Paradoxical Duality of the Archetypal Labyrinth
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Transcript of Paradoxical Duality of the Archetypal Labyrinth
THE PARADOXICAL DUALITY OF THE ARCHETYPAL LABYRINTH
Idil Atesli
09/310
Design and Interaction
Context Tutor: Robert Hanks
The Cretan Labyrinth Myth | 3-4
What is a Labyrinth? | 4-5
Multicursal & Unicursal | 5-7
Interpretations | 8-9
Labyrinth as the Embodiment of Initiation | 9-10
Michael Ayrton and The Translucent Maze Sequence | 10-13
Jorge Luis Borges and The Garden of Forking Paths | 14-17
Conclusion | 17-18
Images | 18-19
Bibliography | 20-21
Modes of Design
The great King Minos of Crete was punished by the god of the seas, Poseidon, by
making Minos’ wife Pasiphae fall in love with a beautiful white bull and have an
illicit sexual affair with that wondrous creature. As a consequence, the monstrous
and miraculous being was born to Minos, from the womb of his wife. ‘Minotaur’
was his name and he was half animal, half human. He was the one and only son
of the king and the heir for the kingdom. But still, he was the unloved and shameful
bastard that had to disappear…or concealed.
Daedalus, the master builder of the time was asked to build ‘the Labyrinth’, an
architectural miracle. It was a container, a prison for the Minotaur; a hiding place,
and temple at the same time—a far-flung system of convoluted passages that led
to the midpoint, the den of the monster. (Jaskolsky, p. 17) The Labyrinth was
made in such way that the journey that is made inwards was inescapable, and the
way out was impossible to find.
Every nine years, king Minos fed the Minotaur with Athenian youths which were
sent to Crete to be sacrificed as tribute in atonement for the death of Androgeos,
the prince of Crete. At the time of the third tribute, one of the lots fell to
Theseus, the young and brave son of the king Aegeus of Athens. Along with his
companions, Theseus traveled to Crete to confront his destiny. But Ariadne, the
daughter of Minos, fell in love with Theseus and determined to save him from the
Labyrinth and the Minotaur. On the advice of Daedalus, Ariadne gave Theseus
a ball of yarn, which he tied to the entrance of the Labyrinth and unwound as he
followed the path through the centre. Using the sword that Ariadne provided for
him, Theseus overcame and slew the beast. On his way back, he rewound the ball
of yarn and retraced his steps through the exit, safely and unharmed.
Having gathered all other young Athenian victims and his lover Ariadne, Theseus
sailed back to Athens—his homeland. On their way, Theseus abandoned Ariadne
on the island of Naxos. Theseus and his companions landed on the isle of
Delos and celebrated the liberation from the Labyrinth and of the dominion of
Crete. They performed a ‘labyrinthine dance’, which imitated the windings of the
Labyrinth in a particular rhythm. After the ceremony, they resumed their journey
homeward.
When they were approaching the coast of Attica, they forgot to replace the black
sails on the ship for the white ones—as Theseus promised to his father king Aegeus,
if he escaped the labyrinth.—The black sails remained aloft and Aegeus who saw
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the ships, hurled himself into the sea because of his sorrow. Thus, Theseus became
his successor. From that time forth, the Athenians honored him as the founder of
their city-state.
“The labyrinth is an ancient symbol whose convoluted form,
found naturally in seashells, animals’ intestines, spider webs,
the meandering body of the serpent, the eddying of the
water, the internal structure of underground caves and the whirling
galaxies of space, has always been highly suggestive to the
imagination.” (The Book of Symbols, p. 714)
In Jungian terminology, the natural symbol originates from the content of
the collective unconscious, which is made up essentially of pre-existent
forms that have never been in consciousness, the archetypes. These natural
symbols can still be traced back to their archaic roots in the most ancient
records and in primitive societies. (Jung, 1968, p. 83)
Having a look to our past, we can see that no archetypes, no signs or
symbols which are purely consequences of human imagination. There is
always a point of reference, an inspiration in the nature. Just like any other
symbolic diagram, a labyrinth as a shape, has its roots deep inside in our
everyday life and environment. Jung also indicates that the archetypes
are patterns of instinctual behavior and that they are unconscious images.
Because of their form, labyrinths attracts human’s attention at first glance
by its visual appeal. A labyrinth motif on a manuscript or on the ground of
a church instantly draws the human eye. It wouldn’t be wrong if we say that
it’s hypnotic and acts like a magnet. It is to be supposed, therefore, that, for
the Primitive, the maze had a certain fascination comparable with the abyss,
the whirlpool and other phenomena. (Cirlot, p. 174)
A labyrinth as an architectural form has a round or a rectangular shape,
which makes sense only when viewed from above, from birds eye. It can
be also a graphic figure, a diagram. The lines are its walls and the negative
space between them is the path. The wall’s only function is to mark the path,
to define the fixed pattern of the movement. The path begins at the opening,
from the entrance on the exterior wall, and leads the walker/tracer to the
inner parts of the labyrinth by wending its way in a twisty and meandering
manner through the entire structure. Both unicursal classical types and
WHAT IS A LABYRINTH?
