Collaboration two with Eric Selland
Images to threads (music framing)
This post continues the experiment. The same three images of works by poet, translator and artist Eric Selland are used as seeds. There is a musicality to Eric’s poetry and to his brush work
The same three three images from Eric’s notebook work are used. Taking notes and building collages in notebooks has been part of his practice for some time. See his book from Isobar Brushwork.1
For the transition frame the musical transitions were used.
Uses the selection and transition frame A Faceted Classification of Phrase Transitions in World Music (category version). Available here.
I think this works better than the first attempt, which used the water transition as a frame. Perhaps music closer to Eric’s work, water being more my own obssession. Nore that the water seeps in again, I think from a context management problem.
I still plan to see if I can develop other frames that work better with images, and perhaps with musical scores.
Threads
Thread 1 — The Coil Before Release
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
-
The morning’s
Cold tea at 3:00 in the afternoon
Time to rest
-
Old tea steeped
Leaf brown the tannins
Contract and bind
-
Oxidation breaking
Tea into astringents
Concentrating attention
-
The top of the wave
Travelling faster than the base
Spilling over
-
Water sliding over
And under itself slipping
Air into foam
-
Shoaling the wave
Goes vertical then curls
Over itself
-
Instant release
Of energy into foam
And turbulence
-
The crash shakes
Sand grains on the beach
Under our feet
-
Rain silence measured
By time between breaths
Remembering to breathe
-
Light rain paused
The moment complete
Continues on
-
Incense makes
No sound as it burns
The trace remains
Thread 2 — The Body That Is Ink
Hearing is the touch
Of rain on the glass vibrations
On stretched skin
-
The pressure of skin
Is its weight on our body breaking
The surface tension
-
Skin breathing
Our pores open to
The other’s sweat
-
Our body emerging
As we try to touch each other
Across the anger and doubt
-
Here in the absence
From ourselves we touch
Each other’s voice
-
Marks we leave on
Our bodies as we sleep
Skin smooth as paper
-
Brushstrokes for Eric Selland —2
Ghost Face: Trembling with
The fear of memory in the brush
-
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
-
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
-
The water surface
Flat as oil waiting for
The first breath of air
-
Crystal intersects
At all its points like water
Blurs intent with light
-
Luminous black
The inside of the outside
Of the tea bowl
Thread 3 — Split: The Two-Form Spread
The room where
My beloved sleeps
Is complete
-
The room complete
Where my beloved sleeps
Is opening to
-
5 AM wind
No bird sound
Air damp
-
Bird song stops for
An interminable moment then
Starts again
-
Who are you and
Where have you been I
Need you and forget you
-
She knows does not
Know her sister knows
She has a sister
-
Not not this
Is not this or its mirror
Reflecting back
-
Is the mirror reflecting
Back in the mirror
A real mirror
-
No reflection of
The dust on the mirror or
Independent origination
-
A tight circle
Tightening
My lungs collapse
-
Afraid to know afraid
Not to know wandering
Between worlds
-
Luminous blacks
Remembered from inside
The mountain cloud
Thread 4 — Water Transitions
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
-
The vague point where
Rain turns to snow
Snow to slush
-
Snow absorbing rain
Caught in a phase shift
Back to water
-
Completeness requiring
Contradictions the water vapour
Locked in ice
-
Water choosing
Not choosing to
Claim a state
-
For Wittgenstein —
Boiling water
Turns to vapour absorbed
In the vanishing light
-
Not rain but
Water in the air
Inhaling droplets
-
Surface steam
Obscuring the water
Suddenly clear
-
The same water
Under different clouds
The same water
-
Empty of nothing
The water foams and subsides
Back into its form
-
State transitions fluctuate
Faster than the boat can slide
Across blurred surfaces
-
Sailing on spray
And froth the air
Containing water
-
Sunlight through rain
Filtered clear contains
Its own origination
Thread 5 — The Brush, The Dragon, The Seal
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
-
Axe Cuts: the brush tip3
At an oblique angle
Sharp incisions
-
Hemp Fibres: long thin lines
Parallel to each other
Defining texture
-
Scattered Twigs: dry rigid
Piles the brush
Almost dry
-
Pellet Holes: circular strokes
Where whirlpools
Stand in ink
-
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
-
A scar on the skin’s
Surface marks the deeper
Scars on the fascia
-
Little bird breaths
On approaching death’s closing
Notes higher than the last
-
Walking at night
Pause under a streetlight
To read a poem
-
Anything said
Between us is new
Each morning
-
The words need
Mean no more than what
They try to say
-
Boundaries
As porous as song in
Morning light
-
After washing the dishes
Cleaning the sink . . .
