Sunday 25 April 2010

Great Hermetic Jelly Fish!

















The `grow your own brain` photos I have uploaded on flikr reminded me of an article in the New Scientist magazine, from 2008. The amazing anatomically correct brain was crochet by Karen Norberg in 2006. Truly a master piece and a work of genius.

The picture of a jelly fish, a box jelly fish, is from 2008 as well. Dozens were washed up on the beach at Llanstefan . It looked like a tragic and massive failed invasion .For jelly fish films click
I haven`t look at them for years, they are quite sad.
The obvious visual similarities between the jelly fish and the brain are interesting. I constantly record instances of repetition and interconnection, which I find on a daily basis . There are infinite similarities found in the micro and macro circumstances of our universe. I am often reminded of the First line on the `Emerald Tablet` , a coded inscription that is used in Hermeticisim.

`As above below`...

The Universe is the same as God, God the same as man, man the same as the cell , the cell the same as the atom.

I have used the quote many times before , and now I know where it originates.

Sunday 18 April 2010

Chaos and Cake , Theory #1. Research Beginning.

Cake

Empty

Random
`I say unto you a man must have chaos yet within him to be able to give birth to a dancing star: I say unto you ye have chaos yet within you.
Nietsche
Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray
By which he reigns: next him high arbiter
Chance governs all.
Milton
Here in the UK the Sky's are swimming pool clear and cerulean blue. Empty of the invasive but incredible invention of the airplane, due to a volcanic eruption in Iceland. Inverse `Butterfly Effect` -ed into good weather! Amazing. No contrails and no new clouds, the skies are silent. (Actually, for the first time in days we have clouds today.)
No imports or exports either. Makes you think about how as a nation we cannot feed ourselves. We need the world. The British public nearly starved to death during the second world war. I like the idea of unity, positive and optimistic .
On the subject of chaotic probability, related to the weather only by locality and theories of interconnection (but that's good enough), I was on my way home, under those blue skies, from an afternoon shift with `Postman Pat`, at the Lyric Theatre, when I found a party.
It was International Record Store Day, and our most exquisite independent local hang out was having a bit of a celebration. Fantastic, music, dancing and cake! All the best.
I asked the fascinating search engine Wolfram/ Alpha` What is the probability of finding a party on the way home from work?` The computer said `Wolfram/Alpha isn`t sure how to compute an answer from your input`. Then gave me option to follow leads to probability or movies- `The way Home`. Chaos in action.
I am still crocheting the Invisible Blanket.

Thursday 8 April 2010

Buffalo Boys Goes Round the outside...


Malcom Maclaren R.I.P or should I say` bollox, **** off mate`.
I grew up in South London. At 17 in 1977 I had just left school , and then... PUNK.
The man that invented the most influencial youth cult of all time. And some great fashion and music too.

Wednesday 7 April 2010

Scientist and Artist and Pulsar

Pulsar Hand Nebular


James Turrell at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park. I have sat in here. Wonderfull.
Pulsar Diagram



`Our nice simple picture is getting messier and messier and messier...`
`Nothing is static, nothing is final...`
The prize winning scientist Jocelyn Bell was a brilliant student. In 1967 she was the first ever scientist to discover the fast, regular radiation emissions from pulsating electromagnetic stars, nicknamed by a journalist as Pulsars. Controversially,her university lecturer received the Nobel prize for the discovery.
Pulsars are amazing and charismatic bodies. Very small, planet sized and incredibly dense,
with enormous magnetic fields.
Pulsars occur one or two stages before a star could become a black hole at the end of its twinkling life. The pulses are caused by brief flashes of the radiation emitted from the Pulsars poles, dectected from the earth as it spins on its axis at incredible speeds.
Jocelyns faith as a Quaker is insically linked to her belief in the infinite nature of the universe, and her faith in the aspects of science that encourage understanding , rather that seeing it as a race for the truth`.
Another of my favorite artists is James Turrell. He to is a practicing Quaker. Quakerism is a faith , a religion without doctrine or Dogma, that teaches truth only in terms of self realisation and understanding .
I have been lucky enough to experience James Turrells work at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park and at an exhibition in London. He uses light as a medium to explore spirituality and entity. His work transcends the boundaries of form. It is pure and magnanimous. Full of the conviction of his faith.

Sunday 4 April 2010

Mass and The Pull of Anthropomorphic Gravity

Anthony Gormley, Critical Mass.


Helen Frik, Higher Up Where to.

Anthony Gormley, Field for the British Isles


Helen Frik is a British born artist who has an installation at Chapter Arts Centre , Cardiff.
Part of the installation - titled `Higher up, Where to`, has been made by volunteers from the public (including me). The call was for weird and wonderful toys, and that is what she got. Absolutely fabulous ,wondrous, beautifulugly, loveliness.
Having missed the private view, we made the journey on Saturday night.When we walked through to the last room ,there was just us and the installation- THEM. Of course, we had interrupted their secret revelries.
Using a contemporary analogy, the characters gave off a post party `chill out` atmosphere. Collected in small relaxed and intimate (some of the extremely intimate) groups, there was in some case unbridled affection and unity. The next unchoreographed move for us humans, was to join the collective on the floor, for comment and conversation.
Whilst crawling in amongst my new the freaky friends, Anthony Gormleys `Field for the British Isles` came to mind. His work won the Turner prize in 1994. What an antitheses to his internal, still and controlled display of terracotta figures. The 40,000 figures in the `Fields` were made by many, many different people , but with stringent regulations about features and form.
I felt that Helen Frinks piece failed to communicated the artists original concept. Even the `Black Guardians` situated at the foot of the `Light` had conceded and sat down.
There was no collective ominous pull towards the light. Rather a placid and accepting camp of the uniqueness found in humanity. Here are pictures on flickr.
The comparisson between the two artists installations of human based form are an interesting illustration of a shift in cultural paradigm.