Maeda's SIMPLICITY

Mix and Match

Two clans of crystals meet on earth.

We tend to associate images of a sandy beach with warm weather. Unless you live near the ocean, summertime is the only time you will go out of your way to visit the beach.

Thus when I saw snow on the beach right in front of me, the image-understanding module in my brain generated an error message. Command not found.

My first association was with salt and pepper. The whiteness of salt, and the mottled gray of pepper. Two strong tastes fighting to overpower each other.

My second association was with the purity of the snow, and the dirtiness of sand. In the end, the dirt would win.

My third association was with the fluffiness of clouds in the sky, and the micro-fluffiness of the patches of snow on the sand. The sky managed to paint a self-portrait of itself on the ground.

My final association was with a continuing interest in the power of contrast as the driving force to any visual composition. The further distant and different two materials may be, the better they tend to go together. As the saying goes, "Opposites attract."

Ole Kristensen from Denmark writes, "The simplicity of the contrast, as you write – or new metaphor as a poet might say – or the condensing of languaging in novel juxtapositions of words is what lets texts express freedom. Dreams in language as creative steams leaking out of the deterministic system of inscriptions of language we call computers – or in it’s widest sense technology." I think that ambiguity and clarity make good bedfellows.

Posted by maeda at March 31, 2005 02:21 AM