Jelly Ontology: A Spatial Framework for Artistic Creation
(Timeless, Influence-Based Rewrite)
1. Core Claim
There is no time in artistic creation.
What appears as “delay” is in fact spatial non-coincidence: a structural distance between optics, body, material, and mark. Artistic creation is the negotiation of this distance through Jelly, understood as a distributed field of sensorial influence.
The painting is not a temporal artifact.
It is a spatial trace of unresolved influence.
2. Jelly (Re-Defined)
Jelly is not a substance, signal, or temporal flow.
Jelly is:
a continuous field of sensorial influence distributed across space between the optical field and the surface of inscription.
Jelly:
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does not arrive
-
does not flow
-
does not exist “before” perception
Jelly presses, bends, biases, and resists.
It exists only as influence across space.
3. Why Time Is Not Required
What is commonly described as:
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latency
-
delay
-
processing time
-
hesitation
is better described as:
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distance
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misalignment
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scale mismatch
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material resistance
Time is a descriptive shortcut for spatial incompatibility.
4. Spatial Decomposition of Creation
Instead of temporal delays, we define spatial discrepancies.
Where:
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Δs_O— optical spacing
(distance, parallax, resolution, field curvature) -
Δs_B— bodily spacing
(reach, posture, proprioceptive offset) -
Δs_M— material spacing
(surface texture, viscosity, absorption, drag) -
Δs_J— Jelly influence
(distributed pressure across the perceptual–material field)
These are not stages.
They are simultaneous spatial conditions.
5. Formal Definition of Δs_J (Jelly Influence)
Jelly influence is defined as the irreducible spatial gap between what is seen and what can be marked.
Where:
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I_optical= optical intensity / perceptual field -
M_mark= material inscription field
This distance:
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cannot be reduced to motor skill
-
cannot be eliminated by intention
-
is not “processed away”
It is lived as resistance.
6. Artistic Action as Spatial Folding
Let F be the folding function:
Process description:
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Optics distribute intensity across space
-
Jelly biases this distribution as pressure and affordance
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The body negotiates reach, scale, and orientation
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Material responds with drag, bleed, or refusal
-
The mark records the resolution of spatial conflict
No moment is captured.
Only distance is resolved.
7. What the Artwork Is
The artwork is:
a spatial map of negotiated influence.
Each brushstroke encodes:
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a mismatch between eye and hand
-
a conflict between intention and material
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a stabilized remainder of Jelly pressure
The canvas does not store time.
It stores distance made visible.
8. Phenomenological Grounding (Timeless)
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Merleau-Ponty: perception is spatially thick, not temporally delayed
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Gibson: affordances are fields, not events
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Enactivism: cognition emerges from spatial coupling, not internal clocks
Presence fractures into zones, not moments.
9. “We Are Here, and We Are Not Here” (Spatial Reading)
We are:
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here optically
-
not here materially
The eye never occupies the space of the mark.
The hand never occupies the space of vision.
Creation occurs between.
10. Summary Proposition
Artistic creation is not temporal but spatial. Jelly is the distributed field of sensorial influence that deforms the space between optics and inscription. The artwork is the resolved trace of this deformation, recording not time, but the irreducible distance between seeing and marking.
