THECITYINREVERSEDiagrammingIntelligentSystems

MURMURLANDSTUDIOS

THECITYINREVERSEDiagrammingIntelligentSystems

MURMURLANDSTUDIOS

TheMurmurLandStudioscuratorialcollectivewouldliketobeginbyacknowledgingthatTheCityinReversefieldschoolwilltakeplaceinMi’kma’ki,theancestraland

uncededterritoryoftheMi’kmaqPeople.

Thisterritoryiscoveredbythe‘TreatiesofPeaceandFriendship’,whichMi’kmaqandWolastoqiyik(Maliseet)peoplesfirstsignedwiththeBritishCrownin1725.Thetreatiesdidnotdealwithsurrenderoflandsandresourcesbutinfactrecognized

Mi’kmaqandWolastoqiyik(Maliseet)titleandestablishedtherulesforwhatwastobeanongoingrelationshipbetweennations.

WefurtheracknowledgethatastheeventparticipantsofTheCityinReversewearevisitorspassingthroughthistraditionalterritory,endeavouringtowalkwithgentlefootstepsandinterweaveanumberofcares:careforothers,careforself,careforthe

event,andmostimportantly,careforthelandandwater.

Kaleidochronia:AProposition

OTHER-TIME

TheCity inReverse beginswith our flight to the rural hinterlands, saturated and thoroughlyshotthroughwiththisquestionoftime:What,precisely,is‘reversibility’whenthelineartimeof History is in the process of being forgotten, knotted, wormholed, entangled, refabulated,hyperstitioned,anddecolonized?These curatorial propositions to follow are meant to offer a fragmented anarchaeology ofpossibilities—notofthepast,northefuture,butofanOther-time,aNon-time,anAlter-time.They are an invitation to vortextitexctural exploration and an anarchitentconics for ouroverdatarminedworld, a siren song ofbi/os andzeö for new, ancient and alien intelligenceswithrealverberrations,oracall to thinkingaltmaternalives forourrealationalaity-in-commontothecollectgive.Kaleidoscopic,kaleidochronic...m/Other-time.

~Diagramming Intelligent Systems is the subtitle to this field school, though certainly not asubordinate concern of the event. It is no call for the artificial intelligences of neoliberalplanetarycontrol,however.Ourinterestslieratherinthinkingnewformsofagency—softwareagents,secretagents,chemicalreagents,andotheradjacencieswithin, throughandaside thetechno-computationalparadigm.We are not (necessarily) suggesting a full ‘retreat’ to tradition, nor (necessarily) a headlongacceleration into theunknownvoidsofquantumcomputingandalgorithmicgovernance,butrather sniffing and listening towards a fuller consideration of ‘how’ our intelligences arealways already ‘artificial’, already subject to artifice, invention and play—already subject totechnéasthatmediationbetweentechnologyandthearts.How can we imagine and realize a proliferation of artificial intelligences, immanent to asituation, co-composing in form, responsive to environmental disposition and kairoticopportunity? How canwe conceive of a computation-without-the-computer, always open totheexpressionsofournon-humanothers,yetalwayshonestaboutourall-too-humanfinitude?Putdifferently,howdowehow?Andthenfadeawayintothebackgroundstaticsofanatomospherictransformation?

LANDANDALTERCOMPUTATION

“To grapplewith the idea of the City as a hinge point or knotting thatmultiplexes variablestatesofnaturetogetherwithuniversalcomputation,wemustconceiveandgroundalandartpracticethattakessuchaCityasits‘problem’or‘raisond'etre’—itsobject,subjectandtraject.”

(GadFleischwitz,ArtandEcology,2015)

LANDANDABSTRACTION

Canwe re-routeMcKenzieWark's abstractions-of-abstractions fromTheHackerManifesto—earthtoland,landtocapital,capitaltoinformation—byintroducingafourthderivation:frominformationtoabstractionproper?Anabstractioninwhichonlycontextorencountermatters,with becoming, behaviour, pattern, entanglement, kairos, and disposition being a few of thewatchwords to consider? And rather than a line can we consider this abstraction-of-an-abstraction-of-an-abstraction-of-an-abstractionasalengthycurve,butalsoone,crucially,thatflips through themoebius strip or klein bottle—(perhaps the −1of François Laruelle?)—toreturn to earth and 'fully' ground the practice of abstraction in a material world dying ofclimateinstability?

IN-FORMING

Ifa-cityisunderstoodasacollectivecomposition,ameetingofforms,fragments,andframes…it’s a gravity well of immediated force coming to form. In a-city we seek to embracediagrammaticgesture,asculptingtechniqueforsurvivalinoverwhelmingforce.How isa-citywithout these familiar forms?Without the fractalconvergencewe’ve inherited,cherished,andfinallybeguntotakeseriously?Canweaccountforthecity-as-mirror,reflectingakindoftotalityfortheanthropocene?Acityinreversemeanstu(r)ningextensivestructurestowardsintensiverelations.Toreverseacityrequiresnewdiagrammaticpraxis;wedidnotarriveherewithoutaline.

FUZZ

Towhatdegreearehapticfuzzyvisionandacousticinsularitycounterpracticesofmovinglinesthrough theCity, and towhat degreedo they reproduce strategies of surveillance, spectacleandcontrol?

SOUNDINGBOARDSANDPILOTINGDEVICES

A diagram and the embodied diagrammatic process is a sounding board for generativeabstractionfromtherealtoavirtualdimensionofsomethingnewtocome.Whenwediagramwe abstractly invent new thought, new reality, new imaginations, and new life yet to come.Embodieddiagrammingdestabilizes foundationsof singularmodesof thought. Itworksasapiloting device that opens up a sounding board for the destabilization of structure and theinvention,creationandexperimentationofnewthinkinganddoing.Adiagramisatechnologyof extension moving beyond what has already been thought and bypassing thinkingthrough/of/inlanguage,thusbecomingapedagogicalmachinethatdistortsthefoundationoflearningandradicalizestheunspoken.

