studentsZINE Vol.2 Issue 1 by ARTStap Magazine

BEING HONEYED:AN EXHIBITION OF SOUND(IN)ART STRANGE ATTRACTOR ROBIN PARMAR JESSE JONES SALOME VOEGELIN [A SPEECH FOR NOISE] JOHN RYAN CARDBOARD CITY IN POZNAN LYDIA HOLMES DEBORAH ZLOTSKY SOMA WATERFORD TACTIC CORK PLACE GOREY THE CIRCULAR THEORY: MAN, GOD & ART KAROLIN KENT PETER SHEAR KAREN DONNELLAN MARCO CASAGRANDE FROMTHESTUDIOOF... AMANDA COOGAN

Vol.2 Issue 1

students ZINE Contemporary Visual & Sonic Art Publication

MISSION studentsZINE was founded to readdress the current lack of representation focusing primarily on the development of emerging and under represented artists within their creative and research practices and is dedicated to create a platform for discussion and collaboration for the emerging artist. It prides itself as a space for the artists / makers voice and through this it aims to be at the forefront of art criticism and theory, to engage and represent the work of committed emerging practitioners within the field of 'Art', to promote their work and related interests to a wider appreciating audience and to create a discursive network between national and international colleges and universities.

SUBMISSION studentsZINE are accepting submissions on an ongoing basis please visit http://www.studentszine.com/submissions for full submission guidelines. Also create your account at the network to be in with the opportunity of being the next recipient of the Online MAKERS Award or Thesis TITLE Award.

SUBSCRIBE To subscribe to studentsZINE please create your FREE account at www.studentszine.com

CONTRIBUTORS Invited Artists

Jesse Jones John Ryan Salome Voegelin

Open Submission Award Lydia Holmes Debarah Zlotsky

Online MAKERS Award Karolin Kent Peter Shear Karen Donnellan Marco Casagrande

TITLE Award

The Circular Theory: Man, God and Art by Rachael Corcoran

Reviews

BEING HONEYED: An Exhibition of Sound(in)Art Strange Attractor: Catalogue & CD Launch Cardboard Cities in Poznan - International Artists in Residence Program

Project Space

fromthestudioof... with Amanda Coogan

LIST OF INTERESTED DISTRIBUTORS FOR FUTURE (PRINTED) ISSUES Ireland, Scotland, UK, Czech Republic, Netherlands, Spain, Canada, USA NIVAL, NationalIrish Visual Arts Library, (NCAD, Dublin, Ireland) Museu dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Art Contemporani de Barcelona, (Barcelona, Spain) RUA RED, (Tallaght, Dublin, Ireland) The Burren College of Art, (co. Clare, Ireland) Basement project space, (cork, Ireland) Arttrail YMCA, (cork, Ireland) GSA, Gorey School of Art, (co. Wexford, Ireland) Tinahely Courthouse Arts Centre (co. Wicklow, Ireland) The Little Ghost Gallery (co. Kilkenny, Ireland) SOMA Contemporary Art Box, (co. Waterford,Ireland) Basement Project Space, (co Cork, Ireland) NenaghArtsCentre, (co. Tipperary, Ireland) Number OneGallery,(co.Dublin, Ireland) Mothers Tankstation, (co. Dublin, Ireland) Exchange Gallery, (co. Dublin, Ireland) EnnistymonCourthouse Gallery & Studios, (co. Clare, Ireland) Tallaght Community Arts, (co. Dublin, Ireland) Pitzer Art Galleries, (Claremont, CA, USA) Academy of Fine Arts, (Prague, Czeck Republic) CollectiveGallery, (Edinburgh, Scotland) Soundfjord Gallery & ResearchUnit, (London, UK) Trailer project space,(Rotterdam.Netherlands) Arteria Art Gallery,(Montreal,Canada) 221 A, (Vancouver, Canada) Draiocht, (Blanchardstown, Ireland) CIT, Crawford School of Art, (Cork, Ireland) Catalyst Arts, (Belfast, Northern Ireland) Filmbase, (Temple Bar, Ireland) Cake Contemporary Arts, (co. Kildare, Ireland) ICPA, Colgate University, (NY, USA) 1 26 (Galway, Ireland) West Cork Arts Centre (cork, Ireland) Galway Arts Center, (Galway, Ireland) Darc Space, (Dublin, Ireland)

Note From The Editor I would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all of you whether Irish or International Artist, Curator, Collaborative or Art Space for your fantastic support over the past year. Whats that? Yes 1 year. It has been 1 year since the release of studentsZINE Issue 1 , and yes it has been a fantastic one. Since being established studentsZINE has published Vol.1 which has received over 40,000 reads/downloads internationally and has featured work from leading Irish and International Artists. We have also developed a leading online network and resource for artists which has now developed into the thousands, it's FREE to join so you're more than welcome. More recently studentsZINE curated its first show BEING HONEYED: An Exhibition of Sound(in)Art, which took place at SOMA, Waterford and featured the work of leading Irish and International sonic art practitioners. BEING HONEYED was selected by Sound & Music London e-sampler as one of the most exciting events to open and ARENA RTE Radio 1 's Art & Culture show came down to visit us to do a radio interview. So, we are now into 201 2 and we are continuing to grow from strenght to strenght, and we hope this issue Vol.2 Issue 1 reflects this. studentsZINE has become an important space for artists and their voice about their own work (the harshest of critics), which we feel is neccessary and extremely important, especially in this age where we have a heightened awarenss of art criticism. Over the next year and beyond studentsZINE aims to expand on this and keep its space for the voice of the artist, the makers themselves.

Editor: Richard Carr

'Artists are always Students'

BEING HONEYED: An Exhibition of Sound(in)Art, curated by studentsZINE SOMA Contemporary, Waterford

BEING HONEYED was a group exhibition of Sound(in)Art that took place at SOMA Waterford earlier this year. It consisted of a diverse range of work from international Sound practitioners Yann Novak(USA) / Lars Lundehave Hansen(Denmark) / Salome Voegelin(Swiss/UK) / Richard Carr(Ireland) and a project curated by Wolfgang Peter Menzel in collaborartion with Netlabel Modisti which consisted of fifteen sound practitioners who responded in their own way to the work of Samuel Beckett. BEING HONEYED was an exhibition that invited a fresh approach and deep enquiriy into the practice of ‘making stuff’ with sound, what this might meen and what role a listening sensibility might have not only today and for the future but also in relation to the history of art that for so long has been held within the stranglehold of a musical and visual art discourse. Patrick Farmer selected this show for Sound & Music London e-sampler as one of the most exciting shows to open and for me it definitely lived up to this claim. SOMA as a space was originally one large room that had been visually divided into four ‘separate’ exhibition spaces separated by hollow custructed walls floor to ceiling leaving an open walk way for people to wander from one space to the next.

This worked extremely well creating a dynamic mix of sound / noise spillage from the individual artists work as you manouvered through the various spaces, almost creating an entirely new work separate from the original intentions of each artist within their own practice. Upon entering SOMA you first walk into an almost unexpectedly quiet space consisting of Carr’s seven modest wall mounted structures, four on one wall and three on another, each quietly inviting the audience to engage on a one to one basis with each individual form. Upon closer inspection and given time they reveal themselves as quite exposed and fragile sonic forms almost contained within these fixed spaces on the wall. Moving closer to the second and much larger space you become aware of Salome Voegelin’s work Barry Echo which was played through a stereo system placed underneath a wooden table top that contained four of Voegelins papers enquiring into different aspects of sonic art and a listening sensibility within a contemporary art context. What was really interesting here was the over lay, mix-ups and slipages of words and sentences that took place within your head as you tried to read through these critical texts while listening to the sounds of spoken word or dialogue that was playing from the stereo underneath the table.

All this time you are also aware of the strange, uncoordinated deep drones and noises eminating from behind you from Lars Lundehave Hansens piece ‘Spiderbytes’, while also being aware of a much more sustained sound coming from Yann Novak’s ‘Relocation.Vacant’ in the black room to the left. Walking past this space into Lars Lundehaven’s Hansens piece you stumble upon a quite large table-top plinth with two speakers each mounted on top of four pencils that are being pushed around by the physicality of the deep drones and noises in a most unorganic way leaving a direct visualisation or drawing behind on the page. As you’re watching and listening to this or walking back into the space you came from suddenly a high pitch squeal resonates almost around the entire exhibition space that you also feel resonating physically in your ears, and in which you finally realise is coming from Carr’s work in the almost quiet front room. Upon entering the the dark room to Novaks work you encounter a bench that you can sit on that faces three cubic shapes on the floor on the far side of the room, being the cd player, amp and subwoover. Almost immediatley you feel in a strange and contained space almost away from the noises, drones and squeals of the other works.

At first you feel you are listening to a sustained and almost easy to listen to sound filling the space, but over time the subtely of the layers and spaces come to a state of hovering between emergence and erasure, creating a listening experience full of texture and subtle melody. To really get a feel or experience of this exhibition listen to BEING HONEYED on ARENA Rte’s Arts and Culture show. http://www.rte.ie/radio/radioplayer/rteradioweb.html#!rii=9%3A 31 78081 %3A1 526%3A24-01 -201 2%3A

STRANGE ATTRACTOR - CATALOGUE AND CD LAUNCH By: Robin Parmar

Strange Attractor was a durational project initiated by Anthony Kelly, David Stalling, Danny McCarthy, Irene Murphy and Mick O'Shea in November 201 0. It ran as a residency at the Crawford Gallery, curated by Dawn Williams. The exhibition was comprised, in a refreshingly unorthodox fashion, of two galleries of visual art (some of these being the traces of past performances) and a series of sonic events. Throughout the first four months of 2011 various artists -- international and local, famous and not -were invited to improvise with the core group. Over this period certain structures unfolded, or perhaps even dissipated. I was honoured to be one of those artists, and so on Wednesday 20 April played for an hour in the beautiful upstairs gallery at Crawford, a place of natural wood and light, non-parallel lines and random seating. Now, the project has been catalogued in a lovely tactile book, full of photographs by Patricia Klich. There are essays by some of the participants (David Toop, Steve Roden, Steven Vitiello, etc.) but no analysis from the core performers. In fact, O'Shea has described their communal sonic acts as "conversation without words". From this I judge their silence on the linguistic front to be a deliberate strategy in order to keep open various non-linguistic opportunities. Certainly there was no discussion before I joined them for

an improvised session. And none after, for that matter. The catalogue also includes a rather extensive DVD. It's rather easy to get lost in all the material here, and the "best" tracks are not the most obvious, so let me provide a guide. First, there are stereo audio recordings of some of the performances, including the original "system" and the guest sessions with David Toop, Stephen Vitiello, Rhodri Davies, Alessandro Bosetti, Steve Roden and Jed Spear. These range from nine to twenty minutes in length, and so provide an extensive body of work. "Bonus" pieces include "Spectrosonic Drawing" (1 3:58) by Mick O'Shea and "Hive 1 -3" (9:1 9) by Anthony Kelly and David Stalling. Secondly, there is the video portion of the DVD. Maciek Klich's "Strange Attractor Documentary" (30:39) consists of interviews with the core group plus Dawn Williams, Lee Patterson and Alessandro Bosetti, inter-cut with performance footage. There is a raw video of the David Toop and Mary Nunan set (1 6:1 8) and a similarly rough look at Stalling and Kelly's television installation "Further Into A Place" (2:54). "Remote Camera" (5:24) documents Irene Murphy's performative sculptures from a viewpoint that is sometimes her own and sometimes not. Best of the lot is Laura Vitale's "Performance with Lee Patterson" (1 0:11 ).

Carefully edited so as not to disrupt the listening experience, this video focuses on some of the soundmaking events that take place in a "typical" Strange Attractor. The excellent sound quality (the best of the bunch) makes it easier to link visual cause with acoustic effect. The lack of words or any framing device is not a limitation. Thirdly, the CD contains a great number of photographs by Patricia Klich, edited together into video montages for each particular performance. Given that these are silent I am not sure who might sit through almost an hour of stills. It's certainly not worth it to find my dour visage at the beginning of the "Lunchtime Attractors" set. Even when I'm having fun, the level of concentration sets my face most grimly! "Pinhole Photography" (2:48) by Harry Moore, a look at O'Shea's poster designs (1 :1 8) and a close examination of Mark Hall-Patch's excellent "A Chronology of Cork Sonology" poster (2:52) complete the DVD. Though I am sure I have forgotten something other than Danny McCarthy's "Found Sound (Lost At Sea)" which, near as I can tell, is exactly seven minutes of silence. With over two hours of music, plus all the other features, it's hard to imagine better value for money.

Excepting, of course, for the host of free concerts that spawned this volume in the first place. If you missed them, do keep an ear out for what this gang does next. One thing is certain: they are unlikely to be standing still.

