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During the Beginning
Posted by curt cloninger
Link:
http://deepyoung.org/current/genesis/
Date:
May 24, 2008
Durning the Beginning is a series of installation stations based on Genesis 1:3, "And God said let there be light and there was light." Collectively, these stations perform the impossibility of reducing the creation event to words.

documentation and source media at http://deepyoung.org/current/genesis/

2 Comments

Comment by marc garrett
July 1, 2008 2:49 pm
Thanks Curt,

Nice Video of the installation...

I especially like the table with the text/code dynamically changing on the surface, is that an animation, or generative code, or live link up - or something else?

marc
Comment by curt cloninger
July 1, 2008 3:25 pm
Thanks Marc,

The table animation is generative code in Processing. The actual applet is here:
http://deepyoung.org/current/genesis/genesis_31/

The font is based on my own handwriting.

I put the source words from the Genesis 1:3 (and, god, said, let, there, be, light, was) into a prototype animation system and watched for other hybrid words to arise as they were collaged. Then I replaced the source words with the resultant hybrid words and watched for the next generation of hybrid words to arise. The final animation is pulling pseudo-randomly from a set of 35 words:

//outer ring underlay
String wordsa1[] = {
" goat goat ",
"bless bless",
"louse louse",
"swirl swirl",
"feign feign",
" glue glue ",
" go go ",
};


//outer ring overlay
String wordsm1[] = {
"sound sound",
"cloud cloud",
"faust faust",
"death death",
" land land ",
" egad egad ",
" get get ",
};


//inner ring underlay
String wordsb1[] = {
"thigh thigh",
"fight fight",
" lend lend ",
" base base ",
" wean wean ",
" food food ",
" oath oath ",
};

//inner ring overlay
String wordsn1[] = {
"squid squid",
"guest guest",
"beast beast",
" sand sand ",
" bent bent ",
" coat coat ",
" bee bee ",
};

//center underlay
String wordsc1[] = {
"least least",
"agent agent",
"solid solid",
" wood wood ",
" beet beet ",
" glee glee ",
" void void ",
};

//center overlay
String wordsp1[] = {
" less less ",
"lease lease",
"legal legal",
" band band ",
" here here ",
" fast fast ",
" gold gold ",
};

So words are used by the author of Genesis to describe the enunciation event that created everything, and then I massage those words to create other words that describe a curious range of created things and states. More interestingly, the generative animation itself is a kind of perpetual event that slips between abstract baroque line and denotative semiotic signifier. I'm after a kind of phenomenology of language -- an embodied confounding/unsaying.

Peace,
Curt
 
 

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