Disinformation & Hogarth's Serpentine Line - "The Analysis of Beauty"

"The Analysis of Beauty" is Disinformation's tribute to William Hogarth's concept of the Serpentine Line. The installation conceived Dec 1999 and first exhibited at Kettle's Yard gallery, Cambridge, UK, Jan 2000 (alongside work by Art and Language, John Dee, Umberto Eco, DJ Spooky, Peter Weibel and Marc Quinn). The "Noise" exhibition at Kettle's Yard was curated by the artist Adam Lowe and Cambridge historian of science Prof Simon Schaffer. "The Analysis of Beauty" installation takes its name from the book of the same name written and published by the painter, engraver and satyrist William Hogarth in 1753. On account of the (subjective, but strong) similarity between the imagery of this installation and DNA, (recent controversies notwithstanding) this work was exhibited directly opposite one of Francis Crick and James Watson's original models of DNA (lent to the "Noise" exhibition by the Wellcome Trust).

The sinusoidal patterns visible in this installation produce an optical illusion known as the Kinetic Depth Effect - whereby impressions of "sculptural" form emerge despite the absence of any of the (object) precedence, (geometric and aerial) perspective, stereopsis and (motion) parallax cues traditionally thought to determine visual perception of three-dimensional space.

After a little while, the lines may appear to fuse into a rising column or rotating vortex (this impression and its changes in orientation are not generated on-screen, but inside the mind of the viewer). The jumpiness and rough quality of You Tube sequences can compromise the formation of this illusion (it works alot better in real life than it does on video), so it may be necessary to let the data for entire clip load completely into You Tube once, before watching the video for a 2nd time, to achieve a smoother image. You may find the image clearer if viewed at the smallest You Tube magnification (buttons to the bottom right of the You Tube screen). Some changes in rotational orientation take place spontaneously, others may be induced by tilting the head from side to side, by blinking, or simply by THINKING about this imagery in a different way. Although there are superficial visual similarities with the film "Equation X+X=0" (made by Robert Fairthorne and Brian Silk in 1936), "The Analysis of Beauty" is arguably one of the strangest Science Fiction films ever made. Although "The Analysis of Beauty" gallery exhibit also features small sculptures, images and text, the technical set-up that produces the central image (as pointed out in "The Rumble" catalogue) strongly resembles the idea of ultrasonic visual music, played with cathode ray tube and tone generators, described by Sci-Fi author J.G. Ballard in his classic short story "The Sound Sweep" (Nova 1962).

"The Analysis of Beauty" featured in 8 Disinformation solo exhibitions, and has also been exhibited at (in "The Rumble" exhibition at) The Royal British Society of Sculptors (London), Sonar at CCCB (Barcelona), Study Gallery of Modern Art (Poole), Orleans House Gallery (Twickenham), and gave its name to the Disinformation UK national touring exhibition, supported by The Arts Council England. A commentary about this installation is available at http://www.slashseconds.org/issues/002/003/articles/jbanks/index.php

A dedicated "The Analysis of Beauty" exhibition was also proposed to Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art curator Alistair Robinson in Jan 2003, 18 months before NGCA took the idea to stage a show of the exact same name, described as "pretty ugly" by The Guardian, which even managed to celebrate the 250th anniversary of Hogarth's "Analysis" in the wrong year (which is why the NGCA website was - last checked January 2010 - still pretending that Hogarth's "Analysis" was published in 1754).

"The Analysis of Beauty" exhibition catalogue is available from
http://strangeattractor.co.uk/shoppe/the-analysis-of-beauty/

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Kinetic
• Art
• Disinformation
• JG
• Ballard
• Serpentine
• Gallery
• DNA
• Optical
• Illusion
• Marcel
• Duchamp
• Anemic
• Cinema
• Depth
• Effect
• Ryoji
• Ikeda
• New
• Scientist
• Oscilloscope
• Disinfo
• Carsten
• Nicolai
• Pan
• Sonic
• Northern
• for
• Contemporary
• Sunderland
• NGCA
• Noise
• William
• Hogarth
• The
• Analysis
• of
• Beauty
• David
• Ward
• Kettles
• Yard
• 3D
• TV
• Francis
• Crick
• James
• Watson
• Perception
• Marc
• Quinn
• Experimental
• Music
• Peregrinations
• Line
• Wellcome
• Trust
• Simon
• Schaffer
• Adam
• Lowe
• CCCB
• Barcelona

[mediawardotcom]

so if this is the trailer i wonder what the whole work will be like :P:P

[JHLKJHLKHLK]

There's a bunch of small sculptures, prints, texts, laboratory equipment etc that make up the complete exhibit

[Purplerupture]

wtf is going on

[JHLKJHLKHLK]

Read the blurb!

[monsieurlaurent]

as a measuring tool for last night hangovers it works, and oh my, it hurts!

[1111SCIANA]

ladnie jak sie nagl

e wylaczy

[oryandymackie95]

Am I the only one who enjoyed this video for the music, not the visuals? Because this is good.

[golchab]

this called to me as if it was a blonde in a garter belt. these sines are my new porn.

[JHLKJHLKHLK]

Nearly right ;)

[recklessness1987]

it's a waveform analisys of a sound.

The small waves represent the changes in frequency (or amplitude, i don't know).

Here we see three tone generators, each generating a similar tone at the same time, all three change frequency a tiny bit at a time, causing their graph to shift left or right.

The three tone generators have been started with a small offset to produce the effect of three "beams" swirling around each other.

The sound you hear, is (i guess) that of the three tone generators.

[oobadfishoo420]

thats pretty amazing that you can slow down the waves jut by looking at them but they are actually going way faster then you look at them

[MockEmpire]

feels like bineural beats are being initiated

[GreyEyedGirl92]

I know I will sound compleletly dumb, but HUH? Is it just an optical illusion? or is it something serious? I tried to read the comments, but lets just say that I am not exactly a scientist. But it was cool, after a while the lines seemed to move backwards.

[Sogwa]

WOW