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J E S S E J O N E S

Dublin based artist Jesse Jones seeks out the false starts and forgotten dreams of the early avantgarde. Jones’s work takes many forms from gallery based film and installation to large scale public events, she has collaborated with diverse groups from Opera singers and marching bands to activists, in a practice which aims to excavate the hidden meaning within our popular collective consciousness. Cinematic spectatorial space becomes a site of political contestation projects such as Against the Realm of the Absolute 2011 , A Feminist Science fiction film exploring possible future societies without men. The Struggle Against Ourselves 2011 , Set between the theatre of Meyerhold’s avant garde and Busby Berkley’s high Hollywood romps from the 30’s to play out the relationships between communistic and capitalistic forms of spectacle in cinema. In Spectre and the Sphere 2008, the lost history of the Theremin and it’s relationship to Lenin is eerily explored, Using as Jones often does, music as an experiential conjugate between meaning and form. In Mahogany 2009, Adapted from Brecht’s opera from 1 929, Jones stages Brecht’s text as a whispered choral work in the central Australian desert. Pointing to gestures of protest and dissent. Mahogany, with its reference to the previous boom and bust narratives of capitalism warns that this Sisyphean return is always present. Other previous projects have included a purpose built Drive in Cinema 1 2 Angry Films, staged as part of a collaborative public art process. The projects re-imagined an alternative history of this iconic 1 950’s cultural form, one in which the repressed and banned films of the era would be the main attraction. The pleasures of mass entertainment and the thwarted potential of collective action are embodied in a practice that imagines alternative histories and their urgent political implications for the present. Upcoming Solo exhibitions include Artsonje Centre Seoul 201 3 and Spike Island Bristol

SPECTRE AND SPHERE 2008 1 6mm, film still

1 2 ANGRY FILMS 2006 installation still

MAHOGANY 2009 1 6mm film, production still

AGAINST THE REALM OF THE ABSOLUTE 2011 1 6mm film still

THE STRUGGLE AGAINST OURSELVES, 2011 , 1 6mm film still

A Speech for Noise

published in â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Earshot, Journal of the UK and Ireland Soundscape Communityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; no 5, August 2007

Salome Voegelin This is a speech about listening to that of sound which forever remains an experiential moment of oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s singular perception, incomplete, in the sense that it cannot meet a shared language to say what it means. It is concerned with the problem of how to listen to a piece of sound work that does not, or not only, produce meaningful sounds in relation to a musical composition, the chronology of the film soundtrack, or an identifiable visual object or event. In discussion of this problem I will advocate a sonic listening without floundering in a sea of doubt and uncertainty about what is heard, even if the heard does not invite a straightforward interpretation and meaning. The sound so perceived I will call noise: ephemeral, out of sight; an autonomous audio racket. The broader concern motivating this speech is the articulation of an auditory aesthetic. The suggestion is that the nature of sound refutes not only the application of a modernist aesthetic, which judges the artwork in relation to its substantial and categorisable appearance, but that it challenges current postmodern theories of a fragmented and performative aesthetic even. I pursue the idea that the immersive and insistent nature of sound demands a different aesthetic discourse if we are to hear it rather than understand it. The aim of this speech is the articulation of an aesthetics of sound (art) in

terms of the noise it makes rather than the meaning it produces. Fully aware that there are many different definitions of noise, I identify noise in relation but not in opposition to a visual sensibility, which comes to its aesthetic judgement through distance and objectivity, points of reference and a notion of meaning. The identification of the sonic within such a visual vocabulary limits what can be heard to what can be understood within the parameters of a visual sensibility. Sound work needs a different vocabulary if we are to practice a sonic listening. To this end, I want to remove expectations of meaning and value, the possibility of distance and objectivity, by insisting on sound as noise. My principal desire to develop an auditory aesthetic presents not a wish to distil, categorize and frieze what is being practiced with sound. Rather, the aim is to produce a vocabulary that witnesses, documents, narrates and takes measure of what is going on in this field and thus aids to critically develop what is being practiced and how it is being heard. This critical vocabulary can itself never be fixed but must constantly evolve with what there is to be played and heard. The articulation lies in the process of listening rather than in what is said about sound. Any articulation proposed is thus only a passing theory. An auditory aesthetic must remain a strategy to listen rather than an instruction to hear. The need for such an auditory aesthetic is based on two main points: One is the issue that sound art still finds its vocabulary often only in relation to a visual practice and its processes of production and perception. The invisible sound object is described and grasped in visual comparisons: in relation to a

visual source or space; or in terms of a visual ‘equivalent’. This dependency affirms and in a sense condones the sublimation of sound to the visual and limits any truly sonic perception to visual boundaries. That of the sonic experience, which finds no acknowledgment in such a visual vocabulary, eludes its discussion, or under the name of noise, becomes its dialectical opposite. In relation to such theories noise simply manifests the failure to communicate, it becomes the negative of what is beautiful, permissive and harmonic. However, noise’s aesthetic function lies outside such systemic conventions and compositional interpretations, in the contingent perception of the listener, who performs what I shall call an innovative listening. The second is the problem, and the two are intrinsically linked, that most people are extremely visually literate: we know how to read an image, to make sense of it, to understands its points of reference and contexts. In other words we know how to look at and view artwork. However, we are often literally in the dark as to how to listen to it. Not knowing how to understand, reference and listen to a sonic artwork frustrates any attempts by even the most generous of audiences to engage. Consequently all a potential listener does is either walk away or look for visual clues: the sound work remains unheard, the sonic artwork unrealised. Noise-Sounds, sounds which exist outside the conventional musical framework, the ‘meaningful’ sounds of the diegetic soundtrack, or the audio-visual relationship, need their own words in order to stimulate an engaged listening for it to be heard as sonic material rather than be understood as a conceptual counterpoint.

The second is the problem, and the two are intrinsically linked, that most people are extremely visually literate: we know how to read an image, to make sense of it, to understands its points of reference and contexts. In other words we know how to look at and view artwork. However, we are often literally in the dark as to how to listen to it. Not knowing how to understand, reference and listen to a sonic artwork frustrates any attempts by even the most generous of audiences to engage. Consequently all a potential listener does is either walk away or look for visual clues: the sound work remains unheard, the sonic artwork unrealised. Noise-Sounds, sounds which exist outside the conventional musical framework, the ‘meaningful’ sounds of the diegetic soundtrack, or the audio-visual relationship, need their own words in order to stimulate an engaged listening for it to be heard as sonic material rather than be understood as a conceptual counterpoint. Noise forces the sonic discourse ‘outward’. It foregrounds the contingent subjectivity of its perception; the sonic material as it sounds in the ears of the listener. This stands in opposition to the ‘inward’ understanding of a systemic musical, filmic, or source-orientated listening that produces a quasi visual interpretation. The latter finds a meaning in relation to something, the first produces, what Maurice Merleau-Ponty terms ‘non-sense’, individual phenomenological sense established in intersubjective sensation rather than in a rational encounter with the material. (1 ) Noise is not radical, however, it simply amplifies the demand of any sound to be considered in its immersive contingency rather than in relation to a preconceived reference system. Noise is not a special case, it is simply more

insistent on its sonic particularity. Through this particularity it provokes a more general shift in thinking about sound; prompting the idea of a sonic sensibility, leading to an auditory philosophy and the notion of aural knowledge. - And that is why I propose to suspend our believes and think of all sounds as noise. The starting point for such a shift in thinking lies in the development of aesthetic theory from modernism to postmodernism, whereby the relationship between modernism and postmodernism is understood as one of continuation rather than of discontinuation and rupture. I feel it is necessary to briefly outline my understanding of the status, consequences and relationship of these two aesthetic discourses in order to argue why noise challenges both methods of judgment and valuation and to illustrate how it demands a re-thinking of aesthetic discourse per se. The modernist aesthetic focuses on the production of form, the substantial, the essential, the categorisable artwork. In search of objectivism the modernist art critic sets down clear rules as to what is good art in respect to clearly typified and categorised manifestations. From this principle identification modernism mobilises the idea of discipline and unity, deliberating the qualities and seeks ‘to preserve various consciousnesses from doubt.’ (Lyotard, 1 994, p74) Its aim is to establish the artwork as certain and knowable in relation to a transcendental à priori. Its vocabulary consequently accommodates the description and judgment of spatial and substantial work: painting and sculpture, at some distance from the viewer.

In relation to music, it is the score that substantiates and qualifies the work in an à priori. The score visualises and thus spatialises and arrests the individual performance in an ideal temporality. The score is proof of its existence and determines its value. According to Theodor W. Adorno, it is the quasi objective relationship between tones in harmonic intervals in relation to the compositional totality of the work that renders the musical work ideal.(2) The temporal quality of music, which could be seen as its critical edge vis-à-vis spatial art practices, is for Adorno a problem, unless it is compositionally controlled; the temporal sounds fixed in the Notenbild (the image of notes/ the score).(3) Such modernist criteria for discussing and judging a piece of work, visual or sonic, sees the process of viewing/listening as having no impact on the appearance of the artwork nor on the subject perceiving it. The viewing subject is assumed as a fixed identity, he/she too is totalised and unified as a transcendental subject. All doubt of his/her own perception is eradicated in a visual knowing. Postmodernism is not opposed to this way of discussing art but rather is a logical interpretation and development of such a modernist idealism of totality and unity via the consideration of perception, challenging modernism via a temporal and individual dimension. According to Lyotard postmodernism puts forward that which in modernism remains non-representable. I interprete this ‘non-representable’ as the moment when the modernist objective vocabulary clashes with the momentary perception of the individual viewer/listener and fails to account for his/her experience. Consequently the postmodern reading reflects not the understanding of the work as supplying or representing one total

and ideal artwork. Rather, it discusses artistic experience as ‘real’ and ‘ideal’ in the sense in which the audience connects it to a personal and individual experience of the real, constructing a multitude of representations. In this sense postmodernism is to modernism the noise of heterogeneity and incompetence, working outside and across disciplines, squandering its systemic valuation in decadent centrifugality. The postmodern is a radicalisation of the modernist understanding of the artwork. However, in the overall context of modernism the postmodern excursion into decadence is ultimately redeemed. Lyotard’s interpretation of the postmodern as language game highlights this state of affairs. As a game it is ultimately halted or at least paused, and its players go back to the pragmatics of everyday living, where homogeneity is produced in order to get on; any noisy nonsense recuperated within a solid consensus of meaning. In fact postmodernism never abandons the notion of consensual meaning, good taste and form, in the first place. It queries the nominalism and homogeneity of those who participate in the meaning making process, never however the possibility of meaning making per se. And this is the main point of my argument: Noise, not as a temporary abandonment of taste and good form, imminently redeemed in a new (visual) referential framework, but as radically and always just simply noise, upsets not only a current dominant meaning but the possibility to produce shared meaning at all, and that I believe is the true criticality of noise. The significance of this, in relation to auditory practice is the

observation that postmodernism, as a critical framework for artistic production and perception, is not radical enough for sound to be heard. Noise is invisible sound in the sense that it is not regulated by the Notenbild of the composition, nor helped along by the diegetic progress of the film, and it is not explained by the recognition of its source. It does not present bad taste to be redeemed once we leave the language game of postmodernity. Rather, noise simply is sound considered in its own right and no visual meta-discourse can evaluate its perception. This is not to say that sound work cannot be discussed within postmodern discourse. It can be considered in a relational framework, performing with a visual source or referent, and consequently offering meaning and value through context and association. Much sound work profits in its discussion and description from a contextual audition and evaluation. However sound has another quality too, and this quality seems to me most apparent in relation to noise, which is simply and unstoppably just always now itself. It is its insistence on the moment, the fleeting buzz and whirr that it immerses me in when I am listening that I believe a visually primed subject does not hear. The (visual) postmodern aesthetic vocabulary falls short of being able to truly articulate a critical observation and judgment of the sonic artwork because it cannot hear its content and appreciate its singular non-sense without driving it into a seemingly sensical framework of relations. Noise disorientates, challenges reference points and negates objectivity and distance whilst opening a different, subjective and immersive imagination. In

this it challenges the postmodern methods for judging and discussing a piece of work. It goes beyond postmodern re-presentation towards the production of what is heard in an innovative listening: A listening that produces a sonic and a visual (or in fact a multi-sensory) imagination from sound rather than attaching the heard to an à priori visual referent. Rudolph Arnheim praises such a sonic blindness. He demands of radio not to be a relay apparatus for football games and musical performances but to transmit a truly sonic, blind , production. It is easy to follow his suggestion as to what such a blind radio should not be, much harder however is it to imagine what it should be instead. One thing this blind radio could be is noise. Noise-radio in the sense that the sounds coming from the box next to my bed, in my car, or on the kitchen table would have nothing to do with the visual world around me. These sounds would not be visually recognisable and interpreted, but neither would they be accousmatic in the sense of a reduction of the visual referent by removing the attack and the envelop of a sound. Noise is not a reduction of visuality, it is not less than the image, it is radically different, and possibly rather more. Noise in this sense is sound that is truly not, and never was, related to any visual source, instead it might lead the listener to invent a ‘visuality’ beyond the visual imagination. It seems an impossible but exciting demand, this desire for sound to be only referenced to its auditory perception rather than to a visual ‘thing’ or event. Such a blind noise-radio surpasses and stretches the visual imagination out of its representational and also out of its

re-presentational task into a generative presentation: intensively always now, gripped in a continuous present, nothing else and nowhere else, its meaning only ever the listener’s. In this context, noise’s principle is truly a principle of the ‘inventor’s parology’ not just as an exception or opposition to a modernist meaning, but as an infinite field of innovation. Noise is sound practiced; listening to invent and produce rather than to recognise and know. . It always demands my participation. And if such a noise-radio is not genuinely achievable it unquestionably articulates an important challenge for sound arts production.

Notes

References

1 .In a collection of his essays brought together in the book Sense and Non-Sense, Merleau-Ponty

Adorno, Theodor W., Gesammelte Schriften, (Suhrkamp: Frankfurt an Main, 1 970ff)

articulates ‘non-sense’ not in reference to rational sense, as its nonsensical opposite, but rather

Arnheim, Rudolph, In Praise of Blindness, in Radiotext(e), edited by Neil Strauss, (Columbia University:

describes with it a sense that comes out of ‘sensation’. Non-sense, then, is sense produced by a

New York, 1 993)

phenomenological subject, who exists in the world produced continually through his/her sensorial

Hegel, G.F.W. 1 979 [orig. 1 823-26]. Introduction to the Berlin Aesthetic Lectures of 1 820s. Translated by

existence in it; outlining a ‘life world’ and ‘intersubjectivity’. In this life world the intersubjective

T.M. Knox. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

subject produces sense through sensory motor actions towards this world. According to Merleau-

Lyotard, Jean-François, The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, translated by Geoff

Ponty, these motions are motivated by doubt, rather than certainty; sensation rather than rationality.

Bennington and Brian Massumi, (Manchester University Press: UK, 1 994, [orig.1 979])

Merleau-Ponty’s ideas of doubt and uncertainty driving the human relation to his/her life-world and

Merleau-Ponty, Sense Non-Sense, translated by Hubert L. Dreyfus and Patricia Allen Dreyfus,

the consequent notion that he/she makes sense of this world, and him/herself, as non-sense, is

(Northwestern University Press: Illinois, 1 964, [orig.1 948])

particularly articulated in the central essay of Sense Non-Sense, ‘Cézanne’s Doubt’ (orig. 1 945). (Merleau-Ponty, 1 964) 2.The term ideal is used here in the sense of the Hegelian notion of Idealität of an ‘ideal objectivity’, which for him decides the beauty of art as an absolute beauty that has overcome the ‘Widerspruch’ (antagonistic contradiction) between discord and harmony in sublimation (Aufhebung), and has attained an ideal objective state. (Hegel, 1 979, p70) 3.A danger of some contemporary discourse on Sonic Arts is that the score is simply replaced by a technological manual. The Notenbild has given way to illustrations of Software processes and Hardware interfaces, the ideology of an à priori objectivism however, remains in place. The work is identified within these visual processes only, and the listening subject too is fixed in relation to this visual totality. Such a focus retains Sonic Arts’ discourse within a modernist aesthetic. It avoids a consideration of the experiential status of the work, its auditory content, which would problematise the compositional control, intention, and the unified appreciation of the work.

J O H N R Y A N

John Ryan is an Irish Artist born in Dublin where he lives and continues to work. He graduated from NCAD The National College of Art and Design Dublin in 2011 . Recent exhibitions include Essomenia, New Living Art(imoca), Ruared winter open, Underground at Basic Space, Polyptych:Subsets(solo) in the Joinery, and the Gilchrist Fischer award in the Rebbeca Hosack Gallery(London). Paintings turning into sculptures, sculptures turning into installation, installation turning into painting. My work engages with paint as a substance in between states. When extracted from a tube, it's liquid. When exposed to air it becomes solid. I do not use it to generate images. I use it to create objects which lie between painting and sculpture. Originally, this came about from painting over photographs. I was experimenting with the physical difference between paint and photography as a way of image making. This curiosity stemmed from spending earlier years in college examining paintings in books, then seeing them in person, at fairs, museums and biennial's, and noticing the dramatic difference between a photograph of a painting, and the painting itself. The texture of mark making and relationship to light cannot be appropriately replicated. A painting, regardless of content, always acts as an object describing a persons process. It became apparent to me that the work I was producing was about paint. I no longer use photography as reference material although I paint on acetate as it imitates the smooth surface of photographs, the paint attaches to the surface unabsorbed and puts emphasis on the paints three dimensionality. Drawing from abstract expressionism and minimalism, the paint is applied in large quantities monochromatically. Using the acetates transparency, I layer sheets across and on top of each other, creating large structures with one fundamental component, paint. The structures subtly govern the space, distantly appearing flat, yet veritably rich in texture and covering a vast area. The television is attached to the wall at a height, similar to that of a traditional painting. The paint mixing in the video, compiled of four sequences, acts as if an abstract expressionist painting that never fully forms. The brush mixes the paint, making shapes that are spontaneous and short lasting. Starting with paint extracted from tubes, it gradually mixes until eventually climaxing when the colours blend into one. The stacks of containers are sculptural objects that are minimal in structure, obscured by the unpredictable quantity and initial lack of permanence in the physical state of the paint. Within this body of work, I have examined some physical possibilities of paint as a suitable substance for editing the aesthetic of objects, as it is flexible in its solidity.

Polyptych - NCAD Degree Show

Polyptych Subsets: Experiments with Paint at The Joinery

Cardboard City in Poznan - International Artist in Residence Programme (MPRA) By Anna Wnuk, MPRA Sinead B. Cashell, the Belfast based artist, has recently taken part in the International Artist in Residence Programme (MPRA) in Poznań, Poland. MPRA aims at creating platform for dialogue, exchange of experience across geographic boundaries as well as boundaries of culture, science and various disciplines of art. Collaborating with numerous local organizations MPRA creates space for collaboration and joint education through workshops, encounters and seminars. The programme is open for artists, educators, curators and art managers and in November 2011 one of the invited artists was Sinead B. Cashell. Her practice is mainly concerned with investigating urban areas of Belfast but she exhibits also abroad and participates in the series of residences, workshops and other projects in Canada, Chile, China, Iceland and now Poland. Working in many different areas and media forms (interactive installations, drawing performance) Sinead B. Cashell creates site – specific projects which reflects her current environment. Through playful interventions she explores the impact of habits and everyday routine on our way of perceiving, thinking and experiencing. Plundering the streets, city’s markets

and plazas she puts people into astonishing situations which generate an ability to create new response to social context. During her November residency in Poznań, Poland Sinead carried out the Cardboard Cities project consisted of an interactive exhibition and number of workshops for art students, children and families. By using simple materials as wood, paper, cardboard, plastic wrap, paints, etc. the project offered an opportunity for collaborative city building, constructing and reshaping the small architectural elements.

dream of the future city and brought to the surface requirements deeply rooted in a local context, for example the bridge of tolerance and the huge block of flats with the graffiti demanding “No for container homes”. The artwork considered the complexity of urbanity and interplayed with our common compliance, questioning the space, the place of dwelling and the city itself, demonstrated that the public space is a rather shifting, uncertain and more about dispute that we usually think.

Cardboard Cities endeavoured to show how space changes through its use by different people, artists, designers, architects, inhabitants, children. It also seemed to be an attempt of activating and empowering these who are usually passive and without power to change their environment. In Sinead’s exhibition the artist has given voice to the visitors, letting them re-create the exhibition space which was open to the public and its actions. The Poznan Cardboard City (-ies) encompassed as well the pink house of Gucci made by scouts and the monkey-house, as a small car park, domestic rooms with full detailed equipments, the market stall and even a minaret\ During children workshops the construction of this ephemeral city was enriched by number of small houses – the result of their creativity and their specific point of view which enabled them to create places which were not infected by common regulations and clichés. The final exhibition reflected the city around us but also seemed to be a

Cardboard City in Poznan - International Artist in Residence Programme (MPRA)

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L Y D I A H O L M E S

Lydia Lorelie Holmes (b, 1 986, Tandragee, Northern Ireland) is a multi-disciplinary artist who exploits the full range of possibilities offered by sculpture, drawing and painting and in a variety of media. Holmes explores the tension between social and political subjects and fuses these with aesthetic and formal concerns. Inspired by the ‘Futurist landscape’ imagined by members of the Futurist movement (1 909-1 944) she makes oblique references to Filippo Tommasso Marinetti (1 909-1 944) and the movement’s connections to Fascism. Her work parodies the irrational ideals of the Futurist’s visual language and the Fascist statements in their manifestos. But this artist also takes an unapologetically contemporary perspective that teases delightedly with today’s scientific and technological advancements. She invites the viewer into her strange world, populated by hybrid animals and living machines. This is a world that exists somewhere between the one we know and one that is just out of our reach. It manages to be simultaneously unfamiliar yet compellingly similar to our own. Holmes combines and confronts found or manufactured objects or imagery, forcing them into a polyvalent dialogue in the surrounding space. Her work is concerned with looking at the future fearlessly in the eye, and at other times showing anxiety and perplexity for the unknown whilst alluding to the uncertainty and sense of enquiry aroused by contemporary art. Since graduating with a first class honors degree in Fine Art, Holmes has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Recent exhibition include: a solo exhibition ‘Bio-technia’, Queen Street Studios, Belfast 2011 ; Void:Volume, Galway Arts Centre 2011 , Drawing a Line – Visual Thinking as Drawing, University Gallery, University of Ulster, 2011 (Curated by Hugh Mulholland); M-Machine, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast 2011 ; Salon Vert, Embassy Gallery, Edinburgh 2011 ; Elephants at the Royal Standard, Liverpool 2011 ; Ghosts in the Machine, The Others, London 2011 ; Not Just For The Birds, Golden Thread Gallery, Belfast 2011 ; C-1 3, Arrivals, Ormeau Baths Gallery, Belfast 201 0; The Royal Ulster Academy (Invited graduate), Ulster Museum, 201 0.

D E B O R A H Z L O T S K Y

Deborah Zlotsky is represented by Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York and had a solo exhibition in October 2011 . In 201 0, she exhibited her work at Pierogi Gallery as the ³Artist of the Week² and, in 2006, her work was included in Twice Drawn, a contemporary drawing exhibit curated by Ian Berry, Curator and Associate Director at the Tang Museum (Saratoga Springs, NY). This past summer, she received a residency fellowship at Yaddo in Saratoga Springs, NY. Zlotsky¹s drawings are in the curated flat files of Pierogi Gallery and The Boston Drawing Project at Joseph Carroll and Sons Gallery, as well as the online-curated registry at The Drawing Center. In recent years, Zlotsky has had one-person exhibitions at the Fort Wayne Museum of Art (Fort Wayne, IN), ARC Gallery (Chicago), the Carrie Haddad Gallery (Hudson, NY), Indiana University of Pennsylvania (Indiana, PA), the Lake George Arts Project (Lake George, NY) and the Arts Center of the Capital Region, (Troy, NY). Her work has also been included in group shows at Joseph Carroll and Sons, Boston, MA, New York University, Hartwick College (Oneonta, NY), Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute (Utica, NY), the William Benton Museum of Art (Storrs, CT), the Turchin Center for the Arts (Boone, NC) and the Albany International Airport. Her work is in public collections across the country, including Nordstrom, Progressive Insurance, Rutgers University, the William Benton Museum of Art and the Albany Institute of History and Art. In addition to the residency at Yaddo, Zlotsky has received residency fellowships at Millay Colony for the Arts, Ragdale Foundation, Ox-Bow and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts over the last ten years. A partial list of visiting artist visits includes Syracuse University, Skidmore College, Notre Dame University, Union College, Hope College and Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute. Zlotsky received a BA in Art History from Yale University and an MFA in Painting and Drawing from the University of Connecticut.

In both my drawings and paintings, I work responsively, constantly altering relationships and exploring contingencies in a process of accumulating, assembling and revising. In nature, the way organisms and systems seek alternative states of being by shifting slightly from a designated path is understood as the adjacent possible. I refer to this phenomenon of mutability by arranging and rearranging relationships in my paintings to uncover unexpected anomalies. As I adjust one relationship, another slips out of balance. Overlaying, abrading, reconfiguring, and repeatedly repainting and revarnishing create slippage between the past, present and future, as accidents and change remain visible in each work. Although abstract, the work comes out of a personal awareness of the complexity, subtleties and coincidences of being in the world.

TOP ARTIST RUN SPACES TO JOIN US AT THE studentsZINE NETWORK WWW.STUDENTSZINE.COM SOMA Contemporary, Waterford City, Ireland

SOMA Contemporary is a space for new and exciting art in Waterford city. Conceived and run by artists, the space is a place for people to congregate, show and see new and upcoming artists and their work. The space is located on Lombard street (the old taxation office) in the heart of Waterford city. It is an exciting space and we hope that exhibiting artists find the building can become part of the works they create in it. The space consists of three gallery spaces, a black room and a courtyard/garden area. We encourage openness in all manners of art forms and hope to bring to Waterford never before seen artists, along with enabling the rich talent of artists living in the city to show their work. Our main aim is to make contemporary art accessible to everyone and allow it to be thought provoking, engaging, exciting, loud and quiet, but most of all, a fun and memorable place for both the viewers and the artists.

TACTIC Cork, Cork, Ireland

place

TACTIC is the artist led exhibition space in Sample-Studios, Cork. We are a non-profit artist led organisation based in the Former Government Buildings on Sullivan's Quay We operate on the basis of inviting cultural practitioners to propose a concept for a curated show. We then work with that curator to facilitate the exhibition. TACTIC aims to provide a new format space for cultural practitioners to curate exhibitions. We aim to contribute to the creative community with a programme of challenging and exciting art. We are interested in creating a dialogue and a process of collaboration across different disciplines, areas and specialties and are committed to facilitating the development and enjoyment of contemporary art.

PLACE Gorey, Wexford, Ireland

Place is a direct response to the lack of visual art spaces in North Wexford and while considering the current economic climate and it’s rural context, Place has devised an experimental model fusing both contemporary art practice with self-sustaining strategies. It aims to generate an income through the commercial vehicle of a separate ‘shop’ space to aid the non-commercial development of an ongoing exploration of ideas, modes and projects. Its intention is to support contemporary art in Gorey and to provide a space to promote and nurture the evolution of new practices’.

WWW.STUDENTSZINE.COM TITLE Award

TH E C I RC U LAR TH E ORY; MAN , G OD AN D ART By Rachael Corcoron

Supervisor: Kate McCarthy; Lecturer, Department of Creative and Performing Arts, Waterford Institute of Technology This research is carried out as an under-graduate thesis at the Department of Creative and Performing Arts at Waterford Institute of Technology

ABSTRACT “I saw no Way – the Heavens were stitched – I felt the Columns close – The earth reversed her Hemispheres – I touched the Universe – And back it slid – and I alone – A speck upon a Ball – Went out upon Circumference – Beyond the Dip of Bell”

Emily Dickenson 1861 In Dickinson’s lexicon, Webster’s American Dictionary of the English Language, which she named as her “only companion” (Merriman, 2006), circumference is defined as “the space included in a circle” (Merriam-Webster, 201 0). Imagination alone might have sufficed for the discovery of the figure of the circle with the mortal consciousness as the center, the extent of perception as the radius, and the area of comprehension the circumference. Yet if we turn to Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay Circles, we find him looking to St. Augustine of Hippo, philosopher and theologian, for precisely the same figure (O’Donnell, 201 0), here specifically described as the nature of God. For Emerson, the circle was “the highest emblem in the cipher of the world” (Christle, 2002).

