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Igloo travel / Patterns & Symbols / Knotwork

More than 1000 years of history, as well as powerful symbolic meanings and
groundbreaking mathematics and physics theories, are to be found in the elegant shapes
of the Celtic knots interlaced by Portuguese artist and director Margarida Sardinha, who
now invites us to take a step into a wonderful - as well as hypnotic - world of meaningful
and graphically beautiful patterns, unwinding and spinning, in fast movements, into the
Knotwork.

Words: Ioana Păunescu • Artwork: Margarida Sardinha • Research upon knots: Margarida Sardinha

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Written & Margarida Sardinha

Directed:

Image Margarida Sardinha

Composition &
Editing:

Sound & Sound Tiago Lopes

Editing:

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“All that exists, in whatever mode this may be, necessarily participates in universal principles, and
nothing exists except by participation in these principles.

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Consequently, it can be said that all things, however contingent they may be in themselves, express
or represent these principles in their own way and according to their order of existence, for otherwise
they would be purely and simply nothingness.

Thus, from one order to another, all things are linked together and correspond, to come together in
total and universal harmony, for harmony is nothing other than the reflection on principial unity in the
manifested world: and it is this correspondence which is the veritable basis of symbolism.”

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_____________________________________

The latest artwork of Portuguese artist and director Margarida Sardinha is a 22 minutes long, optical
illusion experimental film animation: Knotwork.

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It is based upon Icovellavna, or the Celtic knots, as well as on Knot Theory Mathematics, both of
them translated into supersymmetric (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersymmetry) and rotative
movements of mandalas (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandala).

Coloured geometric and homeomorphic (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeomorphism) patterns

dissolve into one another while rotating in both clockwise and counterclockwise directions, while 3-d
shapes mapped, with the same quickly changing patterns, induce a discrete, somehow Brownian
movement inside the rotation. The 3-d shapes change from spheres to various polyhedra and might,
at some point, even resemble dice - symbolic dice, generating random pattners and being, in return,
randomly generated by symbolic patterns - shortly said, the element of surprise inside this universe
of meanings that the film Knotwork reveals.

_____________________________________

Watch the film trailer here (https://vimeo.com/184519066).

_____________________________________

While watching the labyrinth of knot shapes we are, in fact, being introduced into a world that is full of
meanings, history and theories, as the Celtic knots are among the most widely used symbols of the
world.

So Knotwork includes various archetypal and historical forms that may vary from Tibetan Buddhism
to Roman, Celtic or Islamic art, and from the quantum gravity to the strings theories, and this
complex universe has also been detailed, by the artist, in the shape of a written research story that
accompanies the film and that opens, thus, several other possible doors of a more in-depth
perception of the knots.

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_____________________________________

More than 1000 Years of History, in a Few Words

In addition to their aesthetic qualities, knots have been always regarded as having spiritual and
religious symbolism.

The endless knot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endless_knot) appears in Tibetan Buddhism, while the

Borromean rings (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borromean_rings) have made repeated appearances
in different cultures, often symbolizing unity.

Celtic knots (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celtic_knot) are most known for their adaptation for use in
the ornamentation of Christian monuments and manuscripts, such as the 8th-century St. Teilo
Gospels, the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Most of them are endless knots, and many are varieties of basket weave knots, which are called
strange loops by Douglas Hofstadter (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douglas_Hofstadter), or
paradoxes, that are “Perhaps the most concise summary of enlightenment would be: transcending
dualism. … Dualism is the conceptual division of the world into categories … human perception is by
nature a dualistic phenomenon...”

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The use of interlace patterns had its origins in the artwork of the late Roman Empire. Knot patterns
first appeared in the third and fourth centuries AD and can be seen in Roman floor mosaics of that
time. Interesting developments in the artistic use of interlaced knot patterns are found in Byzantine
architecture, Coptic art, Celtic art, Islamic art, Medieval Russian book illumination, Ethiopian art, and
European architecture and book illumination.

Spirals, step patterns, and key patterns are dominant motifs in Celtic art before the Christian influence
on the Celts, which began around 450 A.D. These designs found their way into early Christian
manuscripts and artwork with the addition of depictions from life, such as animals, plants and even
humans.

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In the beginning, the patterns were intricate interwoven cords, called plaits, which can also be found
in other areas of Europe, such as Italy, in the 6th century. Examples of plait work (a woven, unbroken
cord design) predate knotwork designs in several cultures around the world, but the broken and
reconnected plait work that is characteristic of true knotwork began in Northern Italy and southern
Gaul and spread to Ireland by the 7th century.

The style is most commonly associated with the Celtic lands, but it was also practiced extensively in
England and was exported to Europe by Irish and Northumbrian monastic activities on the continent.

