Since finishing my sketches for the project, I have been executing them into clay relief form. The project schedule dictated that not all sketches could become sculptures before the group show on March 1. My goal was to finish 4 of the 6 (shown last posting). Even this goal was daunting since the clay pieces usually require over a month of slow drying before firing. By necessity, I sped up the drying by using an electric heater in the studio and devising an open lath support under the sculptures to allow them to dry faster. Finally, even though I moved to Santa Cruz three years ago, I had not yet found anyone to fire my pieces here and had been returning to San Diego for that. But this time, I found Steve and Bonny Barisof, local potters, and they agreed to do this firing for me. Below are a few photos of the transformation from sketch to sculpture.
Firing is always an unpredictable process, and this one was no exception. The three top pieces came out beautifully; but apparently I had not dried the bottom one enough, as it fell apart in the kiln.
But the disintegration of piece #4 led to some new insights. My wife and I discussed the broken piece and decided to mount the main pieces on a board and use a quote on Chaos Theory as its show title. This led to naming the other pieces in a similar way, using physicist quotes or theories. I invited Hendrik to participate. In the end we went with my wife's suggestions for the show because they seemed easier to understand by average viewers. But, I present them both below because they are both insightful. I am still deciding on final names for the pieces, although I have definitely embraced Hendrik's name for #3.
Hendrik's Suggestions: 1.) Superconductivity by John Bardeen, Leon Cooper, John Robert Schrieffer 2.) What is it? Fermi-Dirac or Bose-Einstein 3.) Einstein, Soccer and Gravitation Waves 4.) Parity or no Parity, Noether, not Hamlet will answer this question.
Wife Ann's Suggestions: 1) “Things” Can Be Regarded on One Level as Structures and on Another Level as Processes —-T. R. Young
2) By Making Everything as Small as Possible the Waves Become Much More Agile and Faster —-H. Ohldag
3) Are You the Observer or the Observed?
4) The Final Outcome...Is Radically Affected by Tiny Changes in the
Initial Conditions —-S. Morgan
Notes on Ann's titles:
1) Young, TR: Chaos Theory & Human Agency http://www.critcrim.org/redfeather/chaos/chaosindex.html
Complexity theory also denies the concept of the objectivity, or separation of the observer from the observed (Young 11).
4) Steev Morgan: Applying Chaos Theory to Artistic and Cultural Practice
Continuing Work at Hendrik's New Lab
In addition to preparing sculptures for the show, I have continued to interact with Hendrik at his new lab. I am awaiting his comments about having my piece "What's Your Sign?" in his new lab at the Berkeley Cyclotron. He is just getting started there. In the meantime, we discovered that the research conducted at SLAC while I was sketching there resulted in a significant breakthrough in understanding the speed of magnetic waves. Previously it had been thought that 1 mile per hour was the limit, but they discovered through the experiment during my visit that if materials were made small enough, this speed could increase up to 500 miles per hour. This is particularly significant because computer memories use magnetic storage, and, with the right design, it now appears possible to significantly increase such storage while lowering energy use significantly.
Naming a Piece at the New Lab
I try to name my works through a group consensus process. We have been attempting such a process at Hendrik's new Berkeley Lab location by hanging an unnamed piece in the researchers' lounge with a naming box available for suggestions to be inserted. The piece is shown below with the current set of suggestions. Feel free to participate in the process by e-mailing Hendrik or myself your suggestions. I envision sorting these out along with names for the show pieces later this spring.
Suggested Names:
“Theoretical Evolution” - A blending of evolutionary concepts, real and imagined
“Hexenstunde” - German for "hours of the witches”
“High on a hipster”
“A long run with no sleep”
“Angels and Demons”
“Puppetmaster”
Ushering into the Next World the Heart Endures (suggested at Open Studios)