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Kohei Saito on Marx in the Anthropocene - Towards the Idea of Degrowth Communism

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Hi Hille! Dankjewel voor alle bronnen!

Dit is een interessant boek! Ik voel me niet zozeer aangetrokken tot de speculative finance kant, maar wel speculative fiction en speculative philosophy.

Ik heb afgelopen week de volgende artikelen geprint om te lezen voor mijn onderzoek:

p.189 "Life After Man (1981)" by Dougal Dixon

p.215 "Train Dreams (2018)" by Can Xue

p. 22 "Defining Speculation:... (2019) by Steven Shaviro

p. 47 "Contemporary Art is Post-Conceptual Art (2010)" by Peter Osborne

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Today, I'm going to explore science fiction through one key concept, called cognitive estrangement, and one key work: Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed.

But firstly, if you missed it, be sure to check out why you should read science fiction here.

Ok, let's learn some things!

What is cognitive estrangement?

Cognitive estrangement is a term coined by Darko Suvin to explain the effect that science fiction has on its reader. Science fiction is (almost always) a radically imaginative and metaphorical type of literature. And what is it a metaphor of? Our present moment-played out, experimented with, and reflected upon.

The science fiction writer constructs worlds and ideas that estrange us from our own existence, our unexamined assumptions, and the everyday things we take for granted as "normal", as simply the facts of life.

A cognitively estranging text casts a spotlight on our world and the way that we live, by turning it upside down or contrasting it with another. It has the power to make the familiar seem unfamiliar, and the unfamiliar seem familiar. Cool, right?

If that doesn't make immediate sense, then don't worry. I'm going to give concrete examples in a bit.

Also, if the word "estrange" is abstract, try replacing it with "alienate". Indeed, Darko Suvin's concept of cognitive estrangement is heavily indebted to Bertold Brecht's formalist concept of "Verfremdung," or "alienation." But that's a further discussion for another day.

Suvin, in his book Metamorphoses of Science Fiction, defines science fiction as the literature of cognitive estrangement, defined as a "cognitive and critical" structuralist effort to "estrange the author's and reader's own empirical [i.e. observed] environment".

What Suvin is saying, is that there's a clear link between our world and the created worlds in science fiction texts- a cognitive continuum. Sci-fi is often a mechanism for social commentary. The worlds that sci-fi authors create do not exist in an uncritical vacuum, but rather wrestle with the author's own context in which they're produced. It's reflective of and on reality.

And when I say reality, I mean the material nature of reality rather than metaphysical. Although some of the more psilocybin and mescaline-oriented authors enjoy writing about the latter, like in Aldous Huxley's The Doors of Perception!

Imagine a line of string stretching from our present to the fictionalised one created by a science fiction book. The author will stretch this line, ping it and feel the vibrations, artfully weave its course, tighten or loosen the string. Hey, maybe they'll even knit with it. But the point is that they're looking at the difference made by changing certain variables-almost like a fictional experiment. Great texts posit hypotheses: what effect would it have if I did this or that?

Science fiction often does this through a "novum", a device that does not exist in our own reality, and the presence of which compels us to reimagine or reconceive the world. One obvious example would be a time machine.

What's the difference between science fiction and other fiction?

Let's take fantasy, for example. Why isn't fantasy cognitively estranging...?

The fantasy author creates new worlds, right? What makes science fiction special?

Yes, all fiction creates alternative worlds-by its very nature of being it is fictional, a textual representation of a reality, it's an alternative world. But not all fiction is cognitively estranging. Harry Potter, for example, is not crafted as an "imaginative framework alternative to the author's empirical environment" (that's Suvin again). We don't expect what happens at Hogwarts to generate some significant understanding or reflection of how our society operates.

Sure, people learn lessons from the witches & wizards of Harry Potter and the lions & satyrs of The Chronicles of Narnia, but the reader is not expected critique and question their dominant understanding of the world after the events of the Triwizard Tournament. Structural and societal analysis is often sidelined in favour of moral and didactic lessons.

In Harry Potter, an unchanged representation of everyday human society co-exists unwittingly with magic society, partitioned by spells and enchantments. In ... Narnia, the characters pass from the normal world, through a wardrobe, and into this "other" world. Ultimately, the link between reality and fiction is less critical-in fantasy, you don't really have to think about linking Narnia to humanity, because the cognitive link is either already there, or largely unimportant.

Let's use a generalisation to put it simply: where fantasy operates on boundaries, science fiction works through contrast and comparison.

Science fiction, instead, encourages the "distancing" and "pulling back from reality... in order to see it better", in the words of Ursula Le Guin. Science fiction uses technological and interplanetary devices showing drastically different worlds, to shed light on our own. It aims to see the difference that different variables make to our own society. Make sense?

Other genres of fiction may contain elements of cognitive estrangement, but no other literary genre is as committed to asking fundamental questions underlying our world as science fiction.

It's not that science fiction is special or better. But it is certainly more disposed towards, and historically structured around, social commentary and critique. I don't know about you, but I don't often read fantasy and think:

...Hmm, I wonder what the author is saying when they decided to foreground elves and feudal monarchy in this text?

Hey, maybe we could restructure our world's economic order around The Shire!

Man, I hope I never have to worry about fire drakes burning my town...

Do you see it? Fantasy doesn't beg you to make such sweeping comparisons. But science fiction does. It pleads with you to consider. You're likely to read Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep and think:

...I guess the future of artificial intelligence and its ethical implications really could shake things up, huh? Hadn't thought of that way!

Sci-fi is rooted in reality without being tied to it. Fantasy is untied from reality-no one believes in dragons. Except for Charlie Day, that is.

Historical fiction, on the other side of the spectrum, is invariably tied to facts and realities. Sci-fi sits is sitting pretty, chilling nicely in between, getting to make comments without being "real". Lucky genre.

I'm not knocking fantasy or any other literature. If you love imaginative works already, then you'll likely love science fiction. The line between popularly consumed stuff and the science-fictional stuff isn't as big as it might seem.

So, in summary, science fiction offers new perspectives-encouraging us to think of our life through the prospect of possible difference.
But what does science fiction make us question, then?
Answer: all kinds of things! What is this world of ours? What are we doing? What's possible? How do we think, and why do we think this way?

Let's take some examples to really clarify things.

Examples of cognitive estrangement in science fiction books

1. Margret Atwood's Oryx and Crake raises questions about misuses of bioengineering through developments in science that leads to an engineered apocalypse.

Maybe there weren't any solutions. Human society, corpses and rubble. It never learned, it made the same cretinous mistakes over and over, trading short-term gain for long-term pain.

-Margaret Atwood, Orxy and Crake

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein-to give one of the oldest, most classic examples there is-comments upon the danger of playing with life and death through the novum of, well... stitching a body together and animating it with life. Then she watches it cry as it realises what a strange, non-human creature it is.

"Did I request thee, Maker, from my clay
To mould me man? Did I solicit thee
From darkness to promote me?"

-John Milton, Paradise Lost (cited in the foreword to Frankenstein)

3. Brave New World envisions a dystopia where Fordism and eugenics rule. The world is so optimised and drugged that it seems to its inhabitants perversely perfect. By reading it, the reader begins to understand exactly why over-optimisation of society down certain paths becomes anti-utopian.

But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.
-Aldous Huxley, Brave New World

These are all great examples of cognitive estrangement at play in some key texts. Notice how it often looks at things that are somewhat within the realm of possibility, such as bioengineered fallout. The texts then spend time considering the what-ifs, the warnings, and the desirable or undesirable futures of technology and humankind.

Thinking about it, mulling over how you could interrogate the world through a certain change-by cognitively estranging it-would actually be a foolproof method of generating science fiction plots. You're welcome!

How is cognitive estrangement used in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed?

The author that got me into science fiction wasn't Heinlein, Asimov, or Clarke. No, it was the OG himself-H.G Wells. However, I think that the text that best illustrates my position today is Ursula Le Guin's incredible book, The Dispossessed!

What Ursula Le Guin does in The Dispossessed, basically, is view a version of our world from an outside perspective. She takes a fictionalised and alternative universe that's reminiscent, but not the same, as ours. The main character is a human named Shevek. While he's a human, he is technically an "alien"-because he was brought up on a completely different planet! He's familiar, yet strange. And he's a physicist, who has laid the foundations for instantaneous communication across the universe.

He has to visit the planet "Uras" on a scientific mission. Uras is the planet that his moon homeworld "Anarres" orbits around. On Urras there are many cities and regions, but he spends almost all of his time in the city of "A-Lo", which stands in as a metaphor for an American-style capitalist, patriarchal, and meritocratic society.

The people on Anarres are descendants of the people on Uras-they are the great-grandchildren of Urasi revolutionaries that were shipped to the moon, so as to avoid political insurgency.
Think of Uras as Earth and Anarres as our Moon, if that helps. The Earth's government sent its revolutionaries to live on the moon.
On this revolutionary-suffused moon, though, they haven't declined into barbarism. No, they've created their own alternative society where work is cycled and allocated by a supercomputer, where everyone is encouraged to pursue their own passion, where personal freedom is based above everything... but not as we'd understand the term "freedom".

Le Guin ingeniously uses language as a medium to explore the differences between societies: on Shevek's moon homeworld, there is no such word as "my" or "mine"; they use the term "more central" over "higher" to signify "better"; it makes no sense for 'a man to say he had "had" a woman, because such understanding of sex and possession doesn't exist. Le Guin does this to emphasise power dynamics embedded within our language, by presenting an inverted society that rarely uses singular possessive verbs and pronouns.

On his first visit to this earth-but-not-earth of Anarres, Shevek is shocked and dismayed. Like, straight up distressed. From his point of view, the world is entirely deranged, broken, and upside-down. The way he reacts to life on our metaphorical planet is basically the literary equivalent of this famed meme:

We see a representation of society, our economy, and our relations in a new context through Shevek's eyes. It's jarring, and often even comical, to see our world held up to inspection from this outsider's perspective. But it's also shockingly illuminating. Our cognition is estranged; our understanding is reframed.

The purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold as 'twere the mirror up to nature: to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image, and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure - Shakespeare, Hamlet

Le Guin holding up the mirror to our nature has the remarkable effect of seeing the world fresh, as if through new eyes. I would really recommend reading this book for this consequence alone.

The whole text is refracted through Shevek's anarchist perspective, looking at our world through a new lens. By highlighting Shevek's shock at our lives, Le Guin elucidates how narrow and incomplete our usual views of humanity may be.

Have you ever wondered what a complete outsider would think of our world?

Well, Le Guin took that idea and ran with it!

Or, are you a little tired of reading through the perspective of the mundane every-man?

OK then, try an anarchist from the moon!

Le Guin contrasts our messy, hierarchal capitalist society with a classless, Kropotkin-styled planet. She doesn't do this in a preachy and prescriptive way, though: the book was tentatively titled The Dispossessed, An Ambiguous Utopia, if that tells you anything. Shevek's home planet is not there to say: this is what the world should be like,but rather, this is how radically different the world might look like. Radical imagination, hegemony, utopian impulse etc etc etc. All of those concepts. It makes you think outside the box, basically.

The Dispossessed Quotes

On Anarres, they live by ideas much different to ours. Here are some choice quotes:

You have nothing. You possess nothing. You own nothing. You are free. All you have is what you are, and what you give.

Those who build walls are their own prisoners. I'm going to go fulfil my proper function in the social organism. I'm going to go unbuild walls.

The Dispossessed is a textbook example of cognitive estrangement. It's an incredibly creative approach towards "dynamic transformation rather than a standard mirroring" of the author's environment, as Suvin writes.

Side note alert: there's a whole thing about science fiction versus sci-fi and soft science fiction versus hard science fiction. It's basically all about whether the books are 100% scientifically accurate, or possible, rather than taking liberties with science. Also, whether the stories take place in a world that currently, technically exists or if they're entirely speculative. Think of the books we're looking at today as speculative fiction, or as science fiction, or even fantasy if you like-I don't care, doesn't matter. I've used whatever term. As Atwood herself said, when you get up close to genres and sub-genres, it's like "nailing jelly to a wall".

More critical theory on cognitive estrangement and science fiction

Nick Hubble, a science fiction studies academic, terms what Le Guin does in The Dispossessed as "defamiliarisation of taken-for-granted reality"; there's certain liminality to the genre in the way that it "pushes to the edges to better illuminate the centre."

Similarly Ernst Bloch, in The Spirit of Utopia, says that we, as a people, are "located in our own blind spot, in the darkness of the lived moment". In other words, we have to look at what is not the current reality, in order to gain a novel perspective on our contemporary moment.

I think that what Le Guin is doing, put simply, is using Shevek's perspective to critique...

The wall around our thoughts that we are utterly unaware of.

The way she writes the book, the way Shevek ruthlessly interrogates the world around him-it challenges our unexamined opinions in a way that's reminiscent of the way children-free from social, economic, and political biases-can ask questions from a uniquely untainted, and often jarring perspective.

Le Guin uses this very device/phenomena in The Dispossessed, when a flashback young Shevek and his friends question the concept of prison, struggling to understand the notion of coercion. The children ask, innocently:

Why did the prisoners not just leave? How could they be forced to do work?

These are examples of unexplored assumptions in our society: self-evident truths that require an outside perspective to demystify rather than exist unquestioned as truisms.

Le Guin does a remarkable job of allowing the reader to see things differently. She reverses questions around how a society based on voluntary cooperation could work, by positing the opposite question from a reverse perspective. Shevek argues that "initiative" is "the natural incentive to work" and contends that "the strongest in the existence of any social species, are those who are most social". Le Guin thereby asks the reader to examine the most basic beliefs of the modern age, such as man's Darwinist need for competition.
Essentially, Le Guin wants to raise the problem of how we take for "granted certain relationships which the other [cannot] even see"-she wants us to peer over those walls.
Reflections on cognitive estrangement and Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed on our world today

There's a whole discussion on the modern versus the postmodern here, too. On how it's theorised that when we were in the modern age, we believed we could change and shape the world-and in the postmodern age, we're certain that things never change. But everything I could say on this has already been said best by Fredric Jameson, who's written whole books on our "windless present". Science fiction, for me, is so interesting because its a cure to political and social atrophy-it empowers us to confront how fragile a sense of continuity is; how fleeting the status quo, how flexible the future. How prime for inventing, rather than forever tumbling toward more of the same.

