THE MATHS

qed

Repurposing is a good way to save on the cost of materials.  I recently saw a thing about a guy in Australia who makes ingenious animal forms out of used auto parts.  And it’s one way in which art triumphs over cooking, where repurposing causes food poisoning.  Maybe the artist will stop when she uses up all her stock of materials.  And it would be better if all the materials got used up evenly.  In other words, the resources that go into the creation of an object and the action of creating that object can be dictated by the principle of balance, just as the elements of the finished product should combine to produce a harmonious ideal.

That is to say, a work of art originates in an idea, which, through a process, becomes a product.  The artist is alone in determining the rules and decisions and methodologies that drive the process.  An exception to this is exemplified by artists who have their own factories with employees answering to a designer.  In that case, the artist’s only job is to have the idea.  But such cases are rare.  So, if the driving principle is balance, and this principle not only determines the look of the finished product but also applies to the resources that contribute to the object’s creation, then anything repurposed contributes to the artist’s objective because repurposing reduces disorder in the studio.

Simply put, the objective is a sum total of one – one piece, comprising values in a harmonious state, with nothing left on the side.

Practically speaking, this is impossible.  The challenge of achieving an art piece of perfect, self-contained harmony produces the additional challenge of half-empty paint tubes, unused scraps, busted brushes and used cleaning products – all the stuff that slowly drifts towards those bins on the side.  Nevertheless, the more the logarithm of creation approaches one, the closer the artist gets to her ideal of balance.

Although, in fact, assuming the artist wants to trade art for a living, the true objective is zero: a completely empty studio.  Not only is it green, it is also aesthetically satisfying, and if the artist is lucky enough to have turned all that material into food, then all that mass has been converted into energy, which boosts the artist’s chance of survival, and is in pleasing accordance with the laws of physics.

Here we see an example of utilitarian art, which can be espressed mathmatically, where x=art and y=utility, as x + y = 0.  And as I have often been told, all things are one, or, espressed mathmatically, 0 + ∞ = 1.
QED