THE LOGIC OF SENSATION
ANDREAS SIVITOS S3270294
THE DIAGRAM 22072011 Bacon defines as diagram the set of operative lines, colour patches, line strokes and zones which do not embody some further significance or representation. He describes it as a confused sensation which cannot be defined and are moments of inspiration or response through a personal interpretation of the figurative. He refused to follow both the path of abstract expressionism and abstraction. According to Bacon, abstraction could become a set of simple codes of the figurative and also lacked of sensation and tension as it was neutralized by exposing it optically. In abstract expressionism the diagram would occupy the entire painting resulting in a messy effect and even though the sensation was subsequently acquired it remained in an irremediably obscure state. Bacon believed that a balance in a painting is crucial and therefore he gave great significance to the treatment of the contour and the clarity of the sensation. In my diagram I am employing Bacon’s approach towards art. Beginning with his explanation of the diagram while simultaneously following his own particular path with the characteristics he introduced. ‘In a landscape of stormy water, prevailing waves have surrounded a lighthouse and are about to violate its current state, releasing up on it all of their embodied energy. It is just seconds before the defenceless edifice will be stricken by the natural force. The dark tones, the distorted and energetic lines of the waves, but also the stillness of the towering lighthouse standing still and numb while helplessly waiting for its doom further dramatize the scene.’
___________________________________________________________________ Gilles Deleuze, (2003), Francis Bacon: the logic of sensation, University of Minnesota Press
THE AUTONOMY OF AFFECT 31072011 Massumi states that ‘Intensity is qualifiable as an emotional state, and that state is static-temporal and narrative noise. It is like a temporal sink, a hole in time, as we conceive of it and narrativize it. It is the collapse of structured distinction into intensity, of rules into paradox. Intensity is the unassimilable’. (Massumi, 1995: p. 27) Furthermore he discusses that ‘Something that happens too quickly to have happened, actually, is virtual. The body is as immediately virtual as it is actual. The virtual is a lived paradox where what are normally opposites coexist, coalesce, and connect; where what cannot be experienced cannot but be felt-albeit reduced and contained. The body is as immediately abstract as it is concrete; its activity and expressivity extend, as on their underside, into an incorporeal, yet perfectly real, dimension of pressing potential’. (Massumi, 1995: p. 30) The diagram emphasizes those specific, in between moments of the body’s way of interpreting an external source which Massumi expresses as virtual and therefore physically not tangible; the level of complex circuits which compose the series of systems which enable to the human being to perceive the world. It is the representation of the inconceivable, of the temporal, a depiction of the set of parameters which occur outside what is regarded as consciousness. In addition, it explores the idea of a time paradox. It relates with intensity and also that half second, the minimum perceivable lapse necessary to notice any stimulation. It is the virtual reality of a relationship. During the mysterious half second, what we think of as “free,” “higher” functions, such as volition, are apparently being performed by autonomic, bodily reactions occurring in the brain but outside consciousness, and between brain and finger but prior to action and expression. (Massumi, 1995: p. 29)
___________________________________________________________________ Brian Massumi, (1995), Cultural Critique: The Autonomy of Affect, University of Minnesota Press
FLESH 31072011 Teyssot states that, the skin and the clothes refer to codifications of social order such as fashion or social status. Clothes and skin can be manipulated to confer a recognized meaning on the body. All of this activity refers to a code and conforms to a norm. Bodies are deemed to present a unified code by mechanizing them. By becoming a pure sign recognizable so the social level, the body in turn receives a named discourse a proper name an identity. (Teyssot, 1994: p. 12) ‘Aesthetic or cosmetic surgery also aims at erasing characteristic sexual traits, or at camouflaging somatoethnic features, in an effort to attain an ideal, objectified body’. (Teyssot, 1994: p. 18) The diagram is addressing the idea of the enforced alteration upon the human body favouring the acceptable set of rules. Through this process individuality and uniqueness gives way to a unified appearance that is widely recognised. Critical absence results into a blind stream of disciples who conform to this attitude which they adopt by being exposed to a media brainwash, promoting a certain fashion and lifestyle, whether that is translated into clothing or body manipulation. The perfect body and beauty are subjective terms that evolve and are controlled by the industry which addresses them. By adding a psychological stress to the human being they achieve a healthy economic growth, while the population becomes enslaved to their trends. Technological advancement is employed to extend the level of manipulation. Teyssot mentions it as ‘the heroic will to voluntary subject one’s body to an endless cycle of repeated operations, in order to repair it, and make it into an ideal object, instead of accepting it as a place of difference and otherness’. (Teyssot, 1994: p. 17)