I think that COVID-19 is one of the few events in my recent memory that shocked people into realising that we're part of an ongoing history made by humans, a real historical process, and that things always can and always will change. It violently forced a whole word to realise that our sense of "normal" can be pierced like a bubble drifting toward an unknown sky. It made us accept that our normal was a young, delicate fiction-that next year won't look like this year, and made us examine seldom-questioned assumptions about reality. Just like science fiction does. And just like how Suvin saw science fiction as an act of of revolution, a way of showing how "things could be different".

Anyway, back to Le Guin. She explores the nature and limits of what it is to be human, through a very imaginative, lucid, and engaging format; she pushes our understanding as far as she can; she explores the consequences and processes of new or possible technologies; she looks at our own lives and customs from an alien perspective. Can you ever say you've read something that does all of that? So much of what we read looks at human relationships, as they exist in our current society, through the perspective of, well, a human. And that's great! But it's great to look elsewhere, too. Our imaginations love the change, and so many great things are born in our imagination.

Le Guin said her aim was to go into the "inner lands" of imagination, to supply readers with "the best and purest nourishment that it can absorb". Because...

"If you cannot or will not imagine the results of your actions, there's no way you can act morally or responsibly", she says in an interview...

"Little kids can't do it; babies are morally monsters-completely greedy. Their imagination has to be trained into foresight and empathy."

What a woman, eh? Her book, Tales From Earthsea, inspired the Miyazaki Studio Ghibli film of the same name, on which she had a fair bit to say. Her Left Hand of Darkness series is oft-regarded as the best example of feminist science fiction, considered by many to be the book that changed everything.

Cognitive estrangement, science fiction, and The Dispossessed: let's conclude

I think that's all today. I've gone on for too long. But ultimately, I'd like to say that cognitive estrangement is a great way of conceptualizing science fiction and the value that it offers. How powerful it can be, and how engaging when done right.

When you read it now, you'll know exactly what it's doing and how it achieves it. Probably.

And if you take anything from this article, I hope it's to give The Dispossessed a read. I promise, you won't regret it. I would offer you a money-back-guarantee or something. But that would really miss the point of the book.
Get your copy here.
If you enjoyed, and are looking for some great texts to start with, read my top 5 science fiction books to get you hooked!

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What is Cognitive Estrangement? On Science Fiction & Le Guin

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We explore Darko Suvin's concept of cognitive estrangement, using Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed. We're gonna learn some things. Let's go...!

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A wide-ranging investigation of what speculation is, and what is at stake for artistic, curatorial, critical, and institutional practices in relating to thei…

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CLOT Magazine | An online publishing platform dedicated to the most experimental art forms

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Language has been granted too much power. The linguistic turn, the semiotic turn, the interpretative turn, the cultural turn: it seems that at every turn lately every "thing"-even materiality-is turned into a matter of language or some other form of cultural representation. Language matters. Discourse matters. Culture matters. There is an important sense in which the only thing that does not seem to matter anymore is matter [1].
-Karen Barad

The boundaries between arts, humanities, and science are getting thinner since the 1970s thanks to scholars like Donna Haraway, Karen Barad, Jane Bennett, and many more. The fluidity between these different branches enabled transdisciplinarity in artistic research and artist-scientist collaborations. The scope of artistic research is vast, but in this text, I am focusing on specific artistic research that uses scientific methodologies and merges them with speculative design.

Furthermore, the focus of this text is to discuss matter and its materiality within the frame of critical feminist posthumanism, which allows inclusivity of non-human agency and explores the more-than-human consciousness, altering materiality and "storied matter [2]." My discussion will eventually focus on speculative design, and I aim to unpack the relationality of the duo exhibition Matter to Matter [3].

Science fiction, world-making, and storytelling transformed not only artistic practices but also scholarly thinking. Donna Haraway's A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century [4] proposed SF (a term that encompasses science fiction, speculative fabulation, and string figure) as a methodology to shift perspectives and ways of thinking beyond the Western construct of realism and materialism.

As a critique of Marxist materialism, the new materialism methodology conveyed in the academic world influenced artistic practices and methods. Haraway's SF methodological toolset includes playfulness, speculation, and storytelling. Haraway's riddle-like quote explores the stories of the matter:

It matters what matters we use to think other matters with; it matters what stories we tell to tell other stories with; it matters what knots knot knots, what thoughts think thoughts, what descriptions describe descriptions, what ties tie ties. It matters what stories make worlds, what worlds make stories [5].

Furthermore, Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann's ecocritical tool, "storied matter," also widens the imagination, storytelling, and understanding of sentient beings beyond human consciousness. "Storied matter" includes non-human and more-than-human agents and creates a mutuality with humans. The matter carries its embodied story to different generations and beings. Their stories enable and inspire artists to speculate and narrate through their lenses. Therefore, speculative design manifests as another tool for artists to engage matter and materiality critically [6].

The "speculative design" [7] concept, which was coined by Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, is a methodological playground to imagine and create other worlds and alternatives. Speculative design's methodology starts with "what if" questions to challenge and propose realities and materialities.

The Matter to Matter exhibition appropriates these methods and thoughts, bringing togethertwo projects, Reflecting on Altering Matter by Inga Aleknavičiūtė and You and I, You and Me by Mindaugas Gapševičius and Maria Safronova Wahlström. Within the framework of speculative design methodologies-which suggest futuristic, hybrid, and fictional possibilities and ideas-this dual exhibition questions and proposes alternatives to the human perception of senses, matter, material, and objects.

Reflecting on Altering Matter is an artistic research on deinking sludge, a residual material leftover from the paper-recycling process. The material has been mainly used for concrete and brick making or energy production so far. The project proposes different ideas and alternative ways of using deinking sludge for objects and furniture that would be integrated into daily life. The artist Inga Aleknavičiūtė invites the audience to explore deinking sludge, which "primarily consists of inorganic mineral fillers, short cellulosic fibers and fines, coating, ink particles, extractive substances, and deinking additives." [8]

The consistency of this mud-like material impacts and indicates the form and structure of the objects. Aleknavičiūtė's selection of objects and furniture is not coincidental. Her artistic research and experimentation with deinking sludge became a table and chair. The artist's choice of object is a gesture toward a cyclic closure-the newspaper one could read while sitting at this table will eventually become the table itself. Reflecting on Altering Matter explores the possibilities of deinking sludge as an alternative material for artists/designers.

Jane Bennett explains that electricity, or the stream of vital materialities called electrons, is always on the move ... and sometimes it chooses its path on the spot, in response to the other bodies it encounters and the surprising opportunities for actions and interactions that they afford [9]. Mindaugas Gapševičius and Maria Safronova Wahlström speculate on the possibility of communication through electricity, and they explore the encounters that Bennett mentioned in the performative and interactive project You and I, You and Me.

The project is realised in collaboration with jewellery designer Helga Mogensen and shoe designer Leon Crayfish, and it questions the perception of the environment through electricity. The project utilises interactive and hybrid wearable objects, inviting the audience to experience and explore the impact of electricity. For example, how far could electricity help in understanding the other? Is it possible to alter human senses by electric impulses?

Based on the research on brain-to-brain interfaces, including the study A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information [10] by Miguel Pais-Vieira et al., the headwear designed for the project uses the electrical impulses that are detected while using electroencephalography (EEG), and brain stimulation is triggered by passing DC current through electrodes (tDCS)-a noninvasive method to treat the depressive disorder, increase empathic abilities, or decrease antisocial behaviour in violent offenders.

The headwear design, which is embroidered with the electronic setup, reminds of historical hat patterns and shapes. However, comparing this design to the symbolism of the Renaissance era, in which the hat shapes represent identity and economic class, the headwear of You and I, You and Me, imagine creating a universal communication tool-human to human and human to non-human beings.

The set of jewellery in the project reveals the fact that the human body produces low levels of electric current that can power a small LED (which is embedded in rings, necklaces, and bracelets) [11]. Being very sensitive, the flashing of the LED depends on humidity, temperature, contact with the body, and other parameters that affect the components used for the circuit, or perhaps the parameters of our body change and, with them, the LED blinking. Everyone may find their own answers.

The shoes in the project showcase another speculative idea that human excess heat could be used to produce electricity. In these series of objects, artists question the possibility of using the excess heat to charge their shoe synthesisers. What if human excess heat were used to charge cellphones, or chips embedded in the bodies?

The participatory layer of the artwork takes the audience to a future scenario where humans, computing machines, and various hybrids share the space they inhabit. Senses are altered, and some have an inextricable linkage to computing devices. In this speculative design framework, a sci-fi-storytelling toolset reveals itself, and artists suggest that humans take the responsibility of reshaping social ties to avoid being controlled by corporations and machines.

The Matter to Matter exhibition at Biorama Weisse Villa brought together Reflecting on Altering Matter and You and I, You and Me,which were nurtured and inspired by posthumanist discourses, speculative design, and artistic research methodologies. Both projects raised questions and proposed ideas to look at matter and material from different angles. These ideas and proposals are futuristic, yet also invite the audience, producers, engineers, and scientists to look outside of the box and imagine a different way of thinking beyond an anthropocentric approach.

[1] Karen Barad, "Posthumanist Performativity: Toward an Understanding of How Matter Comes to Matter", Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 28, no. 3 (2003): 801-31. p. 801.
[2] "Storied Matter" is a conceptual tool created by Serenella Iovino and Serpil Oppermann, which "underlines the idea that matter is not only lively, agentic and generative, as it is theorized in the new materialist paradigm, but also densely storied." Serpil Oppermann, (2008) "Storied Matter" in Posthuman Glossary, ed. by Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova (London; New York: Bloomsbury Publishing), pp. 411-14.[3] The exhibition was on display at the BIORAMA-Projekt between September 4 and October 30, 2021, http://www.biorama-projekt.org/uploads/6/2/0/7/62072661/final_2021_wv_exhib_review.pdf.
[4] Haraway, D. J. (1985) "Cyborg manifesto: Science, technology, and social-feminist in the late 20th century," Social Review 80, pp. 65-108.
[5] Donna J. Haraway, Staying with the Trouble: Making Kin in the Chthulucene (Durham, London: Duke University Press, 2016),p.12.
[6] Serpil Oppermann, "Storied Matter," in Posthuman Glossary, ed. Rosi Braidotti and Maria Hlavajova (London; New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2018), pp. 411-14.
[7] Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Speculative Everything: Design, Fiction, and Social Dreaming (MIT press, 2013).
[8] Friedrich Steffen et al., "Valorization of Waste Streams from Deinked Pulp Mills through Anaerobic Digestion of Deinking Sludge," BioResources 12, no. 3 (2017): 4547-66.
[9] Jane Bennett, Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010).
[10] Miguel Pais-Vieira et al., "A Brain-to-Brain Interface for Real-Time Sharing of Sensorimotor Information," Scientific Reports 3, no. 1 (28 February 2013): 1319, https://doi.org/10.1038/srep01319.
[11] Mindaugas Gapševičius, 'You and I, You and Me', 2021, http://triple-double-u.com/you-and-i-you-and-me/.

(Pictures courtesy of the photographers)

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'Toward Speculative World-Makings' by Tuçe Erel

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Writer & curator Tuçe Erel dives into the Matter to Matter exhibition that brings together Reflecting on Altering Matter & You and I, You and Me

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The Camille Stories - Staying with the Trouble - Donna Haraway - Short film sum-up Documentary

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The Camille Stories - Staying with the Trouble - Donna Haraway - Short film sum-up Documentary

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The Camille Stories - Staying with the Trouble - Donna Haraway - Short film sum-up Documentary

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Donna Haraway : Story Telling for Earthly Survival ...

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This scene is a message from a liveable future, for our earthly survival. It is part of the material which have…

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Using Donna Haraway’s “Speculative Fabulation” for Mental Wellness

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Whether in regards to feminist ideology, contemporary politics or world histories, anthropologist Donna Haraway tells us that the…

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"Working on and against [the dominant ideology] is a strategy that tries to transform a cultural logic from within, always laboring to enact permanent structural change while at the same time valuing the importance of local or everyday struggles of resistance." - Munoz, Disidentification

In a world plagued by systemic oppression, climate change, and a pandemic, daydreaming of a better future may seem like a playful way to escape everyday stress. Instead of thinking of daydreaming as a petty distraction from the present, speculating on a future free from stress and oppression is actually an essential art that helps us find new ways of coping with the trauma of living in these challenging times. Exercising foresight may include daydreaming, but also includes other speculative art forms, such as literature, visual media, technical documents (ie. urban plans, industrial design), etc. Speculative art derives various stories of the future from present struggles, while telling alternative stories about how the world came to be. This form of radical imagination provokes a wider conversation and critical reflection on the future we are constructing. It is a mechanism that forces us to examine, process, and build past our societal trauma.

As part of our collaborative Afrotectopia syllabus, the Afrotectopia Imagineers, myself included, selected weekly readings that were related to various topics related to visioning vibrant Black futures. In addition to the readings, the Imagineer fellowship also included weekly Imaginariums and Fellowships guests. A new skill that I built during the fellowship was using speculative art and worldbuilding as a language to help me critically examine our present world and escape into a creative alternative. Out of the range of ideas, forms, and people I engaged with throughout the Fellowship, speculative art was a common thread that took many forms. From Octavia Butler's "Parable of the Sower" to Olalekan Jeyifous' Imaginarium discussion and Rafael Smith's " Saturday Sketches ", each artist's particularly crafted fictions uncovers and translates societal frustrations, fears, trauma, and hopes into empathetic emergent strategies. Imagining radical futures surfaces possibilities from the future, and inspires present action and new forms of solidarity.

"The only form of fiction that I know of that is truly revolutionary is science fiction and speculative fiction...not only is it revolutionary to mean to say it overthrows a way of thinking; it also puts pressure on you to figure out what are you going to do now that you're here." - Walter Mosley

In " Solar Powered Reparations ", Rafael Smith developed a creative strategy of utilizing near future technologies to close the widening racial wealth gap. By merging the science of solar-power satellites, racial justice in climate change, and reparations, these seemingly disparate topics create a language that connects the dots between interconnected forms of oppression in our current society and develops possible tools to overcome these challenges. Rafael's work provides a critical and optimistic space that acknowledges the trauma of race and inequality in America, while moving forward with a way with coping and moving past this pain. Speculative art, like Rafael's work, makes my lived experience as a Caribbean-American woman of color feel seen, valued, and empowered. Since I live in a world where an existence like mine is constantly overlooked and undervalued, engraving my existence into an empathetic and hopeful future world helps me cope with the pain of my everyday oppression.

