GMU:Winning natural habitats/Natalia Gay Pintado

Explorations of the Monad: A Microcosmic Journey

The feeling of looking through a telescope into the vastness of the night is also found in the microscope. The microscope functions as a portal to the sub-universe of the micro, of organised forms hidden in the larger terms of "more complex" organisms or elements.

According to the philosopher Leibniz, what exists in the realm is coming from an initial indivisible substance. Constant contraction and collision of this substance or energy, reacting with each other, creates compound substances which are what we know as reality.

The book offers a magnified look at microscopic life, revealing a hidden world and inviting to reflect on the complexity of life at its tiniest level. Through structures found under the microscope, the idea of monad (phylosospic term to describe the initial or originating substance, monadology) is explored by speculating on its shape, texture and colours. The images were taken with the aid of the microscope and extracted from samples of different waters found in Weimar, (ponds, Ilm park, hidden fountains).

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In terms of the macro, the big bang is the starting point of the cosmos, but what is the initial substance of matter and bodies?

The feeling of looking through a telescope into the vastness of the night is also found in the microscope. The microscope functions as a portal to the sub-universe of the micro, of organised forms hidden in the larger terms of "more complex" organisms or elements.  But in reality it is a portal to the complexity of life, a venture into understanding from the smallest.

Just as in numbers, between the one and the two there is infinity, because 1 or 2 will always be an approximation to the number but never the whole number itself, it will always be 0,99999…… or 1,99999…… Between the one and the other there is this same infinity that makes us not separate matter. Bodies are not separate from each other as numbers are not compleatly an entire thing.

Everything that exists in the cosmos is coming from an initial point, and all is a constant expansion of this energy that collides and grows. Constant contraction of energy constant collision reacting with each other. What would happen if we were able to see the unseen, what would happen if we were able to see the matter between matter, what makes the union from everything, the initial substance.

Through structures found under the microscope, the idea of monad (phylosospic term to describe the initial or originating substance) is explored by speculating on its shape, texture and colours.

The images were taken with the aid of the microscope and extracted from samples of different Weimar waters (ponds, ilm park, fountains) in the search for an encounter with this world of the micro.

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The feeling of looking through a telescope into the vastness of the night is also found in the microscope. This device acts as a portal to the sub-universe of the micro, revealing organised and hidden forms within more complex organisms. Indeed, it is a gateway to the complexity of life, an adventure into understanding from the smallest.

This project traces a visual and conceptual journey through shapes, textures and colours observed through microscopes, with the intention of exploring the initial substance of matter. Under the microscope, a multitude of surprising microorganisms are hidden, as well as abstract shapes, colours and textures. On this journey, I try to forget the scientific use of the microscope and use it as a tool for creation, observing through it with the utmost sensitivity and a naive and inexperienced gaze. I do not photograph beings that I find, but forms and sensations that capture the attention of my eyes.

The monad, in cosmic philosophy, is the most basic and original unity from which all things originate. Philosophers like Leibniz adapted this concept to describe elementary and basic particles, the essence of the universe. According to the Pythagorean school, from the monad arises the Dada, and from it, numbers, points, lines, two- and three-dimensional entities, culminating in the four elements that constitute the world. From the Baroque to the present day, man has sought to be in tune with nature, a search for the divine in the natural. The sacred symmetry and geometry in these microscopic forms evoke the perfection and harmony inherent in the cosmos.

The images in this book not only document, but tell a story of their own, a story where science and art intertwine to reveal the poetry hidden in the structure of life. By transforming the invisible into the visible, this project invites a reflection on the beauty and complexity of the universe at its tiniest level. In this way, the tool allows a normalised approach to these beings. Once you understand that they exist, they become an object of study, and then a gaze without scruples about their size, without objectification, but poetisation of matter.

In the search for truth, terms such as monad, initial substance and pléroma become relevant. Observation of organisms might make you feel life and matter understood as fluid, constantly changing and expanding. This fluidity and lack of physical boundaries suggests a reality in balance between the perceptible and the imperceptible. Life is perceived as a constant flow of energy and matter in collision, continuously creating and multiplying. This idea is explored through the visualisation of microscopic beings, showing how we are all part of a great symbiotic web. The layers of the Earth, from its core to the atmosphere, are seen as a slow and steady explosion, splitting into ever lighter and more complex particles.