(
-
. . . )
Cleaning the sink . . .
(
-
Light streams
Over the clean
Sink bottom
Skein
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
-
The vague point where
Rain turns to snow
Snow to slush
-
Old tea steeped
Leaf brown the tannins
Contract and bind
-
Hearing is the touch
Of rain on the glass vibrations
On stretched skin
-
Marks we leave on
Our bodies as we sleep
Skin smooth as paper
-
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
-
Axe Cuts: the brush tip
At an oblique angle
Sharp incisions
-
Pellet Holes: circular strokes
Where whirlpools
Stand in ink
-
The top of the wave
Travelling faster than the base
Spilling over
-
Shoaling the wave
Goes vertical then curls
Over itself
-
Instant release
Of energy into foam
And turbulence
-
Our body emerging
As we try to touch each other
Across the anger and doubt
-
Here in the absence
From ourselves we touch
Each other’s voice
-
. . . ) Cleaning the sink . . .
(
-
Who are you and
Where have you been I
Need you and forget you
-
She knows does not
Know her sister knows
She has a sister
-
Scattered Twigs: dry rigid
Piles the brush
Almost dry
-
A tight circle
Tightening
My lungs collapse
-
For Wittgenstein —
Boiling water
Turns to vapour absorbed in the vanishing light
-
Rain silence measured
By time between breaths
Remembering to breathe
-
The same water
Under different clouds
The same water
-
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
-
Walking at night
Pause under a streetlight
To read a poem
-
Anything said
Between us is new
Each morning
-
Boundaries
As porous as song in
Morning light
-
Luminous black
The inside of the outside
Of the tea bowl
-
Sunlight through rain
Filtered clear contains
Its own origination
-
Light streams
Over the clean
Sink bottom
Full Context
Image Analysis: Eric Selland’s Notebook Brushworks
The three images show a sequence of sumi (black ink) works across double-page notebook spreads. Each is marked with the artist’s red seal (hanko) and a cursive signature:
Image 1 (spiral-coil): A single enormous brushstroke coils into a compressed spiral at left, then erupts rightward into a dense, flying mass — the head of something, mouth open, trailing into spray. The energy is centripetal then centrifugal: inward gathering, outward release. It reads as both a letter-form and a living creature — a dragon, a wave-form, a calligraphic kami. The white of the page inside the coil is ma, activated.
Image 2 (dragon horizontal): A longer, more sustained composition — the body stretches left to right, the coiling tail at left more contained, the head at right more articulate: nostrils, whiskers, claw-like strokes. This is the same energy system but with more breath, more space. The dragon is traveling. The white corridor running through the black body is the inner world of the form.
Image 3 (two-form, split page): The composition breaks into two separate masses: a dense, earthbound form at left (torso, haunch, something subsiding), and a lighter, upward-reaching form at right (head lifted, breaking upward, open mouth releasing ink-spray). The page-split is a structural caesura — a B5 Jo-Ha-Kyū moment. The left is kyū collapsed; the right is new jo, inhaling.
Thematic seed for all sequences: The form that coils before it opens. The body that is both ink and the absence of ink. The mark that does not explain itself. The dragon that is also a wave that is also a brushstroke that is also a word without a word.