Art like Rafael's illustration forces me to be deliberate about acknowledging how I live in a world that continues to exploit Brown and Black communities limiting our access to gain wealth and flourish in society. Although this is a pain that I feel and witness daily, this forced acknowledgment makes the invisible system of oppression tangible and provides me with potential actionable ways of overcoming that aspect of our lived experience. I believe radical imagination from marginalized communities is an essential form of healing from societal trauma by protecting space for emancipatory aspiration and critical optimism.

Although an artist may express their individual radical imagination through individual art, healing through speculative art can be a collective process. Creating a world for marginalized people built by marginalized people creates solidarity against the oppression we face. Without radical imagination, we are only left with the oppression's vision of a world that continues to keep us at the margins. Without radical imagination, where is hope? Where is survival?

In creating a vision of the future, visual representations of what our future could look like are incredibly powerful. From large-scale productions like Kehinde Wiley's work to the architectural renderings of Olalekan Jeyifous and J. Max Bond Jr., make radical visions of the future seems less abstract and more real and attainable. For example, when J. Max Bond Jr. was co-designing a community-led master plan for Harlem in 1968, Bond Jr. created sketches of what a vision of Harlem would look like in the absence of urban renewal. In these historic sketches, there are people with Afros raising their fists in solidarity as they stroll past each other on a comfortable street lined with trees. Given that these sketches were made in a time where images of Black people were not included or honestly portrayed in art and media (even though we still have a long way to go in this present time), Bond Jr.'s celebration of Black identity and the Black aesthetic forced the mainstream to reckon with the existence and beauty of Blackness.

Olalekan Jeyifous' work also uses architecture as a powerful medium of capturing the imagination of Afrofuturist cities. Jeyifous' "Shanty Mega-Structures" are breathtaking renderings that reimage African cities and celebrates the aesthetic of informal marginalized communities. When Olalekan shared his work during an Afrotectopia Imaginarium, I was excited by how he carefully examined and celebrated ways that informal communities can survive in a future of resource scarcity and continued marginalization. In his reflection, Olalekan shared even though he is passionate about his ideas for the future of African cities, he's not African. Therefore he has to be critical in the way he creates his art in a way that doesn't fetishize "ruin porn" for the consumption of the Western gaze. Olalekan's reflection highlights an important point about solidarity and the Black aesthetics. Although the power of speculative art is collective, the point of radical imagination is to inspire critical conversations, rather than being a prescriptive aesthetic. We must create polychromatic visions that celebrate our survival and build solidarity amongst the diaspora.

Before Afrotectopia I considered myself a daydreamer; I could only dream of what a just future could look like. By having my world be expanded by the amazing Syllabus readings and conversations with my fellow Imagineers, I will no longer discount my daydreams as pointless distractions. These dreams are seeds of my radical imagination planting vibrant and speculative visions, which provide me with tools that can help me heal and actualize a hopeful world that is for me, for us. My dreams are only the threads of a speculative tapestry that is in a continual state of curiosity, evolution, emergence, and revolution.

"The role of the artist is to make the revolution irresistible" - Toni Bambara

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Speculative Art: Healing through radical imagination

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In a world plagued by systemic oppression, climate change, and a pandemic, daydreaming of a better future may seem like a playful way to escape everyday stress. Instead of thinking of daydreaming as...

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Ways of Being Alive, Baptiste Morizot | 9781509547210 | Boeken | bol

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Ways of Being Alive (Paperback). The ecological crisis is a very real crisis for the many species that face extinction, but it is also a crisis of...

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Als het aan deze Russische wetenschappers ligt

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Dag Nina,

Een van de dingen die terugkomt is verlangen, maar ook verlangen naar iets onbereikbaars. Misschien verlangen naar het andere. Zoals een spoor van paard (was een paard het geloof ik?) in permafrost in Siberië. Lees artikel Post 1, deze vindt je vast interessant in deze context. Verlangen naar het onmogelijke.

Je doet ook onderzoek naar schrijven, wat een zin kan zijn bijvoorbeeld. Daarnaast wil je ook nadenken over de vorm van het boek. We hadden het er ook over of de reflectieteksten mogelijk onderdeel van het boek kunnen zijn. We zaten daarnaast te denken aan nog een keukenboek met de ingrediënten die de basis vormen voor je eten/verhalen. Je kunt de verhalen zelf verbinden aam de woorden recept 1, recept 2, enzovoort. Dat leek jou een goed idee.

Mogelijk kunnen we denken aan een combinatie. De reflectieteksten zouden onderdeel van het boek met verhalen kunnen zijn, terwijl het keukenboek met verzameling bronnen een apart boek kan zijn. In de reflectie-verslagen kunnen reflecties op de teksten zitten en in het keukenboek de ingrediënten en kennis voor je teksten, zoals info over het weekdier, mogelijk artikelen die je hebt gebruikt, dingen die je daarin hebt onderstreept. Of aantekeningen wat je interessant vindt aan het weekdier, het keukenboek is de achtergrond waaruit je hebt gevist voor je verhalen. In de reflectieverslagen kun je ingaan op het schrijven. Wat je hebt bijvoorbeeld uitgeprobeerd hebt met de zin, waar je tekst cultureel naar kan verwijzen, wat de teksten mogelijk met elkaar gemeen hebben. De reflectieverslagen zijn analytischer en reflectiever van aard ten opzichte van de verhalen.

We kunnen plannen maken met teksten? Wil je alle teksten in een boek of verschillende boeken? En we kunnen voor elke tekst een reflectieverslag (reflectieverslag 1 die bij verhaal 1 hoort) doen en tegelijk de achtergrond info waaruit je vist in het keukenboek doen (recept1).

Het weekdier vind ik een mooi voorbeeld. Het is heel interessant wat je al weet over het dier. Daar heb je blijkbaar al onderzoek naar gedaan. Het idee dat het zacht is en dat het huisje door andere worden gebruikt. In een reflectieverslag kun je met iemand op het verhaal reflecteren. Wat de tekst oproept bijvoorbeeld. Wat de metaforen mogelijk zeggen. Welke bronnen je mogelijk hebt gebruikt en hoe die je hebben geïnspireerd voor het verhaal. Zo is het weekdier een mooi voorbeeld van connectie, kwetsbaarheid, kracht. Het laat je nadenken over je eigen maatschappij, waarin we moeite hebben een schelp/huis te delen, het laat je nadenken over kinship, dat de schelp van iedereen is. Ook vond ik het verband interessant dat je legde met de grafsteen in jouw voorouderlijke dorp. Hoe de steen zorgt voor een afbraak van het lichaam en ook weer daar kunnen worden begaven. Mogelijk kun we in de reflectieverslagen veel schrijven over deze verbanden en wat die verbanden mogelijk zeggen. In het keukenboek kan bijvoorbeeld een wetenschappelijk artikel over dat grafsteen, een foto van de steen, mogelijk een verslag van historicus over deze steen.  Ik kan je trouwens ook dit boek aanraden: https://www.bol.com/nl/nl/f/ways-of-being-alive/9300000040164662/

Mogelijk sta je in de traditie van speculatieve fiction of speculatieve confubalation (fabulering) zoals beschreven door Donna Haraway. Het creëren van mogelijke werelden, of al bestaande werelden maar dan bekeken vanuit een niet-menselijk perspectief waardoor we nieuwe werkelijkheden ervaren die ons doet reflecteren op bestande werkelijkheid. Mogelijk dat je verhoudt tot dit genre, zie boek.

Nog een suggestie: You could incorporate endnotes into your script. These will allow you to contextualize the elements you discuss. You can find a helpful example here. In each endnote, include the title of the source and the author, along with a brief explanation of how the content relates to your script. I've added some sources in your Silex that may be interesting for your research.

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Chickpea Shaped Tears

A man consumed a home cooked egg on the Flixbus from Berlin to Hamburg; he brought the egg with him in a blue, see-through Tupperware box, made out of plastic. This egg contained a special piece of wisdom, the ability to connect to a human being, and a magical chickpea that was given to him by an unknown force. He thought that nobody had seem him consume the egg. He didn’t know that I had seen him. I knew. A factory site appears in the distance. The sun is shining bright on the grey buildings. The sun is also shining bright on our faces. Our skins feel the same warmth, our lungs breathe the same air; perhaps, our souls long for the same thing. A human’s greatest desire, is human connection. At least, that is what I believe.

After he had consumed the egg, his eyes closed, and his muscles relaxed. He must have been traveling for a long time; to enter a bus, so well prepared. We passed the factory site. Then, a windmill park. After that, the sea. Then, slightly curved hills, a forest with dark green pine trees, a magical sunset, a longing for eternal movement, a gas station, an unfulfilled wish, a public toilet, a city, a chicken farm, and a field of yellow flowers.

I couldn’t believe he had consumed the egg. I couldn’t believe I didn’t stop him. I couldn’t believe I was too late. I couldn’t believe he took my last chance. The chance to feel the warmth of a human being. The chance to feel connected.

I tried to telepathically convince him to transfer the special piece of wisdom, the ability to connect to a human being, and the magical chickpea to me in a dream. But nothing happened. The contents of the hardboiled egg were forever lost. I closed my eyes, and chickpea shaped tears streamed down my cheeks. Then, I unexpectedly felt a soft tap on my shoulder. The man who had consumed the egg stared into my eyes. He handed me a small blue box containing a hardboiled egg, and then returned to his seat. I never considered the possibility of the existence of multiple eggs. From that moment on, I realized I wasn’t alone. I realized what it meant to believe, to connect and to share. I knew what it meant to cry chickpea shaped tears. I knew what it was like to feel a human connection; to feel the warmth of one’s soul.

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I’m Dreaming of a Space, a Time, a Body, a Train, an Arrival, a Settlement, a Department

A nervous body was centered in between non-nervous bodies. The space seemed unfamiliar. The windows seemed big; the light seemed brighter than ever. The reflection of water was dancing on the white walls. The walls seemed to accept them; they accepted and embraced the traces of the previous bodies that have entered the same space. Every facial movement was analyzed, every non-verbal interacted was analyzed in a million different ways. Every verbal interaction was analyzed in a million different ways, too. It takes time to change the mental landscape that exists in a physical space. It takes time to trust people, to feel accepted and to feel equal to others. It takes time to realize that nervous bodies and non-nervous bodies don’t differ that much, or don’t differ, in fact, at all. It only takes a week to be able to close your eyes, and imagine exactly how a physical space looked and felt.

I often have dreams of traveling with a bus to Berlin. In these dreams I am extremely unprepared; I wouldn’t have a place to sleep, or the bus ride never stops. The bus doesn’t come, the bus keeps coming, the ride never stops, or there is no clear space to settle. I’m never here of there, the train is packed, changes into a bus, time blends into space, and the train stops in a small village close to the border of Germany. I only remembered having these dreams when I arrived back in Groningen, after being in Berlin for a week. I was wondering if this trip could have cured my confused travelling dreams. I realized last night that it didn’t, and I caught a train again in a small German village, dreaming of reaching Berlin one day.

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Public Access is an art project produced by David Horvitz in late December 2010 and early January 2011. For roughly two weeks, he drove along California's coast from the Mexican border up through the Oregon border. Along the way, he stopped and took pictures of himself looking out at the beach and other scenic vantage points, his stance recalling the iconic romantic painting "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog" by Caspar David Friedrich from 1818 and Bas Jan Ader's 1971 "Farewell to Faraway Friends." He then uploaded these photographs to the Wikipedia entries for these locations, adding new images or replacing existent images. This action produced a flurry of discussion amongst the Wikipedia community, as its members tried to figure out his identity and the purpose of the photos. Many of the original photos were cropped or deleted entirely.  Graphic designer Eric Nylund designed the publication, which includes a text written by Ed Steck. This was made for the exhibition "As Yet Untitled: Artists and Writers in Collaboration" at SF Camerawork in San Francisco.

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Mood Disorder documents the propagation of a photograph of David Horvitz across the internet. The image—a self portrait of the artist with his head in his hands, ocean waves crashing in the background—was initially uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, and placed on various Wikipedia pages.

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Mood Disorder documents the propagation of a photograph of David Horvitz across the internet. The image—a self portrait of the artist with his head in his hands, ocean waves crashing in the background—was initially uploaded to the Wikimedia Commons, and placed on various Wikipedia pages.

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The Distance of a Day (2013) is composed of two phones, placed side by side, playing video recordings of a sunset and a sunrise. The title of the installation is inspired by the word 'journey' which once referred to distances travelled in one day (from Middle English journee– “a day's travel”).

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Browse artists' publications, discover limited editions, artists' books, prints, monographs, and ephemera

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Publishing as Artistic Pratice (need to find PDF)

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Publishing as Artistic Pratice (need to find PDF)

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What does it mean to publish today? In the face of a changing media landscape, institutional upheavals, and discursive shifts in the legal, artistic, and political fields, concepts of ownership, authorship, work, accessibility, and publicity are being renegotiated. The field of publishing not only stands at the intersection of these developments but is also introducing new ruptures. How the traditional publishing framework has been cast adrift, and which opportunities are surfacing in its stead, is discussed here by artists, publishers, and scholars through the examination of recent publishing concepts emerging from the experimental literature and art scene, where publishing is often part of an encompassing artistic practice. The number and diversity of projects among the artists, writers, and publishers concerned with these matters show that it is time to move the question of publishing from the margin to the center of aesthetic and academic discourse.