___________________________________________________________________ Georges Teyssot, (1994), Flesh: The Mutant Body of Architecture, Princeton Architectural Press
INTENSITIES OF FEELING 08082011 Thrift analyses the operation and potential of bodily performed reactions. Emphasis is given to the face. ‘The living face is the most important and mysterious surface we deal with. It is the centre of our flesh. We eat, drink, breathe and talk with it, and it houses four of the five classic senses’. (Thrift, 2004: p. 72) Especially though the work of the artist, Bill Viola, the impact of his work generates extreme emotional responses from the audience. He decomposes a set of cultural symbols and presents them through a slow motion process to understand them at work. He utilizes historically developed techniques which engage the unconscious of affect. Body movement and spatial formations compose environments through which emotion and physical shape trigger intensity. The artist engages with the face as if it was a colour wheel of emotions. ‘Through our emotion, we reach back sensually to grasp the tacit, embodied foundations of ourselves’ (Thrift, 2004: p. 67) When one is releasing the responses of affect he becomes truly free, as by expressing our emotions and self-reflecting upon them, one develops a better understanding of himself. Confidence is further achieved by familiarising oneself with personally released responses of affect and exploiting their potential. However, Plato warns us that the exposure of emotions is not always positive, when performed unconsciously. That is because it can lead to unhealthy life patterns which can be of significant physical or mental impact, such as alcoholism. A critical balance and an effort to positively engage with the world must be maintained. By controlling the series of the body language mechanisms, one achieves to reach a profound level of communication and interaction with his environment. Applying that understanding and knowledge into professional fields one manages to manipulate reactions and attitudes. An example is given about the way the military disciplines an army in order to be capable of controlling their operation within a battlefield. In addition, the urban space can be consciously and delicately designed to produce certain political response, often by minimal inputs. In the political field, significant political leaders have been in control of the impact of affect. In that tone, freedom and confidence coexist in parallel, as part of being free is to be brave to release the impact of affect, projecting that energy out of the body. On the other hand, if there is a tendency for unconscious release, it can automatically lead to imprisoning yourself to habits, such as drinking. Therefore by being confident, the ability to manipulate the impacts of affect, you become free. Freedom is the controlled release of the impact of affect. The body becomes a medium where an affect from an external source filters through a body into an individual interpretation and projects a reaction out of the body releasing that energy. ___________________________________________________________________ Nigel Thrift, ‘Intensities of Feeling: Towards a Spatial Politics of Affect, in Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography, Volume 86, Issue 1, March 2004, pp. 57–78
OF OTHER SPACES 21082011 Foucault addresses space as the main concern of our time. He analyses the various types of space by placing them within categories. Space as he explains it through his text, is the environment of visible and invisible layers of relations. Therefore, it is equally tangible as intangible, there is an emotional space, an imaginary space, such as the space of our dreams. There is not such a thing as a void, an empty space. Every human being blends in within these existing spatial networks, which are characterized by their program, such as cafes and cinemas or a bedroom and a house. He states than in our time, contradictory spaces, such as working and leisure environments remain in their pure integral state maintaining a fine border amongst each other. Therefore, a practical desanctification of space is not yet possible, even though Galileo theoretically proved an infinitely open space. An example is given about the space created through the mirror, analysing the concept of a utopian space, which basically is a perfect imaginary space or as he states ‘ a placeless place…I am over there, where I am not’ (Foucault, 1986: p. 24) but simultaneously explains it as a heterotopian space as the mirror itself has a physical presence. ‘Once absolutely real, connected with all the space that surrounds it, and absolutely unreal, since in order to be perceived it has to pass through this virtual point which is over there’. (Foucault, 1986: p. 24) Cultural shifts occurring over time alter the meaning of a heterotopia, such as the tradition of cemeteries. A characteristic of heterotopic spaces is the fact that they suggest certain attitude and activity to the person who is willing to enter them, such as prisons and Moslem hammams. Foucault also characterizes carpets as reproductions of gardens ‘onto which the whole world comes to enact its symbolic perfection, and the rag is a short of garden that can move across space’(Foucault, 1986: p. 26). He further describes boats as the great reserve of the imagination for every civilization due to the fact that they are timeless and spaceless, floating independently in the endlessness of the sea constantly moving forward. Within this set of ideas, my diagram captures the sense of the heterotopic space. The chessboard and its pieces are tangible objects but yet within a set of rules they create an intangible space. Therefore the space crafted by the chess pieces can be characterized as a heterotopia as on one hand it is intangible due to the invisible relationships between the pieces but yet tangible as the pieces themselves have a physical presence.