~“Defineddiagrammaticallyinthisway,anabstractmachineisneitheraninfrastructurethatisdetermining in the last instanceora transcendental Idea that isdetermining in thesupremeinstance. Rather, it plays a piloting role. The diagrammatic or abstract machine does notfunctiontorepresent,evensomethingreal,butratherconstructsareal that isyettocome,anewtypeofreality.Thuswhenitconstitutespointsofcreationorpotentialityitdoesnotstandoutsidehistorybutisinsteadalwayspriortohistory.”

(GillesDeleuzeandFélixGuattari,AThousandPlateaus:CapitalismandSchizophrenia,1980)

MUSICALITY

Thinking a city is a creative composition. The framing of lines. The collection of lines. Thearrangementoflines.Line-ingisourtrajectory,tracingthetemporalityofforminatopologyofmovement.Tempobegetscomposition.

~Isdisconnectionanylessmediated?Whatifrelationwastheonlyinfrastructure?Whatisadiagramwithouta-line?A-lineisaveryhumaninvention.Howisthecityalways-alreadyinreverse?

DEPROGRAMMING

Theinfoldingofeventspacegivestechniquestodeprogram.Isthecityaprogram?Howdoesitprogram?Programmatic.Enactingenablingconstraints.Runprogramtodeprogram--->C://trickster.exeCodeisthetinker-toyofourtrickster.

INDIRALECTRICLOGICEXPRESSION(#TSPEC4,LINE50)

50 sense[s]{sentience#alienintelligence(rhythm

ABSTRACTMATHEMATICSFORINTELLIGENTSYSTEMS

CarefortheSelf+CarefortheRelation+CarefortheEvent

PrimingfortheConditionsofJoyfulSurvival[Communitymaybeouronlyintelligentsystemremaining.]

DepartmentofBiologicalFlow‘TechnicsforSchizoanalyticScore’

I.GOT.THE.CLAPNewYork,November2014

NotesontheSpecificityofSenseLab'sResearch-CreationEvent-DesignPractice,asDistinguishedfroman

ArtEvent,anAcademicMeeting,oranActivistProject

(reprintedandadaptedcourtesyofBrianMassumiandErinManning,October2013)

ENABLINGCONSTRAINTvs.FRAMEWORKORSTRUCTURE

An enabling constraint is a jumping-off point, more a springboard than a structure. Theconstraints create a field of relation that effectively enables and orients activity withoutgoverninghow itunfoldsorpredeterminingeither its formorspecific content.Example: thefieldofgravityistheenablingconstraintfordance,butdanceisnotframedorstructuredbyit.Rather,dancingconvertsthepredictable,inescapabledemandsofgravityintoacreativeforcefor its own form-taking, tangential to gravity’s pull. Enabling constraints put in placeconditionsforemergence,tangentiallyexceedingtheframeinaself-structuringwaythatisonewithitsownunfoldingmovement.Observation:forenablingconstraintstowork,theymustbetakenontrulyasconstraints—that is,asnon-optional, justasgravity is fordance.Challenge:settinginplaceconstraintsthattrulyconstrain,aredirectlytakenonbythegroupassuch,butarejustasimmediatelyfelttobeconditionsoffreedom(emergent,self-deciding,form-taking).

CONDITIONINGvs.ORGANIZING

Enablingconstraintssetinplacearigorousfieldofrelationorientingcertainkindsofpotential.Whattheydoisbestthoughtofas‘conditioning,’ratherthan‘organizing’.Organizingsetstheframe,whichthencontainstheactionswithincertainparameters.Conditioningtriggersaself-organizingmovementthatinventsitsownparameters.

ACTIVATINGvs.INITIATING

Initiatingcarriestheideaofapre-existingsubjectwhoseintentionsarecarriedout.Evenifthesubjectisagroupdecidingcollectivelywhatitsintentionsare,theintentionalitytendstolimitwhat emerges to that which can be pre-thought. Activation catalyzes a movement that isconstrainedto takerigorous formbyhowthe fieldofrelation isconditioned.Themovementthinks itself out in how it effectively unfolds. It is its own emergent subject. The arc of itsunfoldingisthedynamic,embodied‘thinking’ofitsconditionsofemergence.Theresult,beingemergent, always surprises (exceeding any initiating intention thatmayhave contributed tothe catalyzing). This is what Erin refers to as an ‘emergent collectivity’—collective becausewhathappenscannotbeclaimedtohavebeencausedororganizedbyanyonefactorseparablefromtheothers,butratherhasdynamicallyworkeditselfoutbetweenthem.

RELATIONALMOVEMENTvs.PARTICIPATIONORINTERACTION

Theideaofparticipationsinglesoutanindividualfactor,andconstruestherelevantfactorsashuman individuals. It sets in place a frame for interaction. This pre-subjectivizes, and pre-forms what can happen (by designing into the framework certain stimulus-responsefunctions).Bycontrast,relationalmovementincludesamongthecreativefactors(andenablingconstraints) non-human elements (gravity, lakes, pixels, technological apparatuses, siteconditions,materials,bears…)anddoesnotthinkintermsoffunctionorstimulus/responseoraction/reaction. Participatory design always comes across as task-oriented. Theparticipantsstartbyreceivinginstructions,orsussingoutwhatisexpectedofthemandwhatthefunctionalparametersoftheirtaskis.Relationalmovementstartsbytheclinchingintoplaceofenablingconstraintsthatimmediatelytranslateintomovement.Itisnottask-oriented,butimmediatelymoving (in all senses of theword). There is no need for cogitation before plunging into theaction. You have already taken the plunge the moment you cross the threshold into therelationalfield(hencetheimportanceoftechniquesforsettingthethresholdconditions).

