sculpture 'approaching the speed of light': the use of time as the fourth dimension

Leonardo

Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light': The Use of Time as the Fourth DimensionAuthor(s): Dan GeorgeSource: Leonardo, Vol. 19, No. 2 (1986), pp. 117-121Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578273 .

Accessed: 17/06/2014 19:54

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

The MIT Press and Leonardo are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access toLeonardo.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 188.72.126.88 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 19:54:08 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=mitpress

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1578273?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light':

The Use of Time As the Fourth Dimension

Dan George

Abstract-The author links developments in modern physics with the perception of movement in sculpture. Particularly by tracing implications of Einstein's paper on the Theory of Special Relativity, the sculptor shows changes in a variety of twentieth-century art forms and in his own recent work. His current roadway installations, composed of elements arranged in a series and covered with reflective sheeting, make use of the dimension of time. Such installations depend on movement by viewers and changes in light in order to be perceived. He concludes with observations on the sources of change in art and on some unusual sources of change in his own career.

I. INTRODUCTION .

I have long been interested in percep- X t i tion and its relation to time and speed. When I first learned to read, I discovered .

-, that the letters in words sometimes would i

appear to rearrange themselves on the

page. Radical shifts would occur in the meaning of sentences, to the horror of my teachers and to the detriment of my grades. I grew used to being wrong, until I began making art. Dyslexia, which by then had been discovered as a pheno- menon, serves artists well; in art unusual or unique vision receives praise.

Changes and their perception are an important part of my art. The shifts of _ . viewpoint my sculpture requires may at times be related to kinetic sculpture, to traditional central core sculpture or to sculpture that falls somewhere in between [1]. Although I hesitate to call my more recent installations four-dimensional, they do use time as an equal component with the other three dimensions in a way that requires the viewer to experience the individual elements of any one installation sequentially. I hesitate in deference to Rudolf Arnheim, who discusses the use of time and the difference between psychological time and material time in Art and Visual Perception [2]. Here I will discuss the effect of using flat space, cubic space and their illusions together with time as equal partners in expression.

In my outdoor sculptures of 1975-1977 I used glass to suspend painted forms (Fig. 1). I was intrigued by the characteristics of glass. At one moment the glass would be visible and reflect its surroundings, and then, with a shift in light, it would disappear, leaving the .

"Q ..-

Dan George (sculptor), 195 N. 5th Street, Brooklyn, '"' .:' ̂ " NY 11211, U.S.A.

Fig. 1. Finnegan, painted steel and glass, granite, 10 x 3 x 2 ft, 1975. (Collection of Dr. and Mrs. Manuscript solicited by Peter Richards. Seymour Levin. Photo: Jeanne Bernhard.) Glass and colors were used for their dematerializing Received 11 February 1985. qualies qualities.

? 1986 ISAST Pergamon Journals Ltd. Printed in Great Britain. 0024-094X/86 $3.00+0.00

LEONARDO, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 117-121, 1986 117



-/ C

///

,/1

/ /

/ 0

/ /Z

'a

(I-

.......

.:.i>R_..........................................

." '. ...':??- * . FS fi

........ ...... b ,

xi; fllfo , ~~~~C- = F; o::4

Fig. 2. Einsteinfrom Las Vegas, aluminum plate with colored refective sheeting, 2 to 12 ft high x 1/4 mile long, 1979. Installed at Prospect Mountain. Adirondack Mountains, New York. (2a) Map showing the last 10 elements of a total of 21 in the installation. Components b, c, d indicate the viewpoints from

which the respective detailed photographs (2b, 2c, 2d) were taken. (Photos: Jeanne Bernhard.)

painted forms 'floating'. The tint of the glass would sometimes frame or color the view beyond. I painted the solid struc- tural parts of the sculpture with colors that showed strong changes with shifts in light. Some of the colors I used were black-green, orange-red, purple-red and lemon-yellow. At times I also used a purple-blue that would appear variously as black, blue, purple or dark red.

My sculptures of 1977-1978 were more formal and used neither glass nor color. In them I sought to create the effect of movement in a more physically confined space. Eventually I resumed using color. Trained as a painter and inclined to use color as light, I wanted my sculptures to be saturated with colored light and not simply to have painted surfaces. To feel the depth of the colors as light and the sculpture as light-not just as painted

volumes-I began to build aluminium sculptures with colored, reflective highway sheeting applied to their surfaces. The reflective sheeting merges color and light with the surface and thus equalizes the impact of color, light and mass. The multiple layers of the sheeting, with its transparent colors of plastic laid over ground glass, avoid a painted-on appear- ance and give a luminous depth.

