Art by Mandelsage
℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက is about identity; both individual identity as well as our collective identity as a species.
Since the very beginning, human beings have been fascinated by the world around them. We have tried to understand it, our place in it, and ourselves. In this process, faced with chaotic complexity and forces we couldn't comprehend, we gave significance to otherwise meaningless events, and created a meaningful world for ourselves within the greater unfathomable universe.
Things do not have names, nor exist in inherent categories. Humans are responsible for these... We are the inventors of meaning.
With this in mind, I present my own creation: ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက
I'm a single human, attempting to be humanity itself in my own analogy, with my creation as a metaphor for all we have created.
℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက is an ever-evolving artwork that focuses on the experience of existing as a human being; our grappling with the apparent chaos we find ourselves in and our constant attempts at finding order and meaning in this chaos.
And just like our lives, there are random, meaningless elements in it, there are deliberate, purposeful elements in it, and there are elements that depend on your interpretation as to whether they have any meaning or not. ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက asks you: Do things have inherent meaning, or are they empty of it until human beings consider them worthy of consideration? And it dares you to find meaning for your own life in it.
Thus, when you look at your ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက, you will have questions about the meaning of its elements, just as we have questions about the meaning of everything we experience, including our own existence. And while all the answers to the latter might not ever be fully understood, the answers to the former can be found with the help of one of humanity's greatest modern inventions: the internet. Whether this then goes on to help you find meaning in your own life is up to you.
Any attempt at describing ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက without mentioning Matt Kane's "Gazers" would be incomplete. In both a literal and figurative sense, Gazers are what gave birth to ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက. Literally, because it was while reading the art description of Gazers that the idea for ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက came to me. Figuratively, because if Gazers represent any one thing at all, that thing is nature, while ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက represents humans and their experiences. And through evolution by natural selection, humans were born from, and are a part of, nature.
It could be said that ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက is a kind of mirrored-reflection of Gazers. It focuses on and celebrates general subjective human learning and perception of reality, while Gazers' weave a delightful tapestry of light and time of which we humans partake of as entranced observers.
Gazers ask questions about the future based upon observations of the past, and evolve according to specific rhythms in nature, using deterministic design rules upon their creation to determine all future evolution. ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက, on the other hand, asks no questions about the future, but rather focuses exclusively on the present, and how it has been influenced by the past. It asks, "How is today important?
℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက's evolution is inspired by the lives of humans, as well as by the arbitrary, irregular clock of that which humans give importance to. Thus its deterministic design rules give the illusion of random evolution, as well as celebrate sporadic points in time determined beforehand, mimicking how human lives seem to progress chaotically except for certain moments in our lives that feel like "destiny".
These moments only seem this way, however, with hindsight - when we look back, see our own personal story, and try to make sense of it. In the same way, ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက will change according to celebrated dates in the past from the date they were created, regardless of whether those days continue to be recognised or remembered in the future.
This pseudo-random evolution is also meant to be an analogy for compatibilism when it comes to free will. Compatibilism says that even though everything, past and future, is all predetermined, we can still act with free agency in what we perceive as the present moment. In the same way, all the randomness of the colours, characters and positionings of the characters of ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက are hard-coded in. But when actually looking at the work in the present, all these elements seem to change randomly.
In the end, humans and their culture all still fall under the great umbrella that is nature/the natural world. As much as our ancestors tried to deny it, we are as much a part of nature as the lowliest slimes - we just follow different rhythms, and at its core, this is what ℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက is a celebration of: The wonderful fact of our existence as a result of simple, natural processes in the natural world, and our unique complexity that is so remarkable as to fool itself (ourselves) into thinking that we're something apart.
℈ℽ⍷-ᚤက Symbology:
