Leonardo

Spontaneity Displayed through TechnologyAuthor(s): Jacques MandelbrojtSource: Leonardo, Vol. 35, No. 4 (2002), pp. 380-381Published by: The MIT PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1577398 .

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My movement before the model is in the form of loops. I start, for example, very close to the subject on the right; then I move back to the left; then I continue forward and finally move to the right, which brings me back to my starting point. When drawing, I use transparent paper fixed on a pane of glass (like a screen). With no interrup- tion in the drawing of the line, the slightest variation is registered. This also means that the time it takes to make the work is constrained. Every change of direction is planned. My drawing has to start and end as a func- tion of the anticipated loop.

This linear path makes it possible to register the slightest variation of my movement, like a cardiogram. The resulting process casts doubt on the fixed logic of the body and space. I came to understand that this inconsis- tency is not an aberration: this essential transformation is the logical result of my movement. What is "seen" is what is, what is "unseen" is what is not.

The line's path has to anticipate and destabilize visual perception. The loop- ing movement defines the problem of the relationship between close and distant, lateral and transverse. How do you visually signify, for example, an individual who is 10 meters away and whom you approach progressively until you can shake hands? What does a sideways movement mean, pictorially speaking?

I try to find answers for all these questions. The problem I address seems to bring me very close to Cubism and even closer to cinema; actually, however, it is exactly opposite to them because it is not a question of visual fragments but of a "liquid" vision. There is no fixed gaze, but a view that changes in space and time.

The cinema is only an illusion- certainly an inspired one-but real movement is not a series of photo- graphic images. In Le nu descendant l'escalier, Duchamp makes use of the principles of the cinematographic illusions of movement. Cubism, which showed for the first time in the history of art that the painter is able to move around the subject, is remarkable. Unfortunately, a sequential recording from several angles still does not avoid the sense of illusion.

The continuous line is in opposition

My movement before the model is in the form of loops. I start, for example, very close to the subject on the right; then I move back to the left; then I continue forward and finally move to the right, which brings me back to my starting point. When drawing, I use transparent paper fixed on a pane of glass (like a screen). With no interrup- tion in the drawing of the line, the slightest variation is registered. This also means that the time it takes to make the work is constrained. Every change of direction is planned. My drawing has to start and end as a func- tion of the anticipated loop.

This linear path makes it possible to register the slightest variation of my movement, like a cardiogram. The resulting process casts doubt on the fixed logic of the body and space. I came to understand that this inconsis- tency is not an aberration: this essential transformation is the logical result of my movement. What is "seen" is what is, what is "unseen" is what is not.

The line's path has to anticipate and destabilize visual perception. The loop- ing movement defines the problem of the relationship between close and distant, lateral and transverse. How do you visually signify, for example, an individual who is 10 meters away and whom you approach progressively until you can shake hands? What does a sideways movement mean, pictorially speaking?

I try to find answers for all these questions. The problem I address seems to bring me very close to Cubism and even closer to cinema; actually, however, it is exactly opposite to them because it is not a question of visual fragments but of a "liquid" vision. There is no fixed gaze, but a view that changes in space and time.

The cinema is only an illusion- certainly an inspired one-but real movement is not a series of photo- graphic images. In Le nu descendant l'escalier, Duchamp makes use of the principles of the cinematographic illusions of movement. Cubism, which showed for the first time in the history of art that the painter is able to move around the subject, is remarkable. Unfortunately, a sequential recording from several angles still does not avoid the sense of illusion.

The continuous line is in opposition to all this; it is the only method I know of that allows me to work simultane- ously in both space and time and to take account of the interaction of my

to all this; it is the only method I know of that allows me to work simultane- ously in both space and time and to take account of the interaction of my

movement with the transformation of the subject.

Of course, the rolling pane of glass is only a way to approach this ques- tion, as Duirer's use of a pane of glass (fixing a square pane of glass on a table and using a perspectograph to draw directly on the glass, as did also Leonardo da Vinci) was only a way of understanding perspective. However, it is an indispensable instrument for understanding the problematic nature of the continuous line in space and time. To quote Paul Klee's Theorie de l'art moderne: "The line does not imi- tate: it makes visible."

SPONTANEITY DISPLAYED THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Jacques Mandelbrojt, Le Corbusier,

apt. 103, 280 bd. Michelet, 13008 Mar- seille, France. E-mail: <jmandelbrojt@ wanadoo.fr>.

Received 24 January 2001. Accepted for publication by Roger E Malina.

In previous articles and notes [1,2] I have pointed out and interpreted sev- eral characteristics of my paintings:

1. I make them very swiftly, but only once I have a clear mental image of the painting I want to make and when I anticipate the strokes of the brush that I will make.

