Thing and Meaning

There is the thing itself and then there is what it means to me. A Spatial Portrait. People interaction changes the lights. Hoberman Sphere. Programmed motor control. What does it mean? Soccer ball? To me it means Expansion of Consciousness. Lights are 5D Tetrahedronal Light Muscles (TLMs). Sphere is EIE - 5D consciousness model. See the movie: Flash or QuickTime (or QuickTime alternative).

In the lobby to the Liberty Science Center in New Jersey, USA, there are two moving works of art.

• A Spatial Portrait by Leni Schwendinger of Light Projects LTD is made of LEDs that are programmed to change interactively with data from sensors in different parts of the room. See a good video or invitation to the unveiling. I walked in and there it was. I jumped on the pad and saw my clothes' colors in the lights. I viewed from the balcony by the Hoberman Sphere. Also sat on a bench by the front windows. It looks different from every vantage point. I'd like to see it at night and also with a controlled number of people. Lots of possibilities.
• 18-foot Hoberman Sphere expands and contracts, run by a programmed motor-pulley system.

Looking at the video clips of the works was dull. Being in the environment had been exhilerating. What was missing from my movies? The video was OK, but surely could be much better with better equipment and longer studies. What kept me tantalized?

I knew I had a personal interest in the Hoberman Sphere. In 2009, for the last 15 years I've had the toy dangling overhead at work and in my studio. Actually the one I have is made of six great circles and illuminates the geometry of an EIE, the expansion of consciousness model more clearly than the complicated one at the Science Center. I wish it were done in colors showing the vertices of the 12 pentagons and differentiating the great circles in the geometry. Maybe I could color them in the video. No, it's too confusing.

Also I have a deep involvement in being in colored light in interactive environments such as in Wholeo Dome, drawing me to the flickering LEDs of the Spatial Portrait. Suddenly I realized that the light patterns of the Spatial Portrait reminded me of the texture, the modality, the action of a TLM. Things aren't separate in my mind. At the site and in memory I provided the context of a 5D Brain Cell while the art works filled out and represented the concepts. To report on my experience I must show the imaginative synergistics, synergies, synergisms, whichever is the right word.

See also the Light Switch. Back to Travel Art.