RETROSPECTIVE

Hello,

This web log is my do-it-yourself, digital, mid-career retrospective. The following images represent the last fifteen years of my creative life. The work is not in chronological order but each grouping is dated and has other pertinent information alongside. The log is divided into months. Previous months can be accessed by clicking in the Archives. Click on the images to see larger versions. I hope you enjoy it.

Please check in from time to time as I will continue to put up new work as it becomes completed. If you have questions please get in touch.


jeff goll

HIDDEN ARCHIVES, LOST LIBRARIES

Here are just a few images of the first photography project I have pursued in over twenty years. All images taken in 2005

This is a found library buried in the roots of a tree near Penland North Carolina.

close up of an archive hidden in the roots of a tree int the mountains of north carolina.

parts of a lost library washed up onto an outer banks beach after a storm

lost library

hidden library found on edge of my driveway under monkeygrass 

4force, 12x12", patinas on copper, paper, found object, 1990

These are from a series of mostly two dimentional assemblages made with copper and found objects soon after I arrived in North Carolina.

no, 12x12", patinas on copper, steel, found object, 1990

three suns, 12x12", patinas on copper, 1990

el salvador, patinas and steel, 24x18", 1990

lure, 12x12" patinas on copper, steel, 1990

cargo, 12x12", patinas on copper, steel, 1990

float, 36x24", patina on copper, steel, 1990 

sail, 36x24", patinas on copper, steel,1990 

tongues, 12x12", patinas on copper, steel, 

windtown, 12x12", patinas on copper, 1990 

HUMANITIES EXPERIMENTS

Existential Dilemma Vacuum Tube, side view The following pieces are early prototypes of experimental machines designed to detect, measure, capture or store a variety of theorized energies not yet recognized by conventional science. Ironically, while many of these energies are held in conceptual esteem by the humanities and social sciences, these disciplines also do not contemplate the possibility of their physical existence. Examples of energies that are explored in experiments are the social contract, irony, existential anxiety, doubt, and romantic love.
Below is the rationale for the first image.

DILEMMA AVOIDANCE VACUUM TUBE

Instructions: The viewer reads the offered texts within the vacuum into the "vacuum
feedback loop microphone". After multiple readings, the collection crystal is worn or carried on the body to release and disperse metaphysical anxiety energy.

Theory: All human anxiety has its roots in the principle dilemma, "Is there meaning to human life and what is its nature?" This question is a priori unanswerable but this doesn't prevent humankind from burning mountains of time, energy, and creativity attempting to find an answer.
The DILEMMA AVAIDANCE VACUUM TUBE provides us a protective tool that inoculates humans from addiction to this question. Readings create a buildup and release dynamic whose energy imprint is transferred to the quartz collector. This energy is created by the "anxiety shear" instigated by the "release phase" at the end of the tube. This metaphysical anxiety release energy (MARE) can be measured in Mangstroms. Minute amounts of mangstroms are released through the tube and into the collector upon each reading. Depending on the metaphysical anxiety potential present in the individual reader, between 2 and 20 mangstroms are released and collected. Approximately 40,000 mangstroms or between three and five thousand readings will charge a two pound quartz crystal. When pulverized this charged powder will provide metaphysical anxiety protection to a family of four for approximately 20 years depending on level of anxiety present.

Prospects: By helping to alleviate the human addiction to meaning, the ADVT may be an invaluable pain reduction-pleasure enhancement tool. Tests are underway however to determine whether minimal levels of metaphysical anxiety are necessary for optimum human functionality.

Existential Dilemma Vacuum Tube, front view, detail

Vacuum Tube, detail 

Lab Table 

IRONY DETECTOR

Instructions: Place text element in filiment holder. Reader speaks text into ID microphone. Compare color tone of quartz crystal to color coated irony eggs.

Theory: Irony is present in the human brain and detectable in the human voice but not present in text per se. Authors may intend irony and readers may recieve it but in text form and without a human vector the irony is said to be in "latent" form. Though irony cannot as yet be measured directly in brain waves, the human voice can be measured for minute amounts through the detector's rational audio continuum system. Advances in this technology allow the instrument to detect textual irony even in the voice of an "innocent "reader, that is , one who is unaware of the irony embedded in the statement.

Prospects: While irony is far too unstable to be "captured" and stored, with this detection device the artist forsees the large scale testing of canonical and non-canonical texts for meanings as yet undiscovered by either traditional or even advanced deconstructive methods.

Irony Detector

Irony Detector, detail 

Doubt Amplifier 

Doubt Amplifier, detail 

SOCIAL FILIMENT REFRACTOR

Instructions: Read the filiment text within the bulb while viewing the prismascope. Detect which end of the color spectrum, red or violet, is more diffuse and which is more distinct.

Theory: The written word has the ability to strengthen or weaken the social contract at any particular moment in any particular society. The Social Filiment Refractor (SFR) measures the strength of this social positive/social negative energy by detecting nuanced changes in refracted light while particular texts are being viewed and comprehended. Specifically, when a viewed text is understood to weaken the social contract by a particualar reader, proximate refracted light tends to distort by blurring color boundaries at the red end of the color spectrum. Conversely, text understood to strengthen the social contract distorts the spectrum at the violet end. It is as yet unclear whether this distortion effect within the color spectrum creates a feedback loop to further strengthen or weaken the social contract within the reader. Also unclear is the mechanism by which social contract energy distorts refracted light rays. More study is underway.

Prospects: The SFR may be used to help explore the creative dynamic between the building and the dismantling of the social contract through time. It may also be useful as a creative censorship efficacy tool to help society keep its social contract dynamic within accepted parameters.

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Social Filiment Refractor

VOICE ACTIVATED LIMBIC RESONATOR

Instructions: In a firm voice, enunciate the full name of the first person with whom you were romantically in love. Observe crystal scope for changes in interior crystal pattern.

Theory: The so called "first love" experience serves as a template for all future relationships. Limbic response to memory of "first love" can be detected and measured through voice modality. Strong association will be amplified by the VALR and directed through the "moonstone" crystal. Increased pattern formation from a "neutral state" indicates strong limbic connections remain intact. Decrease in pattern formation (increased randomness) indicates weak or non-existent limbic connection.

Prospects: The VALR would be an invaluable tool for therapists in efforts to distinguish between embedded "root causes" and temporal "skill-based" deficiencies in relational disorders.

Voice Activated Limbic Resonator

experimental narrative setup 

Weight of the World, partial installation view,1992, The following large sculptures constitute an installation entitled THE HUMAN ARMADA, and include five component sculptures, the Weight of the World, Sacrarium, Library Font, Implement of Propaganda, and Mechanics of Faith. This intallation in various forms was exhibited at the Durham Arts Council, the North Carolina Museum of Art, Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, SC, Nexus in Atlanta, and Winthrop University. Overall the piece speaks to the nature of faith and how humans invented and deploy it.  

Weight of the World, partial installation view 

Weight of the World, partial installation view 

Weight of the World, detail