Text: Poetopia
An imaginary context or…a frame without a frame as a state of mind.
Utopia, once seen as an idealized Island, a space of political ,social and ethical well being, seems every day further and further. Not only because it stands as a mirage at a distance but also because it has gradually been displaced or misplaced and become a vague term blurred and out of sight as we all witness by the current events.
As an imaginary space, it has presented itself frequently as a contrast to the failure of a present state of affairs and a disillusionment of our future expectations. Those that are seen as getting close to this ideal of a utopic space when seen from the outside and as an spectator, appear frequently in the form of a two sided mirror; they are a space where equals face each other but never communicate and only fall back on their respective internal monologues and exist in a simplified bipolar dimension, a protected sphere where the exchange between things are bias.
There are two types of utopia, those we can escape into and those which emanate as an act and an intention of reconstruction. If I would reconsider the idea of utopia I would change its morphology. It would not be an Island, it would be a new form of space with multiple angles of perception. A place that would promote exchange, an in-between space, an interstice or a heterotopic space where the merging of binary issues once conceived as separate could yield in their combination a third alternative. This could be conceived as a shared or rhizomatic place or prismatic space.
This place of alternating forces, would be a space where not withstanding the extremes of each individual singularity or personal traits, an alternative especial identity would be formed. I would see this space as both a mind space and a real space; a poetopia where a perfect space would only be seen as such if it integrated the imperfect where a tolerance of contradictory forms could be understood as a means of envisioning the idea that nature both outside and within knows nothing about being public or private or a double morality.
Description
The Donkey’s ears.
Nature knows nothing about language, Nature knows nothing about right or wrong. Nature knows nothing about culture or artifice. The problem or issue is not who kills the donkey, it is who grabs his leg.
The project I would like to develop consists of weather capes with a hood together with integrated equipment that produces sounds. The original idea came from a piece that was bought in plastic by the market in Oaxaca.
I became interested in the objects we use and how we use them. Every object can be read as a text and interpreted, they are an extension of our visuality. The cape I propose has an integrated set of speakers, an amplifier, sound source and a microphone. On the back the idea is to print imagery which comes from different sources; personal drawings, street imagery from fruit boxes, news paper images and others.
The notion that one manifests oneself through routine acts such as wearing or buying things etc, is an indication that one is also a political being in ones daily life. This is part of the general idea of what we understand as the field of micro-politics. In it we take a stand through simple acts such as collecting, selecting, combining etc. By juxtaposing or choosing different visual elements and contents and combining them in a subtle narrative way, one takes a position with respect to the external world whilst at the same time one internally metabolizes ethical and personal approaches.
Symbolically speaking the elements on the outside and back of the cape, together with a framed mirror with printed imagery on top, attest to the double action of seeing and being seen. An infra-mince skin where subject and object find a common locus. Artificiality as an element of western representation is put into question and is temporarily suspended within a visual membrane.
Nature does not frame its self or conceives itself as a mechanical entity. I see this piece as the fusion of a performative act and a bi-dimensional work and overall as a reformulation of a visual act. Recognizing this aspect is to realize the process-based nature of our being and the fact that to exist on this planet in such terms is better than having things in order to be.
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1 comments
30.10.09 — Waynes Word on Web
Well done.
After all is said and commented on, maybe utopia is a place to begin!
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