[-empyre-] Critical Dromology - and Inertia

Tue Nov 11 05:21:43 EST 2008

Dear Ricardo, and dear other guests,

inertia surely is one of the main topics of Virilio theory, maybe the
central point, a fear AND a desire for him (and the problem is the
transition / the link between these two affects...).

a/ a desire : in his last book, ‘L’université du désastre’ (2008), he
says that nowadays we have to « faire maintenant l’’éloge de
l’inertie’ ; de cette statique, de cette fixité photosensible dont
l’épreuve photographique est le témoin »  (p.71). « Depuis la
révolution des transports (industriels)”, he says, “l’inertie a très
mauvaise réputation”, on ne cesse de “dévaloriser le solide et sa
statique au bénéfice de la dynamique (des ondes, des fluides)” -
however: « Souvenons-nous : pour que la roue tourne, il lui faut un
point fixe, le moyeu qui, lui, ne tourne pas » (pp.63-64). So it
seems, we need an inertial point (or inertial space, or area – or
someting else...), a ‘fixed point’. In this respect, the lack of
inertia is the condition of possibility of any kind of CATASTROPHES :
no ‘permanent’ point means no wheel...

b/ however, in his firts books he seems to argue something else: speed
leads to a lethal inertia. In ‘L’espace critique’ (1984) : ‘l’inertie
tend a renouveler l’ancienne sedentarité’ = ‘l’arrivée supplante le
départ: tout ‘arrive’ sans qu’il soit nécessaire de partir” =
telescopage = suppression of space = ‘desertification’ = ‘moment
d’inertie de l’environnement' ... and so on; the conclusion of all
that is in the last chapter of “L’inertie polaire” (1990): ‘la perte
de l’exo-centration territoriale developpe et accroit l’ego-centration
comportementale de l’homme’.
An image to sum up this techno-ego-centration, that allows a ‘trajet
sans trajet’ (a trip without any real trip), that allows to see
without moving:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7472559.stm
In this case, (polar) inertia IS THE DISASTER !

So i want to question the artists: what do you do with inertia ? Have
the artists to create a new kind of inertia, or not?

L’inertie est-elle ce qui doit être évitée par excellence, une maudite
immobilité, ou tout au contraire ce qui doit être formé, imaginé,
construit dans la forme même de l’art?

Ou autrement dit encore: la ‘disturbance’ dont parle Ricardo Dominguez
doit-elle importer du flux - de la mobilité - ou de l’inertie?...

In a friendly way,

Frederic

Selon rrdominguez at ucsd.edu:

