Winter has come early and I’ve tried to stay busy in an effort to ward off hibernation.
I may have already mentioned some of my hobby horse notions, such as trying to do something aesthetic with the unique circumstance of two times and plus two both equaling four. I’m not entirely sure what this may have to do with art, but I have modeled it often enough in an effort to make it fit in somehow.
The new version was inspired by some plexiglass that I came across in florescent orange/red. If I look around long enough I’m bound to find a French curve or triangle in this material in a drawer somewhere. I’ve always associated that look with things technical and graphic and the scrap led me back to the plus/times hobby horse.
The key to this project has been the notion of a plus sign that can rotate freely or that will be placed twixt addition and multiplication. I’ve tried placing the plus sign on a little motor or in a generated breeze so that it might spin. I tried adopting a shower knob/handle set into an ersatz tiled wall that included the twos. Such nonsense. Somewhere along the line the equals four part of the equation was dropped.
So now it’s an exercise in plastic with a puff ball (operator?) in high density poliethelene set askance. I might end up with nothing more than a set of twos on the wall. Any comments?
Jay,
You never cease to amaze me. and confuse me.
let’s see:
2 + 2 equals 4, except when it doesn’t.
If you can’t add 2 + 2, you probably shouldn’t be allowed to decide the tip.
2 + 2 could play bridge, if they didn’t mind parting as enemies.
If you could add 2 + 2, you could tell me why.
Is 2 + 2 stronger than 1+1+1+1?
Why not just go for four and be shut of the excess verbiage?
“Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.”
“I admit that two times two makes four is an excellent thing, but if we are to give everything its due, two times two makes five is sometimes a very charming thing too.”
“Every prayer reduces itself to this: Great God, grant that twice two be not four.”
“In the animated television series The Fairly Oddparents, Episode 31 “Abra-Catastrophe!”, crazed teacher Mr. Crocker declared that if he had magical fairy godparents he would “make 2 + 2 = fish”. A later episode (Part 2 of Ep 63, “Remy Rides Again”) had Stephen Hawking saying to the same teacher, after an absurdly long calculation on the blackboard, that 2 + 2 = 5. At the end of the episode Mr. Crocker is shown chasing Hawking with a calculator in a hand to tell him that 2 + 2 = 6, not five.”
“Two and two make five and quarter, that’s why people fall in love.”
“In the 1980s the administration of the Ben-Gurion University, at Beersheba, Israel, enforced a policy of a complete ban on any demonstrations or political activities on campus – offenders being punished by suspension from studies or in some cases permanent expulsion. Dissident philosophy students sought to challenge the ban by holding a demonstration with signs reading “2 + 2 = 4”.
Would you believe all those quotes came from Wikipedia in its article 2 + 2 = 5? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2_%2B_2_%3D_5
Jay,
As always, I enjoy your playfulness, lightening up on humdrum, serious living.
The problem for me is that joining the 2’s at the base almost cancels their numerical identity. They look like a worm parade or a close-up of velcro hooks.
You can avoid all the controversy about how many is 2 + 2 by living in a culture that counts: 1, 2, many.
June:
Two, Two much. Now I’m the one amazed and confused. But, in truth, I once entered “47” (without the quotes) into Wickipedia and found a long dissertation.
So your research should not surprise me so much. But, please assure me that you didn’t transcribe by hand that entire body of text – highlight, copy and paste oh my!
Birgit:
Actually it’s more like play acting that this little theme is somehow very difficult to get right. But if it is starting to come across as playful, then I must be on the right track. It reminds me somehow of your challenge with painting waves.
Steve:
Or maybe two florescent waves about to break over a cross-shaped inflatable. The fix is easy enough as I’ll just separate them and hope for the best..
Jay,
I shall look for “47” without the quotes.
I did not “just” highlight, copy, and paste. I highlighted the most relevant bits, with enough context to keep from complete confusion, and then copied and pasted. After all, Wikipedia is licensed Creative Commons, which means I can copy and paste, but not keep you from copying and pasting my copies and pastes.
Now about the art….. Steve is right that the image changes what I imagine the numerical reality to be — that is, the web image brings with it a picture plane. I saved your image to my computer and then played with rotating the image to erase the idea of two (insofar as possible) from my left brain. There are some really interesting elements, not quite lines, not quite shapes, that occur when you rotate. I’m particularly fond of it rotated to the left about 90 degrees. Actually, I’m doing it a degree at a time in Office Picture Manager; watching the whole image rotate really does wipe out any numerical significance.
I wanted that plus sign to (perhaps slyly) insinuate itself into the twos somehow. Maybe giving it a spin function would set off the twos as being fixed, whereas the function that joins them is variable — a serious conceptual activity.
Just riffing on the confusion. Now I’m going to go off and iron a tablecloth in honor of the season.
June:
Sounds like it has you going in circles. Looks like I’ll be doing a little rotating as well to see what you ‘re seeing.
It has occurred to me to maybe paint the numbers on the wall and install the motorized add/multiply so that the x shape is all one sees. Went so far as to visit a surplus electronics store to find a slow enough motor. It’s in a box in the basement.
Gotta go massage my stomach in preparation for tomorrow. Happy Thanksgiving.