The demon in the diagram: towards a theory of evolving diagrammatic embodiment

ABSTRACT

This essay proposes that the intricate but sprawling evolution of diagrams might be looked at through a single graphic system. It is further proposed that this system might reconcile diverse definitions of ontological and temporal minima, in a sequence of 25 types of historical diagram that concludes with a kind of meta-diagram of diagrams. The ‘demon’, a historical form of hypostatic abstraction, is introduced as an eidetic body useful for exploring this diagrammatic space. The complete sequence was exhibited in a complex installation, titled ‘The Demon in the Diagram’, which is also discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• History of diagrams
• demon
• fourfold
• ethics of seeing
• embodiment

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Matthew Ritchie

Matthew Ritchie (b. 1964) has exhibited internationally over the past two decades, including solo presentations at the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, Houston, TX (2018); Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA (2014); ZKM Karlsruhe (2012); Barbican Theatre, London, UK (2012); Brooklyn Academy of Music, NY (2009); St. Louis Art Museum, MO (2007); MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA (2004); Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX (2003); and Dallas Museum of Art, TX (2001). He was recently the 2018–19 Dasha Zhukova Distinguished Visiting Artist at MIT Center for Art, Science & Technology. Ritchie’s work was included in the 1997 Whitney Biennial, the 2002 Sydney Biennale, the 2004 Bienal de Sao Paulo, the 2008 Seville Bienal, the Havana Bienal, and the 11th International Architecture Biennial, Venice, Italy (2008) as well as major exhibitions at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; and the MIT List Visual Arts Center, Boston, MA among others. Ritchie lives and works in New York. Over the last several years, Ritchie also embarked on a project to chart a comprehensive visual history of the notational mark, or diagram. Divided into three parts, The Temptation of the Diagram, Surrender to the Diagram and The Demon in the Diagram, the ongoing project has thus far manifested in a series of paintings, performances, installations, and a publication that examines the influence on notational language on the systems and production of knowledge. Ritchie’s newest body of work, Time Diagrams, an ambitious one-hundred part sequence of paintings, floor, wall and performance works, seeks to examine the structure and informational language of history, in the same way The Main Sequence examined the informational language and structure of space.