worlds_wall.png

wolfram language graphics, printed on 12×9 paper


"The guise of wall and door offered him an outlet, a secret and peculiar passage of escape into another and altogether more beautiful world."

- h.g. wells, the door in the wall, 1906




worlds_both.png

wolfram language graphic



Magritte_doors.png

renée magritte, selected paintings of gloopy holes in doors, 1933-1960







Inspired by the paintings of Renée Magritte and H.G. Well's short story The Door in the Wall, this project about "worlds" is an exploration of the presence of "meaning." Creating a "world" seems like a presumptuous task (do you have to understand everything you create?) so instead I sought to suggest a world via an entry point (a little piece of a world).

Doors are entry points. Magritte paints doors. In particular, Magritte paints shut doors with gloopy holes in them (enormous presence in my body and my nighttimes). I collected Magritte's gloopy holes and mapped key points in each image.

Magritte insists that his paintings don't contain meaning. (what does it mean (ha) to contain meaning? if you just pile in some words that mean something, does that put meaning into the image?)

The Door in the Wall is about a boy who passes through a green door in a white wall to escape from the gray world of responsibilities and boredom into a lush world of imagination. Throughout his life, he periodically chooses between the obligations of the gray world and the potential to be creative and freein teh green world. But, except for his first childhood visit to the world behind the green door, he always chooses the former, until he chooses death (another door?)

I dumped the text of H.G. Wells' story into the key points of the Magritte paintings. Then I also dumped randomly-generated English-looking text into the key points of the Magritte paintings. Which one contains more meaning? (does either? to whom? do you have to know to understand? what worlds are in our interpretations alone? does it change when we are handed an explanation? a hint? a story?)

I'm breaking right now. I'm striving on choosing on going through the ephemeral green door.

I'm piling meanings in words (can only i understand if only i know?) into things that mean much to me in other words (not words).

Merci Magritte, et les autres.