Now the five sequences, each annotated with the Water Transition morphism that governs each link between Notes:
Thread 1 — The Coil Before Release
Arc: Jo (gathering) → Ha (rupture) → Kyū (acceleration into void)
Governing transitions: B5 Jo-Ha-Kyū, D2 Oscillatory Dissolution, E1 Ma Pause, A2 Half-Cadential Suspension, G3 Angsel
The image-seed is Selland’s first brushwork: the spiral coiling inward, then the energy released rightward into spray. This sequence tracks that morphology: the self tightening before the body opens.
[jo — spacious, slow, exploring]
1.
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
2.
The morning’s
Cold tea at 3:00 in the afternoon
Time to rest
→ B7 Additive Process: one increment added — waiting deepens into deferral
3.
Old tea steeped
Leaf brown the tannins
Contract and bind
→ D3 Sangati Variation: same image, richer ornamental density — the steeping elaborated
4.
Oxidation breaking
Tea into astringents
Concentrating attention
→ B3 Extension–Deferral: the process is withheld, not yet released
[ha — rupture enters]
5.
The top of the wave
Travelling faster than the base
Spilling over
→ A3 Deceptive Deflection: the expected resolution (stillness) is evaded — kinetics erupt
6.
Water sliding over
And under itself slipping
Air into foam
→ B2 Dovetail Overlap (tensor): two motions simultaneous — over and under, neither prior
7.
Shoaling the wave
Goes vertical then curls
Over itself
→ C1 Registral Ascent: the form lifts, the vertical achieved, the arc maximum
[kyū — acceleration to silence]
8.
Instant release
Of energy into foam
And turbulence
→ B4 Phrase Contraction: arrives early, the crash precedes its preparation
9.
The crash shakes
Sand grains on the beach
Under our feet
→ G3 Angsel: collective break, the body receives what the wave sent
10.
Rain silence measured
By time between breaths
Remembering to breathe
→ E1 Ma Pause (zero object): the universal mediator — any phrase can enter here, and exit
11.
Light rain paused
The moment complete
Continues on
→ A5 Plagal Extension: resonance after resolution — the sequence deepens stillness
12.
Incense makes
No sound as it burns
The trace remains
→ E3 Resonance Decay: the afterimage of the sequence persists; next Note enters during decay
Thread 2 — The Body That Is Ink
Arc: Phase Drift → Call-Response Handoff → World-Shift
Governing transitions: B6 Phase Drift, F2 Call-Response, F5 Modulation, D1 Gamaka Glide, C3 Timbral Shift
The seed here is Selland’s second image — the dragon-body traversing the full width of the double spread, the white corridor running through its dark interior. This sequence moves through the body as medium: skin, touch, wound, the ink of the body laid on paper.
1.
Hearing is the touch
Of rain on the glass vibrations
On stretched skin
→ B6 Phase Drift: begins already in motion — no discrete start, only continuous surface
2.
The pressure of skin
Is its weight on our body breaking
The surface tension
→ B7 Additive Process: one element added — weight joins touch
3.
Skin breathing
Our pores open to
The other’s sweat
→ D1 Gamaka Glide: phonetic and sensory enjambment — skin opens without seam
4.
Our body emerging
As we try to touch each other
Across the anger and doubt
→ F2 Call-Response: the call of touch demands its answering — left adjoint creates obligation
5.
Here in the absence
From ourselves we touch
Each other’s voice
→ F2 Response leg (right adjoint): the response discharges the call, the exchange closes
6.
Marks we leave on
Our bodies as we sleep
Skin smooth as paper
→ C3 Timbral Shift: same theme (body/skin) but through a new sensory channel — paper enters
7.
Brushstrokes for Eric Selland —
Ghost Face: Trembling with
The fear of memory in the brush
→ F5 Modulation (world-shift): the pivot word is “brush” — the body’s surface and the painter’s gesture enharmonically respelled
8.