Sternberg Press Ltd
71-75 Shelton Street
London WC2H 9JQ
UK

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What does it mean to publish today? How the traditional publishing framework has been cast adrift, and which opportunities are surfacing in its stead, is discussed here by artists, publishers, and scholars through the examination of recent publishing concepts emerging from the experimental literatur

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POST DIGITAL PRINT - the mutation of publishing since 1894

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POST DIGITAL PRINT - the mutation of publishing since 1894

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Title

The SKOR Codex

Date

2012

Description

The SKOR Codex is a printed book which will be sent to different locations on earth in the year 2012. It contains binary encoded image and sound files selected to portray the diversity of life and culture at the Foundation for Art and Public Domain (SKOR), and is intended for any intelligent terrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find it. The files are protected from bitrot, software decay and hardware failure via a transformation from magnetic transitions on a disk to ink on paper, safe for centuries. Instructions in a symbolic language explain the origin of the book and indicate how the content is to be decoded. La Société Anonyme noted that "the package will be encountered and the book decoded only if there will be advanced civilizations on earth in the far future. But the launching of this 'bottle' into the cosmic 'ocean' says something very hopeful about art on this planet." Thus the record is best seen as a time capsule and a statement rather than an attempt to preserve SKOR for future art historians.

Edition

8

Pages

304

Event

ODI Summit 2013 in London. 2013-10-29. URL: summit.theodi.org/

Related

"Book encodes modern culture into binary patterns as time capsule for the future" by Jacob Kastrenakes, The Verge, October 29, 2013

Related

"The SKOR Codex launched into the future. Interview with La Société Anonyme" by Annet Dekker, Open!, October 17, 2014

Rights

Public domain

Keywords

bookness, preservation, public domain

Added

ID

441

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Title The SKOR Codex Date 2012 Description The SKOR Codex is a printed book which will be sent to different locations on earth in the year 2012. It contains binary encoded image and sound files selected to portray the diversity of life and culture at the Foundation for Art and Public Domain (SKOR), and is intended for any intelligent terrestrial life form, or for future humans, who may find it.

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big archive of artist books

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soil, calcium from cuttlefish bone, acrylics, wallpaper glue on fabric - also cut

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layers of clacium, growth pattern

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Follow the two objects 127109 & 127110 during a yearlong journey floating towards each other in the North Atlantic Ocean. What are the odds two things will meet in the middle of this 76.762.000 km² territory? Zero. Or many not? This question was reason for artist Lotte Geeven to put things to the test.

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27109 & 127110
installation and a journey at sea of two objects.
PROJECT WEBSITE
Follow the two objects 127109 & 127110 during a yearlong journey floating towards each other in the North Atlantic…

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"What is it like to be a mushroom, to see without eyes, or to be a bacterium in our nostrills or gut?" also by Maaijke Middelbeek

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"What is it like to be a mushroom, to see without eyes, or to be a bacterium in our nostrills or gut?" also by Maaijke Middelbeek

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Maaijke Middelbeek - Reactive Funghi wearable

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Maaijke Middelbeek - Reactive Funghi wearable

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Maaijke Middelbeek "THROUGH OOZE and SLIME"

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Maaijke Middelbeek "THROUGH OOZE and SLIME"

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The Holy Mountain - Film Clip: Meeting the Alchemist | ABKCO Films

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The aesthetic of the Image: [world] cinema clips

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The Holy Mountain (1973) by Alejandro Jodorowsky, Clip: The Alchemist in the revolving circular room

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bought this publication in October 2022

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This is a tribute to Pauline Oliveros, musician, pioneer, freethinker, teacher and a source of inspiration for so many, who passed away unexpectedly, at the end of 2016.

In January of that year, we, a group of eleven students from different places around the world, started a Deep Listening Certification class, led by Pauline Oliveros, IONE, Heloise Gold, Monique Buzzarté, Tom Bickley and Norman Lowrey. It was known as the HIP MounTainN class, after the names of our mentors.

Our background is diverse, but we share a collective inspiration:

"Our goal is to facilitate creativity in ourselves and others and to cultivate the ability to guide others through listening".

We met online in hangout meetings, twice a month and in the meantime everyone explored the three fundamental elements of Deep Listening: Listening/Sounding, Dreaming and Moving. Half-way through the year, each one of us started our own local Deep Listening study group, to gain experience to work with these elements. At the end of the course we had to present our 'masterpiece', a self-composed Sonic Meditation that covers listening/sounding, dreaming and moving.

In this tribute to Pauline we share our compositions with you.

That Deep Listening may bloom. - Half Letter Press

By: 10 Deep Listeners-Brett Bloom, Charles Zotique, Julia Steinmetz, Lech Kalita, Lindsay Karty, Michael McDermott, Morten Svenstrup, Paul van Offen, Sherrie Tucker, Sylvie Decaux

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inc. is the world's largest non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of publications made by artists - artists' books or artists' publications. founded as a for-profit alternative arts space in 1976 by artists and artworkers

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printed matter reincorporated in 1978 to become the independent non-profit organization that it is today. originally situated in tribeca

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printed matter moved to soho in 1989 where for twelve years the book displays and artists¹ projects in the large storefront windows contributed to the artistic and intellectual vibrancy of the neighborhood. in february 2001 printed matter relocated to its current space in chelsea

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where it continues to foreground the book as an alternative venue for artists¹ projects and ideas. recognized for years as an essential voice in the increasingly diversified art world conversations and debates

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printed matter is dedicated to the examination and interrogation of the changing role of artists¹ publications in the landscape of contemporary art.

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This is a tribute to Pauline Oliveros, musician, pioneer, freethinker, teacher and a source of inspiration for so many, who passed away unexpectedly, at the end of 2016. In January of that year, we, a group of eleven students from different places around the world, started a Deep Listening Cer...

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"Take a walk at night. Walk so silently, that the bottom of your feet become ears."

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"Take a walk at night. Walk so silently, that the bottom of your feet become ears."

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Pauline Oliveros

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Jean-Pierre Brisset's theory that humans evolved from frogs - pataphysics 

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Jean-Pierre Brisset's theory that humans evolved from frogs - pataphysics 

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https://www.westdenhaag.nl/thuistezien/155

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The Mushroom At The End Of The World - Anna Tsing

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The Mushroom At The End Of The World - Anna Tsing

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connecting to hypersea funghi hypothesis - life in capitalist ruins of the world

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automaton - writing robot - creepy as hell

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automaton - writing robot - creepy as hell

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maillardet%27s_automaton

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Maillardet's automaton (or Draughtsman-Writer, sometime also known as Maelzel's Juvenile Artist or Juvenile Artist) is an automaton built in London circa 1800 by a Swiss mechanician, Henri Maillardet. It is currently part of the collections at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia.

In November 1928 the Franklin Institute received the pieces of a brass machine. It came from the descendants of John Penn Brock, a family who knew that at some time it had been able to write and draw pictures. Having been in a fire, its restoration involved a considerable amount of work. The Brock family believed that the machine had been made in France by an inventor named Maelzel. The original writing instrument, either a quill or a brush, was replaced with a stylographic fountain pen. Once repaired, the automaton began to produce elaborate sketches and poems. In the border surrounding the final poem, the automaton wrote, "Ecrit par L'Automate de Maillardet", translating to "Written by the automaton of Maillardet".

Restorer and paper engineer Andrew Baron spent about 70 hours in 2007 repairing the Maillardet automaton to bring it back to working order.

During the early nineteenth century, Maillardet exhibited this automaton and other automata that he created throughout England, and to other countries in Europe as far as Saint Petersburg, Russia. The following is a partial list of known exhibitions of the Maillardet's automaton. The automaton was mostly known as the Juvenile Artist in those exhibitions:

1807: The exhibition at Mr. Wigley's Great Rooms in Spring Gardens, London included the Juvenile Artist.

1821 - 1833: The automata of Maillardet were in the possession of a gentlemen named Mr Schmidt. He held an exhibition in London. The last public display in London was held in 1833 at New Gothic Hall, 7 Haymarket Street before the exhibition was on tour to St. Petersburg where it disappeared along with other automata in the collection.

1835: An exhibition in Boston under the showman Johann Nepomuk Maelzel included the Juvenile Artist automaton

1835: The Juvenile Artist automaton was also traveled to Philadelphia in an exhibition at American Museum located then at the corner of Fifth and Chesnut Streets. The announcement for the event mentioned the success of Maelzel's exhibition in Boston. It also attributed the automata including the Juvenile Artist in the exhibition as "Maillardet's unrivalled mechanical and musical automata". The announcement was recorded as having Henri Maillardet, Johann Nepomuk Mälzel, and American Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.) as authors.

November 27, 1835 - January 16, 1836: Maelzel took Maillardet automata including the Juvenile Artist along with his Chess Player on a tour in Washington, D.C.

Late 1836 - early 1837: The Juvenile Artist was among other automata presented at American Museum in New York during the Christmas and New Year exhibition.

Amazing Machine

The Maillardet's automaton is a highlight of the Amazing Machine permanent exhibit at The Franklin Institute. The exhibition includes more than two dozen rarely displayed machines with exploded views of the machines to show their components such as gears, cams, pulleys and linkages. The Maillardet's automaton is always on display but the staff operate it only a few times a year for public demonstrations. The demonstrations show all seven drawings of the automaton as seen here:

Computer history

The pictures made by Maillardet's automaton are among other artifacts in the collections of the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. The museum has a collection of machines from the pre-computer era. Particularly for Maillardet's, the museum highlights the use of its cams in similar function to computer read-only memory (ROM) to store pre-defined data for retrieval at a later time. In the case of Maillardet's automaton, it stores motion data necessary to write a poem on paper. It is believed to be the largest cam-based memory of any automaton of the era.[citation needed ] The information capacity of the automaton to hold seven images within the machine was calculated to be 299,040 points, almost 300 kilobits of storage.

Maelzel's Juvenile Artist

The Massachusetts Historical Society holds a drawing created in 1835 by an automaton in the collections of papers and artwork of the Minot family. The drawing is untitled with a depiction of Cupid. The writing on the picture indicated that it was drawn by Maelzel's automaton which was known at the time as the Maelzel's Juvenile Artist. It is believed that at least one member of the Minot family witnessed the drawing by the Juvenile Artist at the exhibition of Johann Nepomuk Maelzel's automata in Boston on April 29, 1835. The Massachusetts Historical Society theorizes that the Juvenile Artist may in fact be the Maillardet's automaton. An explanation is that Maelzel might have acquired the automaton in the 1830s. As in other automata in his collection, they were known at the time as Maelzel's. After Maelzel's death, the automaton could have been auctioned off in Philadelphia to pay his debts. The new owner then attributed it to Maelzel.

1. ^ "Benjamin Franklin Fiesta". Santa Fe New Mexican, NewspaperArchive.com. 17 January 2014. pp. 33-34.

2. ^ Houdini, Harry (1908). The Unmasking of Robert-Houndin. New York: Publishers Printing Company. p. 112.

3. ^ Williams, Dr. James M (August 1978). "Antique Mechanical Computers Part 2: 18th and 19th Century Mechanical Marvels". . 3 (8): 104-106.

4. ^ Linker, Jessica (January 2012). "Souvenir of a "Splendid Exhibition": Cupid as Drawn by Maelzel's Automaton, the Juvenile Artist". Massachusetts Historical Society - Online: Object of the Month.

5. ^ Henri Maillardet; Johann Nepomuk Mälzel; American Museum (Philadelphia, Pa.). "Untitled announcement". OCLC 85222158.

6. ^ "John Maelzel, Master Showman of Automata and Panoramas". The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography. The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 84 (1): 82. January 1960.

7. ^ "American Museum, Marbles Buildings, Boardway and Anne St., New York, Christmas and New-Year's Holidays" (PDF). Long-Island Farmer, & Queens County Advertiser. 11 January 1837. These are exhibited on the first floor of the Museum, and are as follows :- The Juvenile Artist-The Musical Lady -The Rope Dancer-The Magician-The Walking Figure-Napoleon's Vase-A beautiful Humming Bird-together with a number of other beautiful Automata, of the most exquisite workmanship.

8. ^ Fountain, Henry (26 December 2011). "Graceful Moves, for a Boy Made of Metal". The New York Times.

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Maillardet's automaton (or Draughtsman-Writer, sometime also known as Maelzel's Juvenile Artist or Juvenile Artist) is an automaton built in London circa 1800 by a Swiss mechanician, Henri Maillardet. It is currently part of the collections at The Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. In November 1928 the Franklin Institute received the pieces of a brass machine.

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https://newbooksnetwork.com/e-r-truitt-medieval-robots-mechanism-magic-nature-and-art-u-of-pennsylvania-press-2015

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."

Clarke's third law, coined in 1973, expresses the difficulty that people of any era have in reconciling the bounds of current knowledge with our experiences in a world full of marvels. In a fascinating investigation of role of automata in the culture of the medieval Latin west, E.R. Truitt's Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature, and Art (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015) traces the story of automata from their early appearance in the Latin west as gifts of foreign courts, to the literary manifestations of these objects, to the eventual creation of elaborate mechanical automata in the middle of the thirteenth century. Along the way, this history examines the nature of marvels, the constitution of natural knowledge, the text-based transformation of Latin intellectual culture, definitions of life and death, the spectacle of court, and the mechanics of the universe (8, 9). The cast of characters, both fictional and factual, embraces writers, travelers, and natural philosophers ranging from Liudprand of Cremona (c. 920 972), Pope Sylvester II (c. 946 1003) and Fr. William of Rubruck (c. 1220 1293), to Sir John Mandeville, witness of marvels mechanical and divine, and a Charlemagne whose stay in Constantinople brings him face to face with a pagan rulers powers of astral science that test the potentials of Charlemagne's piety.

Our conversation about Truitt's comprehensively researched and highly readable book ranges over C-3PO's medieval forebears in the alabaster chamber, the religious rehabilitation of disembodied talking heads, the role of clocks and clockwork in the discourse shift from natural philosophy to mechanical engineering, and the political significance of lewd mechanical monkeys covered in rotting badger pelts.

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Podcast | E.R. Truitt, "Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature,...

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"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Clarke's third law, coined in 1973, expresses the difficulty that people of any era have in reconciling the bounds of current knowledge with our experiences in a world full of marvels. In a fascinating investigation of role of automata in the culture of the medieval Latin west, E.R.

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How do you become a mountain? Personification of a mountain - your body as a mountain. A result of tectonic tension from deep down earth, rivers flow over your body down to the sea. Where does your body end? When does your body move? Thousands of years go by in seconds. 

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How do you become a mountain? Personification of a mountain - your body as a mountain. A result of tectonic tension from deep down earth, rivers flow over your body down to the sea. Where does your body end? When does your body move? Thousands of years go by in seconds. 

