Manipulations

I have built a large kaleidoscope, about one meter length, one in which you can vary not only the contents of the rotating head with beads, but you can also use the tube with the mirrors itself. In this way you can play with perspective, camera angle etc.  When you want to use a kaleidoscope as some sort of allegory for all kinds of processes, it's nice when different ingredients, factor and influences can play their parts. With this kaleidoscope, I can show fantastic possibilities.  In 'Manipulations' I play through mirrors with fantasy as if it were some sort of scientific experiment, like genetic manipulation. A kaleidoscope has a kind of structured playfulness, by which the most fantastic combinations appear every time you move it (photo 1 to 5). Just like in an organic process one can analyze the separate parts of content and fence them in (Photo 6 to 8), but the sum of its parts can surprise every time. All kinds of patterns appear, there is regularity and order, but there is no control. A small variation can create surprising results, positive or not. It does not per definition turn out wrong, there can be serendipity too, but sometimes it distorts, it blurs, the process changes proportions, patterns, quantities, shapes etc.  For example, in photo 1 to 5 only the original part is in focus and everything else is more or less a vague 'clone'. But it seems like a repetition of the same pattern.  Meanwhile it's the other way around in photo 9.1 to 9.16. In these 16 light patterns the only variation is the external lighting, except for the camera angle now and then. All of the other factors stay the same, but it appears as if these are totally different patterns.  If you try to get a grip on the world around you, science seems like an ideal starting point. Detailed research and experiment suggest the truth. But that can also be a fake truth. By borrowing subject, method and/or tools from science, while at the same time playing with the content, I try to point out the impossibility to get a grip.