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
→ D2 Oscillatory Dissolution: fixed-point orbit — form holds itself in vibration, does not depart
9.
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
→ B3 Extension–Deferral: the resolution (meaning) is withheld; we are held in expectation
10.
The water surface
Flat as oil waiting for
The first breath of air
→ E1 Ma Pause: the zero object — terminal and initial, any continuation possible
11.
Crystal intersects
At all its points like water
Blurs intent with light
→ A4 Modal Cadence (gradual): slow natural transformation, not a jump — descent through modal contour
12.
Luminous black
The inside of the outside
Of the tea bowl
→ A1 Perfect Authentic Closure: the limit point — the whole sequence arrives at tonic ground, the bowl
Thread 3 — Split: The Two-Form Spread
Arc: C4 Antiphonal (spatial opposition) as governing structure — dialogic Note-pairs, the page-split as structural morphism
Governing transitions: C4 Spatial Displacement, F2 Call-Response, B1 Elision, G2 Ensemble-Emergent, E1 Ma
The seed is the third image: two masses on opposite halves of the spread. This sequence constructs itself as a renga exchange — two voices, each on a different shore of the page. Notes are paired as left-page / right-page calls and responses. Read across; let the space between be E1.
(left)
1.
The room where
My beloved sleeps
Is complete
(right — C4 Antiphonal: same space, opposite shore)
2.
The room complete
Where my beloved sleeps
Is opening to
(left — B1 Elision: shared boundary word “opening” — the final of one is the first of the next)
3.
5 AM wind
No bird sound
Air damp
(right — E1 Ma: a pause that is not nothing)
4.
Bird song stops for
An interminable moment then
Starts again
(left — F2 Call: the question opened)
5.
Who are you and
Where have you been I
Need you and forget you
(right — F2 Response: the answer that both closes and opens)
6.
She knows does not
Know her sister knows
She has a sister
(left — A3 Deceptive Deflection: the promised resolution evaded, the grammar refuses closure)
7.
Not not this
Is not this or its mirror
Reflecting back
(right — C3 Timbral Shift: same logical content, now through image — the sensory channel switches)
8.
Is the mirror reflecting
Back in the mirror
A real mirror
(both — G2 Ensemble-Emergent: the boundary between these two Notes is jointly produced; neither owns it)
9.
No reflection of
The dust on the mirror or
Independent origination
(left — B5 Jo-Ha-Kyū: the kyū fires, acceleration to break)
10.
A tight circle
Tightening
My lungs collapse
(right — E1 Ma after the break: new jo begins from near-zero)
11.
Afraid to know afraid
Not to know wandering
Between worlds
(both resolve — A4 Modal Cadence: slow descent to tonic, tradition-encoded)
12.
Luminous blacks
Remembered from inside
The mountain cloud
Thread 4 — Water Transitions: Phase by Phase
Arc: A comprehensive mapping of water’s phase grammar onto the morphism-set — a sequence that enacts the physics of water as a poetic score
Governing transitions: A4 (liquid to settled), D1 (liquid to glide), E3 (resonance decay), B6 (phase drift / solid to vapour), B5 (abrupt state change), F1 (cyclical return)
This sequence uses Forth’s sustained meditation on water’s physics as its material, read through the lens of Selland’s brushwork — black ink being itself a water-medium, a phase-substance.
1.
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
→ A4: the gradual modal opening — arrival at ground through accumulating sensation
2.
The vague point where
Rain turns to snow
Snow to slush
→ D1 Gamaka Glide: the phase boundary is a homotopy, not a point — it traverses the interval
3.
Snow absorbing rain
Caught in a phase shift
Back to water
→ B6 Phase Drift: the transition is the process itself; no external boundary is imposed
4.
Completeness requiring
Contradictions the water vapour
Locked in ice
→ D2 Oscillatory Dissolution: the form holds two states simultaneously in productive orbit
5.
