First Term:(2)Searching Nine Characteristics

Character description of nine curiosties:

• ONE+ constrain by edges,neutralisation:what is to be done with juxtaposed images where nothing-neither subject nor postion-can be juxtaposed because of disparities at their margins?

Where the bather's legs were spread, the nymph's were together; where one was at the water's edge,the other was in it up to her kness.How could such obstacles be overcome?

This method is recommened only for blurry conditions: reflections in water, smoke, clouds, mirages,the inspiration wreathed muse.

• TWO+method of portraiture using the subject's name as a constraint of measure: the letters of a name are assigned lengths consistent with their position in the alphabet(A=1,B=2,C=3,etc.).

These are used,for example, to determine the proportions of a portrait.

• THREE+nude turning round on her couch,even:the initial work was cut in half and the two halves permuted.In turn,the halves were cut in two and the halves of the halves permuted, and the process repeated until after the sixth operation the odalisque, in 64 slices,was turned around on her couch.
• FOUR+plaited picture:a constraint by edges where by two images,cut into strips and plaited with one another,always produce a coherent result whenever and however they are resembled.
• FIVE+images are drawn on 3 strips of paper,these are reduced by accordion like pleating to hinged strips which, through folding, can be revealed or concealed:The avriable compositions that become possible always respect the rule of the constraint by edges.
• Six+Taquinoid,or taquinoidal painting:a work by Carelman(taquinoidal landscape,see image)constructed in the image of the game of taquin(known in England as the "fifteen puzzle").

But whilst, in the latter,the game consists in returning the sliding squares to an initial and unique order,the taquinoid recognises all possible positions of the tiles as valid.

The artist has painted the squares so that the four sides of each one respect atotal constraint by edges.Whatever the disposotion of the squares,a coherent figurative work is always presented.

• SEVEN+Re-framing-two methods:

(a)Details of an existing strip are excerpted and reframed.

(b)Additions are made to the frames of an existing strip,the orginal frames becomeing no more than components of the new ones.

• EIGHT+a day in the life of a sofa:you ca kick a sofa,squish it,drop it,sleep on it,even sit on it.It's tested to stand up to the demands of everyday home life.
• NINE+Invisible Cities:...Marco Polo, must informant,spread out on it the samples of the wares be had brought back from his journeys to the ends of the empire:a belmet,a seabell,a coconut,a fan......,the ambassador tried to depict for the monarch's eyes the vicissitudes of his travels,the conditions of the empire,the prerogatives of the distant provincial seats.

+Reference:
Oulipo Compendium edited by Harry Mathews&Alastair Brotchie
Invisible Cities Italo Calvino
IKEA