David Jones, artist and poet (1895-1974) begins his PREFACE TO THE ANATHEMATA :
'I have made a heap of all that I could find.' (1) So wrote Nennius, or whoever composed the introductory matter to Historia Brittonum. He speaks of an 'inward wound' which was caused by the fear that certain things dear to him 'should be like smoke dissipated'. Further, he says, 'not trusting my own learning, which is none at all, but partly from writings and monuments of the ancient inhabitants of Britain, partly from the annals of the Romans and the chronicles of the sacred fathers, Isidore, Hieronymous, Prosper, Eusebius and from the histories of the Scots and Saxons although our enemies . . . I have lispingly put together this . . . about past transactions, that [this material] might not be trodden under foot'. (2)
(1) The actual words are coacervavi omne quod inveni, and occur in Prologue 2 to the Historia. (2) Quoted from the translation of Prologue 1. See The Works of Gildas and Nennius, J.A.Giles, London 1841.
Faith Kipyegon of Kenya has just won the Women's 1500m gold medal with a new Olympic record of 3:53.11
at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.We witnessed this on a commercial television app, a sub-screen on our computer desktop screen.
Faith Kipyegon then collected a Kenyan flag from her supporters in the stadium. Olympic television media showed us this.
Then, she knelt low upon the track and covered herself with the flag. Watching here as she appeared to disappear there, it seemed like a magic trick. So unexpected. Would a flight of black doves emerge?
The television camera continued to record and the Media Centre editor decided to stay with this scene as a stills photographer rushed in. Five times, we clickedcommand + shift + 3
Many current TV advertisements are also about reviewing the wisdom of our views. Here's Wayne, looking as if at his own bee-bearded bonce, wondering if he can smash and grab some easy money, honey.
Theatre of the Advertisements of Regard
Voice-over Man advises :
Wayne, Wayne, Wayne ... careful there, big fella.
Sure, there’s a part of you thinking, 'Free honey’. But we want to talk to the other part, your smart part. It knows that checking your credit score without affecting it is a good decision. Easy now... Chorus sings : wis(e)r
So, why is Wayne now looking at the back of his hammer-become-screen-device? Because he is still required to act stupid; because it is we who are fixed on that screen (and this screen) to the wisr owl logo.
Everyone simply loved it. State politicians stood in front of it (like every moron in Melbourne) to have their photo taken. The NGV website has a short promo discussing its curatorial purchase and placement. But do you think I could find anyone anywhere to critically engage with this work, short of reprising the NGV’s sound-bytes or Anadol’s own assertions?Am I second-guessing that most MeMO readers saw it, hated it and can’t bring themselves to even remember it? Maybe therein lies the core of the problem: how screen culture’s increasing leakage of totemic and monumental art commissions constitutes a critical drowning-out of discursive engagement.
The expansion to which
I am referring is called a Klein group when employed mathematically and has
various other designations, among them the Piaget group, when used by structuralists involved in mapping operations within the human sciences.* By means of
this logical expansion a set of binaries is transformed into a quaternary field which
both mirrors the original opposition and at the same time opens it. It becomes a
logically expanded field which looks like this:
* The dimensions of this structure may be analyzed as follows: 1) there are two relationships of
pure contradiction which are termed axes (and further differentiated complex axis the
neuter axis) and are designated by the solid arrows (see diagram); 2) there are two relationships of
contradiction, expressed as involution, which are called schemas and are designated by the double
arrows; and 3) there are two relationships of implication which art. called deixes and are designated by
the broken arrows.
For a discussion of the Klein group, see Marc Barbut, "On the Meaning of the Word 'Structure'
in Mathematics," in Michael Lane, ed., Introduction to Structuralism, New York, Basic Books, 1970;
for an application of the Piaget group, see A.- J. Greimas and F. Rastier, "The Interaction of Semiotic
Constraints," Yale French Studies, no. 41 (1968), 86-105.
regarding Phillip O'Sullivan respond to Rosalind Krauss's diagram
Following on from the previous scene by Masanobu Okumura (1686-1764) of a white-caped samurai un/seen from behind in front of whom (above whom, even) a white-capped see script ~~~
collection FIAPCE
Today, arguably the prime image for Buddhism in Japan, Bodhidharma aka Daruma in wall-gazing meditation for nine years. This lotus throne version is by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694), the greatest of Japan's haiku poets.
Theatre of the Actors of Regard
The model and challenge of these three scenes,
if we include our own present act of regard ~~~
"Zen points directly to the human heart, see into your nature and become Buddha."
This makuri (unmounted/dis-mounted scroll work) is by the master printer-painter Masanobu Okumura (1686-1764). We cannot see the head the face the eyes the mind of the depicted samurai figure, so to caption the scene 'secretive samurai sees the see' would be speculative and limited.
collection FIAPCE
We can note, at least, the rolling white-capped see script and, formally quite different, the angular white-caped cover of the samurai. Co-existing.
