Order Is Numbers (Storyboard)

In Order Is Numbers (Storyboard), Darren Aronofsky’s 1998 science fiction film Pi is organized into 19 film frames that correspond – both in the numerical relationship they share to one another within the timeline of the film and in the sequential arrangement of their hanging – to the Fibonacci numbers, an integer sequence in which each number is the sum of the two preceding numbers.

The film Pi centers on Maximillian (“Max”) Cohen, whose obsession with discovering the underlying pattern within the stock market gradually leads to self-destructive behavior. The number “pi”, the Fibonacci sequence, and the golden ratio are intricately connected in the film, serving as mathematical proofs in Max’s relentless quest for the ultimate order and pattern amidst seemingly chaotic systems. Gaviria’s self-reflexive visual study is a code that matches the exact scheme Max Cohen seeks and is thus a mirroring of one code within another. In this reduced format of 19 images, the work renders a reconstruction of the original 84-minute narrative as daunting and indeed perhaps as contrived as Max Cohen’s personal search for patterned order in chaos. Ultimately, Gaviria’s treatment of the film seems to be a reassertion that the line between order and chaos is both subjective and tenuous and also one of our own making with no intrinsic meaning outside of the meaning we choose to impose on it.