Standard Strings and Uncertain Circles
2022
Standard Strings and Uncertain Circles in an installation that explores both real and virtual strings as they move across topology. A set of inflated paper and resin sculptures, each with a thin black string embedded in the resin sit in front of a projected digital artwork, Standard Strings.
Uncertain Circles is a set of inflated forms, each constructed from paper, then inflated with a hair dryer, the form preserved with epoxy resin. Each form has a circle drawn with a single piece of string, the length of which is exactly the artist's arm span from finger tip to finger tip, 190cm. The perfect circle is distorted in an uncontrollable process when the paper form inflates.
Standard Strings uses real-time Javascript code to distort 'strings' of a fixed length, hundreds of individual strings gradually decent into increasingly complex topography, the digital algorithm acting as a virtual analogy for the physical process in the sculptures. Standard Strings is projected from a computer running a website, the projected images are generated live in real-time, meaning that the projection never repeats and each moment is unique. A QR code in the exhibition allows the audience to view a version of the artwork on their mobile phone (or any other computer) and download a unique artwork if they wish. View the website at the link below:
https://standardstrings.alistairmcclymont.com
These works are influenced by Marcel Duchamp’s 3 Standard Stoppages where strings were dropped to create a set of random profiles, the circles within Standard Strings fall through a virtual space, distorted by a noise algorithm, the physical threads within Uncertain Circles are forced to follow the inflated topology of the paper's surface.
This work is show alongside In winter I will fly at the Changwon Sculpture Biennale in South Korea. There is a strong relationship between the 3 works, all were developed during a residency period at the biennale. The hair dryer within In winter I will fly inflated the sculptural works in Uncertain Circles. This same hair dryer flys, but is limited by it's flex, the same length as the strings within the sculpture.
