Notes from my Columbus Theory paper

images sponsored by a Graham Foundation Grant, 2001

These are more questions than answers, taken from my notebook...

Notes on the generation of ideologies and sympathetic form:

-IDEA:

-Pre-Columbus, the world / universe [defined as the physical 3D space we inhabit] was thought to be defined/limited to a flat PLANE.

In passing the edge, one would “fall off” the plane into some unknown void. It is both that particular conceptual VOID, as well as the designation and construction of the PLANE that intrigues me.

-D.P.

-Several of the early Digital Paper series begin to investigate the notion of the CONSTRUCTED PLANE [EDGE] and the hypothetical VOID. “Firesky” in particular  begins to deal with the notion of a constructed plane as a BOUNDARY for a known environment – the “world” now has a place where the assembly technique shows itself. In this particular drawing, the idea of the edge condition is revealed as the focus is about to “DOCK”. Here, the “world” is defined as a constructed planar element, complete with an inner and outer “skin” and support members, - the medium of the ARCHITECT (wall, floor plane).

In the case of “Landslide” [9/4/03 – initial on Motion], the plane manifests itself in two versions. One – the initial horizon is composed of a series of constructed pyramidal shapes – akin to an inverted space frame. But then, a second system of “reveal” is demonstrated, as the drawing itself is used to pull back a portion of the very digital “sheet” [is there such a thing?] on which it is drawn. Here, the constructed plane/horizon is a flat, graphically-impregnated membrane, the medium of the ARTIST [page, paper] or, a second layer of media of the Architect [drawing, communication].

-Would the more appropriate nomenclature for this ”event” be a description of the world-view [both literally & figuratively] at the time of Pre-Columbus? What would the proper time-period ref be? “Queen ‘x’ the ‘x’”? Perhaps “Pre-Columbusonian”. Was there a political view of that time that had a specific label? Was there a specific group that forced this view on the rest of the un-informed world? Who actually was responsible for the formulation of the original theory that the world/environment was actually flat?

How was this message propagated? How did it become an “accepted” theory? The name of this idea, although not as publicly accessible as a Columbus reference, might instead come from the originator of the FLAT idea.