Playing, experimenting and researching has made me look further up and further in. Thinking of my not-so-good illustrations, I got a little more abstract. The worst of my drawings was Neptune with a water chariot and dodgy seahorses (legs in particular). I had looked at the Roman mosaic for inspiration. What I was trying to achieve was a representation of crossing the line. A seafaring superstition that is still practised to this day. The line is the invisible line of the equator, often shown on a globe as a broken line. What if I were to think of invisible things, as there isn’t a physical, visible line surrounding the Earth? It is a human invention, much like superstition.
My thoughts turned to the infinity of the universe and the infinity of human imagination and what we can create as groups and individuals. Further up, the greater universe; Ptolemy looked to the stars and created the constellations we know today, based on the Ancient Greek Gods. From mind and imagination this astonishing creativity and pattern finding lives on in all of us.
When looking further in I went on the search of brain scans of an artist creating. What I found wasn’t quite what I was looking for, but it astounded me and left me feeling ‘in awe’. Supestio; to stand over (in awe)
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I looked for the area of the brain responsible for creative thought and discovered it was the frontal lobe, although the visual information I found looked too much like a brain, the visuals too obvious for my needs.
I researched other areas of monitoring the brain and found electronic brainwave patterns. EEG scans are used to detect neurological disorder such as epilepsy. The scan is more visually interesting to me, and holds a certain ambiguity which fits with my theme of superstition.
EEG Scan shows electric activity in the brain. Whilst this is a diagnostic tool this electric activity goes on in all of us. It would be interesting to be able to compare scans from those who are superstitions and those who are not.
Going further up and further in, I then took my research to the microscopic level; we are, after all, made up of cells, like the world around us. I had a look at the sea, which I had already touched on some weeks back when looking at salt crystals. Some of the microscopic creatures in the oceans are reminiscent of monsters, yet these tiny microbes are invisible to the naked eye, just like the line of the equator.
Super Supernatural
I came across these super supernatural postage stamp designs by Adam Simpson. If I was to set up as a globe maker, the chances are that I would collaborate with artist and illustrators to create the globes. These beautiful British folktale stamps could easily inspire art of superstitions and sea tales.
