CLINAMEN
These lines are drawn freehand. When I draw one line, the unintended subtle slant of the line makes room for a new line to be drawn around it. I keep drawing new lines over and over again.Lines that are influenced by the previous lines keep multiplying.Then, an unintended overall shape emerges. I am fascinated by this process of “repetition” and “deviation”. This project is a study of line deviation and repetition.
“Clinamen” is a word used by Lucretius to describe the unpredictable shaking of an atom. When atoms move straight down through the void by their own weight, they deflect a bit in space at a quite uncertain time and in uncertain places. But if they were not in the habit of swerving, they would all fall straight down through the depths of the void, like drops of rain, and no collision would occur, nor would any blow be produced among the atoms. In that case, nature would never have produced anything.This swerving, according to Lucretius, provides the “free will which living things throughout the world have”.