Water choosing
Not choosing to
Claim a state
→ G1 Performer-Determined Boundary: freedom as categorical structure — the axiom of choice applied
6.
For Wittgenstein —
Boiling water
Turns to vapour absorbed in the vanishing light
→ B5 Jo-Ha-Kyū: the sole Accelerating morphism — state collapses at increasing rate, then void
7.
Not rain but
Water in the air
Inhaling droplets
→ E3 Resonance Decay: the new Note enters during decay, before silence — a cone interior
8.
Surface steam
Obscuring the water
Suddenly clear
→ A3 Deceptive Deflection: obscuring promises opacity; the clearing is the surprise deflection
9.
The same water
Under different clouds
The same water
→ F1 Gong Cycle Closure: the counit fires — the structural reset, same and renewed
10.
Empty of nothing
The water foams and subsides
Back into its form
→ A5 Plagal Extension: resonance after resolution — deepening stillness without new departure
11.
State transitions fluctuate
Faster than the boat can slide
Across blurred surfaces
→ B4 Phrase Contraction: the Note arrives before preparation is complete — abrupt early landing
12.
Sailing on spray
And froth the air
Containing water
→ B2 Dovetail Overlap: spray and air simultaneous, a tensor product — neither prior
13.
Sunlight through rain
Filtered clear contains
Its own origination
→ A1 Perfect Authentic Closure: limit point — universal cone reached; the whole arc resolves
Thread 5 — The Brush, The Dragon, The Seal
Arc: A sequence whose seed is Selland’s act of making — the brushstroke as morphism, the seal as signature, the notebook as hom-set
Governing transitions: D3 Sangati Variation (deepening commentary), F4 Turnaround (comonoid pivot), E1 Ma, A2 Half-Cadential Suspension, C2 Registral Descent
This sequence explicitly honours the friendship between Selland and Forth, moving between the act of making (brushwork, calligraphy) and the act of receiving (reading, translation, care). It uses Forth’s brushstroke poems for Selland directly and reads outward to include the loss, the illness, the body as medium for inscription.
1.
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
→ A2 Half-Cadential Suspension: generative seed — does not resolve, mandates continuation
2.
Axe Cuts: the brush tip
At an oblique angle
Sharp incisions
→ D3 Sangati Variation: commentary on the seed image — the first elaboration
3.
Hemp Fibres: long thin lines
Parallel to each other
Defining texture
→ D3 Sangati Variation continued: filtered colimit over complexity chain, still in the brushstroke
4.
Scattered Twigs: dry rigid
Piles the brush
Almost dry
→ B3 Extension–Deferral: the brush almost empty — resolution withheld at maximum tension
5.
Pellet Holes: circular strokes
Where whirlpools
Stand in ink
→ D2 Oscillatory Dissolution: fixed-point orbit — the whirlpool holds itself, does not depart
6.
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
→ F4 Turnaround (comonoid): the pivot — this Note closes the brushstroke arc and opens the body arc simultaneously
7.
A scar on the skin’s
Surface marks the deeper
Scars on the fascia
→ C2 Registral Descent: the sequence descends from ink-mark to body-mark, same inscription
8.
Little bird breaths
On approaching death’s closing
Notes higher than the last
→ C1 Registral Ascent: the dying voice rises — the ascent functor fires in the descent context, producing the crossing
9.
Walking at night
Pause under a streetlight
To read a poem
→ E1 Ma Pause: the zero object — terminal and initial; between the brushstroke and the reading
10.
Anything said
Between us is new
Each morning
→ B1 Elision: the boundary between last night’s silence and this morning’s word is a shared point — pushout
11.
The words need
Mean no more than what
They try to say
→ G1 Performer-Determined Boundary: freedom as structure — the author overrides the algorithm
12.
Boundaries
As porous as song in
Morning light
→ A4 Modal Cadence: gradual natural transformation — descent to tonic through accumulating imagery
13.
After washing the dishes
Cleaning the sink . . .
