Kathy McTavish's Chance Unfolds at the Tweed

"Code is a literature ::: a pattern language ::: a score. It is a choreography ::: a performance. A code renderer is the weaver ::: the mill ::: the alchemist ::: the wizard. Code is a spell ::: an incantation ::: an intent. When code is performed it is an activation of text ::: a linguistic gymnastics." --Kathy McTavish

Thursday evening the Tweed Museum of Art held its opening reception for Kathy McTavish's stimulating multi-disciplinary full immersion experience called Chance. Chance is an exploration of the  intersections between art and technology, humans and machines, the networks, sound and mathematical systems.

This installation includes a landscape of painted walls representing the human in print. Multichannel sound surrounds networked machine quartets that are choreographed to draw interconnected chance-infused, emergent and interconnected animated patterns.

In addition to being an aesthetic experience, the exhibit is intellectually and philosophically stimulating. The concept of chance is as old as the history of mankind. In early times it was bound up with notions of randomness and fate, with multiple layers of religious belief systems indexed in. Likewise there's something perpetually intriguing about risk and games of chance. So it was against this backdrop I was most interested in this latest creation that was now brought public.

Chance not only generates images, sounds and sensations, it also sparks new thoughts which it would seem interesting to explore in a deeper dialogue. The idea that the computers render infinitely and are never the same is interesting because despite the fact that the room is constantly changing (including transformations as the external light shifts from day to night) why does it feel like at some point something is missing. That something is the story, or the person behind the code. A full engagement with the installation might lead one to ask questions about the meaning of existence, and what it means to be human.

According to McTavish, the components of the exhibition evoke a sense of change, infinite flow, emergence, friction and resonance within the enclosed space. It reminds me of markets -- the commodities exchanges, Wall Street -- and how these, too, perpetually change, have their rhythms and apparent randomness within structure.

The audio portion of the exhibit is equally unscripted, which she describes as "an ever-shifting blend of found sound and the hum of electrically-generated sine waves."

Last night I participated in an art show in which one of my own paintings was titled "At the Intersection of Time and Chance."

Many artists have found new expressions by means of the incorporation of randomness and chance into their work. (I think here of Max Ernst, for example.) Kathy McTavish has performed her explorations in a 21st century era in which digital phenomenon have become transcendant.

Here is some additional information about the work, which I imported from her web page associated with the show.

about

Christine Strom & Erika Mock
at the entrance to the exhibit.

Chance is a synergetic installation that combines code, image, and sound to create a cross-sensory, polyphonic experience. A landscape of painted walls and multi-channel sound encloses the viewer. Choreographed by code, a circle of machine quartets investigate chance, emergence, friction, resonance and change ::: a cloud orchestration.

Chance opens October 19, 2017. The year-long exhibit will be a living, evolving space ::: a residency / habitation / research lab / performance space. Printed artifacts will be left in the space to give the feel of blueprints / notes ::: a score. The Sax gallery at the Tweed is a luminous space. Its many skylights filter shifting seasons and variable weather patterns ::: a photosynthetic recitation. It provides a sanctuary ::: a place for rest and reflection.

This is a time of great planetary change and political turmoil. Chance has evolved under these skies. There is a machine / human friction present in the space. As the work evolves I have a sense of trembling before god ::: a struggle towards language & coherence ::: an ongoing ritual of conceal & reveal / imprint & erasure / struggle & resistance. As a queer artist I inhabit a landscape of the infinite between. This work embeds an infinite series of choreographed transitions. Machine renderers will perform their twists and turns (their monitor-bound between-ness) 24/7 for a year. The marks across the wall echo the arc of my body.

Chance explores the intersections between art & technology / humans & machines / polyphony & mathematical systems. My generative artwork is inspired by the mathematical representations of ecosystems that I studied while a student at the University of MN, Duluth. Mathematical models are often used to represent physical systems ::: our ideas about how the world works. They are like a score / orchestration / script / generative code. Algorithmic blueprints draw the contours of change and movement ::: convergences, divergences, emergent patterns and cascading, system-level impacts. Mathematical models can depict the complexity and profound tension between independent threads and the bounds of interconnected webs ::: the polyphony of life.

Code is a literature ::: a pattern language ::: a score. It is a choreography ::: a performance. A code renderer is the weaver ::: the mill ::: the alchemist ::: the wizard. Code is a spell ::: an incantation ::: an intent. When code is performed it is an activation of text ::: a linguistic gymnastics.

In a perfect confluence of electricity, network, rhythm, memory, processing, action & reactions a program comes to life ::: Pinocchio ::: a real boi at last. The program (the cybernetic ze) speaks to us, calculates for us, responds to our touch : our keystrokes. It becomes our mirror :|: our cyborg self ::: our memory.

other thoughts

Chance is a frayed thread, a stochastic cloud, a pointillist field, a variance, a complexity, an uncertainty, a ragged line. Chance is a prayer ::: slim window of chance ::: survival in this time of profound climatic change. Evolution requires variability, chance and fruitful deviation. A system's ability to adapt to change depends on its ability to mutate ::: on trial & error & improvisation.

