The folks behind the Sagan series have created a companion project featuring Richard Feynman. I have been a huge fan of his since reading Surely You’re Joking Mr Feynman: Adventures of a Curious Character back at university. He is obviously an incredible intellect, but he has a way of speaking with such easy charm and accessibility you feel like you could be listening to your grandfather, or a favourite teacher from primary school.
These videos pair his voice with compelling images and stirring music. I am delighted to see his thoughts being shared with a wider audience.
I recently learned the story of Roman Opalka (via TodayTomorrow & Triangulation), a French-born Polish painter who’s work has left a huge impression on me.
In 1965 Roman began a work ‘OPALKA 1965/1-∞’ that would take him the rest of his life, more than 40 years, to complete. On that day in 1965 he began painting consecutive numbers, in white, on the top left of a black canvas the size of his studio door (which he called a “Detail”). He continued to paint in perfectly uniform rows until he reached the bottom right corner. Once he finished one “Detail” he would start another identical detail where the previous left off. Five years after he started he gave up all other projects to dedicate himself solely to this work.
Few changes were introduced during the course of those 40 years. He changed the background colour in 1968 to grey because grey was neither symbolic, nor emotional. In 1972 began gradually lightening the grey by one percent per “Detail”, with the objective of eventually painting white on white. He also introduced documentation to the method, recording himself speaking the numbers aloud as he painted, and photographing himself in front of his detail at the end of each day’s work. He avoided travel, but if it was necessary he produced “Cartes de voyage” a continuation of his numbers in black ink on white A4 paper.
In all he produced 233 canvases, right up until his recent passing on August 6, 2011.
I find myself drawn to this because of my predisposition toward projects at the intersection of art and science (I attribute that to my parents, I am the offspring of an english teacher and a maths teacher). More than that though, I am fascinated by this story of complete devotion to a task. Opalka would undoubtedly have had his detractors, those who said, either directly to him, or more likely whispered behind his back, that what he was doing was stupid, crazy, or ridiculous. But his strength of conviction, and commitment to his idea drove him to ignore that and complete something incredible. That to me is truly inspirational.
If you would like to know more about Roman Opalka and his work check out:
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