Chaos Bound has experienced several unexpected turns, including the naming of the project to its current title. Originally, on the introductory page featuring the art image "schism: one, two, four, eight, sixteen, dot (dot)," I placed the word 'bound' unbracketed below the list of categories that this site engages with [See example] to suggest that our concepts of identity are constrained by the list. The website was then untitled, with 'Identity Project' acting as the primary link to the pages inside. However, while working much later on the 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)' project, I began making connections between issues of identity and the mathematical concepts of chaos and fractal graphing. The ideas beautifully related to the animation images that I was also working on at the time. My experience in multi-variable calculus and analytical geometry guided me through unique artistic research as I developed the title-worthy symbolic phrase: the tension between the different definitions of 'chaos' and 'bound' represent the project's conceptual foundation, as well as what the website presents visually, and how it performs. Chaos is, of course, synonymous to disorder. Thus, 'Chaos Bound' might mean that this project is destined for or even seeking disorder in terms of identity politics. As a proper noun, Chaos is the title of a mathematical study of unpredictable physical phenomena. Therefore, the title can also suggest the limitation--a binding--of forces which try to define and theorize random and complicated objects through time and space, something that is arguably impossible to achieve. In Greek mythology, Chaos is related to myths of creation and the personification of celestial bodies. The poloysemous nature of the words 'chaos' and 'bound' create immediate tensions and semantic disorientation, which relates to identity categorization, metaphorically and literally; there are infinite spaces of blurriness and contradiction when categorizing people in relation to physicality in particular. Chaos Bound addresses instances in which cultural definitions of identity are projected onto and/or derived from the human body, and how the multiple variables (time, changing hegemony, magnification, etc.) involved prevent any one phenomenon from being tied down with an absolute representation.

     An exploration of multiplicity, the website operates on several levels. Aside from this 'Meta-Art and Further Elucidation' section, Chaos Bound is split into two main parts: one interactive and the other static. Within those distinct halves are certain hubs which illustrate concepts that are important to the explorations and arguments of the entire project. The navigation pages of the site also serve vital purposes, presenting the user with more conceptual information. The following sections describe the functionality and significance of each section in Chaos Bound:

SHOWCASE:  Static Identity Projects

Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)

     This section includes four original untitled graphic images and was originally inspired by Adrian Piper's painting "Political Self-Portrait," but of course has certainly developed independently due to other influences and ideas. In the first graphic image, an autobiographical text about my own Intersectionality interacts with my face, which is artistically rendered in a desaturated grayscale mode. The second places a textual fragment from Gloria Anzaldua's poetry-essay hybrid book Borderlands/La Frontera over parts of a digitally enhanced image of Joe (from the seminar class). The third is me again, altered again, with an original poem contained in the negative spaces of the composition on the right side. I spent hours developing each of these works in 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity),' and they are meant to stand-alone as independent art images that resist identity labels and physiognomy in unique ways, including the addition of text to the portraits, color changing and artistic rendering, and more. Looking at the original images shows how far the art images have departed from photorealism.

     For example, in #3, the poem discusses the idea of bodily inversions and mirroring, as the colors in the image underscore the inversion of a human face by negating it with a solid shadow. It also invokes Frued's use of the word 'inversion,' referring to deviant sexual behavior. The hand, which has its own absent 'connected inversion' (the other hand), disrupts the already-fragile symmetry of the face by redirecting the colors to suggest its own form, preventing any study of physiognomy of the mouth it covers. In the background rises an incomplete spectrum of orange values, perhaps a set of enlarged and distorted pixels that invoke concepts of magnification and digitalization, referencing the last words in the poem which one can figuratively relate to the reductive nature of identity politics and physiognomy, among other meanings that can be extracted.

    The fourth image is distinct in that it is not as 'flat' as the others, and contains a slightly broader color palette. #4 is the result of strategically combining the other images in the series. The first three images interact with one another in #4, each bringing unique visual qualities to the composition; for example, the inversion of colors done in #2 stands out in #4 as well, causing one of the figure's eyes to be black, and the other white--an inversion of color. #3 adds an organic, painterly quality to #4, and the fingers seem to cover only half of the face of the latter, layered image. There is also a sense of suffocation in #4, and of nervous movement, as the three images inside it seem to fight for visual space.

