Installation view in the base of the 60-inch Telescope.
Steel dodecahedron, audio, headphones.
The "Receptive Visualizer for Seeing with the Mind's Eye" is a steel open-form dodecahedron sculpture, seen here installed in the base of the 60-inch telescope for KNOWLEDGES at Mount Wilson Observatory in 2012. Large telescope cages can be seen behind it, visually echoing its welded geometry. The Ancient Greeks used this regular twelve-faced polygon to describe the shape of the universe. At the center of the sculpture is suspended a five-inch quartz crystal. Quartz is one of the most abundant minerals found on earth, whose uses range from mystical rituals to high precision optical devices, such as the large prisms used to conduct the first speed of light test at Mount Wilson Observatory. This installation featured a three-rotation-per-minute motor and an audio recording of an incantation. The audio calls out names or states of visualization as listed in a found text called "Seeing with the Mind's Eye,” conflating scientific and metaphysical histories.
Steel, quartz crystal, silver thread,
30" diameter dodecahedron with pentagonal pyramid crown.