Complex Structure and Organisation & Visual Language and Vocabulary.
pp. 60-61
This double opening really follows on from pp. 56/57 which explores the paradox of Constancy and Change.
The large blue circle at the top sets the scene. The circle is divided in half by the fold in the paper, which reflects the circle’s two different aspects : its symbolic/structural aspect on the left, and its visual aspect on the right. These two aspects are examined in more detail further down the pages.
Just below the large central circle, the overall theme is established, the paradox of constancy in change: the unchanging and the changing. The two themes are developed just underneath this heading: the symbolic and structural aspect on the left, the visual aspect on the right. The circle on the left begets the double circle. The two circles are the same but different: they are the same shape but now there are two them. And a line drawn through, connecting their centres unites and divides. It is a paradox.
On the right, there are two green squares (the same green), but the green appears to be different when placed in conjunction with the different colours of red and grey. The paradox of the changing and the changing appearing in the same image could be called the ‘Janus’ effect, after the Roman God that faced both ways. Its importance lies in the fact that here the apparent opposites of the Unchanging and Changing are held together, so that both essence and flexibility can be held simultaneously: the word or image can have its own essence at the same time as having the ability to negotiate with all the other elements on the page. This is clearly of extreme importance.
These two groups of drawings are explored in the dialogue further down the pages, starting with the long horizontal bar across.. On the left are the symbolic descriptions of the structural principles at work in the universe: fractals, Einstein’s equation of matter/energy: e = mc squared, the musical octave, The Golden curve, the wave/particle duality, reciprocity of a rectangle, the Yin/Yang symbol).
On the right - the visual page - are shown three different shapes: a small red dot, a grey line and an outlined brown square. Here three images are the same in all the little pictures - they are constant elements; yet the different ways they behave together, the different relationships and force-fields involved in each provides an extremely varied experience for the viewer.
Most of the elements here in this section are descriptions to do with what things are and how things behave.
This leads on to the larger section below it which attends to the language whereby the principles listed above are realised: hierarchical organisation of complex structures, fixed laws and flexible strategies on the left, and the element of the visual language on the right.
Hierarchial Organisation of Material: The Whole and the Part
p.60
When embarking on a complex calligraphic work, it is helpful (perhaps essential) to have an intention in mind, however hazy it might be at first. This purpose determines the shape of the overall concept and guides the cohesion of the all the smaller elements, which then can be directed to their appropriate places. It may take some time to sort out the different levels of importance, and how things relate to each other - but this is all part of the making process. If no purposeful intention is present, the smaller items tend to look tacked on, or emphasised for decorative purposes, and the integrity of the whole is lost.
The Whole and the Part.
A part can belong to a greater whole, and itself be the whole of a smaller part. For instance, an army captain can be a servant to his general, and at the same time in charge of his foot soldiers. So in the organising process, hierarchical decisions need to be made.
p.61
The Visual Vocabluary
Across the page on the right hand page of the double opening, the content addresses the visual aspect in the laying out of the elements of the Visual Vocabulary, for instance: Form, Shape, Colour, Scale, Texture etc. They are the ingredients used to make any form of visual art. Each discipline will have its own vocabulary.
The Janus Effect (named after the Roman god who face both ways). Every mark on the page has two aspects: matter and energy. Every mark has Matter, what it is - and Energy, what it does: how its energy impacts on other visual marks. If it is too close, and it crowds other images, is too heavy and is too eye-attractive - draining the energy from other marks.
Sometime during the making of this book, I began to wonder if the processes of making something - an object, a musical composition, a game - might follow quite similar pathways. It seems as though there might be a vertical similarity between processes as well as horizontal pathways toward completion.
The chart below develops a possible process of realisation from intention to completion in a variety of different skills.
Simplicity To Complexity: Fixed Rules And Flexible Strategies:
Complex Systems Arise From Simple Systems.
This chart aims to clarify a route from extreme simplicity to unlimited possibility. For instance, in a game of chess, with very few pieces together with a knowledge of how they can behave - and within the boundaries of the game plan - the game can be played out in an infinite number of ways. There are many other ‘games’: painting, music, a game of tennis, baking a cake. Nature is the supreme player of the game, its effects to be found everywhere in the infinite variety of forms which inhabit life on earth.
In simple terms, the route from intention to result needs to go through a catalyst - the chosen instruments and their functions and rules.
Perhaps this analogy can be expanded into a story chosen from the New Testament in the account of the feeding of the five thousand. In this story, factual or metaphor, many of Christ’s followers are gathered together in the evening with nothing to eat. Christ takes what is available - five loaves of bread and two fishes. He blesses them and gives them to his disciples to distribute. ‘And they did all eat,and were filled’.
What is this story about? There are many interpretations: one of them could be about the fecundity of love, another about the importance of sharing what we have. But referring to the chart above, where it is clear that the outcome in each case is vehicle-specific, perhaps it is significant that Christ chooses to convey his message through food: the ordinary everyday fare of loaves and fishes.
Here a poem springs to my mind by Walter de la Mare ‘It’s a very odd thing - As odd as can be - That whatever Miss T. eats Turns into Miss T’. Though this reads like a nursery rhyme, actually it’s rather profound and takes us deeper. In eating food we need to take, eat, and inwardly digest, and what we consume turns into us. Likewise what we read, look at, and listen to inevitably shapes who we become. So in this context Christ’s message might be the desire that we should all be filled with the word of God.
There is one further thought which is about Number symbolism. We read that there were 2 fishes and 5 loaves ( these numbers are recorded in most accounts of the story in the gospels). It is interesting that 2 and 5 are the most chosen numbers of nature’s growth patterns: for instance in leaf forms, leaflets are often pinnate or alternate; and 5 relates to the Golden Proportion which often governs generative form.
Both the parable and the number symbolism give an account of simplicity generating infinite multiplicity.