If / Then : measuring matter through metaphor : a poetic exploration of science

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis investigates physical and philosophical measurement within thecontext of a Masters Degree in Visual Arts. By unpacking concepts within sciencethrough a philosophical approach to material, this study underscores andinvestigates questions of certainty and the unknown. This entails the examinationof associated terms like 'accuracy' and 'result,' where such results are expressedand arrived at through chance and temperament rather than mathematicalequations or formulas. Using the example of a Universal Conditional Statement,specifically (x)(Px⊃Qx), this physical / philosophical methodology will be appliedto a practice-led artistic research. The given Statement simply denotes that whatis on both the left and right of the symbol '⊃ are interchangeable, subject to thecondition of 'if… then. This symbol is one that encapsulates and encompassesthis document, which seeks to explore the relation between 'if' and 'then', aswell as the known and unknown. Towards this end, and to understand, connectand manipulate through the measuring of material, aspects such as 'Facts','Laws' and 'Quasiserial Arrangements' are investigated.In addition, through the study of a physical measuring tool, the metre, and thehistory of the metric system, this thesis also tracks and discloses informationregarding the quest for accuracy, demonstrating how this ever-evolvingobjective goes hand in hand with inaccuracy, something especially apparentin the calculation of the immeasurable and the unknown. Part of this focuslooks at Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which reveals the hybridand extravagant behaviour of material and also affirms that the result of anexperiment is only as accurate as the domain in which it is set.Concepts such as fact, uncertainty and material exploration are used by theartist in the creative process to test, measure and influence material. In thiscreative process, the body is sited as subject, as one that not only measures, butis measured against. When the body is added to a set of conditions, aimed toquestion material behaviour, the results prove unpredictable. Though materialexploration and the appropriation of measuring through metaphor, the hapticand the tactile provides access and act as placeholders for the moments wherematerial behaves in ways we cannot predict.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University