Supporting images and text of submission to MutaMorphosis
http://mutamorphosis.org/2012/
Online Survey on HOW ELASTIC ARE YOU? http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/H2CWWXH
Tools For Elastic Thought
The topic of uncertainty as described in the theme of MutaMorphosis 2012 is connected with qualities of fuzziness, blurriness, and vagueness. I refer to this range of options, values or states in my research by the term of elasticity and flexibility and argue that current situation of hybridity demands a heterogeneous, complementary approach and blend of methods, hence an elastification of perception and cognition.
My enquiry investigates how the concept of flexibility enables a fluid way of thinking about events and experiences entangled in dynamic relations yet constrained by human made definitions, structures, models, ascriptions and methods. Ultimately a creative enquiry in the form of a series of performative experiments embedded in a framework that reinterprets the theoretical discourse, thought models and knowledge production, I trace these discursive exchanges and developments among different areas (physics, semiotics, geometry, philosophy) to demonstrate how structures, hierarchies and standardisation influence our thinking and how the increasing complexity allows and even asks for the integration of dynamic and unstable qualities in current theories and practices. The research is therefore an exploration on the flexibility of human made constructions such as standards, units, metric systems, scales and classifications and the manipulation of the respective tools and devices to set, determine and map these informations. These tools, instruments and inscription devices construct our reality (Latour, 1979). My enquiry is an artistic approach to the mobilisation and flexibilisation of information, concepts and practice. Theoretically led and inspired by the writings of Bergson, Deleuze and Guattari, Latour and Sloterdjik, I am employing the method of diffraction (Barad, Haraway), détournement and dérive (Situationist International, Debord), ANT (Latour) and relational aesthetics (Bourriaud) to translate my findings into experiences, installations and visualisations.
In the development of Tools for Elastic Thought I’m following a Duchampian approach by transforming and manipulating simple objects (ready-mades such as measurement devices and respective diagrams) into contemplative artefacts, allowing and emphasizing the flexible potential and agency of these objects, making their elasticity tangible. Taking the concept of inscription devices from Latour further and employing Barads idea of agential realism, she states:”… apparatuses are material (re)configurings or discursive practices that produce material phenomena in their differential becoming.“ (Barad 2007). This discursive practice and differential becoming can be related to de Certeaus strategies and tactics (1984). Buchanan describes the difference between strategic and tactical practice as: „Strategy is a technique of place, and tactics is a technique of space“ (2000) explicating that strategy is trying to control, reduce and narrow down the variability of a situation or context by confining a ‘protected zone’ of reference while tactics offer options and operate within a space of spontaneity and unpredictability. In this sense, Latour speaks about a “space” which is offered by the thought model of networks and by metaphors of spheres in the writings of Sloterdjik (2009).
Speculative approaches, stress tests and experiments in regards to probabilities allow for space and room to manoeuvre, to interpretate and to manipulate. These interstices within patterns and structures are needed as latitude and leeway for bending and twisting processes of thought and practice to answer current complex questions of reality.
Methodologically the exploration is undertaken through practice-based research consisting of a series of experiments in the area of critical design to understand and extend the cultural, social and ethical implications of structuring, inscribing technologies and respective formats. With critical design I am referring to the approach from Dunne and Raby who use speculative design „to make us think. But also raising awareness, exposing assumptions, provoking action, sparking debate” (Dunne and Raby, 1999). Furthermore I employ cultural probes, an experimental research method to study new, uncertain environments developed by Gaver, Dunne & Pacenti, 1999. Cultural probes are mobilised here to explore concepts of elasticity and to test how these concepts relate to perceptual and cognitive patterns of time and space. The prototypes of Tools for Elastic Thought should be tested in DIYbio Expo 2012 and link and feedback to the streams of Adressing the Future, Philosophical Toys Today and possibly Time and Technology. In terms of temporality, continuity and elasticity, Bergsons notion of duration and his metaphor of an elastic band being stretched will be the vehicle and mediator between the streams of uncertainty.
