Opposite of a Silhouette: Light Khora

The Shed

Writing so far with annotations and comments from tutors.

The opposite of a Silhouette: Light khora

It is a commonly held belief that when one perceives a square of sunlight on a wall, one sees a two-dimensional square, but the ‘actual’ shape of the light could be conceived as an elongated three-dimensional pyramid with its zenith originating at the sun. The existence of this light-space is hinted at as dust motes identify it’s presence. Is that right?

One might draw this as follows:

Shadows can be considered in a similar way: a shadow may appear as a two-dimensional shape, visible on a wall, but the shadow-space extends from this shape to the light-obstruction that enabled this shadow to be present.  You could represent this phenomemon thus:

Light fills a space and can be defined by the shadows around it that appear to be boundries created in our conscious.  Light and shadow are ‘immaterial’ and difficult to contain. I have chosen to illustrate the concept of the opposite of a silhouette in true form using a real life example.

This installation questions this.

This installation aims to encapsulate this spatial dimensionality of light by presenting light as a ‘material’ within space.  We are accustomed to being bathed in light with rare periods of complete darkness.   The moment we move from darkness to light is the significant event in our perception of a change in ‘presence’. The shed projects it’s own contrasting, dark, bleak ‘presence’ in contrast to what is inside, holding the light from us. Is there something to put in here about the darkness within the shed holding the light? nice!

Silhouette is a commonly used word. However there doesn’t appear to be a simple word for the opposite of a silhouette. Illumination, luminosity, radiance, incandescence: none of these describes the three dimensional defined shape produced by light within a space. As a culture, we’ve defined the negative but not the positive aspect.  Do other languages have a word for this idea?

So given that light is ‘immaterial’ and as such is difficult to represent in three-dimensions, I have presented materials to the light, to be interacted with, and therefore known to us.  The threads capture the light as it passes through the space. Without these strings, we would see only a two-dimensional projection on the wall. The idea of the thread is to capture the amorphous light and show it as a three-dimensional floating object within the shed. This is a physical artwork that raises metaphysical questions concerning the perception and conception of light. of art illustrates the opposite of a silhouette and the positive aspect of ‘light  khora’  this could be conceived of as a form of  ‘light khora’, the ancient word khora used by Plato in referring to negative space.

The drawings above only go so far in explaining. So Why have I use a shed? It’s  a dark environment in which the idea works blab l

Perhaps this addresses the above about the darkness of the interior (and exterior) of the shed.

definition of khora relating it to the vessel that holds light?

The Platonic term khora describes a space

Light only seems to be immaterial   material/immaterial are relative to something.  There is no such thing as matter

The model of light beams that you have is rather old fashioned in physics terms.

The idea of the single state universe seem to be nearer to your ideas. – you are not trying to prove or to work something out – you illustrate some ideas emerging in advanced science. There re no boundries to where the light source starts and to where it ends, however we perceive the boundries in our conscious. The light is just as much in the air as it is when it hits a surface.

This has the status of a scientific illustration…harking back to the scientist in his/her shed does it not?

Dark matter

I’m distorting the different vibrations by placing the cords into the light.

I’m illustrating the presence of light even though it may be perceived as an empty space.

I’m playing around with the molecules which make up the spataial dimensionality

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