Map #3

Rhizome / a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and
                  adventitious roots at intervals.

As I develop my own style and themes in the process my thesis, its been useful (maybe vital) putting my work in the context of contemporary art.

While reading the introduction to Themes of Contemporary Art: Visual Art After 1980, British artist Keith Tyson's work resonates greatly with me.  Prior to Tyson's introduction in the chapter, the term rhizome is briefly explained.  The term was used by French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guarttari in there book titled A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia.  Rhizome was used:

"to describe nonhierarchical knowledge networks that allow multiple entry and exit points." (32 Robertson and McDaniel)

The term was borrowed from the botanical term for a continuously growing horizontal underground stem that puts out lateral shoots and adventitious roots at intervals.  Deleuze and Guattari used the term to describe research that has no apparent beginning or end, resists rigid orginization and dominating ideas and can connect heterogeneous elements.  The World Wide Web is used as a prime example of a rhizomatic model.

Keith Tyson's epic installation titled Large Field Array (2006-07), is another prime example of a rhizomatic model.  The installation or sculpture is comprised of three hundred moduar units, of which a majority were created using polystrene.  The cube units are spaced in a grid along the gallery flooring and walls.  Each cube references something different, varying from science to pop culture to history.  Large Field Array proposes that:

"everything can be linked without the control or singularity of a hierachical structure." (32 Robertson and McDaniel)

As I delve into developing my thesis, the Rhizome Theory is something that I keep coming back to.  I am interested in exploring the connections between events, both minute and major.  Everything in this world is connected even if it may not appear as so.  The instantaneous nature of technology and our attention span creates memories that are mixed and matched and a world that may only exist between our ears.

Large Field Array, 2006-07

Check out Keith Tyson's web page for more of his fanciful work.