These later sculptures are not struc- turally articulated in a confined space that can be viewed all at once. They contain several sections that can be

-arranged and rearranged. I designed some of them to be installed along stretches of highway from one-quarter to one-half mile in length. The sculptures become animated as the viewer-a motorist, bicyclist or pedestrian-moves. The effectiveness of the sculptures is thus

dependent on time as a fourth dimension. My interest in time and space stemmed

largely from reading Albert Einstein's 1905 paper on the Theory of Special Relativity. In the twentieth century we are more aware of time as the fourth dimension of space, largely due to Minkowski's formulation of the theory [3]. In the seventeenth century Newton enabled people to view time as a measurement of space similar to height, width and depth. Newton, however, viewed time as absolute, as unchanged by the inertial frame. By conceptualizing travel at the speed of light, Einstein enabled us to jump from a consideration of time and motion to one of the time of motion [4]. The fourth dimension (time) became more completely integrated with the other three (spatial) dimensions on a level beyond physics.

George, Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light'

---- ----111~~ ... . .-

-

118



II. THE HISTORY OF TIME AND MOVEMENT IN ART

Einstein's influence on the temporal element in art can be seen equally in Boccioni's 1913 sculpture Unique Forms of Continuity in Space and in more recent conceptual, process or performance art. Eadweard Muybridge's time-motion photographic studies of repetitive movement begun in 1872, assumed more importance after we understood the implications of the Theory of Special Relativity, i.e. that all the laws of nature are identical to all observers moving uniformly relative to one another. For artists this led to conceptual changes in illustrating movement. We were no longer locked into portraying only what our five imprecise senses observed. Photography revolutionized the portrayal of motion in art because Einstein enabled us to view the time of motion as less physical, i.e. as more conceptual. Prior to this, artists usually chose to portray repetitive action as it began or ended-at the moment the viewer could best comprehend the act. A running man would be shown just before his legs started to move in the opposite direction, at the point of greatest tension. Con- tinuous or nonrepetitive movement prov- ed more difficult to represent. Robert Beverly Hale has stated, "Usually the artist seized a random phase of the action, accompanied by such obvious symbols as wind-blown drapery or trailing hair" [5]. In the twentieth century, however, artists are able to express action more freely. Even in the work of artists not usually associated with the portrayal of movement, such as Rodin and David Smith, we find a greater feeling for activity. Much of Rodin's work emphasized the "process of growth" [6], while Smith's Running Daughter originated from a blurred photograph [7].

Just as the breaking up of matter into atoms found a poetic equivalent in Cubism, so the use of time as a fourth dimension in twentieth-century sculpture was translated to fit the sculptor's imagination and the viewers' needs. There are instances when the use of the temporal dimension renders the use of time more than equal to the other components of a sculpture. Jacob Bronowski stated, "The concepts of space and time are linked to the theories concerning the structure, motion and change of physical objects" [8]. Conse- quently, the construction and viewing of a sculpture are linked to the individual's understanding and use of those concepts and theories. Kinetic sculpture, for example, incorporates time through its movement, and in such sculpture the

interaction of the three spatial dimensions creates the temporal fourth. In these instances time becomes the gestalt product of the other three dimensions. A Calder mobile has several elements linked together in a given space and reminds us of the workings of a clock or a solar system with its center, planets and moons. When energy for its movement is not provided by air movements, the mobile becomes a stationary sculpture and must be viewed as such.

III. SCULPTURES USING TIME

Kinetic sculpture aside, almost all other sculpture requires us to walk around or through it. But few sculptures depend on the viewers' movement in order to exist as a piece at all [9]. A sculpture so constructed does not allow us to sense its height, width and depth immediately. Such a sculpture requires us to move through a serial viewing of its parts or elements. Its existence can be realized only in this way.

My first highway installation, Einstein from Las Vegas (Fig. 2), was installed on a one-quarter-mile curve along a downhill roadway. Viewers see it along this continuum as they approach and pass by the work. Its elements shift up and down in relation to one another, and the curve causes shifts from left to right and vice versa. As viewers approach, each element seems to grow larger, but its apparent size is also influenced by its figure-ground relationship as perceived by the viewers. This is more apparent during daylight when visual references are provided by the surrounding landscape. When this

installation is seen at night, illuminated by car headlights, the competing visual material of the landscape disappears. The reflecting forms float on a black field without visual clues to provide a clear sense of depth. In such an environment the illuminated elements appear to move, grow and shrink as we travel through the curve of the road.

