Multiplication
To design is
To plan and organize,
In order to relate
And to control
In short it embraces
All means opposing
Disorder and accident
Therefore it signifies
A human need
And qualifies man’s
Thinking and doing.
Josef Albers
Josef Albers was an intellectually driven artist obsessed with color perception. His paintings were created with palette knifes, no tape, and the colors never overlap. The scientific pursuit of color was an obsessive and motivational task in both his teaching, painting, and printing. Formation: Articulation, published in 1972 as a set of two boxed portfolios, contains thirty-three screen-printed folders and each folder contains one, two, or four images. The edition is on 1,000 copies and each set is signed by the artist on the title page.
The value of Albers work and perspective is incalculable. His respect and understanding for color, a reality, a wavelength that we are in perpetual interaction with has changed, and continues to change, the way we see, the way we observe our relationship with the physical world. This is perhaps entirely embodied in the repetition and potential for research inherent in the printmaking medium. Although Albers work or theory is not dependent whatsoever on the medium, it is enhanced and ever-present within it. What I mean by this is, color and form are the primary concepts printmaking dares to experiment with in a ritualistic, scientific method. Thus, each user is reminded or exposed to the revelation of color and form, it’s variables.
I have been thinking about the impact of color. Not in an overtly emotive or spiritualized sense, like Rothko, but in the sense that it is quite literally effecting our physicality. That something could do that.
What’s more, I am thinking about this man’s life and how it was lived on the principles of design. I want to live a whole life, which recognizes, appreciates, and justifies thinking and doing. Not because the universe requires it, but because it is the best feeling ever to be awed and moved by revelations, silences, and production.
If there were ever an idea that Existential Media were to justify itself with, it would be this:
To distribute
Material possessions
Is to divide them
To distribute spiritual possessions
Is to multiply them.
Josef Albers
I ask you not to think of this, just now, in terms of religious spirituality. But rather, think of it as the intangible, the relationships between living things, the Internet. When we share “truths,” we only multiply their goodness through interaction.
2 Comments »
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“what are you smiling about?”
“i was just noticing the yellow of the shirt with the pink of the wallet. it’s nice.”
Comment by Alisha — September 18, 2007 #
This is Existential Media.
Comment by Matthew — September 18, 2007 #