Celtic legend, the opening between this world and another is always an edge. These include the meeting of water and land, but also the hilltops (where earth and sky meet) or openings in the earth like caves (the boundary between above and below).

There is in painting another stunning example of the magic of edges in the work of Johannes Vermeer. In his paintings Vermeer created each of the edges, or meetings between objects, surfaces, materials and people in a way which also taps into all of the comments above. He made an edge, not by drawing a boundary, but by approaching that meeting place from each side, in turn, with its own touch, its own sensations, its own level of focus, truly "setting the stage for interactions and exchanges that happen nowhere else."

Pollock, Mural On Indian Red Ground, 1950, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art
Vermeer, Girl with a Red Hat, c. 1666-1667, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.

Luminata

2009-03-28T18:50:00.023Z

Living in Ireland, I am very aware of the relationship between people and nature. The weather, the lunar cycle and the light and landscape are never out of consciousness. Each year at this time I also began to think of the sculptor Constantin Brancusi. Not alone because I love the man and his work, but also because of his descriptions of the annual celebration of Luminata each April.

Brancusi was a devout Roumanian Orthodox who was also never far from the teachings of the poet and Tibetan Buddhist Milarepa. On April 23rd each year, St. Gregory's day or Luminata, light in the ascendant, is celebrated. Winter is "done and dusted", and the gratitude for surviving it is expressed within the community. Brancusi's own accounts of Luminata at the little Roumanian church at Jean-de-Beauvais in Paris lead me to that same place and celebration.

Everything about the environment was intimate and easy, yet sacred and real. The parishioners roamed around the open sanctuary, negotiating confessions and penance with priests out in the open, each animated and bargaining. Above us, members of the choir arrived in their own time, as if responding to a casting call from heaven, beginning to sing in ever more complex harmonies while throwing off their coats along the way. Each voice was added at the right moment. As the incense and choir of voices continued to grow, the effect was mesmeric. Although every surface of the interior was lined with oriental carpets, nothing could muffle or impede the rich voices of the singing above, while all around us, more and more candles illuminated the celebration. Hours later the final gesture to Spring consisted of loaves of freshly baked bread, broken and passed around amongst the milling congregation, as they caroused the sanctuary engaged in equal measure with eating, laughing and praying.

Light, mystical spirituality, and poetry were united at that celebration, a mirror of the vision of Brancusi the artist. Many of the artist's aphorisms have been published over the years; as revealing and uncompromising as his works. Here are just a few:

They who have preserved in their souls the harmony residing
in all things, at the core of things, shall find it very easy to understand modern art, because their hearts shall vibrate in keeping with the laws of nature.

There is a purpose in everything. In order to achieve it, one must detach oneself from an awareness of self.

Don’t look for obscure formulas or mysteries. It is pure joy that I am giving you.

They are imbeciles who call my work abstract; that which they call abstract is the most realist, because what is real is not the exterior form but the idea, the essence of things.

My innovations come from something that is extremely old.

Beauty is absolute balance.

Following my first visit to this celebration, I began a series of works entitled Luminata Celebrant. With these works I saw, again, that an image can be a vessel, containing an essence, and be both empty and full. Recently, a visitor to the studio chose to acquire one of the Luminatas. "She" will now reside in a beautiful part of Belgium. In our conversation that evening, we spoke about image and essence, light and new life, re-affirming a belief that humans can invest the things we make with "the essence of things". Happy Luminata!

Image credits:
1. Brancusi's Bird in Space, 1923, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
2. Sketch of Brancusi's Maiastra, charcoal, L. Vandegrift Davala, 1995
3. To Luminata, photo, Justin Knecht, 1993
4. Luminata Celebrant, monotype, L. Vandegrift Davala, 1992

चक्रं The Chakras

2009-02-22T16:46:00.008Z

The energetic and philosophical concept of the chakra (wheel or disc) belongs to a variety of cultures: such as Sanskrit, Pali, Tibetan, Malay, and has even been acknowledged in the West. As we have polluted, stressed, and drugged our bodies, now may be a good time to realise that we are more than physical beings. Located at 7 (or 8, in some systems) centres of the body, here are just a few of the attributes of each:

