In/compatible, paradoxical, antithetical, the Janusian nature of
Revolution, #tmresource
"All is flux, nothing stays still." claimed Heraclitus. Heraclitus
believed that you could not step into the same river twice, that the way
up is the way down, that nothing simply is, that everything is becoming.
"All things come into being by conflict of opposites, and the sum of
things flows like a stream."
In a continuous state of becoming, nothing has a true nature, but
always two conflicting natures, on one hand having the nature of what it
was, or where it was, on the other håand having the nature of what it
will be, or where it will be.
In Roman mythology, Janus the god of beginnings is two faced. Christian
mythology gives us the two-faced demon Bifrons, listed in the Lesser Key
of Solomon as a gateway guardian responsible for the transportion of
corpses, and Jesus himself, the binato manifestation of god, having two
natures, mortal and devine, who is the path to the kingdom of god. To be
becomming is to have two-faces, two natures, to be both here and there.
Like Janus, Bifrons and Jesus, all things are binato, as Heraclitus
believed always becoming, and thereby always in strife, always in
unending struggle to bring opposing natures into harmony. That is the
nature of living in flux.
During Transmediale's reSource research conference last week, I gave a
short introduction to a concept that I've been developing: A
revolutionary structure must have antithetical intrinsic and extrinsic
characteristics. An agent of change must have internal characteristics
that prefigure what is becoming, but none-the-less, must have extrinsic
characteristics that allow it to function where it is.
Tatiana Bazzichelli, who also participated in the reSource conference,
noted that many of the artists, activists and hackers she researched for
her thesis employed paradoxical elements in their practice. Often
assuming, at least by way of parody, the forms they wish to oppose.
Venture Communism, CopyFarLeft and Thimbl, projects and concepts from
Telekommunisten where included among the examples. The Paradox is clear,
all of these are bizarro world simulacrum of their objects of critique,
attempt to invert or subvert the forms they oppose by creating their
negation, thus being paradoxical, but also antithetical, assuming the
outwardly form as they encounter it, but negating that outwardly form
with an inwardly form that it it's opposite.
To borrow the theme of this year's Transmediale, "in/compatible."
The slash between "in" and "compatible" indicates the bifurcation of
the intrinsic and the extrinsic, both compatible and not compatible,
providing an outwardly in/terface that is compatible, but only as a part
of a transformative flow towards an inwardly nature that is ultimately
incompatible. The road to up new harmony, the negation of the negation,
synthesis, and thereby also the road down, to the new antithesis, the
new in/compatibility, the endless flux.
It must seem paradoxical to strive against the existing being by
adopting it's outwardly nature, but disruption requires it. Unprotected
by an adaptive exterior, the new nature can not survive, and therefore
can never become. Naive attempts to build simple alternative ways of
being, acting, or relating, in conflict with what is, while insisting on
external and internal harmony deny becoming, and are drowned in the
stream, entering into conflict to soon without sufficient development
for the negation to become negated.
I'm not sure if Kristoffer Gansing and the Transmediale team see the
term "in/compatible" as I do, indeed I suspect they hope the term will
inspire different understandings.
During the discussion that followed the panel, Kristoffer asked how
this idea of antithetical intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics
related to a networked environment, wich led us into a discussion of
microcosm and macrocosm. In the words of The Emerald Tablet of Hermes
Trismegistus, "That which is Below corresponds to that which is Above,
and that which is Above, corresponds to that which is Below," both the
microcosm and the macrocosm is in flux, is becoming, and the streams of
motion are many, interlinking and overlapping flows.
Cornelia Sollfrank asked if paradoxical forms could lead to peaceful
co-existence instead of revolution, if rather than overcome the existing
being, having antithetical intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics would
simply allow the new nature to exist within the old, to just be along
with it. This is a good point, binato structures could just as easily be
compositional and not oppositional, so not all binato structures need be
oppositional, however all oppositional structures must be binato, as
they require two natures to transform.
We also launched the Beta Registration for Telekommunisten's latest
Miscommunication Technology, R15N, at the reSource workshop, please
register for the miscommunication platform of choice for Transmediale's
reSource for Transmedial Culture. http://r15n.net, the system is
currently in Beta, but operational, critical miscommunication will occur
on this network.
As for Stammtisch, I'll be at Cafe Buchhandlung at 9pm as usual.
http://bit.ly/buchhandlung
--
Dmyri Kleiner
Venture Communist
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