ceci tuera cela MICHAEL J A CRADOCK
PREFACE The phrase ‘ceci tuera cela’ (literally translated as ‘this will kill it’) is taken from Hugo’s Hunchback of Notre Dame in which Frollo compares a book with his ancient Cathedral. In this context, he expresses his fear that the book will kill the need for a Cathedral, a physical place of didacticism. In essence, that the written word will destroy the image as the primary means of instruction. Since then, the phrase has been taken up by a number of academics to explore this phenomenon further. Marshall McLuhan, for example, compares the television to the book, perpetuating this supercession or destruction of one medium of communication by another. Today, the phrase is most commonly concerned with the idea that the computer will be the death of the book. Just as Michael Heim notes in his book Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, I too do not miss the irony of producing a book arguing that the death of the book is imminent.
CONTENTS 2 preface 5
1 / development of the medium
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2 / the medium as space
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3 / beyond the existing medium
26 afterword
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fig. 1
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1 development of the medium
How does the medium affect the mark making? Why were they invented? Why did these mediums become outmoded? What has replaced them now? What lead to these methods becoming obsolete? What level of complexity of mark is possible? What other dimension do they add to the text? Who used them? What special function does this media fulfill? Are they completely redundant now?
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fig. 2
CLAY TABLET Pictorial symbols appear in Iraq/Mesopotamia around 3400BC, carved into clay tabletsI. I find the amount of dust generated by writing makes longer passages difficult, forward planning and simplification of forms is necessary.
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fig. 3
WOOD Some of the oldest wooden tablets have been found in Vindolanda, in the North of England. It is supposed that wood was a hardier material when faced with the wet British climate and was used by the Romans as a means to bring Latin from the ContinentII. It is, however, nigh on impossible to write neatly on, without a hammer and chisel.
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fig. 4
WAX TABLET More of a jotter or notepad because it can be easily erased with a heated spatula, designed more for the ‘common man’III. Incredibly pleasant experience to write on, however it is largely illegible due to the excessive amounts of excess material generated in the process.
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fig. 5
PARCHMENT Library collections become large collections of parchment scrolls. By the 1st Century AD, the process becomes so advanced codices (books), even the pocket codex, are possibleIV. I find that to stop leeching, the pulp should be mixed with starch before it is dried, thus my ink runs. The quality of the writing surface is poor, yet this can be perfected with practice or industrial methods - mine remains primitive.
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While the written word is ‘the ultimate realisation of centuries of the oral tradition’V, where does the introduction of technology into the literary tradition leave the culture of the written word? Marshall McLuhan’s traces the evolution through the written word. He suggests three stages of development in his chronology: 1 / PRELITERATIVE OR TRIBAL ERA spoken word, ear 2 / GUTENBERG AGE written word, eye 3 / ELECTRONIC AGE OR RETRIBALISED MAN full sensory involvement, senses immaterialVI Let us begin with the change from Stage 1 to Stage 2. With the creation of the written phonetic alphabet, man develops an ability for linear, logical thought. This affects our perception of space. We are forced to see connections, uniformities, continuities. Compare this with Daniel Everett’s assessment of the language spoken (only spoken) by the Piraha tribe in Brazil and one sees evidence to back this upVII. Their speech is completely without connection. Everett has it that the insertion of phrases inside one another simply has no function in an entirely present-tense consciousness. Such a form of thinking states thoughts only in discrete unitsVIII. With the linearity that came with the written, rather than oral, world, we tended away from tribal societies towards a nationalism which extends this uniformity and makes patterns within society and identity. McLuhan goes onto suggest that knowledge obtained from a single source - books - is no longer favoured. With a digital world, nationalism becomes globalismIX. In a unified world, the shared national identity becomes a shared international identity. Finally, a unified support of a digital media is inevitable following his conclusion that ‘all extensions generate obsolescence’.
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2 the medium as space
How do we interact with each material? What associations does it infer? What do they feel like? What spacial qualities does it generate? How do they smell? How does this material make you feel? Where would one use it? What is the taste like? Is it a permanent material? How is it made? What are its aesthetic qualities?
