Author: Adelina Badal

MOLECULAR MIXOLOGY

Posted on by Adelina Badal

Picture yourself sitting in a fancy cocktail lounge looking at the bright-colored wall of liquor bottles and juice jugs that were carefully placed behind the wooden bar; while, all the while, the “liquid chef” plays around with some strikingly refreshing molecular mixology techniques – either creating the ever classic Tequila with its grenadine and orange layers of gelatin, or “[re]mixing”/modifying the very structure of cocktails altogether. So, not content to simply rehydrate ourselves with plain water (without which we couldn’t survive more than three days), we have devised this wide palette of delicious drinks. And, isn’t it because without the fulfilling pursuit of creative expression – without love for creation – we couldn’t strive for a mere second, let alone a few days. At least since Masaru Emoto’s water crystal experiments, we know that liquids have the ability to copy and store information. With that in mind, the essence of this spagyric art of mixology lies in the melt separation on the one hand, and compressed synthesis on the other; as expressed by the formula ‘solve et coagula’: the order to dissolve and (re)join (in a manner akin to a bartender pouring a drink or even Pollock’s poured-painting-technique). The ‘symbol’ [Greek: “symbállein” = to throw together] as well as the ‘articulation’ [Latin: “articulus” = small joint] therefore both depend upon nuanced implications that eventually lead to the realization of an opaque, unspoken whole, as soon as the symbol characters turn out to be more than the sum of their parts (molecules).

Even so, I argue that symbolism/charactery is, simply put, a binder – an “aesthetic adhesive,” a cultural glue. Therefore, the symbol character (further referred to as ‘SYMCHA’) itself has no shape, but is quick to take on any chameleon form at any moment. The SYMCHA as soft glutinous core within a storyworld (narrative) formulates a “structure of structures,” which may be universal and culturally specific at the same time. It is the art of surreal jump-cutting and the (Dadaist) collage, which juxtaposes the SYMCHA into two cross-sections: hardware [an outlined figure, lightly sketched] and software [a ‘mental model’ that feeds information into the “character construct” (Emmott), or character cocktail]. It is always also a neutral zone (see further “super-zero” concept) of connectedness to the same conceptual hole within which the two – i.e., the shell and core – are seen as an amalgamation, in spite of their opposite nature. No SYMCHA stands for one thing only without also containing its opposite – the number of possibilities for these wild but “beautiful compositions” (Novalis) hence remains inexhaustible in depth of meaning and richness of expression; yet each part reflects the infinite complexity of the whole (i.e., storyworld). As in the ‘chess-board dualism’ of black and white – or zero and one – the question of the origin of the SYMCHA and the rationale behind it arises from the notion of an act of ‘creatio ex nihilo’ (creation from nothing), which aligns with Sartre’s characterization of a “nothingness” that penetrates our “being.”

When our symbols have become like fancy bottles filled with a pale opaque liquid and deprived of their former clarity, society wishes to experience ‘reality’ in its most primitive and simple form. Like a snake, we try to peel off the skinny layers of being, which have hardened our sensibility, rather than remaining pliant (not in the sense of tame) and flexible in the “brute force” of life. While writers and artists always lavished their symbols (in an almost flamboyantly vulgar way), the ‘scientist’ (for professional reasons) propagates ‘eliminativism’ and formalization of imaginative thought, which nowadays requires proven justification because we cannot stand to acknowledge the ‘mystery’ and sheer translucency of it. In his “New Science,” Giambattista Vico specifically mentions this particular form of ‘barbarization’ which he considers not to be the result of degenerating “into pre-civilized conditions, but rather as the unworldly overcultivation of concepts that have become empty in highly developed cultures” (Marienberg). Thus, it is this form of “barbarous sophistication” (Vico), which paints a picturesque society constantly at war against itself – ever aspiring to reach a higher level, and ever relapsing into the primal wilderness. This Manichean struggle between powers of humanity and bestiality, sanity and madness, order and chaos, extreme measurement (Mondrian) and apparent randomness (Jackson Pollock), is further internalized within the SYMCHA and also projected upon the storyworlds/systems through which the latter moves.