He explicates that central life is somewhat superior to creation, knowledge and thought and contains all its circles. Religions are symbolic philosophical systems which give scores of people a way to articulate the invisible reality they know but cannot see. Throughout history, people could obviously feel and know the effects of the circle as an entity and a process, or higher power or force, and so they found different names and symbols, in different cultures, time and space frames, to identify it. This dissertation will explicate The Circular Theory in relation to Medieval Christian Art. In summary, the circular theory explains the basic principle Conservation of the Circle; the idea that the circle is the basic entity, process and system that produces and explains all entities, processes and systems (Yardley, 2005). Within this study, I will investigate the circle in Medieval Christian Art, detailing how the circular symbol can be seen as mankind's attempt to ally with the cosmic forces that control our lives. This thesis will attempt to contribute to the field of Art in an interdisciplinary blending of ideas, drawing from such disparate domains as theology, history, philosophy, psychology, science, and art. To realize this objective, the main research question of this study was formulated as follows; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art?

CHAPTER 1 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1 .1 : INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 of this thesis will introduce my principles and objectives regarding the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? This chapter will outline the content of the thesis and provide a context for the theories expressed in subsequent chapters. It will also highlight the significance of the subject, more expressly, within the field of visual art. Additionally, this chapter will provide a literature review of sources utilized as research. This thesis will focus on interpreting and exploring the role of the circle in Medieval Christian Art and Architecture. Looking at the main research question, there are elements that need clarification. Further questions arising from this dissertation, which will clarify these elements, will be addressed as part of the discussion as follows: i) What is The Circular Theory? ii) How does the Circle connect God and Man? iii) What is The Circular Theoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship to Early Medieval Christian Art?

iv) How did Medieval Christians use the circular symbol in their art and architecture to enhance and document their understanding of God? Information will be analysed concurrently with collection and the result will be a text resolving the above mentioned concerns. This study will provide a rationale for the study of the research question. Furthermore, this thesis will focus on re-evaluating the role of the circle in art, and give new understanding to its theological, philosophical, psychological and historical importance.

1 .2: IMPORTANCE OF THE TOPIC The findings reported in this study will contribute to many fields. This research will attempt to expand the body of existing models of knowledge in the field of visual arts in particular. A social objective of this study is that it offers people active in the fields of art, psychology, philosophy, theology, history, knowledge of the topic The Circular Theory and Medieval Christian Art. It could also help to further understandings of the main characteristics of The Circular Theory. Moreover, the aim of this thesis is to re-evaluate the role of the circle in art, and give new appreciation to its theological and historical weight.

The focus of this study is The Circular Theory, with an emphasis on its relationship to the practice of Christianity, and Medieval Christian Art. Within this study, the circle in Medieval Christian Art is emphasised rather than an indepth, broader analysis of the circle in art. This study could contribute to broaden the academic knowledge and establish a new approach to this area of research. It will consider the conditions for the implementation of the circleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s values in contemporary analyses of the Medieval practice of Christianity. Furthermore, it will make recommendations for research on this topic. This study will analyse the role the circle plays in Christianity, and its art. Furthermore, it will examine Christian ideals of immortality. It will also highlight Christian concepts of divinity in the circle as a symbol (Yardley, 2005). This thesis could enlighten research in the history of art, in addition to enhancing our understanding of the connections between God and Man, which has been an inherent feature in the practice of Christian art for centuries. Utilizing texts by key authors, such as Yardley, Cirlot, Dawkins, Ferguson and Gombrich, I hope to draw attention to the circle as an entity that integrates philosophy, psychology, theology and geometry. Because the circle-line relationship is the basis for reality, an absolute understanding of the circular theory and its relationship to

visual art can help me understand and maximize my own reality as an artist. Drawing on research techniques of historic, semiotic and theological analysis, this thesis will examine the issues of Medieval Christian art, the role of God, the history of Man, and the circle as an entity linking them together. My study will provide a good base for further consideration of the topic The Circular Theory and Medieval Christian Art, so that it may then be located in a wider context.

1 .3: PRELIMINARY LITERATURE REVIEW This dissertation will explicate The Circular Theory and Medieval Christian Art. It will deal expressly with how Medieval Christians utilized the circular symbol in their art to enhance and document their understanding of God. The collection of sources, probe the universality of archetypal themes and provide resources into the deep and abiding connections that unite the disparate factions of the circle, art and Christianity. The following literature review will attempt to demonstrate, support, and investigate the above mentioned hypothesis. The edocument Absolute Intelligence invalidates the innate divergence between science and religion, campaigning that they articulate the same reality. As author Yardley indicates, the circle is considered a symbol of unity because all the regular shapes and symbols are embraced by the circle; all

symbols are various versions, aspects, parts, and/or realities, of a circle. It can also be considered the symbol of infinity, without beginning or end, the ultimate geometric symbol (Yardley, 2005). The book, Signs and Symbols in Christian Art (Ferguson, 1 966), comprehensively illustrates the symbolism inherent in Christian art and architecture. In his discussion of the foundations of Christian signs and symbols author Ferguson notes how in early Christian art, the circle spoke to the constant round of the heavens, as well as the eternal return of the seasons, marked by ritual and celebration. The ideas yielded in this text are consistent with the basic principles inherent in Absolute Intelligence; the circle as a prominent entity in the devotional, ritualistic practice of Christian religion. Cirlotâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Dictionary of Symbols also reinforces the theories put forth in Signs and symbols in Christian Art, most notably the common idea that in early Christianity the circular symbol was seen as a sacred way of connecting to a higher, sacred place (Cirlot, 1 990). Often it brings the circle into focus for its modern psychological and symbolic meanings, rather than its historic role in Christian art. For this, it is lacking as a wholly substantial resource relevant to the topic. The literature reviewed here underlines the importance of understanding the circle and its cultural and religious identities that serves to place it in a unique arthistorical setting. However, within the timeframe permitted

for research, no work was found to provide a framework for formally documenting, and correctly applying contextual information to the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art?

1 .4: SUMMARY The aim of this chapter was to present the fundamental thinking and values in relation to the primary research question. This chapter communicated the primary research question and sub-questions this thesis aims to address and formed a basis for understanding and exploring the role of the Circle in Medieval Christian Art and Architecture. It also drew attention to the importance of the topic, more specifically, within the discipline of art. Besides the overview of the content of the forthcoming document, and the importance of the topic, a literature review of resources was provided, and the elements of the research questions were defined. This chapter provided a foundation for further study of the Circle in Medieval Christian Art.

CHAPTER 2 – METHODOLOGY 2.1 : INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the methodologies employed for the study of the topic The Circular Theory; Man, God and Art will be identified. Methodology is a system of methods and principles dealing with the research, gathering and analysis of information. The content of the forthcoming chapter will provide an examination of the principles and procedures utilized for the investigation of the primary research question What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? The aim of this chapter is to clarify the researcher’s selection of the most appropriate methods and procedures in relation to the study of The Circular Theory; Man God, and Art.

2.2: METHODOLOGY

Qualitative research, in its most effective form, is dialogic, staging a conversation with a culture rather than just gathering data (Ereaut, 2007). It is thus a deeply moral act of research its theological dimensions perhaps more readily apparent than other modes of research (Ereaut, 2007), therefore entirely suited to the thesis question.

The topic of my thesis firstnassumes that some traditional methods of research – such as surveys and interviews are insufficient in addressing the specific topic. My consideration of the subject The Circular Theory and Medieval Christian Art thus looked to alternative methodologies. To address the research questions, a literature study was first carried out, which provided theoretical background information on the circle as a symbol, its role in Medieval Art, and The Circular Theory itself. Having formulated a research problem, carried out a literature review, developed a study design, constructed a research instrument and selected case studies, the researcher then collected data from which to draw inferences and conclusions for the study. Drawing on historic and semiotic approaches this thesis examines the complicated issues of Christian art, the role of God, the history of man, and the circle as an entity relating them. For this study, the researcher blended traditional methods of textual criticism with more non-traditional methods of qualitative research, which gesture towards a rich understanding of the topic. The methodology employed for this study can be classified as qualitative because the purpose of the study is primarily to investigate and describe an historical enumeration of works of art, and an analysis and account of perspectives on a topic. When analysing data in qualitative research,

he researcher identifies themes and descriptions of what was found during observation and consideration rather than subjecting data to statistical procedures (Ereaut, 2007). Discussion amongst peers also determined progression towards outcomes. Collection of secondary data from qualitative methods was used to triangulate the interpretation of texts and visuals in order to provide a better understanding of the results in order to address the research question. Taken together, the emerging findings underline the importance of understanding the circle and its cultural and religious identity that serves to place it in its unique historical setting. The collection of sources probes the universality of archetypal themes and provides a testament to the deep and abiding connections that unite the factions of the circle, art and Christianity.

2.3: SUMMARY

This chapter was based upon the researcherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s experiences in investigating the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? This chapter has provided an overview of the research process applied to this dissertation,

the fruits of which are covered in the remainder of the document. Here, the researcher has provided a number of methods, models, techniques and procedures, in order to effectively choose the most appropriate for the study of the topic, The Circular Theory; Man, God and Art.

CHAPTER 3 – THE CIRCULAR THEORY: CONSERVATION OF THE CIRCLE 3.1 : INTRODUCTION

This chapter will rationalise the philosophy of the circle. It will specifically examine the inherent differences between science and religion, campaigning that they communicate the same reality. In this chapter, I will evaluate the topic from a theological and philosophical viewpoint in order to explain and define the central concepts of The Circular Theory. To identify the characteristics of The Circular Theory, the basic philosophy of the circle must first be described. After that, the discussion will draw focus to The Circular Theory in science, followed by an analysis of The Circular Theory in religion. Furthermore, this chapter will investigate the circle as a symbol utilising a semiotic approach. The chapter ends with a section outlining the main points articulated in the preceding chapter.

3.2: PHILOSOPHY OF THE CIRCLE

The Circular Theory invalidates the innate divergence between science and religion, affirming that they articulate the same reality. The circle rationalizes why and how we exist as we move, survive, and reproduce, we are yielding the movement, survival and reproduction of the circle (Yardley, 2005).

The Circular Theory explains that any two entities create an invisible, imaginary line which must always be the invisible, imaginary diameter of an invisible, imaginary circle. Everything is a circle. A circle is one circle; a line is two circles; a triangle is three circles; a square is four circles; a star is five circles. More than one circle is always one circle. Circles become lines, which become triangles, which become squares, which become stars, which become circles, endlessly. Movement from one symbol to the next takes us from a circle to a circle. The circle produces the circle (creating lines, triangles, squares and stars in the process). All symbols can be enclosed by, because they are, numerous expressions of the circle. All symbols are various versions, aspects, parts, and/or realities, of a circle (Christle, 2002). The circle is considered a symbol of unity, because all the regular polygons are embraced by the circle. It is also the symbol of infinity, without beginning or end, flawless, the ultimate geometric symbol (Ferguson, 1 966). The circle shows that Einstein’s waves and particles and Jung’s symbols and opposites impart the same relationship: abstract vs. concrete, idea vs. reality, and mind vs. matter. In ancient times, these were symbolized as sun-moon, heavenearth, and light-dark. This theory affirms that we live “in two worlds at once” (Jung, 1 968).

The Circle is considered a symbol of unity, because all the regular polygons are embraced by the circle; all symbols are various articulations of a circle. When an entity takes an action, makes a movement, utters a sound, or makes an observation, it is creating, because the circle is creating a circle. It is a circle employing a circle to interrelate with many other (a limitless set, reality, of other) circles. An opposite pair, a binary selection, or a movement in any form, can be visualized, represented, and communicated as (because it comes from, and is) a circle. Any two points, or any line, is the diameter of some circle. As a link between points, or set of points, the circle is part of, and in control of, everything (Yardley, 2005). Christians have always used symbols to articulate the idea of unity, duality and trinity in art, which, within the circle, is pi, diameter and circumference, or symbol, real, ideal, concept, physical, and representational. The Circular Theory validates that within Christianity, and its art, there is a circular relationship between the idea of God, and Man.

3.3: CIRCULARITY IS REALITY: SCIENCE “A contemporary has said, not unjustly, that in this materialistic age of ours, the serious scientific workers are the only profoundly religious people." Albert Einstein, 1 930.

Conservation of the circle, as absolute and infinite intelligence, generates (is) gravity. Between any two anythings (every two everythings) is an invisible line which is a mandatory diameter of a circle (Yardley, 2005). This is gravity. The circle is preserved, and thereby, is the absolute intelligence, connecting, and within all entities. An entity survives to conserve, and by conserving the circle; the circle exists in order to conserve, and by conserving, an entity. The circle amalgamates all systems, and answers the question of “why” and “how”. It is the uniting figure in any and all universes (Kavassalis, 201 0). The relationship between diameter and circumference is the basis for energy, growth, movement, gravity, and relativity. The circle justifies movement and substance as time, space, form, power and mass, conserving them, and binding them together through Pi (Hannam, 2009). It unravels the linguistic and mathematical disorder caused by the required, relative, stance of an observer. German Mathematician Emmy Noether proved conservation and symmetry are tied: that is, conservation and symmetry are reliant on, and produced by each other (Kavassalis, 201 0). Conservation depends on an essential symmetry and symmetry defines a superseding conservation.

One does not exist without the other. In a sense, there is nothing present in any universe apart from conservation and symmetry. An entity is conserved as it is symmetric, and it is symmetric as it is conserved. According to Noether’s theory, entity exists to express (symmetry), and expresses to survive (conservation). Conservation and symmetry are the most significant correlations of any universe. The circle is the symbol that vindicates the relationship between conservation and symmetry; that is, the circumference of a circle symbolizes conservation, and the diameter symbolizes symmetry. The circle is nothing more, or less, than a set of diameters (opposite and equal points) (Kavassalis, 201 0). Here all things are understood as limited abstractions; atoms, electrons, protons, tables, chairs, human beings, planets, galaxies are then to be regarded as abstractions from the whole movement and are to be described in terms of order, structure, and form in the movement.

3.4: CIRCULARITY IS REALITY: RELIGION “God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere.” Hermes Trismegistus.

