Message-ID: <alpine.NEB.2.00.1105281344530.11669@panix3.panix.com>
From: Alan Sondheim <sondheim@panix.com>
To: Cyb <cybermind@listserv.wvu.edu>, Wryting-L <WRYTING-L@listserv.wvu.edu>
Subject: Here's the Thing, two texts
Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 13:46:02 -0400 (EDT)
Here's the Thing, two texts http://www.alansondheim.org/clocking1.mp3 http://www.alansondheim.org/clocking2.mp3 http://www.alansondheim.org/clocking3.mp3 Here's the Thing Consider two different watches - one with a digital/numerical readout, and the other with a traditional circular dial (digital or analog). Consider the path swept by any of the hands - second/minute/hour - the track. The track lies between ikonic and indexical; on one hand, it stands-in for the concrete space traversed in a given amount of time; on the other, its very physicality is a pointer towards duration. Consider the numerical readout; on one hand, it stands-in for the symbolic state of an instant, which is in reality a duration from one decimal point to another; on the other, it is indexical, a pointer towards an instantaneity embedded in a sequence. The philosophical position behind the numerical readout is that of the Dedekind cut; behind the track lies a form of intuitionism embedding both mechanism and observer, the track inhabiting or accompanying his or her internal time consciousness. Duration is an inhabiting; one might say, for example, looking at a circular dial, that it's almost five, that we still have some time before dinner, that he's a bit late. Looking at a numerical readout, one is likely to say, it's three to five, dinner's in a half hour, dinner's in forty-five minutes or so. Of course this is exaggerated, but the track tends towards the metaphoric consciousness of the body described by the Lakoff's and the numerical readout portends towards an inescapable but fictitious exactitude. I think of these as differing orders within the real, different insertions of body and technology, different prosthetics. The track is closer to the graft of skin or tissue; the readout is closer to an insertion or prosthesis. The former is closer to a fissure in the real, separating same from same; the latter is closer to a concrete division, a separation of x from ~x, this from that. In this odd sense, the numerical readout is classical, and the track is post-mod- ern - anything goes, the body runs/exists anywhere among intervals which are smeared out, abject, spewed. To read a track is always to interpret; one searches in vain for concrete divisions. To read a numerical input is the opposite - it is never to interpret, always to read out what is written, not to interpret the given, but to reproduce. it. These two models, and the transformations that have occurred from one to the other - how subtle, what is lost and what is gained! One never thinks about, for example, those 'vintage' windup travel alarms with their ticking that measured the unraveling of potential energy, that ran on the energy of the body; now one uses digital and often silently-running alarms which are almost as disposable as the batteries that power them. One might say that the mechanical is comprehended as levers and wheels are compre- hended, that the mechanical clock, no matter how small or complex, runs on principles that are readily accessible. The digital/electronic on the other hand operates as a black box tied to corporate but common specifica- tions. It's not just a question of scale. Ironically the electronic is closer to the workings of the body, than the mechanical, but not closer to the phenomenology of things that surround us. It's those things which are receding in the distance, even the track or slow unfolding of time. And what comes in for replacement is the digital which may or may not run at any speed (whose speed in the long run may also be mapped analogically and with full cognizance of potential wells and the like), but which collapses interval into instant, and perhaps along the line, the instant into fashion, which takes all the analogic time available to fill out. Fashion is the crossroads here, indicated by the thing or punctum, but also by the roads traversed, the gaps opened up. And here's the thing: the walk along the line or from one side of the aisle to the other, the walk through the mall or across it, stopping at the Gap in order to proceed apace. ================================================================== they said that, propellers, propellors, helicopters and props. "its propeller festooned with propeller" getting better, a propeller spun overhead, gathering speed while bikes propellor-marked the radios the boats, propellor-marked by tired with propeller wounds. my writing unsolicited, goes unsolicitied. listen: i rope sidestroke swimming smoke cigarette propeller arms left propeller projections of dismembered avatars over propellers and gratings. two engines of aeromodeller have propellers at right-angles - there are projections of dismembered avatars over propellers and gratings * nomadic propellers and radios the and propellor-marked boats, their tired and primate for and of its propeller festooned with propeller. alternating video where propellers ruotano and children in plastic seem projections of dismembered avatars over propellers and gratings, two engines of aeromodeller have propellers at right-angles - there are propellor-marked propellor-marked blame slime crabgrass fury propellor- marked fury and tree sunflower and and dandelion, fern slime not primate for tired by the blame propellor-marked comfort manatee, blame or "ah yes, i'm also thinking of the propellor vanes." write helicopters #### helicopters #### 33 ###################### through my 34 #### ! 35 #### : a trail from the helicopter engine and you know that the helicopter is one fine evening, and i will end it on ano when the helicopter shows where judgment on that, helicopters, how could you possibly predict what of helicopters, pure katana sword helicopters are banned the airwolf helicopter wow how long ago was this! for the killing of wolves by helicopter and the roar and sputtering of helicopter blades constructs that disappear as so many props only necessary at this point in sinking. props undermines community honesty. but subterfuge, subterfuge propping (there were no props, only a round-robin of symbolic formations). themselves into dark realms and greater props :: the dancers are nude, there are no props. and the consciousness of the body, why wear clothes? why work for people the dancers are nude, there are no props, and about that sinking, my writing props up the world it undermines. constructs disappear in so many ways. be on the stage without an props at all. they say "jacki's give props ry's sylvie fortin what's wrong here aaa bbb ccc ddd" - they said that. they said that, propellers, propellors, helicopters and props.