Burning Man '09

Its that time of year for the annual migration to Black Rock desert. Yes, Burning Man!

Last year my art projects were thwarted by horrendous surface conditions that made my rake art impossible and my sculptural art incapable of being serviced properly....

Burning Man is a constant lesson in focusing on the main goal, which is to experience and appreciate the moment. The beach has had that quality for me as it is different every time I go...

For this year I will be bringing all my rakes and basically looking for places where a great design could happen. The desire is to post where and when I will be doing it and inviting people to join me. Cool!

Let's see what the playa has in store this year...

Playa Paintings- Panoramas on Photosynth

Here's something cool- Photosynth. It allows you to throw in images from a scene taken from all different angles and it creates a type of 3-d composite that you can navigate. Here are a few made by myself and Darren Murtha. A very interesting way to experience a location/subject.

Biohazard

Taffy

Flow
Blurble

Textures

 Some cool patterns we came across on the beaches...



 

Books I'm reading

I tend to read books in small pieces. At any one time one of these books is either at  my bedside or in my backpack.

-> A Brief History of Everything -Ken Wilbur
A book that has deepened my perspective of evolution. This book is about the evolution of consciousness, but it can be applied to any process- we are where we are as a response to where we have been. We wouldn't be where we are without having gone through the process of getting there. Its a comforting realization and allows me to forgive myself for mistakes as long as I learn from them. In spinning a staff I have always understood that nothing exists in isolation- every part of every movement is a result of what has come before.

->The Self-Aware Universe: How Consciousness Creates the Material World -Amit Goswami
Just starting this one....

->Global Brain: The Evolution of Mass mind from ther Big Bang to the 21st Century -Howard Bloom
Fascinating look at self-organization and self-maintenance

->Islamic Patterns: An Analytic and Cosmological Approach -Keith Critchlow
An in-depth look at Islamic tiling systems and the underlying structure they are based on

->A Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe: the Mathematical Archtypes of Nature, Art, and Science -Micheal Schneider
A fantastic entry into geometry. Gets a little flowery but lots of examples and images.

->Sacred Geometry: Philosophy and Practice -Robert Lawlor
A fascinating and well written look at the foundations of the field of sacred geometry. Very grounded and studious.

-> Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction -George Bain
A masterpiece of Celtic design study.

->The Self-Made Tapestry: Pattern Formation in Nature -Philip Ball
Amazing look at the foundation of natural formations from a physics perspective. Technical but very readable

Flow Toys

Flow Toys Flow toys are a general name for toys that get your body in motion, which help one access deeper levels of physical awareness. These include staves, which have been perhaps my single biggest influence, predating every other artistic interest and leading to many subsequent and ongoing discoveries. Flow Toys is also a brand of movement tool. Check out these high quality 'toys'.

 

Tensegritoy

Tensegritoy
The concept of 'tensegrity', of the push and pull inherent in all systems, is wonderfully represented in this construction toy. Go here to learn more about this fun tool.

Kenneth Snelson is a master of this artform. Check out what he has done, an example of which is shown here.

Geomags

Geomags
This toy basically consists of little sticks with magnets at the ends and little metal balls. With this toy all sorts of geometric principles can be constructed and analysed.

Geomags tend to be pricey due to their superior magnetic qualities. But there are lots of cheap knockoffs. Be warned that larger structures won't stay together as well with these though.

Check 'em out here.

Zome Tool

Zome Tool
This fabulous toy is a bit complex at first but after a while the possibilities limitless. Mostly it excels at highlighting geometrical constructions. This one has been a very useful tool for me.

Check it out here.

Great Stella

Great Stella
An awesome program for creating 3 dimensional geometric models. The exploration is pretty deep with this tool. I'll post some of the images I've made, some of which have become sculptures. The program allows you to generate stellations of all shapes and then it gives you the guides to create full scale models.

Check out the program here.

Fractal Extreme

Fractal Extreme
I love this program for generating and exploring fractals. The free version is totally adequate for getting pretty deep- to the place where most computers start slowing down, which is deep enough for casual exploration. You can generate movies of the journeys, which is super cool.

Find it here.

Moires

Moires are the patterns that emerge when two or more other patterns are superimposed. These became my next obsession- everything was about moires.  Quite fascinating mental and eye candy.

Check out a video of a moire here. 

Fractals- the Interface Between Chaos and Order

Fractals are more than just hippie psychadelic velvet poster art (although that medium has captured great exemplars!). Fractals are mathematical constructions which have completely changed how we approach understanding the world around us. In my formative artistic years, I saw the world through fractal tinted glasses- my philosophy was pervaded by fractal references. Perhaps knowing a bit more will change your perspective as well! There was a time when I saw everything in terms of fractals and it completely chagned the way I related to the world about me....

