Leonardo On-Line







Fig. 12

Mario Ramiro, detail of Atlas---o suporte do mundo (Atlas---Support of the World), installation with electric objects, photographs, and three live tortoises, 1997. This piece draws analogies between ancient Greek and Chinese cultures and is based on a Chinese myth in which the Earth is considered to be a flat disk in space held up by a tortoise shell of cosmic proportions. This installation was composed of thermal sculptures activated by motion sensors, Schlieren photographs and an area defined by granite blocks, in the interior of which three tortoises move about on a heat field produced by light reflectors. The artist searches for a synthesis of belief, natural elements and new forms of perception mediated by technology.







Between Form and Force