2. A consequence of this way of work- ing is that I leave the background of the paintings blank. This corresponds to the discontinuous character of men- tal images. "One characteristic of the mental image of Pierre is that it is sparse," writes Sartre [3].

3. I often make paintings in series, each one being, so to speak, a conse- quence of the previous one, so that a series corresponds to a flow of images in my mind.

4. I like painting on long, narrow canvases starting from the top (for vertical painting) and continuing to the bottom without going back. The format of the painting induces the onlooker also to view the painting from top to bottom, so that these paintings have, so to speak, a vertical axis of time. When several paintings of a series of such vertical paintings are put side by side, this series therefore has two axes of time: a vertical one corresponding to

movement with the transformation of the subject.

Of course, the rolling pane of glass is only a way to approach this ques- tion, as Duirer's use of a pane of glass (fixing a square pane of glass on a table and using a perspectograph to draw directly on the glass, as did also Leonardo da Vinci) was only a way of understanding perspective. However, it is an indispensable instrument for understanding the problematic nature of the continuous line in space and time. To quote Paul Klee's Theorie de l'art moderne: "The line does not imi- tate: it makes visible."

SPONTANEITY DISPLAYED THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

Jacques Mandelbrojt, Le Corbusier,

apt. 103, 280 bd. Michelet, 13008 Mar- seille, France. E-mail: <jmandelbrojt@ wanadoo.fr>.

Received 24 January 2001. Accepted for publication by Roger E Malina.

In previous articles and notes [1,2] I have pointed out and interpreted sev- eral characteristics of my paintings:

1. I make them very swiftly, but only once I have a clear mental image of the painting I want to make and when I anticipate the strokes of the brush that I will make.

2. A consequence of this way of work- ing is that I leave the background of the paintings blank. This corresponds to the discontinuous character of men- tal images. "One characteristic of the mental image of Pierre is that it is sparse," writes Sartre [3].

3. I often make paintings in series, each one being, so to speak, a conse- quence of the previous one, so that a series corresponds to a flow of images in my mind.

4. I like painting on long, narrow canvases starting from the top (for vertical painting) and continuing to the bottom without going back. The format of the painting induces the onlooker also to view the painting from top to bottom, so that these paintings have, so to speak, a vertical axis of time. When several paintings of a series of such vertical paintings are put side by side, this series therefore has two axes of time: a vertical one corresponding to the virtual intrinsic time of each paint- ing, and a horizontal one correspond- ing to the succession of the paintings [4]. This can also be done with Japa-

the virtual intrinsic time of each paint- ing, and a horizontal one correspond- ing to the succession of the paintings [4]. This can also be done with Japa-

nese folding albums (Fig. 2a). Although most of my series are stacks of paintings, one is a folding album (see Fig. 2b).

Time being an essential element of my paintings, they thus have a natural link to music, which is the art of time. The recent CD Paintings Perused (pro- duced by Laboratoire de Musique et Informatique de Marseille [MIM]) [5] is made up of 400 of my paintings dis- tributed in seven sequences-one for each of the composers of MIM. Seven marks appear simultaneously on the screen of the computer, each one corre- sponding to one of the sequences. When one clicks on one of the marks, the paintings of the corresponding sequence are seen one after the other, while the corresponding music is heard. Both the paintings and the music were made especially for this CD; in four of the sequences the composer chose a sequence of paintings and then com- posed music inspired by that sequence. In the other three, I made paintings inspired by the music of the composers.

These sequences of paintings accom- panied by music turn out to be a natu- ral framework for the characteristics of my paintings, as described above. The method suggests, as shown below, a specific way to introduce spontaneity into the visual arts.

In Paintings Perused, although each elementary painting in a sequence can be considered complete, the painting I wish to consider is the sequence itself and not one of its elements (just as a conventional painting is often built by degrees, layer after layer, as if several pictures were resting on one another). This sequence is a space-time painting, which, like music, creates a flow of sen- sations. It corresponds to the sequence of paintings I described above, but the flow is all the more evident, as the music gives a beginning and an end to the flow of the elementary paintings in each sequence. Each of these space-time paint- ings seems to me to respond to what Delacroix longed for: "We should make sketch-paintings with the spontaneity and directness of a sketch" [6]. Each elementary painting in the sequence is spontaneous, like a sketch; the sequence itself has the richness of a painting.

Two Kinds of Time in Sequence I mentioned earlier the two different kinds of time seen in a sequence of

nese folding albums (Fig. 2a). Although most of my series are stacks of paintings, one is a folding album (see Fig. 2b).

