tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosisNavid Navab (IR/CA)

Kinetic installation, 2018

In a search for the hidden mysteries of matter from the borders of table-top astrophysics and natural fiction, three microcosms orchestrate states of sensory access to the phenomenological emergence of order out of chaos. tangibleFlux φ plenumorphic ∴ chaosmosis is an installation that invites participants to an intimate encounter with the ontogenesis of vital patterns through the spontaneous formation of temporal textures that emerge from material-energy fields.

Physically investigated through collaboration with forces of complex harmonic motion, patterns of interaction between magnetism, gravity, and light spiral out of theories of complexity and into an improvisatory dance of hallucinatory forms. Eventually, the kinetic event unveils messy realness chaosing into balance: things doing… stuff seeking a minimum-energy-state under magnetic flux. Sensually binding, spatially confusing, and temporally unsettling, tangibleFlux pulls everything into immediate vibrational relation with its vertiginous ritual.

Each microcosm engages unique entanglements: between pattern and uncertainty, orbital resonance and topological semblance, percepts and the stuff-of-forms. Microcosm no.1 plenumeia suspends a miniature ball above unstable magnetic fields. The ball shoots, twists, and turns towards a stability that it never sustains, leading to the spontaneous emergence of hypnotic patterns. Chaotic behaviour of the ball is then sonified and haptified in poetic sync, confusing the senses and bringing the body into prominence. No.2 plenumélliptique périgée, stirs a large array of spheroids in an intensive magnetic whirlpool. Elliptical textures emerge and morph to survive induced instabilities… energetic upheavals at the edge of chaos surrender to the seemingly static power of an underlying orbicular resonance of atomic topologies. No.3, plenumophileia, holds a sensual swamp of voids, curves, and viscous waves where gestures prevail over shapes: where pixel is lube, architecture is pollen, and objects are but excited clumps in a puddle of time.

CREDITS:

Navid Navab: artistic direction, design, composition, sculpture, programming, electronics, technical design and fabrication
Ceramic artist (microcosm no.3): Marie Côté
Technical assistance: Evan Montpellier, Joseph Thibodeau
Design consultants: Garnet Willis, Tatev Yesayan
Fabrication collaboration: Studio Robocut (Montréal), SceneArt (Slovenia)
Research collaboration: Topological Media Lab
Support: Canada Council for the Arts, Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec, Concordia University

Navid Navab (IR/CA)

Navid Navab is a Montreal based media alchemist, multidisciplinary composer, phono-menologist, perSonifier, tabletop cosmologist, and gestureBender. Interested in the poetics of schizophonia, gesture, and embodiment, his work investigates the transmutation of matter and the enrichment of its inherent performative qualities. Navid uses gestures, rhythms and events from everyday life as the basis for real-time compositions, resulting in augmented acoustical poetry and painterly light that lend enchantment to improvisational and pedestrian movements. Navid currently directs the Topological Media Lab, where he leverages phenomenological studies to inform the creation of computationally-enchanted environments.

contact: navid.nav@gmail.com