Chakra: Age of resonance, Colour, Musical note, Element

Root: conception to 7 years, red, C, earth
Sacral: 7-14 years, orange, D, water
Solar plexus: 14-21 years, yellow, E, fire
Heart: 21-35 years, green/pink/gold, F, air
Throat: 28-35 years, turquoise, G, the ethers
Brow: 35-42 years, indigo, A, the cosmos
Crown: 2-49 years, violet, B, the cosmos

These energy centres are associated with health and organ functions, spiritual and philosophical awareness, a veritable energy filtration system which also corresponds with psychological development, life cycles, seasons, foods, and colours spanning the complete spectrum.

With much of this in mind, I recently built a model for a public art commission proposal at a hospital, requiring an approach sensitive to health, mental well-being and balance. The clear cast acrylic coloured rods of this sculpture will glow in daylight, reflecting onto the surrounding 4 walls of glass, moving across a spectrum of colour, revealing at its base, a flower. At night from an underground brilliant white LED array, each rod will light individually, forming a gently shifting and swaying field of vibrantly coloured, glowing rods. The model above represents a work which would stand about 1 meter high and 8 meters long, and reside in a sealed glass enclosed courtyard. If Paradise is defined as an enclosed space looking to heaven, I am praying for this bit of it.

Inside Outside

2009-01-14T14:13:00.008Z

After decades of anticipation, I finally had the opportunity to visit Fallingwater, the private house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, located in southwest Pennsylvania. I was a great deal more impressed with the experience than I expected. No photos can do justice to the sensation of being in this house which unites the "inside and outside". Not only are Wright's aesthetic principals and uniquely crafted solutions in evidence at every turn, but his obvious love of Zen and Japanese aesthetics is far more prominent when experienced in person. It is a triumph of intention over engineering. I can imagine that a stay at Fallingwater really did restore its visitors. In Wright's own words:

Beautiful buildings are more than scientific. They are true organisms, spiritually conceived; works of art, using the best technology by inspiration rather than the idiosyncrasies of mere taste or any averaging by the committee mind.

The Christopher Schuch series devoted to 21st Century Garden Art features the work of Shunmyo Masuno, the Japanese Zen priest and garden designer of Kenkoh-ji Temple. Masuno's statements seem to dialogue with Wright's:

How to create beautiful forms (is the question) in Europe and in the West. We are not designing forms but designing the atmosphere. How to create the atmosphere, that is what we put most effort in, designing this atmosphere.

I truly believe that a person looking at a peaceful garden everyday, will become a peaceful person. On the other hand, a person looking at an unkempt and thorny garden will eventually become an unkempt and thorny person. A garden truly can change people and restore to them their humanity.

Copyright (C) 2006 Japan Landscape Consultants. All Rights Reserved.

Bringing the outside in...what great medicine for the 21st Century!

"Can Reindeer Fly?"

2008-12-19T15:15:00.006Z

I would be remiss if I didn't extend my quantum investigations to include some of this season's festivities. Roger Highfield, author of the above mentioned Can Reindeer Fly? (or The Physics of Christmas, in the U.S.), assures us that there is really no aspect of the celebration which can not be adequately explained by a variety of scientific disciplines, including quantum gravity as an explanation for Santa's extraordinary achievement each Christmas eve. Sean Smeltzer's enchanting article in the New Scientist will certainly give you additional ammunition to get the little ones (and the not so little ones) to bed in time, and the following You Tube videos may seal the deal. A joyous season to you all!

P.S. The antique Christmas ball collection pictured above is a treasure we enjoy unpacking each year. Many of the ornaments have been handed down from my partner's family who, coincidentally are related to Knecht Ruprecht, Santa's "assistant".

