Information
| Title: |
Welcome to Our World or 色即是空 JP: Shiki soku ze kū “Form instantly transmutes into void” |
| Media: | Three-dimensional computer-generated animation |
| Length: | 1 minute |
| Date: | 2025 |
Description
I tried several times to carve a wooden ball with the character 色 (JP: shiki; “colour/form”) on one side, the character 空 (JP: kū; “empty, void”) on the opposite side, and “tunnels” joining the parts where the two characters overlap. This would be a physical representation of “form instantly transmuting into void”!
However, my tools were not precise enough…
A friend suggested getting the ball digitally printed. I had spent a while studying 3D computer graphics several years ago, and I had a lot of fun brushing off the cobwebs and creating my virtual wooden ball.
I was put in touch with a fellow student at the University of East Anglia who not only knew about digital printing but also had his own digital printer. After a few experiments, I was presented with a printed version of the object.
Receiving the 3D printed ball.
Sadly, the ball itself needed quite a bit of additional work and was not ready in time for the Purification by sumi, Illumination by watercolour exhibition. However, I decided to use the 3D data to create the animation above to promote the exhibition.
I asked my nephew Billy (with whom I collaborated on the Jazzigraphy project) to come up with a soundtrack. He duly obliged. What you can hear is composed from samples of string-section flourishes from the Jim Reeves classic “Welcome to My World” and me saying the words shiki and kū.
As brilliantly odd as I had hoped for.