The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

:Interrupt state meant for Interrupt con/in/ference:


My life has a dismal sameness about it, abjection sets in, under the guise
of substance, interruption is a kink or knot, negation is at the heart of
it, as it is of organism; organism exists by interruption; a split of the
same - that is, a parasitic split of the same, out of which comes
inscription and the efflorescence of culture. In that sentence is what
might be said in that regard.

Now there are paradoxes in Max Perleberg's translation of Kung-Sun Lung-
Tzu; here are some; they function as interrupt in a sense paralleling that
of Zen discourse but with other purpose, different phenomenology -

Things never come to naught.
The shadow does not move.
A white horse is not a horse. (most famous of course)
An orphan calf never had a mother.

Now Hui Shih

The sun at noon is declining. The creature just born is dying.
The south is without a limit and has a limit.
I go to-day to the state of Yueh and arrived there yesterday.
I know the centre of the world is north of Yen and south of Yueh.

The dialecticians, Chuang-tzu of course

The egg has feathers.
A fowl has three legs.
Mountains bring out moths.
Wheels do not press the ground.
Fire is not hot.
A tortoise is longer than a snake.
The shadow of a bird does not move.
A white dog is black.

But these are not the works of Kung-Sun Lung-Tzu; they are background to
the works, armatures which appear to require explanation, koan in con-
junction with inscription.

There are no interruptions in the world. There are absolutely no inter-
ruptions. You'd have to tell me when I'm interrupting. You'd have to give
me a sign. You'd have to say something. You'd have to say something back.

An interruption is a difference that makes a difference, borrowed Bateson.
But look here, an interruption also presupposes something to interrupt;
I'm not part of the party, I'll crash it. Perhaps it's not an interruption
- perhaps you've arranged this, it's a surprise party. Signals fire and
cross-fire.

Now online where I make virtual worlds in virtual worlds, at least for the
moment, although they're before and after me, anyway, where I make virtual
worlds, there's Heraclitian motion, yes there is, maybe Brownian or chao-
tic, but I'd think more determinate than that, although the states them-
selves remain indeterminate, yes they do. There are goings-on and that's
about it, and my work, if it's had any direction before and after online
or before and after virtuality, however defined, is just about that, what-
ever's meant by goings-on, and how they go.

:/ ILLUSTRATIVE VIDEO - skysphere machine at last generating stuttered
spacings /: http://www.alansondheim.org/mach2.mp4