PROPOSITIONvs.INSTRUCTIONS

ThisdistinctionisreallyamovementtowardstakingonArakawa+Gins’ideaof‘procedure’.ApropositioninthesenseusedduringearlierSenseLabeventshasbeenasasynonymfor‘usingenabling constraints to trigger conditions of emergence activating self-organizing potential’.This isobviouslyverydifferent fromgiving instructions thatproposean interaction.But thetrickypartisthatinstructionscaninfactbeenablingconstraints.Perhapsa‘procedure’couldbethoughtofapropositionthatincludesinstructionsamongitsenablingconstraints.Question:howtouseinstructionsinthispropositionalsense,inawaythatdoesnotframeorstructureaninteraction,buthelpstriggerarelationalmovement?[--->Curatorialnote:think‘DEPROGRAM’]

TECHNIQUEvs.ACTIVITY

Atechniqueisbornofanenablingconstraint.Itopensaprocesstoitspotential. Indoingso,itinvents itsownduration.Anactivityusuallycomeswithadurationandanarc,andisplayedoutacrossthatarc.Emergentcollectivitiesstemfromactivitiesbornoftechniques.Fortheevent-designthathasbeenattheheartofSenseLabpractice,wehavealwaysbeenmoreconcernedwith creating the conditions that animate the threshold of a potential activity rather thandefining thebreadthof theactivity itself.Whenanactivity isborn fromthepotentializingoftechnique (think, for instance, of conceptual speed-dating, born out of the necessity for atechnique thatwouldallowus tomove fromsmall-group to large-group theorizing, andviceversa), it carrieswith it both the technique and the enabling constraint (inpotentia),whichallows it (in the best of conditions) to evolve beyond the technique (towardwhat we havecalledtechnicity).Bynotmappingouttheactivityinadvance,thereisalargeropportunityforanemergentprocesstoevolve.

AprilVanniniSoundingBoard(CompositionII)

2014

Florilegium:AnInterleaving

“General purpose computation heralds the un-grounding and reconditioning of not only thesocial but the human; the universality of the turing machine lays bare an avenue for thereconstitutionofourconceptual,referentialandcompositionalcapacitiesalongalienlinesanddramatizes an ongoing de-imaging of the human by alien forces preparing to transfigure itutterly.”

(JosephWeissman,‘TechnoscienceandExpressionism’,FractalOntology,2014)“Howwill future analysts view this historically unprecedented situation,where our politicalsystemsareasoutofwhackasourecologiesaredisturbed?Whenwillwerecognizethatourcurrent growth-obsessed economic system—cloaked in themyths of freedom andAmericanexceptionalism—provides not the best hope for guaranteeing the continuation of life, but isinstead the very cause of the politico-ecological catastrophe we now face? If so, how canculture—as the location where enduring social values, where the narratives, images, andsoundsthroughwhichweunderstandourselves,ourrelationstoeachotherandtotheworldwe live in are created collectively—contribute to sensing and comprehending the risks anddangers of our present order? More importantly, can it generate livable and desirablealternatives? How can the arts provide new perceptions and affects (for instance, those ofjustice,responsibility,andmutuality)throughwhichlifemightbereinvented?”

(T.J.Demos,‘TheGreatTransition:TheArtsandRadicalSystemChange’,e-flux,2017)“In Art as Experience, Dewey comes close to saying that the human initiatives are notexclusivelyhuman;heflirtswithaposthumanconceptionofactionwhenhenotestheporosityof the border between a human body and its out-side: ‘The epidermis is only in the mostsuperficialwayanindicationofwhereanorganismendsanditsenvironmentbegins.Therearethingsinsidethebodythatareforeigntoit,andtherearethingsoutsideofitthatbelongtoitde jure if not de facto; thatmust taken possession of if life is to continue. The need that ismanifest in theurgent impulsions thatdemandcompletion throughwhat theenvironment—and it alone—can supply, is a dynamic acknowledgment of this dependence of the self forwholenessuponitssurroundings.’”

(JaneBennett,VibrantMatter:APoliticalEcologyofThings,2010)

“…Iwillreturntotheanalysisofgovernmentorganizationsandoftheprocessesthatproducedmodern nation-states, once I have dealt with the spatial aspects of assemblages at smallerscales, from buildings and neighbourhoods to cities and the hierarchies and networks thaturbancentresform….Socialentitieslikecities,forexample,composedofentirepopulationsofpersons, networks and organizations, can hardly be conceptualized without a physicalinfrastructure of buildings, streets and various conduits for the circulation of matter andenergy,definedinpartbytheirspatialrelationstooneanother.Infact,sociologistsdiscoveredthe social relationsgeneratedby territoriality in the1920swhen the famousChicago schoolbeganitsstudiesofurbancontexts,viewedbothasspatiallocalitiesaswellassitesstructuredin time by habitual or customary practices. More recently sociologists such as AnthonyGiddens, influenced in part by thework of urban geographers, have returned to this theme,reconceptualizing social territories through the notion of a ‘regionalized locale’…. Giddens’description of regionalized locales, as physical territories structured in time through socialrhythms,lendsitselfnicelytoanassemblageapproach,providinghisdefinitionisaugmentedwiththeexpressiveelementswithwhichlocalesandregionsdistinguishthemselvesfromeachother…. Let us now give an assemblage analysis of these regionalized locales, starting withindividualbuildings….“

(ManuelDelanda,ANewPhilosophyofSociety:AssemblageTheoryandSocialComplexity,2006)