___________________________________________________________________ Michel Foucault, ‘Of Other Spaces’ in Diacritics, vol. 16, no. 1, Spring, 1986, pp. 22-27
ON THE MUSEUM’S RUINS 21082011 The content of the museums is described as spaces with historical fragments which collectively present an image of the world. According to its etymology, a museum is similar to a mausoleum, where objects are in the process of dying, whose relevance to the present is not as significant as their historic value. Crimp further explains that the radical shift in the logic of what was conceived as art enabled to artists such as Rauschenberg to reproduce previous art work. The radical style, of the new with the old further indicated the cultural shift in art and the beginning of postmodernism. As a result of technological advancement, cultural evolution and criticism radically transformed art as a discourse enabling further possibilities. Such are for example a larger discussion, understanding and appreciation of art itself by vast comparison with other pieces. This was enabled by the use of photography, dematerializing the art from its properties as an object and focusing on the moment of the artistic creation while celebrating the creator’s talent. Art work was further unified and made globally accessible by its representation through the medium of the photograph, an artistic essence which provided a profound degree of knowledge. This additionally detached the art work from its historical background, composing a larger view of the evolution of art created by the human being in his most creative moment. Nothing conveys more vividly and compellingly the notion of a destiny shaping human ends than do the great styles, whose evolutions and transformations seem like long scars that Fate has left, in passing, on the face of the earth. (Crimp, 1985: p. 51) The text describes a larger cultural evolution, where work from the past is reproduced and redefined in order to address issues of the present. In a similar fashion, ideas are always influenced by a source of inspiration, a pre-existing concept. It is a process of development in a rational manner, where the previous discovery enables the next discovery. The discovery of fire in a similar manner to the way photography was used for the development of art, illustrates this evolution. It has been used as a fundamental source of heat from generation to generation, constantly being used in a more sophisticated way, spanning the field of its application from cooking to welding to the discovery of extra-terrestrial territories.
___________________________________________________________________ Douglas Crimp, ‘On the Museum’s Ruins’ in Hal Foster, ed.,Postmodern Culture, London: Pluto Press, 1985, pp. 43-56
PANOPTICISM 02092011 The form of discipline is integrated into our society with its various institutional forms. A system which enables the enforcement of discipline is the panopticon principle. It has a psychological impact due to its unconditional function for surveillance of its subjects without them being aware when they are being watched. The major effect of the Panopticon: to include in the inmate a state of conscious and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. (Foucault, 1991: p. 201) The concept of the Panopticon structure enables homogeneous effects of power, as it acts directly on individuals; it gives ‘power of mind over mind’. (Foucault, 1991: p. 206) The inmate must never know whether he is being looked at any one moment; but he must be sure that he may always be so. (Foucault, 1991: p. 201) It still is cruel similar to its predecessors but yet an ingenious cage. A pure architectural and optical system which is a figure of political technology that may and must be detached from any specific use. (Foucault, 1991: p. 205) The embodied potential of this mechanism can lead to tyrannic regimes when utilized within the structure of a society. However, it can be also democratic as everyone can have access to it and understand how the entire structure operates. Temples, theatres and circuses are examples from the antiquity were the panopticon mechanism was embedded within the architecture. Therefore, the Panopticon was an event in the history of the human mind. The modern version of the panopticon network can be understood in the networks spread over the urban environments inhabited by humans. CCTV cameras and police belong to this system. The individual is gradually integrated in this network through a technique of forces and bodies. Cameras in our everyday experience are not considered as foreign urban elements. Similar to traffic lights and electricity poles, they become part of the urban infrastructure. They are constantly challenging the border of our individuality through experimental TV shows such as big brother, which introduces the idea of being constantly under surveillance and therefore become less foreign. An entire culture is developing within the last decade where being able to ‘spy’ into other people’s private life is acceptable through online platforms such as Facebook or Twitter. At the same time, it suggests a democratic approach to the use of this mechanism as anyone can utilize it. Within the structure of Facebook, there is a certain amount of disciplinary rules which the user must conform with, such as the information shared. The network’s socializing nature creates a positive psychological impact to its members, as they are allowed to connect with their friends. The idea therefore of a panoptic view, by tapping into people’s private life, is very present. ___________________________________________________________________ Michel Foucault, ‘Panopticism’ in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, London: Penguin, 1991
