The Binary Aspect of Water and the Heavens in Science, Theology and UnGraven Image Art

In the Genesis: Sunset-Sunrise series of paintings, there are many works of sunsets and sunrises over the bays and ocean beaches that are local for me. I have been fascinated with the reflection of the setting sun and the path of light that extends upon the water ending straight to the viewer.

In Judeo-Christian theology (and perhaps Muslim and other traditions, also) the Hebrew word Mayim is used in Genesis to describe the waters below, the waters of the earth, while Shamayim is the word for Heavens. So when the Lord separates the waters above from the waters below, He separates the Mayim from the Shamayim. The Hebrew letter shin precedes the word Mayim changing the meaning to heaven(s).

Within the Jewish tradition, and therefore also Christian theology, Mayim (water) stands for Torah, the first five books of the Bible (Pentateuch). The idea and metaphor is that the earthy Torah (Bible) is a reflection of the Heavenly Torah.

Of course, scientifically, dealing with light and reflected light and water falls into physics and to some degree chemistry.

The chemical compound for pure water is H2O, which means two atoms of oxygen plus one of hydrogen creates a molecule of water. H2O is a compound that is binary in that it only uses two types of atoms, oxygen and hydrogen.

The religions of Taoism, Buddhism and some major ideas in Hinduism are theologically binary. Think yin-yang and that becomes clear. There are strong binary theological principles in the Abrahamic religions, too, such as the concepts of good and evil and the blessings or curses (consequences) that are promised when one follows the teachings or chooses not to in both testaments.

The special typescript that all Torah scrolls are written in is called Torah font. This is a binary font wherein every letter is composed on one or more of only two letters, the comma like yud and the spear like vav. Thus a Torah could be decoded as a binary code, with each letter representing a specific number of yuds or vavs. The first five books of the Bible would thus be very much like a computer code. It is possible that pictures could emerge as digital images are bits and bytes of binary code. The pictures created by the digital code might have nothing to do with the story of the font. For instance, translating the letters of the story of Noah's ark into binary code may not produce an image from bits and bytes that refer to Noah's story at all.

Post Conceptual UnGraven Image Art theory uses binary symbol-strokes from original Hebrew texts. The strokes (letters) symbolically represent the smallest essential pre-matter, which elementary physicists call strings or membranes nicknamed branes. That the Hebrew letters spoken by the creator represent the essential building blocks of the physical universe is also elementary theology held by all branches and denominations of the Jewish and Christian faiths and also Islam.

Physicists have proven that light is both waves and particles, which Einstein names "photons". However, light is one or the other always but not simultaneously both waves and particles. So the way that light is being best described is a bits of information. Likewise those branes can also be described as dimensions or bits of information.

The essential bit of information for an artist is a stroke. The essential bit of information in Hebrew, and hence the Hebrew Bible, is also a stroke, as both the yud or vav is made with a single stroke, and all letters, then words are made of them. In computer science we have bits and bytes. When an artist's stroke is a symbol that purposefully references the intrinsic depths of information, the stuff the physical universe is made of it, the painting mimics the formation of reality itself. It is a new way of painting combining ancient theology with constantly emerging elementary physics theory. It is art of the information age.

Einstein said he wanted to know the mnd of God. Computers are minds that are binary As we decode the bits of data, the smallest pre-particles membranes that inform and form the perceivable physical universe perhaps we will understand the mind of God, or at least more about the creation. Understanding involves more than the narrative scene we perceive, it is focused on the knowledge of what underlies, creates and sustains reality.

July 25, 2006