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fig. 6
CLAY This space is cold, rough and dry. Not at all pleasant in many respects, however it bears the marks of the maker, imperfections, dips, sags and impressions which make its surface a pleasure to study. It also looks almost edible. The taste is earthy, crumbly and this is mirrored in the smell.
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fig. 7
WOOD Very smooth and crisp to the touch, with a slight chalkiness from the sanded dust left on the surface. This makes its consistency on the palette unpleasantly cloying, it does not match the piney smell which is invigorating and zingy. The surface has a robustness and immovability that is very reassuring and present, though not forceful. It is a cosy space.
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fig. 8
WAX It forms a naturally smooth surface where gravity wins out yet, in other places, the casting process generates folds and bulges, urging you to touch. It is initially cool to the touch but soon takes on the warmth from your touch, becoming malleable. This space is markable, translucent, ephemeral, carveable. It smells musty. It tastes chemical.
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fig. 9
PARCHMENT Has a permanence to it, something that offers a warmth, cosiness, informality. The roughness and organicism of the forms generated create an easiness; it is tactile, rough, occasionally perforated, dense in places. A more industrial method would make a colder, more clinical space. The colour helps create a warmth. It smells edible. It tastes dry.
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fig. 10
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3 beyond the existing medium
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at the computer interface, the spirit migrates from the body to the world of total representation where information and images float through the Platonic mind without grounding in bodily experience
MICHAEL HEIM / VIRTUAL REALITY
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As the world becomes more and more digitalised, social commentators warn of a dehumanisation of societyI. The loss of the written word principally the book - takes us away from physical comprehension of sensation and towards a society in which instant exposure to disconnected visual images can gratify us. Baudrillard’s theories on this subject conclude that we already exist in a world of simulation: ‘all is composed of references with no referents; a hyperreality’II. Academics such as Alison Muri and Marvin Minsky suggest that the reason for this lies in our understanding of human cognitive system. As we understand more about how we work as beings and the electrical charges that make up all we sense, we begin to comprehend reality on a level devoid of mystery and spirituality. At the same time, we begin to see similarities with how we see information on the screen, where that information is stored and where it comes from. Essentially, our bodies and our texts have become similarly coded bits. Our understanding of body and text has been reversed. For example, we can see DNA code written down before us, like computer code. The belief in a God-created-man and an interest in individuality is replaced by an existence signified by the computerised worldIII.
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fig. 11
GENOME SPECTRA Pixel-mapping of DNA nucleotide base-pair data, where the base-pair color mappings are intended to be as ‘orthogonal’ as possible: C - blue, G - green, A - red and T - white. This is a mere extract.
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as the page becomes immaterial so the self is depicted as immaterial, flickering in a state of virtuality, snagged on the edge of the screen separating world from data OR the conscious mind freed from the body’s limitations suggest the fulfilment of a long-standing desire for transcendence, of which the electronic archive is a secularist versionIV
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fig. 12
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With the unification of body and machine, it is believed by some scientists that within 50 years it will be possible to totally submerge ourselves in technology, essentially downloading our minds onto a hard drive. It is already a common idea in science fiction literature, like Neuromancer and Johnny MnemonicV. To me, this obliterates the need for an afterlife in the religious sense as our minds could now live forever. Baudrillard suggests similar fears for a spiritual crisis in which computer simulation of human soul could see ‘the divinity’ being ‘volatised into simulcra’VI. Parallels can be drawn between this existence and the afterlife in the religious sense, however. Vivian Sobchack’s criticism on science fiction films have suggested, that an existence ‘as ghosts in the machine’ allow us to escape the ills of the physical world; which is essentially the definition of HeavenVII. The idea of a digitised afterlife where people’s thoughts can be stored, or backed-up, begins to take shapeIX. Instead of this afterlife being something outside of human consciousness, I propose that it can be something which is to be accessed by others: a huge database of the knowledge of the dead. However, if every single expired mind is on record, one can draw parallels with the oversaturation of ‘literature’ as a result of the freedom of self-publishing on the internet. With a legaldeposit library in the contemporary sense, such a profusion of information means that secondary, even tertiary buildings are needed to house it. A hierarchy is established: the most useful records are held in the central library with less useful records relegated to enormous warehouse book stacks, still available to the public but not without special requests and delay. I want to create a judgement system to sort this information into useful and useless. If I continue my metaphor of an afterlife, one could suggest, in essence a heaven and a hell. The heaven full of rewarding, useful, inspiring knowledge, the hell full of base, degraded, irrelevant knowledge. I have been using last judgement or ‘doom’ paintings as a starting point for designing space.