There is a circle between any two entities. The circle between any two entities divides and unites them. The circle between any two entities is both entity and process, noun and verb, subject and object, singular and plural, here and there, then and now, always and forever (Yardley, 2005). The circle, then, is the entity (singularity) that incorporates philosophy, religion, psychology, and science (duality). It is the entity we recognize as “God” and “gravity,” the “theory-of-everything” scientists seek, and the verification of an infinite, or absolute, intelligence, or “higher power” philosophers teach (Bryan, 1 998). There is a circular relationship between mind and matter, therefore, both mind, and matter, and the stable circular relationship between these, are produced for, and by, the circle. All religions, sciences, religious and scientific ideas and symbols are unified, integrated, and connected by the circle (Christle, 2002). The invisible circle and line between any two any things ultimately and inevitably becomes a visible circle and line between any two any things. We can notice that wave, cycle, oscillation is nothing more, or less, than a circle circling, only a circle can create a circle, just as only a person can create a person (Yardley, 2005). We have created many different names and symbols, and we have many different symbolic systems to articulate the same idea:Abraxas, Aghuramazda, Ah, Allah, Aten, Bog, Brahma, Buddha, Christ, Elohim, Eru, God,

Jesus, Jumala, Kami, Krishna, Om, One, Shang Ti, Shiva, Trimurti, Vishnu, Waheguru, Yahweh, Yhwh. Also Gravity, Force, Energy, Momentum, Magnetism, Electricity, Stillness, Movement. There is always a Yin-Yang of some kind (Dawkins, 2008). Medieval people were aware the effects of the circle as an entity and a process, or higher power and so found ways to communicate it in the form of the visual. Religions are symbolic systems which give a way to articulate invisible ideas. Symbols are individual and each person creates and understands their own symbol sets within. There is no way one person, place or thing can instruct another how to think, what to believe, or how to identify, or symbolize, his, her, or its ideas and beliefs. The principle Conservation of the Circle (Yardley, 2005) validates the ideas in all religions and sciences, and other symbolic systems like the arts, giving people i) evidence that their specific religious ideas are valid and ii) a means of incorporating all religions which use diverse names and symbols to articulate alike principles. Religions endeavor to communicate a single, united intelligence that is omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent (Fairchild, 201 0).

If the circle is this entity-process-subject-object-singlularmultiple reality, then the ideas in all or no religions are true and no one religion is any better or worse at expressing this proven bond between all things. All religions and philosophical systems use symbols to articulate the concept of unity, duality and trinity in art, which, within the circle, is pi, diameter and circumference, or symbol, real, ideal, concept, physical, and representational (Ferguson, 1 966). In all religions, there is a circular relationship between the idea of god (allah, buddah, yahwah, vishna, nature) and man (Dawkins, 2008). Nevertheless, it can be rationally argued that all religious and symbolic structures are flawed. Only a circle can articulate a circle. A circle (any circle) can circle any other circle (Yardley, 2005).

3.5: SEMIOTICS: THE SCIENCE OF SYMBOLS

This unit imparts an overview of semiotics. In the forthcoming section, the field of semiotics and the concept of the sign will be described. Semiotics (or Semiology) is the academic field of study that is dedicated to investigating signs and/or the process of creating meaning (Chandler, 2005). The foundations of its conception lie in Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure and the American pragmatist Charles Sanders Peirce (Burch, 201 0). Separately, they worked to better understand how particular structures were able to generate

meaning rather than work on the traditional matter of meaning itself. The term â&#x20AC;&#x153;Semioticsâ&#x20AC;? comes from the Greek word Semeiotikos which means â&#x20AC;&#x153;interpreter of signs (Chandler, 2005). A system of signs or a relationship between elements of any kind is i) symbolic, ii) semisymbolic, or iii) semiotic (the word "semiotic" has a controlled, specific meaning in this context): i) Symbolic - When one signifier is connected with one and only one signified, this is recognised as a symbolic system. ii) Semi-Symbolic - A system is semi-symbolic if an opposition between signifiers corresponds (is homologous) to an opposition between signifieds. iii) Semiotic - Lastly, other systems may be categorised as semiotic. Language is such a system. A symbol holds meaning in a purely arbitrary way - this is the way natural language holds meaning (Jung, 1 968).

A notable theory in semiotics is that signs and meaning are unlimited. Called "unlimited Semiosis," this principle explains that one sign or set of signs can take the place of some other sign or set of signs in a theoretically infinite process (Cirlot, 1 990). If this were not possible, then artists would eventually run out of signs with which to hold meaning, and that would be the end of art itself. The circle symbol meaning is universal, sacred and divine. It symbolizes the infinite nature of energy, and the inclusiveness of the universe (Chandler, 2005). Our ancient kin observed a circular quality to the cycles of time, particularly in the movements of the seasons, and with the revolutions of the earth around the sun. Both the empty and filled circles belong to the oldest ideograms and have been dated to the period immediately after the emergence of the simplest conventionalized representations of humans and animals. Sometimes the circle is a pictorial sign representing the sun or the moon (Cirlot, 1 990). In Western ideography the circle is a general symbol for the eternal, the endless, that which is without beginning or end, all possibilities (within the confines of the system in which it is used). The law of the polarity states that nothing can exist without its negative. This considered, the circle as a symbol can also mean nothing, no possibilites at all, as it does as a contemporary symbol for prohibition.

The activities prohibited are suggested by pictorial or alphabetical symbols inside or outside the circle. The circle draws focus to those signs it encircles. The symbols that are placed within it usually demonstrate in what way the endless possibilities of the empty circle are limited (Cirlot, 1 990).

3.6: SUMMARY The aim of this chapter was to look at the foundations of the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? In order to do this, the researcher attempted to answer the first sub-question under the by describing the basic principles of the circle. To address this question some background information was discussed in defining concepts and explaining the relation between science and religion. When describing the relation between science and religion, each topic was identified and detailed. Chapter 2, “The Circular Theory: Conservation of the Circle”, explicated the values of the circle. This chapter examined the natural divergence between religion and science, avowing that they articulate the same reality. In the context of such an emerging view, this chapter proposed that the underlying relationships between art, religion, and

science can be understood in a new light. Additionally, in this chapter, semiotics and the circular symbol were examined. This chapter considered the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? The discussion also considered theological and philosophical perspective and gave focus to the question: What is The Circular Theory?

CHAPTER 4 – GOD AND MAN: THE CHRISTIAN CIRCLE 4.1 : INTRODUCTION

Chapter 4, “God and Man: The Christian Circle”, will examine the circular relationship between the idea of God, and Man in a historical context. This chapter will analyse the role the circle plays in Christianity. Furthermore, this chapter will investigate Medieval Christian ideals of immortality (Fairchild, 201 0). Medieval Christians drew focus to the circle as a symbol for the immortal. The facets of Christian immortality identified in the literature will then be examined in practice throughout the forthcoming chapter.

However, to describe the Christian principles of immortality satisfactorily, the underlying elements of the circle’s role in Man’s relationship to God needs to be addressed. The central sub-question in this chapter is: How does the Circle connect God and Man?

4.2: THE GOD HYPOTHESIS Christian symbolism provides entities and actions with an inner meaning articulating Christian values. In Absolute Intelligence, author Yardley explains the circle as infinite (Yardley, 2005). In Christian ideography, the circle symbolizes eternity or God, the circle is a general symbol for the infinite, the endless. The circle represents eternity and the everlastingness of God who, in accordance with Medieval Christian beliefs, has no beginning and no end (Fairchild, 201 0). In Medieval Christendom, the name Augustine stands out as that of the greatest of theologians. From both a literary and theological standpoint, it is a name that dominated Western thought until the thirteenth century, a name which can never lose its supremacy in the study of theology. Indeed, in order to understand the currents of thought in Medieval Christianity, knowledge of Augustinianism is crucial. St. Augustine of Hippo insisted that the world of Man considered and manifested God, a concept which parallels the ideas put forth in Absolute Intelligence.

He explicated that the order and unity of nature proclaims the unity of God. Conversely, God, as the self-existent, eternal and immutable Being, is infinite, and, as infinite, is unfathomable (O’Donnell, 201 0). St. Anselm of Canterbury put forth the idea of God as that which no greater can be achieved; faultless and absolute. He explains, if such a Being had only an ideal reality, existed only in a subjective idea, one could still conceive a greater Being, namely a Being which does not exist simply as an idea, but in subjective reality. It follows, then, that the idea of God as absolute perfection is essentially, the idea of an existent Being. St. Anselm argued that with this, no one can at the same time maintain the idea of God and yet deny his existence. The absolutely perfect Being the essence of which inevitably involves existence, since otherwise a more perfect Being could not be conceived; it is the essential Being; and an essential Being which did not exist would be a contradiction in terms. He asserted that what exists in reality is greater than that which is only in the mind; God is “that than which nothing greater can be thought”, therefore, he exists in reality. St. Anselm sought for his argument to be a demonstration of all that Medieval Christians believed concerning the “divine nature” (Williams, 2007), and since the argument concerns the absolutely perfect Being, the attributes of God are contained implicitly in the conclusion of the argument.

St. Thomas Aquinas III, in the Summa Theologica which, as the name indicates is a theological summary, the first philosophical dilemma of which St. Thomas treats is that of the nature of God, after which he proceeds to consider the nature of God and then the divine persons, passing subsequently to creation (Knight, 2008). In Medieval Christendom, God was conceived as a superhuman, supernatural Being, designer and overseer of the universe. Before actually developing his proofs of God’s existence, St. Thomas endeavoured to show that the provision of such proof is not a useless superfluity, since the idea of God’s existence is not, accurately speaking, an innate idea, nor is “God exists” a proposition the opposite of which was inconceivable and could simply not be thought by Medieval Christians (O’Callaghan, 2009). To us, indeed, living in a world where Atheism is common and where philosophers eliminate or explain away the notion of a God, it seems only natural that God’s existence requires proof.

4.3: MODES OF CHRISTIAN SYMBOLIC IMMORTAITY Amongst the various religious mechanisms for allaying death are ideas of personal immortality; including resurrection, reincarnation, the transmigration of souls inhabiting different beings, or some disembodied spiritual existence.

The Circular Theory explicates that human beings live in two worlds: the natural and the symbolic. Ultimately governing human existence within both are drives to transcend death. The fundamental instinct of the biological self is to pass on one's genetic code (Dawkins, 2008). Similarly, to counter anxieties of death and the challenges death poses to the meaningfulness of existence, the symbolic self has a psychobiological need to leave its mark and a psychological need to consider there is something eternal within itself. Spiritual conceptions of immortality range from the cycles of rebirths in such Eastern faiths as Buddhism and Hinduism to the resurrection-based beliefs of Christianity (All About Religion, 2009). The creative mode entails the belief that one's endeavors are worthwhile because they can withstand the tests of time. The Circle as an apt symbol for immortality was undoubtedly grasped by Medieval Christians. It involves the sense of connection with oneself and the catholic consciousness of a God as well as the sense of personal continuity through one's progeny (Hannam, 2009). In his publication The Selfish Gene, author Richard Dawkins explains that the innate mode of symbolic immortality involves the prolongation of the tangible world beyond the individual's lifetime, with the feeling of being part of the eternal universe beyond oneself (Dawkins, 2008). With increasing secularization and the loss of religious monopoly over transcendence symbolizations,

connections between desired immortality and the moral worthiness of lives lived have almost evaporated, just as images of hell from the Christian imagination (Dawkins, 2008).

4.4: SUMMARY

How does the Circle connect God and Man? In this chapter, the discussion identified and investigated the circular relationship between the idea of God, and Man. This chapter also examined Medieval Christian concepts of immortality. Many of the aforementioned considerations can be traced back to The Circular Theory; when describing the relation between the circle and ideas of immortality in the Christian religion, the connection between God and Medieval Christian Man was identified. As described, Christian symbolic immortality parallels the values expressed in The Circular Theory, for instance, the perception of Man living in two worlds at once, also, an innate sense of being present in an infinite and continued existence. Combined with chapter 2, The Circular Theory and the role of the circle in Christianity are now described; starting with an explanation of The Circular Theory and its fundamental values, moving on towards the circle’s influence on the links between Man and God, and ending with a framework for subsequent Chapters.

CHAPTER 5 – HEAVEN AND EARTHLY: EARLY MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN ART 5.1 : INTRODUCTION

Chapter 5, “Heaven and Earthly: Early Medieval Christian Art”, will explore the circle’s many interesting associations and appearance in Early Medieval Christian Art. This chapter gives focus to the ring in Medieval Christian Art, the symbolism of the halo, the popular use of the Vesica Piscis as a Medieval art motif, and the rainbow as a link between heaven and earth. This chapter will draw links between the aforementioned areas of focus and the principles of The Circular Theory. This chapter will also highlight early Medieval concepts of divinity in the circular symbol, investigating the circle in Manuscript Illustration and High Crosses. The first section will focus on the divine values under which the circular symbol was implemented in Early Medieval Christian Art. The next section analyses the circle in Christian Illuminated Manuscripts. In the last section, Christian High Crosses and the circle will be explored. In this Chapter, the following question will be addressed: What is The Circular Theory’s relationship to Early Medieval Christian Art? It will examine from a art historic perspective, the broader research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man,

God and Art?

5.2: THE DIVINE CIRCLE The circle has many interesting associations and appears in art in a number of forms. Many early Christians believed that there was something divine in circles. A circle is an endless line, having no beginning and no end, which symbolises eternity or God. According to Medieval Christian symbolism when three circles intertwine they represent the equality, unity, and co-eternal nature of the three divine persons of the Trinity. The God of Christianity is one God yet three separate natures (Cirlot, 1 990). Migliore, in Faith Seeking Understanding describes, within the scope of the bible, the infinitely inexplicable relationship that exists amongst the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. (Migliore, 2004). The bible states emphatically and repetitively that God is one. The clearest assertion appears in Matthew 28:1 9 where Jesus directed the Apostles to disciple and baptise the nations “into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Tuggy, 2009). The use of the singular noun “name” in this verse, as opposed to the plural “names,” conveys that the Three are the one unique God, in possession of three natures into whom the discipled nations are baptized (Tuggy, 2009).

