Inspiration

“….where do the words go when we have said them? | Margaret Atwood.
“….in working with light, what is really important to me is to create an experience of wordless thought. | James Turrell.
“….the philosopher Plato described humankind as being chained in a certain position so that we gaze at a wall of a cave while behind us a fire casts flickering shadows onto the wall: only if we turn around to face the fire do we see the fire, do we see reality.  The notion that lucidity and clear thought are available to us if we are able to shift perception, to engage with imagination, is analogous to Turrell’s work. | Author not known.
“….when one reaches the country of the fourth dimension, when one is freed forever from the notions of space and time, it is with intelligence that one thinks and one reflects.  Thanks to it, one finds himself blended with the entire universe, with so-called future events, as with so-called past events. | Gaston de Pawlowski, Voyage to the Country of the Fourth Dimension.

Websites

In his book ‘What Shape is a Snowflake’, Professor Ian Stewart looks at the science and maths behind patterns in nature. He questions how nature makes patterns which in turn makes me question – is nature maths itself or a man made code we apply to nature to try and make sense of it?

http://freespace.virgin.net/ianstewart.joat/snowflake.html
http://freespace.virgin.net/ianstewart.joat/index.htm

Bill Viola inspires me on many levels through his visual art and his philosophical writings. This quote in some way addresses questions I have always had about the nature of digital media. We tend to refer to frequencies made by digital recordings or equipment as artificial yet they seem to have frequencies and have a lifespan out there ‘in the ether’ in much the same way as human beings create a ripple effect with their voice or energy, a resonance. Someone once told me that the noise a TV or radio makes when it is not tuned into a channel, is called the Universal Hiss – the sound the universe has made since it began and our equipment is picking it up. I like to believe that this is true!

http://www.billviola.com

…the shape and materials of an object represent a frozen sound potential….all objects have a sound component, a second shadow existence as a configuration of frequencies….The process of contemporary media systems are latent in the laws of nature – they have existed in various forms since the beginning of history
Bill Viola

The artist Liliane Lijn, like James Turrell’s works and plays with light and I love the work she has made with stardust using a gel created by NASA that collects inter-stellar matter!

http://www.lilianelijn.com/index.html

I can’t find Jonathan Monk’s ‘official’ artist’s website but check out these sites which will give you an idea. I particularly like his ‘Meeting’ series “multiples that invite the viewer to rendezvous with the artist at a future time and location”. There are still future rendezvous’ planned all over the world, who will be there?
http://magentamagazine.com/1/editors-picks/jonathan-monk
http://www.bookworks.org.uk

I love the way Kay Rosen plays with words

http://www.kayrosen.com/work.html