Leonardo

Feng Shui Matrix

Author(s): China Blue
Source: Leonardo, Vol. 37, No. 4 (2004), pp. 277-278
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577602 .
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FENG SHUI MATRIX
China Blue, 14 Dunham Place,
Brooklyn, NY 11211, U.S.A.
E-mail: <china_blue@juno.com>.
Received29 August 2003. Accepted
for
publicationbyRogerE Malina.
I am a conceptual artist whose work
explores the relationship of art to tech-
nology, architecture and culture, with
the aim of finding a new typology for
the interlacing of these areas. The
Chinese philosophy of feng shui is the
physical and philosophical positioning
matrix for my work. Physically,feng
shui associates areas of a room with
areas of one's life, so that, for example,
one's career could be affected by where
the bed is placed or the future could be
determined by the placement of the
refrigerator. Philosophically, feng shui
is a system that investigates the relation-
ships between people and the places
they inhabit. In my work I update this
ancient form by introducing new tech-
nology. I achieve this by using stand-
alone plug-and-play modules,
movement triggers, DVDs and audio
systems. Through the use of these
electronic technologies, I literally facili-
tate the feng shui concept of redirect-
ing energy. For example, when a
person walks into a room she brings
her own energy with her. In my work,
she then engages a movement sensor,
which in turn triggers sound that fills
the room. This is the series of energy-
based actions that are initiated and
activated by a person's energy. I am
particularly interested in sound, be-
cause one definition of sound is energy
in physical form.
Architecture
Feng shui is a method of assessing the
nature of a room and altering it to
create aesthetic and healing results.
The idea of healing is focused on both
the people who live in the space and
those who experience it. It is believed
that through the adjustment of the
space, the lives of the people who inter-
act with the space will be affected in a
positive way. It is a kind of acupuncture
for space, if you will! This idea is of
special interest to me because it intro-
? 2004 ISAST
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Fig. 1. China Blue,
Laura'sJabbering
Jabberwocky,plug-
and-play device, ._.
audio recording,
Plexiglas, lamp and
movement sensor,
13 X 41 x 17 inches,
2002. (? China Blue)
The piece is i
-
equipped with a r
movement sensor |
i
that when triggered |i
plays a recording of i
Laura Miller speed- -
reading Lewis Car- - - -'
roll's poem
"Jabberwocky"in
less than a minute.
IN
duces the idea of social and psychologi- nectedness of the world. In the piece
cal healing as an aesthetic component Laura'sJabberingJabberwocky (Fig. 1), the
in the context of visual ideas. sensor triggers an audio recording of
Lewis Carroll's poem "Jabberwocky."
Technology This recording, made with the goal of
The movement sensors are used in reading the poem in a minute or less,
conjunction with stand-alone, plug-and- scrambles the already humorous-
play electronic modules that are con- sounding poem and makes it sound
nected to speakers. The movement even funnier. In the context of feng
sensors trigger sound from the mod- shui, the element of humor is consid-
ules. When a person walks by or inter- ered to be healing.
acts with the space, a sound is heard.
This idea of interaction and contact is Art and Innovation
critical to the concept of the work Incorporating a Chinese cultural refer-
because it stimulates a direct and physi- ence is important to the work because
cal engagement of the viewer with the it establishes the strategy of imparting
space while simultaneously establishing another cultural viewpoint. This chal-
a connection between the work and the lenges the Western conception of space
architecture of the room. This part is as defined by the disciplines of sculp-
particularly interesting because it illus- ture and architecture. By emphasizing
trates in a very direct and simple way in my work feng shui's inherent archi-
the Buddhist concept of the intercon- tectural references and its idea of the
Vol.37, No. 4, pp. 277-279, 2004
LEONARDO, 277
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healing qualities of space, I realize a
new context for creating and viewing
art and simultaneously seek to outline a
Chinese (or Eastern) relationship to
the production and perception of space
as distinct from the dominant cultural
viewpoint.
BIOLUMINESCENT GARDEN
Jun Takita, 71-73, rue Victor Hugo,
93500 Pantin, France. E-mail:
<jun.takita@wanadoo.fr>.
Received13 August 2003. Acceptedfor
publicationbyRogerE Malina.