Conversely, the specific enumeration of all three; the Father, the Son, and the Spirit underline their mutual distinction (Migliore, 2004). All Three of the Trinity are eternal. The Father, Son, and Spirit do not exist in three temporary, successive modes or stages (Migliore, 2004). Though the Three are distinctive in their perpetual coexistence, they are in no way three separate Gods. More accurately, they exist together as one substance equally and inseparably, they inhabit one another. (Tuggy, 2009). The circle symbolizes the sun and relates the natural aspects with the spiritual. There is only one sun and therefore, one God who is the universal lord. As sun worship progressed, a sun disk was placed behind the head of a particular god/dess to explicate the god/dess’ great power. Christianity would borrow the sun disk from paganism as early as the fourth century (Fairchild, 201 0). This is often misinterpreted as Christianity having roots in paganism. Every symbol Christianity borrowed from paganism was fully redeemed by having its power and authority connected to God (Fairchild, 201 0). The circle appears in Medieval Christian art as a symbol of mobility, in the form of a wheel. It also appears as an instrument of torment (Ferguson, 1 966); Fig 1 : Catherine of Alexandria, Caravaggio, 1 598, Sammlung Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid (Images excluded, due to copyright issues)

According to the Christian tale, Catherine of Alexandria refused to marry Roman Emperor Maximinus, and was imprisoned. During her incarceration, Christ appeared and she wed him. Enraged, the emperor had a special, spiked wheel designed for her torture, but the wheel broke and she was unharmed; a scene depicted commonly in Medieval Christian art (Catholic Online, 2008). Her principal symbol is the spiked wheel, which has become known as the Catherine wheel (Ferguson, 1 966). The halo (nimbus) is the gold circle drawn behind the heads of figures in religious art. Commonly, the halo signifies holiness. The halo is connected to the Circular theory as a Christian icon symbolising eternity as it has no beginning or end. At first, the early church only used the halo with the Trinity. When a halo is displayed around a person of the Trinity, it symbolizes divinity. The halo is found in many forms, from a basic thin line to multiple rays magnificently decorated with jewels and flourishes. Nevertheless, it can be rationally argued that all religious and symbolic structures are flawed (Dawkins, 2008). Only a circle can articulate a circle. A circle (any circle) can circle any other circle (Yardley, 2005). The precise origin of the halo is not known, although it has been used throughout antiquity to denote power and greatness (Encyclopædia Britannica, 201 0).

The circle also has heavenly associations in the rainbow, which appears to touch both heaven and earth instantaneously (Ferguson, 1 966). The rainbow was frequently utilized as the Lord's throne and in scenes of the Last Judgement, for instance, in Giotto’s fresco in the Arena Chapel, Padua. When tricoloured, the rainbow is linked to the Trinity. As a symbol for infinity, the ring is used for betrothal and marriage; wedding rings came into use later. In Medieval times, as now, a bishop’s ring signifies his union with the Church; a nun’s ring signifies her marriage with Christ (All About Religion, 2009). The Vesica Piscis is a pointed oval shape which is the interconnection of two circles with the same radius, interconnecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the circumference of the other. In Latin, the name translates directly as the "bladder of a fish" (Ferguson, 1 966). The shape was employed in Medieval Christian Art as an aureole, a field of radiance surrounding the entire body of a sacred figure. This is the most common use of the Vesica as a Medieval art motif (Gombrich, 2005). Interpreting the aureole as a Venn diagram, it may symbolize the uniting of God and Man or the interconnection of two realms, earthly and divine. The above relates Christian symbolism and iconography back to the values of The Circular Theory. The circle is considered a symbol of unity, because all the regular polygons are embraced by the circle. It is also the symbol of infinity, without beginning or end, flawless, the ultimate

geometric symbol (Ferguson, 1 966).

5.3: ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPTS To understand the development of the circle in Medieval Christian Art, Illuminated Manuscripts must be considered. In the eighth century, monastic artists were venturing far from their aesthetic roots, and were increasingly open to influences within the countries they sought to convert (Arnold, 2002). This is most effectively demonstrated in Irish Illuminated Manuscripts. They are richly distinctive in style, and impart considerable information through linguistics, calligraphy, and other colophons. They range in powerful simplicity from relics such as the Book of Durrow, to rich and complex images from relics such as the Book of Kells. Between the two may be placed, with reasonable confidence, a wealth of illuminated Gospels and other devotional books, all of them demonstrating an awareness of the circle as something divine and sacred. An exquisite achievement of Irish Illuminated Manuscripts is the Book of Kells. It is strong and original in its design, its range of colours and their use are intensely sophisticated, its script is beautifully clear and rounded, and wild circular decorations run through it. Sometimes these decorations in the script assume the proportion of major illuminations, at other times these circular decorations are small and obscure, often in the Book of Kells, the circle operates as a

decorative panel or a border (Trinity College Dublin, 201 0). In full pages of ornament and introductory pages of decoration, the artist utilizes the circle with a balanced mixture of invention and discipline. There is a brilliant sense of space and balance, and a breadth of designs and symbols is displayed here. But there is something more which raises the Book of Kells to its superlative place in early Medieval Christian Art, something that makes of it a most magnificent work of art regardless of its conflicting styles, unfinished pages and variable quality. It is not easily defined, but is perhaps best explained by the central and recurrent element of the broad scope of decoration. Many of the circular symbols represented in the Book of Kells revolve around the figure of Man (Gombrich, 2005). Man is presented as Christ, as Angel, as Apostle, as Devil, as mere onlooker in a scene, as peering from behind letters, as lurking in the corners of pages, or floating between the lines or in the margins. The circle in the Book of Kells is featured as halo, ring, frame, decorative pattern, and Vesica (EncyclopĂŚdia Britannica, 201 0). All these varied elements in the illuminatorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s imagination are drawn together from the principles and aesthetic image of the circle, and the dominant symbol of Man. Whereas most of the Christian paintings of the early Medieval period have perished, these illuminations form a superb collection which afford us a clear idea of the status of the circle in this epoch of Christianity.

Fig 2: Cover, Book of Kells, c. 800, Trinity College Library, Dublin. (Image excluded due to copyright issues)

5.4: CHRISTIAN HIGH CROSSES

The history and symbolism of Christian Stone Crosses is ambiguous. There arevmany variations and interpretations about its original meaning that are commonly repeated.vThe ringed cross is as much a symbol of ethnic heritage as it is of faith and in thevcontemporary world, it is often used as an emblem of ones of Celtic identity. The circle on thevringed cross has been explained as a symbol for eternity since earliest documentation (Arnold,v2002). Early Medieval Christians may have utilised the circular cross as a symbol for thevinfinite, which underscored the endlessness of God’s love as shown through Christ’s sacrificev(Stracke, 2007). Perhaps one could venture to consider that these early Christian’s understood the crucifixion as significant, not only as an event but, as the circle symbolizes, as the unending mystery of how through the crucifixion and resurrection, Christ continued to offer hope and salvation to the faithful and virtuous throughout all time (Catholic Online, 2008). Fig 3: The West Cross at Monsaterboice. 9th Century Monasterboice, Co. Louth. (Image excluded due to copyright issues)

However, these observations may not be substantiated by the academic convention of looking to the written record for early citations or for iconographic precedence that contains enough supporting evidence of what the artist intended to articulate. What emerges from modern scholars and archaeologists about symbolism in Christian art are careful descriptions and comparisons. Scholars give focus to dates and migration of ideas. Knotwork, spirals, circles, and other decorative patterns carved on stone crosses are usually treated by scholars as a subject described and categorised, but their symbolism rarely completely interpreted (O’Shaughnessy, 201 0). Figurative panels are often less challenging to decipher. The Celtic Cross is visually a very appealing shape, be it plain or richly decorated; it is made to be visually beautiful. When human figures appear on the cross they are often very simple in contrast to highly complex and sophisticated ornamental patterns that complete the design (Arnold, 2002). The West Cross of Monasterboice remains one of the most distinctive of all Irish high crosses, its strong outline emphasised by the wheel-head. It stands at the beginning of a considerable development of style and technique in sculptured high crosses. Into this graceful framework a teeming world of activity and vitality has been carved by the unknown sculptor.

Some panels contain straightforward representations of man and biblical scenes while others revert to the spirals and circular patterns of earlier decoration (Sullivan, 2007). The formalised simplicity gives a great unity and strength to the work. The symbol of the ringed cross is so primal that it exists in all cultures and time frames, as does the circle (Yardley, 2005). There are no human cultures that have no art and no symbols and there are no systems of symbols that do not include circles and crosses (Yardley, 2005). These marks are opposites. The circle contains and is unending while the cross reaches out and marks a specific, finite point at the centre (Meehan, 2005). Contemplation of this yields many possibilities and may have tempted the artist to express their own understanding of these values, not merely interacting with the circle on a theoretical level, but finding a more personal, creative approach which, under traditional guiding motifs, allows the individual voice of the Medieval Christian artist to emerge.

5.5: SUMMARY In this Chapter, the discussion addressed the following question: What is the circular theory’s relationship to Early Medieval Christian Art? This relates to the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture,

in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? The content of the preceding chapter demonstrated the circle’s many interesting associations and appearance in Early Medieval Christian Art. This chapter also highlighted early Medieval concepts of divinity in the circle as a symbol. It examined the circle in Christian High Crosses and Illuminated Manuscripts. In this chapter, the considerable role of the circle in early Medieval Christian Art was given focus; by treating images of the circle within scenes of sacred history, the early Christian artists inspired other artists, painters, sculptors, architects, and so forth; it is in later Medieval Christian Art that the early Christian respect for the circle is detected. What can be concluded is that Early Medieval Christians had experience in realizing the principles of The Circular Theory.

CHAPTER 5 – GOD THE GEOMETER: MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN ART 5.1 : INTRODUCTION

Chapter 5, “God the Geometer: Medieval Christian Art”, will attempt to link The Circular Theory to Medieval art and architecture. This Chapter will study Medieval Christian values, where Geometry may have been understood as a view of pattern reverence, a complex system of Christian symbols and structures involving space, time and form.

Additionally, this chapter will examine the mathematics and the symbolism of the circle, and show how it was prominent in Gothic architecture. This chapter will explicate how geometry and the circular symbol was the basis of all Gothic cathedrals, everything created from basic relationships. This chapter gives focus to the question: How did Medieval Christians use the circular symbol in their art and architecture to enhance and document their understanding of Christianity?

5.2: GEOMETRY OF THE CIRCLE: BASIC RELATIONSHIPS Consider a geometrical curve, which is, in a certain way, an ordered set of points. The simplest curve is a straight line. Here the successive segments differ only in position, and are similar in direction. Then comes the circle; successive segments also differ in direction. But the angles between them are the same, so that the differences are similar (Rawles, 2009). However, the similarities defining the circle are different from those defining the straight line. This, in fact, is the essential difference between the two curves. Evidently, it is possible to go on to higher-order differences, whose similarities generate a series of ordered curves of even greater complexity. Here it is important to note that the complexity of a curve is in fact an objectively definable property of its order (Rawles, 2009).

Thus, a straight line is determined by its first step, so that it is a curve of first order. A circle is a curve of second order, determined by its first three steps. One can imagine curves requiring more and more steps to define them. Eventually, one would come to curves requiring an unlimited number of steps, which could be labelled as curves of infinite order. In order fully to understand the relationship between geometry and religion, it is necessary to explore certain deeper questions which have to do with what underlies both these forms of human activity (Christle, 2002). This discussion’s point of departure for studying these questions is the fact that Man has a fundamental need to assimilate all his experiences, both of the external environment, and of the invisible internal spiritual beliefs (Rawles, 2009). Whether discussing Man’s natural and social environment, or ideas of beliefs, the question of assimilation is always of establishing an harmoniously ordered totality of structural relationships. Ever since the earliest days, Man seems to have been in some way aware of the need to do this (Dawkins, 2008). In Medieval times, geometry, art, and religion, interwoven to form an indissoluble whole, seem to have been the major means by which this assimilation worked. Medieval Geometry was concerned not only with practical problems of assimilating God’s spiritual to Man’s physical, but also the psychological need to understand the universe. Geometry evidently assisted Medieval

Man to assimilate the immediately perceptual aspects of experience into a total structure of harmony and devotion to God. Medieval thinkers understood the mathematical aspects of geometry to be of divine origin. As part of the reason for this, Medievalist and philosopher and semiotician Umberto Eco points to the triad of terms in the Book of Solomon, from the OT Apocrypha: "But thou hast arranged all things by measure and number and weight." or “Numerus, pondus, mensura” (Eco, 201 0). The importance of Christian worship was matched by a dedication to sacred geometry. To Medieval Christians, geometry was a divine activity. The circle can be considered as the ultimate geometric figure, it is infinite, representing the divine. Fig 4: God as Geometer, The Frontispiece of Bible Moralisée, c 1 250, France. (Image Excluded due to copyright Issues). Also, the square can often be seen as representing mankind (Christle, 2002). Combining the two figures had special significance, the reconciliation of the heavenly and infinite with earthly and man-made. Geometry involves sacred archetypes used in the design of all things in our reality, which appears recurrently in Medieval art and architecture. It is foundational to the production of religious structures such as Gothic churches, and the creation of

Medieval art and iconography, applying divine proportions (Cedron, 201 0). All things throughout our universe seem to adhere to the same underlying geometric guide (Hannam, 2009). These geometrical archetypes are symbolic of the fundamental metaphysical principle of the undividable relationship of the part to the whole. It is this principle of oneness underlying all geometry that pervades the architecture of all inseparability and union imparts with us an incessant reminder of our relationship to the whole; a template for the mind to the roots of all things created (Hannam, 2009). In Medieval Christian values, geometry may have been understood as a view of pattern reverence, a complex system of Christian symbols and structures involving space, time and form. According to this view the fundamental patterns of existence are seen as sacred. By studying the nature of these patterns, forms and relationships and their connections, Medieval Christians endeavoured to gain insight into the laws and lore of the universe.

