ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS worlds & words
portfolio by Georgia Skartadou
PERSONAL NOTE The editors of Encyclopædia Britannica define an illuminated manuscript1, as a handwritten book that has been decorated with gold or silver, brilliant colors, or elaborate designs and miniature pictures. Manuscript points to the handwritten text whereas illumination derives from the impression of a literal enlightment of the text due to shiny reflections of the colors, as well as an overshadowing environment accompanying the content’s utilization. According to this definition the text and the illuminations/illustrations work in two different parallel layers, where the image comes after the word and tries to support and supplement it. We inhabit a time-spacial era governed by the constant migration of meaning -last year’s Oxford Dictionary’s Word of the Year was the ‘Face with Tears of Joy’2 emoji whereas this year it was replaced by the ‘post-truth’ term3. The paranoia of the imaginary was documented well enough in March 2016, when AlphaGo a computer based program, became the first program to receive an honorary 9-dan by the Korean Baduk Association for beating Lee Sedol, a world-renowned Go champion. On the other hand the so claimed universal reality of pragmatic events cracks each time a scientist subscribes to the multiverse or -recently- to a simulated universe theory. Boundaries blur between word as statement or reason and image as mental picture or idea. In order to narrate this sequence of events and to glimpse the concurrent reality’s spectrum flow this sum of works tries to exploit the aforementioned definition of an illuminated manuscript. However in the following pages images do not perform as decorations of a text, neither does text float around notions of reason and truth. Each and every project, as well as each and every element of the project works as a fragmented face of a once unified and multifaceted prism, that has unripped and unfolded in order to fit ever more reality, ever more meaning. One can think of the projects as snapshots of a universal text that lies outside of them, in the field of an external, augmented, and yet absurd hyperreality. These snapshots can only hope to open windows to the worlds described by this text or in any other case provide a story worthwhile of narration. Georgia Skartadou 1 2 3
https://www.britannica.com/topic/illuminated-manuscript http://blog.oxforddictionaries.com/2015/11/word-of-the-year-2015-emoji/ https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/word-of-the-year/word-of-the-year-2016
ABIOGENESIS 0.1: self-reproducing mirorobotic environments Keywords: Computational Design, Artificial Life, Micro-robotics, Simulated Environments, Electronic Waste “...Bodies, again, are partly primal germs of things, and partly Unions deriving from the primal germs. And those which are the primal germs of things No power can quench; for in the end they conquer by their own solidness;...� Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, BOOK I, line 483
ABIOGENESIS 0.1 is an investigative process challenging the limits and potentials of design. The main purpose of the project, is the invention of a new paradigm of design, where the whole practice shifts from the preconceived object to the processes that materialize it. In an attempt to describe design as an activity that lies in the blurred area between scientific research and aesthetic expression ABIOGENESIS uses tools, methods and narratives that allow the navigation between science-technology and art-creation. The whole project is a narrative divided in chapters, revealing the immaterial forces connecting the designing subject with the designed object and oscillating between the spheres of the utterable and the ineffable. The project embeds various digital simulations and results in one finale executable simulation that presents the aforementioned scoped in a virtual environment.
Chapter I- The Setup 1.1-1.2 The Subject and the Object Looking for a hybrid space capable of expressing both the subject (as the one who creates) and the object (as the one being created). 2.1.1-2.1.16 The Artificial and the Natural Looking for a hybrid space that lies between the artificial, as a structure that condenses organization, intention & predictability (e.g. a dwelling-2.1.1:2.1.4) and the natural, as a structure that condenses self-organization, randomness and emergence (e.g. a bird swarm-2.1.13:2.1.16). 2.2.1-2.2.16 The Artificial and the Natural II Analyzing each individual assembly (natural, artificial or in the in-between) according to six named variables: subjectivity, objectivity, organization, emergence, determinism, randomness. The radius of circles varies according to an estimated percentage of concentration in each value. 3. The Macro and the Micro Looking for a space that can be equally transformed to fit in the wide range of scales from the nanoscale of a molecule to the macroscale of the universe.
the artificial and the natural
the artificial and the natural
Chapter II- The Rules 4.1-4.4 The Points Finding an intuitive answer to the research questions established in Chapter I-The Setup, in the form of non-dimensional points, capable to participate equally between the object and the subject, the physically occurring and the artificially built. 5.1-5.4 The Random Walk Establishing possible rules that can create desired geometries, from an element that is ab ovo non-geometrical and non-dimensional. Synthesis shifts from the preconceived object to the processes that realize the object. The first attempt includes points moving randomly in a given space, thus writing traces. 6.1-6.6 The Rules Evolving the methods of design from simple to steadily more complex rules. The invented library expands in order to cover principals governing the definition of organisms and life: movement, energy exchanging processes (metabolism) and reproduction. 7. Foxes and Rabbits Implementing the previous assumptions on an integrated simulation, widely known as a Foxes and Rabbits simulation. The points get separated into two populations: predator and prey. The both move and reproduce, while the first feeds on the latter. In the same time they produce point-cloud manifolds, ruled by internal and non-predictable processes.
