CHRIS CORNISH
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Alex Jukes describes Chris Cornish's work "as relationships between virtual digital object space, real world physical space and the role of the viewer". When thinking about spatial tendencies, Cornish has, apparently, all of the bases covered. It's is the breadth of spatial knowledge presented by Cornish that intrigues me, the composition of objects within a space and the creation of an environment within the space.
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Right, we see Cornish's balls. Don't be so crass. This is Cornish's 'horizon series'. Cornish describes these as a "document of volume, light and the temporal nature of location and our quest to entrap perception through meditation.". I have been processing the idea of landscape, and although this blog has lately become supportive of my final idea (as at least the Spatial Tendencies section has been written post-presentation), I am still finding more and more relevance and connections within Cornish's work.
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Cornish's balls, and their near perfection, ring bells of virtual reality. This is virtual reality and it is unnatural at its core. It is not farfetched to imagine different coloured balls, yet they sit in the Uncanny Valley. They only exist in the Uncanny Valley.
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I'm taking the concept of Uncanny Valley (UCV) a bit literally. I'd like to imagine what such a place would look like if you set to think about it as a definitive area of land. Due to the fact that it exists in imagination, this landscape might appear differently to different people and could have different variations within a single person.
'horizon series'
'Infinity cove'
Furthering this idea of UCV, Cornish's 'the adventure and the resolution' (Left) is set into a "parallel dimension". They are computerized creations, designed to exist outside of reality. Outside of nature. Personally, the most interesting thing about this is the diverse pot-pourri between illusion and reality. I'm interested in finding out what are the driving factors behind what is considered unnatural?
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While we live in a world that is governed by the digitization of everything, how do we know what is unnatural? Everything is always constantly changing, which means that throughout this eternal flux, we could see the supernatural become the unnatural - created by the natural.
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Actually, I think I'm a bit ahead of myself here. In my presentation, I proposed my ideas about the natural, unnatural, and supernatural - discussing how they could be connected.
The natural is everything that exists.
The supernatural is everything that does not.
The unnatural can be made to exist by using the natural.
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If we learn that a supernatural phenomenon (ghosts, for example) exists, then they would be promoted (or demoted, depending on what you wish to believe the imaginary hierarchy in this scenario is) to the natural.
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Taking Cornish's balls as another example, we can assess that they are unnatural because they didnt exist before they were made. Through time and human acceptance of these objects as real, they can become natural.
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The natural doesn't just have to exist in a pre-man world or in a world completely devoid of humans - because man is natural and everything that is made can become natural. It is our perception of what is natural that drives the creation of the unnatural.
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'the world in between is invisible to them'
Below is a collection of images and a video from a project I have developed in response to Cornish's work. The application I have developed here serves as a space to explore a single style from many perspectives. I wanted to create something that would consolidate some aspects of Cornish's work that I have enjoyed. Perspective, composition, absence, and the detail about parallel dimension / created worlds. I came up with something very minimal, but it holds on to some of the prerequisites I set myself.
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One of the most striking elements in this body of work is the thin, straight lines. These are trails. They show where a particle has been. They are proof of its movement through space and proof of the existence of a particle. After I had implemented them, I was struck by their similarity to Cornish's 'Infinity cove'. The particle might have moved, but the proof that it was is there.
Here is a downloadable file for the application. It WILL take over the entire screen when you open it. The fastest way to exit the application is by using the command + Q button combination. If you are having trouble opening the app - follow the instructions here - https://stackoverflow.com/questions/64842819/cant-run-app-because-of-permission-in-big-sur
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Controls:
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Up Arrow = move forward
Down Arrow = move backward
A button = turn left
D button = turn right
Q button = rotate left
E button = rotate right
Command + Q = QUIT