The development of fractals led the way to a new type of mathematical thinking in which we were able to interact and understand irrational numbers. Most interestingly of all is how pervasive these numbers turned out to be in our lives- in nature, in us.

A teeny bit of background: Fractals were discovered by Benoit Mandelbrot which is also the name of the most famous fractal. They are generally formed from simple equations, (in the case of the Mandelbrot fractal, Z = Z² +  C) that are ‘iterated’ (fed back into itself) many many times (1000’s of times). Each result can be plotted to a point on a graph and given a color value and thus is born the fractal imagery.

The crazy thing about them is that they are unpredictable- you can have an idea of what is going on, of what will happen next, but you can't be certain...and yet, they are describable- we can make images and interact with them in a way that without this type of thinking in simply not posisble. Fractals are a system where chaos becomes understandable (to the varying extents to which this is possible).

Some fractals help animators program realistic fur or water ripples, others help researchers understand complex behaviors, while some are purely for beauty's sake, like the ones I'm showing here, courtesy of Phidelity.

Fractals became an extremely insightful way of perceiving our world and inevitably spun off corresponding philosophy, which is the more pertinent use for me of this topic. From first truly appreciating fractals in my life during my movement practices, I soon moved on to other ways of integrating fractal thinking into my life.

These are soe of the qualities of fractals:

• Internal harmony- every part is a representation of the whole
• Unpredictability- small changes can have tremendous and unforeseen consequences to the system (think weather patterns)
• Regularity- periodic movement
• Holistic- it moves as a whole
• Integrated- all parts combine to form the expression
• Balanced- in its entirety, energy movement is balanced
  
• Infinite- no beginning, no end. It always comes from somewhere and goes somewhere
• Scalable- endless levels of depth
• Self-perpetuating- energy keeps moving
• Complete self expression- their totality exists to express an equation, every part of it manifests that initial imperative

What can fractals teach us (specifically for staff movement but adaptable to anything, really):

• Integration- all aspects of what we do contribute to what we create
• Consistency- every part is equal to every other part, all speeds are the same, all movements of equal energetic emphasis
• Our body is a part of the system and is integral to the movement of the staff
• Energy coalesces around certain patterns. Just as a fractal image reveals itself from the chaos, the energy pathways reveals themselves. This pathway creates space for effortless, efficient movement.
• There is no beginning and no end- energy comes from somewhere and goes somewhere. Nothing exists in isolation, our movements included.

What is 'Sacred Geometry' all about?

I always balk at the term 'sacred geometry' because the word 'sacred' can be so loaded. I translate 'sacred' to mean that from which spiritual lessons can be derived. And by 'spiritual' I mean understandings that connect us to larger life awareness, things that further or elucidate our deeper beliefs about our reality. Ultimately these are revelations that help guide how we live.
For ancient people, spirituality was infused in everything. Mathematics and geometry were particularly powerful becuase they were means through which people could catch a glimpse of the underlying order of the universe- certain aspects of the world became understandable and, more profoundly, predictable.  This gave power to those who posessed this knowledge. Think the Phaorohs of Egypt and the Incan rulers, among many cultures, whose leaders were supposedly chosen by 'God'.  They were surrounded by their priests, the order whose job it was to interpret natural phenomenon and give predictions which would result in allowing their leaders to appear truly in communion with higher forces.
Rulers aside, geometry and math allowed people to harness the 'rules' of nature, those aspects of the natural world that people were able to deduce, such as the Golden Mean ratio or the strength of tetrahedral structures. These discoveries were considered sacred due to their source and the power they contained and were treated with tremendous dignity. The principles were materialized in the form of the great, and enduring, structures of the world- the pyramids of Egypt, the great Cathedrals of Europe, the astrological temples of the Druids. The structures were embodiments of the sacred principles, meant to live on in perpetuity as an enduring lesson for future generations.
Modern society has largely lost its sense of the granduer of existence. Its not entirely gone, but rather gone into reclusion, biding its time with the next wave of interpreters who are doing amazing things to rediscover past knowledge and help the rest of us realize the power that comes with working in harmony with universal principles.
The trick is in adapting the largely neutral universal understandings into forms that we can bring into our lives, that can give us direction and choice....This is an ongoing practice for me, interpreting the principles I learn into ways that can enhance my life. These are lessons of form and flow, of energy movement and stability.
To get a sense of the enduring quality of sacred geometrical awareness, consider 2 principles, the '6 around 1' and the '12 around 1'.
A circle can contain 6 equal-sized circles  around it.

(more discussion to come)
There are great books on this topic- see my books section for suggestions.