in conversation with Graham Coulter-Smith and Warwick Mules
Recently Chaos theory has been taken up by the art community with all the fervor and lack of understanding which too often characterises fashionable uses of theory. The attraction of Chaos theory is in its notion that unpredictability, and hence change, is built into systems which were previously thought to be stable-be they systems of nature, mathematics, art, or of thought. The initial purpose of this discussion between Adam Wolter, Warwick Mules and Graham Coulter-Smith, was to see if links could be made between the theory of deconstruction and contemporary Chaos theory. The discussion involves the idea of the 'attractor', or the principle around which physical motion or logic is ordered, and the 'strange attractor', or inherent principle of disruption, which has been identified by Chaos mathematicians.
Attractor:
an attractor is a focus for motion, whether this be the motion of a pendulum, a whirlpool, or the flow of electrons in a television tube. 1t is the point or points to which a system tends to converge producing a stable flow of matter, energy, or information. This flow is usually measured in terms of the classical geometry of points, straight lines, circles, elipses etc.
Strange Attractor:
an attractor is strange when the 'focus' of motion has shape or form, but is not describable in terms of classical geometry. A line of flow may meander about infinitely without crossing itself. 1t may form a pattern that looks like an elipse, but on close inspection we find that the ends do not meet. The focus is dislocated and the motion is apparently irregular.
Graham Coulter-Smith: Adam, I could begin by acting as... The rest of this article is available to subscribers of Eyeline