Light Gatherer

2008-11-25T20:48:00.014Z

Rudolph Staffel, Light Gatherer, 1980, translucent porcelain, 7 3/4 x 5 1/4 x 5". Photo: Pewarts.org

This beautiful pot was made by a subtle, profound, quiet, but very large presence in the world of art, Rudi Staffel. Rudi was on the ceramics faculty of Tyler School of Art for 38 years, and he changed the way everyone at Tyler saw, felt and dreamed about the process of making things. His involvement in Buddhism was deeply manifest in his work. When asked about spontaneity in his work he said:

Spontaneity would have to do with the physical mudra or gesture that encompases Buddhism. That is, the same moment can never happen twice, so be aware of it as it passes.

In order to improve the translucency and strength of porcelain, Staffel revolutionized the "recipe" for porcelaneous clay bodies, which enabled him to create glowing, calligraphic vessels.
Staffel was a former student of Hans Hofmann. Abstract expressionism and Hofmanns's "push - pull" theory are evident when he says:

Translucency absorbs light, holds light, and lets some go through... it stores light, while it transmits light... inner light.

To be aware of translucency, you must have opaqueness... You are not aware of push until you see pull. It's the contrast in the body of the pot, between thick and thin, that gives the sensation of translucency.

I think about Rudi's work frequently, grateful that I was able for 4 years to watch these beautiful forms develop. His Light Gatherers can be seen at The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Smithsonian Museum of American Art.

"He that hath an ear, let him hear"

2008-11-11T17:45:00.005Z

The controversial "Mozart Effect", was first coined by the French physician Alfred Tomatis, M.D., who began researching the effects of Mozart's music on health, education and emotional well-being, over forty years ago. Tomatis is also well know for helping a little known French actor overcome a wisper soft voice and profound stammer. Gérard Depardieu suffered faulty hearing in one ear, which was said to compromise neural functions responsible for concentration and memory and result from deeper emotional issues. For two hours a day for the next several months Depardieu listened to a Mozart violin concerto with certain modifications and filtering appropriate for his condition. Within several months, the hearing in his right ear was restored, improving the neural functioning, leading to improvements in sleep, appetite, memory and confidence. Of course the most famous result was the rich, beautiful voice which has been the actor's trademark. Depardieu said:

Before Tomatis, I could not complete any of my sentences. It was he who helped give continuity to my thoughts, and it was he who gave me the power to synthesize and understand what I was thinking.

The musician and researcher Don Campbell (author of The Mozart Effect) was also originally introduced to the concept by Tomatis. Campbell has gone on to work exclusively in the area of sound and music therapies, devoting much of his work to furthering the Mozart Effect. Recently he was commissioned as the soundscape architect for the Good Samaritan Medical Centre in Lafeyette, Colorado, in the belief that music can heal the mind, body and spirit. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's recent report based on 600 studies showed that design in hospitals (including light and sound design) dramatically impacted the speed and quality of patient recovery.

Campbell's idea is to designate separate "harmonic zones" within the hospital, and create an around-the-clock, revolving (never repeating) musical selection culled from over 9000 specifically selected musical works, for each of the separate stages of recovery, as well as for the benefit of staff and visitors. Bravo!

I don't think Mozart would be surprised by these research findings. Most artists are either consciously or unconsciously working to make an art which can heal themselves, firstly, and by virtue of that, be of worth to others. Picasso and Matisse proclaimed this, and the French theatre maverick Artaud famously expressed that no artist works except "to get out of hell".

By now, you know where I'm going with this. Yes, I believe that the conscious use of sound/light/frequency/resonance for purposes including art, religion, medicine and philosophy are all expressions of, or parallel with what physicists are calling quantum mechanics.

O Mozart, immortal Mozart, how many, how infinitely many inspiring suggestions of a finer, better life have you left in our souls!
Franz Schubert, Diary, 1816

photo credit: British Museum

The Tao of Seeking Office

2008-11-04T15:33:00.007Z

Looking at the Patel Om got me thinking about other examples of meditative, frequency altering calligraphy. The example (left) might have been commissioned for this Presidential election day, as it is the talisman for seeking office, combining peace with good fortune (from the Tao-tsang 668-3:29b). Of all the Chinese art forms, Taoist magic diagrams, talismans and charms are the least known. Often drawn in dirt, burned on small pieces of paper or hidden in secrecy, no wonder they became a relatively obscure and unknown art form. The practical, purposeful intention in the way these images were made and used (as prayers, protections and charms, to cure sickness, ensure safe pregnancy and childbirth, good health, abundant crops, a safe home), connected the core of Chinese mysticism with the powers and forces of daily life.

