Thanks, Max, for your observations and speculations. I'm writing on a phone, so I'll be brief.
The pattern in my signature is called a Latin Square. It's used in agricultural test plots, for example, in more complex versions. It's also behind the pattern on the cake, though I hadn't made the connection until your reply reminded me. I created a game with homemade punchcards to produce thousands of variations on the pattern on the cake. As part of the installation a local theater group helped me to create a participatory wall design. Visitors to the gallery strung a collection of colored beads on a string. The order of the beads determined a pattern. I drew the outlines of the pattern on paper mounted on the wall. The performers colored them in, following a set of rules. My photo exceeded the megabyte limits of the list, which is why it was forwarded by a moderator (thank you!). But I do think that some modest use of media in posts could be interesting. Right now people use links. cheers, Paul On Sat, Jun 12, 2021, 1:30 PM Max Herman via NetBehaviour < [email protected]> wrote: > > Hi Paul, > > Such an interesting post and image, thank you! > > In your signature, I see a kind of A-B-B'-A' or "chiasmus" pattern, which > I learned about just last year: > > (*,+,#,=)(#,=,*,+)(=,#,+,*)(+,*,=,#) > > asterisk, plus, number, equals > number, equals, asterisk, plus > equals, number, plus, asterisk > plus, asterisk, equals, number > > or: > > 1-2-3-4 > 3-4-1-2 > 4-3-2-1 > 2-1-4-3 > > I'm not especially knowledgeable about such permutations, maybe they are > standard in some context? But recursive loop is what I associate it with > and this applies to lots of settings -- literature, geometry, knots, really > very many contexts. In the natural world helical and rotation patterns > seems to resemble it in a sense, like the vines populating in yards this > time of year in my climate zone. > > The floor pattern you mention is also super interesting. The geometry > itself in your photo is very unique and striking, how it looks kind of like > a labyrinth pattern but it has lots of associations like a diagram, path, > even a story perhaps but also a place. So many of the places people > mention lately, like ancient towns, have this story-path mix. I was > reminded of the floors of the Duomo in Florence which I visited in 2019 for > the first time. The floors are really interesting and geometrical, and > with the giant clock in the Duomo caused me to wonder if the whole > structure is kind of about time in a way. The way one walks over, through, > and within the geometry of the floors is very interesting. They also look > very modern, so I wonder if I'm misconstruing them as part of the Duomo -- > were they added in the 1800's? I assume not, and even the exterior of the > Duomo looks so oddly modern in its patterns, but I could be wrong. > > I haven't done any kind of food art that I can recall but of course it's > very interesting and has millennia of parallels. (Actually, in the book I > just finished about Leonardo I included a little vignette about eating a > wild grape I found during a walk by the river and it was one of my favorite > parts of the book -- and the walk.) > > The social, community aspect of the great photo you include (which I > didn't know was possible on list?) is very palpable. It really extends the > geometric pattern to another sphere so to speak, the people who > participated and all their perceptions before, during, and after the event. > > It makes me wonder in what ways all art is generative art so to speak. > I'm sure this has been said before though. > > I was thinking this morning about Dante for a book I'm trying about his > relationship to Leonardo, a book prompted by a book about Leonardo that was > absolutely prompted by my visit to Florence and the Duomo in spring 2019 > and the semi-coeval pandemic that followed shortly after. Dante called his > book just *Comedia*, the old spelling of commedia, which means just > "comedy" and in Dante's era meant, from what I can gather, "story" of the > sort that was about ordinary life and did not end in tragedy. I had been > thinking of someone's use of "convivial" to describe the list, a term that > reminded me of Dante's pre-*Comedia *book *Convivio *(Banquet) which is > about people sharing knowledge as they share food. Dante outlines a lot of > his scientific ideas in the *Convivio *and I'm trying to understand them > a bit; he also outlines a kind of philosophy of art, imagination, > psychology, poetry, painting, and so forth. > > For whatever reason I got to associating the names *Comedia *and > *Convivio*, and it got me wondering if comedy relates at all to "eating > together," i.e. comestible, etc. I don't see that in the etymology site I > use, but "komos" meant festival I guess which might have been associated > with eating. It's terribly unrigorous, this way of word-associating, and > of course there may be zero valid connection between comedy and eating > etymologically, but it had me thinking anyway. > > Then I was reminded of Cattelan's *Comedian *from a year or two ago. I > don't know much about Cattelan, just what one reads in the papers so to > speak, but I do know he created a golden toilet (which was in the media > relating to a spat over loaning artwork to the previous president, and then > again for being stolen I think) and a work in which he "sold" his > gallerist. So, kind of conceptual and performance art perhaps is a common > thread. > > In any case, the *Comedian *was written about at the time for being a > work documented and sold using a digital certificate if I recall. Again, > not sure how or if this relates to the recent discussion here. In trying > to "decipher" the work, a task which is perhaps some core part of every art > work, commentators mentioned that "bananas are comical because people slip > on them and it is deemed funny." I guess Cattelan had also used bananas in > previous works. *Comedian *was a banana taped to the wall, in three > reproductions, so people kind of said "it's a joke on the art world." Fair > enough. Then however I wondered if it could have been a kind of chiasmus, > where the duct tape crossing the banana was a motif. Seemed unlikely. > Then I wondered, since I associate chiasmus with Leonardo's works, if > *Comedian > *could be a reference to the *Mona Lisa*, Lisa del Giocondo, La Joconde, > the jocund one, the jokester. Aristotle was a major source for Dante, and > he said that comedy was a way to process emotion via laughter in contrast > to tragedy, which was by tears (to simplify a bit). > > I absolutely don't want to situate your work "eat your place in space" in > any kind of a shadow, whatsoever, or preliminarity with regards to > Cattelan's work. I also don't mean to suggest that the Leonardo reference > (if true) makes or confirms *Comedian *as a "great work of art." I'm > probably not qualified to criticize *Comedian *but I think on a basic > level I would have "concerns" about it even or especially if it's a > reference to Leonardo. In fact, I would say that even if Cattelan is > making such references "he gets Leonardo wrong," just as I think the art > world -- the world I suppose -- gets Leonardo wrong. I'd say that your > work "eat your place in space" at least in how I see it presented by your > email has more in harmony with Leonardo as I understand his work. Of > course I can't prove this, but if I had to try to offer reasons I would say > that Leonardo was critical of today's world, including its art world, in > advance; he was as skeptical of the "great artist" paradigm as he was aware > of his place at the pinnacle of it; and his goal was to assist the down to > earth and decent in human life in its evidently long-shot attempt to > survive the slick and fabulous -- a survival which he associated with the > very survival of humanity and the planet itself. > > Again thanks for posting, and my apologies if this reply is way off base! > > All best, > > Max > > > ------------------------------ > *From:* NetBehaviour <[email protected]> on > behalf of Paul Hertz via NetBehaviour <[email protected] > > > *Sent:* Friday, June 11, 2021 1:01 PM > *To:* NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity < > [email protected]> > *Cc:* Paul Hertz <[email protected]> > *Subject:* [NetBehaviour] Eat your place in space > > Always words, words on the list. Let me offer you some cake. > > This is from the very first iteration of "A comer tu lugar en el espacio" > / "Eat your place in space," in the Palau Maricel, Sitges, Spain, Fall > 1982. The work consists of a geometric tiling design on the floor, usually > done with tape, and the same design on a cake. Participants take a piece of > cake and walk over to the corresponding spot on the floor, where they eat > their location in space. The design was based on a generative system I was > developing at the time, later known as IgnoTheory. > > The cake was made by my friend Marcelino Chacon, a skilled pastry chef. He > decorated the cake with cocoa powder and different dried fruits. Our young > son is looking on in anticipation, as is the pianist Charles Miles. > > The work has been repeated various times, notably in 1992 in Chicago. > > I ate my place in space and I am still here. Some of the participants, > I've never seen again. > > > > > -- > ----- (*,+,#,=)(#,=,*,+)(=,#,+,*)(+,*,=,#)| > | --- > http://paulhertz.net/ > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >
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