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the multicursal modern designs (mazes) can be explained with this brief
definition which outlines their common qualifications. But a labyrinth
(unicursal), in its true and original sense, differs from a maze (multicursal)
with a crucial characteristic: it’s path is not intersected by other paths and
the path eventually terminates in the centre, which is the only dead end.
“The essentially dual, paradoxical nature of the labyrinth is both
circular and linear, simple and complex, historical and temporal.
Contained within a compact space, a long and difficult path
constantly doubles back on itself, leading circuitously to a
mysterious and invisible centre. From within, the view is extremely
restricted and confusing, while from above one discovers a supreme
artistry and order. Thus the labyrinth simultaneously incorporates
confusion and clarity, multiplicity and unity, imprisonment and
liberation, chaos and order.” (Doob, p.p. 1-8)
The very first paradoxical duality of the labyrinth lies beneath the formal
conflict between the multicursal and the unicursal models. The multicursal
one is generally assumed by literature whereas the unicursal is affirmed by
the visual arts. Mostly, ancient labyrinths are diagrammatic, which means
that they are two-dimensional and they show the pattern as viewed from
above. The architectural labyrinths provides a lot more different experience.
A walker is disabled to use his vision to trace a path ahead since it is
fragmented by high walls that curve. Whereas, a viewer who sees the
diagram as a whole pattern from above, doesn’t suffer from any confusion
since the path (lines and curves) is in front of his eyes without any complex
problem to solve. The shape is clear and it is inevitable that the viewer gets
thrilled by its artistry. (Doob, p. 1) The chaos within the labyrinth turns into
order when viewed from above. From a walker’s perspective, the labyrinth
is dynamic since the subject is mobile and the surroundings change as he
moves. The path he is walking on is nothing but a linear form that meanders.
From a viewer’s perspective, the labyrinth is static and the pattern he
observes from above is nothing more than a diagram.
The multicursal designs are mostly described in literature, as an
architectural structure. They are derived from literary traditions. That
is a very complex structure with numerous winding and false paths and
chambers, in which it is easy to get lost, since the term itself suggests that
MULTICURSAL & UNICURSAL
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this kind of labyrinth offers choices between the paths. The success depends
on choosing the right path and making correct choices as you go along
the labyrinth. The movement characteristic is episodic; each fork in the
path makes the wanderer pause and requires a moment for a decision. The
direction of the movement changes continuously. That is the reason why a
multicursal labyrinth is a symbol of intellectual and moral difficulty, since
the maze wanderer may lose its confidence, get confused, retrace his steps,
and gets frustrated. Without a guide, the walker cannot tell if the path he has
taken is the right way until reaching that path’s end. In fact, he has actually
no idea if the labyrinth he’s in has even an end or a centre. It is possible
to get imprisoned in the labyrinth if the walker can not find a solution (an
exit or a centre). The survival from the labyrinth doesn’t only depend on
the intelligence or memory of the wanderer, but also on guidance. That
guidance is Ariadne’s thread, which guides and give instructions or advice to
the wanderer all along the way of searching the exit/centre.
The experience of the multicursal mazes provokes the idea of the power
of the individual and its freewill compared to the unicursal labyrinth’s
single path. It emphasizes the individual’s responsibility for his own fate.
They exemplify the constant need of choice demanded of the individual.
Having chosen the misleading paths to dead ends are the consequences of
judgmental errors or failures of memory and concentration. So the survival
from the labyrinth is at the individual’s hands only.
On the other hand, unicursal labyrinths are diagrammatic; which have a
single path that meanders its way to the centre and back out. In the centre
of the unicursal labyrinthine pattern, the figure of swastika adds to the basic
symbolism a suggestion of rotating, generating and unifying motion. (Cirlot,
p. 173) The maze walker simply follows the path without running across
any intersection point of two or more pathways. The movement inside an
unicursal labyrinth is continuous. The wanderer pauses only because if he
is exhausted because of the unending path that lies behind and front, not
because the need of a decision between the paths to choose from. Another
characteristic of the movement is that the path continuously reverses its
orientation and leads the wanderer to its centre from the most circuitous
way possible. The visitor, repeatedly passes the centre. By moving back and
forth in continual switchbacks, the path inevitably leads the individual to the
centre, and out again. There is only one path and it is also the only way back
to the entrance. The aim of an unicursal design is to fill the labyrinthine
space with the path in a longest possible fashion to get to the centre, and
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that requires curves that turn 180 degree and fold on themselves. Unicursal
labyrinths vary from simple structures to more complicated ones. A simple
structure has only one axis around the centre, which the path curves around
it continually. A more complicated labyrinth is divided into four or more
segments by axes, which requires the wanderer to pass each segment
sequentially.
