Negative Entropy (TAE Pulse Power Capacitor, Black, Single)
Year: 2017
Medium: cotton, wood, acoustic baffling felt
Dimensions: 93.7 x 67 cm (36 7/8 x 26 3/8 in.)
Acquired from TARONASU, 2022
This work belongs to “Single” from the “Negative Entropy” series, which is Tajima’s representative series, indicating a piece that uses only a single iteration of a sound-form pattern. The artist has made a spectrogram image, the visualization of recorded sound data from environmental and mechanical sounds produced at a specific location, into a textile design. Jacquard loom lifts and lowers both the warp and the weft to create intricate patterns. Initially programmed using punch cards, modern jacquard looms are now controlled by digital data. The sounds that Tajima heard were initially invisible, but they underwent a multi-step conversion process involving recording and transforming into digital sound files, and then further processing into visual information with a spectrogram before ultimately being rendered as a textile. The technology of weaving may have a longer history than writing and has continued to play a fundamental role in supporting human life to the present day. Tajima has always been concerned with expressing the relationships between humanity, including herself, material and energy, as well as transitions in human consciousness and society. In this context, her use of a primitive technology of weaving seems inevitable. While it can be inferred from the title that black forms the base color, the captivating beauty of this work lies in the way the blurred waveforms of the spectrogram run horizontally in yellow and blue.