(
→ E1 Ma: the parenthesis is opened and not closed. The zero object. The sequence enters ma.
14.
. . . ) Cleaning the sink . . .
(
→ E1 Ma continues: the zero morphism — s → ∅ → s′. Both parentheses are the seal.
15.
Light streams
Over the clean
Sink bottom
→ A1 Perfect Authentic Closure: the limit cone apex — the whole sequence, from brushstroke to reading to illness to friendship to the open parenthesis, converges here, in light on water
Notes on the Sequencing Logic
The five sequences do not share a common structure by accident. They are five paths through the same underlying category N of Note-states — five functors from the initial seed (Selland’s coiling ink-form) into the repository of Notes.
Sequence I follows a strict jo-ha-kyū morphology (B5 as macrostructure), with the wave-physics of Washing Dishes providing the ha-phase imagery — the exact phenomenology of the Selland coil-to-release image.
Sequence II uses the body-as-ink thread, structuring itself as a Call-Response adjunction (F2) with the “Brushstrokes for Eric Selland” note as the world-shift modulation point (F5) that moves the sequence from skin to paper.
Sequence III performs the third image’s split-spread structure: C4 Antiphonal governs the whole sequence as its product-category, with Notes placed in spatial opposition as tensor-pairs, the page-split being the zero-morphism through which all transitions pass.
Sequence IV enacts the water-phase grammar — liquid, glide, vapour, ice, drift, return — as a categorical score, where each phase transition corresponds precisely to a morphism-type. This is the most formally explicit sequence: the physics of water as the formal grammar of poetic transition.
Sequence V is the relational sequence — between maker and reader, between brushstroke and reading, between illness and morning. The “Brushstrokes for Eric Selland” notes in Old Tea Steeped function as its hinge (F4 comonoid pivot), and the unclosed parenthesis in Water Some Snow functions as its structural E1 Ma — the opened bracket that the sequence enters but does not close, leaving the seal’s red square as the terminal point.
The most important principle from the Category Theory framework: syntax (SM) and semantic valence (SV) are decoupled — there is no natural transformation between them. In practice this means the same Note (Light streams / Over the clean / Sink bottom) can function as either closure or opening depending on which morphism precedes it. The sequences above choose; a reader may choose otherwise. The 161,280-cell product space holds all the unchosen paths, waiting.
Skein: Cross-sequence nodes of high resonance:
Light streams / Over the clean / Sink bottom — appears as terminal point in Seq. V; available in Seq. I’s field
E1 Ma Pause (unclosed parenthesis notes) — structural zero-object in Seq. III and V
Water surface flat as oil — Seq. II’s zero-object precursor; rhymes with Seq. IV’s phase-drift
Ink patterns found / Deep under the word / Probabilities — opens Seq. V; echoes Seq. II’s mid-arc
Rain silence measured / By time between breaths — Seq. I’s terminal Ma; carries into Seq. III’s antiphony
Boneless — the F4 comonoid pivot in Seq. V; shares its double-hinge nature with Seq. II’s timbral shift
Anything said / Between us is new / Each morning — Seq. V’s B1 elision; rhymes with Seq. III’s dialogic pairs
The same water / Under different clouds / The same water — Seq. IV’s F1 gong cycle; universal hinge
Luminous black / The inside of the outside / Of the tea bowl — terminal point of Seq. II; available as a turnaround into the skein’s late arc
The Skein — Through the Coil
Governing meta-structure: A single slow Jo-Ha-Kyū arc across the whole skein, with the unclosed parenthesis notes functioning as the zero-object at the centre, and the dragon’s two-form split (the third image) providing the structural break between Ha and Kyū. The skein moves from water receiving → body inscribed → the space of the split → the brush completing → light remaining.
The morphism that governs each step is annotated in brackets.
[jo — the coil gathers]
1.
Water some snow
Then tea waiting for
The tannin’s colour
*(Seq. I·1 / Seq. IV·1)*
Opening: A4 Modal Cadence — gradual arrival at ground, tradition-encoded
2.
