THING=IDEA

[[[That sculpture is the object

And all objects are things.

Sculpture is really about the conversation it generates , because its reciprocal relation is derived from the idea of the object.

The thing and the idea happen at the same time by ‘the definition of Identity’.

And this even as ‘the same time’ can be long or short.]]]

2 Jan. 2026

‘The SYLLOGISM is transitive’, as demonstrated by Wilfrid von Leibniz (1676).

“A thing is the meaning of an idea.” George Boole (1815-1864).

“Mass cannot exist without space,” Albert Einstein.

“The Medium is the Message,” Marshal McLuan.

“A thing is itself,” Euclid.

If all men are mortal. And Socrates is a man. Then Socrates is mortal.” If A is B . And C is A. Then C is B. Aristotle .

Sculpture is the Art of the Thing as Idea…the object is subject.

Storefront for Art and Architecture 1983. video: Miller on Parker

In the near, beside the ferocious forge, an object is worked towards some idea that could make it a thing. Perhaps it is squaring-the-round that Jacob Lischer has tasked you to the length of a bar. Then POINT(s) : he has instructed you how to ‘draw’ the thickness down over the edge of the anvil … then snipping your attempt between hammer and hardy. And another and another. Matter and space are the limits. And you try to perfect the ‘point’. People are watching. You are the ‘apprentist in exhibit’ at expo 67.

And then you read some Euclid. “A POINT is that which hath no parts.”

Which is clearly demonstrated here as the place where the mass drops to zero .

And then,”A LINE is the distance between two points.” But what is the question?

21 Dec 1:00am

One can locate three-dimensional space, where a POINT is where three LINES meet.

Two-dimensional space, is a POINT is where two LINES meet, that is, intersect.

One-dimensional space, is where:”A LINE is the distance between two POINTS”.

EUCLIDEAN space says “A POINT is that which hath no PARTS.”

LET Euclid’s point be ZERO. (O)

AND, a line be ONE distance between TWO ends. (0=0) known as an IDENTITY or REFLECTIVE : A is A or (0=0)

AND, a POINT to be transitive is three-dimensional or where A = B = C ,

BUT, it quesions and answers itself in a meta-CUBE.

THE SYLLOGISM is transitive too … SO, the SYLLOGISM is meta-CUBIC .

META-CUBE . (“about” the thing) . steel wire . 2009
‘

2:00am …thinking takes time

Therefore the TERMs (A is A or B is B or C is C) are three Lines .

And the PROPOSITIONs (A is B) or (C is A) or (C is B) are “commutative” as in AB=BA etc. Here the Identities are in a synthetic relation.

AB = BA . steel . 1975 .

(why is this ‘flat’ , undifferentiated symbol a problem :

“MASS and SPACE” are the presence here. One cannot exist without the other. Both ‘speak’ to the other as figure is to ground. This relation is a simple binary . And , even as “a thing is itself”, the lesson ‘the thing’ gives us: its proximity is defined by its superficies : that is the limit of its boundary. If this is the occasion of discourse, the relations of “term” , “proposition” , and “syllogism” : ought to suggest a case of transference that cannot leap boundaries even as “equality” leaps to the other .

As Leibniz is inventing the “steel thinking machine” his demonstration of METHOD begins his Metaphysics .

As this argument is about form , its intentions is not the subject of sculpture but; just so, our attention to the physical domain brings possibility to the form. We are not looking for GOD as is Leibniz in
“Why is there not nothing?” But asserting the duality ‘something and nothing’.

“A thing is the meaning of an idea.” is symbolized by Boole and the symbol is 0=0 ; which is tautologic as is A is A. Boole in algebra says we only need use one side of this.

BUT: Sculpture is the structure of this shift !

Here A is A or 0=0 is logically a “term” , philosophically an Identity , geometrically a LINE , dimensionally , One-dimension : aka, the distance between two points without which, there is the POINT: “that which hath no parts,” Euclid.

There are two ways to look at Identity .

Let us assign the tautology….

Let us assign “something” and “nothing”.

[[[[……..]]]]

indicates the commuted , its articulation is limited by overlap that says 0 cannot be 1 . in two-dimension … in one-dimension 0=1

But the idea is the thing ; therefore two is one . And here 0 ‘at a distance’ = 1 ‘at the reciprocal distance’ . The idea which is no thing equals something is “the meaning” or ‘idea’.

BUT sculpture (in the three-dimensional physical domain) obeys the substance.

1st

“A LINE has two ends.”

Euler puts it another way … his DIJECT .
Euler’s Formula’ : 8 vertices + 6 sides – 12 lines = 2

PALEOLITHIC NUT CRACKER . stone (w. Paired dimples aka 4) . And therefore quadratic much as TWO SQUARED = 4 (therefore “flat” or meaning 2-dimensional – as is the commuted proposition)

And this much as the ‘key-hole’ is demonstrated in this flipped gestalt (pic). It circles around an imaginary point .

That we are calling a thing an idea: its presence real and its idea imaginary is proof that ideas are things.

Then the truism there is a place where all things are equal .

That we are calling a thing an idea: its presence real and its idea imaginary is proof that ideas are things.

But this ‘thing’ has two ends. And crucially space is not mass.

If we are asking if something is real ….? … our question has already equated what was essentially a balancing act.

CRACK HEAD . forged steel . 1994

The work is a combination of space and mass where the binary gestalts have been introduced by the meta-physics of geometry and logic .

BASIC SHAPES

Here Leibniz is demonstrating that : Aristotle’s , ‘the syllogism is transitive’ . Sculpture models its shape.

And compounds that revelation with possibilities, permutations and combinations . But art as sculpture brings the domains of figure, ground…space and mass … the self !

And again, this to “a thing is the meaning of an idea”. That the syllogism has three-dimensional aspects is in itself a revolution of concept and ought to be celebrated as a breakthrough. For it separates the ‘terms’ as single dimensions and then structures them in a commutative and then transitive gestalt. This links the idea to the thing which might associate to a better communication or wat!

2;30 am

The meta-square is inherently ‘perfect’ as an idea; but as a thing , it is an approach. The intriguing difference between reality and the imagination is not lost in function but ; embodied.

Contrary to our conventional, contemporary, and popular nomenclature, the imagination here is treated as classically absolute , coherent while reality is conditional . Where the imagination is inferred, the empirical proof is in its reciprocal reality.