This book, composed of photographs taken through the microscope, offers a magnified look at microcosmic life, revealing a hidden world that shares space and existence with us. Through this exploration, a deeper understanding of the initial substance of matter and the universe is sought, highlighting the connection between the micro and the macro, and the fundamental unity of all existence.

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PREVIOUS THOUGHTS.

Water landscapes microscopic photography

The feeling of looking through a telescope into the vastness of the night is also found in the microscope.

The microscope functions as a portal to the sub-universe of the micro, of organised forms hidden in the larger terms of "more complex" organisms.  But in reality it is a portal to the complexity of life, a venture into understanding from the smallest.

Under the microscope hides a multitude of surprising micro-organisms, but also a multitude of abstract forms, colours and textures. In this project I try to forget the scientific use of the microscope and use it as a tool for creation,

looking through it with the greatest sensitivity and a naive and inexperienced eye. I don't photograph

beings that I find but forms and sensations that catch the attention of my eyes.

In this way, the tool allows a normalised approach to these beings. Once you understand that they exist,

they will become an object of study and then a look without scruple for their size,

without objectification but poetisation of the matter.

Images are created to tell stories

But we can make images have a memory of their own.

What happens when we use a scientific image and generate a narrative with them, a narrative in intimacy.

The scientific image becomes the poetic

Symbiotic music

Sample sound made out of physarum policephalum and afterwards make music with it, as if it was another member of the band

- another idea is make a full band out of organisms. each organism has a specific sound and it sounds depending of the electricity

1.Grow Physarum Policephalum

2.Connect it to Arduino and have data

3.Transform real life data to sound

4.Create a symbiotic set to perform with the Physarum

PROBLEM:: I hurt the slime mould while doing it if it is Live music

NEW IDEA:: capture signal from physarum, transform it to sound and put the speakers in some place where physarum can be growing, (dark places of a forest), ampliphaying and making noticiable the organism for humans.

Empathy box

This project is based on the "Empathy box" concept of the book Do Androids dream with electronic sheeps? from Philip k. Dick. In the book the empahy box is an object with a monitor and two handles. And when you hold it by the handles you enter to a dimenssion where you connect with other persons that are conected at the same time sharing an experience between all the users. This experience is based on the feelings that they are experiencing, so they are sharing their feelings, even if it is a good or a bad feeling (somehow comunist way of sharing feelings). In the book it is part of a religious discipline called Mercerism. I see a comparisson here with social media, seeing it as a totality where we share and store/archive feelings. On the other hand, micellium is known for being the connection of the forest, it connects the forest through the ground, where it grows helping with the "comunication" between different species and organisms. Information is exchanged between organisms both within and between kingdoms and species. The final product will be a simulation of this empathy box made out of micelium and connected to an arduino that captures the electricity, datificating it and transform it in some way to sound or image.

Followers of Mercerism grasp the handles of an electrically powered “empathy box,” while watching a monitor that displays seemingly meaningless patterns until the handles are grasped. After a short interval, the user is transported to the world of Wilbur Mercer, where they immerse their mind in an experience shared with everyone who is currently wearing an empathy box. Users of empathy boxes, when using it, relive firsthand Mercer's eternal rise and feel how the stones hit them, just as they hit Mercer. Those in the empathic boxes resent Mercer's rise, they feel Mercer's suffering, emotions are shared among all users.

https://www.meer.com/es/69988-las-plantas-se-comunican-mediante-una-red-formada-por-hongos >>"Mycorrhizal fungi can unite the roots of different host plants, forming mycorrhizal networks. In mycorrhizal networks in forests, trees are nodes and interconnected fungal hyphae are links. The topology is similar to that of neural networks in the human brain."

1.Create a mold with the shape of a box with two handles.

2.Grow micelium inside

3.Connect micelium with Arduino to catch the energy and transform signals

4.

References

Damien Hirst, butterflies:

• https://www.christies.com/en/lot/lot-5363059
• https://www.artetrama.com/en-de/blogs/news/about-butterflies-in-the-work-of-damien-hirst
• https://artwizard.eu/young-british-artists-%E2%80%93-the-death-and-yet-alive-butterflies-of-damien-hirst-ar-112