> Hola toda/os,
>
> It is a pleasure to be a part of the list this turn of time. I was
> asked
> to diagram some thoughts on Virilio’s influence on the work that
> we/I
> as the Electronic Disturbance Theater (EDT) have done in developing
> the practice of Electronic Civil Disobedience (we are now
> celebrating
> 10 years of electronic disturbances).
>
> I thought I would post the statement that introduced my
> presentation
> at the gathering in S.F. and then a statement made during phone
> interview in 1999 on EDT’s framing of Demos and Dromos in relation
> to the Agora-on-line.
>
> I look forward to your gestures and responses.
>
> Yours in speed,
> Ricardo
>
>
> >>>S.F. Statement:
>
> Hacktivism and Critical Dromology
> (Ricardo Dominguez)
>
> Paul Virilio's deep vision of the 'politics of speed’ and THE
> 'aesthetics
> of disappearance' is full of anxieties about the nature of
> post-contemporary art's relationship to the "body" and the
> "virtual". His
> fear of dromology-as-art has created a blind spot, an inability to
> see the
> potential of current art practices over the course of the last ten
> years.
> Hacktivism and Digital Zapatismo have been about creating
> visibility for
> mute body/bodies around the planet. The work of the Electronic
> Disturbance
> Theater [EDT] has created possibilities for constituting presence
> in
> digital space that is both collective and politicized - performance
> art as
> critical dromology. By extracting the core ideas from the canon of
> Virilian thought and mixing them with new modalities in art and
> performance, a new paradigm emerges- a radical dromology for our
> time.
>
> >>>Phone Interview
>
> Performance Art in a Digital Age: A Live Phone Conversation with
> Ricardo
> Dominguez
>
> Took place on Thursday 25 November 1999, Institute of International
> Visual
> Arts, London.
> By Coco Fusco
>
> I was in NYC and Coco Fusco was in London with an audience:
>
> CF: When you theorize EDT's practice you often mention connections
> with
> Ancient Greek concepts of the Agora and Demos. How do you envision
> virtual performance as a kind of metaphorical speech in light of
> this
> genealogy?
>
>
> RD: The idea of a virtual republic in Western Civilization can be
> traced
> back to Plato, and is connected to the functions of public space.
> The
> Republic incorporated the central concept of the Agora. The Agora
> was the area for those who were entitled to engage in rational
> discourse of Logos, and to articulate social policy as the Law
> (Nomos),
> and thus contribute to the evolution of Athenian democracy. Of
> course
> those who did speak were, for the most part, male, slave-owning and
> ship owning merchants, those that represented the base of Athenian
> power. We can call them Dromos: those that belong the societies of
> speed. Speed and the Virtual Republic are the primary nodes of
> Athenian
> democracy – not much different than today. The Agora was constantly
> being disturbed by Demos, what we would call those who demonstrate
> or who move into the Agora and make gestures. Later on, with the
> rise
> of Catholicism – Demos would be transposed into Demons, those
> representatives of the lower depths. Demos did not necessarily use
> the rational speech of the Agora, they did not have access to it;
> instead, they used symbolic speech or a somatic poesis - towards
> defining Nomos. The Demos gesture towards Nomos, with a language
> of gaps that points to invisibility, that points to the lacks in
> the Agora.
> The Agora is thus disturbed; the rational processes of its codes
> are
> disrupted, the power of speed was blocked. EDT alludes to this
> history
> of Demos as it intervenes with Nomos. The Zapatista FloodNet
> injects
> bodies as  Nomos into digital space, a critical mass of gestures as
> blockage.
> What we also add to the equation is the power of speed is now
> leveraged
> by Demos via the networks. Thus Demos_qua_Dromos create the space
> for a new type of social drama to take place. Remember in Ancient
> Greece, those who were in power and who had slaves and commerce,
> were the ones who had the fastest ships. EDT utilizes these
> elements
> to create drama and movement by empowering contemporary groups
> of Demos with the speed of Dromos – without asking societies of
> command and control for the right to do so. We enter the Agora
> with the metaphorical gestures towards Nomos and squat on
> high-speed
> lanes of the new Virtual Republic – this creates a digital platform
> or
> situation for a techno-political drama that reflects the real
> condition
> of the world beyond code. This disturbs the Virtual Republic that
> is accustomed to the properties  of Logos, the ownership of
> property,
> copyright, and all the different strategies in which they are
> attempting
> enclosure of the Internet.
>
>
> --
> Ricardo Dominguez
> Assistant Professor
> Hellman Fellow
>
> Visual Arts Department, UCSD
> http://visarts.ucsd.edu/
> Principal Investigator, CALIT2
> http://calit2.net
> Co-Chair gallery at calit2
> http://gallery.calit2.net
> CRCA Researcher
> http://crca.ucsd.edu/
> Ethnic Studies Affiliate
> http://www.ethnicstudies.ucsd.edu/
>
> Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics,
> Board Member
> http://hemi.nyu.edu
>
> University of California, San Diego,
> 9500 Gilman Drive Drive,
> La Jolla, CA 92093-0436
> Phone: (619) 322-7571
> e-mail: rrdominguez at ucsd.edu
>
> Project sites:
> site: http://gallery.calit2.net
> site: http://pitmm.net
> site: http://bang.calit2.net
> site: http://www.thing.net/~rdom
> blog:http://post.thing.net/blog/rdom
> _______________________________________________
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>