Chapter III- The Narrative 8.1-8.2 The Text Depicting the aforementioned space’s quintessence through language and diagrammatical analysis of the produced word, emphasizing once more on subjects, objects and connecting actions and occurrences. 9.1-9.2 The Universal Constructor Finding a theoretical description of a self-reproducing mechanism in Von-Neumann’s Theory of Universal Constructor. The self-replicating machine is a type of autonomous robot that is capable of reproducing itself independently using raw materials found in a surrounding environment. 10 The Narrative Incarnating the previous statements in one narrative, so as for the design to gain space, time and materiality. Seas of raw material are found in areas describes as electric and electronic products’ disposal landfills. E-Waste is an inorganic source of material that is incapable of being absorbed in physical ways from natural environment or any other biological organism, including human.
Chapter IV- The Site 11.1.1-11.1.2 The Network Exploring movements of e-waste products on global scale, thus revealing the network of exchanges, condensations and rarefactions of the primal matter. The diagram is a visualization of a list of global transactions as provided from the UN COMTRADE database. 11.2.1-11.2.4 The Countries Locating e-waste mainly in developing countries. This phenomenon is accredited to inadequate means and institutions of handling the massive e-waste quantities produces mainly in the developed world. 11.4.1-11.4.5 The Place Illustrating the impression and aesthetic footprint, that outcomes from a visual encounter with e-waste landfills. 11.5.1.1-11.5.4.5 The Aggregation Diagrammatically analyzing the forces and methods shaping those environments. The model used is aggregation of material (diffusion-limited aggregation algorithm). Aggregation works like attracting forces: one point-quantity of material pulls other points-quantities of material to itself, thus shaping piles.
Chapter V- The Material 12.1 The Devices Depicting the material assemblies-devices inhabiting a typical e-waste landfill. 12.2.1-12.2.5 The Directive Citing the EU Directive as well as the main definitions of terms such as EEE, WEEE, Reuse and Recycling. 12.4 The Chemical Elements Researching the concentration and recoverability of the available matter. The material consists mainly of electric and electronic products. A huge quantity of this material can be processed and reconstituted. In ABIOGENESIS it is processed through the body of a microrobotic society. 12.5 The Lifogram Creating a visual representation of what is officially described as an object’s life cycle, from the moment of its construction to the moment of it being named as waste material. After completion of a cycle the object can be reused per se or as material for other assemblies. In the context of this project it is assumed that even if it is left as it is, it can still obtain autonomous function such as piles of landfills covering massive areas or e-waste locked in forgotten drawers.
Chapter VI- The Process 13.1-13.2 The Automaton-The System Transforming non-dimensional points into robotic automata. The robots appear in groups that have discrete but non-hierarchical differentiations. They function as a broad network/cloud robotics system meaning that they share a common brain -information storage/processing unitbut they also perform different tasks in order to secure survival. 14.1 The Process Organizing the recycling process as a procedure performed by a collective body. The various types of robots perform different tasks (e.g. collecting information about the material, sorting the material, dividing it into reusable and non-reusable, creating new robots or other structures from the material). While humans tend to perform these tasks through equipment, robots perform each task through their mechanical bodies. 14.2 The Simulation Summing up the whole concept into a simulation. The population of robots keeps increasing while “feeding” itself from raw e-waste material. The scenario secures that when “food” comes to a critical point-meaning that the landfill is simultaneously cleaned- the population migrates in another area following the network described in 11.1.1-11.1.2. Different results occur in every cycle of the simulation. 14.3 The Genetic Algorithm Building the simulation algorithm based on Genetic Algorithms’ principals. Each generation condenses characteristics that play critical role on its survival. In every cycle the genetic algorithm selects pairs, recombines their encoded DNA, while in the same time computing an average quantity for those characteristics. Finally it mutates the DNA, randomizing its characteristics in order to secure polymorphism and a practice that resembles evolution/natural selection.
