Tuesday, March 15, 2011

180 Degree Reversals

YHWH VI, 12 X 16, Ink With Pastel, print
YHWH VIII, 12 X 16, Ink With Pastel, print
YHWH V, 12 X 16, Ink With Pastel, print
If star charts are produced in reverse, and my old series here reminded me of star charts, I wondered what my work would look like in reverse.  Would they remind me of actual stars? What do you think?  Of course I wasn't thinking stars at the time, I was either smacking the drawing around or praying,  Possibly both.  Let's just call it a creative trance.

YHWH V, reversed

In terms of physics, Calabi–Yau manifolds are important in superstring theory. In the most conventional superstring models, ten conjectural dimensions in string theory are supposed to come as four of which we are aware, carrying some kind of fibration with fiber dimension six. Compactification on Calabi–Yau n-folds are important because they leave some of the original supersymmetry unbroken. More precisely, in the absence of fluxes, compactification on a Calabi–Yau 3-fold (real dimension 6) leaves one quarter of the original supersymmetry unbroken if the holonomy is the full SU(3).


Thank you Doc, for introducing me to the Calabi-Yau manifold.  What a precious description (Wikkipedia).  I wonder if I was channeling professor Yau back in 1979.  You're right--my goofy little drawings are stoundingly similar to the visual version of the Calabi-Yau manifold.   I have not a clue what any of the Poindexter stuff in the above description even means, but I am a superstring kind of guy.   Ultra cool comment, Sonya (Sonya Johnson).  



I've just found out that Brian Greene's book on superstring theory inspired a Nova special a few years back.  Here it is.  Sonya, this is just getting better and better.

\\///\

16 comments:

Sonya Johnson said...

These totally fascinate me. I love the randomness with the orderly. The first one reminds me of an aerial view of a freeway segment. The second two look like artistic manifestations of Calabi-Yau shapes.

William Cook said...

Thanks Sonya--neat observation! The random craziness would not work alone. Nor would the orderly structure. They need each other. That first one always reminded me of a paper clip. You got me on the Calabi-Yau shapes. I'm looking that up.

Sonya Johnson said...

Yeah, I'm a science nerd as well, and like to read things that are out of my league (quantum physics and string theory) for fun. Brian Greene's books are where I read about Calabi-Yau spaces - a theoretical shape for a 10-dimensional universe.

Fun to learn new stuff like this, isn't it? Even if you can't wrap your mind around it (I can't, really). :)

William Cook said...

I know. I actually read through the full Wikkipedia description, three of these paragraphs, one more impossible than the next. I thought I was a little literate, but this was absolutely out of range, intellectually. I ended up just laughing. I was dazed, and all I could think was, "breath through the nose, there's a good lad". It's the section called "Applications in superstring theory", or any of it, really. If you can wrap your mind around this, you're a better man than I, young lady. All that said, yes, the basic theory of a ten-dimensional universe is very mighty cool. Meanwhile, Poindexter's looking back at us thinking why do the artists get to have all the fun?

hw (hallie) farber said...

I recognized the paper clip on my sidebar. Why does the second one remind me of my mother grinding sausage?

These are beautiful.

Katherine van Schoonhoven said...

Wow! William! I enjoyed the vid clip but worry about all of those New Yorkers ripping holes in the fabric of time and space to get through traffic faster!

So, looking at YHWH V and its reverse, I am intrigued with the interpretative possibilities. Perhaps, in the original, I see a man trying to put something down that makes sense to him. To nail down with ink and pastel SOMETHING that approximates an idea of what is infinite, omnipresent, omnipotent (and so on). That is the black on white. Man's attempt to contain the infinite with a representation.

But, the reverse invites a different thought. In this, there is a sense of out of the darkness came LIGHT! God illuminating. God limiting the darkness. Day and night. Wow.

Or, maybe it's all just lines and dots and paper and ink and pastel after all. It never pays to get too attached to an interpretation. Dogmatism is just a dog-and-pony show.

William Cook said...

Oh Katherine--What a special comment! Man's creative struggles somehow echoed in reverse by divine creation [light]--and then in the ephemeral wisp of a thought --all gone. Heady stuff. I'm so glad you're out there. Wm

William Cook said...

Hi Hallie--Thanks for lobbing that visual into the space. You've permanently altered the old gestalt. From now on i'm lookin down the barrel of a meat grinder. Sweet. Wm

Linda Roth said...

Multiple dimensions cutting through the fabric of space, level in space/time? Way over my head, but Rapideograph pens and pastels and splatter speak to me. I like the dimension in your drawings--particularly the lower two. The "knots" appear to come forward and recede at the same time. Fascinating.

William Cook said...

Hi Linda--I know. I have no mental access to this stuff either. I came across string theory in a Deepak Chopra book back in 93, in the context of consciousness and meditation. Eventually I have an idea that all this empirical nonsense is going to turn inward towards consciousness as they discover that that's the source of the universe. At that point the artists will take over the world. B)

SKIZO said...

WonderfulWorkGoodCreations:)

Jan Yates, SCA, Canada said...

wow-i must say I am way out of my league here with the science and string stuff--i just really respond to them in a magnetic kinda pull way..and i don't want to question why--i just want to 'be' with them (and okay, to be totaly honest i find some to be quite seductive and suggestive)

William Cook said...

Hi Jan--Yow!! There's a new twist, seductive and suggestive. They do have a kind of tactile, hypnotic aura now that you mention it. Further William sayeth naught. \\///\

William Cook said...

Thanks Skiz great to hear from you! \\///\

Sharmon Davidson said...

I love these drawings! If by some chance you find a way into an alternate dimension through them, can you leave the door open for me?

William Cook said...

HI Sharmon--Thanks! Tell me you're into Fringe! I'll be Walternate, you know the other Walter? I'll leave a trail of pebbles--a sort of neo-Hanzel approach. We'll sort it all out on the other side.