     The 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)' series demonstrates how complicated individual Intersections of identity categories can be, whether in the tense and strange-with-depth #4, or the more flat graphic images of 1-3. The meanings of #4 can also be influenced by knowing that 1-3 are independent works. I do not wish to limit a viewer's interpretations of the art images in the series by asserting an authoritative role as the creator by explaining to an extent that actually looking at them would be useless. However, it is appropriate to explicate why I chose this trajectory for the hub of Chaos Bound, and how it relates to the larger analogies. In #3 of the series, I wrote the line "The signifier is fractal," which is probably the most significant phrase, I feel, of the project. Introducing the theories of fractals to the key concepts of semiotics 'explodes' the theories with unmanageable meaning: when one signifier can contain many variations of itself--which then all become unique signifiers--that contain their own variations and so on, the number of referents explodes to infinity. This concept will be important when I explore the meanings of the introductory animation "schism: one, two, four, eight, sixteen, dot (dot)." Although the example I provide of a fractal above only illustrates those that contain magnified versions of the whole on the surface, there are many other ways fractals can exist. For example, the shapes can also be placed inside and outside of one another. Also, scientists use fractals to graph natural shapes like butterfly wings and trees, which are objects that are inherently 'flawed' in shape. Thus the variations inside the fractal rendering of actual objects will resemble the larger shape, but will be unique as well, not like the perfect triangles of the snowflake example, etc. And since magnification is a dynamic variable in fractal mathematics, there is nothing preventing someone (me) from extracting each portion of the object as a frame and exploring the multiplicity on equal levels of magnification.

     The Adrienne Rich quote from "Planetarium" on the main page for 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)' helps direct the user/viewer to understand this series as an explosion, in terms of the larger concepts of questioning strict calculations (she problematizes the scientific words of absolution with smart quotes) for complicated phenomena. It is at once a 'big bang,' or a confounding/disproving of concepts, considering the polysemy of what it means to explode. Rich's imagery is also developed visually, as the viewer recalls the strange eye in the showcase section immediately preceding the page.

     'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)' is a series that can be taken apart and fused back together, and is continually in dialogue with itself. It demonstrates how social identity is not made stable by categories or theories, but at the same time, such attempts impact its existence.

Products of the Identity Marker

     This is the second part of the showcase section in Chaos Bound. The images included in this simple gallery are products of run-throughs of the 'Thoughtless, Fickle Identity Marker" application which I developed, programmed and debugged (and debugged) myself. Anyone can give me an image they wish to show in this ""Products" section and I will include it, adding to the random-yet-controlled nature of the Identity Marker, which is described in detail further in this essay.

[ Charting: Political Features ] > currently inactive

     In "Charting: Political Features," the political aspects of identity classification and physical characteristics are explored. This is the very first project that I worked on and completed for Chaos Bound, mostly because Joe (the subject) and I wanted to morph his face with a politically-charged figure, which could create meanings when understanding it in terms of identity and the body. However, after completing the rest of my web project, I see the section as flat and conceptually stale. The image work does not meet the standards of quality I now have for the project, not because I didn't work enough on it (I spent over 5 hours doing image alterations for this), but because the original photo of Saddam Hussein was of poor quality (but the best I could get). Thus I temporarily deactivated the link. So the work that has been done can be viewed, I will include an active link here: Charting: Political Features. Feel free to view it understanding it will be completely redone. When I rework this section, I might consider allowing myself to use two images of people who are not necessarily political figures. Practically speaking, this will help a great deal because I will be able to work with higher-quality photos rather than limiting myself to famous people whose images I only have access to via the web. Also, one person does not necessarily have to be a well-known political feature for a face-morphing image to have political ramifications and meaning. To relate "Charting..." to the larger ideas of physicality and identity classification in relation to mathematics/physics, I will consider rendering parts of the images as 'incomplete,' where graph lines and shapes suggest the basic contours of the missing body. See this image for an example of what I'm currently considering.

DIVERSIONS:  Interactive Identity Projects

The Thoughtless, Fickle Identity Marker (TFIM)

     This application is an effective way to communicate the random, nuanced ways that social identity concepts are projected onto people, as well as how the definitions themselves are influenced by physical appearance. There are many levels of randomness that occur in the Identity Maker: the first Question about identity that it asks consists of: how one identity-marked person would feel about an issue related to identity. The types of identities may not be related immediately by a user whose own experience hasn't pushed them to make such connections. But the Identity Marker forces him/her to make connections anyways, which is poignant way to actively apply the theory of Intersectionality, by showing the user that each category is changed by the other in a single example. "Write about how | a Latino | would define your sexual identity" and "Describe how | a single mother | would define African identity" are examples of the many questions that might be asked. Rarely is the same situation presented to the user twice. When the questioning is complete, the formatting of user input is randomized, such as font color, and where the text is placed over the image. Additionally, a random image of a face (from a current array of 44 images) will appear, and because of the text, certain identity markers will be highlighted, challenged, and so on. About half of the photos are of globally famous political figures, from Bush to Phoolan Devi, and the other half a set of diverse people not involved in world politics, causing the products to make statements with meanings jumping to different levels on the global, hemispheric, and local political scales.

