thanks Curt On Thu, Aug 11, 2011 at 6:08 PM, Curt Cloninger <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hi Annie (and all), > > I will inject (arf) on this one. Deleuze/Guattari's "becoming animal" > seems relevant. D&G are often accused of being unpragmatic and > playing hard and fast with science, but of all the philosophers I > read, I find them curiously pragmatic. To summarize: they suggest the > existence of various planes/strata, some of which would be animal > biology, human psychology, art, and symbolic language/iconography. At > any time these planes can intersect. Such intersections are forms of > deterritorialization and reterritorialization. The relevant question > is -- what new emergent futures may result from these intersections, > and where may they lead that is efficacious? The goal of all this > de/re-territorialization is not that science (in this case, biology) > should be utterly disregarded and merely mythologized. The goal is > that science be seen as only one of many ways in which > undifferentiated being/immanence has stratified/territorialized, > rather than seeing science as *the* overarching plane through which > all other being must necessarily be understood. > > Having said all that, the key to performoing Deleuzean experiments in > de/re-territorializations is *rigor.* Many deterritorializations > (forms of body modification, s+m) simply wind up reterritorializing > in a whirlpool spiral that ends in death. So for instance (as in > Cronenberg's "Dead Ringers"), you can only literally reconfigure your > internal bodily organs for so long before your body rebels and you > die. And death is not all that promising a place to wind up (at least > for those of us who remain; it doesn' really lead anywhere new or > efficacious). > > The other thing to be avoided is what seems to be happening in this > particular art piece -- a bit of biological engagement coupled with a > whole lot of human psychological [mis]interpretation (as Annie points > out) and a whole lot of artistic symbology. What *actually* changes > in the immanent/affective world? -- not a lot. Yes, the piece has > pragmatically provoked us to have this theoretical conversation > (happening on the plane of langauge), but a Rothko painting can > (still) trigger a theoretical conversation, so that is nothing > particularly new. > > This is why I like Stelarc's biological experiments (particularly as > interpreted by Brian Massumi) better than Eduardo Kac's biological > experiments. Because Stelarc's practice moves beyond mere symbology > and on toward something more rigorous, something that actually > modulates bodily affect (if only in a limited, prototypical way). For > the same reason, the Porridge/Breyer pandrogyne expermients exert > more agency (at least on a biological strata) than Orlan's surgery > experiments (which are still admirable, but more on a symbolic > strata). > > So even something like this: > http://www.euroartmagazine.com/artUps/1177409414.jpg (Rebecca Horn's > "Finger Gloves"), which just involves wood and not horse blood, > actually alters a human body much more affectively/pragmatically than > does an infusion of horse blood. Horn's entire physical posture and > her way of being in the world is changed. So the stilts with horse > hooves are doing way more than the blood. The horse blood is like > vampire or cannibal mythology -- working on the plane of symbolism , > ritual, theater, spectacle. Of course, symbolism and ritual are > strata in the world that do actually change the world. No doubt. But > again, as Annie observes, the piece is doing something other than > what its artist is claiming -- the blood infusion is more like > Beuysean shamanism and less like Deleuzean becoming animal. > > (Makes a good viral youTube video, though.) > > cf: > > http://www.amazon.com/When-Species-Posthumanities-Donna-Haraway/dp/0816650462/ > http://www.orlan.net/works/performance/ > http://www.genesisbreyerporridge.com/pandrogyne-images.html > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2MntBUwUxY > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0075995/ > http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094964/ > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergei_Pankejeff > http://www.massmoca.org/event_details.php?id=310 > > http://squarewhiteworld.com/2009/12/10/stop-screaming-ideas-are-the-voids-of-the-body-penetrating-connexions-self-serving-excerpts-from-stephen-barbers-the-screaming-body/ > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdxRPavquIQ [4:14-6:40] > > Best, > Curt > > > > > >Message: 15 > >Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 21:08:45 +0200 > >From: Annie Abrahams <[email protected]> > >Subject: Re: [NetBehaviour] Artist Injects Herself With Horse Blood, > > Wears Hooves > >"May the horse live in me" > >Interesting experiment, interesting storytelling, but far beyond reality > > > >"She explained to Centre > >Press< > http://www.centre-presse.fr/article-145011-dans-les-veines-de-l-artiste-coule-le-sang-de-cheval.html > >that > >the whole process made her feel ?hyper-powerful, hyper-sensitive and > >hyper-nervous.? She added: ?I had a feeling of being superhuman. I was not > >normal in my body. I had all of the emotions of a herbivore. I couldn?t > >sleep and I felt a little bit like a horse.?" > > > >Interpretation, wishful thinking - bullshit. > > > >Anyone who had medical tests done in an hospital to check out the heart > and > >who has been injected with chemicals knows it needs little (these > chemicals) > >to make you feel a completely different person. (anxious, calm, nervous > etc) > >Chemicals have a deep impact on our being (all drug users know this too), > >feelings, experiences of ourselves, so it's no wonder horse proteins make > >you feel changed, anything would. > > > >I like the experiment, the discussion it triggers, but I abhor the biased > >language used by these artists. In my opinion it doesn't take science > >serious, only uses it for something else. > > > >Yours > >Annie > > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > -- *Training for a Better World *28 / 10 2011 - 1 /1 2012 <http://crac.languedocroussillon.fr/artiste_fiche/254/3172-artistes.htm> http://crac.languedocroussillon.fr/exposition_fiche/121/3170-a-venir.htm
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