OuScuPo: Ouvroir de Sculpture Potentielle

Posted: June 24, 2011 | Project: "OuScuPo" (Ouvroir de Sculpture Potentielle) | Tags: Ambigrams, OuScuPo, Ouvroir de Sculpture Potentielle, Paris |

 

OuScuPo (Ouvroir de Sculpture Potentielle) is the title of a new series of sculptures to be exhibited at Musée d’Art contemporain du Val-de-Marne MAC/VAL. This show is a new development in a series of works I started in 2007 called Ambigrams. The title of the show refers to OuLiPo  (Ouvroir de Littérature Potentielle) a movement founded in 1960 in France by writers and mathematicians leaded by Raymond Queneau and Georges Perec.

OuLiPo used constrained writing techniques such as lipograms, anagrams, heterograms, palindromes, and other techniques often based on mathematical problems, chessboard games and permutations. One of the central elements of OuLiPo was the use of computers for the creation of texts, such as the notable book “10¹⁴ Poèmes – “Cent Mille Milliards de poèmes” by Raymond Queneau.

In the same tradition I asked the museum to help me find a software designer and happily this lead to a great collaboration with artist, designer and programmer Jerome this show I worked with a software programmer Jerome Saint-Clair. Together we discussed the characteristics of a code that could find ambigrams hidden in the dictionary.

Before having this software I used to write a word next to a mirror trying to find if another word can be read in its reflection. For example, the word “language” can be read from the other side as “geometry”, or the word “puzzled”, becomes “blessed” etc. This is achieved by twisting a bit the calligraphy until another word starts to take shape in its reflection.

This form is then extruded and made into a physical object. One single shape becomes the container of two words, therefore two meanings.

The OuScuPo software was fed with the entire French dictionary leading to ambigrams such as:  MOUTON-NATION, JEU-CUL, BEAU-LAID, FILM-MUET etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to identify potential Ambigrams I created a matrix of letters and its possible equivalences found in its reflection. There are some letters that in upper case remain the same when we look at their reflection:

A, H, I, M, O, T, U, V, W, X, Y

 

There are others that become another letter, either by a flip or by slight mutations of its calligraphy:

I=J, J=L, K=X, Y=V

 

The same happens with lower case, there are some that remain the same:

i, l, o, u, v, w, x

 

And others that mutate:

a=o, b=d, c=u, d=b, f=t, g=q, i=e, m=w, s=z, y=v

 

If we take one word, for instance, the word “oil”, the first operation will be an inversion of the letters, in the same way in which a palindrome is

made. Thus, we get “lio”. The letters “l”, “i” and “o”, have the following mutating potential:

l / i / o

i / e / a

e / l / e

j

 

Then, we come up with all the permutations possible, according to the different characters:

MUTATIONS

lio lia lie

leo lea lee

llo lla lle

iio iia iie

ieo iea iee

ilo ila ile

eio eia eie

eeo eea eee

elo ela ele

jio jia jie

jeo jea jee

jlo jla jle

 

Out of those permutations, the program will identify those words that exist in the dictionary. In this case, it has found the word “lie”. Then, if this is chosen as an interesting word, the calligraphy can be polished by hand in order to improve its reading on both directions. We conducted experiments with different languages; the list below is a sample of the English dictionary:

