ĪLE FLOTTANTE OR FLOATING ISLAND
"Could you imagine uniting your study into the nature of the world with the concept of the jester or fool?" "It would certainly turn a lot of things upside down." "Would Stephen Hawking fit in here?" "No" "Why not?" "Because I don't understand his faith in the scientific process." "Faith... Literally?" "I think it's literal for him. He says he's looking for God's masterplan." "I disagree with that." "It's such a romantic idea - trying to solve the problems of the world - when there is no solution." "The principles behind his ideas and his terminology will never lead to a solution. It's like looking up the meaning of an English word in a Dutch-German dictionary. You'll get close, but no sigar." "Yes." "So, there are limitations?" "When you say limitations, do you really mean limitations? Why not use it as a starting point?" "Eventually Hawking got stuck. "I'm really into pre-Christian religions at the moment." "Didn't he want to make megaliths?" "Mega - whats?" "You know, structures marking the ground, like Stonehenge, or the temples in Mexico." "No I don't." "That sounds more like a Robert Smithson to me." "Not really. Smithson dealt with entropy." "And entropy has got nothing to do with sacred grounds, or the creation of sacred monuments." "He made a film about his work 'Spiral Jetty', from a helicopter. Up in the air, he wanted to be in the centre of the sun, while filming the work." "Didn't that cause the crash that killed him?" "The perfect death for an artist!" "In the midst of a struggle with his own work. Beautiful." "The James Dean principle." "You also see the failure. In terms of entropy I can imagine he was interested in the spiral." "I adore his 'Study for a floating island around Manhattan'." "Hmmm." "Could you explain the word entropy for me?" "For scientists is the second law of thermodynamics." "For me it's the principle that all the energy needed to be born, equates the energy neccessary to live and die." "So actually there's no development, no progress." "But we still grow up with the idea that paradise exists. And that there is a linear development in our culture." "I don't really like having sex every day." "Really?" "Everything always seem to get better, but in the end it's all the same. It changes a little, then again it doesn't change at all." "Things move." "Just the form, slightly." "Another cigarette?" "Back to entropy. Without development, we'd still be wearing bear skins, though plenty of shops on Madison Avenue seem to have missed that point." "So the whole idea of entropy doesn't apply." "If I were to show you my idea of entropy, I'd use a series of circles, merging here and there." "Minor changes?" "Movement." "One circle to the other." "Of course, the spaces in between are far more interesting than the circles themselves. The points where two circles meet are intrigueing. There you can see two different worlds, two different spaces, you're just an observer." "Sounds pretty close to your idea of entropy." "The best combination of circles is of course the so called parallactic triangle." "Isn't a parallactic triangle a triangle with three concave, ... or is it convex, sides?" "This triangle basically illustrates my way of thinking. I usually talk about black holes, which again is an idea snatched from science." "Time for another beer." "The concept of the black holes epitomises the idea of entropy. Illustrating the scientific concept that all energy vanishes." "Not even light can escape." "Are you serious"? "Call me romantic, but the words that spring to mind are Paradise and Escape" "Hmmm... interesting. I think of a Hoover." "I once saw Stephen Hawking give a lecture. The topic was black holes. At the end he explained about the huge forces of gravity around them. A gravity so strong that time itself is stretched. His theory was that if a particle was sucked into the black hole that, due to entropy, it would eventually have to come out somewhere, sometime." "I've never put much stock into the idea of the all encompassing black hole. That's what I call the Hoover principle. " "The sack gets full." "I guess the black hole is actually a tunnel. A tunnel, to a different dimension. I once came across a book with a reproduction of the Einstein-Rosen Bridge. I didn't really know what it meant, but it was the perfect illustration of the black hole principle. "Perhaps for us it's unfathomable that one day we will be able to go through that tunnel. But maybe it's the next stop on the intergallactic highway." "Entropy, black holes, Einstein-Rosen Bridges, they're all back to the starting point of being in- between. What I'm interested in is being at the borderline - between two different ideas or two different cultures." "How about illustrating that with a dinner." "Excuse me." "Simple. You're hungry, so you peck on olives, crackers, bread. You order some wine. If the waiter is smart enough, you're drunk before you know it. Then the first coursearrives. You dig straight in, until your initial craving is satiated. The real meal has yet to come. You're in the midst of a conversation with your dining companions. All waiting, you know that there's more to come. You can relax, smoke a cigarette, order more wine. At this point the conversation starts to become interesting. It's a moment that I really love - this bizarre 'in-between' situation, you're no longer concerned with what brought you there to begin with. To eat. You know more food is on its way, which gives you the chance to move again, with no apparent aim. Once you try to focus, movement ceases. If you look for the borders, you'll never find them. But actually I'm hungry now. How about you?" "No, not really." "I am." "Are you always hungry?" "Hawking's conclusion - which is relevant to what you've said - is that black holes could be means of time travel. Not from one dimension to the other, but from one time to another." "The interesting thing is that he's so focused on time, which is his speciality. Because it is scientifically impossible to visualise the universe." "Forget about science, I just use my imagination and make up stories." "Which is a fun thing to do." "They don't mean that much, but there's always someone willing to listen." "Of course, Smithson would have done the same." "I wouldn't go that far." "By the way, I like your green T-shirt." "Why?" "It's a beautiful colour."