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Introducing the Blake Model ARTICLE Introducing The Blake Model Adam Komisaruk Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, Volume 38, Issue 3, Winter 2004/2005, pp. 92-102 i. Eternal Name Luvah Uriien Tharmas I'rthona R x. Time Name Ore C. Cherub 3. Emanation Vala Ahania Enion (Enitharmon) 4. Quality Love Wisdom Power Fancy 5. Zoa (Bible) Bull Eagle Man 6. Sense Nose Eye Tongue Ear Introducing The Blake Model 7. Body Part Head Heart Legs 8. Metal (Bible) Gold q. Position Centre Zenith Circumference Nadir 10. Nature (Sky) Stars Sun Moon Mountains 11. Element Fire Air Water Earth BY ADAM KOMISARUK 12. E. Spirits Genii Fairies Nymphs Gnomes 13. State "Generation" Eden Beulah "Ulro" 14. Place Soil City Garden t'nderground 15. Activity Plowman Shepherd Blacksmith Editors' note: An online version of this article 16. Art Painting Architecture Poetry 17. Planet Mercury Earth is available on the journal's web site at 18. Point South West North <http://www.blakeq14artcrly.org>. 19. Season Spring Summer Autumn Winter so. Time of Day Morning Noon Evening Night xi. Age Youth Maturity Age "Death" (sleep) xx. Son of Los Palamabron Rintrah Theotormon Bromion he present project arises from my effort, over the years, 23. Emanation Elynittria Ocalythron Oothoon (none) X4. City London Verularn York Edinburgh Tto hone a concise explanation of Blake's mythology to 15. Evangelist Luke Mark Matthew 26. Color (Fallen) Red White Blue myself, my colleagues and my students. As a diagram junk- 27. Virtue Faith Hope 28. Vice Doubt Dullness ie, I have several schemata at my disposal, including Alicia 29. Eden River Pison Hiddekel Gihon Euphrates Ostriker's chart of the zoas and their attributes from the Pen- guin Complete Poems (illus. 1); Northrop Frye's earlier and more extensive version from Fearful Symmetry (illus. 2); S. GOLGONOOZA Foster Damon's map of Golgonooza, the city of art, from The Blake Dictionary (illus. 3); or my own family tree of Blake's cast of characters (illus. 4).1 Where each of these schemata falls short, however, is in its inability to represent fully the spatial extent of Blake's vision. Damon himself says in a foot- note to his diagram, "Golgonooza, being four-dimensional, cannot be reduced to a chart of two dimensions. Each of the four gates not only opens into each of the other gates but does so 'each within other toward the Four points' (J[erusalem] 12:48)" (163). Thus about four years ago the idea occurred to me of developing a physical model that could visualize Blake's For their feedback and assistance with this project I am indebted to Sandy Baldwin, Joshua David Gonsalves, Stephen Harris, Adam Home, Jeremy Jarrell, Wayne Ripley, Frances Van Scoy and Susan Warshauer. For further reflections on the project described herein, see Adam Komisaruk, Steve Guynup and Fred Yee, "Blake and Virtuality: An Ex- change," Digital Designs on Blake, ed. Ron Broglio, Romantic Circles Praxis Series, forthcoming <http://www.rc.umd.edu/praxis/>. 1. All my Blake quotations are from The (Complete Poetry and Prose of William Blake, ed. David V. Erdman, newly revised ed. (New York: An- chor, 1988), hereafter "E." THARMAl VRTHONA (Emanation) (AH AN I A) (KNION) (IN 1TH ARMON) 'Prince of 'Prince of light' 1. (left) Chart of the zoas and their properties. William Blake, Reason Passion Sensation Instinct Faculty The Complete Poems, ed. Alicia Ostriker (1977; New York: Eternal Role Ploughman Vintner Shepherd Blacksmith Penguin, 1988) 1048 (reprinted by permission of Penguin). Eternal Virtue Faith, Love Coherence, Creativity certainty receptivity 2. (above, top) Chart of the zoas and their properties. Northrop Fallen Form 'God, ORC (SHADOWY Priest, (KNITHARM ON) live, Fearful Symmetry: A Study of William Blake (1947; King' 'Demon Red' 'Eternal Prophet' K? Princeton: Princeton UP, 1990) 277-78 (reprinted by permission Fallen Character Flood, Chaos Poetry, Tyranny Revolution I'lI'lilllTV of Princeton UP, ©1947,1969 revised edition, 1975 renewed). EIl-Ml.'llt Air (light) Fire (heat) Earth 3. (above, bottom) Map of Golgonooza. S. Foster Damon, S. (zenith) E. (centre) W. (circum- N. (uadir) ference) A Make Dictionary: The Ideas and Symbols of William Blake, Note: Lot and Emlharmon are born from Thmrmtu and Enton and in turn become the rev. ed. (Hanover and London: Brown UP/UP of New England, parents of Ore and the Shadowy FemaU. 1988) 163 (reprinted by permission of UP of New England). 