#878: mise en abyme

mise en abyme – Prints of cell phone photo of white cube gallery floor, arranged according to the Laws of Chance, then aligned. 100 × 70cm. – Added 12½ years ago

The concept of recursion is the structure in which a definition contains as a part a reference to this very whole definition. Think of seeing yourself endlessly reflected by a mirror in front and one behind you, as if you were in a tunnel.

Unless forcefully brought to a halt, by nature recursive structures tend to be endless. The absence of a stop condition causes values to infinitely self enforce. This Self inflation (or feedback loop) grows out of control and eventually bursts like a bubble.

The prerequisite of recursion — the demand for self referentiality — immediately also forbids reference to anything outside of itself. This in its turn reveals the true identity of radical autononomy.

It is exclusive and aggressively jealous.

(Here we stand and declare all phenomena in life are recursive: everything exists solely through self-definition.)

The relatively ordered appearance suggests, however, that the artist did not fully relinquish artistic control.

Harm van den Dorpel / @disssociations