“According to different versions, but in a predominantly uniformmanner, the tradition putforwarda representationaccording towhichphilosophyand the citywouldbe (wouldhavebeen, must have been) related to one another as subjects. Accordingly, philosophy, as thearticulationoflogos, is thesubjectof thecity,where thecity is thespaceof thisarticulation.Likewise,thecity,asthegatheringofthelogikoi,isthesubjectofphilosophy,wherephilosophyistheproductionoftheircommonlogos.Logositself,then,containstheessenceormeaningofthisreciprocity: it isthecommonfoundationofcommunity,wherecommunity, inturn, isthefoundationofBeing.It is within this uniform horizon, according to different versions (whether strong or weak,happyorunhappy)ofthispredominantmodeofinquiry,thatwestillunderstandthefamous‘politicalanimal’ofAristotle:itistopresumethatlogosistheconditionofcommunity,which,in turn, is the conditionofhumanity; and/or it is topresume thateachof these three termsdrawsitsunityandconsistencyfrom[itssharing]acommunicationofessencewiththeothertwo(wheretheworldassuchremainsrelativelyexteriortothewholeaffair,presumingthatnature orphysisaccomplishes itself in humanity understood aslogos politikos, whereastechnesubordinatesitselftoboth).But this horizon—that of political philosophy in the fullest sense (not as the ‘philosophy ofpolitics,’butphilosophyaspolitics)—mightverywellbewhatpointstothesingularsituationwhere our history gets underway and, at the same time, blocks access to this situation. Orinstead,thishorizonmightbethatwhich,inthecourseofitshistory,givesanindicationofits

owndeconstructionandexposesthissituationanewinanotherway.‘Philosophyandpolitics’is the exposition [enonce] of this situation. But it is a disjunctive exposition, because thesituation itself is disjunctive. The city is not primarily ‘community,’ any more than it isprimarily‘publicspace.’Thecityisatleastasmuchthebringingtolightofbeing-in-commonasthe dis-position(dispersal and disparity) of the community represented as founded ininteriorityortranscendence.Itis‘community’withoutcommonorigin.Thatbeingthecase,andaslongasphilosophyisanappealtotheorigin,thecity,farfrombeingphilosophy’ssubjectorspace, is its problem.Or else, it is its subject or space in themode of being its problem, itsaporia.Philosophy,foritspart,canappealtotheoriginonlyontheconditionofthedis-positionoflogos(thatis,oftheoriginasjustifiedandsetintodiscourse):logosisthespacingattheveryplaceoftheorigin.Consequently,philosophyistheproblemofthecity;philosophycoversoverthesubjectthat isexpectedas ‘community.’…This iswhyphilosophicalpoliticsandpoliticalphilosophyregularlyrunaroundontheessenceofcommunityorcommunityasorigin.“

(Jean-LucNancy,BeingSingularPlural,2000)"Adiagramcantransfixagesture,bringittorest, longbeforeitcurlsupintoasign,whichiswhy modern geometers and cosmologers like diagrams with their peremptory power ofevocation. They capture gestures mid-flight; for those capable of attention, they are themomentswherebeingisglimpsedsmiling.Diagramsareinadegreetheaccomplicesofpoeticmetaphor."

(GillesChâtelet,FiguringSpace:Philosophy,MathematicsandPhysics,1993)“Haraway’s point is that the methodology of reflexivity mirrors the geometrical optics ofreflection, and that for all of the recent emphasis on reflexivity as a criticalmethod of self-positioning it remains caught up in geometries of sameness; by contrast, diffractions areattunedtodifferences—differencesthatourknowledge-makingpracticesmakeandtheeffectsthey have on the world. Like the feminist theorist TrinhMinh-ha, Haraway is interested infinding‘awaytofiguredifferenceasacriticaldifferencewithin,andnotasspecialtaxonomicmarksgroundingdifferenceasapartheid’.Crucially,diffractionattendstotherelationalnatureofdifference;itdoesnotfiguredifferenceaseitheramatterofessenceorasinconsequential:‘adiffractionpatterndoesnotmapwheredifferencesappear,butrathermapswheretheeffectsof differences appear’. Inspired by her suggestion for usefully deploying this rich andfascinating physical phenomenon to think about differences that matter, I elaborate on thenotion of diffraction as a tool of analysis for attending to and responding to the effects ofdifference.”

(KarenBarad,MeetingtheUniverseHalfway:QuantumPhysicsandtheEntanglementofMatterandMeaning,2007)

“What is intendedhere is a close attention to theproductionofdifferenceat the local scale,even while maintaining a relative indifference to the form of the whole. Authentic andproductive social differences, it is suggested, thrive at the local level, andnot in the formoflarge-scalesemioticmessagesorsculpturalforms.Hencethestudyofthesefieldcombinationswouldbeastudyofmodelsthatworkinthezonebetweenfigureandabstraction,modelsthatrefigure the conventional opposition between figure and abstraction, or systems oforganisationcapableofproducingvortexes,peaksandprotuberances—effectsthat introducedifferenceanddirection(‘pointing’)—outofasystemofrepeatedindividualelementsthatarethemselvesregularandorganisedintoalarger,coherentwhole.Someoftheseorganisationalstrategiesaresimulated,oranticipatedinpurelygraphicform.Amoiré, for example, is a figural effect produced by the superposition of two regular fields.Unexpected effects, exhibiting complex and apparently irregular behaviours, result from thecombinationofelementsthatareinandofthemselvesrepetitiveandregular.Butmoiréeffectsarenot random.They shift abruptly in scale, and repeat according to complexmathematicalrules.Moiréeffectsareoftenusedtomeasurehiddenstressesincontinuousfields,ortomapcomplex figural forms. In thesecases, figureand fieldcanneverbeseparatedoutasdistinctentities.Ineithercasethereisanuncannycoexistenceofaregularfieldandemergentfigure.Inthearchitecturalorurbancontext,theexampleofmoiréeffectsbegsthequestionofsurfaceanddepth.Thefieldisfundamentallyahorizontalphenomenon—evenagraphicone—andalloftheexamplesdescribedsofarfunctionintheextendedplandimension.Insteadofrefusingthis characteristic, it is worthwhile examining it more closely. The superposition of twosystemsalreadyimpliesasectionalcondition.AlthoughcertainPost-Moderncities(Tokyoforexample)mightbecharacterizedasfullythree-dimensionalfields,theprototypicalcitiesofthelate 20th and early 21st century are characterised by horizontal extension. Los Angeles, forexample,isanextendedfieldcondition,aloose-kniturbanfabricstitchedtogetherbyfreeways,andporous to thenatural landscape it inhabits.What fieldcombinationsseemtopromise inthiscontextisathickening,andintensificationofexperienceatspecifiedmomentswithintheextendedfieldof thecity.Themonumentsof thepast, includingtheskyscraper(aModernistmonumenttoefficiency),stoodoutfromthefabricofthecityasprivilegedverticalmoments.Thenewinstitutionsofthecitywillinsteadoccuratmomentsofintensity,linkedtothewidernetworkoftheurbanfield,andmarkednotbydemarcatinglinesbutbythickenedsurfaces.”