The essence of the unicursal labyrinth experience is confusion and
frustration, which is similar to the multicursal labyrinth. But, there is a
significant and important difference between them. The reason of the
confusion in an unicursal design is the subsistent disorientation which
is the result of going back and forth, rather than the need of choice as
in the multicursal labyrinths. Penelope Reed Doob draws attention to a
very vital point that the frustration of the individual inside an unicursal
labyrinth is towards the structure and its architect rather than toward the
individual’s own incapacities (failure of the memory, lack of intelligence,
judgmental errors, etc.). When there is nothing concrete on the path that
requires the walker to operate his individual deciding mechanism, and
when that individual fails emotionally or physically, the walker seeks for
something/someone to blame—other than himself. Because the individual’s
responsibility of his own fate isn’t required since he is enforced to be
dependent on the maze-maker who has already plotted the labyrinth. There
is no way of going astray, but only one path with one direction: to the centre.
The danger in these kind of labyrinths is that, along the way, the individual
would lose his hope even though there is no danger of getting lost. This
nerve tickling experience to walk in a path which seems endless and
probably goes along until eternity, drags the walker in an illusion that there
might even not be a goal or centre. Or if there is, he might not want to reach
it. The despair makes the individual unable to act and leaves him immobile.
It would be wrong if we say that the unicursal labyrinth put no choice in
front of the individual. Actually, the sole and only decisive moment is when
the individual has to choose whether he enters the labyrinth or not. Unlike
in multicursal designs, this initial choice, whether to enter in the first place
or not, has a strong impact in unicursal labyrinths since this choice is crucial
to the walker, whereas it is less important in a multicursal labyrinth where all
other choices diminishes the importance of the first choice. (Doob, p. 50)
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The formal duality of the two different labyrinth designs also gives birth
to other paradoxes that exist in the interpretation of the metaphorical
labyrinths.
“Now the Labyrinth, that most enigmatic of all places, is a prison
and a sheltering, protective cave (for the Minotaur) at the same
time—an interior space that opens to the external world but
also shuts it out.” (Jaskolski, p. 45)
A labyrinth, even in its true sense, cannot escape from being interpreted as
both a prison and a shelter at the same time. The paradoxes are embedded
even in the original myth of the labyrinth. Some believe that the labyrinths
have been conceived with the purpose of imprisoning luring devils into
them so that they might never escape. On the other hand, Mircea Eliade,
a historian of religion, notes that the essential mission of the maze was to
defend the centre—that it was, in fact, an initiation into sanctity, immortality
and absolute reality. (Cirlot, p.p. 173-5)
Even though there’s only a single structure in question, it incorporates
dualities within itself. Its form suggest that it is a static figure but the
journey it indicates is dynamic since there is a sense of movement in a
space. Again, its complex structure eventually leads the wanderer into a
simple and tranquil state of mind, in which the subject reaches a point of
enlightenment. During the process, the confusion which was affected by
constant disorientation yields to clarity and awareness in the centre or
when reached out of the labyrinth. A perception of self-imprisonment in that
torturing situation is necessary in order to being able to liberate yourself
from it. It is simply an imitation of life itself in so many dimensions. It can
imitate a journey of life of an adolescent into his maturity, in which he
encounters several rise and falls on his way; equally it can be a symbolic
substitute for a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by a fellow Christian. Places
of pilgrimage are points of concentration and self-contemplation for a
Christian’s soul. It is well accepted as a symbol of the perplexities and
intricacies which beset the Christian’s path. (Matthews, p.p. 66-7) In this
interpretation, the labyrinth becomes the symbolic representation of the
world, and that Jesus Christ is situated in the middle of it; in its centre,
and this suggests the rough and the relentless life journey of the individual
whose goal is to reach God and Christ. (Jaskolski, p. 68) So it makes perfect
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sense when we compare these interpretations and draw a conclusion that
the individual inside the labyrinth is on a spiritual journey, a journey that will
take him to a better condition no matter how difficult and challenging it is.
A labyrinth or a maze, as a structure or a pattern, is also highly related to
heavens and the celestial. They both allude to the same idea of ‘the loss of
spirit in the process of creation and the consequent need to seek out the
way back to the spirit’. (Cirlot, p. 174) The whirling path of the labyrinth
indicates the symbolic passageway from the visible realm of the human into
the invisible dimension of the divine. The unicursal labyrinth imitates that
idea by making the being losing his spirit on the way into its centre in the
creation process. Once the being is in the centre and on the way back to the
entrance/exit, it’s now time to find the spirit and gain it back. This is also
very similar to the idea that labyrinths are meaningful symbols of birth, not
of the physical process, but of psychic birth. (Jaskolski, p. 46) The labyrinth
is embodied as if it is a spiritual entrance into the world. By completing it
successfully, the subject becomes self-realized and emancipated; liberated
from his dependencies.
“The paradoxical duality of the labyrinth reflects the psycho
therapeutic purpose of groping one’s way through suffering,
darkness and confusion, with the aim of building a capacity
for greater insight and perspective, thus enlarging the personality.
On the journey through the labyrinth, once the centre/goal has
been reached, the way back will always be utterly new.” (The Book
of Symbols, p. 714)
A labyrinth as an architectonic structure,—an interior space—has an
external wall that surrounds it—and isolates it from its surroundings—
has only one entrance. The interior space from outside appears to be
very complicated and difficult to proceed at a first glance. In fact, just to
undertake to step into a labyrinth requires a high level of maturity and
understanding for the walker.
