The Logic of Contradiction

"The Logic of Contradiction"- is a mixed media installation project by Dani Thomas, James Gardiner and Lee Grey. It will open for public viewing on 18th April at tactileBOSCH gallery and performance space in Llandaff (just outside Cardiff)

If a sentient, autonomous agent is oppressed by a system, the agent might feel more free, or certainly more comfortable by accepting the limits the system has provided, and living obediently within it’s bounds. If, however, the agent turns to face the system that oppresses him this comfort will be lost. He will be more directly oppressed and even violently opposed in consequence of his challenge, but objectively more free than the obedient agent as he takes a step towards true liberation.
In everyday life, all sorts of information is organised into discreet categories; colours, musical pitches, animal and plant species, ethnicity and social strata are all commonly perceived in these terms. This is traditional formal logic, and its important for all sorts of reasons. Its important for us to be able to label the colour - blue - and be able to distinguish it from another - green. Our ability to organise everything around us into easily observable chunks is an absolutely vital faculty.
However, it is also important for us to step outside this strictly empirical framework and realise that many of these categories are socially imposed and in some senses false; Colour is actually a continuous frequency, and in spite of our attempts to consider them as separate entities, one colour flows smoothly into the next.
To appreciate the world in it’s full complexity, one must take a dialectical approach; examine the underlying dynamics and laws of motion at work and attempt to understand it as it unfolds in a constant state of flux. Most importantly of all we must understand that this perpetual motion is powered by the relationship between opposing forces. The essential point of dialectical thought is not that it is based on the idea of change and motion, but that it views motion and change as phenomena based upon contradiction. This piece aims to demonstrate this idea in an interactive setting and begin to draw out it’s social implications by setting the physical space at odds with the sound world.