57 4f 54 41 Artwork

Title is hexadecimal for WOTA (or ‘War Of The Ants') - a name given by many European countries as a visual metaphor for the noise produced in a radio or television receiver by atmospheric or various natural or man-made electrical disturbances (see here). The acronym WOTA also stands for ‘Who’s On The Air’ and ‘Wisdom Of The Ages/Ancients’ - both apt for the subjects covered within the work. The foundation of the piece is a 4000 x 3000 square grid to which all the content aligns (bar a few exceptions, all squares in the grid are black or white). The 4:3 ratio was chosen to reflect the format of older style CRT televisions which often exhibited static/noise. The piece encapsulates many ideas, concepts, research, articles, quotes, videos and music which relate (in my mind) to such topics as metaphysics, space, time, duality, qualia, perception, self/identity, psychology, connection, technology, AI, culture, life, free-will, journeys, communication and more. The below synopsis gives a small insight into some of the concepts the piece explores... 1. Order vs Chaos - taking internal chaos (thoughts, inner chatter, noise, overthinking, dreams, worries, memories) and attempting to create order to it. This in turn creates what looks like disorder (noise/static) which alludes to the cycle of life. Chaos to order, order to chaos. 2. Duality of life: black/white (dark/light), above/below, mind/matter, birth/death, hot/cold, good/evil. Our experience lies between such polarities. The top half covers more matter/objective/hardware and the below mind/subjective/software (as above, so below. As within, so without). 3. Static/noise also incorporates relic electromagnetic radiation from the Big Bang - known as the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). This ties in with 'Wisdom of the ancients/ages' and also charts a journey from 13.8 billion years to the present. The piece also explores the possible future of the universe and the journey(s) from birth to death (and beyond). 4. Ants are perhaps the closest analogy to human civilisations... They have mega-cities, transport networks, ventilation, childcare systems and waste collection. So War Of The Ants is a mirror for war of the humans, showcasing the growing polarity, disparity, confusion and division that current society is experiencing. There's also the chaotic noise of information (news, social media) and the challenges we face in navigating it. 5. Solid black areas (like the one in the epicentre) are areas that are deemed unknowable (at least so far). For example, a black hole and another’s consciousness are all things that are directly inaccessible to us... or rather incommunicable to others. 6. Micro vs Macro - we can’t see both the big picture and the small details simultaneously. We can either see the piece as a whole and miss out on the details or zoom in to see the details but miss the bigger picture. Some of the QR codes and typefaces are of a size that they would only be readable if the piece was printed at 4m x 3m (so it can only effectively be used in digital form). The macro/micro aspect also plays upon Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle - in which we can measure either position or momentum, but not both. Also relates to perspective and how we each view the same thing. 7. Half-life/entropy. Half-life is the time required for a quantity to reduce to half of its initial value. As this piece includes QR codes and various links to online sources, some of these, in time, will expire or perish. Which means over time the piece itself decays and becomes less ordered... so in effect even static changes. "Nothing endures but change." ~ Heraclitus 8. The underlying 4000x3000 grid also represents the invisible order (or matrix, field) that underpins reality. We just can't see it due to a veil that prevents us from directly observing the true nature of reality. It also represents a filter of consciousness. 9. The piece also acts as a kind of personal journal by documenting media I've consumed over time (articles, books, movies, videos, quotes, music etc).

Mixed Media:Vector on Other

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:55.6 W x 41.7 H x 0 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.