bluehat.art

Aug 13, 2024

When I was young and at my lowest point, I had a sketchbook/journal. In it, there was a very deep (infinite deep) and thought-provoking quote that inspired me at the time. Unfortunately, I was not able to express these thoughts as illustrations. That’s why art was so frustrating for me back then; I couldn’t illustrate my thoughts. I was more immersed in my thoughts and focused on writing. I was deeply engaged in philosophy and spent my time searching for meaning in mindfuck.

Unfortunately, I can’t find the quote; I hope I can locate the page in the journal. It was quite obscure.

I’ll try to reproduce it:

It was about ‘perception,’ ‘images,’ and ‘archetypes.’ It suggested that our perception consists of sequences of images/memories of archetypes, which we reinterpret as representations through our perception—hence the reference to the ‘archetype.’ The archetype describes reality, but our mind only has a reflection/image of it. It also describes a process of regression. In computer science, this is known as a function that calls itself and infinitely refers to itself. This is similar to the relationship between cause and effect. The chain of cause and effect—and presence/reality—would be a representation of the eternal chain of cause and effect.

In German, the quote sounds better, as ‘archetype’ would be literally translated to ‘Urbild,’ (’cause-image’ or ‘original-image’), which reminds one of infinite regress. And the quote also contained the word “Abbild” (‘reflection-image’ or ‘re-image’, ‘effect-image’).

Now that I can express myself artistically a bit better, I would like to take up this theme and create an illustration. But I still need to think about how to represent it. A similar image would be two mirrors facing each other, reflecting themselves infinitely.

I found a similar quote about nature. The idea is that our perception describes the walkthrough reality, but we only capture or grasp a ‘re-image’ of it – never the ‘original-image’ of nature. In our mind we create the image of the nature.

I find this an interesting issue. What is known in art history as ‘imitatio’ – the imitation of nature – and competition between the arts (music, poetry, painting, sculpture…).

Art history is the result of artists who have influenced or inspired each other and referenced each other. I would describe this as a chain of reference.

Nature was seen as something perfect. The artist is only ever the imitator. Drawing a re-image (interpretation) of the original image (nature).

Our thoughts can be described as fleeting. They come and go in our minds. We can only save a re-image in our memory. In contrast, nature or reality can be seen as infinite or perfect—something that is always present.