Once the walker enters the labyrinth, the torture of the path all along to its
centre begins. The interior of the labyrinth is full of twists and turns, which
is a great loss of time and physical energy for the wanderer. The experience
during the wandering is quite frustrating: Repeatedly, there is this feeling of
LABYRINTH AS THE EMBODIMENT OF INITIATION
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approaching to the centre/goal, but in each attempt, another turn leads the
wanderer away from it. The purpose of the labyrinth’s frequent inclusion in
initiatory rites is to temporarily disturb consciousness to the point that the
individual becomes confused and symbolically loses his way, or his rational
and linear frame of orientation. The psychological stress of the journey is
the part of the experience. But, those who still can stay sane will reach the
goal, inevitably.
When the subject is in the centre, all alone and totally isolated from the
outer space, he encounters a divine principle. (Kern, p. 30) This is where the
subject has the opportunity to discover something... Something that makes
the walker turn 180 degree and change its direction in order to return all the
way back. This signifies distancing oneself from one’s past, but not giving
up on one’s previous existence. It is a new beginning. The person is not the
same anymore, but has been born again into a new phase of existence. The
centre of the labyrinth is where death and rebirth occur, which symbolizes
the transition into a higher level of existence, and of initiation. Death, as a
symbol in rituals, means the end of one’s life up to that point. A new form of
existence has generated by death.
Michael Ayrton (1921-1975) was a British sculptor, painter, author,
filmmaker, and maze designer who got his inspiration from the myth of the
archetypal craftsman Daedalus, who is also the father of Icarus and maker
of the labyrinth that imprisoned the Minotaur. Ayrton had produced over 800
works which highlighted the interaction between myth and artistic creativity.
Through the years of dedicated research on this particular myth, Ayrton
revealed a complex story of imprisonment and liberation, ingenuity and
creativity, success and failure. He also bore this story as if it was his own
journey through his life, and he identified himself both with Daedalus, the
skillful craftsman, and the Minotaur, the inhabitant beast of the labyrinth
which is hidden within himself. Inevitably, he mined the classical myth of
Daedalus and Icarus, and he enriched it by his own words and images. He
contributed to the interpretation of this myth by extending the metaphors
that the myth bears.
Particularly in his sculptures, he used a variety of materials from bronze
to copper; mirrors to Perspex. Perspex is a slightly tinted plastic and its
characteristic is that it can be translucent and opaque simultaneously, similar
MICHAEL AYRTON AND THE TRANSLUCENT MAZE SEQUENCE
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to part-reflecting and part-transmitting mirrors. So that the sculptures
made by using it creates reflections and permits to see through at the
same time. Ayrton produced a series of sculptures named The Translucent
Maze Sequence that extended the metaphor of the maze by means of
this material’s qualities. Ayrton indicated that these sculpture-images are
deliberately ambiguous in that they depend upon solid forms related to
one another by illusion. (Nyenhuis, 2003 p. 158) Each and every piece of
the series reveal numerous human faces or figures either completed or
duplicated by the means of their own reflection.
Each sculpture is made to make the viewer explore the labyrinth of his own
mind. These sculptures are not necessarily the true representations of a
maze or a labyrinth since they do not chart a journey in front of the viewer’s
eyes. Instead, by letting the viewer see the conjunction of both the concrete
and the abstract, they reveal the state of mind of already being in a labyrinth
by holding up a mirror to the viewer’s life.
In a public lecture, Journey Through a Labyrinth, delivered in Detroit in
October 1972, Ayrton summarized his views on the metaphor of the
labyrinth and its significance for his art. These excerpts cast further
illumination on his work:
“…Consider that the maze (the labyrinth) as a thing (an object), a
diagram. One of its ancient functions was . . . to imprison or
hide away a secret. . . . It was also contrived to protect. . . . At
one level it is a toy, or a convention, or even a game. . . But the
maze is more than that—more profound and even older in its
importance as a metaphor. It is an image, a contrivance whereby
mankind can identify himself, and come to terms with his
environment.” (Nyenhuis, 2003, p. 163)
His persistence in using reflecting materials such as mirrors, is expounded in
those sentences. The experience of walking or tracing a labyrinth is similar
to holding a mirror to ourselves. The mirror has the power of reflecting a
separate spirit from the viewer’s own, since the reflection in the looking-
glass is not as it really is, but in reverse. This phenomenon may suggest a
journey by reflecting the image, but it doesn’t give any instruction of the
destination of that journey. It is up to the viewer to interpret what he sees in
that mirror and to choose his fate.
The first work in the Translucent Maze Sequence is entitled Reflex I. Viewed
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from the front, along the perspex, the sculpture appears simple; there is
one half of a split head facing the viewer, a profile of another head on
the background, and a figure reaching out of the image. But when the
viewpoint changes, or the sculpture is turned around its axis, the perspex
acts its part and lets the light interplay with the translucent/opaque surface.
It both reflects from the surface and reveal what is behind the inter-face.
