self-archeology
I was digging around in the compost heap behind my parents house today and this is what I found in the dirt:
Archeology is usually a practice of studying dead people. Digging in the decaying leaves and detritus from the property, past tiny monstrous albino grubs and alien subterranean fungi, through my famiy's history back to the early eighties... It seems quite morbid, and I guess it is.
But it is good to have dirt on your hands. Because the reason people leave their homes and go "back to nature" is to find knowledge. Because our brain's superstructure evolved in the context of a world ruled by weather, evolution, and the periodic cycles of the planet, these things naturally click into genetically-determined paths - I guess it gives rise to the feeling that there are truthful metaphors or revealing analogies in nature. But it is just a click-fit.
Now, I know that some will say that there is no distinction between "nature" outside and the nature of the universe that governs all the physcal universe including office buildings, TVs, nuke bombs, chihuahuas, jolly-ranchers, etc. But they would be missing an important distinction between the world governed by simpler replicators (DNA) and our "artificial" world created by memes, the complex replicator we call our thoughts. The "artificial" world is the projection of mind onto the physical world. Not that mind is not governed by physics - I think it is, entirely. But that it is an order of magnitude more complicated where physical objects have a more subservient relationship to information. And, may I say, this new way is quickly destroying the old order. The eighties seem positively loamy compared to today.
And what of the nature of these people who threw away these things? Only that they not only created artifice, but consumed it. Year after year of sugary, artificially-colored, artificially-flavored plastic snacks in noisy, insistent, artificially-colored plastic wraps. Sugar like a drug, creating cheap tissue, fuelling hyperactive violent play. Disposable plastic dolls, armed to the teeth. These friendly mechanical horrors and disembodied fear-trinkets are the simulacra of our nighmares.
So it wasn't the dirt and decay that was morbid. It was the bits that refuse to decay.
15 comments:
Click on the pictures for a close-up view.
awesome post.
i love the last sentence here -
"So it wasn't the dirt and decay that was morbid. It was the bits that refuse to decay."
it's not death itself that truly terrifies us, but immortality. that which subsists beyond death is uncanny.
on pizzanetwork, you brought up my critique of 'remixing information' in reference to this post - i thought that was very interesting. perhaps part of my qualms with such hyper-referentiality is precisely this notion - this ever-returningness, the cultural artifact that *will not die*, samples and sound-bytes literally as sonic zombies. then again, maybe that makes it all sound more interesting than it is...
on that note, i like how ghoulish these remnants look - again, literally zombified. from encrusted fragments of wrappers to ghastly petrified figurines and an actual witch's finger....
Death and destruction on the mind. 2012.
I think remixing makes music a lot more work than it already is. Let me explain by analogy:
Bashing old structures and with gravity they fall down, and then smashing them to smaller bits.
But that's with anger. Washing the dishes is more peaceful. It is the destruction of information that we call clean. If you can tell what was last et on it, a dish is unclean. A dirty room has more information that a clean room - this is why things get lost - like how you know that receipt with so-and-so's telephone number was half-buried in the pile of books under the t-shirts that aren't worth cleaning. Dirt is life particlized and filtered through chaos so that the original is lost. The clutter is gone and with it the unspoken demand of clutter which is that energy must be expanded to either organize it or destroy it - remember, children hate being forced to clean their rooms. it takes energy and loss of fantasy to codify a random mess into our information system or to exclude it, which demands that it also be physically disembodied. That's why it is said that in the future even the dirt is clean.
Sherlock Holmes must be the spector of our age of unending hunger for content, for the constant use of mental power to decipher and catalogue the physical world into our world-wide library. But as this progresses, the real world becomes less and less worthy of our attention. Craft is lost, the joke of ergonomic design replaces comforting objects. Through the computer, the library itself becomes our sole diversion, ever increasing redundancy. That is why it must be no coincidence that Holmes was an opium addict - all the work to increase the reality of the real world created a fanasy-gap in his life into which he was periodically included. This might be our bipolar state.
Or this might all be an over-complication. All long-bore thoughts seem to have a way of supporting themselves without regard to where their feet touch the dirt. But in the end dirt is dirt is dirt, you know?
You said "uncanny" - what is it about these objects that holds my attention? That they have been filtered out of the chaos and sucked back into the library world? That they are remenants of a self that no longer exists? That they seem to have certain aesthetic and emotional themes of violence, artifice, and the occult?
On a practical note, I have a lot more yard-work to do, so we will most certainly be provided with more examples to prove our theories on the uncanny theme. Or perhaps they will turn out to be hogwash...
So stay tuned!
Uncanny becasue none of them is a can.
Oh... I'll send you my play so far if you ask me to.. Do you know any actors? Can you act anymore? Can you project? And when are you moving?
Project means... operate a projector? No no no! I can't do that!
Project my problems onto otherwise harmless situations making them seem intimidating and awful? Yes! I can do that!
Project like verbing project? Like doing a project? I don't know if I can or can't. I need to see a motivational speaker and soon.
The mayo lid is a part of a can. There were cans I'm sure, but they didn't catch my eye.
What the hell is wrong with you?
Just kidding! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!
Ha ha ha ha ha!
So send it to me already!
