dependent origination
Photo Manipulation, Digital Art
2011
the image is still whole but the relationships between the pieces become more complex with every iteration
wave2008digital c-type print, 76.2 x 76.2 cm
wave (16)2008digital c-type print, 76.2 x 76.2 cm
wave (64)2008digital c-type print, 40 x 40 cm
wave (256.1)2008digital c-type print, 25.4 x 25.4 cm
wave (256.2)2008digital c-type print, 25.4 x 25.4 cm
wave (256.5)2008digital c-type print, 25.4 x 25.4 cm
wave (256.7)2008digital c-type print, 25.4 x 25.4 cm
wave (256.9)2008digital c-type print, 25.4 x 25.4 cm
wave (256)2008digital c-type print, 76.2 x 76.2 cm- the title of the series came out of a teaching the Dali Lama gave on ‘Investigating the Nature of Reality’ in Nottingham, UK (26 May 2008). it’s difficult to describe what it is like hearing him explain fundamental concepts of Buddhism, and the dialog he had with his interpreter (for the most part he talked in Tibetan, very animated and precise). i kept on thinking about the monks there, how this would have been a very important occasion for them, and many of them i suppose would have direct knowledge of what for me was just words.
dependent origination is the understanding that any phenomena ‘exists’ only because of the ‘existence’ of other phenomena in an incredibly complex web of cause and effect covering time past, present and future. this mechanism explains how forms exist but don’t have any intrinsic existence – in effect, they exist because of (as an expression of) their relations with everything else.
all phenomena are dependently originated
dependent origination is emptiness
therefore all phenomena are emptyalthough the process of dividing the image into squares and rearranging them to create a new image follows a simple rule, and was done without automation or programming, it would be non-trivial to manually rebuild the original image from the last image in the series, even if you knew the rule. the series could be extended until all the pixels are scattered like particles of sand.
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concept for club night postersDigital Imaging, Graphic Design, Typography2012 -
kylie reducedDigital Art, Fine Arts2012 -
beginning and ending, i aways seem to return to simple formsDigital Art, Fine Arts, Philosophy2011 -
worlds within worlds, never ending, and no truth to be foundkylie2011 -
simple geometric forms combined to symbolise complex processes. concept for the back of a set of playing cards, which could be used for chance operations/divination.Digital Art, Pattern Design, Philosophy2011 -
are friends electric? a time to be so small. 33,000 honeybees.Graphic Design, Philosophy, Photography2011 -
experimental digital animation and musique concrèteDigital Art, Music, Video Arts2011 -
ducks like waterPhotography, Photo Manipulation2011 -
32 photographs, paired randomly and composited using outlines from a character inked in style of Japanese calligraphy.Photography, Photo Manipulation, Calligraphy2011 -
sampled and blurred photographs transformed into videoMusic, Photo Manipulation, Video Arts2011 -
snapshots of shifting structuresDigital Art2011 -
dots as fundamental particlesDigital Art, Fine Arts, Photo Manipulation2011 -
scans of notebookFine Arts, Digital Art2011 -
exploring how random dots crystallise into structures. is this our foundation, our fundamental, upon which everything is built?Digital Art, Drawing, Photo Manipulation2011 -
the act of dissecting space is a spiritual process rather than a mechanistic/physical one. our external structures must exist in harmony with our internal (non-physical) ones.Drawing2011 -
there are many aspects to our pursuit of happiness, layers of varying levels of abstraction; taken together we might create a composite view of happiness, to show that there is not a single definition or theory. is happiness in theories that seek to describe everything? perhaps even a theory of everything wouldn't describe happiness...Digital Art2011 -
Leeds to Blackpool train
photos taken on phone, enlarged with minimal adjustmentsPhotography2011 -
photographs of people reduced to points of light, are our souls reduced too? is this what we really are, separate, luminous, floating on an invisible grid of darkness? are we joined or separate?Digital Art, Photo Manipulation2011 -
symbols drawn in response to haiku by BashōDrawing, Digital Imaging, Photography2011 -
each colour is a photograph reduced to a dot
in order to restore pictorial reality / in order to reset it
all this beauty and horror reduced to colours makes us blind
there is a pressure, a compression, pressing on all sides. my hands are full of lead, i can feel the blood pressing in on my eyes
colours that not even blindness could cureDigital Art, Photo Manipulation2011 -
what is the true nature of our bodies?Photo Manipulation2011 -
birth growing forming
life healing joining
death decaying fragmentingPhoto Manipulation, Fine Arts2011 -
do we really understand our symbols even when their geometry is pure? are they even our symbols? where do they come from and return to?Photo Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
photographs reduced to simple line outlines and layered togetherDigital Art, Fine Arts, Photo Manipulation2011 -
is there behind our solid world a space of ghostly, translucent, floating forms?Photo Manipulation, Digital Art, Philosophy2011 -
photographs and drawings of objects layered together become transparent, fluid formsFine Arts, Digital Art, Photography2011 -
expansion of the still, lifeless body/object into a moving, dynamic state
reduction of a moving, living body into a static, lifeless objectPhoto Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
sampling source photographs reduces them to abstract representations; they obviously have a direct relationship with the original content but it is impossible to understand what the original image described because so little has been retained. because of this, the original meaning is incomplete but in its place is infinite variety and abstracted meaning, the symbolism of the tabula rasa, the blank slate.Photo Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
in the space created by dissecting a photograph, particles float outside of timePhoto Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
everything is related (dependent) upon everything else. it is relations that give things the appearance of being things. in other words, what we see as an object is not the object itself, but an expression of infinitely many relationships, all acting on that point in space and time.Photo Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
composites of pole vault videosPhoto Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
random processes in a contained space, evolution of form. created with a programming language that follows simple rules (turn left, turn right etc) to draw lines. this process bounded within a circle, and stopped, incomplete. why complicate things anymore? our planet is a cell, and all we hope to do is look in with wonder, and respect processes that we cannot control.Digital Art2011 -
forest is part of a series which collected into a grid tiny slices intuitively chosen from photographsDigital Art, Photo Manipulation2011 -
the forest glows… it’s light sources are eyes which both receive and reflect light. there are symbols which appear inside closed eyes, like miragesDigital Art, Photo Manipulation2011 -
preparations for doll
(~1991)Fine Arts2011 -
preparing for doll
(~1991)Fine Arts2011 -
postcard size paintings
~1989Fine Arts2011 -
everything was compressed in here, the idea of an alchemy that can heal us. doll is there, but finding her is difficult.Philosophy, Puppetry, Writing2011 -
body as a cell, a fluid organic structure; cell as an enclosing, constricting space; cell as a symbolic, transforming space.Photo Manipulation, Digital Art2011 -
forest is where doll livesDigital Art, Photo Manipulation2011 -
photographs of bodies blurred. the body and the environment fuse, are in the same luminous state. where does our body end and the world begin? is it all equal... the victims are hidden, but at the same time, joined by virtue of a grid outside of our control? and these colours that we see, do they describe what our bodies are? perhaps we are neon, or also perhaps without colour? will we dissolve away?
are these forms, constrained within a grid, trying to escape the cells in which they live? to assert individuality? to join with other souls that are in an equal state of unrest? or is suffering a purely personal state, and whilst we are all equal, we are also all alone?Digital Art, Photo Manipulation2011