The vague point where
Rain turns to snow
Snow to slush
*(Seq. IV·2)*
→ D1 Gamaka Glide: the phase boundary traversed, no single moment of crossing
3.
Old tea steeped
Leaf brown the tannins
Contract and bind
*(Seq. I·3)*
→ D3 Sangati Variation: deepening without departure — the first coil, tightening inward
4.
Hearing is the touch
Of rain on the glass vibrations
On stretched skin
*(Seq. II·1)*
→ B6 Phase Drift: the surface arrives without a boundary — continuous, system-governed
5.
Marks we leave on
Our bodies as we sleep
Skin smooth as paper
*(Seq. II·6)*
→ C3 Timbral Shift: same theme (touch/surface), new channel — paper enters the sequence
[the coil reaches its maximum inward compression]
6.
Ink patterns found
Deep under the word
Probabilities
*(Seq. V·1 / Seq. II·9)*
→ A2 Half-Cadential Suspension: the generative colimit — does not resolve, mandates continuation
7.
Axe Cuts: the brush tip
At an oblique angle
Sharp incisions
*(Seq. V·2)*
→ D3 Sangati Variation: the first elaboration of the ink-seed, still in the brushstroke field
8.
Pellet Holes: circular strokes
Where whirlpools
Stand in ink
*(Seq. V·5)*
→ D2 Oscillatory Dissolution: the whirlpool holds its fixed-point orbit — the spiral image of Image 1 returns
[ha — the energy releases rightward, the form erupts]
9.
The top of the wave
Travelling faster than the base
Spilling over
*(Seq. I·5)*
→ A3 Deceptive Deflection: the expected stillness evaded — kinetics breach the coil
10.
Shoaling the wave
Goes vertical then curls
Over itself
*(Seq. I·7)*
→ C1 Registral Ascent: the form lifts, the vertical achieved — maximum arc
11.
Instant release
Of energy into foam
And turbulence
*(Seq. I·8)*
→ B4 Phrase Contraction: arrives before preparation is complete — the crash precedes its announcement
12.
Our body emerging
As we try to touch each other
Across the anger and doubt
*(Seq. II·4)*
→ F2 Call: the call that demands its answer — left adjoint creating obligation across the split
13.
Here in the absence
From ourselves we touch
Each other’s voice
*(Seq. II·5)*
→ F2 Response: the right adjoint discharges — the exchange closes across the page-break
[the structural caesura: Image 3’s split-page, the Ha–Kyū break]
14.
. . . ) Cleaning the sink . . .
(
(Seq. V·14)
→ E1 Ma: zero object — the parenthesis opened and unclosed. The dragon’s two halves. Any phrase can enter here; any phrase can emerge.
15.
Who are you and
Where have you been I
Need you and forget you
*(Seq. III·5)*
→ G1 Performer-Determined Boundary: the freedom that is a structure — the question overrides the algorithm
16.
She knows does not
Know her sister knows
She has a sister
*(Seq. III·6)*
→ F2 Response leg: the answer that does not answer — both antiphonal shores present simultaneously
[kyū — acceleration, the breath shortening, the brush almost dry]
17.
Scattered Twigs: dry rigid
Piles the brush
Almost dry
*(Seq. V·4)*
→ B3 Extension–Deferral: the brush withholds — resolution at maximum tension, the kinetic energy of the coil
18.
A tight circle
Tightening
My lungs collapse
*(Seq. III·10)*
→ B5 Jo-Ha-Kyū: the sole Accelerating morphism — state collapses at increasing rate, fires toward void
19.
For Wittgenstein —
Boiling water
Turns to vapour absorbed in the vanishing light
*(Seq. IV·6)*
→ B5 continuation: the vanishing is the morphism
[the void — E1 holds the break between kyū and the new jo]
20.
