Hunter Longe

Tentative Titles: -

Inter-dimensional, Anti-rational, the Squiggle

Inter-dimensionality, the Squiggle and Irrational Exercises to Exorcise Rationality

What if inter dimensional squiggle disorder?

InterSquiggrationalantiDimension

What that Portal be?

Like the Universe, Squiggle!

Introduction: _

For my thesis, and my project, I propose to research: 1.) multi-dimensionality and interdimensional travel 2.) the construct of rationality and the possibility of escaping its grips via practice 3.) the squiggle as a form in nature and art. The squiggle will bind the topics - I don't know anything about string theory but I think it will come up because it is a theory of parallel dimensions, fits in the rubric of science, yet it seems irrational and when performing a google image search of "string theory", mostly images of squiggly lines appear. Note: Interdimensional beings are often referred to as 'sliders'. Sliders and squiggles sound pretty cool together.

- What are different dimensions?

- Can an artwork travel through dimensions, be a portal between dimensions or be a different dimension altogether?

- I will need to establish just what I mean by Rationality. Is is possible to un-train the conscience or the component of the mind which rationalizes decisions?

- Why is my sketch book filled with squiggles and why, when I don't know what to do, do I draw a squiggle?

I cannot yet be specific about the form of my final project. I want to get into a groove of making physical things. I want to work in multiple dimensions, I want to use some of the tools I tested last year.

Relation to previous practice: -

Formerly, medium was often dictated by concept and content. Now my pieces also develop out of material and process investigation. My work takes the form of sculpture, drawing, video, installation and combinations thereof. Though I do not consider myself a painter, I sense that many pieces have stemmed from an early affection for the medium and its rubric. In final year of several years after my BFA (2008) I was absorbed by a serious fascination for exposing the subjectivity of science in order to level art and science as equally valuable methods for understanding the unknown. I began to realize that an active creative practice itself could indirectly fulfill the drives behind that project and also that I don't want to prove something or battle something. Over the last several years, I entered a more fluid period where my work has playfully addressed a mesh of diverse themes ranging through tension, erasure, distortion, material translation, geological communication, the anthropocene, entropy, shadows, dreams, mimicry and humor. I think that the former topics I have touched on lead pretty well into the topics I want to research in my thesis and final project. I recognize that often times establishing a theme really helps to drive the making of work and inspiring of ideas for pieces.

I think that some of the pieces I have made last year could already fit into interdimensional concept, especially the pieces with rocks embedded in plexiglas. See description from Methods text. I notice squiggles in my sketches and as forms I am attracted to. It could be said that squiggles are playful or less serious than a straight line or a grid. It might be this I am attracted to. They also seem to be representative of a gesture.

Practical steps: -

I propose to read some theories about multi-dimensionality and the possibility of traveling through them. Some science fiction and probably so basics of string theory - just scratch into the surface of string theory. I would like to explore the possibility of an artwork traveling through dimensions and I will explore this in studio practice via representation and also material experimentation and translation of images and objects through various media. What could a portal or gateway be could categories of medium and genre, time and space be different dimensions?

I would like to develop daily exercises for un-training the side of my brain which constantly tries to rationalize decisions. I will look into the exercises practiced in surrealism, dada, improvisation, maybe even things like hypnosis (please suggest more). I will conduct some introductory research into the history and development of rationality and reason as constructs.

I will look at the squiggle as a form in nature and in art, going back to the the earliest bacterial life-forms to modern artists such as Sophie Taube-Arp.

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

serpentine line http://cabinetmagazine.org/issues/36/schuster.php

Scientific article on parallel universes https://journals.aps.org/prx/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevX.4.041013

References:

Bathsheba Grossman - visualizations of data

All kinds of physical visualisations of science/data: http://dataphys.org/

Maryline Taylor (2003) Time pieces – Mapping the time and space of place (2003 version).

2005 – Time-Evolving Scatterplot

  Unemployment rate plotted against inflation for 8 countries over 10 years. Every layer represents a year and each country is a wire of a different color. This physical visualization was built by Tim Dwyer for his PhD dissertation. His goal was to experimentally compare a 3D and a 2D data representation, and he used a physical object to emulate a perfect 3D display.