Dominic Chapman

A Matter of State

Multi media installation with phosphorescent paper

In order to experience the world around us and thus cultivate knowledge, we must perceive it. This perception occurs through the empirical model of sensory observation or a posteriori. However, there are some notions that begin as self-evident, and reach us without any experiential intervention and are seemingly made up of pure intuition alone, a priori.

There is therefore a gap between our knowledge gained through empirical cognition, and our knowledge that is transcendentally ideal. While philosophically this gap is distinct, in our day to day lives it becomes blurred, as we project our preconditioned ideals onto the material.

Space and time in this context are a priori intuitions, there is no point of observation attributed to the discovery and understanding of space and time, they are fundamentally universal. However, we frequently mistake these entities for empirical fact. Our interpretation of time and space have manifest into anthropological modes of cooperation, such as clock time, and nation states. Our perception of existence is moulded by these none existent entities, collective myths, born of the plurality of subjectivities.

Through the sensory experience of observing a transient impression of the spatial phenomenon ‘continental drift’ this installation is grounded in our spatio-temporal condition, allowing for the embodiment of these different modes of perception and attained knowledge, which ultimately speaks of the unattainability of a concrete, final description of space and time.