Safran

de Niverville 1 Barbara Safran de Niverville Peter Rostovsky, Faculty Advisor 01 November, 2012 Entropy in the Back Yard and Elsewhere In a few days, the highly ordered arrangement of yellow and orange leaves overhead in my back yard becomes a chaotic mass below on the lawn. As time passes, the foliate blanket dries out, turns brown and crumbles into mulch, notwithstanding the human desire to rake leaves and contain them in neat piles of plastic bags. The process is but a small sequence within the notion of entropy, an elusive and complex concept within both scientific and artistic communities. An organic or inorganic ordered system has the tendency to degrade into disorder over time without the introduction of energy from outside. This is the most basic concept of entropy.1 As a scientific principle, entropy can be understood in a wide range of explanations, from simple, observable terms to complex, theoretical mathematics (Thess 3-4). These scientific ideas have become the basis for exploration by many post-war and contemporary artists. Rudolf Arnheims essay, Entropy and Art: an Essay on Disorder and Order, helps to clarify entropy, its notions of order and disorder, and their interactive relationships in both organic and inorganic structures. He begins by pointing out that order is a necessary condition for anything the human is to understand . . . . External orderliness may hide disorder, however, order is a necessary condition for making a structure function. Order is also a prerequisite for 1 See Nave for four aspects of entropy: a simple mathematical formula, the amount of energy unavailable to do work, and the measure of disorder or multiplicity in a closed system.

Safran de Niverville 2 survival in animals and insects; the impulse to produce orderly arrangements is inbred. A pervasive striving for order seems to be inherent also in the human mind. . . (1-3). In addition, Arnheim discusses experiments which show that orderly form will come about as the result of physical forces. . . (6). However, this vision of the striving for order is contradicted by the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which maintains that the material world moves from orderly states to everincreasing disorder. . . (7). Modern science, then, maintains on the one hand that nature, both organic and inorganic, strives towards a state of order and that mans actions are governed by the same tendency. It maintains on the other hand that physical systems move towards a state of maximum disorder. (8) The processes which are measured by entropy are understood as the gradual or sudden destruction of inviolate objects. . . (12). The concept of equilibrium adds a measure of apparent paradox to entropy. The forces in equilibrium compensate each other, resulting in a standstill. This also represents the simplest structure a system can assume. Arnheim states what seems to be contradictory: the maximum of entropy attainable through rearrangement is reached when the system is in the best possible order (25). Perhaps this aspect of entropy is the amount of energy which is unavailable to do work (Nave). Entropy can also result from tension reduction or from any removal of constraints in a given system (Arnheim 27-28). For Robert Smithson, the gradual erosion of built environments by natural geological processes represented entropys degradation on a grand scale. Smithson extrapolated the passage of time in terms of eons, made visible by these geological processes. The continual

Safran de Niverville 3 transformation of his site-specific works, as they were weathered in their environments, became a major element in his land art projects. Smithson interpreted repetition and the cyclical nature of entropy as energy drain in works such as Plunge 1966 and Alagon #2 (1966). Solid shapes of the same repeated forms decreased in size proportionately as the distance increased between them and the viewer. Smithson wrote that Energy is more easily lost than obtained. (Smithson, New Monuments) He was also captivated by the notion of crystalline structure as representative of order in natural forms and processes (Smithson, Entropy Made Visible). Endlessly Repeating Twentieth Century Modernism, by Josiah McElheny (2007) explores a world of form without shadow; totally reflective forms inhabiting a totally reflective environment that would be totally self-enclosed - the perfect utopian environment. McElheny created this piece and others based on a discussion between Isamu Noguchi and Buckminster Fuller in 1929 of a world of form without shadow (MFA Boston). The work presents the viewer with a seemingly endless repetition of highly reflective bottles, boxes and containers, an enclosed, mirrored and static prism, beautiful and perpetual in its perfection. The changes brought to this vision happen as the viewer changes position, resulting in new combinations of reflections. The objects inside the box do not change or move themselves. The system is closed and static, in equilibrium, and paradoxically entropic. Contemporary artists Grgory Lasserre and Anas met den Ancxt of Scenocosome, have created hybrids between plants and digital technology. Human touch and proximity are the catalysts for the installation Akousmaflore Sensitive and Interactive Musical Plants. Electromagnetic energy, the aura inherent in human skin, stimulates the plant, then censors installed by the roots of the plant pick up the impulse, and sound is produced electronically. Gallery visitors introduce randomness into the system by walking under the plants and touching