Laszlo Legeza, in Tao Magic, The Secret Language of Diagrams and Calligraphy states:

The final goal of the Taoist mystic is to penetrate beyond ordinary 'reality' to reach an awareness of the ultimate tranquility, that which is beyond time and change, the Great Ultimate, the Whole, the 'mystery beyond mysteries', called by the Chinese the Tao.

Here again is a stunningly rich example of practices and artifacts which parallel contemporary quantum scientific theories.

Picture credit: Tao Magic, The Secret Language of Diagrams and Calligraphy, Laszlo Legeza.
Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1975

Om and etc.

2008-10-29T01:00:00.002Z

Many cultures exhibit artifacts or practices using resonance or conscious frequency creation, which emanate from human intonation (like the sounding of the Aum or Om, or even looking at the written Om, like the Patel Om, at left) or the sounding of a bell, or like object, in order to consciously align with that frequency (the Angelus for example).

If you have never seen a Tibetan singing bowl, this look at one of the largest collection of antique bowls on the market is a treat to browse and listen to. The warm, multiphonic tones have been used for centuries to aid meditation, yoga, sound healing, religious ceremonies and trance . The bowl pictured above, is our treasure. Sounding it is as miraculous now as the first time we heard it at Garland of Letters, in Philadelphia. Frequency, to heal both mind and body - not a new idea. Are you sitting comfortably?

What am I talking about?

2008-10-24T10:56:00.017+01:00

Eduardo Chillida, Wind Combs, 1972-77. Photo: Justin Knecht.

My former art school classmate Joe Barbaccia wrote to ask: what do I mean when I "refer to artists as quantum practitioners?" At best, it will take many of these posts to address that question, but then that's why I began blogging. Here's a start:

About 1982, I began to see a relationship between the process I used making monotypes, and the process of zen brush work which I described in "The Essence of Sho." I found that on a given day, with the same ink, palette, brush and paper I could wind up with vastly differing results. The same black ink would be muddy and lifeless in one example, and crisp, alive, magical and vibrant in another. Not only did it look as though I was using different paper or better materials, but the works also succeeded in moving beyond my expectations in terms of content. Mind you, this would happen one out of a hundred attempts - but it was worth the wait. Zen painters speak about the intention and the moment in which all the variables are united in a state of no mind; with pure intention, magic can happen.

Finding out a couple years later about the Zen calligraphy research made me think that there was a relationship between this centuries-old art and my studio experience; opening a new dimension to me. This was my first example of what I am linking to what we now understand as quantum theory. It's clearly evident in Bert Irvin's work, and in Dick Callner's late work (he and I discussed this a lot from the mid 1980's). Here's another thought:

I found that I could never work with a pre-conceived idea (here's that no mind thing again), but more with a desire to satisfy a deeply felt need. Many of the teachings I had at Tyler ran counter to this way of working, suggesting that an artist would first: get an idea, then execute that preconceived plan. (This method, and the method I used, are both valid ways to make art. In fact, there is no limit on the number of valid ways to make art, but hold that thought for a minute also ...)

Around 1994, a student of mine, who was working on a masters in art therapy at Hannemann University Hospital, Philadelphia, came into my studio and said: "I got it. You're haptic!" According to the research of Lowenfeld and Brittain:

At about the age of twelve or so it is possible to see examples of two types of expression. One is called the visual type, and the other is usually referred to as the haptic (from the Greek word haptos, meaning to "lay hold of"). Theoretically at opposite ends of the continuum, these types refer to the mode of perceptual organization and the conceptual categorization of the external environment. The visually minded person is one who acquaints himself with his environment primarily through his eyes or feels like a spectator. A person with haptic tendencies, on the other hand, is concerned primarily with his own body sensation and subjective experiences, which he feels emotionally. (Lowenfeld & Brittain, Creative and Mental Growth, eighth edition ,1982 p.326)

I recognised myself in this description instantly. (I had been referring to my work as "working toward the visual, not from it"). Although "haptic" and "visual" were used to discuss art therapy for children, I began to see that the whole of art history could be classified as either haptic or visual, or various proportions of both. If you read the notes, aphorisms or interviews of Constantin Brancusi, you see that his studio process is littered with haptic references. He said:

It is not making things that is difficult; what is difficult is putting ourselves in condition to make them.

