Mirrors, reflections, reflections...

[fragments]

Mirrors, reflections... are attributes of the amalgam of images resulting from the process of optical distortion. The inverted image or reflected ^image1, studied by ^Mo-zi2 and Aristotle, we owe to the Arab mathematician Ibn ^al-Haitham3, who demonstrates the linear propagation of reflected light through the device that would later be known in history as the camera ^obscura4. First presented in ^diagrams5 in 1500 by Leonardo da Vinci, the device became an indispensable tool for the ^artistic world6, which used it to project "reflected" images onto the support. Later, the camera obscura established the principles of the system that facilitated the development of the camera in the early 19th century with ^Niepce7, Daguerre and Talbot^.8 [...]

In the descriptions of Calvino or Borges, or in the representations of Piranessi and Escher, the transposition of the imagined plane speaks of the universe in which we want to find ourselves. The imaginary, as a reshaped present, takes us beyond our conscious reality. Identifying the fragments at the base of the imagined puzzle/r constitute the coordinates that determine our existence by separating us into distinct individualities. The ability to choose sequentially, to separate and filter the elements of the imaginary plane, is related to the multiple neuronal connections that prioritize the interaction between the real and the imaginary environment. The world in which we want to live or the world in which we want to find ourselves is a timeless universe in which physical barriers and reduced capacities disappear. [...]

Beyond the tangible universe, somewhere between dream and reality, we find the images of the worlds/sequences imagined by each of us translated into a personalized form. The escape from the world of reality, assimilated to the distorted, distorted, mirrored image, can be brought about by interacting with a text, either related to an image or transposed in the projection captured in a movie theater. The succession of sequential planes with which we intersect on a daily basis transpose alternatives of the universe in which we live. Mirroring, like the result projected by the camera obscura, gives us an inverted image of a cognizable reality. Inverted worlds, often using the water surface as an intermediary agent, amplify the image of the mirrored plane by optical effects. The perception of the successive planes realized by mirroring transports us into the universe of multiple interpretations in which the allegories... [...]

The dematerialization of the real image transposed by reflection into the imaginary plane constitutes the attribute by which an image is situated beyond the mirrored plane. The distortion of the elements of the projected image transports the subject beyond the rationale of justification of the perceived result. The passage from the perception of the static frame, as the result of the image reflected by media such as the mirror, to the dynamic one is realized through the image composed by superimposing the frames of the reflected image, mirrored in a water surface. Deformation favors the transposition into the "mirrored world". Predominantly dynamic, the imagined, oneiric world extrapolates elements in order to recreate alternative frames on the basis of the initially perceived image. Static elements (representations, symbols, allegorical elements, etc.) often determine the framework of phenotypical connections. [...]

The images superimposed in a sequential succession describe a path whose fragments can be found in the experiences accumulated in the real world. Most often, we find images of mirrored planes as a result of the projection of other imagined worlds. Distinct projections from nearby planes, involuntarily taken over from the imagined planes we assimilate, recreate images with seemingly personalized features. The borrowing of the imaginary plane or its characteristic elements creates the appearance of its possession. The personal note, the personalized fragments, give the illusion of belonging to the final image. However, the projected image is a result often borrowed... [...]

Notes:

¹ analyzed by Brunelleschi in 1425 as a tool by means of which the proportions of an object could be checked (Shigeru Tsuji's "Brunelleschi And The Camera Obscura: The Discovery of Pictorial Perspective", Art History vol.13, 1990, pp. 276-292)

² Mo-zi (Mo-Tzu, ca. 470-391 B.C.), founder of Mohism (a philosophical movement faded by Confucianism during the Han dynasty and later partly incorporated into the Taoist canon), who studied the principles of composition of the inverted image projected on the support as a result of the linearity of the rays of light

³ Ibn al-Haitham (Alhazen), Kitab al-Manazir (On Optics, 1011-1021) published by Friedrich Risner under the title Opticae thesaurus: Alhazeni Arabis libri septem, nuncprimum editi; Eiusdem liber De Crepusculis et nubium ascensionibus, 1572

⁴ a device created on the principles of rectilinear propagation of light: considering that each point on the surface of an object in the light reflects light rays in all directions, the aperture of the device allows a certain number of rays to continue their path until they intersect the projection plane where they produce the inverted image of the object; the name of camera obscura was given by Johannes Kepler in 1604 in Ad Vitellionem Paralipomena, Frankfurt, Germany, 1604, p51; here he also proposes the use of a lens to improve the quality of the projected image

⁵ the 270 diagrams presented in the work known as the Codex Atlanticus illustrate the first detailed description of the camera obscura as a tool of analysis in perspective construction (Vinci, Leonardo, Ambrosian Library, Milan, Italy, Recto A of Folio 337) and 'Manuscript D' (Manuscript D, Vinci, Leonardo, Institut de France, Paris, Folio 8); he analyzes optical principles in his Treatise on Painting published in 1589 in Milan

⁶ Albrecht Durer, Underweysung der Messung, mit dem Zirckel und Richtscheyt, in Linien, Ebenen unnd gantzen corporen, Nurnberg, Hieronymus Andreas Formschneyder, 1525; Johannes Vermeer in his works The Art of Painting, The View from Delft, etc.

⁷ Joseph Nicephore Niepce, considered to be the world's first photographer, produced the first permanently fixed image (Heliograph, light drawing, 1825).

8 William Fox Talbot and Louis Daguerre discovered the photographic system for fixing images captured in the camera obscura; in 1839 the first cameras were commercially manufactured according to Daguerre's prototype

note

Belonging to the Drowning Architecture and Alchemy series, the images that accompany the text are a selection of the digital works realized between 2003-2004 by arch. Alexandru Crișan. Each of the mentioned collections totals a number of about 21 works with similar thematic/graphic representation to the ones presented.