(StanAllen,'FromObjecttoField:FieldConditionsinArchitectureandUrbanism',inArchitecture,TechniqueandRepresentation,2009)

“Thefielddescribesaspaceofpropagation,ofeffects.Itcontainsnomatterormaterialpoints,rather functions,vectorsandspeeds. Itdescribes localrelationsofdifferencewithin fieldsofcelerity,transmissionorcareeringpoints,inaword,whatMinkowskicalledtheworld.”

(SanfordKwinter,1986,citedinAllen)

“WhateventhasbeenstagedbyThisWayBrouwn?Anindividual ishailed.Heisbeckonedtocomethisway.Thissubjectofaddressis,atfirst,theanonymouspedestrian.Brouwnsubmitsarequest:‘pleaseshowmetheway.’Butsubsequentlyaslippageoccursbetweenthepositionofself and other, sender and receiver. Brouwn now becomes the recipient of the message,assumes the place of addressee. Brouwn is shown theway by a stranger. He is enjoined toenter thespaceof theother inwhichmultiplevoicesbegintospeakasone: ‘Fivehundred,athousandormorepeoplearegatheredtogetherinacitysomewhere.AtthesamemomenttheyallstarttoexplaintoBrouwnhowtogettotheirhousefromthatlocation.Asloudaspossible!ThiswayBrouwn.’Brouwnhasbecomestampedoutasthesubjectof interpellation.Sofromthe phenomenological model of a natural space, we proceed to an ideological scenario ofspatialized subjects.What these drawingsmap is not only the city space but themanner inwhich thebeckoned subject is inserted into the symbolic apparatusof ideology: ‘People talkwhile sketching their explorations, and sometimes they talk more than they draw. On thesketcheswecanseewhatpeopleexplained.Butwecannotseewhatevertheyomittedhavingsomedifficulty torealize thatwhat theytake forgrantedneedstobeexplained.’What is leftunsaid, what indeed must escape awareness in this encounter, is the very process ofsubjectificationitself.Theindividual,asLouisAlthusserwouldstate,isalwaysalreadylocatedas a subject within the social structures of ideology. The oddity of Brouwn’s procedure,however,isthathesignshisnameintheplaceoftheother.Heusurpstheother’sposition:heisboththeonehailedandtheonedoingthehailing.Thisleadstotwocontradictoryfantasiesonthe part of Brouwn: either he sees himself becoming the center of the universe, or heconstitutes a black hole into which the universe disappears. By signing his name to thedrawingshe fictivelybecomes thecentralnodewithinan intersubjectivewebofexchange: ‘Iamtheonlyway,theonlydirection.Ihavebecomedirection.’Alternatively,ifthisnodalpointonlyloopsbackonitself, itwillcausetheannihilationofthespace-timefabric: ‘B.isstandingonthePlacedelaConcorde.HeaddressesapasserbyandasksforthePlacedelaConcorde.NowayBrouwn. . . .All roads, streets,places,etc.assembled inonepoint.NowayBrouwn.Theuniverse has dis-appeared!’ The drawing series gives rise to twowildly divergent accounts:eitherthetotalizationofreality,withBrouwnasitscentralhub,oracompletevanishingoftheworld. Both accounts, however, are but complementary aspects of the artist’s impossibleattempttoplacehimselfsomehowbeyondoroutsidethesymbolicorder.”

(EricDeBruyn,TopologicalPathwaysofPost-Minimalism,2006,writingaboutStanleyBrouwn’sproject,ThisWayBrouwn[1961-])

“The banal, the quotidian, the obvious, the common, the ordinary, the infra-ordinary, thebackgroundnoise,thehabitual?[...]Howarewetospeakofthesecommonthings,howtotrackthemdown,howtoflushthemout,wrestthemfromthedrossinwhichwhyaremired,howtogivethemmeaning,atongue,toletthem,finally,speakofwhatitis,whoweare.“

(GeorgesPerec,SpeciesofSpaces,1974)

“But,asinreallife,wealmostforgetwhethertheactoftravellingisameansoranendinitself,sothatallofasuddenwearenolongerpeeringaheadthroughtherainywindscreen,focussingonsomegoaloutthereinfrontofus,butareinsteadcompletelydetachedandengrossedinthepreviously‘invisible’patternofdropstravellingdownthewindshield.“

(PatrickFrey,OutingsintheVisibleWorld,1995)“Onlythoseculturalpracticesthathavethisrelationalsensibilitycanturnlocalencountersintolong-termcommitmentsandtransformpassingintimaciesintoindelible,un-retractablesocialmarks-so that the sequence of sites that we inhabit in our life's traversal does not becomegenericizedintoanundifferentiatedserialization,oneplaceafteranother.”