5.3: THE CIRCLE IN MEDIEVAL CHRISTIAN ARCHITECTURE Whereas early Medieval Christian Art displays a remarkable unity of design and inspiration, the later art of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries is greatly modified in its style and trends.

Until the 1 7th century the history of Western art was fundamentally similar with the history of Western religious art. Churches have been built on geometric principles since early Christian times. Geometry was the basis of all Gothic cathedrals, everything being created from basic relationships. Fig 5: Chartres Cathedral Rose Window Exterior (11 451 220), Chartres, France (Image excluded due to copyright issues). We can see that the ground plan was always cruciform, the baptism font always octagonal, as the baptistery itself often was, and the circle was everywhere. Medieval Architecture saw numerous appearances of the circle used as a symbol. The ultimate expression of the Medieval love of geometry and the circle is the rose window. The rose window is one of the most decorative and characteristic features of Medieval Christian Architecture (Cedron, 201 0). The rose window is commonly understood as a Mandala, which represents the expression of human aspiration towards wholeness and coherence. More accurately, Mandala means “circle and centre” or “Holy Circle”, and is basically a vehicle for concentrating the mind (Stracke, 2007).

Mandala often contains a square as well as a circle, and even if the square does not "square" the circle representation is still there. Carl Jung imparts that the circle symbolizes the processes of nature or of the cosmos as a whole; the square denotes the universe as imagined and projected by Man (Jung, 1 968). The influence of the circle in Chartres Cathedral is also revealed in the zodiac signs over the doorway on the west side, in a zodiac window, and in the towers of the sun and moon, in an outdoor sundial, and an astronomical clock (Hayes, 201 0). In Chartres, there are three large rose windows, North, South, and West, each divided into twelve segments. The basic core of many Medieval Churches, such as Chartres, was geometry and proportion. Numbers had a metaphysical significance, and were thought to.have occult power (Rawles, 2009). Every aspect of the medieval cathedral utilized that significance, rose windows being no exception to this rule:

Table 1 : Geometric numbers and their acquired symbolism 1 – The unity of all things, symbolised by a circle

2 – Duality and the paradox of opposites 3 – The triangle, stability transcending duality 4 – The square, matter, elements, winds, seasons, directions 5 – The pentacle, man, magic, Christ’s wounds 6 – Equilibrium and balance of the soul 7 – The mystic number, gifts of the spirit, and the liberal arts 8 – The octagon, baptism and rebirth 1 2 – Perfections, universe, time, the apostles, the Zodiac, tribes of Israel, and the

Rose windows employ geometry on three levels: manifest, hidden, and symbolic. The visual force of the rose window is manifest. Every space is defined by another smaller geometric figure - a trefoil, a quatrefoil, a rosette, or a spherical triangle (Cedron, 201 0). Even the glasswork itself adds to this geometry. The hidden geometry defines the exact placement of every major feature of the rose window, relating to the radial elements, concentric divisions, and all to the heart. The symbolic geometry is found in the numerical significance in the chart above. Squares, triangles, stars, the 1 2 major divisions typically found in rose windows all point to the finite and infinite, earth and heaven, or matter and spirit, and of course, the circle which embraces them all.

5.4: SUMMARY

The aim of Chapter 5, “God the Geometer: Medieval Christian Art”, was to try to relate The Circular Theory to Medieval Christian art and architecture. This chapter gave focus to Medieval Christian principles, where geometry may have been understood as a view of pattern reverence, a complex system of Christian symbols and structures involving space, time and form. Additionally, this chapter examined the mathematics and the symbolism of the circle, and attempted to demonstrate how it was prominent in gothic architecture.

As described in the previous chapter, geometry and the circular symbol were the basis of all gothic cathedrals, everything constructed from rudimentary and fundamental relationships. This chapter focused on the question: “How did Medieval Christians use the circular symbol in their art and architecture to enhance and document their understanding of Christianity?” This chapter provided a foreground for the over-arching research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art?

CHAPTER 6 – FINDINGS, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS 6.1 : FINDINGS

The findings of this study allow for the researcher to conclude with the assertion that the principles of The Circular Theory have played a pivotal role in the history of Man, God and Art. This finding, in itself, is extremely interesting because it is based upon a series of other critical research findings. These findings are i) The disconnections between science and religion are artificial; ii) The Circle is the entity that generates the innate relationship between Man and God; iii) The Medieval Christian practice of art and architecture is based on inherently organic principles which may indeed be largely

influenced by The Circular Theory. These findings, in brief, highlight the capacity of the circle as a symbol, more expressly within the Christian Religion. Needless to say, the study does not purport to cover all aspects and paradigms of the circle, nor does it offer an extensive analysis of all the religious systems which feature the circular symbol in their practice of art. However, that does not detract from the value of the research and, in fact, has enhanced it. It has enhanced it insofar as it has enabled the researcher to devote greater time, effort and space to the exploration and investigation of the research topic, The Circular Theory; Man, God, and Art. In other words, by limiting the scope of the study, the researcher was able to more thoroughly focus on the research questions and efficiently respond to them. People are distinct and complex, as are their spiritual beliefs and cultural circumstance. Hence, the data gathered is very dependant on these contexts. Therefore, the context of each individual will limit the generalizability of the findings. A rich analysis and refinement of the subject encountered in the process of research will allow the reader to judge the information and make their own decisions about whether or not the themes that emerge from the study can be transferred to their own situations. In the following two sections, with which the research concludes, the study’s contribution to the field, and its implications and recommendations for future research directions will be explicated.

6.2: RECOMMENDATIONS First of all, what can be recommended is to carry out further studies related to the topic The Circular Theory and Medieval Christian Art, in order to assess whether the findings of this study can be applied to other fields of learning. There might be existing models of learning in the Arts which have similar characteristics and conditions that can form a background for further ideas. The circle in other numerous and diverse religions and their related art could be an interesting subject of research, because more indepth knowledge of the role of the circle in art could give new understanding of its theological and historical weight. It could also be interesting to compare and contrast the circleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s appearance in disparate cultures and religious practices. Since the scope of this study was on the circle in relation to Medieval Christian Man, Art and Architecture, no conclusions can be drawn on the success or failure of implementing The Circular Theory into our modern and often secular society. This study can, nonetheless, be used as a model of how to reflect The Circular Theory into the content of the history of Art. During this study, more questions arise than could be answered. The study of the primary research question; What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? is

multidimensional since it investigates different facets (theology, society, physics, history, art, science, psychology, geometry, philosophy). When analysing the aforementioned research question, more in-depth research is necessary on these aspects. How do they contribute to the topic and how are they reflected within it? This study focuses on the circle in Medieval Christian Art, further study could also try to assess what role the circle can play in other domains, such as contemporary art, Pagan Art, or Eastern religious art. Also, the relation between God and Man and the circleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s function as a link needs to be further explored. Maybe it is possible to implement The Circular Theory into the contemporary world, so that the end goal of locating the circle in a wider context can be realised.

6.3: CONCLUSIONS

The aim of this dissertation is to offer insights into the values and principles of the circle, expressly in relation to Medieval Christian Art. The elements of the research question can be visualised in a process starting with the conditions for realising and re-evaluating the role of the circle in art, in addition to enhancing our understanding of the connections between God and Man which has been an inherent feature in the practice of Christian art for centuries. Exploring the circular theory itself and its characteristics,

the discussion concludes with the final goal to expand the body of existing knowledge of his subject in the field of visual arts in particular. Religions can be defined as sets of beliefs concerning the cause, nature, and purpose of an agency or agencies regarded as creator and governor of the universe (Dawkins, 2008). This spiritual reality has enabled many people throughout history to sense the influence of the circle as an energy, and so within each culture and era they adopted distinct means of identifying it. This thesis explicated The Circular Theory in relation to Man, God, and Christian Art, investigating the role the circle plays in Christianity, and its art. The main objective of this study was to analyse and understand the role of the circle in Medieval Christian Art and Architecture. This research could therefore provide to many branches of learning a valuable and innovative blending of ideas from such numerous fields as visual art, theology, history, maths, philosophy, society, psychology, geometry, and science. To realise this objective, sub-questions of this study, which investigates the broader research question What are the principles of The Circular Theory and what role does it play, based on Medieval Christian Art and Architecture, in the history of the relationship between Man, God and Art? were formulated as follows; i) What is The Circular Theory? ii) How does the Circle connect God and Man?

iii) What is The Circular Theoryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s relationship to Early Medieval Christian Art? iv) How did Medieval Christians use the circular symbol in their art and architecture to enhance and document their understanding of God? This study endeavoured to address the primary research question and the preceding sub-questions and produced a foundation for further consideration of The Circular Theory in relation to the practice of art. This thesis surveyed centuries of reflections on what distinguishes creative processes from those which are merely mechanical. While much of the material in this discussion explores the nature of Medieval manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s creativity, the study ultimately suggests that manifestations of creativity in Christianity are not merely similar to the creative processes of nature and science. Rather, they are the same fundamental nature as the creative forces in the universe at large.

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WWW.STUDENTSZINE.COM MAKERS Award

K A R O L I N K E N T

Karolin was born in Gothenburg, Sweden. Her training background originates from a variety of dance techniques as well as acrobatics, martial art, theatre, singing, photography, film and community work. In 2011 , Karolin graduated with a BA in Dance Theatre at Trinity Laban conservatoire of music and dance, London. During her studies she extended her experience with choreography, performance- and visual-art. Karolin now start her career as a freelance interdisciplinary artist and performance photographer. As a dancer she has been working with choreographers/artists such as Rosemary Butcher, Lizzie Kew-Ross and Franko B. Karolin is now explorong creative work through perfomance, photography and film. Her work has been presented at National Maritime museum, Shunt and Bonnie bird theatre in London. Most resent she was a part of Neu/ Now online Festival in Estonia with her work Dualistic Echoes. The medium of Photography has a strong influence of Karolin´s creative work and she is currently exploring this medium with creative projects, documentary and performance photography. Her images has been published at Southbank center website, Laban, ’Neu/ Now’ festival and ’What now’ festival at Siobhan Davies studios. She has been photographing work by choreographers such as Efrosini Protopapa, Kerry Nicholls, Frauke Requardt, Colin Poole, Rosemary Butcher, Spinn dance company Lizzie Kew-Ross. The medium of screen work has been explored through When my thoughts take form, 201 0 and Vit Gestalt, 2011 . Moreover Karolin utilized the medium of film in her final dissertation Dualistic Echoes 2011 . During her time at Laban, Karolin was awarded scholarships from Gertrud och Ivar Philipsons Stiftelse , Västsvenska Kulturstipendiet, 2008 and Anders Sandrew Stiftelse 2011 .

By challenging the performer, and through the use of audience participation, I believe we can take performance to a different level where both parties experience a deeper engagement with the performance. My research focuses on social topics that resonate throughout my work, in some pieces more subtly then others. I take inspiration through investigating areas such as philosophy and psychology. I am exploring interdisciplinary methods of communication where I am currently focusing on visual art and movement through the use of film, performance, sound, costume and sculpture. The use of improvisation, within movement and sound, is highly relevant in my creative process, as I believe improvisation brings a different quality to the finalwork. By deliberately present ambiguous scenarios, I believe performance can provoke creativity and independent thinking. I am aiming to create work that provokes the creative mind & engages ones emotional, intellectual & physical being through movement & visual art.

Ynygordna by Karolin Kent Download document and click to Play

P E T E R S H E A R

What sends me are moments when looking becomes a consuming and urgent activity, when engagement on multiple levels and the possibility for contradictory understanding makes the act of looking a creative one. The gulf of meaning separating artist from viewer that is physically located in an artwork is fascinating and I operate very near to that site. The decision to paint and draw is not self-conscious, contrarian, or ironicâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;merely funny. The works do not function as critique but rather may be approached as ready-mades, more found objects waiting to be repurposed. Sometimes in painting there is a final passage when the composition begins to conclude really in spite of my participation, with rules in place to follow or not. The paintings sometimes take minutes and sometimes weeks and months to arrange themselves, ending with the unavoidable image, the one suspended in becoming.

K A R E N D O N N E L L A N

Karen Donnellan is an artist and writer from Bailieborough, Ireland. She earned a Bachelor of Design from the National College of Art and Design, Dublin. In 2008 she completed an International Exchange Programme at Southern Illinois University and graduates this year with a Masters of Fine Art in glass from the Rochester Institute of Technology, New York. She served on the Glass Art Society board of directors as International Student Representative in 201 0/11 and has co-organized the re-establishment of the Glass Society of Ireland e-zine as well as the running of a lecture series, which began in 2007. Donnellan has worked in the capacity of instructor, artist assistant, and teaching assistant at various studios in Ireland, the UK, France, and the U.S. She recently exhibited at the Irish Museum of Contemporary Art, Dublin and the Birchfield Penney Art Center, Buffalo, NY. She has been the recipient of numerous national and international awards and scholarships, including the RIT Wallace Memorial Purchase Prize and the Langley Kenzie Endowment Award both in 2011 .

The metaphysical and the potential for healing through the manipulation of energy are the driving forces behind my work. Points of reference include the flower of life, the chakras, Tibetan sand mandalas and the Zen ensĹ? (pronounced encho), each of which uses the circle as a symbol of perfection, divinity and enlightenment. Much of my recent work derives from a single wooden vortex form, a shape based on the movement of energy within the body. In 'Working through...' this object is transformed through myriad materials, processes and altered visions, which become a metaphor for the constant transformation of universal light and energy. Conceptually, process also becomes integral where involved, repetitive methods are treated as a meditation or mantra as seen in the short film 'O'. It is through these meditative practices that I imbue the work with healing energies. The original composition of Solfeggio tones heard in 'O' are the source of the wave patterns in the glass discs or 'EnsĹ?s'. Thus each 'EnsĹ?' is a three dimensional realization of a specific healing frequency. Earlier work includes a series called synapse*, which developed from an investigation into the brain's response to color's healing properties. These color-saturated works exploit the fluid qualities of hot glass to create a form of pure energy, arrested and frozen in space, similar to the activity of neurons and firing synapses. Taken as a whole, my work is informed by the writings of Alex Grey and Agnes Martin as well as my intuition, Irish heritage and design background. Reiki, yoga and meditation form a vital part of my studio practice also.

