Project Report Week #1.5 - Pattern Integrity

Fuller's notion of pattern integrity has many analogs to my current work in algorithmic composition and video. Simply put (I think), pattern integrity is a phenomenon that exists conceptually independent of any material, but requires a material to be seen and demonstrated. In the documentary The World of Buckminster Fuller, he gives the example of an overhand knot, which is a concept that can be known and understood, but must be applied to a piece of rope to be seen. Since overhand knots exist independently of ropes (but affect ropes' behavior), they can be applied to ropes of any kind and still maintain their integrity as overhand knots.

This is a much more elegant way of explaining what I am doing with my current video project that I could come up with on my own (thanks, Bucky!) Rather than thinking of this project (and some of my recent music) as fixed in time and space, I am instead creating sets of rules for ordering visual, sonic, or conceptual materials in time with the goal of altering or projecting those materials in a new light. The materials are theoretically completely variable (though for this project, there will be a finite number of pre-made videos in the algorithm program).

Yes, I suppose I'm making "conceptual art," but my ideas tend to be pretty boring, tedious concepts on their own (and tend to make for shitty PowerPoint presentations, too) until they're applied to light- or sound-making materials, just like the concept of an overhand knot is simple and meaningless on its own, but can form the basis for the incredibly complex tapestries.