Since my last entry I have been working on the Becoming Fireflies part of the placement with Copy Press.
Here is what I have managed so far ..
What the Human Body Might Be.
Sylvia Wynter, in her essay ‘THE POPE MUST HAVE BEEN DRUNK THE KING OF CASTILE A MADMAN: CULTURE AS ACTUALITY, AND THE CARIBBEAN RETHINKING MODERNITY’ (1995) concludes the work:
“Human beings are magical. Bios and Logos. Words made flesh, muscle and bone animated by hope and desire,21 belief materialized in deeds, deeds which crystallize our actualities. "It is man who brings society into being" (Fanon, 1967, p. 11). And the maps of spring always have to be redrawn again, in undared forms.”
A statement towards widening our perspective on human potential and organisation, with this she lights an idea of the human body as more than the material object substance that it is often resigned too.
She gives us here the possibility that the body, a series of actions and reactions towards enacting the dreams of the brain, as much as evolution has thus far allowed, may also be a participant in constituting these dreams.
Meaning that the body has suddenly now found its self with agency beyond the brain. A power of its own.
In looking to shifting our gaze upon the body, It is possible that we may also shift our gaze upon the categorisation of bodies and the expectations for rational perfection that permeates when we see too much ourselves as mind.
“I will deny that there is the “real,” material body on one hand and its various cultural and historical representations on the other. It is my claim throughout this book that these representations and cultural inscriptions quite literally constitute bodies and help to produce them as such.”
Grosz. E. (1994) VOLATILE BODIES, Toward a Corporeal Feminism. Allen & Unwin, Third Avenue, New York, NY
The body resists the abilities of absolute categorisation, that the mind not only allows but actively pursues and contributes to. It can never be thought to fit into theologies, moralities or philosophies of care distribution, based on separations and categorisations of the beliefs of the mind.
...
Therefore, I will suggest
the human body might be
a proposition for thinking differently. and a motion for a greater variety of movement.
in a book about a girl resisting labour, famine or war, we find that she has, as a antithesis to the dehumanizing ability of capitalism, become, in a way, hyper human. She has extended her social powers to the point that her body and the body of another act and feel together in tandem. Thus are forced into a space of equality. If they blead she bleads with them. If they are overcome in an ecstatic move of lust and fulfilment, she is taken into this wave. swept up and in love also. she only has to notice an intensity in emotion or feeling to collide with a person’s body. And whenever she does, we are reminded of the corporal substance liquidness of the body. Which is the human as fully reminded of our equality as any human can be.
…
Constantly becoming, the human bodies could be a possibility for understanding catagorisation strategies under a new light. We may find, in this looser vision of human life, a way to be accepting and find friendship. kindness and individual feeling as a way of moving forward.
…..
there is a thought somewhere amongst all of this that tells us about how our minds have come to rule the world. Rule the story of our most prevalent societies. That this mind is how a human can, or should, have the ability to be both autonomous selves and morality in that we should all agree and live under universalised laws. as although we are all separate and free we should all also be striving for a perfection and unity of our minds.
the thought here about the brain is that it is an incarnation of god. and that the body has thus become the imperfect realisation of the brains potentials. that we should all strive to act despite our bodies for a world of united brains. that this is not inclusive and is un-equalising as a narrative.
A world that thus in reality becomes far less about autonomy to be free caring people, rather autonomy from our bodies to attempt to reach at some kind of utopia where maybe we leave our imperfections behind completely.
See any science fiction film where it is imagined that we can download ourselves to a bodiless electric world. or where severed heads talk to you from the inside of high-tech pickling jars.
How many people would be willing to attempt this amputation? how often is it viewed as a modification towards
Since I have been trying to write this, I have been really struggling to get anywhere with it. I cant pin point why, apart from that It has felt like there just isn't enough time in life to do anything.
I have been ill 3 times in the last 3 weeks and I think I have just burnt out.
This feeling of not being able to do the things that I want to be able to do has also affected my mental space.
Yesterday this came to a bit of a head as I was sat at my job and I found out that Copy press were unhappy with me as I had missed a deadline to arrange to meet them and finalise things. This was a genuine mistake as I had thought we had agreed the end of October, but I am also more that willing to accept that I messed up.
To try to respond I sent them all the writing work that I had been doing towards the placement and reiterated how sorry I was as well as enthusiastic about what they do.
Today However they came back with a short email and this didn't really give me any faith that they seemed willing to carry on. Therefore in response I again apologised and accepted responsibility for the mess up. I also said that I would understand if they felt that they couldn't move forward with me.
This all meant that I have a feeling that I am now without a placement for DPS.
I have emailed Anne to arrange a meeting. Hopefully it will sort out some how. The one little piece of good I can see in this is that maybe I will fine something a little less lonely and that I feel I am able to fulfil the tasks they ask of me. I felt completely out of my depth with Copy Press.
On a happier note, I have also been sitting for artists at the London fine art studios in Clapham. This is a drawing after the first three hours by one of the artists.
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