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fig. 14
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fig. 15
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HIERONYMUS BOSCH, VISIONS OF THE HEREAFTER These four disturbing images portray the terrestrial and spiritual afterlife. In terms of architectural space, they are incredibly evocative, Heaven being characterised by a feeling of light and ascension whilst Hell has a crushing sense of overshadowing and plummeting.
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fig. 17
MEMORIALISING YOUR FACEBOOK ACCOUNT When a person passes away, we memorialise their account to protect their privacy. When a Timeline is memorialized, we continue to honour the account’s privacy settings and implement security features to protect the account. Facebook Team
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AFTERWORD It is the case that, to a certain extent, a part of ourselves is already virtualised and that, when we die, we will have a sort of immortal presence outside of our bodies that exists only within the internet. Could it not be argued that Facebook, and similar social networking sites, is a recepticle for memories in the form of photographs and messages and photographs and information in the form of birthdates, school information etc (how representative this is of our true selves is up to the user however). We save copious amounts of personal information onto our phones, tablets, laptops, computers: pin numbers, bank details, contact details for ourselves, friends, family, medical records, previous addresses, web settings, passwords. And that’s just the information we give over the machine willingly. Our browsing habits are monitored to build up a profile of us online, keystrokes are logged, preferences saved and shared. Anyone of us has uttered at some point in recent history ‘my whole life is on this...’
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REFERENCES
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Melvin Bragg The Written World, Episode 1 (January 2012) Melvin Bragg The Written World, Episode 1 (January 2012) iii Melvin Bragg The Written World, Episode 3 (January 2012) iv Melvin Bragg The Written World, Episode 2 (January 2012) v Melvin Bragg The Written World, Episode 4 (January 2012) vi Marshall McLuhan The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (University of Toronto Press 1962) vii Everett Language: The Cultural Tool (Pantheon 2012) viii Richard Wirick Abstractless Codes: Non-generalised Speech and the Upending of Contemporary Linguistics, Dapper Dan (January 2013) ix Marshall McLuhan The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (Penguin 1967) i
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Michael Heim Virtual Realism (Oxford University Press 1998) Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulation (University of Michigan Press 1994) Alison Muri Virtually Human: The Electronic Page, the Archived Body, and Human Identity, The Future of the Page (University of Toronto Press 2004) Alison Muri Virtually Human: The Electronic Page, the Archived Body, and Human Identity Chris Speed Jean Baudrillard Simulacra and Simulation Marshall McLuhan The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man (University of Toronto Press 1962) Alison Muri Virtually Human: The Electronic Page, the Archived Body, and Human Identity Michael Heim Metaphysics of Virtual Reality (Oxford University Press 1994)
FIGURES
1 A F Butsch Printing Page Woodcut (Die Bucher-Ornamentik Der Renaissance) www.fromoldbooks.org/Butsch-RenaissanceOrnament-VolII 10 Google Data Centre designcollector.net/inside-google-data-centers/google-data-center-4/ 11 Genome Spectra jme.github.com/gspec/ 12 Hans Memling The Last Judgement (1467-71 ) National Museum in Gdansk, Poland 13 Hieronymus Bosch Terrestrial Paradise (c. 1490-1516) Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy 14 Hieronymus Bosch Ascent of the Blessed (c. 1490-1516) Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy 15 Hieronymus Bosch,Fall of the Damned (c. 1490-1516) Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy 16 Hieronymus Bosch Hell (c. 1490-1516) Palazzo Ducale, Venice, Italy 17 Memorialising Facebook Accounts www.facebook.com/help/359046244166395/