To be continued…

ON BEAUTY AND HEALTH

Posted on by Adelina Badal

Sometimes there is a kind of a lucky coincidence (just like in the following subject matter) that the title, or rather its discussion, provides a very satisfying approach to the aesthetic reflection on current design trends. So as far as the latter is concerned, I would love to address the topics of beauty and health with greater depth of analysis. Although the importance of these traits may appear to be fully convincing at first glance, their (equal) value fails to be conclusive, since there is always the danger of prioritizing, or ranking, one over the other: So, while “descriptive” principles of health would primarily include factors such as functionality and representative organization systems (one need only think about the common creative design of contemporary first-aid kits), the dominating feature in postmodernist aesthetics and the understanding of these is an at least implicit pursuit of perfection of mere “sensory illusion” (Hegel) – even though beauty need not be necessarily complete. In a manner of the pearl which – in a state of sickness and disease – can only be formed from a foreign body (grain of sand or some parasite) entering the shell and causing an irritation in the soft tissues of the animal; and thus, sickness and the ‘aesthetic’ often go hand in hand. In other words, those who (mistakenly) categorize contemporary design merely as applied practice, almost never define it – much less clarify it – by its intrinsic value and purpose, but rather by one of its means. How then can we impose health, which reveals its true nature in the hidden obscurity of its existence, and beauty, which becomes best visible through its ‘refracted’ Self, as highest standards for ourselves? Through the search for a greater purpose (generally in life, and particularly in design); since thereby unique creative work will be brought more closely into alignment with the literal understanding of “Healing Arts,” which express themselves in a ‘holistic’ approach to design and ethics. But, in spite of this whole health and beauty mania, we should not forget that of all things it is first and foremost “new life,” which presents itself as a malicious virus from outer space, threatening to destroy our objectified bodily existence, thus initiating some much-needed recovery.

UMAJÍ – THE TASTY TEXTURE

Posted on by Adelina Badal

1 + 1 = 8: Basal and Synergistic Umají

In Japan, there is a centuries-old tradition of a particularly mysterious, but nonetheless distinguishable flavor, which is usually associated with sustenance perceived as exceptionally delicious. At the start of the 20th century, this very taste has been named “umami” (Ikeda, 1909) – a Japanese neologism based on the two concepts of UMAI (うまい), which means ‘nice,’ ‘delicious,’ or ‘yummy,’ and MI (味), which means ‘taste’ or ‘flavor.’ But, depending on the context, the term is also used more widely to designate all that is perfect (Mouritsen, Styrbæk). In the discourse that follows, I would like to present to you the new design concept of “Umají” – a Mavorswenera® original, which refers to the two ideas of UMAI (as mentioned above) and JÍ (地), the Japanese word for ‘texture’ or ‘fabric.’ Umají can be said to be a new ‘material experiment’ of how to evoke a synesthetic experience of tastes (when visually – or otherwise sensually – perceiving a composition of different metamorphic textures, fabrics, and structures), while taking advantage of the ‘multiplier effect’ produced by putting together basal materials (bio-based raw and, to a certain extent, foundational/traditional textiles), and supplementary or synergistic materials, which promote evolving/agile/adaptive approaches. The taste is maximized by conceptually combining dissimilar basal and synergistic materials in certain ways, which also calls for an open-ended format to interlink these distinct conceptual frameworks – that is, “a matrix of terms, a mesh of codes” (Gausa?).

