THE UNIT METHOD OF BEAD IMPACT ART
How a Unit Is Brought into Being
The Unit Method is the established method through which a Unit comes into being within Bead Impact Art.
It defines the sequence through which the Acting Person enters action, selects or establishes the Carrier, chooses the bead, performs the act, and fixes that act in matter.
The method preserves a clear structure while leaving the purpose, meaning, placement, continuation, and direction of the action open to the person.
Every act is performed according to the rule One Bead at a Time.
The Door is determined by the purpose of the action. The Carrier determines the material condition in which the act takes place and the relation of the act to what already exists.
The Unit Method does not prescribe an image, style, subject, visual result, or quantity of beads. It establishes the conditions through which real human action can become materially fixed, remain distinct, accumulate, continue, and form a Unit.
Every Unit is created through the Unit Method.
The Unit Method consists of two parts:
I. The Sequence of the Unit
II. The Consequences of the Act
I. THE SEQUENCE OF THE UNIT
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Every Unit follows the same established sequence.
The sequence begins with the possibility of action and ends when the completed Unit receives its number.
1. THE POSSIBILITY OF ACTION
The Acting Person recognises the possibility of introducing a real material act into the world.
One bead is enough for action to begin.
2. THE PURPOSE AND THE DOOR
The purpose of the action becomes clear. It determines the Door through which the Unit primarily enters Bead Impact Art.
The purpose may be recognised before the act or become clearer through the process of creating the Unit.
3. THE DECISION
The Acting Person decides to act.
The decision turns the possibility of action into the beginning of a real material process.
4. THE CARRIER
A Carrier is created, adopted, or entered through dialogue according to the purpose of the Unit.
The Carrier establishes the material conditions in which the act will take place.
5. THE BEAD
A bead is selected as the material point through which the act will be fixed.
The choice of the bead remains part of the freedom of the action.
6. THE ACT IN SILENCE
One bead is threaded onto the needle and fixed to the Carrier by hand.
The rule One Bead at a Time is observed.
Through the puncture, thread, knot, bead, and trace of the hand, the act becomes fixed in matter.
7. ONE BEAD OR CONTINUATION
One bead is enough to establish a complete act.
If the action continues, each additional bead is taken and fixed separately. Each becomes another distinct act and receives its own position in relation to what is already present on the Carrier.
8. COMPLETION
The Unit is complete when further action is no longer necessary.
Completion is determined by the purpose and state of the Unit, not by the quantity of beads or by a predetermined visual result.
9. THE UNIT NUMBER
After completion, the Unit receives its individual number and enters the continuing sequence of Units within Bead Impact Art.
II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF THE ACT
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The following are not additional stages of the Unit Method. They are consequences of the real material act once it has occurred.
PRESENCE
Presence is not represented or depicted.
A real human act has taken place and has entered matter through the bead.
The Carrier now contains the material trace of an act that did not exist there before.
Presence opens within the reality formed by the bead, the act, light, and shadow.
LIGHT
Light is not painted, represented, or created as a visual effect.
Through the bead, the act is fixed in matter.
Through the material presence of the bead, light becomes perceptible.
The bead receives light.
DARKNESS
Where light becomes perceptible, darkness and shadow also become perceptible.
Darkness is not treated as an absolute limit.
It becomes perceptible in relation to light.
The act therefore reveals both light and darkness without requiring the construction of an image.
REALITY
Through the bead, the act has become fixed in matter.
The action has become a material fact.
Something has occurred in reality that had not occurred before.
The visible change may be minimal, but the reality of the event does not depend on the scale of its visual effect.
Through light and shadow, this material fact becomes perceptible as a new reality of the Unit.
The act has entered reality.
IRREVERSIBILITY
Once the act has occurred, it cannot be made not to have happened.
The bead may later be removed. The Carrier may be altered or destroyed. Another action may follow.
But none of these later actions can transform the original event into an event that never occurred.
The act has entered time as fact.
Reality is no longer identical to the reality in which the act had not occurred.
One bead. One act. The act is free.
UNIT 001 — FOUNDATIONAL UNIT
Bead Impact Art emerged through Unit 001 — Point of Light. The first bead crossed the boundary of the image and established the act as a material reality.
CODEX OF BEAD IMPACT ART
The Codex establishes the fundamental principles and rules of creation and action within Bead Impact Art.
It encompasses the Seven Doors, the Unit, and the Unit Method.