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Material Action as System
Practice-based research investigating how bodily impulse relocates through material action, digital reactivation, and temporal looping

The indexes below describe the components of the research system—material actions (A), residue reactivations (B), loop behaviors (C), and bound-set types (D). They are not individual works, but parameters that define how impulse is carried and altered through repetition. The research operates through a repeatable system in which bodily material actions generate residues that are digitally reactivated and structured through temporal loop conditions. Individual works function as controlled runs within this system, allowing specific behaviors of matter, mediation, and time to be observed rather than resolved.

A: Point Zero — Cast Baseline Set
Closed material experiment establishing baseline conditions

A bounded experiment in which a cast surface is subjected to sequential physical actions—casting, removing, peeling, tearing, piling, and fragmenting—until discrete form breaks down into a distributed field. This set establishes the baseline material conditions from which subsequent reactivations and temporal behaviors emerge.

A1 — Apply: Physical application of material to the surface

A2 — Remove: Physical removal of material from the surface

A3 — Cut: Material incised to create controlled openings

A4 — Tear: Rupture or pulling apart of material fibers

A5 — Burn: Heat-induced alteration or damage to the material

A6 — Crush: Compression or flattening through applied pressure

A7 — Fold: Bending or creasing to create hinges or planes

A8 — Cast: Pouring material to take or hold a form

A9 — Mold: Pressing material into or shaping it around a form

A10 — Invert: Reversal of orientation or positive/negative relationship

A11 — Abrade: Wearing down the surface through friction

A12 — Isolate: Physical separation or extraction of a part from a whole

B: Residue Reactivations
Digital reactivation of material residue as still image conditions

Material residues generated through physical action are re-entered digitally and reactivated through operations such as smearing, fragmenting, masking, mirroring, and distortion. Each image represents a discrete reactivation state, resolvable as a still image, in which residue is neither corrected nor stabilized but held in suspension.

B1 — Smear: Directional spread that collapses edges

B2 — Blur: Loss of focus through diffusion

B3 — Repeat: Replication of image elements without directional movement

B4 — Ghost: Faint offset duplication visible within one frame

B5 — Fragment: Discontinuous breaking into parts

B6 — Mask: Selective visibility through occlusion

B7 — Mirror: Imposed axial symmetry or doubling

B8 — Distort: Spatial warping of the image field

B9 — Crop / Reframe: Digital excision or enlargement that concentrates the image by removal of context

B10 — Chromatic Shift: Reorganization of color relations within a single frame

B11 — Noise: Interference introduced into the signal

B12 — Overlay: Multiple image states co-present

C: Loop Conditions
Temporal behaviors shaping how residue persists, erodes, or resets

Time is introduced through looping structures that actively govern perception and continuity. These works examine behaviors such as pulse, stall, accumulation, erosion, and reset, treating the loop as an operative condition rather than a neutral container.

C1 — Visible Reset: Perceptible return to starting state

C2 — Concealed Reset: Imperceptible return to starting state

C3 — Oscillation: Change reverses direction repeatedly within the cycle

C4 — Temporal Drag: Change is slowed or weighted through delayed transitions and extended intervals.

C5 — Continuous Modulation: Unfolds continuously without interruption or segmentation

C6 — Stepped Change: Occurs in discrete steps rather than continuously

C7 — Accumulative Density: Information builds over time

C8 — Erosion / Exhaustion: Visual information diminishes over time

C9 — Cyclic Range: Change circulates within a bounded range

C10 — Progressive Replacement: One visual state replaces another

C11 — Near-Stasis: Change remains minimal and close to a single state

C12 — Concentrated Event: Change is concentrated within a brief interval

D: Bound-Set Types
Finite configurations of the research system

This section maps the complete set of seven bound-set types that structure the research system. Each type specifies which parameters—material action (A), digital reactivation (B), and temporal behavior (C)—are held constant and which are permitted to vary. The section demonstrates system closure and legibility through rule configurations, not the presentation of finished works.

Type 1 — Fix A + B, vary C: A1 B8 C3

Type 2 — Fix A + C, vary B: A2 B7 C12

Type 3 — Fix B + C, vary A: A4 B10 C9

Type 4 — Fix A, vary B + C: A5 B1 C2

Type 5 — Fix B, vary A + C: A7 B5 C8

Type 6 — Fix C, vary A + B: A11 B3 C6

Type 7 — Full diagonal (nothing fixed): A12 B2 C1

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EILEEN CUBBAGE