This installation combines code, paint, and sound. A pure tone can be modeled with a sine wave. Sounds produced by horsehair, pine pitch, metal, wood, friction, sinew, bone, breath and reed are a complex crash and tumult of waves more like an ocean than an oscilloscope. Worldly sound is gorgeous in its noise and deviance from pure tone. The exhibit blends the generated hum of sine waves hovering near 4 tonal centers with a subtle chordal wash of natural sound.

Indeterminacy ::: a line opens into a surface of possibilities. Random numbers ::: probabilities ::: a pattern emerges from the haze. Time & space carve out convergence or dissolution ::: balance, extinction or chaos.

Connectance ::: ecosystems embody the tension / balance between individual life threads and the complex web of community. Resilience of the whole depends on intricate relationships between the parts. To live in a networked, interdependent system is to be bound but also to be fed.

A BRIEF SNAPSHOT FROM THE BALCONY

* * * *

NOTEWORTHY

The Opening Reception for Three States is from 2-5 at the newly opened Joseph Nease Gallery at the corner of First Avenue West and First Street. 

ALSO

Karin Kraemer is hosting her Grand Opening from 5-8 in her new West End location. 

Come check out her new space, Duluth Pottery, which includes a studio AND a gallery.

MEANTIME ART GOES ON ALL AROUND YOU.

ENGAGE IT!

An Exercise In Randomness

A Random Walk Down Blog Street
Was in the lift with him yesterday. Any recent brand literature and concepts focus stronger than ever in the past on the design element of the brand building equation. I'd say this was a symptom of the panic that's gripping advertising now that more and more of the things we sell don't really exist. As my reward, a Nor'easter is dumping five to ten inches of snow on the mid-Atlantic I-95 corridor.

Food-wise, this place sweeps the floor with NIT Surathkal's gastronomic delights. I don't even know, I haven't looked in months. That Goodman’s playing style was in the forefront of Copland’s mind during the Concerto’s composition is everywhere evident, from the jazzy rhythms of the cadenza to the extensive use of the high register and the Rhapsody in Blue-like final glissando. The best part? It is foolish to pretend that one is fully recovered from a loss.

Still, the snow is gorgeous, isn't it?

What's Happening Here?
The other day someone posted on their Facebook page the fifth sentence from page 56 of a book they were reading. It was a random selection of text. Others were invited to do the same, and it was fun to pick up a few books and read a random sentence.

So I decided to visit random blogs and record the fifth sentence from each blog and write a story. Conclusions I drew from this exercise? Well, you can see that it's not Shakespeare. Which makes one wonder how a hundred monkeys on a hundred typewriters over a period of one million years would ever produce a Hamlet or even a Shakespeare sonnet.

This is the actual point of the Infinite Monkey Theorem. And I quote (from Wikipedia): The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type a given text, such as the complete works of William Shakespeare.

In this context, "almost surely" is a mathematical term with a precise meaning, and the "monkey" is not an actual monkey, but a metaphor for an abstract device that produces a random sequence of letters ad infinitum. The theorem illustrates the perils of reasoning about infinity by imagining a vast but finite number, and vice versa. The probability of a monkey exactly typing a complete work such as Shakespeare's Hamlet is so tiny that the chance of it occurring during a period of time of the order of the age of the universe is minuscule, but not zero.

That's just about what I concluded after fifteen minutes of looking at random sentences.

In the meantime, I hope you're enjoying your weekend. Maybe tomorrow we'll give our obligatorynod to the Super Bowl. Be well, friends, and have a good one.

A Good Day for Randomness

"He saw what he did not see."

My dreams seemed exceptionally vivid upon waking this morning. There were a whole series of images and scenes which varied in their degree of bizarreness, many involving people I know. In some scenes I was part of the action, in others just a spectator. One scene was somewhat shocking, and some exceedingly involved. The very last featured John Malkovich. I was watching him as he boarded a train. He was dressed in somewhat loose fitting Oriental attire and there was a side door onto the traincar which was low to the ground (much like a subway platform) and in a childlike, goofy way he would step into the compartment and sit himself onto the floor. As he did so, some brightly colored object of enormous size like a multi-colored cash register would fall out from under his shirt or even come out of the sleeve. It would make a clatter on the platform and he would giggle and the authorities would take it away. He would be standing outside the train again, and would then go through this act again. Four or five times in a row, as Malkovich sat down inside the compartment, a large object would tumble out onto the platform. Each time, he would smirk or laugh, trying to conceal his merriment. I got the impression he was a holy prankster of sorts.

Like many dreams, it all seemed so real as I was watching. But when I woke, it no longer mattered that I didn't understand what was going on.

So, for a few minutes, I will make a list of random observations from my desk, from about my walls, the floor. Today is a good day for randomness. And like my dreams, it doesn't have to make sense, yet it will be -- to some extent -- revealing.

501 Great Writers, a book I received for Christmas. Published by Barron's, Julian Patrick general editor.

A Medica card, UnitedHealthare.