Mouthtouch: Tasting Texture

The purely optical perception of any given material (its surface structure, the ‘layout,’ and its color and texture, as well as many other aspects) usually comes first. The role of the other main aspect of texture, which is based on the sensory experience of fragrance/flavor materials, here described as mouthtouch, has often been left unnoticed. Mouthtouch characteristics are not merely visual, but first and foremost tactile, or can be perceived indirectly via other “sensory modalities” (Helmholtz) – how materials ‘taste’ when touched, their ‘aroma,’ or their acoustic and thermal properties. Meanwhile, the physical texture related to the materials can be classified on an ongoing continuum ranging from completely natural to totally synthetic. These constitute an aggregate of clustered, synesthetic associations, which ultimately calls for changes in their physical appearances – this, too, involves transitions from one state to another (e.g., from crystalline to glass, solid to liquid, and liquid to gas). Other, not (yet) tried or tested, textural transformations might even lead to the formation of semisolid substances, liquid-like materials, foams, etc., where different phases are simultaneously present, and where the resulting synergistic substrates can be further modified with the help of so-called “additives” – such as plasticizers, emulsifiers, gelling, gums, or coatings, all of which have a specific relationship to water. Otherwise, an outward change can simply occur by regulating the moisture content through external heating/cooling, and other additions.

Metamorphism: Material Changes

Despite the lack of a uniform definition of the term ‘life,’ science has put all its energy behind the effort to recreate this phenomenon indoors, even though, so far, life could not be created artificially in a lab. Altogether, a set of multi-criteria – the signs of life – define the main characteristics of living organisms, which are as follows: “order, homoeostasis, growth, sensing and reacting, adaptation and evolutionary development, propagation, metabolic activity and the transformation of energy” (loosely quoted from Imhof/Gruber). As such, living materials are all justifiably referred to as material systems – even though the differentiation between material and system is rather blurry. It was not until the 19th century when the term ‘metabolism’ (as mentioned before) moved beyond its scientific origin to put down new roots in many areas of culture. The German architect Gottfried Semper established the theory of metabolism (material transformation) as key element of his “practical aesthetics.” While the memory of the original structure remains clearly inscribed into the form or the skin of the object, the latter “must be the exact opposite of everything that one teaches,” Lodoli stated; “it should be in keeping with the characteristic texture, suppleness (or stiffness) of the material, with its varying resisting force, in a word, with its very essence and nature. … Nothing is more vulgar than striving to ensure that a material appears not to be itself but something different. This is a constant masquerade, a permanent deception” (Moravánszky).

Materiology and Mashup Culture

Today’s “mashup cultures” (Sonvilla-Weiss) make it possible to combine material/immaterial elements by objectively manifesting them in design goods or transforming them into open digital content on the Web. Modern people, especially young ones, actually live a Second Life (SL) in ‘highly interactive’ digital storyworlds or ‘media ecologies,’ which were often referred to as big part of our “convergence culture” (Jenkins, 2006). The resulting convergence of various media forms, as well as personalization, remixing of content, and “hypersociality” describe how ‘media mix,’ especially in Japan, brings forth a synergistic relationship between films, video games, comic books, anime, trading cards or character merchandise. Particularly collectible toys are shape-shifting out of a reality-based environment into the virtual world, such as magical, fantasy-filled lands or cities embedded in the supernatural (Cross, 1997). Among those notions, character merchandise creates what Anne Allison has called ‘pocket fantasies,’ “digitized icons … that children carry with them wherever they go,” and characters “that straddle the border between phantasm and everyday life.” Collection as well as mashup are at the core of interaction, while the first respectively makes use (not merely mention) of the formula that was employed by Pokémon, which is of an ever-multiplying set of “symbol characters” that generate esoteric knowledge, and highly activist material cultures of fandom (see: Asian popular music) expanding on the Internet (or cultural code).

