Art of the Unseen
How visual fields, arrays, webs and networks created with digital tools can hint at the unseen, underlying connectedness that binds the Universe together into one coherent whole.
The Buddhist metaphor known as Indra’s Net describes the interconnectedness of the Universe as being like an infinite array of jewels, each one of which contains an image of all other jewels in its surface.
This visual metaphor suggests a core property of the Universe, that it’s a coherent and connected whole.
In a contemporary re-working of Indra’s net, it’s possible with 3D art software to create an array of mirrored spheres, each one of which contains a reflection of all other spheres on its surface.
A change in the colour or size of any one of the spheres is immediately apparent on the surface of every sphere in the whole array. The spheres are no longer separate entities, they’re bound together into one coherent whole by the interplay of their mutual reflections, a visual expression of an intuited non-local connectedness.
3D art software simulates the physics of real-world light as it refracts and reflects within and around the virtual forms, objects and structures the artist places in the virtual 3D space provided.
This virtual light-physics offers the possibility of working with refractions and reflections to create digital art images.
The images below are reflection and refraction fields whose spatial structures hint at an intuited underlying connectedness and fractal self-similarity at all scales within the Universe.
Some of my work suggests a similarity to traditional artforms such as buddhist mandalas which can prompt an intuitive realization of the unseen, hidden order underlying reality.
Sometimes I use digital elements which hint at intuited field architectures and combine them with other virtual structures to create digital assemblages.
These graphic fields are expressive of the conscious space that exists throughout the Universe.
The universal consciousness inside all of us and in the space around us.
Examples of various unassembled field elements are shown here:
In other work, I use virtual-light refractions and reflections in animations.
The images of connected fields, webs and networks shown here, can remind us of a non-conceptual spatial interconnectedness which orchestrates the Universe.
We can use transparent, refraction structures and mirrored, reflection structures to express something of these intuited patterns of spatial-orchestration and the interplay between these structures and the virtual light provided by 3D art software.
Complex and both planned and unexpected visual fringes and artifacts emerge from this process.
Digital art tools allow us to make visible our deepest and most inexpressible intuitions. We can visually express something of the spatial architecture that exists within an unseen connectedness that binds the Universe together into one coherent whole.
Paul Mulliner 2020
Read more about my artwork here on The Awakened Eye:
https://theawakenedeye.com/2017/12/06/indras-net-a-digital-dance-with-virtual-light-physics/
View some of my recent digital art here on Behance.com:
https://www.behance.net/paulmullin26e8
View some of my recent digital animation here on Vimeo.com:
https://vimeo.com/user73314390
If you enjoyed this article you might like some of my other poetry and prose on Medium:
