For the blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
I B E G I N in Ancient Greece,
with Socrates announcing
Suppose that someone asked you to keep a record of your thoughts, exactly, and in terms of the symbols given, when you are making an effort to multiply XVI times LXIV. Also suppose that, refusing to give up, you finally arrive at the right answer, which happens to be MXXIV. I’m sure that it would’ve been easier for you to solve this problem, if you would have found that 16 times 64 equals 1024.
ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα*
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
I B E G I N in Ancient Greece,
with Socrates announcing
Suppose that someone asked you to keep a record of your thoughts, exactly, and in terms of the symbols given, when you are making an effort to multiply XVI times LXIV. Also suppose that, refusing to give up, you finally arrive at the right answer, which happens to be MXXIV. I’m sure that it would’ve been easier for you to solve this problem, if you would have found that 16 times 64 equals 1024.
ἓν οἶδα ὅτι οὐδὲν οἶδα*
IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
* We find that confusion has always been at the heart of wisdom.
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
* We find that confusion has always been at the heart of wisdom.
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
Centuries later comes a statement many have attributed to Charles Darwin:
“a mathematician is like
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a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.” 7
… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
Centuries later comes a statement many have attributed to Charles Darwin:
“a mathematician is like
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a blind man in a dark room looking for a black cat that isn’t there.” 7
IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
As a scientist committed to cataloguing, explaining, and drawing a clear picture of nature, he was mocking a mathematician’s inability to describe the physical world in anything but abstract and speculative terms. 8
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
As a scientist committed to cataloguing, explaining, and drawing a clear picture of nature, he was mocking a mathematician’s inability to describe the physical world in anything but abstract and speculative terms. 8
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
The confusion of a blind man, however, is an experience of restless curiosity and relentless speculation.
Despite
his blindness, the darkness of the room, the cat’s blackness and its well-known elusiveness, [and the possibility that there might not even be one there], the blind man pursues his appreciation and understanding of the world.
Knowing that he knows nothing is precisely what keeps him going.
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
The confusion of a blind man, however, is an experience of restless curiosity and relentless speculation.
Despite
his blindness, the darkness of the room, the cat’s blackness and its well-known elusiveness, [and the possibility that there might not even be one there], the blind man pursues his appreciation and understanding of the world.
Knowing that he knows nothing is precisely what keeps him going.
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
As a result, Diderot didn’t seek to abolish it, but imagined that
II EVEN DENIS DIDEROT,
(the inventor of the Encyclopedia), did not consider confusion to be the enemy of knowledge. He saw, beyond good or bad, confusion as the condition that defines all of us.
confusion could lead us to a new realism!
and identified positive and productive forms of confusion:
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
As a result, Diderot didn’t seek to abolish it, but imagined that
II EVEN DENIS DIDEROT,
(the inventor of the Encyclopedia), did not consider confusion to be the enemy of knowledge. He saw, beyond good or bad, confusion as the condition that defines all of us.
confusion could lead us to a new realism!
and identified positive and productive forms of confusion:
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
Letter on the Blind
(1749), Diderot In his embraced the confusion of the blind man,
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FOR THE BLIND MAN…
for if understanding the world required “breaking down (‘démêler’ and ‘décomposer’ […]) any subject
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
Letter on the Blind
(1749), Diderot In his embraced the confusion of the blind man,
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FOR THE BLIND MAN…
for if understanding the world required “breaking down (‘démêler’ and ‘décomposer’ […]) any subject
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
to its original, elemental components and then putting them back together again
in an orderly fashion (‘composer’) without skipping any steps,” then the blind man—
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IN A DARK ROOM…
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
to its original, elemental components and then putting them back together again
in an orderly fashion (‘composer’) without skipping any steps,” then the blind man—
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
In 1817, the Romantic poet John Keats spoke of
NEGATIVE CAPABILITY , the ability to tolerate—and even enjoy—the experience of confusion or doubt.
All of a sudden it struck me what quality went to form a man of acheivement: I mean negative capability, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. The sense of beauty obliterates all consideration. with his superior powers of abstraction and speculation— can do it best. 24
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
In 1817, the Romantic poet John Keats spoke of
NEGATIVE CAPABILITY , the ability to tolerate—and even enjoy—the experience of confusion or doubt.
All of a sudden it struck me what quality went to form a man of acheivement: I mean negative capability, when a man is capable of being in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason. The sense of beauty obliterates all consideration. with his superior powers of abstraction and speculation— can do it best. 24
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IN A DARK ROOM…
A century later, in the 1950s, French philosopher Georges Bataille would go further still and insist that the experience of not-knowing is one that causes not only laughter, but an exhilaration similar to a religious experience. He would call this beautiful thing nonknowledge, using a term that places not-knowing inside the fabric of knowledge, and not outside of or in contradiction to it. Nonknowledge is “the passion for not-knowing,” which is not ignorance, but a type of knowledge, one of the ways we come to appreciate, enjoy, and know the world. If Bataille resisted the oppressiveness of moral idealism and absolute knowledge, we rise up again today against the omnipresence of information and stand in defense of the blind man, his speculative and inquisitive spirit, his endless curiosity, and his nonknowledge of the world.
The best explanations might be the ones that keep us somewhat in the dark.
