Semester 2
Week 1…..and onwards.
For me, conceptual art doesn’t always have an organised formula. I really enjoy free flow, bouncing from one thing to another. I have a fascination with science and dimensions, our brains and bodies are levels of parallel worlds, realities, utopias, experiences, as is everything around us. The dimensions of birth, presence and death, gravity and the enormity of the galaxy. Sound, touch, taste, smell……light and dark. Everything can be attributed to a different dimension. Then we have the overlaps between dimensions, where we can simultaneously exist in the attributes of many at once. When you begin to investigate them they become more noticeable… creating a cornucopia of existence.
Awareness births Recognition.
Nature. Animal.
When given these words as a creative beginning, I initially thought of the obvious. …. mythical animals, created ‘manimals’ , mind monsters, dreamscape terrors, marine, sky and earth . On further reflection, I decided to look at these words laterally and analyticaly instead of literally and logically….breaking away from my deep passion for the natural world and it’s animals.
We often use the word ‘animal,’ to describe inhumane behaviour. It’s a term I dislike enormously as I feel it insults our precious creatures of the natural world. Mother Nature has been deemed loving and caring. In fact Nature is cruel,’ She, ‘picks off the weak, abandons the sick, releases her wrath of destruction in formidable furies of catastrophic events whilst cycling , calmly and serenely through repeated seasons bringing everlasting colour, wonder and change… providing a botanical medicine cabinet, supplies warmth, food and water to sustain life in equal measure to extinguishing it. She could almost be considered human in her actions. Is it possible that nature is elusive because we ‘ are’ nature..within the syrup of existence ?
Nature, also implies our character traits, instead of the nature that surrounds us. Nature and Animal then imply a human. An Animal in Nature in both contexts, parallel dimensions in the continuum of time, if time actually exists… relative to the observer.
Animal-> zoo…people in zoo’s…. people in crates…people trafficking…killers…. serial killers. … brains… images…thermal images of brain scans. There , I arrived. After some enquiries, I discovered a neurocriminologist , Adrian Raine, who in 1987, conducted a series of experiments. Taking thermal imaging scans of the brains of serial killers he discovered that they were actually missing parts of grey matter which substantially altered their personality. On looking at the coloured images it became obvious that the colours could correspond to the notes of the musical scale therefore enabling me to create the music of killers.
In killers, the orbital cortex responsible for ethical behaviour, moral decisions & impulse is missing or non-functional, with lots of yellow areas corresponding to the note ‘E’. This derisory statement towards such a beautiful colour could possibly explain why yellow was associated with insanity. The yellow vision of VanGogh, Xanthopsia, possible poisoning from various plants, more likely to do with digoxin and sodium imbalance, or maybe he just liked yellow and used it to balance the blues in his works. In Roman times, seeing yellow was a marker of being mentally unsound. … colour moves with fashion, with the advent of sanatoriums, white took the place of yellow on the psychotic stakes, probably because of the glaring white interiors denoting abstinence and hygiene, white became associated with O.C.D ! White also dictates purity and spirituality, courage and cowardice in equal measure. Unsurprisingly, the connections between colour and light, with everything else in the world seems so much more important than we recognise. An inherently genetic default, as necessary to our function as air.
Serial killers are classed as predators and are not gender specific , as are animals in our natural world, although animals don’t get arrested for acquiring their lunch.
Not all psychopaths are killers, which brings about the argument, are killers ‘born or ‘made.’? Interestingly, when Ronnie Kray’s brain was removed after his death to be analysed by a neurologist, worryingly, his brain showed no signs of pathological destruction whatsoever and was, to all observations, completely normal.
Killer Vibes.
Firstly, to create the music I correlate the colours to the 7 notes of the scale.
Then using acetate with a superimposed stave, I map whole notes quickly without contriving the sound or pattern too greatly. Listen to a recording of a serial killers voice, using a tuner, log the predominant accidentals and notes. The voice of Geoffrey Dahmer was used for this experiment. His range was predominantly C#, A, F#, G#, Bb & C natural. The dominant blue and yellow areas would correspond to G major and E minor respectively, dictating key signature. This time I made it personal, using the real tones indicated in Geoffrey Dahmer’s speech patterns.
Here is the finished composition in free flow time. What I find extremely interesting is that this technique is also used to heal. A vast amount of research was done into the personal frequency of individuals. It was discovered that when an individuals predominant key tone was ascertained then replayed to them when undergoing surgery, in coma or serious illness, the patient needed less anaesthesia, found their return to loved ones and healed faster, as the body responded to its own sonic vibrations.
Sound of “Killer Vibes” .
Click the link
Will of the wisp Journey
I have returned to the same walk over consecutive weeks to view my natural TV. Carrying it further and viewing the changing landscape. Nature is moving beneath us. Changing her seasons, repeating cycles of death and rebirth.
Walking in Nature, I came across a discarded TV front covered by decaying foliage. The opportunity was too good to surpass. So I created ‘live nature tv’ . I left it firmly propped so that others may enjoy this forest quirk… in the hope that it may raise a smile on a woodland wanderer , to provoke thought. I wonder how many people got down on the ground, to curiously view this world, to inhale the scent of the forest floor, the succulent crunch of peeping bluebell stalks and watched the bugs, wriggle amongst the leaves…and how long they stayed there, without realising they had crossed to a different dimension of awareness. .. until after they had left and then wished they had stayed longer….and not made such haste to return to their normality.