      Creating this application may not seem like it would be hard work, but it took me many days to run through different possible scenarios of using the TFIM to prevent undesirable products (such as re-prompting if the user enters no info or too much, and also making sure the images are all the same size, etc etc etc). Simply looking at the code reveals the complexity of creating such an application. To view it, go to the TFIM, create a defaced photo, and go to 'view source' in the browser (usually under the 'view' menu of your browser) after the photo loads.

   The Thoughtless, Fickle Identity Marker was initially inspired by Adrian Piper's Defaced Funk Lessons Poster, in which the text "the black chick" and "I'm black, OK?" is written over Piper's photograph. Because Piper is light-skinned and can 'pass' as white, the text represents the necessity of an outside source of information to define her social identity beyond her physical body, which does not signify 'black.' The TFIM expands on these ideas, and lets unpredictable input from a user interact with other text and photos in random ways that generate new specific meanings each time.

[ Digital Harassments ] > currently inactive

     I am disappointed that I had to temporarily deactivate the link to this section of the website. I recently tested it in an NYU computer lab, and it was doing odd things like loading blank pages and not loading images. But such are the pains of a web developer: all browsers and operating systems are slightly different, and the results are always unpredictable. I guess even that follows the chaotic theories of multiplicity and predictability in Chaos Bound! I hope to get it back up within a week or two. To view it, understanding that it may not work on your computer, follow this link: Digital Harassments.

     In theory (and actuality on my computer at home), this section also explores the randomness of the natural world in a mathematical structured way. After the initial instructions/warnings page loads, as table appears containing two images: a photograph of the NYU Kimmel Center, and a random snapshot taken of Joe during the encuentro. As I explained in class, I acted as a sort of paparazzi figure during the 2003 conference by following Joe around and taking photographs of him. Forty images of him are presented on the Digital Harassments pages, ranging anywhere from him smiling at the camera, to ignoring it, to covering the lens with his hand. My performance with a digital camera is one level of harassment taking place in this section of Chaos Bound. As the introductory pages and animated image at the top-right of the screen instruct, if a user moves his/her mouse over the 'active boxes' (which contain either the picture of Kimmel or Joe), more images will appear, all random, and in completely random places; the user's role is another level of digital harassment in an HTML Conceptualist frame. Usually the image of Joe that is 'harassed' or pointed at will disappear before the mouse touches it, inciting another random picture of him to jump at a random place on the screen. It is a sort of cat-and-mouse chasing game that continues indefinitely until the user closes the browser.

     If the user allows his/herself to look away from the distractions of the active boxes containing the photographs, s/he would notice rotating quotes from Adrian Piper which simultaneously define and blur boundaries between spectators and performers by making the word 'You' interchangeable, and as a signifier for all participants, specified only after the paragraph is written. 'You,' then, becomes a base point which expands out into the nuanced narrative. By placing these quotes in this section, I am presenting the acts as a performance similar to the more traditional concepts of theatre that Piper discusses, with interesting roles of who and what is performed, and who the audience is.

Navigation and Other Pages:  The rest of the site

     Although it wasn't my original intent, the pages that make up the general website of Chaos Bound are conceptual like the hub sections, all exploring issues of identity, embodiment, and multiplicity. To discuss them, I separate these sections into two types:

Passport Pages

     When entering into the web project, before accessing the menu page, as well as before accessing some of the other pages, the user is presented with a digital replica of a United States Passport (although I cannot take credit for developing the actual appearance of a U.S. passport, the entire image was recreated by me from scratch in Illustrator and Photoshop). Underneath, s/he must enter a name. Regardless of whether the name a user enters is actually his/hers, or if a user is consistent through all the prompts is irrelevant; the input s/he provides is always questioned, creating an illusion that the site is being monitored by an anonymous 'Management Team,' as is often the case on the internet and elsewhere. Although the alert windows sometimes state that identities are recorded, they are not. The words are only meant to mimic corporate and government tracking systems, and to make the user uneasy.

