On Physical Lines of Force
2022
On Physical Lines of Force presents a new body of work on paper in which the modus operandi deviates from earlier series. Compositions of abstracted shapes and forms are borne from the study and analysis of minuscule details as seen in nature - through a microscopic lens. The resulting digital drafts are then translated into large-scale reproductions printed on Hahnemühle paper, highlighting monochromatic motifs of waves, resonance and vibrations that bear comparison to theorems of electromagnetism and electrodynamics.
Patterns and lines erupt in regular intervals creating a uniform and rhythmic symphony of natural contours and configurations. Continuing the process of inkjet printing in the production process, the image is then completed by employing hand-drawn charcoal and graphite illustrations, affording the final colour arrangements and lineations a path to advance the visual and thematic cohesion between the hand of the artist and that of a digital construct.
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As a side note: the series title 'On Physical Lines of Force' refers to the famous four-part paper written by James Clerk Maxwell published between 1861 and 1862, of the same name. In it, Maxwell derived the equations of electromagnetism in conjunction with a "sea" of "molecular vortices" which he used to model Faraday's lines of force. Maxwell had studied and commented on the field of electricity and magnetism as early as 1855/6 when "On Faraday's Lines of Force" was read to the Cambridge Philosophical Society.
Maxwell made an analogy between the density of this medium and the magnetic permeability, as well as an analogy between the transverse elasticity and the dielectric constant, and using the results of a prior experiment by Wilhelm Eduard Weber and Rudolf Kohlrausch performed in 1856, he established a connection between the speed of light and the speed of propagation of waves in this medium. The paper ushered in a new era of classical electrodynamics and catalysed further progress in the mathematical field of vector calculus. Because of this, it is considered one of the most historically significant publications in the field of physics and of science in general, comparable with Einstein's Annus Mirabilis papers and Newton's Principia Mathematica.