Consequently, the profile face duplicates itself and reminds us Janus, the
two-faced Roman god of beginnings and transitions, who looks to the future
and to the past at the same time. If turned farther, the head plays the role of
the mask which evokes the Mask of Agamemnon. Lastly, the viewer also sees
his own reflection in the mirror—with a twist. He discovers that his features
are obscure and ambiguous in the reflection. This vision of self represents
the imprecision of the human existence, along with the doubtfulness
when confronted with an entanglement. With a further turn, the half head
completes itself in the mirror symmetrically. An illusion of wholeness appears
for the viewer; half concrete, half discrete.
To fully understand these three-dimensional visuals of Michael Ayrton, it is
a must that the subject turns around the sculptures or rotate the sculpture
around its axis. Either way, the crucial point is the movement; the constant
change of the point of view by meandering around the central object.
The experience of exploring different aspects of a single union of forms
occurs in sequential change of position. Richard Gregory, professor of
neuropsychology, affirms that by using this reflective/translucent material,
Ayrton’s sculptures allow two worlds of reality and illusion to combine to
give a synthesis unique to each observer’s position in space. (Ayrton, 1973
p. 38) What appears complete from one specific spot is not from another.
So, the viewer may not see a head or a complete figure in the hollow
interior of a bisected head, until he changes his position in relation to the
sculpture. These sequential experiences exist in a loop. The pattern can be
repeated, but still, it doesn’t mean that the viewer would always perceive and
experience the same thing. Instead, by altering the lighting or changing the
line of vision, the sculpture may let the viewer discover different meanings
and evoke different emotional responses each time.
The use of bronze half heads and the interplay with the reflective surface is
repeated in other sculptures of this type. There is a functional purpose of
the images of physically bisected human bodies and heads. They represent
the spiritual and intellectual dissection. They hide yet another form or an
object inside their physical interior, or behind their uninhabited space.
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“The modern labyrinth is a realm of the mind where an
irremediable divorce has separated two worlds—the visible and the
invisible. This broken bond has condemned us to a definitive exile.”
(Conty, p. 10)
All his reflector sculptures are, in a sense, labyrinths. They attract and
absorb their viewers; play with them, deceive or guide by exposing both
reality and illusory images. These reflected images replicated by the mirror
reminds us the dual nature of the humankind: mortality on the one side, and
divinity on the other. Some other sculptures of Ayrton, in which there is a
representation of the Minotaur, the duality involves humanity and bestiality.
This also makes sense since we all accept that there is a monstrous being
inhabiting within ourselves and that we occasionally confront it.
“Modern man can identify himself with Daedalus: He admires
a cunning craftsman who advocates artificial intelligence
and genetic engineering, but who seems little concerned
with assuming responsibility for his inventions. He can identify
himself with the Minotaur, ... but much less so with Theseus
...” (Conty, p. 9)
In one of Ayrton’s work, which is called Personal Janus, he paired his own
portrait with the Minotaur’s. He had identified himself as Daedalus, as the
maker of the labyrinth, whereas, he also considered himself as the prisoner
of his own making at the same time. He combined these two powerful
images to conceive a representation of the paradoxical nature of the human
existence. Both two faces constitutes a whole and they are part of one
another.
The following citation is from the tractate On the Dignity of Men, which is
written by Giovanni Pico della Mirandola. He puts forth a self-view of the
autonomous subject in the words God says to Adam:
“We created you neither as a heavenly nor an earthly being, neither
as a mortal nor an immortal, so that you, as the perfectly free
honorary sculptor and poet of yourself, may determine your own
form in which you wish to live. You are free to degenerate into the
world of beasts. You are equally free to elevate yourself into the
higher world of the divine through the resolve of your own mind.”
(Jaskolsky, p. 87)
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Jorge Luis Borges (1899-1986) was an Argentine writer, essayist, poet, critic
and translator born in Buenos Aires. Until abut 1930 his main medium
was poetry in which he evoked the atmosphere of old Buenos Aires or
addressed to the themes of death, love and the self. (Borges, p. xiv) He then
abandoned poetry and turned to the short narrative genre.
His finest creations are Ficciones (1944) and El Aleph (1949), which are
compilations of his short stories. Throughout the books, the common
themes are labyrinths, time, infinity, dreams, libraries, mirrors, religion and
‘God’. His fictions are always concerned with the process of striving which
lead to discovery and insight. (Borges, p. xvi). Like being in a soul-torturing
labyrinth, these processes are always disconcerting and devastating.
“Borges once claimed that the basic devices of all fantastic literature
are only four in number: the work within the work, the
contamination of reality by dream, the voyage in time, and ‘the
double’.” (Borges, p. xvi)
These paradoxical and ambiguous nature of the world, of life, of knowledge,
of time and of the self constitute his essential themes. Along with being a
theme, they are also his essential techniques of constructing the narrative.
That’s why the reader often finds himself losing track of the distinction
between the form and the content of his stories. Unconsciously the fictional
environment is inserted cunningly into the reader’s.
