On the wall of my room there are two prints of a painting of a tiger slowly descending into an arctic lake, hanging next to one another. They originated from the painting ‘Siberian Tiger’ by wildlife artist Leonard Pearman. Made in the 1970-­‐80s, they are probably from the same factory or source; the card upon which they are printed matches in thickness and the prints are the same size. They were likely framed in different places as the patterns on their gold frames differ. The thickness of the frames is similar but the left has a deeper rebate that crops the image slightly, making it appear smaller. The right hand image is more faded, its colours muted, presumably from greater exposure to sunlight; giving an appearance of a light mist. They hang about a foot apart with a disparity in height, and with conflicting opinions of what is straight and what is level. The surface of each print varies in the formations of water damage, scratches and abrasions, mostly white in appearance, in places matching the snow in the image sitting on top of it like ice on a window; or more literally, physically cutting into its material (they are both unglazed). When observed, the eye flickers between the two, incapable of perceiving the qualities of one without contrasting it to the other. Their relation to that which they are not becomes what defines them. The properties of their surroundings become inseparable from their own properties. Energy is converted to photons through the movement of electrons; light exudes. A conflict of characteristics between particle and wave meets the surface of the image. Energy is absorbed or reflected, amplitude and frequency altered; the tiger emerges. The walls between the external and internal are permeable, matter crosses the threshold and the image diffuses into its environment. Its fur mists the border between its body and surroundings, magnolia wall paint starts to seep in. The image isn’t bound to a single location or physical form; multiple listings on eBay show the tiger in different backgrounds, contexts and frames. As I research, algorithms adapt, the image duplicated throughout my newsfeed, trying to bring me more and similar; showing high resolution simulations hanging in artificial rooms, offering a range of materials and finishes. The image infests and spreads from physical space into cyber space, its information as liquid, flowing through networks of pipes and cables, in walls and under ground, existing as the movement and change of material, energy and frequency. The tiger’s foot disturbs the surface of the water as it passes through the picture plane. Ripples spread; matter shifts fluidly between liquid, solid, gas and organic body. Water occupies all aspects of the image, within all of its physical and depicted material. Embedded within it by means of water damage or watermark. The image flows into liquid, and liquid into liquid crystal, an oscillation between forms, in a constant state of becoming. With the application of electrical stimulus the liquid crystals temporarily settle into the grid of a pixel map, providing a pathway for photons to travel between two polarising filters. Light emitted from the display is distorted and focused, it hits the retina and is converted to electrical energy and chemical information; transmitted by the optical nerve to the visual cortex. The pattern of the pixel map becomes replicated in the flow of energy and chemical change within networks of neurones. The distance between us reduces, separate bodies lose separation.