Black Mass: Cygnus X-1

{ Liturgy for a black hole }

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Known as the celestial swan, the constellation Cygnus has been the source of myth since the Neolithic era. Many ancient monuments of worship were built aligned to its coordinates, as it lays to the north, near the summer solstice.

Cygnus X-1 is a black hole, located in the Cygnus constellation. It was first observed 1964 as one of the strongest X-ray sources that could be seen in space, and was identified as a black hole because of its relationship to the star HDE 226868.

Cygnus X-1 and HDE 226868 orbit each other forming a high-mass X-ray binary, where the star is visible by the emission of light, while the black hole is the dominant source of X-rays.

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All my sound work can be found @SoundCloud.com

©ADG2013

The Noise of Closed-Eye Vision

In a darkened room, or with your eyes closed, you may have experienced the noise of closed-eye vision. The phenomenon of closed-eye hallucinations, or a phosphene, is the perceived sensation of seeing light, when no light is actually entering the eye.

There is form in the indistinguishability of dark events.

Even in the absence of light, some impulses are still sent along the optic nerve, causing the sensation of an animated, dark coloured noise.

©ADG2013

Night Works, the City Rises

Sound is becoming an increasing concern within my work. I have always been interested in music, but more and more it is the sound of real environments, and incidental noises, that interest me.

Here I have used the recorded sound of construction, a bulldozer digging earth. As the people sleep the city grows, and always the worms enrich the soil.

Very simply, I compose the instruments in the manner of aleatoric music, intuitively making patterns with synthesizers.

In the future, I intend to use sound in convergence with my visual art practice.


©ADG2013

Hallucinations of the Primary Visual Cortex III

Watercolour, pencil and ink on watercolour paper, with digital reflection.

My thinking is revealed, through the work. The process acts as an apparatus, that can synthesize chaotic elements of the mind. From the noise of competing thoughts, ideas, and memories (etc.) information is distilled into a pure form, of organized complexity. The work is a symbol, able to be understood intuitively, by myself, or anyone.

©ADG2013

Isomorphic Exercise

Watercolour, with pen and ink on cardboard.

Isomorphism is apparent when two separate entities share similarities in form, shape, or structure. A biological isomorphism is the similarity in form between organisms of different ancestry.

Emerging here are a group of forms that are exactly equal and alike. This could be the mapped landmass of an unknown world, or a hexagonal petri dish being used to culture the cells of microscopic organisms. These entities have such a close similarity, or resemblance, as to be essentially equal or interchangeable and isomorphic.

©ADG2013

Wi†ch Hat Geode

Poster board and spun sugar.

The witch hat geode is a continuation of my Junk Geode series, that mimics these geological forms with found materials. The shell is an octagonal pyramid that holds a crystal (sugar) interior. The spun sugar is exposed, and over time, will continue to contract and solidify.

©ADG2013

Proof by exhaustion •

Irregular table tennis balls.

When stacking spheres, there are two regular lattices that achieve the highest density. They differ in how the sheets are stacked upon one another, and are called face-centered cubic, and hexagonal close-packed. These formations have been used in models to describe the atomic arrangements of crystal structures. In many cases the atoms of a crystal pack together as tightly as possible.


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I am interested in the way these mathematical objects coalesce. The repetition of spheres, creating volumes, invisible polyhedrons, with straight lines from curves.


©ADG2013