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Ms. Mieko  Takanami
MA Digital Arts – Unit 2
Discussion Paper

My Journey to MA Project began from the year of 2004, when I was suffering with serious illness in the hospital bed. I was in so much pain days and days. At that time I felt I was a prisoner of my own physical body. I wanted to be free from my own body, then to become fish and swim in the Coral Sea. The recall of this experience inspired me to perform ‘Fish’. The fish is going to die due to eating up plastic debris. In the process of editing I put chanting OM  at the dying scene. This is my purpose of attempting to create transitional link to Antimatter from Matter world. The Matter world means till death where fish lived within time and space. And the Antimatter means since death and in which the fish enter to, without time and space. Therefore I was intended to let the fish of which presented myself transit to transcendental, devoid of phenomenal existence – Antimatter.  I also recall sometimes the experience of the moment at hospital bed that I must be had sensed something beyond of which normally not able to sense. It must be a fragment of Antimatter…

I’ve already performed Fish eating up plastic debris a few times at public places within art circle. In regarding to the influence of its awareness to the viewer was inconsiderable effect. Then I take next shift, creating a film, titled Matter and Antimatter are two side of one coin. In my film for the Matter world I express my belief, the Matter world is the phenomenal world as an illusory passing show. The Antimatter world is invisible from our sight, but certainly exist as the Ultimate source and intertwining with Matter world. Based on this realization I create a moving image to the extension of Fish Performance videos. This seemingly a new project is originated in Fish Performance for the project Anti Plastic Campaign.

Notwithstanding I chose ‘Anti Plastic Campaign’ as my project matter, I began to sway from my chosen project and focussing Antimatter. This reason is that I saw hopeless situations daily in my surrounding circumstances and elsewhere. I am overwhelmed by hopelessness through media information of remote places.

Captain Charles Moore, the founder director of the Algalita Marine Research Foundation (AMRF)   states that

‘Our oceans are turning into plastic…  A vast swath of Pacific, twice the size of Texas, is full of a plastic stew that is entering the food chain’ . (Internet)

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1  Om: The primordial word, symbolising God, from which the whole creation has emerged. All the sounds in the Universe are only waves or vibrations of this primeval sound.

2  Susan Casey (Feb 20. 2007), Travel & Leisure, ‘Our ocean are turning into plastic..are we?’ (Internet), Available from < HYPERLINK http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our-ocean “http://www.bestlifeonline.com/cms/publish/travel-leisure/Our_oceans_are_turning_into_plastic_are_we.shtml”> (Accessed Oct 2008)
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The information about the breakdown of ecological system transmitted through media is nothing but the reality, but it does exist only as invisible reality. The invisibility is the focus of unit 2, but clinging onto more primary source, Antimatter.

Mans lack of awareness and understanding of ecological harmony, is symptomatic of his lack of understanding of the roles of science and spirituality. The plastic pollution of that is killing thousands of miles of the seas, turning them into a space devoid of any living matter. This ecological break down is invisible, this invisibility is central stressing subject matter of my unit 2, focussing to Antimatter.

Discussion point 1:

‘Matter and Antimatter are two side of one coin’

Matter : This stuff is everything around of us. Matter is anything made of atoms and molecules. Matter is anything that has a mass. Matter is also related to light and electromagnetic radiation. Matter can be found all over the universe. (Internet)

To the majority of people the Matter world is only the existing reality, however Matter is counter part of Antimatter.

The Matter world is visible, while the Antimatter is invisible.
Antimatter sounds like the stuff of science fiction, and it is. But it’s also very real.

Antimatter : Simply put, antimatter is a fundamental particle of regular matter with its electrical charge reversed. The common proton has an antimatter counterpart called the antiproton (Internet)

Therefore Matter and Antimatter are intertwining each other.

To express the film titled Matter and Antimatter are two sides of one coin, I use the video clip the City of London of which I took during unit 1 for the Matter world

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3  CHEM4KIDS.COM, (Internet), Available from <HYPERLINK “http:// chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html” http://chem4kids.com/files/matter_intro.html> (Accessed 29 October, 2008)

4  Robert Roy Britt (29 September 2003). The Reality of Antimatter, Available from <HYPERLINK “http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/antimatter_sun_03929.html” http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/antimatter_sun_030929.html > (Accessed 29 October)

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as our living place. In the Matter world I express my belief that it is the phenomenal world as an illusory passing show.  And for the Antimatter I create by using video shoot of the phenomena in relating to Antimatter, hence each matter is the manifestation of the Antimatter. In living daily I sometimes encounter to the wonder of Antimatter’s phenomena. For example a cobweb, the cobweb itself is obviously the form of Matter, but the spider able to draw exact geometric line, although the creator of cobweb does not learn to do so, it is by unseen hand makes a spider create the web. I call it DNA. This DNA belongs to Antimatter. Those lines might be argumentum, but not to me. Shooting the night sky to use for Antimatter world is no use to argument.

Endowed by the line of Robert Roy Brit  – senior science writer states.

‘Antimatter is created and annihilated in stars every day.’ (Internet)

Also Sathya Sai Baba’s beautiful expression in the sounds of Nature in Message of the Lord inspired me to create Antimatter images.