A Sony MagicGate Memory Stick for my camera, purchased on EBay. It doesn't work for some reason. Let the buyer beware.

An Olympus Digital Voice Recorder, model WS-110. Made in China, I recently recorded and interview of George Barris, of Batmobile and Mokeemobile fame, using this device which has a USB plug-in so you can download recorded files onto your computer and play them with Windows Media Player or iTunes.

A couple packages of Post-it brand page markers for marking pages in a book or magazine. I have a pink one marking the page of Geoffrey Chaucer in the book 501 Great Writers, and an orange one marking the page of Arthur Rimbaud.

Two flash drives, one with the letters HIN on it. HIN stands for Hot Import Nights.

A Post-it note with my cousin Gary's phone number on it. Gary was my favorite cousin growing up and we used to talk about living on the same block when we grew up. He became a fireman, and later fire chief I believe, in Oklahoma. I became an advertising and PR guy in Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sometimes things don't go the way you expect.

A Verizon cell phone, slim black, always on vibrate.

A 2.5 gig Mobile Hard Drive. My Sony Vaio laptop crashed about six weeks ago and a computer wizard extracted all its contents onto this little silver box about the size of a 3 x 5 card. 2.5 gigs seems fairly incomprehensible to me. My first Mac, a 512Ke, had no memory for storage at all, just a disk drive slot where your pushed in the 512K disk. It had about 1000 K of "working memory" I believe. My next Mac, the SE, had a 20MB hard drive. I enlarged its capacity with a program called Disk Doubler.

An envelope with Wilmer A. Wagner's Advance Directive, or living will. I pulled it from my file cabinet because it's about time I make one for myself, just in case. Two friends of mine who are my age have had heart attacks recently.

A Seagate backup drive. It holds 100 or 200 gigabytes, I think.

An AMSOIL G-1406. This is a piece of literature which I wrote and designed back in 1997 when our company introduced the Quick Lube program and XL-7500 synthetic motor oils. AMSOIL was the first synthetic motor oil to satisfy API certification standards in 1972. The founder had been a jet fighter pilot in the Air National Guard, and was determined to use jet engine oil technology in cars. And he did it. Because of the extended drain intervals and cleaner operation, these oils have genuine environmental benefits. This literature item was designed for use as a point-of-sale piece for a counter top display which I also had a hand in designing.

An off-white plastic wall outlet with two slots.

An empty beer bottle, Full Moon.

A couple nickels, one here and one there.

A list of things I have to do today. But first, I'd better walk out and get the paper and feed the animals. We're down to a cat, three ducks and two dogs.

Four harmonicas, one of them a Hohner Marine Band in the key of C. One is a Hohner Golden Melody, D, and two are Blues Harps, in C and G. I also have a complete set of Johnson Blues King harps which I purchased on eBay and keep in a satchel. The four cited are my favorites. The two Blues Harps were purchased when I was a freshman at Ohio University.

What kind of random things do you see from where you're sitting as you read this blog entry today?

32 Random Phrases from Popular Mechanics August 2008

"Randomness is too important to be left to chance." ~ Robert R. Corveyou

Whose Machine Reigns Supreme?
Taking the Scream Test
The Science of Fear
An American Passion
I’ll Try Anything
Drill It and Shoot It
The more you ask, the more we’re different.
Man, I wish I were anyplace but here.
Guys, want to take fewer trips to the bathroom at night?
Not all fishing buddies have facial hair.
Nematode Nation: Tiny worms reveal large secrets.
Use them as a concert hall – or a sanctuary.
Still haven’t rolled over your old 401(k)?
All along you told them they could change the world.
Turns out you were right.
Progress is easy to take for granted.
If you want to do great things in your world, spend some time in ours.
Unrespected Aerospace
“We look at this place as the best-kept secret in the business. We can see the future from here.”
Look First
Why is Michael Phelps the ultimate athlete?
Ditto
The King Is Back
Hands-Free Can Shaker
Fire When Ready
Primal Screamer
A Fast Bot Finds Work
The Ultimate Paint Job
Mutually Assured Saturation
Why do they make it so complicated?
Fight Back
That’s Ice Cold Common Sense

“The man who said ‘I'd rather be lucky than good’ saw deeply into life. People are afraid to face how great a part of life is dependent on luck. It's scary to think so much is out of one's control.” ~ Chris Wilton in Woody Allen's Match Point

Of this last quote and observation, it really is humbling when one considers it... beginning with your birth. Which genetic imprint you received from your father when millions were competing in the initial conception. The nation you were born into. The nurses who handled you, or mishandled. Astrologers would add at this point... which sign of the zodiac you were born under, and the time of day. The circumstances of your early years, how many siblings you shared a home with, or a room. The teachers who formed your ideas about learning, creativity, personal worth. Likes, dislikes; active, inactive. How we got our first job, and the complex factors that in subtle yet imponderable ways determine our careers, our friends and lovers, our miscellaneous adventures through space and time.

How about you? How did you become who you are? How much is choice and how much chance? Tell me what you think.