For the past ten years, Kyoto City has held an arts festival called "Geijutsu Saiten." As part of that festival, an open competition is held to select artists who will be commissioned to install large-scale artworks at a pre-determined location in Kyoto. The artworks proposed are almost always "modern" and the places chosen as venues, "traditional," in most cases large Buddhist temples. In this way the competition organizers hope to spark some meaningful interaction between Old and New Kyoto. This year the chosen venue was Daigoji, a temple of the Shingon sect founded in the 9th century and best known for its splendid sub-temple, Sanpoin (with its medieval baroque rock-work) and its five-story pagoda, which is the oldest wooden structure in Kyoto prefecture. "Omega Point" was chosen among more than 260 proposals as one of eight works to be installed at Daigoji and was further selected for the Grand Prize of the year 2000 competition. This year's festival can be reviewed at:

OMEGA

Omega () is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. When Omega is combined with Alpha (A), the first letter of the alphabet (as with the Sanskrit "A" and "Un") they represent much more than just letters or sounds. They symbolize the beginning and ending of all manner of things, and as such, the cycle of creation that connects all things.

PHILOSOPHY

Omega Point as a philosophy was proposed by the French priest Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). His philosophy states that life begins with the biosphere (the layer of living things that covers the earth) and then develops toward a "noosphere" (a layer of consciousness that covers the earth). According to Teilhard de Chardin, the noosphere, epitomized by human consciousness, will develop through increasingly complex social organizations, culminating in a super consciousness which will transcend materials or thought. He termed that super consciousness the Omega Point. Though Teilhard de Chardin's philosophy was based on Christian philosophy, as well as the evolutionary theories of Charles Darwin, the Omega Point also aptly symbolizes the ultimate goal of Buddhism; spiritual enlightenment.


GLOBAL CONNECTIVITY

Putting the Greek Omega in front of a Japanese pagoda expresses global connectivity in a number of unusual ways -- some ancient and modern -- an apt image for the year 2000 and the increasing focus on globalization. As an example from antiquity, the first sculptural images of Buddha were created in Gandhara (present-day Pakistan) during the reign of Kanishka I (Kushan period; 1st-3rd century AD). There was no tradition of Buddhist sculpture in India at that time so Greek sculptors were brought in to do the work. As a result, the first sculptures of Buddha are Grecian in their form. In this we see that even in ancient times, there were important cultural links throughout the world. A more modern example is found in global navigation systems. Presently, ships and airplanes use GPS (Global Positioning System) a satellite-based navigational aid. However, from 1971 to 1997, the first such global navigational system was based on eight land-based radio beacons and it was called, of course, Omega. The Omega by the pagoda becomes a symbol recalling links, ancient and modern, as well as cultural and technological, that bind the world together.


SPATIAL DESIGN

The ancient geomantic science of China proposes dual energies, called Yin and Yang, which form the basic components of all manner of things. Yin represents a negative energy while Yang represent one that is positive, symbolizing opposite yet complementary aspects of all things: darkness and light, female and male, cold and hot, winter and summer. In the landscape, the image of Yang was traditionally the mountain while water represented the Yin element. In the course of human social development, the image of the mountain has been supplanted by the image of the tower, which represents both the ancient vertical image of the mountain as well as the newer technological prowess of mankind. Among these towers were the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, the stupas of India, and the pagodas of China and Japan. The Omega Point design proposes to compliment the existing vertical pagoda (a Yang monument) with a horizontal plane created by the sand-mound Omega which contains a pool of "water," represented by sand (Yin elements).