(MiwonKwon,OnePlaceAfterAnother,2003)“scavenger, nomad, guerrilla-in-training, she surfaces against the iron tide, wave’s collapseagainsthercheek,undercurrenttuggingdistressfromitsgrainyshallows,sunderingtheviewfrom above, scatter cross-purposes, dishevel domination, destination undecided. derivativeforcesintimidatebutscattercontinues,anarchyfluctuateshermusclecurpusclescirculatewithskepticalloveinabodypoliticwithrevolt.provincialexplosions,globalimplosions,astretchedgirdle,atimelymeridian,anundonesong.shewhistlesthestreet’spovertytounpracticedears,thecorridorsofpowernoisywithmistakes,alleyspumpingamoralexhaustion,sheresounds.”

(RitaWong,‘Stance.’Forage,2007)“Thedumpheldverylittlewood,forinthatcountryanythingburnablegotburned.Butithadplentyofoldiron,furniture,papers,mattressesthatwerethedelightoffieldmice,andjugsanddemijohnsthatweresometimestheirbane,fortheycrawledintothenecksanddrownedintherainwaterorredeyethatwasinside.Ifthehistoryofourtownwasnotexactlywritten,itwasatleasthinted,inthedump.IthinkIhadaprettysoundnotionevenateightornineofhowsignificantwasthatfirstinstitutionofourformingCanadiancivilization.ForrummagingthroughitsfoulpurlieusIhadseveraltimesbeensurprisedandshockedtofindrelicsofmyownlifetossedouttheretorotorblowaway.ThevolumesofShakespearebelongedtoasetthatmyfatherhadboughtbeforeIwasborn.Ithad been carried through successive moves from town to town in the Dakotas, and fromDakota to Seattle, and from Seattle to Bellingham, and Bellingham to Redmond, and from

Redmondbackto Iowa,andfromtheretoSaskatchewan.Then,stained inastranger'shousefire,thesevolumeshadsufferedfromahouse-cleaningimpulseandbeenthrownawayformetostumbleupon in thedump.Oneof theCratchetgirlshadborrowed them,ahatchet-faced,thin, eager, transplanted Cockney girl with a frenzy, almost a hysteria, for reading. And yetsomehow,throughherhands,theyfoundthedump,tobecomeasymbolofhowmuchwaslost,howmuchthrownaside,howmuchcarelesslyorofnecessitygivenup,inthemakingofanewcountry.WehadsofewbooksthatIwasfamiliarwiththemall,hadhandledthem, lookedattheirpictures,perhapsevenread them.Theywere the laresandpenates,partof theskimpyimpedimenta of household gods we had brought with us into Latium Finding, those threethrownawaywasalittlelikefindingmyownnameonagravestone.”

(WallaceStegner,‘TheTownDump,’TheAtlanticMonthly,October1959)“Psychogeophysics aims for planetary scales of aesthetics. It can be seen taking the originalSituationistcity-focusbornintheurbansphereofParisofthe1950sand1960stoengagewiththegeophysicalastheuncontainedelementbeyondtheurban.Indeed,whatGaryGenoskohasreferredtoasthenewfourelements,orthemobilizationoftheelementsofearth,fire,air,andwater in contemporarybiopolitics andenvironmental contexts, is onewayof understandingthepersistenceof thematerial.The ‘elemental’ ispresent in[Robert]Smithson’spitchforanalternative to McLuhan’s human-focused theory of technology, and in Genosko’s hands itprovides away to understand how the psychogeophysicalmight pan out as part of awidercontemporaryfieldofdiscussiononaesthetics,theenvironmental,andtheextendedecologicalpolitics. Indeed,whereasposthumanitiesdiscoursehasbeen instrumental in openingup thehumanities to the animal as part of the social and economic field (exploited in variousindustries) asmuch as the animal inside us (critique of anthropocentrismwith approachesemphasizingthenonconscious),wemightneedtofigureoutmorespecificallythecontinuumacrosstheorganicandthenonorganic.Inrecentcollections,suchasMakingtheGeologicNow,thiscartographyispresent,butthepsychogeophysicalseemstotriggeranalternativefieldofinquiry inwhichsomerecentartprojectsandpracticesoffertheirversionof themanifesto’smessage. It is in this sense that psychogeophysics performs the continuums across thebiological,thenonorganic,andthesocial.Itcanalsoofferanethico-aestheticperspectivetotheminerals inside us and themetals and rocks out there enabling technological gadgetry—anabstractgeology.”

(JussiParikka,AGeologyofMedia,2015)“Beneaththeirbewilderingvariety,thedistancingdevicesthatwecanidentifyproduceaglobalresult.Iwillcallitdenialofcoevalness.BythatImeanapersistentandsystematictendencytoplace the referent(s) of anthropology in a Time other than the present of the producer ofanthropological discourse.What I amaiming at is coveredby theGerman termsgleichzeitig

andGleichzeitigkeit.Theunusualcoeval,andespeciallythenouncoevalness,expressaneedtosteerbetweensuchcloselyrelatednotionsassynchronous/simultaneousandcontemporary.Itakesynchronoustorefertoeventsoccurringatthesamephysicaltime;contemporaryassertsco-occurrence in what I called typological time. Coeval, according to my pocket Oxforddictionary, covers both (‘of same age, duration, or epoch’). Beyond that, it is to connote acommon,active‘occupation,’orsharing,oftime.”

(JohannesFabian,TimeandtheOther:HowAnthropologyMakesItsObject,1983)“WhenFoucaultbringsartintoplay,followingtherevolutionsinhisgenealogyoftheCynics,itisnotclassicalaestheticsoranexistentialisttheoryofartthatconcernshim,butratherartthatis ‘capable of giving a form to existencewhich breakswith every other form’[1], a form thatforms itself, newly invents itself, an ‘aesthetics of existence’. Aesthetics as ethics, as theinventionofnewmodesof subjectivationandofnew formsof living (together),existenceasaestheticobject,lifeasabeautifulwork.”

