Quantum Landscapes (Top-Down Oblique)
These are drawn freehand in ballpoint pen with little or no forward planning.
The aim is to fill the page with 3D territory which is consistent with a set of simple geometric rules of construction and is non-paradoxical (i.e. avoid ‘impossible objects’ of the Penrose triangle sort). The rules vary slightly for different drawings but should be clearly apparent without the needing to be stated.
In attempting to create these precise geometries freehand I am interested in exploring the limits and fallibility of my hand drawing process and also the visual perception of these forms.
Work tends to proceed slowly, in cycles of halting anxiety and cautious progress. No drawing aids such as measuring instruments or straight-edge are allowed (an exception is made for the sky in some of the earlier pieces). I try to work without any recourse to erasure, although occasionally when I’ve done something which truly disgusts me, I have allowed myself to erase some lines by using the blade of a knife to gently scrape the surface of the paper off. These patches can be clearly seen on some of the finished pieces.
(See text below for more information).
Quantum Landscape (#5)
Pen on Paper
148 x 210mm
2010
Quantum Landscape (#5) (detail)
Quantum Landscape (#7)
Pen on Paper
210 x 148mm
2013
Quantum Landscape (#6)
Pen on Paper
105 x 148mm
2013
Quantum Landscape (#4)
Pen on Paper
210 x 148mm
2010
Quantum Landscape (#2)
Pen on Paper
210 x 148mm
2005
Quantum Landscape (#1)
Pen on Paper
148 x 210mm
2003
In popular imagination the word ‘quantum’ is synonymous with strange and poorly understood theories of sub-atomic physics. Maybe meaninglessly baffling and irrelevant or maybe promising of new possibilities and a future of technology like magic, depending on ones existing temperament and biases. Quantum theories were assimilated by the new age movement and remodelled into Quantum Mysticism, which now permeates our culture, and in it’s various guises may be used to prop up a belief in any kind of paranormal phenomena, angels and the afterlife, telepathy, etc, or even direct manifestation of the reality of your choosing via ‘creative visualization’.
‘Quantum’ does also retains it’s older meaning: a specified amount, or something which can be counted or measured; It shares the same Latin root as ‘quantity’. In physics, it is the smallest amount of a physical quantity which can exist independently, and quantum mechanics is so called because of the way that matter and energy at the sub-atomic scale seem to exist as tiny discrete packets of certain set magnitude.
This series of drawings depicts terrains which are ‘quantised’ into discrete regular portions of three dimensional space but whose actual form may retain some ambiguity. The starting point is the top-down oblique projection style used to add pseudo-3D depth in some old computer games. This system contains it’s own ‘uncertainty principle’ – all verticals are lined up neatly, so ambiguity may result where horizontals or diagonals meet them, and the same is true for the complementary style of side-on oblique (e.g. Quantum Landscape #7). Also, the style can allow concave/convex ambiguity (see Quantum Landscape #5 for example). Some effort may be required on the part of the viewer in order to untangle the lines into a discernible and coherent form.