Stopping at any one point along the curve, whether during the day or at night, we can account for the three-dimensional aspects of the segment in view. Only our motion gves us a perception of the sculpture as a whole. That we cannot see the entire work at any one point makes us rely on our memory. Memory is affected by the amount of time and speed used to view the sculpture from beginning to end: the greater the speed, the shorter the viewing time and the nearer we are to seeing the whole of the sculpture at once. This aspect of relativity, or the assim- ilation of experiences separated in space by time but brought together through movement, is integral to these road sculptures. This emphasis is one aspect that differentiates these from other sculpture.

eins within a space (Fig. 3), although similar to Einstein from Las Vegas, is meant to be viewed at a slower speed. We see things differently on a speeding bicycle than in a zooming car or while on foot. This sculpture consists of compact multiple images through which viewers stroll. The presentation for both works is the same: viewers move through or by the elements. This presentation transcends the differing 'styles' of images used to express the ideas. As an artist I moved comfortably from the geometric forms of

Fig. 3. eins within a space, aluminum with colored reflective sheeting, wax candles, steel bells, 10 x 25 x 20 ft, 1981. (Photo: Jeanne Bernhard.) P.S.1, Long Island City, NY. In the artist's studio.

George, Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light' 119



Uc)\ ?3

i' ?

I ` j c

-

4

/

l

d i (a)

Fig. 4. Chrysalis, aluminum plate with colored reflective sheeting, 12 to 16 ft high x 1/4 mile long, 1983-1984. (4a) Map of installation at Columbus Circle, New York (1983). Components b, c, d indicate the viewpoints from which the respective photographs were taken (4b, 4c, 4d-photographed at the later

installation at the Port of Philadelphia, 1984). (Photos: Roy Coggin.)

Einstein from Las Vegas through more

specific symbolic forms in eins within a space and then to the figurative and 'abstracted' figurative forms in All Bright Night per diem and Chrysalis. This approach is liberating because it allows the expression of ideas in the visual form most suited to the content.

Sculptures, like other physical objects, extend beyond themselves by relating to other objects, ideas and the complex of those relationships. Einstein from Las Vegas related immediately to its site because of its placement and materials. By using highway sign blanks, such as yellow squares ranging in size from 4" x 4" to 48" x 48", I was able to couple various illusions of scale with illusions in

depth perception. Because of viewers' expectations from past experience with road signs, the result was humorous play between those expectations (the appro-

priate site for such colored shapes) and the dissonance experienced when such familiar shapes are altered.

eins within a space is based on the English game of croquet, where players express their hostility under the guise of having fun. In this sculpture I have used symbolic images and large-scale wickets to make croquet a larger-than-life game without losing the feeling that it is part of a larger site, in much the same way that Stonehenge or the Mesa Verde are cultural expressions of a particular set of circumstances. My use of image and scale emphasized the aggressiveness of this lawn game. The reflective forms and the bells attached to the wickets may be read as symbols of the stages of life through which we all pass. The large candles and steel bells give it an overall religious aspect.

All Bright Night per diem (Color Plate

No. 1) is populated by figurative images derived from the works of artists included in the collections of the Albright-Knox Museum (Buffalo, NY). This installation, running along the one-half-mile roadway entrance to a park [10], is composed of 14 figures of colored reflective material, 15 to 20 feet in height, attached to the 14

lamp-posts along one shoulder of the road. On the opposite side of the road, seven white reflective torsos were placed opposite the midpoints between the lamp-posts. As viewers travel along the road, the figures appear to make large gestures from one to the next, while the torsos show minor movements from one to another. Color reinforces these movements by either contrasting or unifying each section. The extreme activity of the figures and the subtle movement of the torsos give viewers sharply contrasting experiences simultaneously. Using the

George, Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light'

\ :-tT ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

- Av ,..

120



figure as image allows viewers to decipher the movements and see relationships that would have been obscured by more abstract images.

Chrysalis (Fig. 4) was originally installed around a large traffic circle [11]. Although similar to All Bright Night per diem, Chrysalis unfolds more gradually because viewers are slowed down as they travel around the circle. Traveling counterclockwise, viewers see the brightly colored sides; traveling clockwise, they see only the white on the opposite sides. Because I was using the gesture of growth, rather than the gesture of movement seen in All Bright Night per diem, I deemphasized the realism of the figure-an obvious vessel of life-so that it would not overwhelm the main theme-the growth associated with life. The multicolored surfaces with transparent silkscreen inks painted along some of the edges increase the feeling of inner activity and individuality. At the same time, the white of the opposite sides achieves the reverse effect.

All the reflective sculptures discussed here are solid in daylight but become eidolons or apparitions in the dark. This shift begins at dusk when the forms first appear to float free from their moorings, not to return until dawn. When the visual cues of daylight disappear, the forms are isolated in blackness, brought to life only by the reflection of artificial light. These transformations are dramatic shifts which cause viewers to see in new ways- connecting one view or aspect with another.

