Visual exploration of memory and chaos
Abstract
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Visual exploration of memory and chaos
- Creators
- Mike Sebastian
- Contributors
- Daniel Miller (Advisor)Isabel Barbuzza (Committee Member)Monica Correia (Committee Member)Andrew Casto (Committee Member)
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Fine Arts (MFA), University of Iowa
- Degree in
- Art
- Date degree season
- Spring 2021
- DOI
- 10.17077/etd.005948
- Publisher
- University of Iowa
- Number of pages
- iv, 10 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright 2021 Mike Sebastian
- Language
- English
- Description illustrations
- illustrations (some color)
- Description bibliographic
- Includes bibliographical references (page 10).
- Public Abstract (ETD)
My installations are collaborations with time, material, and chaos. I want to show the beauty and sadness which lies in the process of entropy. Entropy (the second law of thermodynamics) is a term used in physics to measure the cooling and gradual loss of energy in all things; from biological systems to stars, from humans to entire galaxies. Entropy is a term for chaos as well, describing the unpredictability of all systems.
My work is influenced by the nuclear accident in Chernobyl, Ukraine, in April of 1986. Through a series of design flaws compounded by human errors, an entire nuclear reactor exploded, showering much of Europe with nuclear radiation. It was an accident like no other in human history, involving flawed technology and human arrogance. Many people died and the economic impact was so large that it eventually led to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991.
I am drawing on material entropy to create sculptures that emphasize fragility and decline. While this at first seems like a depressing and sad subject, I have found beauty and poetry in the process. When I look at nature, I see disorder and chaos as the norm, not the exception. As humans we want to fight this. Ultimately, we can’t succeed. As artists we see the pain in all humans, in all of nature. In my art I am reappropriate this pain, turn it into installations of chaos, showing both the beauty and the inevitability of it.
- Academic Unit
- School of Art, Art History, and Design
- Record Identifier
- 9984097476402771