Chapter VII- The Structure 15.1.1-15.1.4 The Swarm Traces Recording the traces of the automata. Traces have one common starting point and then follow swarming rules. The automata wander around in search of “food”, information or simply out of wandering desire. During these motions they write traces. 15.2.1-15.2.4 The Concentration Points Finding out the points where movement becomes dense. After having a collection of points, a network of movements is created following rules of optimization. Starting from the lowest points a Dijkstra algorithm computes the shortest path between points, creating a network of movements resembling physical, optimized structures. 15.3.1-15.3.4 The Negative Spaces Following the previous network of movements and the principles established at 11.5.11-11.5.5.5 The Aggregation, the initial negative spaces of movements and functional units get shaped. 15.4.1-15.4.4 The Positive Spaces Following once again aggregation rules, material steadily scales up to form the final “nest”. The structure is realized at the same time of its computation, it occurs while being conceived. 15.5 The Nest Concluding in an object that occurs from a narrative made up of individual rules. Every time the process repeats itself, it results to a different object. The subject-creator moves one step behind, while allowing the object-creation to emerge.
TRACTATUS RERUM MULTIPLICIUM a story about the making of things Keywords: Theoretical Discourse, Information Theory, Philosophy, Science, Creation, Data Representation “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.� Hamlet (1.5.167-8), Hamlet to Horatio
TRACTATUS RERUM MULTIPLICUM is a conceptual project that researches a potential theory generating/archiving formation of the process of creation. It questions how theoretical discourse has been produced until today, what does it mean to produce new theories of creation nowadays and finally if it is possible to produce a construct of theoretical discourse open and flexible enough, in order to include future schemes. The formation is based upon a short enumeration of the aspects of a creating subject and a created object. The different aspects are connected with each other in non-hierarchical structures, as a network where each node can be connected with other nodes. One can insert or extract nodes-aspects in future moments if needed. When zoomed in nodes reveal their elementary ingredient: information. Theories, ideas, and actions of creation work as traces/paths between those nodes and their information. The final assumption of the project is that this formation is a three dimensional one, where our reality with all the things realized in it is the trace of events and connections that survived. A small altering on the content of nodes or the course between them can lead to different results. Therefore the formation of the process of creation is similar to a topological field theory working as collection of subsets that satisfy certain properties, and turn the given set into what is known as a topological space.
[abstract from the originally produced text about the multifaceted reality of the subject, commenting the node BEHAVIOUR] 9. The subject is its behaviors. It is a sum of actions or non-actions through which the subject introduces itself 9.1 Every action of the subject creates a reality. 9.2 Sometimes the actions of a subject are governed by cause and effect forces. 9.2.1 If I press the switch, my lightbulb glows. The action of “illuminating” has the pressing of a switch as a cause, and the lighting of the bulb as an effect. 9.3 An effect can transform into a cause, and vice versa. 9.3.2 The pressing of the switch is the effect when the cause is my decreased visual ability or my weakness of seeing in the dark. 9.4 There are actions stubbornly declining to obey to the forces of cause and effect. 9.4.1 These are actions which have an unknown starting point. 9.4.2 This, under no circumstances, stops them from being acted and simultaneously act. 9.5 When my head moves, it could move because it’s an action of mine, or a result of a different action, e.g. a moving car or a constantly orbiting planet. 9.5.1 Even when it’s my action, it can be an action with intent or not. 9.5.2 At the same time, the moving of my head can be a statement of approval or denial. 9.6 Actions have their own stories. It’s how we move from A to B. It’s how or if the things we do, describe distinct relationships of causality or not. It’s all the sub-actions, which emerge as derivatives of the starting action. 9.7 So long as the stories of the actions change, the actions change too. So does the acting subject
[abstract from the originally produced text on the multifaceted reality of the object, commenting the node REPRESENTATION] 8. The object is its representation. It is the means by which it is documented and recreated. 8.1 Representation works by subtracting information from the real substance of the object. 8.1.1 It’s justified to imply information which is filled out by the subject, for so long as there is an inherent cohesion in the representation system of information. 8.2 Representations works as metaphors: They manages to talk about A, through B. 8.2.1 The transition works through analogies and integrated communicational codes. 8.2.2 As a result, representation is the word about the object, its mental recreation, its image, its design, the documentation of its existence in time and space, its diagram, its models and of course the representation which embodies the biggest form of precision, the object itself. 8.3 All the versions above are states of existence, added facets on an integrated prism of one and only object. 8.4 The versions above are objects too. They are different ways through which objects introduce themselves to us. 8.4.1 The verbal description or name of the thing isn’t any less of an object. At the same time it never is the object. It’s a mere fraction of the object. 8.5 Every representation is a description of what actually exists. Since every description is a piece of the being, every being is being added to the sum of its descriptions. 8.6 So even the same object without its total amount of possible – existing or not – illustrations, is itself an illustration, a version of its reality. 8.6.1 While I write I look at my watch. It’s a representation too, as a matter of fact one of the most absurd, created to hunt me and be hunted by myself for all my life.