Designing E → Motion (≠ Translation)

Surfaces, structures, and materials all manifest an in-depth capacity to evoke emotional reactions from humans, while bioactive ‘cosmotextiles’ convey primary attributes such as ‘softness’ and luxuriousness (which is a kind of softness). Seen through the eyes of modern science, biological material, too, can be defined as ‘soft’ condensed matter, since it shows signs of flexible plasticity and openness to alteration. In this regard, one of the most remarkable advancement in material culture is the shift from solid-state (static) material properties to fluid-state (dynamic) material behaviors: Here, capturing the ephemeral (e.g., emotion) might stand in stark contrast to materials, but fleeting transitory phenomena, too, exist only in the materialistic world. In a loose sense, we could consider materiality as inseparable from that ‘ephemeral/etheric’ nature – of, for example, clouds, sky colors, or even rainbows. Immersed in a surge of hyper-materialist ‘bling-bling’ styles and ‘affective’ hypersociality, contemporary textile design often falls into the sphere of “our fascinations with irreverent material mutations, outrageous morphologies, and sensorial maximalism of luxury and effect” (Schröpfer). But feelings/emotions stimulate (motivate) more senses than just sight, if at all, which indicates that materiality needs to be more than the external structure of its surface. Materials should not merely represent “states of matter.” Thus, there are three levels of meaning: external (materiology), internal (emotionality), and associative symbolic character.

Digital Synesthesia

Emotions, since ultimately based upon the perceptions of external stimuli and bodily reactions, involve phenomena with an essentially multisensory nature. But while sight and, to a certain extent, the sense of touch stand in the foreground of textile design, the smell of materials, however, is given less priority, as is true for other sensory modalities such as sound, scent or taste, with the latter playing a far greater role in other industries (like cosmetics, etc.). In the future, materials must take the correlation between each sensory channel thus into more consideration: In addition to seeing and touching, material design must be elaborated to include the senses of, for example, smell and taste – with direct reference to its auditory appearance, function, handling, and even temperature. Therefore, the central question to the project is: How an experience of ‘synesthesia,’ that is to say, the blurring of the senses, can be activated via digital art and design? As a consequence, this article has roughly dealt with the specific relationship among borderline synesthesia-like experiences, cross-modal analogies, and (to some degree) digitized iconic coupling (i.e., concrete associations). I remember, some years ago, a New York Times feature on “The Future of Touch” declared that “to interact with the world in any meaningful way, we have to use the sense of touch” and that haptic technologies would signify the breakthrough in letting “people feel things that are not actually there” (Fergusson & Naudziunas, 2015). Is this the future we envisioned!?

AZƏRi MODERN

Posted on by Adelina Badal

«Aφrasiya Style» — Azərbaycan Between East and West

When Prometheus steals fire from Olympus, Zeus condemns him to ceaseless punishment by chaining the thief of fire to the summit of Mount Caucasus where his tortured liver repeatedly grows back after being preyed upon by vultures each day. Prometheus “gifts” humanity with fire, and through the tears of the highland and mountain peoples (probably Caucasian Scythians), we obtain a fleeting glimpse of their appreciation. This story tells us much about the most important gift to civilization, and its blessed recipients. After all, the ever-burning Olympian fire is not just heat and flame, but also the heart (spirit) and the source of light (soul), for since antiquity fire was a sign of God’s elusive presence, which is why it was so ardently worshipped by Zoroastrians in Azərbaycan and Iran. Azərbaycan – the “land of fire,” the “keeper of the flame,” as its name implies, became a destination for pilgrimages to the fire’s ‘place of origin,’ especially because of sites such as Yanar Dağ (literally “burning mountain”) and the “eternal flame” at the Zoroastrian Atəşgah (fire temple) near Bakı (Baku). Maybe it was this “legacy” of the gift that prompted me to take a small flame from this infinite fire, and pass it on to contemporary societies; and, even though Azərbaycan’s fire is full of life, the country’s otherworldly landscapes are remarkably tranquil realms. As quietly as red autumn leaves snatched by a gust of wind, pieces of Bakı’s memories fall to the ground each day … in a silent display of the city’s tug of war between the old and the new.

