Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Friday, April 08, 2022
El Puente Del Corazon (The Bridge of Heart)
The piece that I chose to submit to the show titled — “Kinetics Art that Moves You” is a mathematical visual poem titled: El Puente Del Corazón (The Bridge of Heart) 56"x 56" polyester digital print
The piece involves bridging two historic traditions from opposite sides of the world. (Central America and East Asia) The concept of emptiness is found in the Mayan creation story described by the Popol Vuh yet, emptiness is also a fundamental concept of the Heart Sutra, an important tenet in the tradition of Zen Buddhism.
In the context of mathematics, the piece uses a "Similar Triangles Poems" mapping across two sets of corresponding legs found in similar triangles (a/b = c/d) to express the statement: "Emptiness is to Form as Form is to Emptiness." In mathematical form: (Emptiness divided by Form is equal to Form divided by Emptiness) Algebra is then used to simplify the expression in order to point at the concept of "Oneness" or atonement. Atonement is generally thought of in a Christian context and relates to sin. In this context we can think about karma and how it can be burnt away by enlightenment. I would like to use a quote from Sam Harris to help us understand the phrase used in the mathematical poem.
In the Prajna Paramita Sutra (Heart Sutra) it is written that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. Form is not other than emptiness and emptiness is not other than form. Emptiness in this context, refers to what experience is like prior to conceptualization. Everything is simply appearing and at the level of experience everything is inseparable from consciousness itself - or what ever you want to call this condition of appearance. So there are no things, really - there is just this display of appearances. And consciousness is not one thing either - nor is it many - it is merely open and without definition and yet it allows for everything to appear without impediment. It’s no mere vacancy. Rather it is vividly aware of itself - as itself. Ceasing to overlook this condition where ever you are whatever is apparently happening - is meditation.
Within the imagery of the work a circular shaped 'Il won sang', (enso) Zen Buddhist symbol of emptiness, appears as the Mayan creator God reaches for it. A quote from the Popol Vuh follows
(English Translation):
Now it still ripples
Now it still ripples
Now it still murmurs
Ripples
It still sighs
Still hums
And it is empty under the sky
Here is the English translation of the left side of the work:
For a deep dive into the cognitive linguistic view of Similar Triangles Poems read this paper: A Cognitive View of Pandemic Meditations.
Label information
Title: El Puente Del Corazon (The Bridge of Heart)
The Piece is 56" x 56" Polyester weave / sealed acrylic digital print
The show opens Thursday April 14th 2022
5 PM to 8 PM
The Art Center
200 E 12th St, National City, CA 91950
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 11:11 PM 0 comments
Labels: Form is Emptiness Emptiness is Form, Popol Vuh, similar triangles poems, Zen
Tuesday, October 12, 2021
Rule 42 Show At The Bonita Museum
I am happy to be a part of the Rule 42 show curated by, Oceanside Museum of Art curator, Vallo Riberto.
Here are the show posters for the Rule 42 Show at the Bonita Museum:
Here are the works that I will have in the show:
The following was a page in the calendar published by the American mathematical Society
http://www.kazmaslanka.com/psychronometrics.html
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 7:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: Psycho-Vectors
Wednesday, October 06, 2021
Photos From The Opening Night At The Rule 42 Show
Kaz Discussing Psychronometrics
Kaz Giving Tools To Access The Work
Mathematical Visual Poetry of Kazmier Maslanka
The Visual Kinematics and The Psychovector Series
Harry Polkinhorn
David Quatrochocci
Rosa Riberto
Avital Oehler
Visual Poetry Books
Toru Nakatani
Curator Vallo Riberto and Doug McCullough
Museum Director Wendy Wilson-Gibson
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 3:18 PM 0 comments
Labels: Bonita Museum, Rule 42
The Dificulty In Bridging The Genres of Mathematics and Poetry
The creative process is one of bridging concepts together to create an expression. I have always wondered if I was indeed bridging mathematics and poetry. So, I put a poll together on this blog to query the readers and find out what end of the spectrum they reside. It turned out that the blog consistently had a 50% split between both mathematics and poetry for the 5 years the poll existed. I feel lucky to have landed in this spot yet, existing in the cracks of genres is never a popular place to be. That said I feel confident that bridging is extremely worthwhile. Creativity is always spawned in the cracks of genres.
I would like to share evidence of bridging this gap between the institutions of mathematics and the institutions of poetry. On one hand I had a poem published in the "page a day" calendar for the American Mathematical Society. Here is the letter requesting the poem for Basho:
And on the other hand, I had one of my mathematical poems nominated by the prestigious literary journal ZYZZYVA, for a pushcart prize in poetry. Here is the letter notifying me that the poem was nominated:
Here is the math poem they nominated:
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 2:51 PM 0 comments
Labels: American Mathematical Society, Page a day calender, Pushcart Prize in Poetry
Wednesday, September 29, 2021
The Blessing Of Rajneesh
Posted by Kaz Maslanka at 4:11 PM 0 comments
Labels: Hyon Gak Sunim, similar triangle poems