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The Mountain and the River. How do they relate to each other? Who carries who? The river breaks the mountain down, the mountain let's the river flow.

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Femke Herregraven - "Diving Reflex" 2019 

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Femke Herregraven - "Diving Reflex" 2019 

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" According to this aquatic ape hypothesis, the “diving reflex” created a neurological connection between the throat, mouth, and brain. This allowed people to hum/sing, and eventually develop speech. "
Science Fiction story about how humans learned how to sing (then speak, language; strottenhoofd) because of a water monkey hypothesis

http://femkeherregraven.net/diving-reflex/

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Diving Reflex (Because We Learned Not To Drown We Can Sing)
Prix de Rome / Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL)
19 October 2019 - 22 March 2020

Essay Prix de Rome by Maarten Buser

Femke Herregraven's multimedia installations connect seemingly disparate conceptual and material elements. Her work focuses on the effects of abstract value systems on historiography and individual lives. This research is the basis for the conception of new characters, stories, and objects.

With 'Diving Reflex (Because We Learned Not to Drown, We Can Sing)', Femke continues her research on the notion of the "catastrophe." In classical Greek tragedy, this concept referred to the final resolution of the story and only became linked to natural disasters in the eighteenth century. On the basis of the fictionalized characters "The Last Man" and Elaine Morgan, she speculates about survival strategies, and uses the human diving reflex as a conceptual tool to explore the meanings of catastrophe. Catastrophe bonds, known as cat bonds, are central to Diving Reflex.

In the 'Catbond Calendar' we see how in Western European countries, the future is mapped, calculated, and traded on financial markets on the basis of predictions about potential catastrophes. This seems to have already clinched the fate of "The Last Man," who symbolizes privileged individuals who, merely, rehearses these scenarios of scarcity and despair. His antithesis appears in the form of Elaine Morgan, a character based on the eponymous Welsh feminist writer who attributes human development to the evolution of isolated primates in semi-aquatic environments. According to this aquatic ape hypothesis, the "diving reflex" created a neurological connection between the throat, mouth, and brain. This allowed people to hum/sing, and eventually develop speech. While Morgan's diving reflex gives rise to a new voice during times of catastrophe, "The Last Man" gradually loses his.
...

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Diving Reflex (Because We Learned Not To Drown We Can Sing) Prix de Rome / Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL) 19 October 2019 - 22 March 2020 Essay Prix de Rome by Maarten Buser Femke Herregraven's multimedia installations connect seemingly disparate conceptual and material elements.

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#JaneBennett#VibrantMatter#APoliticalEcologyOfThings

"My ‘own’ body is material, and yet this vital materiality is not fully or exclusively

human. My flesh is populated and constituted by different swarms of foreigners…

The bacteria in the human microbiome collectively possess at least 100 times as

many genes as the mere 20,000 or so in the human genome… we are, rather, an

array of bodies, many different kinds of them in a nested set of microbiomes.’

- Quote Bennett

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#StacyAlaimo#Body#BodilyNatures

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How do we understand the agency and significance of material forces and their interface with human bodies? What does it mean to be human in these times, with...

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#ElspethProbyn#EatingTheOcean

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"Elspeth Probyn wants to eat the ocean. I want to eat her book. It is one of the most profound works I have read on the sea, and the issues with which it presents us, in the 21st century, not least because it dares to digress and move into territories that other writers and academics have hitherto neglected."
- Philip Hoare, Times Higher Education

"Eloquently written, Probyn's vivid detail brings us along her journeys following (and eating many) oysters, swimming with tuna, covertly eating endangered bluefin tuna, and tracking the history of herring quines and women's roles in fishing. . . . I learned so much about the state of our oceans, where our seafood comes from, the danger in always choosing tuna and salmon, and the role of aquaculture (which provides more than half of all seafood consumed by humans!), but most importantly, I was encouraged to think differently about what 'sustainability' means, which I think is so important as a person who works in this sphere." - Lisa Heinze, Sustainability with Style

"From a policy perspective, where queer and poststructuralist feminisms are completely absent from the framework, Probyn's intervention is a much needed updating of sustainability discourses and food politics. As such, her account of herring wives and fish women is an important intervention into an environmental politics that either ignores women completely or that constructs them as virtuous consumers or vulnerable victims (105)." - Reese Simpkins, Angelaki

"I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is well-argued and Probyn bases her judgement on sound research. I hope a philanthropist, one with a love of the sea, buys lots of copies of the book and sends them to all politicians who have a role in marine and fishing policy, to the many bodies that represent the fishing industries across the globe, the fishing companies, and to as many individual fishing boats as possible."
- Geoff O'Brien, International Journal of Environmental Studies
" Eating the Ocean is fascinating in its emphasis on the interconnections and mutual influences among humans, ocean creatures and the ocean itself." - Carol J. Pierce Colfer, Agriculture and Human Values

"This slender but ambitious volume offers an excellent overview and discussion of contemporary social science and humanities literature and theorising about the sea and human relations to it.... This is a useful contribution and a significantly better approach than some social science literature about the sea that uses it as a metaphor without proper material engagement." - Penny McCall Howard, The Australian Journal of Anthropology

"This book is like a breath of fresh sea air, cool, briny, and gently laced with the scent of dead things.... In my experience, students love to learn about seafood. And this book provides a unique, and exciting overview of the topic. Meanwhile, it makes meaningful change to the politics of human-fish relations, and of gender in the social sciences more generally. Readers may also find the book an accessible introduction to fisheries research in the humanities, and to more-than-human ethologies in the social sciences." - L. G. Brown, FoodAnthropology

" Eating the Ocean is a call for a new kind of food politics, as much as it is a mapping of complex human-fish histories....Probyn's imperative is to move the focus of contemporary food politics away from the domain of the terrestrial and its environmental limits." - Emily Potter, Australian Humanities Review

"Elspeth Probyn is without question complexifying how one might think about eating bivalves or fish, ranging from the tiny to the large, from the ocean. . . . [A] fascinating book." - Alexis Shotwell, Cultural Studies Review

" Eating the Ocean is a timely and masterfully judged intervention into debates in food studies." - Laura Colebrooke, Cultural Geographies

" Eating the Ocean guides its readers through the multiple and affective entanglements that constitute the complex web of relations that Probyn sets in motion. Her writing . . . will no doubt be of interest to many feminist geographers." - Beth A. Bee, Gender, Place & Culture

"Consistently thought-provoking. . . . Displaying a sophisticated grasp of recent developments in marine biology and drawing on a wide range of perspectives encompassing constructivism, postmodernism, cultural studies, and eco-feminism, Elspeth Probyn develops arguments that reveal the limitations of many simple prescriptions for managing human uses of marine resources and demonstrates the rewards to be derived from diving deeper into the complex forces that govern interactions between a variety of human actors and the physical and biological components of marine systems." - Oran Young, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute

"Eating the Ocean is a recommendable piece for any reader interested in seafood politics, providing an intriguing journey to the entanglement of human and more-than-human life forms both under the surface of the ocean and terra firma. With its strong feminist approach, Elsphet Probyn's book brings a refreshing sea breeze to the valuable work already existing about fish food politics." - Tarja Salmela, Gender, Work & Organization

"This is not a book to be skimmed. Readers will need to work their way through the various connections Probyn draws and think through how they feel about her assumptions. But they will be well rewarded for the time and thinking they invest. . . . Eating the Ocean offers a provocative perspective on how we consume the ocean and how we can do better." - Patricia M. Clay, American Ethnologist

"Beautifully written and full of profound ideas, Eating the Ocean engages the reader and surprises her at many turns. Elspeth Probyn complicates the current work being done on food politics, making this an urgent and necessary book for scholars of food studies, environmental culture, the materialist turn, consumer culture, and gender." - Sarah Sharma, author of In the Meantime: Temporality and Cultural Politics

"Once again Elspeth Probyn charts a contemporary site of contested encounters with style, humor, erudition, and wit. Moving on, through, and under the waves she provides a timely guide to eating the oceans more ethically by cultivating a metabolic sensibility more responsive to our entanglements with aquatic worlds." - Sarah Franklin, author of Biological Relatives: IVF, Stem Cells, and the Future of Kinship

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Duke University Press - Eating the Ocean

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“Elspeth Probyn wants to eat the ocean. I want to eat her book. It is one of the most profound works I have read on the sea, and the issues with which it presents us, in the 21st century, not least because it dares to digress and move into territories that other writers and academics have hitherto n…

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#DianaMcMenamin#MarkMcMenamin#Hypersea

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LIFE began in the oceans, where essential nutrients diffuse through the water and pass easily between organisms. But when the first neoamphibians slithered ashore, they found that on land, the aqueous lubricant and chemical conveyor was missing. So they created their own environment. Mark and Diana McMenamin, the authors of this highly readable book, call it "hypersea".

"Instead of accepting nutrients passively, land life was compelled to cooperatively direct the flow of nutrients," say the authors. They did this most obviously by creating liquid media for the flow of nutrients. Blood, sweat and tears are all part of hypersea. Even more vital, organisms became much more intimate with one another, living in each other's pockets - and many other orifices. Most larger organisms "are actually rich ecosystems of smaller organisms that cover their surfaces, probe their interstices, take up residence in body cavities and even invade their cells".

Of course, we knew the mechanics of much of this before. But in Hypersea, the whole is much greater than the sum of the parts. Symbiosis is not an amusing sideshow&colon; it is the only show in town. Discovering this, we lose track of who is the host and who the parasite.

All notions of biological hierarchy are turned upside down. The most humble organisms become the heroes of hypersea. The ill-considered fungi become an entirely new kingdom of life created to bring the necessary attributes of the sea onto land. Without fungi to release nutrients from soils, "plants could never have come ashore". From semen to snot, blood to bile, the bodily fluids have never been so lauded.

The hypersea theory has all the controversial attributes of James Lovelock's Gaia hypothesis, which holds that the biota acts together to control the planet's environment. And the publishers, mindful of a ready market outside the scientific mainstream, have shoehorned the word "Gaia" into the jacket blurb on line one.

As with Gaia, critics can argue that Hypersea is an essentially untestable hypothesis. Equally, that doesn't make it wrong. We are compelled, as with Gaia, to confront the question of how apparently separate organisms contrive to organise collectively for a common purpose.

Are we seriously to suppose that life on land is some kind of primeval socialist orgy? Well, yes. Hypersea, we are told, is the "information superhighway" for life on land. Without it, there would be little evolution. It explains also why the land is so much more biologically diverse than the oceans and contains so much more biomass. Hypersea is not only a substitute for the real thing, it is a major evolutionary improvement, born of the harsh terrestrial environment.

Hyper or hype, truth or engaging diversion, Hypersea is an illuminating way of looking at the biosphere. Like Gaia it intrigues and irritates in equal measure. And, like Gaia, that is largely the point.

Hypersea&colon; Life on Land, pp 343

Mark and Diana McMenamin

Columbia University Press

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LIFE began in the oceans, where essential nutrients diffuse through the water and pass easily between organisms. But when the first neoamphibians slithered ashore, they found that on land, the aqueous lubricant and chemical conveyor was missing. So they created their own environment.

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#Hypersea

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A new theory on how life moved from sea to land

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#AmbassadeVanDeNoordzee#NorthSea

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ENG↑

Ambassade van de Noordzee

De zee en het leven in de zee is van zichzelf. Vanuit dit uitgangspunt is de Ambassade van de Noordzee opgericht. Hier luisteren we naar de politieke stemmen van de dingen, planten, dieren, microben en mensen in en rond de Noordzee.

We hebben een route tot 2030 uitgestippeld. Eerst gaan we leren luisteren naar de zee, vervolgens leren spreken met om ten slotte te kunnen onderhandelen namens de zee en het leven in de zee.

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Ambassade van de Noordzee - Ambassade van de Noordzee

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ENG ↑ Ambassade van de Noordzee De zee en het leven in de zee is van zichzelf. Vanuit dit uitgangspunt is de Ambassade van de Noordzee opgericht. Hier luisteren we naar de politieke stemmen van de dingen, planten, dieren, microben en mensen in en rond de Noordzee.

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#BrunoLatour#Actants#ANT#ActorNetworkTheory

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By Charlotte Nickerson, published March 03, 2022 | Fact Checked by Saul Mcleod, PhD

Summary

Actor network theory, usually abbreviated as ANT, aims to describe any phenomena - such as climate change or a birthday party - in terms of the relationships between the human and non-human actors that create that phenomenon.

In actor network theory, sociological and technological factors hold equal weight. No phenomena can be solely social or technological. This stands in contrast to social and technological determinism.

Actor network theory fundamentally consists of actors or actors and assemblages or networks. These networks have power dynamics leading to phenomena such as translation (the transport with deformation of an idea).

In actor-network theory, all assemblages are made of actants, and all actors are themselves assemblages. In describing phenomena, scholars must use discretion in determining the level of complexity of their network.

History and Overview

Actor-network theory, often abbreviated as ANT, is an influential but controversial approach to understanding humans and their interactions with inanimate objects (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

This theory is intended to counter the competing theories of social and technological determinism, which assume that all phenomena can be described exclusively in terms of social or technological factors.

Actor-network theory grew out of French and British studies investigating the sociology of science and technology beginning in the 1980s. The most notable of the field's early researchers were Bruno Latour and John Law.

Initially, Law and Latour created actor-network theory as a means of understanding how innovation and knowledge-creation take place in science and technology. Law and Latour's actor-network theory drew on existing work in science and technology studies, on studies into large technological systems, and from the work of a number of contemporary French intellectuals.

Many of the tools characteristic of Actor-network theory, such as the ideas of translation, generalized symmetry, and the "heterogeneous network," were developed in the 1980s in Latour's text, Science in Action (Latour, 1987).

From the 1990s on, Actor-network theory became popular as a tool of analysis in a range of fields beyond science and technology studies, such as organizational analysis, informatics, health studies, geography, sociology, anthropology, feminist studies, technical communication, and economy.

Actor-network theory's main premise is its focus on inanimate objects and their effects on social processes. To do so, the field employs a specific vocabulary:

Assemblages

An assemblage is a technical term for a network. It is the sum total of the actants that make up a thing.