Memory and time are two important themes in Azərbaycan’s collective identity – they are “unyielding phenomena” (Vahabova) that facilitate the unification of the East and the West, the “left and the right, the conformists and non-conformists, the archaists and innovators, here and now, at the present point at the present time,” which enables art to build bridges within the Eurasian worlds of the 21st century, by establishing closer bonds between “geo-cultural mentalities” of the Orient and the Occident, North and South. Concerning time, art critic Taymus Daimi maintains that following both paths gives modern cultures a chance to feed “on the invisible spiritual emanations of the historical past,” be it the ancient art of Gobustan, carpet design, or miniature painting on which Azərbaycan’s forms of visual expression are based. Their legacy of fire and ‘environmental mosaics’ – the country’s lush vegetation and flowing waters as symbol of aquatic luxury, delicious food and abundant fruit, ornate colorful carpets, glorious music, gardens and pavilions – manifest in many different ways: a ‘palette’ of brilliant deep colors; the flight to fantasy, where reality is transformed into (1) distorted/tilted, or (2) formally precise and exact geometric abstractions. As exhibition project “Azəri Modern” tries to offer a representative panoramic of a state-of-the-art Azərbaycan of the 21st century, while at the same time showing a rather nostalgic vision of the Bakı of my childhood with a special appeal to national (classical) myths and old legends.

The «Supăsuit» — Back to the Future of Azərbaycan

Until the late 20th century, ‘socialist realism’ remained the predominant style for Soviet art. The result, following Daimi, was the fabrication of a “hermetic,” isolated and sealed-off artistic expression, as well as a particular spiritual sterilization that he further defines as the “iron curtain factor.” Bakı today is a free-spirited city looking forward to the future, rather than establishing itself as a ‘shrouded, hermetic enclave.’ New open spaces arise from the battle between conformity and individualism (and, thus, the city constantly changes, evolves, and tries to ignite the sparks of innovation); an ‘Instant City’ no longer prevails. The city of Bakı acts like a second skin or ‘make-up’ for its denizens: it can be put on and taken off again. Thus, the link between environment/habitation and clothing/body becomes closer, dwelling and bodysuit fuse into a single median unit – the ambiguity of “clothed nakedness,” a ‘body make-up’ (see also Rudi Gernreich) which responds to the outside world (e.g., light, temperature, humidity, etc.) and allows for freedom in all isolation. At the core of this project lies the vision of an urban warrior in a classic yet future-oriented Azərbaycanı unisex suit of armor [“Supăsuit” – a Mavorswenera® original], which does not serve defensive purposes, but instead highlights a connection between habitation and the inhabitants of Bakı and Azərbaycan. – My conclusion is that in a time of religio-political imbalances, modern Azərbaycan and Caucasus present a rare opportunity for international (cultural) collaboration.

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The State Flag:

The “Multicoloredness” (Pleochroism) of Azərbaycan

The color blue here represents infinity (∞), mercy (raḥma), and the all-encompassing ocean (Al-Qāmūs al-muḥīṭ), which is, in fact, second only to the all-surrounding sky (samāʾ), whose hue it takes on. Since blue is generally considered negative in the Muslim world, one tends to use the term “azure” (sapphire blue, turquoise) when describing all these shifting, shimmering colors of the sea, such as, for example, the Caspian Sea. In contrast to the coolness and freshness one can feel by running one’s hands through the water, “gules” (or ruby red) draws an obvious connection to the heat of Zarathustra’s fire that will “one day kindle the light of the future” (Nietzsche). But it also refers to the color of blood, velvet roses, wine, freshly plucked apples and pomegranates, rosy cheeks, and the “fiery hearts” of the Caucasians, which became a favorite topic among Persian poets. The color red bears witness to beauty (jamāl) and “love” (hubb) of the heart that has been transformed into a precious ruby of incalculable value through patience, openness, and compassion. Simultaneously, the now-famous Islamic “vert” (emerald green) is reminiscent of the “tree of life,” Azərbaycan’s lush vegetation, Bakı’s luxurious parks, often in explicit reference to the ideal picture of a paradisiacal garden. In Sufism, the ‘visio smaragdina’ – “the outburst of green” – represents a specific level of spiritual growth, while the light from the “Emerald Mountain” (Najm al-Dīn Kubrā) that lies even beyond the luminous black symbolizes God and Eternal Life itself.