‘Numbers are letters to a computer’ – 2012
“We are all in the business of shapes, real or imagined. The question is does it mean anything?”
Why do you think your work is any good?
Why do you think that question is worth asking me? I’ve had several assessments of my work quite recently. Some have not got it, some have actually hated it, some have been interested and others have really liked it. What do I conclude from this unscientific observation? Not much. Only that opinions vary dramatically, that there is no consensus. This is exactly right for original work. Original as in; has not proved itself yet. I think perhaps what you’re really asking is ‘what does this mean?’
We are all in the business of shapes, real or imagined. The question is does it mean anything?
And meaning is what we bring to things. I don’t think anything has meaning outside of us. There is no fundamental deep ‘truth’ independent of our lives. It is only our interpretation and the way we view our environment. Sometimes meaning gives hope or takes it away. Meaning never seems to stay the same for long.
How can you assign meaning to shapes?
It is not possible to see something without mentally labeling it. Everything noticed is catalogued. Even if the label is ‘unknown-thing-that-looks-like-something-familiar’. Thinking about this I’ve wondered is it possible to make label-less images?
Is it possible to come across ’shapes’ that have absolutely no meaning?
I think that things that appear haphazard are often hiding their meaning. For example mould on a wall or cracks in a pavement might seem random and trivial and yet they are results of complex processes.
Looking at these insignificant manifestations, depending on our level of understanding of the structure of buildings, we could foresee that there could be serious consequences in the future. For example the buildings could be falling down.
So to me meaning or knowledge is not something inherent in the thing.
There is another questions I ask myself; is explaining the physical creation pointless? I still don’t know the answer to that but perhaps sometimes just having fun with pixels can be an end in itself.