This thing can range from a piece of technology to an idea to, even, a hot dog (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

Actants

Actants, meanwhile, are a point or node in the network. Actor-network theory gives every actant in a network, be they human or not, an equal amount of value and agency. This fact has proven controversial (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

To illustrate this, consider the social network Facebook. According to actor-network theory, the technological activities - computers, and phones - have the same amount of agency, and are as important to the network, as the people and the communication they support.

Actors or actants are not objects, but an association between different elements that in themselves create their own network (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

One important concept in actor-network theory is that all assemblages are composed of actants, and that all actants are in themselves assemblages.

For example, a human consists of a number of physical organ systems - the circulatory, endocrine, respiratory, and so on - and thoughts and expectations. All of these components can be broken down into their own, complex, systems, which act in tandem with each other.

To consider a less complex example, a birthday cake consists of all of its physical components - such as flour, sugar, and eggs - as well as the devices and labor used to make it - such as an oven, man-power, and a wooden spoon. These actants can be broken down further.

The flour in a birthday cake was grown as wheat and then ground, packaged, sold, and so on. The birthday cake can also be an actant in a further assemblage. It could be an actor in the assemblage of a birthday party or an afternoon at a cafe (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

Sociologists account for the complexity of all of these systems working together by considering them to be one unit, or a "black box."

Translation

Translation is another core concept in actor-network theory. For actor-network theorists, the success of science is attributable to the ability of scientific networks.

This ability can be measured in terms of, say, their ability to force entities to pass through labs or clinics in order to harness scientific evidence and to enact actions that influence outcomes (Ritzer, 2004).

According to actor-network theory, network effects in networks happen because of disputes between actors, such as when actors attempt to advance their own objectives.

Power is generated in the relationships between actants as a consequence of what sociologists call ordering structures. Central to this concept of the ordering struggle is the concept of displacement inherent in the process of translation.

Translation is transport with deformation, and is both a process and an effect. Scientific knowledge and artifacts, for example, become translated as networks become more extensive and concentrated; as a result, modified versions of scientific knowledge emerge.

Translation is the process of establishing the identities and conditions of interaction, and of characterizing representations (Ritzer, 2004).

Principles

Actor-network theory has three main principles: agnosticism, generalized symmetry, and free association. In short, these principles embody the argument that there is no complete distinction between the social, the natural, and the technological.

The first principle of actor-network theory, agnosticism, advocates for abandoning any assumptions that the researcher had beforehand about the nature of networks, what caused them to form, and the accuracy of the accounts of their actants.

Actor network theory imposes impartiality and requires that all interpretations of the system be unprivileged (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

The second principle of actor-network theory is generalized symmetry, which employs a single explanatory frame when interpreting actants, human and nonhuman.

According to this principle, investigators should never shift their methods in examining individuals and organizations, or even objects and non-objects, such as computers and the people who program them.

The third principle of actor-network theory is free association, which advocates for abandoning any distinction between natural and social phenomenon.

These distinctions, the theory argues, are the result of the effects of the network, are not causal, and cannot provide explanation (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

Adoption

On a practical level, researchers consider actor-network theory useful in helping to appreciate the complexity of reality and for providing a lens into understanding how technology shapes social processes.

The theory can also be used to provide a theoretically-informed approach to sampling by emphasizing all of the informants who are related to a certain technology as well as providing a conceptual tool and vocabulary that can shape these interpretations (Ritzer, 2004).

In the end, actor-network theory is often used for describing networks, but its practical implications are limited. By identifying and describing the components of any situation, actor-network theory ignores external social forces such as gender or religion.

Actor-network theory has also been criticized for the ease of over-describing networks. In theory, an actant can be broken down to the atomic level, far beyond a level where it is practical for sociologists to use it to describe the relationships between actants that cause phenomena.

Scientists and technologists have used actor-network theory more and more in studying how socioeconomic worlds come into existence. These amounts range from subjects ranging from law-making to organization, religion, art, medicine, and architecture.

Actor-network theory has also yielded methodological insights. Work on medical diseases, for example, have illuminated the many factors and interactions between factors that influence how people experience illness.

Critique

Perhaps actor-network theory's most controversial statement is its insistence on the capacity of nonhumans to be actors or participants in networks and systems.

Critics of actor-network theory, such as Langdon Winner, have argued that certain properties, such as the ability to be intentional in one's actions, separate humans from animals and "things."

In response, actor-network theorists have argued that they do not attribute intentionality and similar properties to nonhumans, that their conception of agency does not necessarily imply intentionality, and that the agency of actors in networks does not belong in the human actors or non-human actants in a network, but to the associations between humans and non-humans (Winner, 1993).

Scholars have also called actor-network theory amoral. However, others, such as Wiebe Bijker, have countered this criticism by saying that the amorality of actor-network theory is not a necessity: moral and political positions are possible, so long as one describes the network before taking up such positions (Bijker, 1993).

Examples

Actor-network theory pays a large amount of attention to nonhumans and material things as actors as the scientists of the late-20th century began to study closely, through tools such as diagrams and microscopes, how non-human factors such as hormones or forests impact human affairs.

In describing agency, actor-network theory intends to describe how human and non-human actants exchange properties and capacities as part of a network that constitute, change, stabilize, or dismantle sociomaterial worlds.

In the 1980s, researchers attempted to solve economic hardships experienced in the St. Brieuc Bay in Brittany, France. They attempted to do so by setting up new devices for scallop larvae collection, hoping to find the cause of their decreasing quantities.

This collaboration, in the view of actor-network theory, required the collaboration and enrollments of both the scallops and fishermen in order to achieve their hoped-for scientific status (Callon, 1986).

In this case, agency arose from the network connections between the scallop larvae measuring devices, the scientists, and the fishing community of St. Brieuc Bay.

Cosmopolitanism is the idea that all human beings are members of a single community. Social theorists have examined this idea empirically as an orientation of openness to foreign people and cultures.

Saito (2010) used actor-network theory to elaborate on how cosmopolitanism results from the interaction between actants.

He proposes methods of cosmopolitan education intended to extend students' attachments to foreign people and objects, to understand transnational connections in which their lives are embedded, and to act on these attachments and understanding to change the relationships between them and those from other countries.

Actor-network theory has been used frequently in studying technology (Saito, 2010), with a number of scholars using it explicitly in their research.

Bloomfield (1991), for example, presented a case study of the development of information systems in the UK National Health Service, evaluating his findings using concepts from actor-network theory.

These approaches, rather than prioritizing the social or technological aspects of these systems, intertwine arguments about social structures and technology with the conversations of actors as they attempt to persuade others to align with their own objectives.

Bloomfield's (1991) research emphasized how seemingly similar systems can produce very different outcomes in different locations as the result of the process of translation and network-building that occured - and the relationships between the people that brought them into existence.

Actor-network Theory vs. Social and Technological Determinism

Actor-network theory has two main components: technique and humans. Traditionally, sociologists have focused on the purely sociological and technical aspects of forming networks.

For example, technological determinists believe that all of the outcomes of technological change - such as the creation of a new computer - are technological, rather than social.

On the other hand, social determinism argues that technological change can only be explained in terms of social categories (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

To think more about the separation between the technical and social aspects of a product, consider a mobile phone's keypad.

Without knowledge as to how every part of how a phone works, it becomes difficult to differentiate which parts of a keyboard's design are due to the technical limitations of the phone (such as the speed at which it is possible for the computer to register typing input), and which are due to the social and cultural expectations of the team that designed the phone's keyboard (such as expecting keyboards to begin with QWERTY).

Actor-network theory considers both social and. technological determinism flawed, providing a so-called socio-technical account of networks where neither social or technical aspects are privileged.

In general, the theory argues that what appears to be purely social is partly technical, and what appears to be purely technical is partly social (Cresswell, Worth, & Sheik, 2010).

Charlotte Nickerson is a member of the Class of 2024 at Harvard University. Coming from a research background in biology and archaeology, Charlotte currently studies how digital and physical space shapes human beliefs, norms, and behaviors and how this can be used to create businesses with greater social impact.

Content is rigorously reviewed by a team of qualified and experienced fact checkers. Fact checkers review articles for factual accuracy, relevance, and timeliness. We rely on the most current and reputable sources, which are cited in the text and listed at the bottom of each article. Content is fact checked after it has been edited and before publication.

This article has been fact checked by Saul Mcleod, a qualified psychology teacher with over 17 years' experience of working in further and higher education. He has been published in psychology journals including Clinical Psychology, Social and Personal Relationships, and Social Psychology.

Nickerson, C. (2022, March 03). Latour's Actor Network Theory. Simply Sociology. https://simplysociology.com/Actor-Network-Theory.html

References

Bijker, W. E. (1993). "Do Not Despair: There is Life after Constructivism." Science, Technology and Human Values, Volume 18, Number 1, pp. 113-138.

Bruni, A., & Teli, M. (2007). Reassembling the social-An introduction to actor network theory. Management Learning, 38(1), 121-125.

Bloomfield, B. P. (1991). The role of information systems in the UK National Health Service: action at a distance and the fetish of calculation. Social Studies of Science, 21(4), 701-734.

Callon, M. (1986). The sociology of an actor-network: The case of the electric vehicle. In Mapping the dynamics of science and technology (pp. 19-34). Palgrave Macmillan, London.

Cresswell, K. M., Worth, A., & Sheik, A. (2010). Actor-Network Theory and its role in understanding the implementation of information technology developments in healthcare. BMC medical informatics and decision making, 10(1), 1-11.

Latour, B. (1987). Science in action: How to follow scientists and engineers through society. Harvard university press.

Latour, B. (1996). On actor-network theory: A few clarifications. Soziale welt, 369-381.

Latour, B. (2007). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network-theory. Oup Oxford.

Ritzer, G. (Ed.). (2004). Encyclopedia of social theory. Sage publications.

Winner, L. (1993). Upon opening the black box and finding it empty: Social constructivism and the philosophy of technology. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 18(3), 362-378.

Saito, H. (2010). Actor‐network theory of cosmopolitan education. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 42(3), 333-351.

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By Charlotte Nickerson, published March 03, 2022 | Fact Checked by Saul Mcleod, PhD Actor network theory, usually abbreviated as ANT, aims to describe any phenomena - such as climate change or a birthday party - in terms of the relationships between the human and non-human actors that create that phenomenon.

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#ObjetPetitA#Lacan#Desire

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#TimothyMorton#Hyperobjects

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The plot follows two drag queens, played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce, and a transgender woman, played by Terence Stamp, as they journey across the Australian Outback from Sydney to Alice Springs in a tour bus that they have named "Priscilla", along the way encountering various groups and individuals. The film's title references the slang term "queen" for a drag queen or female impersonator.

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Stills from "The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert" (1994)

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Stills from "The adventures of Priscilla, queen of the desert" (1994)

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#TheAdventuresOfPriscilla#QueenOfTheDesert#1994

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#Seaweed

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story written in June 2022

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A sweaty dog entered the room with an unidentifiable object on her nose. She looked at the white cup that was standing on the table next to her. But instead of seeing the white cup, she saw the universe unfold in a thousand mirrors, reflecting the sun and its eternal sunrays. Her owner sat on the couch crying. She didn’t understand why the leaves of the houseplants appeared to be green to her eyes.

A sweaty dog entered the room with a pearl balanced on the tip of her nose. She smelled the sea in different rooms throughout the house. She saw mirrors, reflecting the sun and it’s eternal sunrays. My friend told me that he was searching for a passing comet in the sky last weekend; he unexpectedly saw a meteor instead. He couldn’t believe what he saw. The sweaty dog’s owner loved him. She was secretly beginning to like him a little bit.

A sweaty dog doesn’t seem to mind staring into the distance. The couch caught on fire, then, eventually, the entire house burned down. The fire had started where they always used to sit; day and night. The movies they watched on the couch would be forever imprinted on its fabric. The three of us couldn’t fathom it. Me, the sweaty dog, and the owner. We all didn’t know how to continue from this point in our lives.

“The cup on the table was filled with sweat.” At first I didn’t know what she meant. I looked at the white cup on the table next to me. However, I didn’t see the cup. I saw the universe unfold in a thousand mirrors, reflecting the sun and its eternal sunrays. I always seem to chase the sun. It’s always too far away. It’s never too close. The sweaty dog sat on the couch crying. I didn’t know what to do. I sat next to her, and I comforted her. I didn’t understand why the leaves of my houseplants seemed to appear green to my eyes.

The owner entered the room with a pearl balanced on the tip of her nose. I took the pearl from her nose with the tips of my fingers. We stared into each other’s eyes. We both sat down on the couch, and we continued crying. She discovered a bag of seaweed underneath one of the cushions of the couch. She opened the bag, and the entire room started to smell like seawater. “The cup was filled with sweat.”, she said.

From that point on, I didn’t seem to notice the passing of time anymore. My sweaty dog told me last night that time wasn’t a necessary part of life, while I was crying on the couch. “Would people be fake too, then?” She didn’t answer me. I took a pack of gum from the inside of my pocket; the taste was minty, and it was rushing through my nose. It covered up the smell of the seawater. I told my sweaty dog that I was beginning to like my friend a little bit. He was Irish, and he saw a meteor in the sky last week.

“When I began to live here, I didn’t know that a bag of seaweed was located underneath one of the cushions of the couch. I didn’t know that the house would eventually burn down. I didn’t know that the cup on the table was filled with sweat, instead of water. I regret moving into this house. I wanted to find happiness; I wanted to feel at peace. Now all the rooms smell like seawater. I can’t get the smell out of my blankets. I can’t get the smell off my food, out of my clothes, out of the plants.”

The plants’ leaves turned yellow. All of them. She was feeling better when she saw that. She saw the universe unfolding in a thousand mirrors in front of her, reflecting the skin of her body. The three of us looked at the burned down house in front of us. We couldn’t fathom it. We didn’t know how to continue from this point in our lives.

In the end, we found what it took to be connected to each other. Maybe it was the color yellow. Maybe it were the endless reflections. Maybe it was the burning house. But it didn’t matter, because when we realized that, we realized that we didn’t need a home anymore. The sweaty dog took the strands of seaweed out of the bag. She emptied the cup. The cup was filled with tears. We cleaned the tears off of each other’s cheeks. Our skins looked shiny, and bright. We continued to chase the sun. It always seemed too far away, and never too close.

