Dedicated to
Richard J. Reynolds III
and
Aymon de Roussy de Sales
I was constantly reminded in my glass work that the patterns I produced were first formed within my own mind, which I then proceeded to invest in the material. These patterns appeared to be an interpretation my mind was making of textures I had seen in the natural world. Invariably, the textures I created seemed altogether less powerful than those produced by nature: sheared rock or ice walls; frost on a window pane; light glimpsed through a drop of water on a car windshield at night — all textures I strove to duplicate with limited success.
So what were the patterns in my mind that became the template for my work? Were they simply an overlay of the natural world, or were they emotions and images derived from my inner life? What intent moved my hand as I masked the glass before carving it? Did my internal images and feelings of the day impress themselves subconsciously upon the textured glass, or were my gestures just habitual and automatic from numerous earlier commissions?
Again, I found myself wondering, to what extent were these patterns manipulated by other agents? Did I choose to conform or limit my expression to a set of dictates imposed by my client or by the architects I worked for? I can say honestly, I did, upon many occasions. This realization caused me to question to what extent are our internal dictates, the textures of our personality and perceptions, controlled by suggestion, conscious or otherwise? And what, if anything, can we do about it? And then, could the artistic implementation of radionic theory de-condition us from this conundrum?
— Duncan Laurie
“Kruchenykh’s most last contribution was his invention of zaum, a rubric that embraced the private languages of schizophrenics, folk incantations, baby talk, glossolalia, random onomatopoetic verse and Futurist neologisms. Called zaum from the prefix ‘za’ (beyond) and the root ‘um’ (mind). Kruchenykh’s concept originated in the natural dissociation between thought and speech in the highly charged brain…….The secret of primordial creation, that is, transrational language, could lead the artist far beyond the restraints of socially sanctioned patterns and the vise of national vocabularies.”
— Alexei Kruchenykh (Russian Cubo-Futurist, 1911)
“Songs from the Museum of the Future: Russian Sound Creation (1910-1930)” by Mel Gordon
“He views Western culture as ruled by a system of mass ventriloquy in which disembodied voices invade and occupy each individual… ...by alternating subliminal contradictory commands — ‘an integral part of the modern industrial environment: Stop. Go… Come in. Stay out… Rebel Submit. RIGHT. WRONG.’ — this modern system of control is able to ‘limit and satisfy on a mass scale’.…”
Robin Lydenberg, writing about William Burroughs’ language theory in The Job, 1974. (p. 45, 193)
“If you are listening to someone, that person’s voice is inside your head. It has to some extent invaded and occupied your brain.”
— William Burroughs
With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker, Victor Brockris, 1981, p. 197
“Make a painting of frequency.”
“Painting should not be exclusively retinal or visual; it should have to do with the gray matter, with our urge for understanding.”
Marcel DuChamp
Salt Seller, 1956, p. 25, 136 1