VIRUS: PARASITIC CONSCIOUSNESS

This project I decided to explore the characteristics of parasites and how they evolve or adapt other host's body.  I have researched 2 kinds of parasites: Orphiocordyceps and Toxoplasmosis.

Documentary of orphiocordyceps

My thoughts

 Toxoplasmosis is a parasite that coexists inside a hosts body by passing through air and nearby environment, it is a very common parasite that infects people/animals. The victims of this parasite is likely to be unaware of any effects and become consciously less aware of the sense of danger. We are all subjected to virus and humans are just a vessels that contains bacteria and germs. Our emotions are fuelled by a systematic being that inhabit in our body. 


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Civilisation and its discontent

 

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'A CITY IS NOT A PLACE WHERE PEOPLE LIVE, BUT A PHYSICAL ENTITY WITHA LONG RICH PAST, IN WHICH NOTHING THAT EVER TOOK SHAPE HAS PASSED AWAY.'
In the book of 'Civilisation of Discontent', the writer Sigmund Freud explains the existence of the confining social political boundaries of nowadays society. Sigmund Freud metaphorically portrays a city as a living and its structural essence is the diverse culture built up by mankind. Therefore from this perspective of thinking, I believe that we are equivalent to a living microorganism that is part of a algorithmic movement and a function to the system, humans are its structure attached and inhabit in a environment that have no real connection with them. From all of the approach in writing that Sigmund Freud describes, I believe he wanted to address the state of loneliness that existed in the society, how people overcoming their mundane everyday life without any guidance.

Text

Luke Jerram

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Luke Jerram is one of the installation artist and sculptor that creates intricate glass model to represent the unique complexity within a microorganism and how its indescribable form.  The delicate and transparent pattern shown on the model represented the intimaidating structure and unpredictable characteristics of a parasitic form can be. From this series of work that Luke Jerram have made, I have become drawn into the scales of these models. By playing with different perspectives, some of these microscopic organisms have been enlarged and reminded me of glass chandeliers or open space glass sculpture in public.  

Francis Crick Institute

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Francis Crick Science Institute specialise research on different behaviours on disease and other illness to better understand them and find effective cure to stop them from spreading. Based from most of the case studies that they did, there are many explanations on how the basic human structure functions and the foundations to what created us. Our structures are created by stem cells, which is capable of multiply itself until forming a systematic structure of a human body. There are also some information about the nematode worms which is commonly known as a microscopic parasite that can inhabit in a host's body, this parasite is the symptoms for toxoplasmosis. I have learnt that a nematode worm have the ability to break the symmetry of the body in order to divide to make two identical copies of itself and it is a way of spread down the parasitic infection to another body.
 

Ori Elisar

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One of the MA student suggested me this artist called Ori Elisar, who grows bacteria that follows a specific pattern that resembles as a form of typography. Being set up inside the petri dish, this model/ experiment are being controlled depended on the food resources that been given. There are also some many unpredictable results being shown due to the fact that the bacteria will gradually go out of the zone where the letters being made from. I think this is a interesting experimentation, because it demonstrates that how Ori Elisar is trying to control these bacteria as a way to present that life can be a mechanical system being controlled  by other being. 

Altered Carbon

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 'THE INSTINCT OF VIOLENCE  CURLS INSIDE US LIKE A PARASITE, WAITING FOR A CHANCE TO FEED ON OUR RAGE AND MULTIPLY UNTIL IT BURST OUT OF US.'
Altered Carbon is a TV film series that is based of novel adaption. The series explores a science fictional universe that introduce the concept of futurism. Throughout the narratives, it explains when human achieved immortality in a world that human consciousness can be downloaded into a portable disk and transfer into another body to prevent death. People now have the power to live hundreds of years without real death. This allows people to build up and accumulate overwhelming amount of wealth, power and authority that makes them even more superior. However this opens a wide gaps of hierarchy that existed in this world; the rich  controls everything, and the poor are destined to be enslaved by the rich. Based on this show, I founded interesting to see how people from different class of the society have different struggles; from people that are looking for a chance of survival in this world, to the people who is capable everything that they are almost portrayed as ‘god’. People become more and more detached from reality and become materialised as object that can be owned by power and authority.
 
MY THOUGHTS
 What if we are the representation of the parasite? And we are similar to all species trying to survive and adapt.

London Glassblowing

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This is a gallery that features one of the glass sculptor Peter Layton. I found many of his work synthetically pleasing and many of the models that he made reminded me of surrealistic, abstracted landscapes. It seems like to me that many of his inspirations came from nature and the geographical contour lines. While I was visiting, I also get a chance to look at the glass workshop to learnt the process of glassblowing. In order to shape up the glass into a sustainable structure, glassblowing requires heating over the glass inside oven. Once it is being heated over, the glass becomes more bendable and can be shape shifted by hand (cover up with heat protective rags).

BEERS London exhibition

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Sofia Donovan is known for creating ceramic sculptures, I found many of her work resembles like parts of heart organ, although from the basic sculpture the work itself seems to look like fragmented pieces being joined together in a very crude and unorganised way; like trying to reconstruct a broken heart back into one again.  This idea of construction and reconstruction interests me, I want to introduce this idea of transformation from a series of scattered image into a distorted and surrealistic object.

Flatland: A Romance Of Many Dimension

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The book 'Flatland' introduce a imaginary world that only two dimensional objects exists inside; and no one in the world understand what is is like to be a three dimensional being. As the result of this, many of 'flatlander's vision and their way of thinking differs to human in the three dimensional realm. Their beliefs and hierarchies in the society is completely different from a ordinary human. Even the way they see things are different in comparison. In the first chapter, the writter Edwin  Abbott explains how to view a object from a two dimensional perspective. 

John Edmark

The Golden Ratio

 
Golden ratio: Golden ratio is a mathematical equation for measuring organic spinning spiral shapes. The key for finding this shape is by finding the ‘half point’ (divide by two) to create the spiral. In order to further extend the shape, you can do the opposite (multiply by two) to generate more. I found this is a great tool for creating long extending patterns because there are no limitations of how many you can make. Many of John Edmark’s models uses this technique, many of the complex and unsymmetrical shapes requires many measurements and sketch ups to achieve the wanted results.

Scott Olsen

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I did some more in depth research that based on the theory of 'The Golden Ratio'. I have come across the book 'The Golden Section' written by Scott Olsen, he explains that the ''golden ratio' exists all around us. Although to us it seems like a mathematical equation, but there are many examples of this theory that is being presented in nature. 

Photon