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L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
III I N 2 0 0 2 , a gallery of over 20,000 square feet*, artist
David Hammons simply shut off all the lights and handed visitors small keychain flashlights. Although it would probably take hours or days to be absolutely sure of it, equipped only with their tiny blue light, most viewers soon realized there was nothing at all in the space. Some joked it was a visual art exhibition that blind people could relate to. Others feared they would get lost in the vast darkness and never find their way out. But as Walter Benjamin taught us and Hammons reminds us, the only way to fully present is to be lost.
*Bill Gates’s new mansion comprises 20,000 square feet of living space, with another 20,000 for guest house, sports courts, gardens and garage. The Natomo family of Kouakourou, Mali: 11 people (father, two wives, eight children), 990 square feet. The wives live in separate houses, but do most cooking and childcare together.
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IN A DARK ROOM…
A century later, in the 1950s, French philosopher Georges Bataille would go further still and insist that the experience of not-knowing is one that causes not only laughter, but an exhilaration similar to a religious experience. He would call this beautiful thing nonknowledge, using a term that places not-knowing inside the fabric of knowledge, and not outside of or in contradiction to it. Nonknowledge is “the passion for not-knowing,” which is not ignorance, but a type of knowledge, one of the ways we come to appreciate, enjoy, and know the world. If Bataille resisted the oppressiveness of moral idealism and absolute knowledge, we rise up again today against the omnipresence of information and stand in defense of the blind man, his speculative and inquisitive spirit, his endless curiosity, and his nonknowledge of the world.
The best explanations might be the ones that keep us somewhat in the dark.
26
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
III I N 2 0 0 2 , a gallery of over 20,000 square feet*, artist
David Hammons simply shut off all the lights and handed visitors small keychain flashlights. Although it would probably take hours or days to be absolutely sure of it, equipped only with their tiny blue light, most viewers soon realized there was nothing at all in the space. Some joked it was a visual art exhibition that blind people could relate to. Others feared they would get lost in the vast darkness and never find their way out. But as Walter Benjamin taught us and Hammons reminds us, the only way to fully present is to be lost.
*Bill Gates’s new mansion comprises 20,000 square feet of living space, with another 20,000 for guest house, sports courts, gardens and garage. The Natomo family of Kouakourou, Mali: 11 people (father, two wives, eight children), 990 square feet. The wives live in separate houses, but do most cooking and childcare together.
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
IV IN A MUSEUM OF HIS OWN INVENTION,
Musée d’ ArtModerne,Departement des Aigles
, the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers sought an explanation of a painting by interviewing his cat.
The answers he receives leave him somewhat in the dark:
e u q e , c u t a e Es l b a t n o b n u c’est …? est-ce qu’ils celui-làond à ce que vounscorresp z…de cette trate attendeion toute récen rt formatdu Conceptual Asion qui va te nouvelle ver raà cet certaine figu e? d’une ourrait-on dir tion, p – Is this one a good painting…does it correspond with what you expected… this recent transformation from Conceptual Art to this, one could say, new version of a certain kind of figuration?
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Meaow
– Me-ow
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
IV IN A MUSEUM OF HIS OWN INVENTION,
Musée d’ ArtModerne,Departement des Aigles
, the Belgian artist Marcel Broodthaers sought an explanation of a painting by interviewing his cat.
The answers he receives leave him somewhat in the dark:
e u q e , c u t a e Es l b a t n o b n u c’est …? est-ce qu’ils celui-làond à ce que vounscorresp z…de cette trate attendeion toute récen rt formatdu Conceptual Asion qui va te nouvelle ver raà cet certaine figu e? d’une ourrait-on dir tion, p – Is this one a good painting…does it correspond with what you expected… this recent transformation from Conceptual Art to this, one could say, new version of a certain kind of figuration?
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Meaow
– Me-ow
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IN A DARK ROOM…
We could only be in Broodthaers’ own conceptual museum, a place he created to evoke, dissect, and ultimately puncture the categories of knowledge.
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
Inside it, asking a cat for its opinion on the merits of a painting is an entirely plausible exercise.
. w w o o o o a a . a a h a h e h e h e Me mmmmm . MmmeeAAAAAow M ? z e y o r c s Vou – You really think so?
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IN A DARK ROOM…
We could only be in Broodthaers’ own conceptual museum, a place he created to evoke, dissect, and ultimately puncture the categories of knowledge.
L O O K I N G F O R T H E B L A C K C AT …
Inside it, asking a cat for its opinion on the merits of a painting is an entirely plausible exercise.
. w w o o o o a a . a a h a h e h e h e Me mmmmm . MmmeeAAAAAow M ? z e y o r c s Vou – You really think so?
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
V I N 1 8 8 2 , well before Malevich, the poet Paul Bilhaud
made the first monochrome in the history of art, a small black painting entitled “Negroes Fighting in a Cave by Night.” Appropriating the concept, the humorist Alphonse Allais made a series of illustrations for the Salon des Incohérents in 1883 and 1884, including a blank white piece entitled “First Communion of Anaemic Young Girls in the Snow,” and a red piece entitled “Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes on the Shore of the Red Sea.”
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… T H AT I S N ’ T T H E R E .
FOR THE BLIND MAN…
V I N 1 8 8 2 , well before Malevich, the poet Paul Bilhaud
made the first monochrome in the history of art, a small black painting entitled “Negroes Fighting in a Cave by Night.” Appropriating the concept, the humorist Alphonse Allais made a series of illustrations for the Salon des Incohérents in 1883 and 1884, including a blank white piece entitled “First Communion of Anaemic Young Girls in the Snow,” and a red piece entitled “Apoplectic Cardinals Harvesting Tomatoes on the Shore of the Red Sea.”
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