[-empyre-] From a distance

[Yoko Ishiguro]

Hello,


I am sorry about my little confusion. I try to write what I wanted to say again.

I agree that an absolute annihilation (a natural extinction as well) is possible biologically. However, the histories of (especially artificial) annihilations will be left and archived so that the records of the victims (as much as the victimisers’s) should be always left, archived and revealed. Regarding this society full of tele-presence and mediated selves, it may be difficult to eliminate those records of people's existence unless the on-going system of media get totally collapsed or taken over by a dictator or one exclusive group of people.

What I consider here is if ISIS claims the Islamic State based on a religion, they may want to eliminate any other thoughts, arts, histories and accompanying archives as well as the corporeal bodies. I wonder WHERE they want to establish their 'state', on TANGIBLES (a physical land, the corpses, slaves, weapons and the other tangible properties?) or INTANGIBLES (terror, media, religion, political thought, etc.?). What will the modern book burning be like?

As for power, powerless and power balance, thanks to Mine, EMPATHY can be an interesting function of humans to look closely in order to think about the relationships of audience, performers/objects and their distance in between. It can be also applied to the relationships of victims, victimisers, observers of the violence and their physical/mental distances in between.


Best,
Yoko