92 Bhike/An Illustrated Quarterly Winter 2004-05 Child Emanation of 1 -> Fallen form of J. * Vals J. 1 E \ \ \ 1 Ore Rintrah V t Shadowy Female Ocalythron Elynittna Thiralatha/Diralada Hyle Ignoge Scofield [Adam| Kox [Noah] Kotopc Pcachcy Japelh 4. Albion's family tree. By the author. mythology as he himself appears to have visualized it—a sys- ation of the overall landscape or Blakean universe; (2) the tem of spatial relationships extending through three and, if we creation of a human figure corresponding to Blake's Albion, include its manipulations through time, four dimensions. My who is the chief occupant of this landscape, (3) the decision original intent was to create a sort of kinetic statue or mobile, as to what in the landscape goes where; (4) the animation of showing the zoas suspended in space and capable of being ro- this environment to make it traversable by users and to show tated along any axis. It eventually became clear, however, that its transformations through time; (5) the creation of a user- by using the virtual-reality technology now available, I could friendly interface; (6) the preparation of textual annotations create an even more suitable model: an immersive digital en- for the objects, locations and characters in the environment. vironment through which users might navigate to encounter Blake's landscape, at its most basic, consists of the four levels Blake's characters, places and objects in the configuration his of existence with which readers are already familiar—Eden, the works describe. The Blake Model is a work-in-progress that redeemed realm of pure spirit; Beulah, the sensual paradise; I hope eventually to make available for researchers, teachers Generation, or vegetative life without consciousness; and Ulro, and students of Blake. This essay will serve as a prospectus to or dead matter. I will be representing these realms as four con- the project, an announcement of its status to date, an invita- centric spheres, since for Blake the Fall involves a contraction tion for feedback and a discussion of some theoretical prob- toward a center, not just a longitudinal descent. Between Ulro lems the project raises. and Eden extends the "Mundane Shell," a large egg-shaped ob- Supported by internal grants from West Virginia University, ject that encloses the material world. Ulro, the lowest or inner- in collaboration with the Virtual Environments Laboratory most realm, is where the majority of human history transpires there, and with an eye to future funding by the National Sci- and is therefore wrought by Blake in the most detail. Using the ence Foundation's Information Technology program, I am digital modeling program Bryce 3D (Corel), I made a prelimi- breaking the project into the following phases: (1) the cre- nary attempt (illus. 5) to represent the rocky expanse of Ulro, Winter 2004-05 Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly 93 including the forest of Entuthon-Benython and, within it, the ization (illus. 7) places Cathedron in a yoga goddess pose, her lake of Udan-Adan and the great city of Golgonooza. Inside head tipped back in a manner whose significance I will discuss Golgonooza stands Bowlahoola, workshop of the artist-black- later. A Mesopotamian ziggurat replaces the cathedral be- smith Los, and the hall of Cathedron. Bryce 3D is a relatively tween her splayed legs, but the logic remains the same. Yee en- user-friendly but inflexible visions some of the tortured program; subsequent mod- inhabitants of Ulro (illus. 8) eling will be done in in- as a giant cupped hand that dustry-standard programs suggests "false shelter" [a]; such as Maya (Alias) or 3D a crouching figure bearing Studio Max (Discreet). lam a boulder on his back [b]; fortunate to be assisted in and a "naked ashamed tree" the landscaping phase of the [c] that suggests at once a project by the talented New classical discus-thrower, York artist Fred Yee, who Ovid's Daphne metamor- has prepared a wonderful phosed to escape Apollo's storyboard that he will soon clutches and Rodin's Adam be realizing digitally. Yee writhing in agony before worked without the benefit the gates of Hell. This lat- of Blake's images, only his termost figure further calls texts, yet the two artists' vi- to mind not only Blake's foe sions have some striking outstretched beneath the parallels. Take, for example, poison tree, but his cave- Blake's sketch of Cathedron in the margin of the Four Zoas dweller "struggling] into life" from The Gates of Paradise (il- manuscript, Night the Third (illus. 6); the crown on her head lus. 9). That Yee independently visualizes Blake's symbols in and gothic altar for her genitalia suggest Blake's association be- a manner so resonant with Blake himself merely reaffirms a tween female sexuality and the established church. Yee's real- principle well-known to Blakeans: the continuity of mythic 5. (above) Landscape in Ulro with Golgonooza. Created in Bryce 3D by the author. 6. (left) Cathedron. William Blake, The Four Zoas, page 44, Night the Third. By permission of the British Library, ADD.39764 f44. 7. (below) Cathedron. By Fred Yee. 94 Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly Winter 2004-05 thinking even among cultures that could not possibly have had wrought with especial care, for he will function not as static direct knowledge of one another.
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