Thought as Entity-The black and whites

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The idea, quite simply was to get off the computer and draw. Draw by intuition and feel rather than calculated decisions filtered through a keyboard and mouse. Record that intuition-the impulsive moment of the mark.  It occurred to me that through the physical act of recording the intuitive drawing process, that what is being recorded is essentially- thought, and the actual process of thought as it occurs. I began to wonder-Can thought be entity?

Thought is a force. No different than gravity or electromagnetism. Elusive in nature, thought has had more impact on man- made reality than all other forces combined. Without thought, it wouldn't matter if the world was flat or round and the idea that the earth revolves and orbits the sun wouldn't exist. Fire would remain a natural occurrence, and nothing more. The need to capture the essence of the world within which we exist with primitive pigments on the surfaces of caves would not exist. Without thought, humans, in our current identity, would not exist and the likelihood that humans, in any form, would survive the violence of evolutionary development is quite small.

 

Not only is thought a force, but it is creationary force in its purest, un-distilled form. Without thought, there is a void from which nothing is created. Without thought, all that exists exists outside the vacuum.

 Thought is different from all the other known forces in that it is of the mind, not of the earth, or the universe in all its physicality. As such, it transcends all the other known forces as it has no limits, is boundless in its potential and possibility. Being of the mind, thought is of the past, present and future. It is of the moment, -the impulse -as well as the infinite and deliberate. Thought is not only force but resource as well-a resource of the known and unknown, the intentional and unintentional, the one and the infinite. As a resource, thought becomes entity.

Thought as entity-can it be captured, recorded? More specifically, can the innate thought (of the mind, only of the mind, free from dilution by the process of making, and the history of making) be recorded?

 

The process through which the innate thought (entity) is discovered is by necessity, impulsive, immediate and intuitive. Anything else requires deliberation and is a product of refined intent-filtered by past experience, familiarity and prejudice. As such.....

The process becomes the thought, the thought becomes the entity (Process=thought=entity).

Initial purpose and intent must be absent in order for the (innate) thought as entity to occur. All marks recorded otherwise are filtered and diluted by user interface-interference.

The intent, the purpose, -the identity-is a product of the process which is...

 Intuition, rather than reason....

 Reactive rather than proactive....

 Exploratory rather than guided...

Impulsive rather than pre-meditated.

The result.... the outcome of the process is unknown, free from intent, an intrinsic product of the process-created by the process-unique in its conception, development, evolution and maturity.

Thought as Entity.

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 The Black and Whites were an effort to strip away all the noise, an almost meditative approach to the act of recording the mark. The identity, (the thought) evolves through the the grace of the sweeping line, the taper and thickness of the of the mark, and the contrast of black against white. The unmarked (the space between the notes if you will) is as important as the marked (the notes themselves). 
A few of the pieces, despite the category, do in fact contain a splash of color, and "noise" is evidident in a few as well. These might be considered hybrids-different capture methods in the search for thought as entity. I've included them in this post as I see them as different accents of the same language. Also, to deny them the color and noise that the process seemed to call for, was akin to interference with their evolution, and a guidance of their identity. Each thought has its own personality, its own identity. Who am I to interfere with its creation? 

RBP

1/30/15
All images Copyright, Lazarus Designs, 2015

Multiple (Personal) Realities

The other day, the notion of portable worlds (realities) struck me the other day while waiting in line for something or other. We are wholly unaware of the complex systems at work that make our lives, and the tasks within it, possible. We order fast food, and while waiting for it, check into our own little reality, our cell phone, to see if something important in that defined and relative reality has happened. At an airport terminal, we are completely unware of the complexity required to get us from point A to point B, oblivious to the coordination of countless data interactions, transactions and transformations in order for a successful trip. We choose to evade, escape and retreat whenever possible into our personal realities, tailored to our individual needs, interests and requirements. The phrase “..He is in his own little world”, is literally taking on a whole new meaning. What if (just for fun, let’s take this trip)…..the progression continues? What if we continue to construct, develop and ultimately begin to inhabit the individual realities, and abandon the natural one?

At one time, we all shared one reality, the natural reality. The sun rose up, we endured the battles, trials and challenges of the day, and when the sun went down, we rested and prepared for the next day. We may have had different perspectives of that reality, but it was an all-encompassing natural reality that we all shared, interpreted and participated in.

The passage of time has delivered us to an environment that is inundated with countless and individual realities, tailored to the myriad perspectives of reality, rather than reality itself. At what point do these individually created worlds that define, organize and influence our life journey surpass the natural reality within which we all exist? Taken to the extreme, if we all retreat into the individual realities we create, and nobody observes the complex and natural reality within which we exist, does it then cease to exist? Or, with it unoccupied, is it free to get transformed, reconstructed (restructured) into another natural reality, one in which we evolve to share again?

Fun, fun……  

RBP

9/2/14 

All images Copyright, Lazarus Designs, 2014

The LD Jam Session

I took a small break from my residential work the other day, and simply asked myself “What if I took the Lazarus Designs logo (in its metallic state) and transformed it”? The exercise turned to be pure exploration of the creative moment. What happens if I do this…..what does it look like when I do that….what if, what if, what if.

I read somewhere that when the Who composed their songs, Peter Townsend and Roger Daltry pretty much knew what the song was going to be about, and sound like. They composed their music with a destination in mind. In contrast, The Rolling Stones would get together and simply jam together, create and collaborate in the moment, and discover their music through their process. Obviously, both approaches were successful, but in my mind, the beauty of the Stones method was in the almost organic growth of the music, In other words, the song, the rhythm and beat, and even the lyrics, were discovered through the process of creation, and the collaboration of the musicians and their instruments.

This exercise was very much like a Stones jam session, and was immensely enjoyable! What I’ve learned, and indeed I am struggling with are a couple of things. If intent is absent, then is the result accidental? There is a collaboration that occurs between me, and the program I use to create these compositions (products). At what point am I merely relying on the tool to produce the composition? For example….I have countless yellow rods in the composition, and they were inserted by me for the simple reason that I wanted to contrast the fluidity of the LD, and suggest an underlying component of rigidity, or construction. Through the rendering process, I discovered that their reflections on the metal surface were much more intriguing than the rods themselves. Am I simply exploiting the program to produce content…..art without an artist, music without the musician? 

The other thing I am struggling (considering) with is if you don't have a destination, how do you determine if the composition, the product, is finished? Does it matter? I can change the frame dimensions, alter the lighting source, change materials endlessly (which I have somewhat demonstrated in the images). If I were to use the music analogy again, at what time do I decide to go into the studio and cut an album? 

In any case, I enjoy the creations and all I can say is……Discovery through process and collaboration with a machine .....”It’s a gas gas gaaaas”!!

RBP

8/15/14