here are some process/prototype photos and the artist statement for my upcoming piece, Collapsible Oceans:
This project seeks to further understand the paradoxical nature of space. Specifically, how do people and objects experience or interact with space? What constitutes the relationship between real and virtual space? How do we define the terms ‘virtual’ and ‘real’ space, and at what point do they intersect? What is the nature of ‘real’ space? Science, a tool that seeks to define and understand reality, is used as a vessel to explore these concepts. First proposed by Edwin Abbott Abbott in 1884, the idea of multidimensionality provides a unique glimpse into the nature of space, suggesting that spatial dimensions exist beyond the familiar. Recent application of multidimensionality as explanation for some of our universe’s phenomenon has provided evidence that this theory realistically describes our world. It has even been suggested that, while our universe is bound in scale in the third dimension, its form in the fourth could be cyclical – therefore, limitless. This model explores a detailed relationship between virtual and real space - in this way, Collapsible Oceans will be both limited in form and boundless in space.
These considerations raise exciting new questions for the future. What is our three dimensional reality’s relationship with other dimensions? How do we interact with other dimensions and what is our effect on them? How is our definition of both virtual and real space shifting? Where do we draw the boundary between the two, and where do they overlap?
Drawing on the ideas of great minds such as Michio Kaku, Carl Sagan, Edwin Abbott Abbott, Martin Gardner, David Hildebrand Wilson, and Stephen Hawking, I hope to inform viewers that reality, and its relationship to real space, may be more expansive than we had previously expected.
Collapsible Oceans will show alongside the rest of the SCIN 2010/11 Thesis students at the Brinks Building in Toronto from late April to early May. If you'd like to volunteer to help with fabrication/installation, you can email me at m_coffey01@hotmail.com. You will be paid in beeeers, and get an opportunity to meet and hang out with some awesome people. Everyone at any skill level is welcome to join in.
More details on the exhibition as they arise.