In his stories, there are so many unexpected turns that the reader cannot
predict what comes next. James E. Irby indicates that Borges uses mystery
and the surprise effect in literature to achieve the sacred astonishment at the
universe which is the origin of all true religion and metaphysics. He mixed
the real and the fantastic in his stories: fact is united with fiction. With this
union of contrasts, the reader of Borges’ stories is relocated into another
dimension where the real and the unreal are the complementary aspects
of the same whole thing. The book becomes the world and it is filled with
labyrinthine enigmas designed to be understood and participated in by the
reader. (Borges, p. xvii)
Here is the brief summary of Borges’ one of the short stories, The Garden
of Forking Paths:
JORGE LUIS BORGES AND THE GARDEN OF FORKING PATHS
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Dr. Yu Tsun in a former professor of English at a German university in China, who
also is a spy for the German Empire during the war. His mission is to convey the
name of the town where the British are hiding an artillery unit. Yu Tsun manages
to find a random man with the same name as the town where the artillery park
is located. His plan is to murder that man so that the name Dr. Stephen Albert
would appear in the newspaper headlines which his German chief avidly reads.
Unfortunately but ironically, Yu Tsun’s victim turns out to be a connoisseur of
Chinese culture and literature. Furthermore, Albert had reconstructed a text called
‘The Garden of Forking Paths’, which is written by Yu Tsun’s ancestor, Ts’ui
Pen. Yu Tsun finds out these curious coincidences just minutes before he murders
Dr. Stephen Albert. At the end of the story, Tsun gets arrested and waits for his
execution while he is dictating the account of his experiences.
Early in the story, when Tsun has managed to access the information and
trying to figure out what he should do to convey it to the German, he
thinks: “…everything happens to a man precisely, precisely now. Centuries
and centuries and only in the present do things happen.” (Borges, p. 20) He
remarks that every action he takes occurs in the present and that is the only
aspect of time he can use to manipulate either the past or the future.
After he finds Albert, who is the only man who could help him out to
accomplish his mission, he thinks of: “…a maze of mazes, of one sinuous
spreading labyrinth that would encompass the past and the future and in
some way involve the stars.” (Borges, p. 23) Here, Tsun perceives time as all
expanding and infinite. Compared to a maze, he describes how there are
multiple paths that a single person can take, and how that certain path the
person chooses leads in turn to another set of decision. The phrase ‘maze
of mazes’ symbolizes how the time expands to every direction in space, not
just to past and to future on a flat plane. He convinces himself that there are
multiple realities that play themselves out simultaneously, even he doesn’t
choose to follow them. Whatever Tsun chooses to do in this particular maze,
there are always other ‘Tsuns’ and ‘Alberts’ out there in other mazes that
make different decisions.
During the conversation between Tsun and Albert, Tsun’s symbolic image
of the labyrinth extends further. By coincidence, Albert possesses the lost
novel written by Tsun’s grandfather Ts’ui Pen, which also has the same title
as the story. This novel is also filled with this idea of different decisions
made in the infinite time spectrum in which all of human beings live and
have their own mazes. The novel was written in such a distinctive way
15
that the reader can jump around from chapter to chapter and still can be
carried away with the remaining flow of the story even though the structure
of the story as a whole is extremely disordered and incoherent. “…The
confusion of the novel suggested that it was the maze.” (Borges, p. 25) From
Pen’s perspective, this structure-content relationship is the symbolization
of how every single person’s decisions lead to even more decisions, and
how each choice leads one person to a specific path. Being different from
a basic fictional work in which the man chooses one path among all other
alternatives and eliminates the other, Ts’ui Pen’s inextricable novel allows the
man to choose all of the possible routes simultaneously without eliminating
any probability. Pen’s novel, as a symbolic representation of that infinite and
multi-pathed maze, is constituted of as many paths as possible to be pursued
so that the reader is engulfed in diverse futures and times which eventually
multiply and fork in itself.
Albert continues to the conversation with these phrases: “…for example,
you arrive at this house, but in one of the possible pasts you are my enemy,
in another, my friend.” (Borges, p. 26)
The novel The Garden of Forking Paths gives the idea of how fictional
realms with infinite possibilities are interpenetrated those men’s lives. The
reader begins to figure out that individual decisions are pointless since
there is already an image of a cosmos, a universe in which all decisions have
already been envisioned and been set forth. “The Garden of Forking Paths is
an incomplete, but not false, image of the universe as Ts’ui Pen conceived
it.” (Borges, p. 28) So, when Tsun chooses the path to kill Albert in which
they are enemies, he chooses only one sub-maze to pursue where Albert no
longer lives.
In the last paragraph of the story, after being captured and sentenced to
death, Tsun says: “The rest is unreal, insignificant.” (Borges, p. 29) At that
point, it doesn’t seem to matter if there is an infinite amount of alternative
realties in one of which Albert and Tsun are still both alive and be friends.
When Tsun dies eventually, he then will be dead only in that particular
reality, in that dimension of time. Tsun sees that the ‘time’ expands all
over the space in every possible direction and that a single man’s acts and
choices seem insignificant in an expansively broad labyrinth—of time.
