Eric Chiang: Are We Born Connected?
Artist and musical composer Eric Chiang’s large-scale compositions engage our understanding of harmonia universalis, the classical Greek “fitting together” of the universe. Chiang’s canvases explore harmos, a builder’s term used to describe connectedness. The classical Greek curriculum of philosophy, mathematics, music, and astronomy was designed to inscribe students with inter-disciplinary connectedness, a tradition which continues in today’s liberal arts education.
Incorporating visual elements of astronomy and music, Chiang’s paintings evoke the mathematical observations of 5th century BCE Greek philosopher Pythagoras, who observed the frequency, or audible vibration of a string when plucked, as inversely proportional to the length of the string. Extrapolating on these effects, Pythagoras reasoned that the motion of the planets also produced resonance. “There is geometry in the humming of the strings. There is music in the spacing of the spheres” (attributed to Pythagoras, 569-490 BCE).
As a metaphor, the “music of the spheres,” the hidden harmos of planetary motions, provided inspiration for generations of musicians, philosophers, mathematicians, and scientists. Most significantly, in 1619, astronomer Johannes Kepler formalized the calculation of distances, orbits, and velocities of known planets. Kepler’s Harmonices Mundi mathematically confirmed the heliocentric model of the universe and transformed our approach to modern science.
We are a generation born connected. Our innovations in instruments and technology have extended sensory perception, asked new questions, and refined our explanations of the natural world. Eric Chiang’s paintings, however, offer a sober meditation on harmos. As stand-ins for the human figure, Chiang’s musical instruments drift alone, dis-connected, and silent in the vacuum of space and geologic record of the past. Yet, they all speak with the same “voice.” Discovering our stellar origins demands that we recover harmos: our relationship and responsibility to our species, our planet, and our universe.