Time being an essential element of my paintings, they thus have a natural link to music, which is the art of time. The recent CD Paintings Perused (pro- duced by Laboratoire de Musique et Informatique de Marseille [MIM]) [5] is made up of 400 of my paintings dis- tributed in seven sequences-one for each of the composers of MIM. Seven marks appear simultaneously on the screen of the computer, each one corre- sponding to one of the sequences. When one clicks on one of the marks, the paintings of the corresponding sequence are seen one after the other, while the corresponding music is heard. Both the paintings and the music were made especially for this CD; in four of the sequences the composer chose a sequence of paintings and then com- posed music inspired by that sequence. In the other three, I made paintings inspired by the music of the composers.

These sequences of paintings accom- panied by music turn out to be a natu- ral framework for the characteristics of my paintings, as described above. The method suggests, as shown below, a specific way to introduce spontaneity into the visual arts.

In Paintings Perused, although each elementary painting in a sequence can be considered complete, the painting I wish to consider is the sequence itself and not one of its elements (just as a conventional painting is often built by degrees, layer after layer, as if several pictures were resting on one another). This sequence is a space-time painting, which, like music, creates a flow of sen- sations. It corresponds to the sequence of paintings I described above, but the flow is all the more evident, as the music gives a beginning and an end to the flow of the elementary paintings in each sequence. Each of these space-time paint- ings seems to me to respond to what Delacroix longed for: "We should make sketch-paintings with the spontaneity and directness of a sketch" [6]. Each elementary painting in the sequence is spontaneous, like a sketch; the sequence itself has the richness of a painting.

Two Kinds of Time in Sequence I mentioned earlier the two different kinds of time seen in a sequence of vertical paintings. In Paintings Perused, each elementary painting in a sequence also has its own time-virtual time recapturing the brush-stroke, its ampli-

vertical paintings. In Paintings Perused, each elementary painting in a sequence also has its own time-virtual time recapturing the brush-stroke, its ampli-

380 Artists' Statements 380 Artists' Statements

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N

r

(

Fig. 2. Jacques Mandelbrojt, Two Ways of Time, ink on paper, 2001. (? Jacques Mandebrojt) (a, top) a sketch of aJapanese folding album reveals the unfolding of the flow of continuous horizontal time; (b, bottom) sketch of a series by the author, presented as a folding album with two axes of time.

fication, rapidity and intensity. "A paint- ing is time that has become space," asserted painter Olivier Debr6 in a TV interview. In this respect, as I have

emphasized [7], I find that the pencil or the paintbrush is more eloquent than the mouse of a computer, which, in my opinion, rarely creates images that run through the viewer's mind. On the other hand the computer and the mouse are capable of producing thou- sands of arrangements of the images created by the brush.

Pierre Mounoud and I [8] have

emphasized the fact that a painting can be considered as made up of signs assembled according to certain struc-

tures, just as a language is made up of words from a vocabulary assembled

according to a grammar. In Paintings Perused, the brush provides the vocabu-

lary and the interface furnishes the

grammar. The second type of time on the CD is

to be found in the passage from one

elementary painting of a sequence to the next. It is a real time- discontinuous time-and is determined

by the programming. In Paintings Perused the music reacts

to the virtual time of each painting and

governs the flow of the paintings that constitute the sequence.

References and Notes

1. J. Mandelbrojt, "Has My Practice of Science In- fluenced My Art?" Leonardo 24, No. 5, 519-524 (1991).

2. J. Mandelbrojt, "The Pencil and the Mouse," Leonardo 32, No. 4, 303-304 (1999).

3.J.P. Sartre, L'Imaginaire (Paris: N.R.F., 1940).

4. Mandelbrojt [2].

5.J. Mandelbrojt, Peintures Parcourues (Paintings Pe- rused) CDExtra produced by MIM and distributed by MIM and the Electronic Music Foundation in Al- bany, NY<http://www.emf.org>. (Marseille, France: MIM, 2001). The seven composers of MIM are:Jean Favory, Marcel Formosa, Henry Foures, Marcel Fr6miot, Pascal Gobin, Pierre Malbosc and Lucie Prod'homme. (A short extract of Peintures Parcourues, including samples from each of the seven sequences, can be viewed and heard on the MIM web site, <http://www.labo-mim.org>.

6. E. Delacroix,Journal (Paris: Plon, 1980).

7. Mandelbrojt [2].

8. J. Mandelbrojt and P. Mounoud, "On the Rele- vance of Piaget's Theory to the Visual Arts," Leonardo 4, No. 2, 155-158 (1971).

Artists' Statements 381

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