matter

What is matter? : 

What is matter? Matter is everywhere. Matter is everything. Matter/Mater/Mother “From whom all corporeal things take their source.” Matter shares its dualistic existence with Energy. To study the changes and effects of matter is to come closer to understanding Life’s secrets.

Mind Over Matter : 

Mind Over Matter It is easy to confine the study of matter to the realms of Chemistry and Quantum Mechanics. Is it really the case science has ‘taken care’ of all things material? Is artistic practise thereby condemned to pick up the unquantified debris left by scientific investigation? This presentation attempts to investigate just about everything to do with matter. Which is just about everything.

Quantification : 

Quantification To quantify something is to count or measure it. Sense experiences are confined into sets. This is the way in which we try to understand and control the world, which is fundamental to science. Mathematics and logic are the most precise methods to express quantification.

Algebra : 

Algebra Is the “relation of relations”. This meta-language shows the need to consider each object as being in relation to another, within a certain context, or set. The very abstract nature of this branch of pure mathematics means that it can exist entirely self-contained, without even referring to anything instantiated.

Art and Science : 

Art and Science The dichotomy is becoming outdated and irrelevant. It is unhelpful to categorise and define any two modes of thought as mutually exclusive. This becomes clear as soon as we attempt to define anything.

Some Brief Semantics… : 

Some Brief Semantics… When we define a word, we can only describe it in terms of what it looks like. “The simple question: What is it like? Invites a comparison. We cannot, in fact, define anything in terms of itself. We must bring it in its relationship to its environment.” -- P. A. Coggin – Art, Science and Religion There is no such thing as an entirely self-contained definition. Language, then, is revealed to be entirely (and absurdly) self-referential.

Self-Reference : 

Self-Reference Drawing by Theodoros Pelecanos, from Synosius (1478) One of the biggest puzzles of language and thought An artefact and necessary product of human existence “This is a sentence” – self-evidently true meta-sentence “This is not a sentence” – paradoxical meta-sentence The Ouroboros, the snake-like creature portrayed to be perpetually eating its own tail, is an ancient alchemical symbol included in tracts to represent the infinite and holistic nature of existence. We will (inevitably) return to this theme later…

The Pre-Socratics : 

The Pre-Socratics The Philosophers of Greece c.600BC were the first to really think about matter. The fundamental assumption at first was that everything was made of one substance…

Thales : 

Thales Water.

Heraclitus : 

Heraclitus Fire.

Anaximenes : 

Anaximenes Air.

Pythagoras : 

Pythagoras Numbers!

Empedocles : 

Empedocles Broke the cycle when he considered that, if everything were really made of one thing, there would be no reason for it to undergo any changes or to be destroyed. So he came up with the long-standing notion of the four elements, Fire, Water, Air and Earth; their interactions governing the changes in the universe. He famously met his end by jumping into Mount Etna, possibly to prove a philosophical point.

The Building Blocks of Life… : 

The Building Blocks of Life… It was Anaxagoras who proposed the incisive notion of matter being constituted of parts of everything else, which correlates with the findings of modern particle physics. “You are what you eat.” -- Dr Gillian McKeith (and Anaxagoras)

Then came Socrates… : 

Then came Socrates… …followed by Plato…

Aristotle : 

Aristotle As well as writing vociferously on just about everything, this philosopher can be credited with inventing the scientific method of induction. This is a stone All observed stones have fallen to the ground when dropped Therefore, this stone will fall to the ground when dropped. Of course, this method of thinking is not without its problems…

Aristotle : 

Aristotle More relevantly, Aristotle employed the notion of the four elements in his natural philosophy (the archaic term for science) It stuck in the Medieval world, and was accepted as the basis for all fields of study It is particularly prevalent in the secretive field of alchemy.

Alchemy : 

Alchemy From Arabic “Al-Kemi”, meaning “Divine Chemistry”. Primarily known as the process of facilitating the transmutation of base metals into gold, it’s also an esoteric branch of philosophy. Though its ‘scientific principles’ have been superseded by modern developments, its claims should not be dismissed as ignorance. Alchemy necessitates an understanding of matter in terms of universal truths, both physical and spiritual.

The Philosophical Elements : 

The Philosophical Elements SULPHUR – “The stone which burns” - Fixed Principle Earth (Visible) Fire (Occult) SALT – Quintessence (solidarity) MERCURY – Volatile Principle Water (Visible) Air (Occult)

The Four Elements : 

The Four Elements Fire Hot, Dry Summer Choleric Nature Air Wet, Hot Spring Sanguine Nature

The Four Elements : 

The Four Elements Earth Cold, Dry Autumn Melancholic Nature Water Cold, Wet Winter Phlegmatic Nature

Elementary… : 

Elementary… This type of thought now belongs at the back of gossip magazines as a facetious form of pseudo-science. So what happened?

Enter Robert Boyle… : 

Enter Robert Boyle…

The Sceptical Chymist : 

The Sceptical Chymist Boyle’s monumental work made the distinction between chemistry and alchemy. This is the beginning of the end of the holistic view of the natural world. Thinking becomes black and white.

Exclusivity : 

Exclusivity You can either be… An Empiricist Or a Rationalist An Artist Or a Scientist

The End of the Renaissance Man : 

The End of the Renaissance Man Although Boyle’s contribution to human knowledge is invaluable, the culture of ‘specialisation’ that accompanied it has given many a narrow worldview. The closest we have to a Renaissance Man is probably this man…

Modern Matter : 

Modern Matter Classical theories of physics and chemistry have been deemed inadequate in explaining the world completely, or for accounting for the origins of the universe. New theories in quantum mechanics have helped to ‘fill in’ these ‘quantificational gaps’, despite being sometimes bizarre in nature… Isaac Newton

Invisible and Indivisible : 

Invisible and Indivisible Matter is no longer a matter of simple experiment and observation. The atom, that ancient Greek idea, is now the fundamental principle of modern quantum mechanics. But it’s also highly problematic; in that it is really, really tiny. An Atom (actual size)

Up and Atom : 

Up and Atom The Atom has come a long way since the days of the Ancient Greeks…

Theory and Fact : 

Theory and Fact The reason that the atom has evolved so much is because it’s a theoretical entity. This means that Scientists have to make conjectures based on probabilistic calculations. It seems that, the more we know about the world, the more abstract it becomes.

What’s the Matter? : 

What’s the Matter? Matter seems to have disappeared. Quantum mechanics suggests that a system exists in all possible states until observed, when we index it in one unique state. What was once a case of simple cause and effect, experiment and observation, has become as elusive as a supernatural agent.

My Laboratory : 

My Laboratory

My Laboratory : 

My Laboratory Mice and the Concept of Eternity

Procrustium : 

Procrustium

Nothing : 

Nothing It is from this development that I have decided to take a holistic approach in my scientific investigation. I have been inspired to study the nature of Nothing as the equal of Something, where both are considered matter.