intuitive process vs. philosophy

Statement

"And yet, while bone allowed the complexification of the animal phylum to which
we, as vertebrates, belong, it never forgot its mineral origins: it is the
living material which most easily petrifies, that most readily crosses the
threshold back into the world of rocks. (...) human populations began
mineralizing again when they developed an urban exoskeleton: bricks of sun-dried
clay became the building materials for their homes, which in turn surrounded and
were surrounded by stone monuments and defensive walls. This exoskeleton served
a purpose similar to its internal counterpart: to control the movement of human
flesh in and out of a town's walls. "

Manuel De Landa
A Thousand Years of Non-Linear History

The research for my work spans disciplines ranging from the geological study of plate tectonics to the social and linguistic history of humans to the biology of memory. I explore these fields in an effort to understand the dynamic forces that have and will shape both our mental and physical landscapes historically, presently, and in the future.

Through the creation of sculptures, installations, performances, drawings, collage, prints, digitally manipulated images, and mixed media works; I attempt to encapsulate or embody the dynamic interlacing inherent in my investigations. In my work I create ‘natural’ environments or settings using mass produced or easily replicated ‘man-made’ materials, such as cardboard, PVC pipes, plastic implements, lamps and other electrical devices, shims, fake plants, cable ties, and lumber. I also investigate my own history through the lenses of memory, nostalgia, and biology.

While many of the materials I use are slated as ‘man-made’ or ‘un-natural’, the fact remains that their source materials are regarded as being ‘natural’. While it is true that we must manipulate and process them to achieve the material quality that we want or need, this process of material transformation is not new in the Earth’s history. In fact it is the very life blood of how we, all that we have made, and the very Earth itself have come into existence. Taking these factors into mind it is not unreasonable to state that there is no division between man and nature, but when applying the idea of evolution broadly, we as humans and everything we do act as part of an ongoing natural process.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Root

to read a review of Root, please go to:
http://artkc365.wordpress.com/2009/05/23/roots-unbound-b-j-vogt-at-paragraph-gallery/

“...there was just one fact to quicken the pulse. That fact is the close similarity between chlorophyll and hemoglobin, the

essence of our blood." This is no fanciful comparison, but a literal scientific analogy: "The one significant difference in

the two structural formulas is this: that the hub of every hemoglobin molecule is one atom of iron, while in chlorophyll

it is one atom of magnesium" Just as chlorophyll is green because magnesium absorbs all but the green light spectrum

blood is red because iron absorbs all but the red. Chlorophyll is green blood. It is designed to capture light, (whereas) blood

is designed to capture oxygen.”

(Excerpt from: Tree, a Life Story by David Suzuki and Wayne Grady, including a quotation from Flowering Earth by Donald Peattie.)

Roots can be viewed as the beginning of the tree as they provide a stable platform from which the organism can obtain nutrients and grow, much like neurons can be viewed as the beginning point of thought throughout the body; though this idea of a beginning or base in both instances is only a half truth. Roots and neurons carry and transfer information in a complex network, whether it is a body or a forest. However, as they are parts of larger networks they affect and can be affected by the other facets of those networks, as in a competition for space, an infection, or by variations in the amount of the reception of certain stimuli. By transporting information throughout the tree or body, thought and growth are instigated by the intake and processing of multiple forms of stimuli from diverse and often times distant sources. As information carriers, roots and neurons connect disparate nodes whose specific functions may vary, however their general purpose is very much the same: to transfer matter and energy from one place to another; or in other words, to live.

In the forest a tree receives nutrients and information from the air and the soil via its leaves and root system. These nutrients and information are produced or provided, however, by a vast spectrum of sources outside of an individual tree, for example: other trees and fungi provide nutrients and information through mychorrhizal and root relationships, pollen, and pheromones (sending signals of infection, invasion, or disease), decomposing leaf litters or other organic matter leach nutrients into the soil, micro-organisms trap nitrogen and other elements and then release it back into the soil, even the shade of a neighboring tree casts shadows that block out a percentage of the available sunlight.

Much like a root system, networks of neurons transport a variety of stimuli throughout the body. The experiences of touch, smell, sight, hearing and taste are all mediated through neurons as they pass from the location of the stimuli through the nervous system and into the brain. This stimulus shapes our memory along the way, capturing and cataloguing experience in order for the organism (we humans) to adapt, grow, evolve, and live. As a by-product we shape and interact with the environment at large, continuing a biological cycle that constitutes the processes which have created history.

Thursday, June 19, 2008