IV. CONCLUSION

In making these sculptures, all of which are presented and viewed in a cinematic manner, I use paint and sign-making techniques and materials. But my central considerations are those of sculpture. I consider my work an extension of traditional sculpture: mass and light are used three-dimensionally and at the service of space; movement takes place through illusion and presentation through the fourth dimension. However, the resulting sculpture is less material in its effect than most traditional sculpture. I believe this is an advantage, for my work is less earthbound than an object that can

be physically possessed; it is freer to develop on a more spiritual level. John Gardner in The Art of Fiction describes the artistic possibilities in combining seemingly disparate forms:

When new forms arise, as they do from time to time, they rise out of one of two processes, genre-crossing or the eleva- tion of popular culture. Thus Ravel, Gershwin, Stravinsky, and many others blend classical tradition and American jazz-in this case simultaneously crossing genres and elevating the popular [12].

I was once asked if my road sculptures were art or pseudoscience or a gimmick. In trying to answer without trivializing either the question or my work, I considered a visual curiosity from my childhood, the very kind of genre- crossing Gardner proposes.

I grew up in a small Adirondack village which at that time was being converted from an exclusive summer residence into a commercial resort. Change occurred daily with the building of motels and hot dog stands. The greatest change for me was the arrival of large neon signs that were altered every time a motel acquired some new amenity: "TV", "TV in every room", "color TV in every room", "cable", "pool", "olympic-sized pool", "heated". Sometimes the sign would be a jumbled combination of messages: "TV Beach" or "Heated Pool with fireplace Vacancy". Relatively new signs might be replaced by more ornate, larger ones to dwarf neighboring competition. Were these gimmicks or art? Whatever, they certainly were interesting presences on the quiet mountain landscape. At the mention of any early motel, I can recall its sign in vivid detail, though I probably cannot give its location even in that very small village. These signs were visual objects, complete and unto themselves, gimmicks perhaps, but ones whose images transcended their physical location.

I answered the question by asking, "Does a scientist create pseudoscience when he discovers a cure for sterility? And if that cure works, is it a gimmick? I would gladly use pseudoscience (if I knew what it was) and gimmicks (tons of them) if they helped me to see in new ways and if they opened up possibilities for me to show others how to see in new ways."

In making art I believe, as Einstein believed about his own work, that it is difficult to say anything reliable about aims and intentions. For an artist to make a work succeed in a predetermined way or on all levels seems futile, if not petty. I concern myself less with the technical and physical qualities of sculpture than with discovering the mystery to which we all respond. As Einstein expressed it, "the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than my talent for absorbing positive know- ledge" [12]. My aim is to create sculpture that may at any time be transformed by the viewer's reaction to it, a reaction which brings surprise, discovery and new directions, or a dematerialization, a positive dyslexia.

REFERENCES AND NOTES

1. For examples, the moire patterns of Patsy Norvell's snow-fence sculptures; Brower Hatcher's bush sculptures; or Alexander's 'four-dimensional forms' as illustrated in "Searching for Four- Dimensional Form in Sculpture", Leo- nardo 16, 81-85 (1983).

2. Rudolf Arnheim, Art and Visual Percep- tion (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1954) pp. 304-334.

3. Jeremy Bernstein, Einstein (New York: Viking Press, 1973) pp. 109-110.

4. How the inertial frame chosen influences the measurement of time is shown by the Lorentz transformations of the Special Theory. Ronald W. Clark, Einstein: The Life and Times (New York: Avon Books, 1971) pp. 109-111 and 119-121.

5. Robert Beverly Hale, Drawing Lessons of the Great Masters (New York: Watson- Guptil Publications, 1964) p. 111.

6. H.W. Jansen, History of Art, Rev. Ed. (New York: Abrams, 1969) p. 503.

7. David Smith, David Smith, Cleve Gray, ed. (New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1968) pp. 94-95.

8. Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man (Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1973) p. 252.

9. For a discussion on defining sculpture, see R. Krauss, "Sculpture in the Expanded Field", October 8, 31-44 (1979). My own definition is less restricted.

10. All Bright Night per diem was built at Artpark near Buffalo, New York.

11. Chrysalis was originally installed around Columbus Circle in New York. Later it was installed at the Port of Philadelphia, PA.

12. John Gardner, The Art of Fiction (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984) p. 19.

13. Clark [4], p, 118.

George, Sculpture 'Approaching the Speed of Light' 121



I I I I 9 9 9 9

No. 1. Top. Dan George. All Bright Night per diem, plywood with colored reflective sheeting, 4 to 14 ft high x 1/2 mile long, 1982. Artpark, Lewiston, NY. (Photo: Jeanne Bernhard.)

No. 2. Center left. Isaac Victor Kerlow. Pattern 2.2, cibachrome print, 20 x 24 in, 1984.

No. 3. Center right. Zdenek Kocib. Sun Country #5, acrylic on masonite, 40 x 48 in, 1985.

No. 4. Bottom. P.K. Hoenich. Art of the Future, double exposure photograph showing a sun projection superimposed on a photograph of visitors to the Centre Pompidou, Paris, 1978.















sculpture 'approaching the speed of light': the use of time as the fourth dimension

Documents