The chirping of the sparrows, the call of the cuckoo, the buzz of the bees, the rustle of leaves, the clatter of thunder, why even the croak of a frog – all these are the sounds emanating from Creation’ (Baba S. p525)

Discussion point 2

There are the striking parallels between the discoveries of science and the philosophical concepts of spiritual philosophy (as contained in the Vedanta ).

The majority of people in contemporary world especially civilized western countries do not believe the existence of the God. But the same people accept the fact of scientific discovery without exception. QED mechanism is the very nature of the God that is my belief  and people who believe in God. After I saw TV program of CERN’s experiment of LHC [the Large Hadron Collider]  facility on 10th September 2008, I’ve got confidence to make this film rational. Because

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5 http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/antimatter_sun_030929.html > (Accessed 29 October)
Referring to footnote 4

6 Vedanta: What is Vedanta? (Internet), Available from <HYPERLINK “http://www.namahom.org/vedanta.shtml” http://www.namahom.org/vedanta.shtml> (Accessed 30 October, 2008)

7  My belief: I define the God that is pure conscious energy or the all-pervading Supreme Cosmic Consciousness.

8 LHC: It is a particle accelerator used by physicists to study the smallest known as particles.
CERN (2008), The Large Hadron Collider, (Internet), Available from
between during the program they inserted a church stained glass occasionally together with celestial sound. They did not mention about the similarity between particle physics and the existence of the God, however that was enough to understand for their suggestion.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba (b.1926. Puttaparthi. India) states the above QED mechanism is the very nature of the God in Message of the Lord.

QED (quantum electrodynamics)  is a theory in which links the electron to the photon. In QED, there is a background substratum of energy called the field, whose lowest state is known as vacuum. Normally the term vacuum implies emptiness but the vacuum of QED is anything but empty. Conceptually it is an infinite “ocean” of “nothingness”. And yet, it is capable of giving birth to an endless number of photons and electrons. Thus, matter and radiation are both out of the infinite vacuum, and when the particles are destroyed or annihilated, they “return” to the vacuum. (Baba S. 2006:  p558)

Sri Sathya Sai Baba simply put the explanation of QED like in the above line, although the development of particle physics – QED took a century long, referring footnote 5, as the scientific view is parallel to the above state.

An infinite “ocean” of “nothingness” is nothing more than the attribute of God to me, and the state before the Big Bang occurred. – The underlined mentioning will rise an important discussion to us but not to atheists, because the science’s study begin with the Big Bang occurred, and no explanation of what was there before the Big Bang happened. What was it?

He states further that

In QED, the vacuum is primordial, when everything meaning radiation (photon) and matter (electron) disappear, only the vacuum state is left. From the vacuum is born everything, and into the vacuum everything dissolves, there is a striking parallel. God is primordial and eternal. From God everything is born and into God everything to dissolve. (Baba S. 2006: p 594)

The above line explains the striking similarity between QED mechanism and spirituality.

On the 10th September 2008 CERN had “re-enactment” of the Big Ban – the beginning of the Universe. Roughly speaking, it is like the emission of a particle by a quantum field.
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<HYPERLINK “http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-EN.html”
http://public.web.cern.ch/public/en/LHC/LHC-en.html> (Accessed 29 October 2008)

9  QED: Wickipedia (8 October 2008), Quantum electrodynamics, (Internet), Available from <HYPERLINK “http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_electrodynamics> (Accessed 29 October, 2008)

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Sri Sathya Sai Baba states on CERN.

In the international laboratory CERN in Geneva has been studying elementary particle. They learnt so much about the Cosmos by looking into a tiny object like the atom and transpire immediately after the Universe came into existence. That is because the microcosm and the macrocosm are intimately linked to each other. This intertwining of the macro – and the microcosm is a universal feature of Nature, for instance in the tree and the seed, and in the DNA and man. (Baba S. 2006: p555)

My consisted interest in what will happen after one’s death become more and more growing since I developed cancer and suffered from following treatments. When I encountered the knowledge of particle physics’ mechanism, I was rejoiced to know that the scientific theory is paralleled to the philosophy of the spirituality. It’s so fascinating in what they are researching in CERN.

My despair of knowing the reality that the sea is dying although the sea is origin of the life, turned me into QED mechanism clinging the hope to sustain myself, by means I create animation piece using the theory of QED mechanism. This piece would be occupying for a short probably a few minute within a whole film. I’m going to explain it in the script board.

Discussion point 3:

Does science able to find whether God exists or not?

Science works within space and time, while God’s existence can be understood only in a larger framework that goes beyond space and time.

However the particle physics research in CERN can push knowledge forward, challenging those who seek confirmation of established knowledge, and those who dare to dream beyond the paradigm.

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Books
No author(s); all the original prayer verses in Sanskrit, Raghavan  K. Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publication Trust, (1989, 1st ed.), Daily prayers to Bhagawan

Sathya Sai Baba, Sri Sathya Sai Books and Publication Trust, (May, 2006), Message of the Lord, As a practical philosophy, 5th ed.