Dissolve, Compose: Release by Karen Donnellan Download Document and Click to Play

M A R C O C A S A G R A N D E

Marco Casagrande is a Finnish architect and artist born in 1 971 in Turku, Finland. He graduated from the Helsinki University of Technology Department of Architecture in 2001 . From the early stages of his career Casagrande started to mix architecture with other disciplines of art and science landing with a series of ecologically conscious architectural installations around the world. The widely published works have been exhibited three times in the Venice Architecture Biennale (2000, 2004 and 2006) and in Havana Biennale 2000, Firenze Biennial 2001 , Yokohama Triennial2001 , Montreal Biennial 2002, Puerto Rico Biennial 2002, Demeter Hokkaido 2002, Alaska Design Forum 2003, EchigoTsumari Triennial 2003, Taipei on the Move 2004, London Architecture Biennial 2004, Sensoria Melbourne 2004, Taiwan Design Expo 2005, Urban Flashes Mumbai 2006, 7-ELEVEN City 2007, World Architecture Festival 2009, Hong Kong &amp; Shenzhen Bi-City Biennial 2009 and Victoria &amp; Albert Museum 201 0 among others. Casagrande’s works and teaching are moving freely in-between architecture, urban and environmental design and science, environmental art and circus adding up into cross-over architectural thinking of «commedia dell'architettura», a broad vision of built human environment tied into social drama and environmental awareness. «There is no other reality than nature». He views architects as design shamans merely interpreting what the bigger nature of the shared mind is transmitting. Casagrande has been teaching in a numerous universities since year 2000 including the Tokyo University Tadao Ando Laboratory, Aalto University, Helsinki University of Art and Design and Bergen School of Architecture. He was a visiting professor at the Taiwanese Tamkang University 2004-2008 and currently runs an independent cross-disciplinary research centre Ruin Academy in Taipei in cooperation with the Aalto University's SGT Sustainable Global Technologies Centre. Casagrande's theory of the Third Generation City views the future urban development as the ruin of the industrial city, an organic machine ruined by nature including human nature. http://www.marcocasagrande.fi/

Land(e)scape Land(e)scape (1 999), an architectural installation by Finnish architects Casagrande & Rintala, with Marco Casagrande and Sami Rintala, in a former field in Savonlinna. The work is commenting on the desertion process of the Finnish countryside. Three of these abandoned barns ‘were driven,’ the architects explained, ‘to the point where they have had to break their primeval union with the soil. Desolate, they have risen on their shanks and are swaying towards the cities of the south.’ The work was awarded in the Architectural Review 's Emerging Architecture 1 999 competition and selected to the Venice Biennale 2000. Land(e)scape launched the international career or Casagrande & Rintala. The art work was set on fire by the authors in October 1 999. Land(e)scape represented Finland in the New Trends or Architecture in Europe and Japan 2001 exhibitions.

Floating Sauna

Floating sauna for the Rosendahl village by the Hardangerfjord in Norway. The sauna is situated in the center of the village. It glows like a lantern when the things are cooking. The Design-Build process was an intensive workshop for the Bergen Art Academy, Norway. Casagrande & Rintala + Christel Sverre, Kristin Lian Berg, Mona Brekke, Simen Dyrhaug, Jenny Therese Eriksson, Mahlet OgbĂŠ Habte, Marja Ristiina Nickel, Ragnhild Ohma, Anne Marte Ruud, Mona Aspen Simonsen, Thomas Aspeland Sivertsen, Elin Solvang, Sverre Strandberg, Karolin Tampere, Sveinung Unneland, Elisabeth WahlstrĂśm. Constructed in Hardangerfjord, in Rosendal village during 2 - 1 3 Sep 2002.

Ruin Academy Ruin Academy (201 0-) is an independent cross-over architectural research center in the Urban Core area of Taipei City, Taiwan. It is 'set to re-think the industrial city and the modern man in the box' through research and a series of multidisciplinary workshops. The Ruin Academy occupies an abandoned 5-story apartment building in central Taipei. All the interior walls of the building and all the windows are removed in order to grow bamboo and vegetables inside the house. The professors and students are sleeping and working in mahogany made ad-hoc dormitories and have a public sauna in the 5th floor. All the building is penetrated with 6 inch holes in order to let â&#x20AC;&#x153;rain insideâ&#x20AC;?. The architectural control is in a process of giving up in order to let nature to step in. So far it is not giving up â&#x20AC;&#x201C; it is too lazy. Architectural control will be given up. Modernism is lost and the industrial machine will become organic. This happens in Taipei and this is what we study. Ruin Academy is an organic machine.

POTEMKIN - Post Industrial Meditation Park Potemkin stands as a post industrial temple, the Acropolis to re-think of the connection between the modern man and nature. I see Potemkin as a cultivated junk yard situated between the ancient rice fields and the river with a straight axis to the Shinto temple. The park is founded on an illegal garbage dump. The architecture was drawn on site in 1 :1 scale on snow by walking the lines with snow-shoes and then built up when the snow melted. EchigoTsumari region may get 3 meters of snow. The Potemkin is an artistically articulated collage of recycled urban and industrial waste, an industrial ruin for post-industrial meditation. Ruin is when man-made has become part of nature. As one enters the park the one inch thick steel walls are on the ground level, but while proceeding further the ground is descending, while the walls keep levelled and thus become 5 metes high. The wall system is framing a set of old oak trees and a series of outdoor and indoor spaces, smaller temples and courtyards with the final focus on the river down in the valley. River, where you may fish your ayu-fish, grill it and eat it up in Potemkin and go home. The steel temple Potemkin is spiritually connected to the old Shinto temple on the other side of the rice fields. The post industrial meditation park is blessed by the Shinto priest and the 1 20 Kuramata villagers are continuing now their 400 -year old tradition of every night circular dance in Potemkin. A community ritual memorizing a heroic act from the feudal times. All the village can sit on the small oak bench auditorium of the park. The rice farming village of Kuramata is dying. The younger generations have moved to Nijgata, Tokyo and other cities and the traditions of hundreds of years are about to disappear very rapidly; traditions that are based on a harmonious co-existence between the man and nature - human nature as part of nature. Potemkin celebrates Local Knowledge and by providing an industrial ruin it is providing hope. Urban visitors are often sleeping in Potemkin and they are writing to me that they slept good. Author: Casagrande & Rintala, Finland Organizer: Echigo-Tsumari Contemporaty Art Triennial 2003, curator Sakura Iso Site: Kuramata village by the Kamagawa River, Echigo-Tsumari, Japan Dimensions: 1 30 m long, 5 â&#x20AC;&#x201C; 1 5 m wide, 5 m high Materials: Kawasaki steel (one inch thick), recycled concrete, recycled asphalt, recycled glass, recycled pottery, river bed stones, white gravel, oak Team: Marco Casagrande, Sami Rintala, Edmundo Colon, Chris Constant, Philippe Gelard, Leslie Cofresi, Marty Ross, Janne Saario, Jan-Arild Sannes, George Lovett, Dean Carman, Joakim Skajaa, Sonny Madonaldo Photos: Dean Carman

studentsZINE Project Space WWW.FROMTHESTUDIOOF.COM BY AILVE MCCORMACK From the studio of\ is an online journal which presents the work of contemporary visual artists as seen in their studios. Through studio visits, which may take the form of interview, conversation or an informal presentation of work by the artist, I hope to provide an insight into the processes, research and practice behind the work made in the artist’s studio. The artist’s studio is not exclusively a site for production. The deliberation, experimentation and envisioning of art works usually happens in a place we seldom get to observe. Contemporary art work often becomes more engaging when the viewer can identify with the work from the artist’s perspective so having the opportunity to hear what an artist has to say about their work is invaluable.

Amanda Coogan | Studio Visit | February 201 2 Amanda Coogan is a visual artist who makes live performance art. She works from her studio at her home in Dublin. Originally, she studied traditional painting in Limerick School of Art and Design but said that her transition to performance art happened very organically. The fact that she was brought up through sign language was a very important factor as it was natural for her to communicate using her body. Amanda says that performance art is a very particular experience, both for the artist and the audience. There is an immediacy to the work that must be experienced first-hand; the audience embody the experience and breathe the same air as the performer. There are thousands of photographs that document Amanda’s live performances but she doesn’t show documentation as work. She says that if you look at documentation of a performance, you are missing something. There is an intimacy for the audience with performance art that does not come with looking at two dimensional works. To get an idea of one of Amanda’s performances, click on the video link to We Shall Glorify, 2009 - http://www.amandacoogan.com/we-shall-glorify.html It seems that there is amazing stamina involved in being a performance artist and I asked Amanda how she stays in control of her body throughout her durational performances. She said it’s not that she has extraordinary bodily strength but that there is an endurance and a commitment that are essential in order to make a durational performance.

When she immerses herself in a performance she relinquishes every day time. There is a significant relationship built between the viewer and the live performance artist. Amanda says that to “deny that humanity is to miss a huge chunk of what a live performance actually is”. A recent work Amanda made, entitled The Passing, was a 24 hour performance commissioned for the opening of a new wing of contemporary art at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She described it as a “soft but physical” performance. It involved walking up and down the stairs of the gallery for 24 hours in a long red dress. An everyday activity, but when done for this amount of time Amanda said it becomes something quite different. The performance was done as part of the opening weekend where Christian Marclay’s The Clock, a 24 hour looped video, was being shown so the museum was open for a full 24 hours.

The Passing, 2011 . Image courtesy of the artist

She said that at some stages of the performance she did struggle quite a lot. She then added that everyone goes through moments of struggle with different art forms but because performance art happens to have a very intense time frame around it, because it is made in public in front of an audience and because it is a bodily experience, the struggle can sometimes be visibly perceptible. During the performance she found that she could control her body – it continued to move up and down the stairs – but her mind began to hallucinate. This made her feel out of control and she continuously grounded herself by making eye contact with the audience. As part of this piece Amanda is collating some text about the performance which offers an insight into her process and experience of the work. She describes a moment during the performance, about 1 8 hours in, when she is finding it very difficult; “I decide I might be able to do the eye gaze. I pick a young man near Mari. It’s electrifying. I look at him. He’s scared. I slowly blink meaning ‘I’m nice don’t worry’. He’s so beautiful. I’m breathing him in and out. We stay like that for a while. It refreshes me. It’s better than honey or water.” Honey and water were the only sustenance Amanda allowed herself during the performance. The audience is an essential part of performance art. For Amanda, “the audience are the oxygen.” Performance cannot be done in a studio – it has to be done in a very particular context. She said “with durational performance the work happens on site. You put a few bricks in place before hand but actually, it’s time, energy and the audience that construct it.”

The clothing Amanda wears for her performances are integral to the work. She has clothes tailored to the exact needs of each performance whether that need is to show her body in a particular way or to use the dress as a tool in the performance. She says that because of certain ways she uses the clothes they keep her grounded and alert.

Spit Spit, Scrub Scrub, 2011 . Image courtesy of the artist

In her recent piece Spit Spit, Scrub Scrub, made for Dublin Contemporary 2011 , the clothing was really important to the work. It was essential that the material of the dress took over the whole room as it was inspired by the story of St. Bridget: St. Bridget was told that she could have all the land her cloak could cover to build her convent, so her cloak magically spread out over acres of land.

Amanda said that the making of Spit Spit, Scrub Scrub was a slightly new departure for her because just before making it she had been performing in Robert Wilson’s interpretation of The Life and Death of Marina Abramović, in which she saw herself as an actor as opposed to a live performance artist. Wilson’s approach to performance is very structured and rigorous whereas in her own work she doesn’t usually have such a strict outline. This influenced Amanda’s method in making Spit Spit, Scrub Scrub as she decided on two or three sections of music that accompany the performance that were to be clearly choreographed. On the other hand the work was also influenced in the opposite way because she felt the need to break from the strict movements and “allow for the nuance of the live moment and the collision of the pillars of live performance; site, audience and time, to influence it, allowing for unknowns to enter the performance.” Another important aspect of this piece was the music. As Amanda was not performing herself every time she said she wanted it to have some sort of structure for the performers. When the work began to form, Amanda was living in Manchester and she recorded the noises of the train journey from her flat to the theatre where she was working. She said that Merce Cunningham, the famous dancer and choreographer, used to say to his dancers that during a performance, to open up the energy, they should visualise themselves on a train on a track that goes on to infinity, goes through their body and back to infinity. This is why Amanda chose to include the audio recording of the train journey. She layered this with sounds from nature and dropped in fragments of music.

When I met Amanda she was working on editing a film that incorporates video recordings of six separate live performances done by six different women, including Amanda. These performances are part of her yellow series and were done in St. Mary’s Abbey, Dublin, in 201 0. The film will show the screen split into six, each section showing a woman wearing a long yellow dress that she continually washes over a period of four hours. “The ritual of repeatedly submerging and scrubbing the fabric they wear becomes an act of cleansing and rebirth”. The film will show the same time frame of each performance side by side. At some stage during hour three, Amanda said that all of the performers have a moment of struggle and this, for Amanda, is a highlight because it’s something they must come through and the audience members witness this happening. It forces people to confront their physicality and humanity. The film is the same duration as the four hour performances because she did not want the durational aspect and the endurance of the live performances to get lost. It was premiered at the Jameson Dublin International Film Festival earlier this year.

Yellow – an Artfilm by Paddy Cahill and Amanda Coogan – production still 201 2. Image courtesy of the artist

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