What are the components of transformative action? The hands create - as do the eyes - and the building processes themselves play their part in giving an object meaning. The elements that constitute an object's representative power can be transformed: When we take something virtual and give it dimension, weight, mass and volume, drive from it its inherent 'flawlessness' and make it tangible it occupies our space, is subject to our perspective and is also affected by time and material degradation. It becomes an object subject to physical laws and a material existence.
Digital origami seems ironic, humorous, pointless and painstakingly incorrect and corrected - mathematically modeled - then molded, cast, sanded, post-processed, carried and deposited as an analogue that never reaches 'crane-ness', but instead points towards something else.
Sorry if I happened to mess this up, but I'm just making my blog post as a comment.
ReplyDeleteWe've had multiple discussions within our group about many different topics. Though these discussions contain a myriad amount of content, they all seem to come back to two words, beauty and value. Though we have tried many times as both individuals and a group to form a definition, we've failed. Eventually, Alan came to the decision to use haikus to help guide us through a jungle of definitions until we found the ones that fit.
Haikus consist of 17 syllables. The 1st line must contain 5 syllables, the 2nd line must have 7, and the 3rd line has to have 5. Traditionally speaking, haikus should have some form of nature within them. These strict rules happen to be one of the reasons why we chose to write haikus and not poetry. When writing most poetry oneself doesn't have to follow specific rules when choosing words. This element of restriction adds much more value to the words that were chosen. Having to try to stick to the topic of nature began to "program" our minds into thinking about only one part of the object that we were writing about. The reason is because that when people write haikus they try and write about something that excites them. Normally, it is an obkect that the poet wants to explore more and it is through this exploration that they find the object beautiful. Soon, through many haikus we began to see patterns in what we found beautiful. Gradually we began to form a basic definition of what we find beautiful, but our definitions will always be changing. We never will have one distinct definition for beauty, but can have a basic definition like the one that we uncovered through haiku. One reason why we can't have a complex definition is because through our life experiences we gain knowledge, and this knowledge shapes our way how we view life and within this is our idea of beauty.
The process of folding several thousand origami has been both tedious and tiring. While the end result will undoubtedly be rewarding when we finally stand before four intimidating pillars covered in strange, seemingly biological growth, I believe that the process of creating the cranes is equally important as the concrete product.
ReplyDeleteThis repetitive aspect of our project reminds me a lot of these sculptures done by one of my favorite artists, Oliver Herring. He called the pieces Mylar sculptures and they involved knitting a reflective tape using a single type of stitch over and over again. Some of the sculptures took up to several years of isolation to complete. He describes his process with the Mylar sculptures: "Knitting can be both meditative and monotonous, but exactly that quality gives you time, and that time was actually, well, that was the crux of the matter."
While Herring's repetitive knitting alludes to the enigma of time, our repetitive folding also indirectly suggests the concept of time in the sense that during the long hours of folding we experienced not only folding but discussion and interaction. Furthermore, folding brings up questions of value prompted by the cultural aspect of origami and the use of craftsmanship, which is almost always associated with value. Had we not gone through this repetitive process, these references to value would be nonexistent.