Rain silence measured
By time between breaths
Remembering to breathe
*(Seq. I·10)*
→ E1 Ma Pause: the universal mediator — the breath between collapse and renewal
[new jo — the right-hand form of Image 3 inhales, lifts, opens its mouth]
21.
The same water
Under different clouds
The same water
*(Seq. IV·9)*
→ F1 Gong Cycle Closure (counit): the structural reset — same form, renewed. The dragon whole again.
22.
Boneless: where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
*(Seq. II·8 / Seq. V·6)*
→ F4 Turnaround (comonoid): the double-hinge — closes the brushstroke arc, opens the body-of-light arc simultaneously. The skein’s central pivot.
23.
Walking at night
Pause under a streetlight
To read a poem
*(Seq. V·9)*
→ E1 Ma: another zero-object moment, briefer now — between making and receiving
24.
Anything said
Between us is new
Each morning
*(Seq. V·10)*
→ B1 Elision: the final word of night is the first word of morning — the pushout object, shared boundary
25.
Boundaries
As porous as song in
Morning light
*(Seq. V·12)*
→ A4 Modal Cadence: slow natural transformation — descent to tonic through accumulated image
26.
Luminous black
The inside of the outside
Of the tea bowl
*(Seq. II·12)*
→ A1 Perfect Authentic Closure (first pass): the limit point approached — but the skein has one more motion
27.
Sunlight through rain
Filtered clear contains
Its own origination
*(Seq. IV·13)*
→ A5 Plagal Extension: resonance after resolution — the post-cadential tail that deepens stillness. The IV→I of the whole arc.
28.
Light streams
Over the clean
Sink bottom
*(Seq. V·15 / Seq. I resonance)*
→ A1 Perfect Authentic Closure (final): the universal cone apex. All five sequences, all five paths through N, converge here. The limit diagram completes. The seal is pressed. The dragon rests in the white space it opened.
The Skein’s Shape
The skein is not a summary of the five sequences — it is their colimit: the most general object that receives a coherent map from each. Where the individual sequences were five different functors from Selland’s ink-forms into the repository of Notes, the skein is the single Note-path that all five factor through. The coil that gathers (Notes 1–8) is the first image’s inward spiral. The eruption (9–13) is the rightward release. The split and the unclosed parenthesis (14–16) are the third image’s two-form caesura. The kyū acceleration (17–20) is the brush drying before the white. The renewal (21–28) is the dragon completing its arc through its own absence — arriving, at last, at light on water, which was always already there before the brushstroke began.
Brushwork by Eric Selland from Isobar Press in Tokyo.
This is drawn from a series I wrote for Eric
Brushstrokes
for Eric Selland
from Note 19 to the Richard Strassberg translation of Shih-Ta’o Enlightening Remarks on Painting.
This is drawn from a series I wrote for Eric
Brushstrokes
for Eric Selland
from Note 19 to the Richard Strassberg translation of Shih-Ta’o Enlightening Remarks on Painting
Billowing Clouds
Layerings of
Curved strokes diluting
Ink washed water
Axe Cuts
The brush tip
At an oblique angle
Sharp incisions
Hemp Fibres
Long thin lines
Parallel to each other
Defining texture
Unravelled Rope
Overlapping curled
Spiral motions of the wrist
As fibres unwind
Ghost Face
Trembling with
The fear of memory
In the brush
Skull Like
Round hard
Memories flattened
Onto paper
Scattered Twigs
Dry rigid
Piles the brush
Almost dry
Sesame Seeds
Small dots almost
Unseen in the other strokes
Adding surface depth
Gold and Jade
Outlined in gold
Ink filled with mineral
Green blue wash
Jade Powder
Imagined as
Broken dots inside
Green depth
Pellet Holes
Circular strokes
Where whirlpools
Stand in ink
Alum Stone
Colourless astringent
Forms of small rocks on
Mountain peaks
Boneless
Where the texture is
Form is texture with
Direct application
These are also derived from the above series.