SECRET SOCIETIES 02092011 The text discusses the presence of secrets in our time, which ironically is characterized by a continuous stream of information. The presence of a secret is a motivation for further investigation and development. Curiosity is one of the fundamental characteristics of the human nature, which after all has led to a constantly expanding level of sophistication. According to Jan Verwoert, the direct claim of sex, power or money is a mistaken approach as it immediately reinsures the fact that one lacks of these pleasures and therefore will vainly attempt to gain them. A secret can be kept hidden within a group of people, for example in a village community, as they are aware of the fact that they are not supposed to be in hold of the information they are, and therefore keep it safe. On the other hand, historically valuable information has been exchanged to gain reward. The mafia is one case were secrets exist between the rival families and their exposure has major consequences. Information is kept secret in order to survive. However, something leading to your death may also be the key to your promotion. Therefore, scenarios of betrayal are very common, and the relationship structure is constantly fluctuating. Secret information is exposed over time through the medium of music or texts in favour of eternal fame, never to be forgotten, or at least to endure a longer period from a human lifetime. In addition, the relevance of the existence of a secret’s authorship is crucial. Its power relies on it, as the person to whom the information is revealed to, has to place the experience within a context in order to relate to it or have some short of significance. Similar to a piece of art, unless a secret reveals some king of authorship it immediately becomes devalued.
___________________________________________________________________ Jan Verwoert, How do we share? The secret? How will we experience? The mysteries? in Cristina Ricupero, Alexis Vaillant, Max Hollein, eds. Secret Societies, Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt, CAPC Museé d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Snoek.
POSTSCRIPT ON SOCIETIES OF CONTROL 06102011 Deleuze is discussing the shift from disciplinary to control societies. In disciplinary societies, there is a constant movement through major sites of confinement each one with its own laws, the family, the school, the barracks and the factory to name some. These sites are breaking down and are at a terminal decline. For instance, the education minister has announced refinements in the system. From a more discrete consumption of energy during the disciplinary age we are exposed to a continuous range of products never ending at the current control era. Our environment has become fast passed, characterized by the floating exchange rates. The controlled society has not only made frontiers vanish but has maintained the extreme poverty ratio. Opposed to the disciplinary man, the fashionable becomes dominant and the sense of balance and harmony with nature is blurred, as an attitude of unconscious and perpetual consumption is adopted. Capitalism is directed towards production, sales and markets. The equilibrium maintained within the factories between highest production and lowest wages has been taken over by businesses which operate in a more transparent manner. As described by Deleuze, ‘a snake’s coils are even more intricate that a mole’s burrow’ (Deleuze, 1995: p. 182), which precisely depicts the complexity of the control society opposed to the disciplinary world. The new age is highly digitalized and virtual distorting the previous understanding of individuality and signature. However, even though sophisticated technology is utilized as an integral component of this time, such as computers and information technology, yet it has to defend itself against its emergent sophisticated enemies, such as piracy and viral contamination. The shift does not suggest a comparative analysis of the systems’ differences but rather an investigation of the way they free and enslave us. Therefore, it is a matter of discovering new ways of fighting against the new establishment.
___________________________________________________________________ Gilles Deleuze, ‘Postscript on Societies of Control’ in Negotiations: 1972-1990, New York: Columbia University Press, 1995.