Safran de Niverville 4 them, creating a series of electronic chimes, horn and wind sounds, which vary according to the kind of touch exerted on the plant. Without both humans and electricity, entropy would stabilize the hanging containers into silent equilibrium. The effect is surprising; some viewers play and experiment with the plants for extended periods (Lasserre). Tim Hawkinson uses mechanical devices and digital technology to animate his large installations. Lawrence Rinder comments that he . . . is especially interested in the evocative nature of time-worn, broken and discarded materials. . . . At times, Hawkinsons fastidiousness seems strangely at odds with the entropic themes of his work. Works in his Secret Sync clock series, for example, are fashioned out of unexpected materials, expressing mortality and the inescapability of time. Spin Sink (1 Rev./100 Years) (1995) consists of a linear sequence of twenty-four gears, arranged in order from smallest to largest. The interlocking gears turn at progressively slower rates as they grow in size and extend farther from the tiniest gear, which driven by a toy car motor, spins at 1, 400 rpm. The largest gear, by contrast, turns approximately once very 100 years (Rinder 24-26). Hawkinson used steel, plywood, foam, plastic and corduroy to produce wear at appropriate rates on each gear (Rinder 191). For Hawkinson, the motors and computer technology, which drive each installation, are just as important as the larger sculptural components. Resistance, wear and friction within the mechanical moving pieces may cause each system to break down and collapse (Art:21). (Hawkinsons) berorgan was a massive musical instrument, a Brobdingnagian bastard cousin of the bagpipe, the player piano and the pipe organ. It consisted of thirteen bus-sized inflated bags, one for each of the twelve tones in the musical scale and one udder-shaped bag that fed air to the other twelve by long tubular ducts. (MASS MoCA).

Safran de Niverville 5 berorgans player piano and its various switches responded to a 200- long roll of Mylar with black dabs of paint, which rolled over a series of sensors, forcing air through reeds and horns located in huge, soft tubes attached to balloon-like structures (MASS MoCA). The constant influx of energy and the drive towards equilibrium fueled the movements and sounds produced in this installation. Although I have no plans to integrate electronic devices or motors into my artwork at this time, in my explorations of humanitys relationship with the natural environment, mechanical devices and technology figure as important elements. It seems as if humanitys drive to overcome entropy and other natural phenomenon has given rise over the centuries to a complex array of machines and gadgets. My direct observations of plants and the weathering of built structures also reinforce the notion of entropy, a concept that I can consider further in my present body of work. Areas of abandoned plants and rusted objects left by humans are degraded by seasonal changes and weather over time. Anarchy seems to develop among these organic and inorganic systems the longer we leave them to their own devices. The resistant vigor of invasive species and other plants we view as weeds is also remarkable. Vestiges of human land use remain, as rotting boards and frost-heaved concrete blocks compete with vegetation for space in my back yard. Such is the inspiration of my latest body of work. Such is the nature of entropy: a dynamic interplay between equilibrium, order and chaos in a continuum of interaction, creating variety, movement and cyclical repetitions in our environment.

Safran de Niverville 6 Works Cited Arnheim, Rudolf. Entropy and Art: An Essay on Disorder and Order. Berkley: University of California Press. 1971. Print. Art: 21; Time, Tim Hawkinson. Susan Sollins, prod. Season 2. PBS Home Video. United States. 2003. Hawkinson, Tim. berorgan. 2000. Installation. MASS MoCA 2000 and Getty Center 2007. ---. Spin Sink (1 Rev./100 Years). 1995. Installation. Private Collection. Tim Hawkinson. Lawrence Rinder. New York: Whitney Museum of American Art. 2004. Pages 104-05. Print. Lasserre, Grgory and Anas met den Ancxt. Akousmaflore Sensitive and Interactive Musical Plants. 2007. Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. 03 Dec. 2010 26 Apr. 2011.Video and text. Web. 27 Oct. 2012. <http://www.scenocosme.com/akousmaflore_en.htm> ---. Akousmaflore Sensitive and interactive musical plants. 2007. Video. Web. 30 Oct. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cY_m87XowUA> MASS Moca. Tim Hawkinson: berorgan. 2000. Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. <http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=63> McElheny, Josiah. Endlessly Repeating Twentieth-Century Modernism. Blown glass, mirrored glass, metal, wood, electric lighting. Boston Museum of Fine Arts.2007. Web. 26 Oct. 2012. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Endlessly Repeating Twentieth-Century Modernism. 2007. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. Nave, Rod. Hyperphysics Concepts. Georgia State University. 2000. Web. 25 Oct.

Safran de Niverville 7 2012. <http://hyperphysics.phyastr.gsu.edu/hbase/heacon.html#heacon> Smithson, Robert. Entropy and the New Monuments. 1966. robertsmithson.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. ---. Entropy Made Visible. Interview with Alison Sky. 1973. robertsmithson.com. Web. 25 Oct. 2012. ---. Plunge. 1966. Painted steel. Denver Art Museum. robertsmithson.com. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. ---. Alagon #2. 1966. Painted steel. Museum of Modern Art, New York. robertsmithson.com. Web. 29 Oct. 2012. Thess, Andr. The Entropy Principle: Thermodynamics for the Unsatisfied. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. 2011. Print.