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SUMMARY

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1971

THE SIGN SERIES

The goal: to create a uniform visual system of cognitition and construction, one capable of describing every problem and all phenomena-the world.

Invention: the module. One module consists of four elements or units.

The unit is: a square-shaped (later distorted square-shaped) basic element containing any simple or complex formation, which can be joined to any other of its kind.

The nature of the units:

1. Object formations (based on perception)
2. Units based on gesture and motion
3. Known signs, based on written characters
4. Emotional formations, based on feelings

Type of units:

1. Formations built on static or dynamic emotions
2. Structured formations with well-defined details
3. Mobile, flexible, multi-faceted, variable formations
4. Complex, stratified formations

Module-building from units:

1. Four identical units (positive/negative) relative to a central point or median line
2. Two pairs of identical units
3. Four different units (in succession)

Module-module building technique:

1. Simultaneous modules (combinations)
2. Successive modules (modulation)
3. Two-way progressions
4. Sliding progressions
5. Three-way progressions, spatial combinations

HISTORY OF THE SIGN SERIES

1969: Preparations (methodological experiments)
1970: Developing the module
1971: First exhibition of signs. Existence-signs, graphic spatial constructs
1972: Constructing modules.
The development of the concept: module X. Two-way module wall, space and object schemes, modulations in newspapers
1973: Overview exhibit
(resistance from the “environment”: Packaged Works)
Outdoor modules.
X-module series. Interpretation of written characters(!?) according to the module system
1974: Conceptual variants, the reinterpretation of the system
1977: First monumental sign sculpture (destroyed)
1979: 1/2X=V, sign sculpture (erected in Dunaújváros, 1982.)

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1972

1. Motif (form)
2. Color

1.The motif must be a pure and sovereign composition.
Purity is its very nature.
Sterility of expression: it can be only one thing.
In printing: the superimposition of divergent or interrelated motifs. Care must be taken in printing to keep the motifs related as far as content and color are concerned.

2. Color: the color formula within one motif.
a. The motif's limits of expression as defined by color.
b. The problem of color in the case of two motifs.
c. Specification of the appropriate use of related and contrasting colors.
d. The methods of printing (laying on) colors: translucent mixtures, or overlays.
e. Determining the shade: depends on the emphasis. The motif is man, the color is woman.
Color without motif is nothing; motif without color is hard and unnatural.

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1972

I was looking for the simplest units and procedures which would enable me to build a new system of visual expression.

I started off with the basic geometric units, and I found a great many analogies later on as well. The foremost similarity being that geometric systems, like pictorial systems, differ a great deal in their outward appearance from reality as we perceive it. They are translations of this reality into a “special system of signs”.

From my store of drawings and pictures, I selected those details which I thought were expressive and powerful enough to be worth enlarging. In the next phase, I tried to determine the extent to which these motifs changed their meaning if I changed their positions (up or down, left or right).

What type of motif will give me a composition if I rotate it 90-180 or 270 degrees, and if I put copies of it next to each other?

Given the right motif, practically all composition variations are possible. There is, thus, a wide range of expression.

1. Building from identical motifs gives the composition a simplicity of form.
2. Rotating the motifs gives the composition a richness and fullness of meaning.

By virtue of their simplicity, the compositions express a single “primary” emotion (joy, mourning, denial, etc.). Their simplicity allows for their reproduction, which, in turn, opens the way to other pictorial solutions. I can further refine or enrich the meaning of a composition by changing the color of the units, or by printing two or more units superimposed. I can create series which express change and tell a story.
My future plans still concern the motif problem, the pictorial expression of change in time and space.
I want to create installations in which the temporal, spatial, light and color effects combine with the choice of materials to provide the person entering with information.

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