Biomorphograms -&- CrystalInspector
One might well read the character-arc of art as one glacial migration inward – as mimetic excommunication from cold impersonal externality, ever backstopped by so called scientific advance. From animistic depiction in ochre on rock, and tool-carved Venuses of the Paleolithic, to the perfectionist perspective on the outside world rendered in the Renaissance, to the prerogative of subjective-seeing within the Romantic and Impressionist minds’ eye, to the replete disintegration of extrinsic familiarity and order via abstraction and post-modernity, and finally to an absolute present day reality of artificially intelligent (AI) augmentation, the accountable transition reflects the epic epistemic shift in man and his nature. Far from resisting the lull and allure of “the new,” art has typically positioned itself at some innovative forefront or frontier: the evolution of art can be seen as interdependent upon technological advance.
A logical next step thus presents itself: art that is not representation, nor expression in the usual sense, but a predominately unmanipulated “transcription” of the artist’s interior elemental makeup into a new, stable, and eternal medium. Biomorphograms aim to realize such an art – completing the story-arc started in caves like Lascaux, and arriving at a portraiture extending from the visible to the invisible-yet-tangible and omnipresent impression, of man’s very being itself.
Biomorphograms are audience-authored works, where active participants become both the artist and the art itself, manifest within a handheld crystal about the size of an egg. The resulting form—fractal and cymatic, mandala-like and iridescent—captures “beauty,” though the art is in fact anti-performative, and raw and unabashed: a reflection of what humanity is when left largely to its own devices, and relatively unencumbered by tedious external validation.
A darkened gallery contains a mirrored cube with one-way glass. Inside: a single comfortable chair, warm amber illumination, and low-level pink noise; outside, a portrait light-field display presents real-time visualisations. Audiences will witness the generated “abstract” geometrics and visual forms, while kept safely separated from the intimacy of the participant-artist’s body and mind.
A suite of non-invasive sensors records the artist’s physiological and mental state. Biometric data are collapsed into 20-30 frames and trapped via volume holography in crystal, such as iron-doped lithium niobate, creating permanent white-light viewable reflection holograms.
Biomorphograms inherit the affinities characterized in Renaissance portraiture, yet replace painted likenesses with a participant-artist’s own physio-autonomic waveform. Meanwhile, they continue a cymatic tradition from Chladni to Faraday, and more or less literalize Louis de Broglie’s 1924 matter-wave hypothesis.
In an era dominated by algorithmic surveillance-capitalism, deepfakes, and the compulsive self-performance so rife in virtual networking platforms, biomorphograms constitute a quiet but decisive counter-practice: the private dimension is made public, sans violation, while the public object (art) becomes the vessel for the private. Biomorphograms reject faux fawning and flattery, while compelling their keepers — the artists themselves — to advance in their own becoming, which actually translates to the ultimate art…
A perfected synthesis of art and science – biomorphograms champion palpable authenticity in an age of ethereal and virtualized mediation, enabling the radical self-actualization of a new human consciousness – for today, and a million tomorrows!