NOÖTOPIA external contributor in a diploma project by Alexandra Niaka Keywords: Virtual Environments, Noösphere, Cognition, Perception, Neurosciences, Information Representation “These “primordial images” or “archetypes,” as I have called them, belong to the basic stock of the unconscious psyche and cannot be explained as personal acquisitions. Together they make up that psychic stratum which has been called the collective unconscious.” Carl Jung, “The Significance of Constitution and Heredity in Psychology” (1929)
NOÖTOPIA forms a mental landscape of global cognition and intellect. It depicts electric signals produced by the human brain and information transmission produced by specific stimuli. It begins with The Experiment, where responses to three basic senses (sight, hearing, touch) are recorded through electric signals with the help of an EEG mechanism. The creator chose to isolate a specific parameter -the attention parameter- from the sum of the recordings, as a fundamental cognitive function. The author participated in the algorithmic modelling of the virtual environment «Noötopia-The Noösphere»: the recordings have been organized and sorted in an inner sphere morpheme following a time-axis. A second outer sphere is divided in various different areas, each responsible for specific brain functions, thus resembling to the original brain structure. Threads connecting the recorded data with the brain areas shape a landscape of information and the ways it is being transmitted. NOÖTOPIA is an open, constantly created environment. It can grow through time by new recollected data of upcoming experiments.
The Experiment
Visual Area
Sight Image Recognition Image Perception
Audiotory Area
Association Area Short-term Memory Equilibrium Emotion
Sensory Association Area
Eye Movement and Orientation
Initiation of Voluntary Muscles
Somatosensory Association Area
Evaluation of weight, texture, temperature for Obejct Recognition
Hearing
Motor Function Area
Motor Function Area
Higher Mental Functions Concentration/Creativity Planning Judgment/Inhibition
Motor Functions
Coordination of Movement Balance Posture
BATTLE OF FIELDS Keywords: Computational Design, Natural Environment, Pattern Formations, Two-and-a-Half Dimensionality “Ah, how the simplest of men Are sick and confused and stupid Next to the clear simplicity And health in existing Of trees and plants!” Pessoa, Fernando, and Michael Lee. Rattigan. Alberto Caeiro: The Complete Poems London: Rufus, 2007. Print.
BATTLE OF FIELDS is a research project that investigates the dialogue between the potentialities of digital tools in architectural design and the qualities inherently included in the physical landscape. The project began from the mental mapping of the undercurrent structures lying in a screenshot of a strategy game. The visual impression of the image leads to diagrams that focus on patterns’ formations. A further conceptual processing of the produced formations leads to notions such as confliction, hierarchies and narratives focused on time. Using those established design tools the project leads to the creation of a landscape, where the fields of digital design and natural environment are combined to a hybrid paradigm of space. The designed object does not result in a fully developed three-dimensionality. It shapes as a relief where pattern units produce qualities of textures, microstructures and a potential spaciality.
EPILOGUE “ Of course, utilization of matter cannot offer any sort of support to an idea of mimesis. In a great novel, say In Search of Lost Time or Sentimental Education, does art imitate life? It’s the material that is drawn from life, as one takes some colored paints to make a picture. There is no imitation in that. There is creation of a form, of a story. It’s an entire world that is created, to such a point that it’s a delight, in Balzac or in Proust, to follow the characters, their encounters, to imagine other ones. . . . Great literature, just like great painting, makes one see something that was there and that no one was seeing. And at the same time, it sometimes makes what was never there exist and this exists, precisely, only as a function of the work of art. That is true for painting and music, but also for dance, for great architecture (the Parthenon, Chartres, or Reims, Cologne). Take a novel like Kafka’s The Castle. No one lived in a world like that one, and we have all lived in this world once we have read The Castle; that’s what creation is.” Castoriadis, Cornelius, (compiled by Enrique Escobar, Myrto Gondicas, and Pascal Vernay), Fenêtre sur le chaos [Window to Chaos] , Seuil, 2007
December 2017