(GeraldRaunig,‘TheMolecularStrike’,Factoriesofknowledge,IndustriesofCreativity,2013)

[1]“...Philosophicalactivismisnotaboutamodelphilosophicalorartisticlifebeyondrelations,attheedgeoftheworld.Cynicsliveinthemidstoftheworld,againsttheworld,withthehorizonofanotherworld;inFoucault’swords, they have ‘laid down this otherness of anotherlife, not simply as the choice of a different, happy, andsovereignlife,butasthepracticeofanactivismonthehorizonofwhichisanotherworld’.This understanding of an other life enabling an otherworld applies all themore to the collective Cynicism, orrather: the molecular Cynicism of the new activisms today. In this kind of molecular Cynicism, it is not theindividualphilosopher,notthedandyesqueartist,nottheexistentialistactivistthatisatthecenter,butrathertheexchangerelationsofsingularitiestestingdisobedient,non-subservient,industriousformsofliving.”

(MichelFoucault,TheCourageofTruth,2011)“Thequestionoftheinteractivealgorithmdoesnotsimplycorrespondtotheideathattoday'ssocialispre-formed.Whatwehavelearnedfrominteractivealgorithms(fromonlinetradingtoinformationalmarketing)isthatthecomputationalprincipletheyoperateincludesanewkindofmechanizationorautomationthatdoesnotcontainbutrathergeneratesdata,doesnotlimitbut regeneratespotential and reduces theuncomputable to an effectiveprobability. To fullygrasp this type of control there is need to rethink the type of automation that we areexperiencingandtothenexplorethe informaticsocialspherebeyondatoutcourt critiqueofcybernetics.”

(LucianaParisi,‘Crowd,PowerandPost-democracyinthe21stCentury’:aninterviewwithLucianaParisi,TizianaTerranovaandObsoleteCapitalism,2014)

“AtstakeistheabilitytothinkabouttheOther,thoseagentsandbeingsradicallydifferentfromourselves.Howarewetounderstandthatwhichdiffersfromourcapacitytocomprehend?Theconjecture of this book is that such thinking is possible within particular parameters.Foremost, it is a thinking that arises from theevent, action, andencounterswith theanimalothers.Thiscorporealthinkingthatrisksitself,mindandbody,intheactsofencountersthatdifferwitheachanimal.(Theeventisnotsimplysingularbutaswarmorpackthatmultiplieswith each engagement.) Additionally, thinking the Other in this case is possible only if weconsiderthinkingasanactivityinthewakeofphilosophyasaseriesofexperimentsandpathstowardproducingtentative,sometimesfragile,andhybridmeaning...Ifwhatisatstakeishowwe think about (and alongside) the Other, hybridity and becoming put up other stakes:rethinking humanism. As most deep approaches to animals studies claim, by measuringourselves in relation to the nonhuman, humanism deconstructs by way of its necessarysupplement,theanimal.Indeed,theanimalthatthereforeIamandinaccessibleanimality(ofhumansandnonhumans)fashionthehuman.Theoutside—surfacesno‘within’the‘depths’ofhumaninteriority—opensuphumanismcausinginflectionsinitsboundaries.”

(RonBroglio,SurfaceEncounters:ThinkingwithAnimalsandArt,2011)

“Neverforgetthis:yourbodydoesnotendattheskin.Yourcontoursarenotconstrainedbyphysical appearance. Your morphological imaginary is fluid and changeable. Indeed, yourtissuescanabsorballkindsof fantasies.Your imaginationgeneratesmore thanmerementalimages; its reach extends through your entire sensorium ... Perceptual experiments canrearticulateyoursensorium.Andbyimaginingotherwise,andtellingdifferentstories,youcanopenupnewsensibleworlds...ConsiderthisaninvitationtodeepenyouralreadymultispeciesYogapractice. Cat, Cow,Dog, Crow, Scorpion andFishPoses torque your body intomimeticaffinities with animal forms. Here I invite you to cultivate your inner plant. This is not anexerciseinanthropomorphism—arenderingofplantsonthemodelofthehuman.Rather,itisanopportunitytovegetalizeyouralreadymorethanhumanbody.”

(NatashaMyers,AKriyaforCultivatingYourInnerPlant,2014)“I am not proposing a return to the Stone Age. My intent is not reactionary, nor evenconservative, but simply subversive. It seems that the utopian imagination is trapped, likecapitalismandindustrialismandthehumanpopulation,inaone-wayfutureconsistingonlyofgrowth.AllI’mtryingtodoisfigureouthowtoputapigonthetracks.Gobackward.Turnandreturn.”

(UrsulaK.LeGuin,DancingattheEdgeoftheWorld:ThoughtsonWords,Women,Places,1989)

“Buteveninthemuch-publicizedrebellionoftheyoungagainstthematerialismoftheaffluentsociety,theconsumermentalityistoooftenstillintact:thestandardsofbehaviorarestillthoseofkindandquantity,thesecuritysoughtisstillthesecurityofnumbers,andthechiefmotiveisstill the consumer’s anxiety that he is missing out on what is ‘in.’ In this state of totalconsumerism—whichistosayastateofhelplessdependenceonthingsandservicesandideasandmotivesthatwehaveforgottenhowtoprovideourselves—allmeaningfulcontactbetweenourselvesandtheearthisbroken.Wedonotunderstandtheearthintermseitherofwhatitoffersusorofwhat it requiresofus,and I think it is therule thatpeople inevitablydestroywhattheydonotunderstand.”