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Machine fetish text - totally not not not not ready yet! I got some feedback from my writing teacher so I need to edit - perhaps make it a longer text (not very happy with it)

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Machine fetish text - totally not not not not ready yet! I got some feedback from my writing teacher so I need to edit - perhaps make it a longer text (not very happy with it)

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#MachineRelation#Body#Vibration#NonHumanEntanglemengt#Fetish

The first time that I saw the machine, was last fall when I took the train to Amsterdam. It stood in a construction site, next to train station. It was incredibly big; I was instantly mesmerized by its size. The machine was smooth, the gears were turning and the sounds were overpowering. It took me a while before I got the courage to get closer to the machine; I didn’t want people to get suspicious of me. I secretly studied the surroundings of the construction site in my free time. There were multiple cameras located on the construction site. During the daytime, there were workers with neon orange vests operating the machine. I calculated the areas that weren’t monitored by the cameras. I couldn’t resist the urge to get closer to the machine; there was no other way. I couldn’t stop myself. The sounds that the machine produced were vibrating through my entire body; it felt better than anything I’d ever felt. My skin felt electric; the vibrations were like tiny little electric shocks on my skin. It felt so good. I couldn’t stop fantasizing about that feeling.

I started sitting on a bench at the train station, opposite of the construction site, to watch the machine during the day. I calculated the times when the workers would operate the machine. It varied, but the machine was mostly used during the mornings between 7:00AM and 11:00AM. Whenever I saw a worker entering the operating chamber of the machine to turn it on, I could feel the vibrations from the bench on which I was sitting on. My body turned warm. I could feel every vibration on my skin. It was irresistible.

I imagined how the smooth metal on the outside of the machine must feel against my body. The surface of the metal was incredibly shiny, it almost looked like liquid. I imagined it to be cold on the outside. I wanted to push my naked body against the smooth metal. I wanted to be as close as possible.

After a few weeks, I couldn’t keep watching the machine from the bench anymore. I had to get closer. The vibrations were stronger if you stood closer to the building ground. The following days I watched the machine through the fence that was surrounding the building site, outside of the view of the security cameras. I couldn’t stop fantasizing about operating the machine myself. I wanted to sit in the operating chair, and I wanted to feel the soft leather against my bare skin.

After those few days, I finally did it. That day, I arrived at the construction site at approximately 3:30AM. I moved the fence a little bit, and I broke into the construction site. The wind was cold, but I’ve never felt warmer in my life than on that particular night. I made sure to only walk on the areas that weren’t filmed by the security cameras. Magically, I figured out that there was a way to walk to the machine without being seen. I took off all my clothes, and I walked towards the machine.

I stood opposite of the machine for a few minutes. I couldn’t believe it. I’d never expected to come this far. The cold wind was blowing against my face. That moment felt like the beginning of a new lifetime. I felt like a mechanical baby, watching the stars, ready to be programmed. I felt like a clean slate, like I’d just been born.

I took a few steps closer to the machine, and I reached out my hand to the smooth, bright yellow, metal. My fingers touched it. It felt surreal; it felt magical. I pushed my hand against the metal.

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#SeaSnailEggs#Eggs

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#Sea#CuttleFishBones#Foam

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#NorthSea

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salmon skin suit

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by tildgreene (@tildgreene)

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Rings engraved in cuttlefish bone - this heavily inspired me to collect the cuttlefish bones at the North Sea myself! I love the use of material

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by tildgreene (@tildgreene)

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#TildGreene#Yogamats#Kombucha

Yogamats made from homegrown kombucha

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View this post on Instagram

A post shared by tildgreene (@tildgreene)

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#TildGreene#Sensebility#Material

They are an artist in residency at The Ateliers in Amsterdam; I'm incredibly inspired by their sensibility for material

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#Crystal#Crystallography

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Are.na is a platform for connecting ideas and building knowledge.

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#HarrieWeggelaar

The philosphy of a dutch guy called Harrie Weggelaar. He (seriously) believes our atoms are small spaceships with microcreatures inside of them

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Niemand wil mijn atoomtheorie geloven, laat staan begrijpen en ik denk dat dat komt omdat de mensen zich niet voor kunnen stellen dat het heelal zo oneindig is, niet als een primitieve uitwendige oneindigheid (daar zijn we wel aan gewend), maar als een inwendige oneindigheid van steeds hogere culturen.

Niet een heelal van dode dingen, maar een heelal van levende wezens, eigenlijk: wezentjes!
Niet in het grote zit de oneindige macht van het heelal, maar in het k l e i n e !!
Hoe kleiner, hoe fijner. - Hoe kleiner, hoe fijner ontwikkeld!! -

... dwz dat de delen van het atoom uit ruimteschepen bestaan.
Die delen zijn de kern van het atoom, waarom de electronen draaien, zoals de planeten om de zon.
Die kern bestaat dan weer uit protonen en neutronen en die bestaan dan weer op hun beurt uit de nog veel kleinere quarks volgens de wetenschap.
En het is zelfs mogelijk dat die quarks ook weer op hun beurt uit nog veel kleinere deeltjes zijn opgebouwd.
Ik denk daarbij aan de snarenteorie, die nog veel en veel kleiner gaat.
Dus hoe het daar naar nou precies uitziet in het atoom, dat weet ik niet en ook de wetenschap nog niet, maar ik weet wel dat het uiteindelijk ruimteschepen moeten zijn.

Dat weet ik op basis van filosofisch-logisch denken.
Ook de Idee omtrent de atomen zelf is uit filosofische logica ontstaan bij de Griekse filosofen Leukippos en Demokritos en was ook al bekend bij de Indiase filosofie. (Vaisjesjika)
En pas nu in onze tijd wordt het bestaan van atomen wetenschappelijk geaccepteerd.
Dus je ziet hier dat de filosofie voorop kan lopen op de wetenschap en dat het daarom nog lang kan duren voor de wetenschap mijn atoomtheorie zal accepteren.
Voorlopig wil de wetenschap zelfs helemaal niks van mij weten.

Maar met mijn ruimteschepen is het zo'n beetje als met het atoom zelf, want eerst dacht men dat het atoom als zodanig het kleinste deeltje was en toen de kern en het electron, en toen nog kleiner met de protonen en neutronen en toen weer nog kleiner met de quarks.
En nu weer met de snarenteorie.
Je kan dan eindeloos doordelen als een inwendige oneindige reeks.
En dat is ook logisch, want voor elke wetenschappelijke verklaring van de microkosmos heb je weer een verdere verklaring nodig, dus nog kleinere deeltjes, enz., enz., enz., enz., tot in het oneindige.
De wetenschap is dan ook niet eenvoudiger geworden, maar steeds complexer.

En zo weet ik nog niet bij welke kleinheid van deeltjes die ruimteschepen zelf te voorschijn zullen komen.
Puur wetenschappelijk gezien lijkt het mij zelfs wenselijk dat ze nog kleiner zouden kunnen zijn dan de quarks als de nog veel en veel kleinere deeltjes van de snarenteorie om daarmee allerlei eigenaardigheden van de microkosmos beter te kunnen verklaren, zoals bijvoorbeeld het probleem of lichtgolven uit deeltjes of alleen uit golven bestaat of (wat ik denk) een nog onbegrijpelijke combinatie van beiden.
Het zou kunnen zijn dat die quarks al ruimteschepen zijn en de nog veel kleinere deeltjes van de snarenteorie de nog veel kleinere ruimteschepen van de minimicrokosmos.
Maar het zou ook kunnen dat er in de microkosmos zelf ruimteschepen zijn in allerlei formaten en gedaanten van heel groot naar heel klein en dan ook als complexen van bijvoorbeeld triljoenen ruimteschepen. "Iedereen wil daar zijn eigen ruimteschip hebben!," zou je kunnen bedenken, zoals wij allemaal per se een auto moeten bezitten.

En bedenk ook dat het bij de enorme kleinheid van de microkosmos niet veel meer uitmaakt of die ruimteschepen nog kleiner zijn dan quarks, want of die microwezens nou quadriljoen keer zo klein zijn als wij of quintiljoen, dat maakt dan ook niet veel meer uit.
Gooi er rustig nog maar een paar nullen tegen aan.
In de oneindigheid van het heelal maakt het allemaal niets uit.
Maar verbijste

In ieder geval: als ik zeg dat atomen uit ruimteschepen staan dan bedoel ik daarmee geen simpele kinderlijke voorstelling, maar een zeer complexe, voor ons nog onbegrijpelijke en onvoorstelbare hogere wereld en hoogwaardige structuur.
Maar het zijn toch ruimteschepen, dus in principe dezelfde ruimteschepen die wij bouwen, maar dan veel verder ontwikkeld.
Als ik dus zeg dat atomen ruimteschepen zijn dan bedoel ik dat niet symbolisch of bij wijze van metafoor, want die reactie krijg ik dan ook nog wel eens van de mensen.
En het kan ook niet beter of anders gezegd worden: atomen bestaan uit ruimteschepen, dat is precies wat ik bedoel.

Die ruimteschepen zijn niet die eenvoudige voertuigen van ons met een paar man en een hond erin, maar het zijn (naar mikrokosmos-verhouding natuurlijk ) gigantische ruimtebouwsels, zo groot als zonnen en planeten, maar dan in het klein, waarin triljoenen, maar misschien ook wel quadriljoenen super-intelligente microwezens (zo noem ik ze maar voorlopig) wonen.
In principe zijn het dan dezelfde ruimteschepen die wij bouwen, maar dan in een veel verder ontwikkelingsstadium omdat de microwezens quintiljoenen jaren op ons vooruit zijn kwa evolutie.

De idee van de oneindige deelbaarheid van de microkosmos (dwz als mogelijkheid) is al bekend, al is ze natuurlijk onvoorstelbaar, omdat het oneindige onvoorstelbaar is, maar daarom is ze wel te begrijpen, dwz iedereen weet wel wat er mee bedoeld wordt.
Maar wat nog nooit iemand heeft opgemerkt is dat de microkosmos een hogere wereld is met hogere natuurwetten en complexere structuren, denk maar aan het electro-magnetisme en de kwantummechanica en de ingewikkelde atoom- en molecuulstructuren.
Dat alles vind je in de grote en grove structuren van de macrokosmos niet terug.
Die grotere structuren daar in de macrokosmos zijn veel primitiever.
En denk ook maar aan de veel en veel grotere krachten in de microkosmos, de kracht van de kernenergie!!
En dan ook nog de snarenteorie met een hele reeks hogere en opgerolde dimensies om eenheid in de ingewikkelde microkosmoswetten te vinden.
Kortom: de microkosmos is een hogere wereld, maar wat is een hogere wereld???
Een hogere wereld is een ruimtevaartcultuur!!
Want wij gaan in de toekomst ook zelf het heelal volbouwen tot een ruimtevaartcultuur, dwz in de macrokosmos, dus dan wordt onze wereld een hogere wereld en de macrokosmos tot een hogere kosmos.

En dat is dan mijn eerste bewijs van mijn atoomtheorie als een filosofische bewijsvoering.
De microkosmos is een hogere wereld en een hogere wereld is een ruimtevaartcultuur.
En met deze Idee komt het heelal als een volkomen logisch systeem in elkaar te zitten, veel en veel beter dan het gammele heelal van de wetenschap, waar filosofisch helemaal niks van deugt, want hoe kunnen domme en stomme atomen nu ons lichaam in elkaar zetten en super-intelligent doen functioneren?
Nog nooit heeft een wetenschapper dat kunnen verklaren.
Maar met mijn atoomtheorie kan dat wel.
Want die atomen zijn niet zo dom, maar super-intelligente bouwwerken van super-intelligente microwezens.
Hier is dan al meteen de tweede filosofische redenering.

Ik heb er nog veel meer.
Niets wat ik vertel met mijn atoomtheorie is uit mijn duim gezogen.
Maar niemand wil het geloven en begrijpen, want de massa is nu eenmaal zeer traag en dom, ook de massa der wetenschappers.
Ze willen mijn idee niet eens in overweging nemen.
(Wetenschappers kunnen alleen in formules denken.)
Maar zo is het al zo vaak geweest:

Toen Galileï de manen van Jupiter ontdekte, toen wilden de andere wetenschappers niet eens kijken, zo overtuigd waren ze dat het onzin moest zijn.
En zo pleegde Boltzmann (van de kinetische energie) zelfmoord omdat zijn atomen niet geaccepteerd werden, maar van Einstein werd het in diezelfde tijd wel geaccepteerd.
En wel door zijn verklaring van de Brownse beweging.
Dat is nog maar honderd jaar geleden.
En zo zijn er nog veel meer voorbeelden te noemen.
Iedereen weet het, maar leert er nooit iets van.
Het enige wat de mens van de geschiedenis leert is dat ie er niks van leert.

Zo was de evolutieteorie al bij de oude Grieken bekend en al zeer uitgebreid bij de filosoof Schelling (1775-1854), maar pas door Darwin (1859 - the origin of species.) werd het eindelijk langzaam algemeen geaccepteerd.
(En ook het scheppingsverhaal in de bijbel is gemakkelijk te lezen als een evolutie-theorie, wat de gelovigen zelf blijkbaar nooit hebben begrepen!)
Dus: hoe lang zal het duren voordat mijn atoomtheorie eindelijk geaccepteerd zal worden?
De Idee zal natuurlijk eerst algemeen bekend moeten worden en dat kost al zoveel tijd en moeite.

Gods molens malen langzaam.

Maar je zou hier dialectisch ook het omgekeerde kunnen beweren, namelijk dat de ontwikkeling van de mensheid de afgelopen duizenden jaren supersnel is gegaan, met een gigantische stroomversnelling in de afgelopen zestig jaar na de tweede wereldoorlog.
Het is niet meer bij te benen.

Mijn atoomtheorie is de uiteindelijke doorbraak naar de toekomst.
Dwz als oneindige visie.
In eenheid met de ontwikkeling van de ruimtevaart.
De eerste man op de maan: 1969
En in 1974 heb ik mijn atoomtheorie ontdekt.
Maar nu nog de echte grote doorbraak, dwz dat mijn idee bekend wordt.
En: geaccepteerd !!!

Het heelal is altijd ingewikkelder.