Eduardo Chillida, the Basque sculptor said:

I believe works conceived a priori are born dead ... I cannot begin a work until I have, how shall I say it ... (he sniffs the air, like a hunting dog) ... got the aroma. The scent of the piece. That is what I follow. Not an idea or form.

I'll be blogging about both these artists again, but let me make this third jump and propose that haptic is to wave as visual is to particle, or haptic is to Quantum as visual is to Newtonian. Yes, I do believe that from the beginning of time (and increasingly as our awareness of the practices, cultures and artifacts on our planet progress) there have been artists, philosophers, healers and etc. who have manifested their gifts in processes which look strikingly like modern definitions of quantum sciences (read anything by David Bohm, who has written much about the creative process and Stuart Hameroff M.D. who has written a lot about why this Quantum stuff looks like Zen).

This post is not a complete answer, but I'm going to keep trying. For 28 years I have been collecting references, artifacts, quotes, books, experiences and art linked to resonance, frequency, intention, light, sound and more. Are human beings of the 20th and 21st centuries the first to call themselves quantum practitioners, or just the most recent?

"Spirit Stands Still For The Photographer it Has Chosen"

2008-10-20T17:12:00.006+01:00

The photographer Minor White said that. And I think of those words each time I see this photograph taken at Knowth, in Ireland, by Justin Knecht. Newgrange, Knowth and the other structures, tombs and archaeological sites in the Boyne Valley date from as far back as 5300 years ago. We modern folk have a difficult time understanding that this may have been an accomplished civilization with a concentrated awareness and sophistication.

Scholars have debated this for decades: primitive vs. sophisticated astronomer builders and mystics. Was there more than clever mathematical calculations and heavy lifting? Legend and history merge richly in the Boyne Valley.

Quantum Mechanics with Prof. Matisse

2008-10-17T14:31:00.018+01:00

photo credit: Greenmermaid

Any of you who know me know that I babble on a lot about artists being the first quantum practitioners. In Matisse's famous interview Testimonial, from 1951, he speaks about the Vence Chapel commission, which he had just completed. Matisse would not be the first non-practitioner of an organized religion to accept such a commission. Mircea Eliade would say that we consecrate space by our effort. Here is what Matisse had to say:

...when I made the Chapel...I wanted to inscribe...a spiritual space; that is, a space whose dimensions are not limited even by the existence of the objects represented. You must not say that I recreated space starting from the object when I 'discovered' the latter: I never left the object. The object is not interesting in itself. It's the environment which creates the object. Thus I have worked all my life before the same objects which continue to give me the force of reality by engaging my spirit towards everything that these objects had gone through for me and with me... The object must act powerfully on the imagination; the artist's feeling expressing itself through the object must make the object worthy of interest: it says only what it is made to say.

There are many instances in Matisse's mature and late works which clearly illustrate a sympathy for what we have now revealed through the quantum sciences: his work liberating colour from local narrative and defining colour as sensual, black as spiritual (acknowledging frequency and intonation), his use of handwriting and repetitious decoration, particularly in his artist's illustrated books, continues a long path of Muslim and Eastern spiritual iconography in religious manuscripts and architectural decoration (acknowledging incantation and the use of decorative repetition to prepare for meditation, literally altering a person's vibration).

It used to annoy Matisse (who could exhibit a good sense of humour) to be called "Professor" by his friends. He insisted it was his glasses which were responsible for the nickname. Some people are just born teachers.