The Garden of Forking Paths is one of Borges’ most fascinating works
which presents the idea of ‘forking paths’ through complex and entangled
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networks of time. These numerous networks remind us of labyrinths/mazes,
if they are perceived visually. He uses the maze as an enigma to outline the
notion of time. These ‘labyrinths’ have equal chances to be selected, but
obviously, they do not possess the same essence, since they all lead us to
different situations or separate endings. Borges uses the image of a labyrinth
very cleverly in this particular story. Recurrently, the metaphorical labyrinth
folds back upon itself, so the reader gains a chance to distinguish all the
other possible choices that he can make. By doing so, the story itself charts
a detailed map, pulls up the reader to a higher point and converts it into a
viewer—a viewer who can see from the birds eye and is enlightened by what
he comprehends. Just like viewing a labyrinth from above and get fascinated
by how this chaotic prison converts into a complex—but ordered piece of
artistry,
As a visual artist, it is not surprising that Michael Ayrton was interested
particularly in the classical diagrammatic form of the labyrinths: the
unicursal labyrinth. He was withdrawn by the myth of Minotaur and
Daedalus, and expressed himself by addressing to ‘double personality’
which completes each other, the paradox of reality and illusion,
transparency and reflection, the tangible and the abstract. In his series The
Translucent Maze Sequence, Ayrton managed to exploit the essence of a
labyrinth by not even using an image of an actual one, but interpreting it by
gathering translucent and reflective surfaces with concrete forms. The artist
used the concept of labyrinth as an image whereby mankind can identify
himself, by making the viewer look at his own reflection and recognize the
illusion, the reflection and the invisible which constitute the other half of our
being. This is the example of the integrative characteristic of a labyrinth.
The journey terminates with a reward of self-discovery and self-realization.
Whereas, Jorge Luis Borges applies a different method to reveal another
aspect of a labyrinth in his short story The Garden of Forking Paths. By using
the metaphor of the forking paths of the multicursal maze, he puts forth
the importance of the realization of the insignificance of the choices the
individual makes compared to the broad labyrinth of time where different
realities lie and that those alternative realities have the same possibility to
be ‘the present’. The ‘perspective-dependent’ paradox of order and chaos
also applies in Borges’ work since this type of narrative possesses the
power of charting the paths and laying out all the possibilities and that
CONCLUSION
17
both in the story and in real life, the person is forced to think twice about
the ‘significance’ of the choices he makes: Do they really matter? The chaos,
which is derived from the stress of the ambiguity and indetermination
between the choices, leaves its place to order and determinacy. This should
feel like zooming out from the so-called visual representation of every
possible realities that could have and can come true and view that chart
from above. It is inevitable that the reader would overlook and master
this ‘cosmos of times’ by simply perceiving it as a ‘diagram’, not as an
inextricable and incarcerating ‘enigma’. Both The Translucent Maze Sequence
and The Garden of Forking Paths are deliberately designed to interpret chaos
by their ‘makers’. Ayrton and Borges, they are both ‘the architect’ of ‘the
Labyrinth’ of their own interpretation and ‘the Beast’ that is imprisoned in it.
IMAGES
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A Unicursal Labyrinth (Cretan Type) Figure of Swastika
Multicursal Labyrinth (Maze) Unicursal Labyrinth (Chartres Cathedral)
Arkville Maze, NY Arkville Maze, NY (corridor view)
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Ayrton’s Reflex I (from the front) Ayrton’s Reflex I (sideways)
Ayrton’s Personal JanusMichael Ayrton
Jorge Luis Borges
Roman God Janus The Mask of Agamemnon
Borges’ Labyrinths Book Cover
Eliade, Mircea (1961) Images and Symbols: Studies in Religious Symbolism.
London: Harvill Press
Jung, C. G. (1968) Approaching the Unconscious. In C. G. Jung (Ed.), Man and His
Symbols. New York: Bantam
Matthews, William H. (1970) Mazes and Labyrinths: Their History and
Development. New York: Dover Publications
Cirlot, J. E. (1971) A Dictionary of Symbols. (Second edition) London: Routledge
& Kegan Paul
Ayrton, Michael (1973) Michael Ayrton: Maze and Minotaur. Portsmouth: City Art
Gallery
Wosien, Maria-Gabriele (1974) Sacred Dance: Encounter with the Gods. London:
Thames and Hudson
Eliade, Mircea (1983) Patterns in Comparative Religion. London: Sheed and Ward
Adcock, Carol Pracna (1984) Geometric Maze Designs. U.S: Stemmer House
Doob, Penelope Reed (1990) The Idea of the Labyrinth from Classical Antiquity
Through the Middle Ages. London: Cornell.
Liungman, Carl G. (1991) Dictionary of Symbols. New York: W. W. Norton
Fisher, Adrian and Gerster, Georg (1992) The Art of the Maze. Weidenfeld &
Nicolson
Artress, Lauren (1996) Walking a Sacred Path. U.S.: Riverhead Books
Jaskolski, Helmut (1997) The Labyrinth: Symbol of Fear, Rebirth and Liberation.
Shambala Publications
Jean, Georges (1998) Signs, Symbols and Ciphers: Decoding the Message. London:
Thames and Hudson – New Horizons
Stevens, Anthony (1998) Ariadne’s Clue: A guide to the Symbols of Humankind.