Het heelal bleek altijd ingewikkelder te zijn dan we dachten, maar de mensen hebben zich daar ook altijd tegen verzet.
En zo willen ze nu ook van mijn atoomtheorie niet weten, maar ik heb nog nooit een logische tegenredenering gehoord.
(Als je die meent te weten, stuur me dan een E-mail.)
Zelfs als science fiction willen ze het niet accepteren, want zelfs de fantasie van de mensen is te klein voor mijn atoomtheorie.
En bovendien bewijst mijn atoomtheorie dat de werkelijkheid de fantasie te boven gaat.
Men fantaseert rustig over een oneindig aantal dimensies, maar dat atomen uit ruimteschepen bestaan, nee, dat gaat te ver; daar moeten ze dan alleen maar medelijdend om glimlachen.
Dat kan alleen maar een kinderlijk fantasietje zijn.

En toen men zo'n 140 jaar geleden fantaseerde over een reis naar de maan (Jules Verne) werd er natuurlijk hartelijk gelachen. Want de evolutie van het leven gaat door en zal nooit stoppen, van: Alsof het nog maar net begonnen zou zijn!
Maar we zullen ook het hele heelal veroveren en over miljoenen of desnoods triljoenen jaren zit het hele heelal vol met ruimteschepen tot een volledige ruimtevaartcultuur.

"En nou is het wel genoeg geweest!" Er is geen einde! Niet in de microkosmos en niet in de macrokosmos.
En niet alleen kwantitatief, maar ook kwalitatief, dwz steeds hoger en hoger en hoger, oneindig door, en die oneindige hoogte bestaat al in de microkosmos, want het heelal is eeuwig, dus waarom zouden we dan de hoogste wezens zijn in het heelal?

Zet dat gammele heelal van de wetenschap op zijn kop en het grote raadsel is opgelost!

Niet: niets (de Oerknal uit het niets of een oneindig klein punt), maar een oneindig en eeuwig systeem is de basis van het heelal. En dat oneindige ingewikkelde systeem zit in de microkosmos.
En dat oneindige systeem is ook de konkrete realiteit van een oneindig aantal dimensies.
De waarheid is het oneindige systeem als een levend systeem en niet als een dood abstract mechaniek van de wetenschap.

Die gaswolken zullen samentrekken tot zonnen en planeten en de hele evolutie van het heelal zal dus weer opnieuw beginnen, maar dan in macrostructuur.
Want op sommige van die planeten zal weer leven ontstaan als de omstandigheden daarbij toevallig optimaal goed zijn.
(Maar toeval is daarbij niet de echte reden van het ontstaan van het leven, maar de noodzakelijkheid daarvan vanuit een hoger leven in de microkosmos en wij zijn dan tegen die tijd dat hogere leven in de microkosmos geworden. - Toeval is daarbij bijzaak.)
Eerst eencelligen, dan planten en dan de dieren en uiteindelijk de mensen.
Maar die mensen zijn dan gigantisch groot vergeleken met ons.
Het zijn dan macroreuzen. *
* Volgens Dick Waanders bestaan die macroreuzen al en wonen wij al in een macroreus!

En wij zijn tegen die tijd microwezens geworden.
Dwz relatief gesproken ten opzichte van die macroreuzen, maar ook kwa ontwikkeling zijn we dan werkelijk microwezens als hogere wezens geworden.
En die macroreuzen zullen op hun beurt weer ruimtevaarders worden en dan maxi-macroreuzen bouwen, die op hun beurt super-maxi-macroreuzen zullen bouwen, enz., enz., enz., enz.
Onze evolutie gaat dus richting macrokosmos in de vorm van steeds grotere macro-atomen en macroreuzen, maar relatief gesproken duiken we juist omgekeerd de microkosmos in, want wij worden microwezens en dan mini's en dan super-mini's, enz.
Het is niet moeilijk te begrijpen, maar het is wel onvoorstelbaar en verbijsterend omwille van de oneindigheid.

En ik lig er nog wel eens wakker van.
Maar dan meer speciaal omwille van de inwendige oneindigheid, want hoe groot een getal we ook zouden bedenken, het is niks in de oneindigheid van inwendige culturen: dan breekt het zweet van gevoelsmatig ongeloof mij uit, maar word ik wakker, dan kan ik het weer verstandsmatig accepteren.
Want dan is mijn geest weer sterker dan mijn gevoel.
Hiermee is eigenlijk het eerste hoofdstuk van de atoomtheorie afgesloten, dwz wat de eenvoudige basisprincipes betreft.
Ik heb zo'n beetje "alles" verteld.
Nu heb ik al iets gezegd over dat zogenaamde bewijzen met een eerste en tweede bewijs (dwz: logische redenatie) en daarom lijkt het mij juist van dat bewijzen een apart gedeelte te vormen met:

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atomen zijn ruimteschepen waarin microwezens wonen.

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Niemand wil mijn atoomtheorie geloven, laat staan begrijpen en ik denk dat dat komt omdat de mensen zich niet voor kunnen stellen dat het heelal zo oneindig is, niet als een primitieve uitwendige oneindigheid (daar zijn we wel aan gewend), maar als een inwendige oneindigheid van steeds hogere culturen.

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#Pataphysicsr#AlfredJarry

1. the branch of philosophy that deals with an imaginary realm additional to metaphysics.

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I've been collecting things/materials from the NORTH SEA - 

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I've been collecting things/materials from the NORTH SEA - 

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#NorthSea#SeaLive#CuttlefishBones#SharkEggs#Snails#Seaweed

I found cuttlefish bones, shark eggs, stingray eggs, seaweed, sea snail eggs, and other small items

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M(I/A)CROS

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#Bodily#EmbodiedExperience#Sensory#Sensual

Translucent Frogs

I had a dream about translucent frogs trying to find a way to enter my brain. They climbed onto my face, and their shiny bodies left a slimy trail on my skin. One of them took my eyeball, and removed it. My eyeball got thrown off a bridge surrounded by blue skies and magical seas; it felt like I saw the essence of the universe for a split second. The frogs entered my head through the newly created hole in my face, and they reached my brain. They laid down in the soft tissue. They slept there in the nighttime. By the time it was morning, all of the frogs were dissolved. I found my eyeball while swimming in the sea, and I placed it back into the empty hole. I could see the stars moving through time above the water. I could see small sea creatures eating pieces of bright green seaweed. I could see shiny bodies with big, Italian bellies sunbathing on the rocks by the water. I saw an oiled up man searching for a translucent frog between the wet rocks, and eating it. His pupils dilated; he removed his left eyeball, and threw it far into the sparkling ocean.

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Short story, paragraphs... Not edited yet- perhaps to be put into an artist book? Tried to print on banners - not sure if that works (I don't think so)

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Short story, paragraphs... Not edited yet- perhaps to be put into an artist book? Tried to print on banners - not sure if that works (I don't think so)

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#Literature#Story#Poetic #ArtistBook

The first time in my life that I remember blowing out the candles of my birthday cake, I wished for world peace. I remember I strategically calculated what the best wish was you could possibly make. I quickly came to the realization, that wishing for world peace was the best possible wish to make. It benefitted every single being on earth. Since then, on every birthday, I wished for world peace.

When I was about seven years old, me and my family stayed at an anarchist camping site for a few days. We slept in a small caravan. On the second day, I had a huge allergic reaction. I remember not being able to breathe. I couldn’t leave my bed, I couldn’t walk anymore; there was too little oxygen in my blood. A few days after the allergic attack, I got diagnosed with asthma. Since then, I remember wishing for my asthma to be cured, instead of wishing for world peace.

When I was around fourteen years old, I realized that it didn’t seem to work. I never outgrew my asthma. Since then, I’ve been mostly wishing for human connections. Sometimes I make a wish for a friend. Every time I blow out the candles of my birthday cake, my wish for world peace still pops up in my mind. Sometimes I feel a lot of guilt; I feel incredibly selfish. Sometimes I wish I never stopped wishing for world peace.

A few months ago, I read on the internet that one of the best way to prevent a kidnapping, is to look the kidnapper straight in the eyes before they are able to do something. Apparently, the element of surprise is gone, because they’ll know that you’ve already seen them. Since I’ve read that tip, I’ve been looking every person I come across on the street in their eyes. Some people smile at me. Some people don’t seem to notice that I’m looking at them. Some people purposefully look away. Some people keep staring back.

Your brain can’t create new faces on its own. Every dream you’ve had with people in it, you’ve apparently seen in your life. I’ve also read that on the internet.

Lately I’ve been having a reoccurring dream of a house in Amsterdam in which I’ve lived in for almost two years. It looked like a grey, concrete block from the outside. It was a strange place. It was a heavy place. In my dreams, my friends would live in that house after I’ve moved out. It’s never the same friends. The dreams are incredibly calming, painful, and nostalgic. It’s a feeling that I didn’t know existed. I remember the living room exactly how it used to be. It feels like I could be there, if I would close my eyes. I could draw every inch of the house from my memory if somebody would ask me.

I’ve also been dreaming about frozen landscapes. I’ve had dreams were I was on the North Pole, but sometimes it’s also in Norway. My sister and my dad are always there with me. My sister is going through a hard time right now; she lives in a different city. I haven’t had contact with my dad since the end of summer. In my dreams we’re together. It’s a safe, and happy feeling. There’s an island in Norway that’s called Longyearbyen; you always have to carry a gun when you’re going outside, just in case a polar bear attacks you. In my dreams, the polar bears always attack us. We’re always just too late. The doors won’t close. We’re running too slow. They always say it’s an accident; it’s very rare to see a polar bear in rural areas.

A few weeks ago, I telepathically communicated with a man that I saw walking on the street. I was biking back from the station; I had just visited my old place in Amsterdam. On the back of my backpack, I’d strapped my big chicken plushy. My dad gave it to me last year. It was the first time that he gave me a present in over ten years.

The man on the street was walking with a strange movement. I thought he must’ve been drunk. He had a plastic bag with shrimp crackers in them; the type you get as a side dish at a Chinese restaurant. As I biked past him, I imagined him looking at the chicken. I imagined him saying “Chicken!”. I thought of how strange it must’ve been if he’d actually say “Chicken” right now. One or two seconds later, I heard him mumble “Chicken”. I didn’t say anything back. I imagined how lonely he must’ve felt. I still feel guilty about that interaction. I should’ve told him we’d just telepathically communicated. I should’ve shouted something like “Yeah!”. I should’ve turned around, and smiled at him.

Since a few weeks, I’ve been getting free food from a charity organization. Every week, they give me a pack of ten eggs. That means I’d have to eat 1.429 eggs a day. I only eat eggs for breakfast. It reminds me that life starts with round edges. It reminds me that different dimensions exist. It makes me realize that beings are connected. It makes me realize that birth is an earthly construction. It makes me realize that I’m human; I knew I was human, all along. An egg fits perfectly in a human hand. I feel bad for the chickens who’s eggs I’ve been eating. I know they might’ve been in pain. I wish I could do something.

How can a body disappear from earth without a trace?

Why do my friends never dream about me?

How do I make my friends dream about my face?

What happens, if a body disappears from earth completely, and the only thing that was left was a blonde piece of hair?

I’ve read a story about a girl that was murdered by a serial killer. The only place were the detectives have found foreign DNA on her body, was underneath her fingernails. That’s how the killer was identified, and eventually arrested. I’d just cut my fingernails. I can’t stand the feeling of having long fingernails. My therapist tells me to do push-ups when I feel like my emotions get too strong. Breathe in, breathe out. She tells me that some physical pain, is in fact good pain. 1, 2, 3.

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#Ears

He told me he knew all the secrets in the world. He wore a big hat, it was too big and too fluffy. He talked about mountain flowers, and rivers. I talked about nuclear bombs, and that I didn’t care. He got quiet. We got quiet together.

When we arrived at the Central Station of Amsterdam, we took the boat to the northern part of the city. I saw him looking through a peephole; the only thing that you could see was moving water. They told us we have a similar taste in music.

I told him I hoped a nuclear bomb would fall on Amsterdam. But it would be such a shame for the canals to be destroyed. He got quiet again. He was a quiet person. He told me that he sometimes looks for fruits and vegetables at the farmers market that people have left behind at the end of the day. Apparently, he and his friends make meals from them together. It was supposed to be a special, and bonding experience. I was so jealous. I wanted to take his big fluffy hat, and jump from the boat in the IJ. I wanted my skin to absorb all of the polluted water, and swim to the bottom, and dig a hole, and bury his big fluffy hat at the bottom of the river, then swim up again, climb on the boat, and hold his hand.

I imagined us kissing, and I imagined his hands touching my skin. But the only thing I receive is quietness from his side. Radio silence. Nothing. Like a vanishing points in space, and in time. I kept reminding myself that ears see things that you can’t see with your eyes.

That’s when I knew what I had to do. The idea came to me from outer space, just like love and desire had. I took his hand. He looked at me confused, and he  smiled a little. I walked with him to the edge of the boat, and I pushed him off the railing. I jumped after him. I think he screamed, and he might have scratched me. The water was incredibly cold. We turned into electric eels. I kissed him, and I think he kissed me back. People screamed at us. But that’s okay, because our love is like liquid; eyes will never be able to see it fully.

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Since a few weeks, I’ve been getting free food from a charity organization. Every week, they give me a pack of ten eggs. That means I’d have to eat 1.429 eggs a day. I only eat eggs for breakfast. It reminds me that life starts with round edges. It reminds me that different dimensions exist. It makes me realize that beings are connected. It makes me realize that birth is an earthly construction. It makes me realize that I’m human; I knew I was human, all along. An egg fits perfectly in a human hand. I feel bad for the chickens who’s eggs I’ve been eating. I know they might’ve been in pain. I wish I could do something.

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When I began working on the plotter, I used to only write text. Then I started experimenting with graphic shapes, and I started to embrace the 'mistakes'w/robot

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#MachineRelation#Hybride#Huchine

Egg paragraph banner

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I'm creating "banners" with old wallpaper in the electronics workshop, using the plotter! I'm now experimenting with cut-outs and graphic shapes 000000000000000

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#Eggs

Banner with outcuts

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Leonard Knight and his Technicolor Mountain

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Leonard Knight and his Technicolor Mountain

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#LeonardKnight#Mountain

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Leonard Knight and his Technicolor Mountain

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#EmbodiedCognition