ashes => || [original_y,lower] ->bomb

bully => || [original_y,lower] -> vulva,

bulge => || [original_y,lower] -> opera

built => || [original_y,lower] -> teens

bribe => || [original_y,lower] -> earns,gains,warns,

booze => || [original_y,lower] ->weeds,

blues => || [original_y,lower] -> bleed

bitch => || [original_y,lower] -> muted, noted,

bible => || [original_y,lower] -> liars

below => || [original_y,lower] -> males,

balls => || [original_y,lower] -> ,bless, bliss

dogma => || [original_y,lower] -> sheep

decay => || [original_y,lower] -> laugh

evils => || [original_y,lower] -> alive

ebony => || [original_y,lower] -> prose,

euro => || [original_y,lower] -> dull

eros => || [original_y,lower] -> zone, acne,

epic => || [original_y,lower] -> oral,urge,

envy => ||,[original_y,upper] -> NUMB,

deco => || [original_y,lower] -> coup,

butt => || [original_y,upper] -> TRUE,

bras => || [original_y,lower] ->,boys,

blow => || [original_y,lower] -> ,weed,

atom => || [original_y,lower] -> nato,

asia => || [original_y,lower] -> bias,

amen => || [original_y,lower] -> numb,

aids => || [original_y,lower] -> apes,

adam => || [original_y,lower] ->,hobo,

wow => || [original_y,lower] ->,man, ,men, mom, now

wet => || [original_y,lower] ->,fun,

raw => || [original_y,lower] -> man,

ego => || [original_y,lower] -> ape

whitening => || [original_y,lower] -> primetime,

welcomed => || [original_y,lower] -> pendulum,

uneasily => || [original_y,lower] -> pleasure,

salesmen => || [original_y,lower]  || [monalisa,

restrict => || || [original_y,lower]  [-> fountain,

reloaded => || [original_y,lower] -> bloodily,

populate =>  || [original_y,lower] -> expended,expunged,

predated => || [original_y,lower] -> outbound,

plutonic => || || [original_y,lower]  ornately,

pitfalls => || [original_y,lower] -> allotted,

martians => || [original_y,lower] -> ambition,

humanism => || [original_y,lower]  harrowed,narrowed,

gorgeous =>] || [original_y,lower]  -> audience,

bohemian => || [original_y,lower] -> hormones,

ballroom => || [original_y,lower] -> moonless,

zombies => || [original_y,lower] -> blushes,

warning => || [original_y,lower] -> premise,

violate => || [original_y,lower] -> explain,

visions => || [original_y,lower] -> audibly,

utopian => || [original_y,lower] -> margate,

uranium => || [original_y,lower] -> neurone,

upwards => || [original_y,lower] -> abysmal,

unitary => || [original_y,lower] -> rupture,

trumpet => || [original_y,lower] -> figment,

truancy => || [original_y,lower] -> pursuit,

truisms => || [original_y,lower] -> ambient,

trained => || [original_y,lower] -> bureaux,

tooting => || [original_y,lower] -> prefect,

silence => || [original_y,lower] -> gorilla,

rolling => || [original_y,lower] -> enliven,

regular => || [original_y,lower] -> naively,

recycle => || [original_y,lower] -> geology,

puzzled => || [original_y,lower] -> blessed,

pushers => || [original_y,lower] -> anomaly,

pencils => || [original_y,lower] -> allowed,allured,alluvia,beloved,

overtax => || [original_y,lower] -> fatigue,

painted => || [original_y,lower] -> pithead,

nominal => || [original_y,lower] -> laminar,

mutable => || [original_y,lower] -> elastin,

marxism => || [original_y,lower] -> haitian,martian,

glacial => || [original_y,lower] -> voluble,

zipped => || [original_y,lower] -> beadle,beagle,blades,boggle,budgie,hedges,huddle,pedals,peddle,plague,plaque,puddle,

zombie => || [original_y,lower] -> wishes,[original_y,upper] -> FIENDS,

yippee => || [original_y,lower] -> leader,

yuppie => || [original_y,lower] -> leader,

yelped => || [original_y,lower] -> beaver,bugler,healer,player,

wisdom => || [original_y,lower] -> napalm,

weapon => || [original_y,lower] -> reason, voyage,

wallow => || [original_y,lower] -> mallow,mellow,

voyeur => || [original_y,lower] -> neural,neuron,

unsold => || [original_y,lower] -> became,

undone => || [original_y,lower] -> encore,groove,income,

tropic => || [original_y,lower] -> urgent,

swerve => || [original_y,lower] -> enigma,

rectal => || [original_y,lower] -> uptown,

random => || [original_y,lower] -> hooray,

prague => || [original_y,lower] -> unpaid,

people => || [original_y,lower] -> evaded,gladly,leaded,

nazism => || [original_y,lower] -> warsaw,

napalm => || [original_y,lower] -> wisdom,

mexico => || [original_y,lower] -> curfew,

medium => || [original_y,lower] -> heroin,

jailed => || [original_y,lower] -> plural,

israel => || [original_y,lower] -> visual,

fondue => || [original_y,upper] -> BLONDE,

faeces => || [original_y,lower] -> bluest,

exiled => || [original_y,lower] -> belike,polite,

doping => || [original_y,lower] -> preach

cocoon => || [original_y,lower] -> rococo,

bosnia => || [original_y,lower] -> armada

blowup => || [original_y,lower] -> always, annoys,

bamboo => || [original_y,lower] -> cosmos,

apathy => || [original_y,upper] -> PAPAYA,

amoeba => || [original_y,lower] -> asians,paeans,pagans,salons,

amazon => || [original_y,lower] -> masons,mesons,

abuses => || [original_y,lower] -> beards zebras,

xenon => || [original_y,lower] -> vomit,

whore => || [original_y,lower] -> inane,

weird => || [original_y,lower] -> bulge,

weeds => || [original_y,lower] -> abele,booze,bowie,

water => || [original_y,lower] -> nixon,

vulva => || [original_y,lower] -> alien

verge => || [original_y,lower] -> lenin,

value => || [original_y,lower] -> enjoy,

turbo => || [original_y,lower] -> adult,

tough => || [original_y,lower] -> decaf,

total => || [original_y,lower] -> latex,

swine => || [original_y,lower] -> enema,

ruins => || original_y,upper] -> GUILT,

pride => || [original_y,lower] -> wound,

power => || [original_y,lower] -> needy,

pills => || [original_y,lower] -> GUILT,

phase => || [original_y,lower] -> ebony,

penal => || [original_y,lower] -> loved

pagan => || [original_y,lower] -> happy,

owned => || [original_y,lower] ->,bored,

outer => || [original_y,lower] -> noted,ultra,

nixon => || [original_y,lower] -> hater, water

moses => || [original_y,lower] -> beach,

mercy => || [original_y,lower] -> rough,

mania => || original_y,upper] -> HUMAN,

lover => || [original_y,lower] -> novel,

latex => || [original_y,lower] -> fetal,total,

joint => || [original_y,lower] -> trial,

islam => || [original_y,lower] -> maybe

inane => || [original_y,lower] -> whore,

human => || [original_y,lower] ->MANIA

hopes => || [original_y,lower] -> aided,

holes => || [original_y,lower] -> bleed,

heels => || [original_y,lower] -> bleed

hater => || [original_y,lower] -> Nixon

guilt => || [original_y,lower] -> PILLS, RUINS,

fetal => || [original_y,lower] -> latex,

 

 

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