Chiral Fields

Artists have often spoken of their paintings as 'fields' as in the Field Paintings of Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and the Abstract Expressionist painters of the '50s. Their work centered on the production of sympathetic and even empathetic emotional responses from viewers of their art. Later, a group of artists branched off to create the Op-Art movement which explored the physical rather than the emotional effects of certain optical fields. Out of necessity they started by taking well known illusions and reproducing them in large scale, most often restricting themselves to the use of black and white since the high edge definition of black against white seemed to produce the most striking effects. By its nature art is viewer oriented, that is to say, an artist always has the onlooker in mind when producing a work of art and Op-Art is no exception but it has perhaps come closest, out of all the art forms, to attaining complete objectivity. Optical effects are well documented however they exist as just that; optical effects. Could such optical effects be used to create a language that deals with issues beyond mere physical sensation?

Recent studies of a new optical illusion reveal that the warping of the perceived space between the observer and illusion can be controlled to produce the sensation of spin and the possibility exists of a language that deals with concepts like non-Euclidean space, quantum spin and chirality in apparent physical terms. One result is the direct experience of quantum spin and non-Euclidean space.

The images below are computer generated fields which, given the right conditions, provide the illusion of spin. Structurally they are the same but they are opposite in colour and effect. The field in FIG 1: seems to spin in a clockwise direction and is centre seeking (centripetal), while the field in FIG 2: spins in an anti-clockwise direction and is centrifugal. For this discussion paper I shall only refer to Positive fields. So far I have created chiral fields both as 180 x 180 cm paintings and as 500 x 500 pixel computer images. The paintings are more complex as they hold as many as four different types of field. An observer is pushed, pulled and twisted by these images in many different ways. Their interactions are very complex to describe in mathematical terms but I have made an attempt at an algorithm (which has generated simple fields) to permutate the different fields at varying positions, as there are so many possibilities. Problems have occurred in the algorithm when I try to combine more than two fields but I'm working on a solution.
If you follow the links from here you will get a feel of this field of study.

FIG 1: 12/22/96  A Field of Negative 1-D elements (polarised)

FIG 2: 12/22/96  A Field of Positive 1-D elements (polarised)

Characteristics of 1-D elements

Chirality

Perceptive basis for Chiral Optics

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marek@panetix.com

Last Revised: 30/12/99