[-empyre-] Week 4 - Bio/Nano/Materialisms - the transperversal aesthetic of Texas grasshoppers

rrdominguez2 rrdominguez at ucsd.edu
Mon Jun 25 21:57:07 EST 2012 

Hola Heather and all,

The trans/per/versal movement(s) that *particle group* attempts to trace 
via bio/nano scale(s) gestures may indeed call forth "a kind of material 
corollary" of affect/effect. Elle's capturing the EEG of 
"ethno-dysphoric cloning" or Pinar's new organ/ism pass and are passing 
between the utopian synthetics of particle capitalism(s) and the 
nanocaust (or the revenge of the object) - an apocalyptic materiality. 
The bio/nano aesthetic in the above work moves within and around a 
critical anti-anti-utopian condition of making these engines of 
imperceptibility visible - trans/per/versal or a type of queering movement.

But one does not have to look very far into the no-future future or the 
freeze dried past to see what grey ecology of bio/nano is manifesting 
via pre-set accidents or trans-effects at the bio/nano scale:
*
Genetically modified grass linked to cattle deaths**
http://wtvr.com/2012/06/24/genetically-modified-grass-linked-to-cattle-deaths/
*
Indeed a new materialism transmuting feed grass into poison which now 
only Texas grasshoppers are enjoying (the trans/per/versal moment).

As artists we are all Texas grasshoppers - but for how long?

Very best,
Ricardo



On 6/24/12 5:27 PM, Heather Davis wrote:
> Hi all,
> Apologies for my tardy arrival. I am so excited to be a part of this 
> conversation with each of you, and find myself stunned by the quality 
> of thought and engagement of my brilliant interlocutors here. Thank 
> you for your contributions so for and to Zach and Micha for initiating 
> and curating this conversation. I am curious about the way in which 
> the nano, in each of your work, becomes a kind of significant 
> imperceptibility. I am thinking about how, in a previous discussion 
> this month, the idea of 'queer is everywhere' was broached. My initial 
> reaction to this was a kind of doubt, not trusting the utopic 
> overtones, nor the amorphous quality of the statement that lacked the 
> dissensus that characterizes politics. What I appreciate about the 
> nano, in each of your works, Pinar, Ricardo, and Elle, is the way in 
> which this kind of utopic moment of the viral meets with an politics 
> of imperceptibility not as simply an aversion or counter-move to 
> surveillant systems (of sex, the state, neoliberal corporate models, 
> etc.) but as an imperceptibility that moves through the body to make 
> significant changes. It makes me wonder about the nano as being a kind 
> of material corollary of affect - that which carries a force, but is 
> seen through its effects, rather than in a chain of causes or origins. 
> this is indeed a queer position, a kind of passing that is important 
> in its movement, of what it touches and shifts, that is locatable in 
> its actions. the nano seems particularly adapted to this kind of 
> effect, movement.
>
> I cannot present here as beautiful a summary of the work that I am 
> doing, as it has yet to begin. Aside from dirt, which I love because 
> of its contaminating/contaminated qualities, because of its 
> amorphousness and its ability to be distinct while encompassing a 
> range of materials, metaphors, etc, I have become increasingly 
> fascinated with plastic. It marks our current age that is seemingly 
> ubiquitous, unfathomable (in its scale, duration, reach) and also 
> makes the nano a human possibility. for it is only because of the 
> creation of purely synthetic polymers that we both have the ability to 
> manipulate things at a nanoscale, and are able to perceive the nano as 
> a separate measurable scale. I am interested in the way in which 
> plastic, as a medium, connects to a politics of imperceptibility.
>
> heather.
>
> On Sun, Jun 24, 2012 at 11:57 AM, Clough, Patricia 
> <PClough at gc.cuny.edu <mailto:PClough at gc.cuny.edu>> wrote:
>
>     Thanks to all who engaged during week 3   and welcome week 4  Patricia
>     ________________________________________
>     From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>     <mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>     [empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>     <mailto:empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>] On Behalf Of Elle
>     Mehrmand [ellemehrmand at gmail.com <mailto:ellemehrmand at gmail.com>]
>     Sent: Saturday, June 23, 2012 8:43 PM
>     To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>     <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>     Subject: [-empyre-] Week 4 - Bio/Nano/Materialisms
>
>     Hello out there,
>
>     I am honored to have this opportunity to neuro-jaculate on this
>     list. The notions of materialisms/ immaterialisms/
>     bio-materialisms/ -erialisms, within the context of the
>     bio-political, bring to mind the pixellated flesh of my
>     holographic/ fauxlographic clones who live in my most recent
>     performative installation entitled fauxlographic. For the past
>     year I have been working within the speculative space of an
>     ethno-dysphoric cloning laboratory, where diasporic anxiety is
>     analyzed through the process of fauxlographic cloning. The clones
>     enact sonic rituals, singing in Farsi, English and Perz-ish [a
>     faux-ish language], based on multiple sources of information
>     including embodied memories, wikileaks cables, and textual/
>     visual/ aural references concerning Iran and Persia. The
>     ethno-dysphoric scientist analyzes her dislocated subjectivity by
>     performing a daily neurotic ritual within a glass computing
>     chamber while wearing an EEG neuro-headset. As she neuro-jaculates
>     with the clones
>      in order to (pars)e their data streams, the diasporic computing
>     sounds of the EEG oscillate in pitch based on her neural activity.
>     When high levels of CO2 are detected by the lab's sensors, the
>     clones become aware of those gazing upon them, resulting in an
>     anxious act of erasure and multiplication of their pixellated
>     flesh on the fauxlographic screen, reciprocating the affective
>     presence and implications of other bodies within the laboratory.
>     The use of organic sensors transforms the lab into a cyborgian
>     spatial interface, allowing for unconscious collaboration between
>     multiple bodies in space, confusing the somatic architecture of
>     the performance.
>
>     // bodies
>
>     [fragmented.dislocated.flesh]
>
>     the metaphor of the split subject in a multitude of
>     representations calls for the split subjectivity of the diasporic
>     body. the hologram. the clone. the screenal flesh of the
>     projection. the reflection on the glass. the live specimen with a
>     neural prosthetic.
>
>     //donna haraway's cyborg reconfigured
>
>     the live specimen lays in a burst of stillness within the glass
>     chamber for 30 minutes. the liveness of her naked body creates an
>     affect that the clones cannot produce, but ultimately she will
>     become a reproduction of herself. she performs analysis on the
>     clones by means of neural computing. her experiments are open to
>     the public, allowing for multiple bodies to inhabit the
>     laboratory. the intersectionality of all of the bodies produce the
>     organic energy that is necessary for the installation to function.
>
>     the fauxlographic clones are fragmented and displaced as they
>     interact with their ironic head scarfs from american apparel
>     through gestural research. the black scarf cuts into their
>     screenal skin, erasing their flesh due to the translucent nature
>     of the fauxlographic screen. they are never fully in or out of the
>     fabric, creating a fluidic relationship to the object, one that is
>     not part of a binary construct, but one that arises from a unique
>     space within the perception of being persian, and is expressed
>     through the gestures of their diasporic anxiety. fractured
>     elements of their being are echoed in the displacement of their
>     body parts. they are vulnerable in their nudity with their
>     pixellated flesh and informatic contents exposed, but that is the
>     nature of the clone.
>
>     - elle mehrmand
>
>     --
>     elleelleelle.org <http://elleelleelle.org><http://elleelleelle.org>
>     assemblyofmazes.com
>     <http://assemblyofmazes.com><http://assemblyofmazes.com>
>
>     _______________________________________________
>     empyre forum
>     empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au <mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
>     http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
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