Plato's Beautiful Words

2008-10-14T17:29:00.013+01:00

If the residue of great music, played over the centuries on a magnificent Stradivarius can be revealed in the very molecular structure of that instrument - what then are the effects of everything that resonates in the lives of all human "instruments"? We imprint each other with our words, actions and intentions.

The Charmides quote seen on this blog, was the instigator of a large series of works in my studio, all of which explore the use of beautiful words and colour in relation to therapeutic and gallery installation settings. This "iHEAL Meditation Station", was exhibited at Queens University last year. It contains "beautiful words" spoken in a variety of languages, as well as the original passage from the Charmides quote (156e to 157a) in Greek. All the sound tracks are edited into an orchestra of voices weaving in and out, together with seven floral images, which cycle through the chakra colour spectrum on an iPod® video. I hope to make the application available for download, shortly. Contact me in the mean time if you are interested in a copy. I can also provide copies for institutional use.

In the coming months, iHEAL may be used as part of a research project in health care settings, and is presently part of a research project on "Artist's Books, The Canon of the 21st Century", which will look at the innovative directions that the "artist's illustrated book" is taking in the new millennium and will culminate in an exhibition and publication in 2009.

Quantum Continuum

2008-10-11T11:44:00.011+01:00

After a year of construction, the new studio is finished! Thanks to all who came to celebrate the opening and the launch of Dear Charmides. This blog will parallel the research I am now formally beginning, to establish a quantum continuum sketching practices and artifacts throughout recorded time, clearly showing the "vibe". For almost 30 years I've been pursuing and documenting these practices and artifacts as an integral part of my own artistic, health and philosophical practice. Emptying the crates of papers, notes, drawings, photos, books & etc., which have been packed away during moving and construction, held many surprises like this juicy quote from Yeats.
I now live in the area Yeats spent a great deal of his life: County Sligo, Ireland, also know as "Land of Hearts Desire." Lovely!

Dear Charmides will become a portal to an online database of contributions from other quantum seekers worldwide, proving that this "new" science is really an old human pastime.

"The Essence of Sho"

2008-10-09T20:15:00.009+01:00

Off to the Peppercanister Gallery in Dublin last night to see the new show of one of my favourite painters. Bert Irvin was there, gently exuding the joy so evident in his work. At 85, he described himself, and the pleasure of painting, as "unextinguishable."

I'm pretty sure that ancient Oriental calligraphy masters would have related to his honest, vibrant energy and his intention-filled marks. In the early 1980's, when my own work moved towards a "calligraphy of the spirit", I was fascinated by a study by Omori Sogen and Terayama Katsujo entitled Zen and the Art of Calligraphy, the Essence of Sho. The trial and error approach of my own work seemed to bear out their findings: that "good" and "bad" calligraphy might be discernable under a microscope.

Why? Because great intention, or the lack of it, can be seen in the molecular make up of the ink. The masters exhibited marks which showed a vibrant, vigorous, yet soft configuration, composed of solid ink particles. The poor quality or forged examples of calligraphy were clearly muddy, with incomplete molecules, and a shriveled and dispersed appearance. Marks don't lie.

Albert Irvin Memory, 2007. Acrylic on canvas | 61 x 61cm. Photo: Peppercanister Gallery

Turning The Light On

2008-10-06T15:30:00.005+01:00

PodCamp Ireland, in beautiful Kilkenny was the final catalyst to nudge me off my technological backside to begin the blog that has been taking up storage space in my head for too long. Thanks to presenter Cathy Fitzgerald from Art Links for demonstrating how well social networking tools respond to the challenges of the arts and Mike Buckley's presentation for relevance to "Boomers". I also enjoyed meeting Rosemary Khelifa who said "Have you heard about the Snoezelen room?"

The long and rainy trip home after PodCamp listening to RTE Radio 1 further reinforced the social networking theme on hearing legend of Irish broadcasting, Donnacha O'Dulaing, weave together the entire Irish diaspora via texts, emails and radio, reducing six degrees of separation to about two. Who would have thought that one of Ireland's oldest broadcasters would be what Malcolm Gladwell would call the classic "connector"?

Photo credit: Het Balanske, Tielt-Winge, Belgium.