The Penguin Press
Kern, Hermann (2000) Through the Labyrinth. Prestel
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Wright, Craig (2001) The Maze and the Warrior: Symbols in Architecture, Theology
and Music. London: Harvard.
Nyenhuis, Jacob E. (2003) Myth and the Creative Process: Michael Ayrton and
the Myth of Daedalus, the Maze Maker. Detroit: Wayne State University Press
Conty, Patrick (2003) The Genesis and Geometry of the Labyrinth: Architecture,
Hidden Language, Myths and Rituals. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions
Saward, Jeff (2003) Labyrinths and Mazes of the World: A Definitive Guide to
Ancient and Modern Traditions. London: Gaia.
McCullough, David W. (2004) The Unending Mystery: A Journey Through
Labyrinths and Mazes. New York: Anchor
Francisco, Janice (2006) A Creative Walker’s Guide to the Labyrinth: An Approach
for Beginners. Ottawa: BridgePoint Effect.
Borges, Jorge Luis (2007) Labyrinths: Selected Stories & Other Writings; edited by
Donald A. Yates & James E. Irby; with an invitation by William Gibson. New
York: New Directions
Wilkinson, Kathryn (project editor) (2008) Signs & Symbols: An Illustrated Guide
to Their Origins and Meanings. London: Dorling Kindersley
Ronnberg, Ami & Martin, Kathleen (2010) The Book of Symbols: Reflections on
Archetypal Images. London: Taschen.
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22
MODES OF DESIGN
The A3 archival box compensates the book form instead of acting as just a
container. When the box is opened, four different volumes of A5 booklets
greet the reader. The first one on the top left, is where the ‘reading journey’
starts. That booklet includes the main title, the table of contents and first
five sections of my essay.
It is followed by the second booklet on the top right side, which includes
only one section: ‘Michael Ayrton and The Translucent Maze Sequence’.
That one is especially designed to imitate the experience of viewing one
of Ayrton’s sculptures from the series. The booklet is three-dimensional, it
incorporates reflective and transparent papers that mimic the quality of the
materials that the artist uses and it is ring-bound. Different from an ordinary
page layout, the text on one side of the page, doesn’t flow to the bottom
row, but instead it continues to the verso. I tried to emphasize here, the
discomfort and frustration caused by constantly turning over the same paper
to read one page. A meandering fashion of reading is achieved, which is
also imitates being in a unicursal labyrinth and pursuing its curling path. The
doubled back papers signifies the number two; the duality and the paradoxes
that it suggests. From one single sheet, two pages were generated; they are
parts of a whole, but they face different directions.
The third volume to follow is about ‘Jorge Luis Borges and The Garden of
Forking Paths’. Since the short story that I examined is concerned of the
nature of reality and the notion of time as a structure of infinite possibilities,
my design solution for this volume was to create a game-like experience
of reading which depends highly on the interaction with the reader. Along
with my actual piece of writing, I included 3 other short stories of Jorge
Luis Borges in the volume. Each paragraph of each narrative takes part on
different pages and that makes 42 of them. The pages are not bound and
they resemble playing cards. There seems to be no aligning between the
pages since all the parts of four narratives are dissected into multiple pages.
That means there are ‘mazes in mazes’ to be solved. First, the reader should
comprehend the different mazes within one big maze that environs them.
This can be achieved by following the hints that are shown on the charts
which are situated on the bottom of each page. These charts indicate the
exact position of each page on a fictional plane and the groupings of each
narrative in relation to the others. When they are all placed, the reader
steps out of the intricacy and the confusion. Placing all 42 pages on a
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surface demands a broad space and that transforms the reader into a viewer.
Perceiving a universe of narratives that exist in simultaneity, the choice of
which narrative to be pursued is left to the reader. Since the problem of
‘which paragraphs belong to the same narrative’ is solved, it is time to find
out ‘the alignment of the paragraphs’ that generates one specific narrative.
The charts act as Ariadne’s thread, which helps the reader to find its way
through an inextricable labyrinth of paragraphs. But the intellectual strength
also plays a major role on finding the right paragraph that follows the
previous one.
Lastly, the fourth volume on the bottom right corner of the box is allocated
for the last four chapters that constitutes the essay. There is ‘conclusion’,
‘images’, ‘bibliography’ and finally the ‘modes of design’.
I kept the typography simple since I was very experimental on the form of
the big book and the booklets that it contains. Throughout the whole text
the only typeface I used is Amasis MT Light for the body and Medium for
the titles. I kept both the size of the paper and the type the same since they
suggest a noticeable flow between the different volumes.
I have to add that, during the writing process, I also paid attention to the
construction of the essay so that it also can imitate the repetitive fashion
of progression of a labyrinth. I believe that a piece of writing should also
carry some elements of design in it. I hardly see any difference between
a beautifully designed visual and a story/narrative that is constructed in
relation to its content/context. So, I emphasized some vital concepts by
repeating them, but in different contexts or chapters. That brought an
interesting flow (back and forth) to the experience of reading which mirrors
the experience of walking in a maze, trying to search for an exit.