It is easy to perceive a figure in the
landscape within 10? of one's line of
sight. This angle corresponds to the
size of the visual field of a fist held out
at arm's length. For example, constella-
tions are based on the principle that
one reads stars at a distance of up to
about 11? from one another as part of a
group. Even when we look at the sky,
the human hand is the unit of refer-
ence for measuring an image. If an
object exceeds this 10? visual field, we
have to move our eyes in order to per-
ceive it in its entirety. Vision is then
constructed by the accretion of several
images memorized by the brain.
I have conceived a garden project
based on this phenomenon. In contrast
to the Zen garden, which plays upon
the memory of composed images, I
propose a unique image perceptible at
a glance.
Fig. 2. Jun Takita, BioluminescentGarden:Nuit, digital image, 2002. (? Jun Takita) Night view
of bush and cave: inversion of figure and background. For the daytime view, see issue cover.
278 Artists' Statements
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This elevated garden is to be situated
atop a building. The central element is
a mineral sculpture composed of three
symmetrical walls forming a cave and a
bush pruned into a hemisphere. The
visitor is led to a viewpoint along the
axis of the sculpture, where the bush is
framed by the cave. The distance from
this point to the bush will permit the
eye to perceive the whole installation at
once. In springtime the bush will blos-
som, and it will be pruned regularly so
that it remains within the framework of
the cave. The inside of the cave is to be
covered with a bioluminescent moss
produced with genetic engineering
technology. The moss will emit light via
photosynthesis.
According to traditional classifica-
tion, photosynthesizing organisms
belong to the plant kingdom. Plants
transform light into energy but are not
capable of bioluminescence-that is,
they cannot emit light. Excepting a few
species like the dinoflagellates, which
belong to both the plant and animal
kingdoms, bioluminescence is found in
only a few animal species. In other
words, biological evolution has not
given rise to an organism that can both
consume light as energy and use that
energy to create its own light. However,
over the last few years, genetic manipu-
lation has made it possible to create
bioluminescent plants. Acting simulta-
neously as plants and nonplants, these
artificial organisms transgress the laws
of nature. The new technologies of
genetic engineering have totally shaken
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our society. The motivation of this work
is neither to celebrate the superiority of
human power nor to condemn contem-
porary science. Humanity is always
searching for its origins. Here, the
visitor is invited to discover him- or
herself in the visual experience made
possible through genetic engineering.
During the day, when the moss's
luminescence is imperceptible, the
bush will become the central figure of
this landscape. Its form will be lit by the
sun, and its shape will serve to distin-
guish it from a dark background. After
sunset the opposite happens: the biolu-
minescent background will be broken
up by the silhouette of the bush, form-
ing a negative figure (see issue cover
and Fig. 2).
HUMANSCAPE: IMAGE-
METAPHOR-NARRATIVE:
A COLLABORATION IN
HEMATO-ONCOLOGY
Andrea Duncan, School of Architecture
and the Visual Arts, University of East
London, Docklands Campus, 4-6 Uni-
versity Way,London E16 2RD, U.K
E-mail:<andreaduncan839@hotmail.
com>.
Received25 April 2003. Acceptedforpubli-
cationbyRogerF Malina.
My work explores interdisciplinary
links between art, science and narrative
from the position of an enthusiasm for
the "phenomenal body," i.e. the body's
emotional relationship to the "thing-
ness" of the world. As an artist, I use
photography, digital imagery and text
to extend and combine the languages
of these disciplines in unorthodox
ways. Working across these disciplines, I
value metaphor as a carrier of mean-
ing. I also utilize slippage and juxtaposi-
tion as further elements in the visual
and textual narratives that I construct
[1]. These metaphoric narratives (or
cross-wirings) may be seen to connect
various phenomena of perceptual
experience by recognizing and combin-
ing the experience of the senses
through a series of visual and linguistic
layers of meaning. As Vilayanur S.
Ramachandran said recently in dis-
cussing the brain's metaphor-making
relationship to synesthesia, "there is a
pre-existing translation between the
visual appearance of the object repre-
sented in the fusiform gyrus [of the
brain] and the auditory representation
in the auditory cortex" [2].