11.11.11. An Introduction
Man has the
right to eat what he will: to drink what he will ...
Man has the
right to kill those who would thwart these rights.
the slaves
shall serve.
My number
is 11 ...
My colour
is black to the blind, but the blue & gold are seen of the seeing.
- Aleister Crowley
In April 2011 i was invited over to Berlin, in order to work, investigate and
trace a plan of action for a project called 11.11.11. The project
is mainly based on chance, intuition, "numerology", graphic art and abstract sound.
After deliberating for quite some time, the main objective became to simply -
through record cutting techniques - creating a super-element derived from 11 independent
elements / pieces - in this case loops - originally to be cut in 11 vinyl records.
The idea for the final result was to not only materialize this in sound media
but also as part of a performance. This performance would be the last step in
the project and the official end of it and it would culminate into a numerological
ritual in the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2011. My main goal
was for me to familiarize and learn how to work with record cutting and solving
every problem that would present itself during the development of the project:
Recording the loops, making them fit in the limited ammount of time in a vinyl
record. Learning about its production, finding interesting and viable ideas for
packaging. And finally figuring out the best way to present the final performance.
Originally, the object would result in 11 loops cut in 11 vinyl records, which
were finally to be presented in an installation where all of them were going be
used and manipulated live in a live performance involving the turntables and probably
electronics as well as piezo mic's, etc...
Berlin
April 2011
(Improvised home studio and accomodation in Wedding, Berlin)
"Numerology" & Symbology
I am not going to dig deep
into the number eleven issue. But i could say it has just been a chain of funny
coincidences, i really do think chance is kind of funny and somewhat magickal.
What i am using here is not actual numerology, of course, as i am really not
familiar with real numerology or anything like that. I like to call it intuitive
numerology or if you like it better, something like "superstition through
the tricky forces of chance".
My father introduced me into this when i was a teenager, he once said "every
important thing in my life is always related to the number eleven, every eleven
years, when my age number is in a multiple of eleven, a big event happens in
my life. Every time i look at my watch it's 11:11, it's just like the number
has haunted me.". He pointed that he was born in 1955, then i realised
i was born on 11-11. Since that moment i've had an interesting and funny relationship
with the number, hard to take seriously but yet hard to ignore. I decided to
throw myself into it as an exercise, in order to play a game with both fate
and chance.
BERLIN WALL COMES DOWN 11.11.89 (No shit, that was the day of my 11th birthday!)
Since the loops were to be
cut onto clear PVC, one of our ideas was working with geometric shapes that
together would create one. Once you layed each record on top of the others,
all of them together would create a derived graphic. I worked on this possible
symbols formed of 11 parts combined. I came up with many examples, some of them
being interesting, but none of them being too solid. I finally changed my mind
about a derived symbol. And tried to think of something diferent.
(Four of the many symbol tests)
So i tried to find, going through numbers and through association, an answer
in the numbers that would give me different ideas from combinations that would
tell me how to apply this number to the production of the symbol. That also
gave me some ideas on the way i should make each loop interact when the time
of the performance arrives. I tried and found many answers in the numbers.
(Some of the early sketches and calculations. Trying to figure out the way...)
Sam noticed this passage from Uri
Geller's website:
"If you multiply 1111 by 1111 you get 1234321, representing a pyramid, and
number 11 is a sacred number of the pyramid with the proportions of the great
pyramid being of the ratio 7:11. Eleven is also a number harmonious with Pi.
Therefore, it seems that number eleven is of central importance in understanding
the mathematical infrastructure of the universe. This appearance of an abundance
of 11:11 sightings on clocks seems to be is about thinking out of your box and
letting your mind stretch outside it's comfort zone.11:11 does not allow you
to forget about the larger questions because it is always popping back into
your reality, acting as catalyst to distract our consciousness away from the
sublime and on to something far more challenging." - Urigeller.com