(WendellBerry,TheArtoftheCommonplace,2003)“The connection between invitations and behaviour came to a head for cities in the 20thcentury. In the efforts to copewith the rising tide of car traffic, all available city spacewassimplyfilledwithmovingandparkedvehicles.Everycitygotpreciselyasmuchtrafficasspacewould allow.In every case, attempts to relieve traffic pressure by buildingmore roads andparking garages have generatedmore traffic andmore congestion.The volume of car trafficalmost everywhere is more or less arbitrary, depending on the available transportationinfrastructure.Becausewecanalwaysfindmorewaysto increaseourcaruse,buildingextraroadsisadirectinvitationtodriveandbuymorecars.”

(JanGehl,CitiesforPeople,2010)“UndergroundBerlinisacitybeneathacity.ItisorganizedasasecretcommunityofresistancetotheoccupyingpoliticalpowersaboveandfollowsexistingU-Bahnsubwaylines.Belowtheseisthecivicspaceoftheundergroundcity.Thestructuresthatpenetratethisspacearetowers,placesof livingandwork, inversely related to theupperdatumof the surface city.Theyareinvertedtowersandthecityinaninvertedcity,createdfromthesurfacedown.Theenclosingstructures—thecurvingwallsofthecivicspace—arethemselvestheenclosurewallsofspaces.Thesechamberwallshousethecontinuousspaceslinkingallsectionsoftheundergroundcity.Each section of the underground city is a different configuration, owing to differing soilconditions and surface conditions above. Together they form a continuous linkage, like thevertebrae in a spine. And into each section are projected the special living and workingstructuresof thecity,sometimes fromabove,sometimes frombelow—butwhy frombelowiftheprimaryplaneofreferenceisthedatumofthesurfaceabove?Becausethereissomethingbelowevenmorecompellingandpowerful,somethinggeneratingeffectsmorepowerfulthanallthosefromabove,morepowerfulandimmediatethanhistory,

than culture, than political conflict: the intricate fabric of forces activewithin the planetarymassoftheEarthitself.What is happening in this city ismuchmore thanpolitical unification.What is happening isacclimationofpeopletonewconditionsoflife.Beneaththesurface,withintheplanetarymassof theearth,anewclimateof forcesexists,geomechanicalforces that issue fromdeepwithintheearth—gravitational,electromagnetic,andseismicforcesthatcometoshapetheformsandrelationshipscomprisinglifeintheundergroundcity.”

(LebbeusWoods,OneFiveFour,1989)“The social ‘community’ of forests has evolved through scores of synergistic interactionsamong a dazzling array of organisms. One such synergy arises in mycorrhizas, or literally,‘fungus-roots.’ These symbioses occur between all tree species and thousands of soil fungalspeciesworldwide,whereby the treesprovide the fungiwithphotosyntheticcarbon,and thefungireturn the favor to the trees in the formofsoilnutrientsandwater.Somemycorrhizalfungicolonizeonlyoneplantspecies,whereasotherscolonizemany,andallhavethecapacityto connect the roots of individual plants of the same or different species in a mycorrhizalnetwork.InthegreatDouglas-firforestsofNorthAmerica,forexample,wehavefoundthatregeneratingDouglas-firseedlingslinkintothemycorrhizalnetworkofoldertrees,whetherofthesameordifferent species, allowing them to acquire sufficient resources to become successfullyestablished.Thesenetworks forma ‘scale-free’pattern,suchthatthe large,oldtreesbecomethehubsofthenetworkandtheyoungertreesthesatellitenodes,muchlikethepatternofamodern-daytransportationortelecommunicationsnetwork.Thebelow-groundnetworksarevery busy, rapidly transmitting resources and biochemical signals back and forth betweentreesandplants,aprocesswhichappearsessentialfortheself-organizationoftheecosystem.Imagine—asyouwalkthroughtheforest—thatyourfootstepstraverseatelecommunicationssystemthatdwarfstheextent,dynamicsandcomplexityofanythatisman-made.Communicationbetweenplantsthroughmycorrhizalnetworkshasbeenshowntoinvolvethetransmission of water, carbon, macronutrients, micronutrients, biochemical signals,allelochemicals or hormones from one plant to another, usually from a sufficient plant to aplantinneed.Forexample,inmixedtemperateforests,nutrient-andphotosynthate-enrichedpaper birch trees shuttle carbon to stressed Douglas-fir neighbors, giving more than theyreceive in return. The carbon transfer is dynamic across seasons, responding to changes instature in the communityorenvironmental conditions.This typeof source-sink transferhasbeenassociatedwithimprovedsurvivorship,growthandhealthoftheneedyrecipienttreesinthenetwork.”

(SuzanneSimard,‘ConversationsintheForest:TheRootsofNature'sEquanimity’,SGIQuarterly,2015)

“Before ‘abstraction’ signifies the abstruse and the incomprehensible, it indicates a drawingaway,adiversionanddetachment.Firstandforemost,abstractionisaseparationfromwhatistowards what could be. In this regard, it is a gesture of violence, an affirmative violence inexiting the as-it-is condition andmoving towards the generation of new connections to andwith aworld. Thepower of abstraction to experiment and revise relations to each other, toproduction,tovaluecreationandtotheworld,isacapacitythatneedstobereclaimedbeyondits colonization by finance capital and labour relations. The power of abstraction to detachfromexistentconditionsandinventnewmodesofcohabitationisa forceurgently inneedofacceleration.”

(PatriciaReed,‘SevenPrescriptionsforAccelerationism’,in#Accelerate:TheAccelerationistReader,2014)

“An alien intelligence is not concernedwith any orthodoxy, it proliferates and organises itsownheresies.”

(MatteoPasquinelli,‘TheLabourofAbstraction:TransitionalThesesonTrans-Operaism’,Fillip,2014)

IGNEOUS~AQUEOUS~MORPHEUS

2017