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_____________________________________

Concepts & Principles

In topology, knot theory is the study of mathematical knots

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_(mathematics)). While inspired by knots which appear in daily life
in shoelaces and rope, a mathematician's knot differs in that the ends are joined together so that it
cannot be undone such as Celtic knots.

In mathematical language, a knot is an embedding of a circle in 3-dimensional Euclidean space, R3

(in topology, a circle isn't bound to the classical geometric concept, but to all of its homeomorphisms).
Two mathematical knots are equivalent if one can be transformed into the other via a deformation of
R3 upon itself (known as an ambient isotopy).

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Knot theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knot_theory) is important in understanding the physics of

particles with fractional statistics: anyons or parafermions.

These particles, which can exist in one or two dimensions have properties between fermions and
bosons. The symmetric group is the symmetry of fermions and bosons, while the braid group from
knot theory plays the same role for anyons.

Knot theory is also important in canonically quantised quantum gravity

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_gravity). Where knotted loop states provide a basis of
solutions to the quantum gravity equations. This is described in the important loop representation of
quantum gravity.

Knot theory is closely related to quantum groups (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_group).

These are a generalization (or deformation) of classical Lie groups
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_simple_Lie_groups) and are important in condensed matter
theory, string theory and other physics. Knot theory seems to be very closely related to symmetry.

Quantum groups are also used to construct Topological Quantum Field theories which can be used to
find invariants of manifolds.

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In string theory (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/String_theory) as we currently know it there is not much

indication that string theory is discrete. Strings are described as continuous loops in space.
However, there has been some interesting work by Susskind and others which does seem to suggest
that string theory could be discrete. It may be possible to describe strings as objects made of small
partons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parton_(particle_physics)) strung together. These partons would
not exist as hard objects but can be conceptually subdivided and rejoined.

They are points on the string which describe the topology of its interactions. If the partons can be
subdivided then they must be permitted to have fractional statistics. They must live on the string world
sheet. The statistics of a whole loop of string would be the sum of the fractional statistics of its
partons and would be an integer or half integer so that the string can live in three-dimensional space.
If spacetime is event-symmetric and we wish to consider event-symmetric string field theory, then a
discrete string approach is essential.

The partons of the string can be tied to the events through which the string passes. It will be permitted
to pass through space-time events in any order it likes. In this way strings can tie together the events
of space-time and provide an origin of topology in an otherwise unstructured event-symmetric
universe.

If strings are formed from loops of partons with fractional statistics then it seems natural to allow them
to be knotted. We should look for ways of describing this algebraically in an event-symmetric string
theory.

String theorists are now also turning to higher dimensional membrane theories. If strings can be
made of partons then surfaces, or 2-branes, can be made from strings. The process could continue
ad infinitum. Space-time itself might be viewed as a membrane built in this way.

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_____________________________________

Short Profile of the Artist

Margarida Sardinha is an independent artist & director born in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1978. She
attended Fine Art Combined Media studies at Central Saint Martins College of Art and at Chelsea
College of Art and Design then studied, lived and worked in London for ten years.

Her cross-media practice comprises site-specific installation, experimental film and animation,
performance, text, sound, photography and symbolic study drawings, which are by definition
conceptualist geometric-kinetic and abstract minimal works. Its main focus is the production of
geometrical optical illusions à propos the spiritual in art, thus, making concept parallels within
literature, philosophy, comparative religion, science, film and art.

Using these perceptions she searches for spiritual/psychological stages of consciousness and relates
them with cycles of individual or universal growth. She re-accesses the deconstruction of dogmas
from a geometric-archetypal stand in which the relation between immutability and mutability is
constantly challenged and reviewed through dynamic symmetry.

Archetypal geometry, dynamic symmetry, symbology and color being the basis of the work are
explored in a transmutative semiotic process of building, photographing and animating these “signs”
that are understood as imprinted/innate forms of consciousness which enable us to see, hear and
speak aesthetically, emotionally, logically, spiritually and politically.

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_____________________________________

Knotwork will have its world premiere during The New Art Fest '16
(https://www.facebook.com/thenewartfest/?hc_ref=SEARCH&fref=nf) in Lisbon, in november 2016 -
the brand new international festival for new media, post-internet art and internet of things "where art
meets technology" as the organizers say.

_____________________________________

www.margaridasardinha.com (http://www.margaridasardinha.com)
(http://www.margaridasardinha.com)

_____________________________________

#patternsandco

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_____________________________________

www.margaridasardinha.com/ (http://www.margaridasardinha.com/)
vimeo.com/184519066 (https://vimeo.com/184519066)
www.facebook.com/thenewartfest/ (https://www.facebook.com/thenewartfest/)

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