Theory of Relativity: The Visual Image
Receiving and experiencing the `visual image': The Theory of Relativity applied to artistic creation and reproduction...
In our discussions we have addressed the artistic creation of a product, and its subsequent emanations in the consciousness of other human beings, whether having seen the original or a reproduction of it. Much of our discussion has revolved around the relative nature of receipt and experience of a creation--that the way we receive, appreciate, judge, and critique a creation can be informed by
- our subjective orientations
- our background knowledge of the form
- product and history of the artist
- the cultural context surrounding the creation
- the commodification and marketing of the creation
- the setting and circumstance surrounding the receiver
and myriad other factors that may inform our aesthetic experience of an artist's product. There are a variety of theoretical constructs competing for a definitive explanation of how a visual image is thus socially constructed and deconstructed--all of which have value depending on one's orientation to any or a combination of the above factors. Our discussions led me to ponder the theory of relativity and how it may apply to the creation of an art, its reproduction in visual images, and the many ways that an individual will process the expe
rience of interacting with that image. I suggest a parallel equation that reflects Einstein's theory, situating the creation of the art object as the origin of it's energy source, and then how it emanates outward and its aura becomes transmuted by time, space, and human consciousness.
I looked up this source in class, just to find some explanation that I could digest and process in a short period of time--the source is http://www.allaboutscience.org/theory-of-relativity.htm
First, a basic context from this site:
Although the concept of relativity was not introduced by Einstein, his major contribution was the recognition that the speed of light in a vacuum is constant and an absolute physical boundary for motion. This does not have a major impact on a person's day-to-day life since we travel at speeds much slower than light speed. For objects travelling near light speed, however, the theory of relativity states that objects will move slower and shorten in length from the point of view of an observer on Earth. Einstein also derived the famous equation, E = mc2, which reveals the equivalence of mass and energy.
If we consider the creation of an artistic product as the original source, and its aura as being the strongest in the original process of creation, then that energy and aura is a force that is comparable to the speed of light, in that it is the speed of human thought that processes that which is experienced in the residual interactions with that object and images of the object after it is created. If thought moves near the speed of light or faster, the theory would suggest that the energy emanating from an object moves at a different velocity as others distanced by time and space experience the product or its image. Thus a reproduction of an image carries less energetic resonance than an experience with the work of art itself presented in a museum, than walking in on the studio of the artist after it has been painted, respectively.
The General Theory of Relativity, which primarily applies to particles as they accelerate, particularly due to gravitation, and acts as a radical revision of Newton’s theory, predicting important new results for fast-moving and/or very massive bodies. The General Theory of Relativity correctly reproduces all validated predictions of Newton’s theory, but expands on our understanding of some of the key principles. Newtonian physics had previously hypothesized that gravity operated through empty space, but the theory lacked explanatory power as far as how the distance and mass of a given object could be transmitted through space. General relativity irons out this paradox, for it shows that objects continue to move in a straight line in space-time, but we observe the motion as acceleration because of the curved nature of space-time.
The space around an art product and visual images of it is filled with many influential factors. There is no empty space around an object--it is subject to physical elements, the erosion of time, the other hands that have been placed on it, its revisualization in a photograph, its reproduction on another surface--some factors that suggest that there a variety of spacial factors that bend and curve the transmission and receipt of that original light or mind-energy source over time.
The General Theory of Relativity demonstrates that time is linked, or related, to matter and space, and thus the dimensions of time, space, and matter constitute what we would call a continuum. They must come into being at precisely the same instant. Time itself cannot exist in the absence of matter and space. From this, we can infer that the uncaused first cause must exist outside of the four dimensions of space and time, and possess eternal, personal, and intelligent qualities in order to possess the capabilities of intentionally space, matter -- and indeed even time itself -- into being.
Time--the original manifestation of the creation, and the passage of which braids in the confluence of space and matter to generate new meanings of a visual image/reproduction of a creation. Yet time exists in the world of consciousness, time is known by those who identify it as such, which brings in the most important of variables--the human mind and the myriad trajectories from which various relative positions can be taken towards an original creation or its subsequent reproductions. We can barely divorce ourselves from our consciousness, except in some of the renowned states of Zen being, and the state of disinterest is still grounded in a known interest to divest oneself from. Therefore we place value, personal and intelligent, intentionality and interpretation on the creation how and when we receive the art or image. This value is relative to the state of our own consciousness, the conditions at a particular time and place in the universe, and is emotionally, historically, socially, and psychologically grounded or rooted in our perspective.
Loosely applied, the theory of relativity helps to support many renditions of how we see the visual image--that all are part of a greater prism of multifaceted human consciousness, and that they give valuable and valid perspectives in their own right--but none can be total...they are as relative as the humans who created them.
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