Raqs Media Collective
Perhaps (An Investigation Outside the Laws of Thought)
Brayford Pool, Lincoln
Gymnasium Projects are delighted to announce a new commission by New Delhi-based artists Raqs Media Collective.
Two arcs rise and fall by the water of the Brayford Pool, facing Lincoln University. Coated by a sheer reflective surface, the two arcs mirror each other, the water and their environs, creating an illusion of a fold in space, a thickening of air. The arcs are also portals. And as portals, they recall George Boole’s ‘logic gates’ – conceptual sites of entry and exit for answers to questions that can end in either a yes or a no answer – which he first spelt out in his ‘Investigation into the Laws of Thought’. Today, logic gates, are the building blocs of computer programming.
These two arcs stand close, one nested into the other such that It would be possible to enter one, and then the other, and then exit through the first again, without changing one’s direction. One could think of this as a way of entering a NO gate, by passing through a YES gate, and then exiting through the YES gate again. In this way, maybe we make room for a PERHAPS.
Would this entail an investigation, into, and then outside, the laws of thought? Perhaps.
Lincoln was George Boole’s birthplace. He must have walked by Brayford Pool, asking questions that needed answers in yes, no, and perhaps, perhaps. This work remembers those moments outside the boundaries of yes and no, just outside the limits placed by the laws of thought.