     The main menu page for the site is an image of an open passport. A stamp similar to those one receives while travelling abroad directs the user to choose a section, and as his/her mouse rolls over the section titles, a new stamp replaces the old one, describing where the link leads. Thus the passport pages are not only functional for travel within the site, but they are also conceptual spaces that interact with the user in ways relevant to the project topics.

Menu Pages that Exhibit Images

     To keep the interest of my user, and to allow some of the works to exist in between the borders of the smaller projects inside the larger whole, I include three animated art images throughout the site. The first is impossible to overlook, as it appears aligned-right on the main page. The other two appear on pages linking to the hubs of the project. Each are titled, and related to one another [similar to the works in 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)']. "schism: one, two, four, eight, sixteen, dot (dot)" is a very fast animation of four framed halves of my face. At first, one might assume that all of the frames are performing the same motion. However, this is not true; the image loops seven times and stops, freezing in a position that shows how each frame is in a slightly different state. One might also notice that one face blinks twice, while another closes the mouth and eyes simultaneously. The image, then, is split at several levels, the most obvious being the four frames. Although "schism" is presented as an animation, the type of file it is saved as actually calls on many independent images, placing them in the same place one after another, much like a flip-book. The frames in the animation, then, are all unique variations of one suggested pose, which only exists abstractly, as an average of all the variations that occur. The filmstrip image at the left of this essay is another way of presenting the "schism: one, two, four, eight, sixteen, dot (dot)" pose, but without the burden of having each variation change into the next too quickly for one to see. On some computers, highlighting the text from the top and dragging the cursor all the way below the browser window will rapidly scroll through the words of this essay, and show the filmstrip animated in much the same ways as the image on the introduction page.

     The other two animated images are both related to "schism," as they are artistically enhanced clips and magnifications of the original animation. "take one" focuses on a blinking eye. I already discussed one significant aspect of having this violet eye surrounded by green: I am suggesting it is the eye found in the Adrienne Rich quote on the main page of the 'Layers that Explode (Physiognomy, Identity)' exhibit. Aside from that, the eye is a visual statement on spectatorship and gazing at art. It switches every four seconds or so from being a moving eye that is gazing at the user to a motionless image that can be viewed as an art object. "take four" on the 'Diversions' menu page, and focuses on two moments of my sitting in front of the camera, one a breath and the other a blink. My movement makes me appear to be constrained by my own body, and natural functions like breathing are difficult.

Final Thoughts

     I am at the end of this self-conscious descriptive essay, and I still feel that there is so much information left out! At the same time, I am exhausted from cramming all of this work into a two-week period. Time isn't fractal; it has limitations! (at least with deadlines it does). And besides, letting the website project speak for itself in some areas, and allowing the users make their own meanings is certainly desirable as it is in all art projects. Keep a close eye on this site and www.lgomoll.com for updates and new additions to the Chaos Bound project. All comments, criticisms, compliments, etc., are welcome. Please direct them to lfg210@nyu.edu, with 'Chaos Bound' as part of the subject. Thanks for reading/participating!

--Lucian Gomoll, August 2003

References (direct and conceptual):

Anzaldúa, Gloria: Borderlands/La Frontera. Aunt Lute Books; San Francisco, CA: 1987

Anzaldúa, Gloria and Cherrie Moraga (editors): This Bridge Called My Back: Writings By Radical Women of Color. Kitchen Table; Watertown, Massachusetts: 1983

Berger, John: Ways of Seeing. Penguin Putnam Books; New York, NY: 1977

Berger, Maurice and Adrian Piper: Adrian Piper A Retrospective. Distributed Art Publishers; New York, NY: 1999

Crenshaw, Kimberle: "Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color." Stanford Law Review, 1241-1299; 1991

Piper, Adrian: Out of Order, Out of Sight / Volume I: Selected Writings in Meta Art 1968-1992. MIT Press; Cambridge, MA: 1996

Piper, Adrian: Out of Order, Out of Sight / Volume II: Selected Writings in Art Criticism 1967-1992. MIT Press; Cambridge, MA: 1996

Rich, Adrienne: "Planetarium" from The Fact of a Doorframe. W. W. Norton & Co.; New York, NY: 1984

Smith, Sidonie and Julia Watson: InterFaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance. University of Michigan Press; Ann Arbor, MI: 2002