STRANGE PROMPTS FOR ARCHIVE OBJECTS

OBJECTS, FOLDS, ABSTRACTION

OBJECTS AND LUMINOSITY

TAKE AN OBJECT AND CONSIDER IN THIS FRAMEWORK (FROM LEVI BRYANT, DEMOCRACY OF OBJECTS):

*BRIGHT OBJECTS HAVE EXTENSIVE EXCHANGES, RELATIONS, LINKS, CONNECTION TO OTHER OBJECTS, AGENTS, AND ENERGIES

*DIM OBJECTS HAVE MANY FEWER EXCHANGES AND CONNECTIONS

*DARK OBJECTS HAVE ALMOST NO EXCHANGES AND CONNECTIONS AND ARE TURNED AWAY INTO THEMSELVES, OPAQUE.

also consider--

*OBJECTS AS EVENTS

An object’s appearance is an event, full of all sorts of virtual movement. This is real movement, because something has happened: the body has been capacitated. It’s been relationally activated.  (FROM BRIAN MASSUMI, SEMBLANCE AND EVENT)

CASE:

A POSTCARD MY PARENTS SAVED, FROM YEARS BEFORE I WAS BORN.

DOES IT HAVE A DISTINCT DEGREE OF LUMINOSITY?  EXPLORE IT IN THAT FRAMEWORK.

OR DO THREE ACCOUNTS OF IT, USING EACH OF THE DEGREES IN TURN (THIS IS MORE SPECULATIVE)

WHAT MOVEMENTS AND RELATIONS DOES IT ACTIVATE IN YOU (AND MAYBE IN OTHERS IF THEY ENCOUNTER IT?).  TRACE A FEW DIFFERENT PATHS OF MOVEMENT.  THIS IS ALL IMAGINATIVE PROJECTION--YOU'RE SORT OF MEDITATING ON/FROM THE OBJECT.

FOLDS

The cosmos is “an origami universe” that follows a systolic-diastolic unfolding & folding whereby explosions of difference are followed up by selection and accretion, only to expand again. Or... the universe expands by externally differentiating (laying out difference in the virtual plane of potential), internally differentiating by selecting an internal difference (concrete actualization through matter), and differentiates again.

THE WORLD ISNT SEPARATED OUTSIDES AND INSIDES, SUBJECTS AND OBJECTS.  IT'S A MULTIPLICITY OF FOLDS.  LIKE ORIGAMI.  

TAKE YOUR ARCHIVE OBJECT AND CONSIDER IT IN THIS FRAMEWORK (FROM GILLES DELEUZE):

*OBJECTS HAVE THE WORLD OUTSIDE THEM FOLDED INSIDE THEMSELVES.  FOLDS ARE THE INSIDE OF THE OUTSIDE.

*THE FOLDS ALSO HAVE MORE FOLDS INSIDE THEM.

*EVERYTHING IS FOLDS--BOUNDARIES ARE UNCERTAIN, IT'S ALL CONTINUOUS, REVERSIBLE, A SORT OF INFINITE DIALOGUE.  A MULTIPLICTY OF FOLDING AND UNFOLDING.

CASE

AN OLD RUBBER BALL FROM MY CHILDHOOD I FIND IN A BOX OF TOYS MY PARENTS SAVED FOR SOME REASON.

IMAGINE WHAT PARTS OF THE WORLD MIGHT BE FOLDED INSIDE THE BALL.   ALL THE SURFACES, BODIES, MOMENTS, PLACES, AND EVENTS THAT HAVE MADE IT "BALL"

IMAGINE WITHIN THOSE OUTSIDE-IN FOLDS MORE FOLDS.   CAVERNS INSIDE CAVERNS, AS DELEUZE SAYS.  INSIDE THE BALL, THE WALL IT STRUCK AGAINST PLAYING CATCH ALONE.   WHAT'S FOLDED INSIDE THE WALL?  WHAT UNFOLDS FROM BALL AGAINST WALL?  THE IDEA HERE IS TO CATCH A SENSE OF SOMETHING LIKE INFINITE LAYERS.  THERE'S NO BOTTOM, NO TOP.  ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING CAN KEEP BEING UNPACKED. 