Oh god you're so right.. I looked at the mayo one again and was like, gee, they sure made that Hellman's label so it would corrode like metal eventhough it's paper. Weird. but the lid... the lid...
So it's canny. hooray.
Project your voice fool. Or were you being funny. I'd like projections and I know you can do that.
Okay I'll send it later. They're making me work. It's uncanny.
"Project your voice fool. Or were you being funny. I'd like projections and I know you can do that."
This sounds great. And I can use it on my resume. But I still have no idea what you mean...
I won't be able to type from now cause of the dirt goes on my fingers for some time indeed!
I forget where I picked that word up. Was it from TCD?
Here is the wikiartikle:
Uncanny
I didn't READ it. I want someone to figure it out for me. But this seems to warrant further investigation, wouldn't you say, dear fans?
Goo-goo ga-ga!
Wow. I'm turning into a baby. It must be spring. Time for cruel I to die...
1. FARLEY
this is cool. it's amazing what people can find in their own backyards.
but who is "yellow boy"?
and what's that green thing drooped over the top of the watermelon on the candy wrapper? seems unusually phallic, right?
did you know there's a word that means "looking for hidden meanings in excavated garbage"? that word is oryctomancy.
2. SHAWN
shawn said:
"on pizzanetwork, you brought up my critique of 'remixing information' in reference to this post - i thought that was very interesting. perhaps part of my qualms with such hyper-referentiality is precisely this notion - this ever-returningness, the cultural artifact that *will not die*, samples and sound-bytes literally as sonic zombies."
what does it mean to say "samples are literally sonic zombies"? it means, first of all, that they are controlled by sorcerers (and these are literal sorcerers, not figurative ones). it also means that samples eat human brains (literally EAT them, not just "make you dumb").
let's say, for the sake of argument, that this formulation is true. samples are therefore extremely dangerous. the experience of listening to them will not simply cause minor brain damage but will completely destroy a person's brain. the sorcerer (presumably the dj) that created the zombies who ate your brain will then be in a position to remote-control your physical body and force you to act according to his/her bidding. in other words, you would be a zombie yourself. you'd go out into the world, brainless, eating the brains of those around you according to the sorcerer's master plan.
all this is believable, inasmuch as electronic music tends to decrease thought, replacing thought with sponteous, repetitive physical movement (why else would we have genres called "trance" and "electronic body music," whose very names indicate the erasure of thought). similarly, the "lifestyles" associated with various genres of electronic music do seems to suggest that each group of people is being controlled by their own unique sorcerer, some of whom are more powerful and influential than others.
but is there anything particular to samples that increases their efficacy for the electronic sorcerers who wish to destroy our brains and control our bodies? what makes sample-based music more destructive to the human mind than other kinds of music created by sorcerers?
perhaps it is a way for the sorcerer to demonstrate his/her power. just as warriors of various cultures have sometimes been known to wear necklaces of human ears (the ears of other warriors) to make themselves more powerful (or at least appear more powerful), sorcerers insert samples of their victims' music into their own songs to demonstrate their power over previous musical sorcerers whose songs they have successfully chopped up and butchered.
Yeah, OK.
Logan - "Yellow Boy" is a kind of marigold. I thought that would have been easily infered from the scan.
I say this because I am fascinated by the difficulties the human mind naturally faces when trying to understand what other people don't know. It's tough enough to empathetically communicate with people and try to know what they know, but to figure out what they don't know and how this impacts their interpretation of reality is one of the most challenging creative acts. That is why I am fascinated with the known unknowns and unknown unknowns postulated by Rumsfeld.
Incidentally, the level of analytical complexity exhibited by Rumsfeld on this matter leads me to believe that the current administration's course is not dermined by stupidity, as some would say, but by sophisticated manipulation of the political siuation.
Anyway, the "Yellow Boy" thing is a bit of one of those plastic labels that are stuck into flower pots when you buy them from a garden store. I've found a lot more and I'll post them soon.
The thing you called "phallic" is a teddy-bear's arm. Some people claim that there is sexual imagery hidden in design all over the place, but I usually think it tells more about the person doing the noticing.
Where did you find the word "oryctomancy?" I am interested in reverse-lookup processes, processes that start with something vague and end up specific - like using a half-remembered feeling of a half-melody and timbre and ending up with the song, a challenging task our brains cans ometimes accomplish, but that is difficult or impossible with books and google. What process did you use to find this, or had you already known it?
'Where did you find the word "oryctomancy?" I am interested in reverse-lookup processes, processes that start with something vague and end up specific - like using a half-remembered feeling of a half-melody and timbre and ending up with the song, a challenging task our brains cans ometimes accomplish, but that is difficult or impossible with books and google. What process did you use to find this, or had you already known it?'
I can't remember now, actually. I googled a phrase with the word "divination" in it. Originally, I think I was looking for a word that meant "divination by using pieces of garbage" but discovered the much more accurate "divination by digging things up" - which I also think is a more accurate description than "archeology" per se, for what you did, since it had a quasi-metaphysical or imaginary component not present in modern archeology.
These thoughts then led me into a whole rambling journey into the subject of "sorcery," which I explored through Shawn's comments.
By the way, I started a new job today. I'm learning a lot about ants. I might start an ant blog.
I really like this post, and everone has already said a bunch of cool things about it, but anyway I think it's really beautiful.
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