ETERNITY sPIRALS
ETERNITY sPIRALS
A visual anomaly by nicholas keyse
Forever growing pattern constructed by the most basic of positive and negative space in a simple repetition which exposes the close relationship between Archimedes and Fibonacci mathematics.
An art project born out of the concept of creating drawings that is beyond the skill and dedication of man.
Artist Nicholas Keyse explores the relationship of a finite sequence repeated around an Archimedean spiral, causing Fibonacci patterns.
A do-it-yourself attitude ingrained growing up in the South Island of New Zealand, Nicholas Keyse along with Andrew Ching collaborated to create a drawing machine using parts available from local hardware and electronic stores.
With the devastation of Christchurch New Zealand in the February 2011 Earthquakes, the whole Central Business District of Christchurch, a city with a population of 375,000, was cordoned off and demolition started lasting over 4 years. Leaving the people of Christchurch with not much to do, a lot of them, were able to put more time and effort into the hobbies and projects that interest them.
Nicholas along with Andrew created a machine that could hold a pen and draw it anywhere on a piece of paper. A drawing machine. This was so that they could make complex vector drawings created on a computer have an almost human touch when drawn in reality. When improving the drawing machine so it was more precise made you lose the human touch look you see in the artworks. It would produce lifeless results much like a plotter printer. The Drawing Machine had to be a basic design to make this hand drawn effect.
Quickly after getting the drawing machine up and running Nicholas wanted to draw a filled in circle. He thought that using an Archimedean Spiral would be the logical starting point. The result had an interference pattern reminiscent of conflicting resolutions on digital screens. The interference pattern caused by the reduction of the vector resolution in the graphic due to the inherent vices of the stepper motors used in the drawing machine created a physical example of what is usually unable to be captured.
Eternity Spirals explore the relationship of a finite sequence repeated around an Archimedean spiral, causing Fibonacci patterns. These patterns are anomalies that occur when certain scales and lengths come together making sense of a somewhat nonsensical data. On either side of these harmonies is pure digital 'noise'. No structure, no uniform pattern, no self.
These special points of mathematics which are repeated in nature can be represented as life. Outside of this life is less than death, it is nothing. Space, a vacuum. These spirals represent mathematics coming alive in a visual way.
Within the Eternity Spirals there are artefacts caused by the inherent limitations of the drawing machine. From when it was once thought to be imperfect results to now being true inherent quirks of the drawing machine. These anomalies can be replicated over and over again. Exposing the machines true self. All Eternity Spirals exhibit these inherent anomalies which are only noticeable when compared between two identical drawings.