IMAGINE THE BALL'S MULTIPLE FOLDS BEING FOLDED AND UNFOLDED WITH OTHER FOLDS AND UNFOLDINGS. 

THIS IS FAR OUT, GRANTED.   IMAGINE, SAY, THE WORLDS AROUND THE BALL BEING THROWN, BOUNCED, CAUGHT, ETC.   THE HOUSE THAT MAKES THE WALL.  THE STREET SOUNDS THAT GO WITH THE BALL THWACK AGAINST THE BRICK WALL.   YOUR BODY SWEATY, SPRINGY.   YOUR HAND SHOOTING UP TO THROW, TO CATCH.  THE TRAFFIC THROWING ITSELF ALONG THE MAIN STREET A BLOCK AWAY.   LET IMAGES AND ANALOGIES CARRY YOUR IMAGINATION ALONG A LATERAL SLIDING COURSE THAT TURNS UP SURPRISES.  SOMETHING LIKE BEING RIGHT INSIDE A VIDEOCAMERA FILMING FROM VIRTUAL SPACE--ALL KINDS OF POTENTIALS THERE.  

ABSTRACTION

THE FIRST TWO MOVES ARE RELATIONAL, ALL ABOUT THE OBJECT IN A MESH OF EXCHANGES, INTERLACINGS, TOPOLOGIES.

THIS MOVE IS FOCUSED ON GEOMETRY, STRUCTURE, AND FORM.  

IMAGINE STRIPPING AWAY THE BODY OF THE OBJECT AND TAKING IT DOWN TO ITS SKELETON.  THEN THINK ABOUT IT AS PURE FIGURE OR INSCRIPTION.   LET IT LEAD YOU TO OTHER FIGURES AND INSCRIPTIONS.  SHAPES, WORDS, FEELINGS.   THE FORM BECOMES PRIMARY, PRIMAL, IN SOME WAY. 

CASE

MY GRANDFATHER'S WEIRD OLD ASHTRAY, IN THE SHAPE OF AN AUTOMOBILE TIRE AND WITH TREADS IN THE RUBBER RIM AROUND IT.

THE OBJECT ABSTRACTED FROM ITS SPECIFIC BODY IS A CIRCLE.  I WRITE ABOUT  OTHER CIRCLES IN MY MEMORY, MY WORLDS.   MAYBE LETTERS LIKE CIRCLES.   WANTING TO BE IN OR WITH OR LIKE A CIRCLE.   BEING TRAPPED IN A CIRCLE.   MY BODY'S CIRCLES--MY EYES?   THIS CATCHES THE WEIRD POWER OF GEOMETRIES AND FORMS.   

EXTRA ITEM, FOR CONSIDERING DIGITAL PROJECT DESIGN

THIS IS A CONCEPT FOR PUSHING DIGITAL/MEDIA WORK OUTSIDE THE STANDARD TEXT/IMAGE DELIVERY MODEL.

WINDOWING AND TUNNELING (FR BRIAN MASSUMI, VIA MARK JACKSON'S ARTICLE;

"Windowing provides a framed and tamed static perspective from one local space onto another that remains structurally distinct from it. The connection established is predominantly visual, or audio-visual. Features from or of, one locale are 

‘delivered’ into another as information, prepackaged for local understanding and use. Windowing is communicational. 

Tunnelling, on the other hand is concerned not with the communicability of good form from one locale to another as data pre-packaging, but with perception itself, “presenting perceptions originating at a distance.” 

The perceptual cut-ins irrupt locally, producing a fusional tension between the close at hand and the far removed.

As the distance cuts in, the local folds out. This two-way dynamic produces interference, which tends to express itself synaesthetically, as the body returns vision and hearing to tactility in an attempt to register and respond to a structural indeterminacy"