THE ORGANISATIONAL COMPLEX 06102011 My attention was drawn towards the explanation under which the American urban planning was conceived. The historic context of the cold war plaid a crucial role as it integrated to the design the scenario of any form of interference, such as a nuclear attack. Wiener, the planner, was obviously shocked by Hiroshima. In addition, great significance was addressed towards maintaining the national communication network in the case of disaster and therefore bypassing critical routes. Furthermore, Giedion’s poetic comparison of the city to an organism is rather fascinating, as he suggests that it becomes an extension to the human body. He states that, a skyscraper is a more advanced organism than a cottage, in the same way that a human being is more sophisticated than an ant. Moreover, Reinhold discusses the volume of the commercial towers, addressing them as monuments of the post war period which suggest the dominance of the corporate authority juxtaposing the previous regime of the church. The verticality that the skyscrapers form introduce, compose a network which expands the limits of the city reaching beyond and therefore connecting the globe, exaggerating the routes of circulation and communication. ‘We have conceived the city as a network of communications and of traffic. The danger of blocked communications in a city subject to emergency conditions is analogous to the danger of blocked communications in the human body’. (Reinhold, 2003) As Giedion states, the city extends the human nervous system reaching outwards in order to maintain equilibrium, so that the internal experiences of the urban environment, such as traffic jams are overcome. Therefore, the individual within the urban context can appreciate a physical and virtual expansion of the potentiality of the human body.
___________________________________________________________________ Reinhold Martin, The Organisational Complex: Architecture, Media, and Corporate Space, Cambridge Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2003.
THE ORDER OF THINGS 09102011 Foucault discusses the notion of relationships between elements, exploring the sense of organization and either familiarising various objects or alienating them from each other. Examples are given from various sciences analysing their relativity by looking at common utilization of processes. People from various disciplines employed the same procedures to define the objects proper to their own study, to explore their ideas and develop their work. For instance, comparisons are made up on distinct elements, such as artificial and natural, tangible and intangible. Organization is further examined under the way distinct words are organized within the dictionary’s alphabetical order. Radically fragmented elements can merge within the ideal setting of a utopian space as Foucault explains. On the contrary, heterotopic spaces are fundamentally separated and therefore they distort language. The moment of the essay which fascinated me the most was the discussion of the aphasiac perception of creating order. Aphasiac people do not have the ability to maintain a rational of order due to their mental illness, so their expressions and reactions are dominated by chaos. Foucault gives an example regarding the organization of various, distinct, colourful pieces of wool. He explains that this group of people lacks of a controlled logic which leads them to an infinite continuation of composing new order relationships. This condition, summarizes the madness of relativity between elements throughout the text, whether they are sharing similarities or are radically different, forming an endless network of order.
___________________________________________________________________ Michel Foucault, ‘Preface’, in The Order of Things, London: Routledge, 1970.
AN INVENTORY OF SHIMMERS 09102011 The text discusses the various theories of affect. Affect is the performance of the body within a context of rhythm. It connects the body with a larger interactive network distorting the sense of its internal and external world. Therefore, bodies are defined by their response to the power of affect. An interesting discovery is made by Roland Barthes who compares the ability to be affected with death. He states that ‘to have a body is to learn to be affected… put into motion by other entities, humans or nonhumans’ (SEIJWORTH+ GREGG, 2010: p. 11). Lateral he applies the same principle for becoming a nose, for instance being trained to work in the perfume industry. Affect is objective, individual and spontaneous according to Ahmed’s writings and so the infinity of everyday affective events compose the life of every individual. Spinoza states that affect cannot be tamed or clearly predicted, as the future forces of affect remain unknown. Equally, theories of affect remain infinite, as there are endless encounters with bodies and affects, never to be contained. An intriguing moment is revealed by the writer regarding Marcus’s description of Lefebvre about the focus of the study of social theorists. He suggests that focus should also include unfamiliar moments to social theorists, who should analyse the affect behind the everyday life, independent thought generation while commuting. This he states could form the basis for entirely new demands on the social order.
___________________________________________________________________ Gregory Seijworth and Melissa Gregg ‘An Inventory of Shimmers’ in Gregory Seijworth and Melissa Gregg eds. The Affect Theory Reader, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010.