Haystack

Thesis Outline Jasper Griepink December 2012

In my graduate research and thesis project I want to suppose the idea of art as an experimental form of magic, and the idea of the artist as a cultural engineer able to use tools such as magic and healing in his/her practice. Operating from within the idea that these tools are in turn not merely artistic tools but actually human tools I come to the question of authorship and transferability of methodology within these terrains. I wonder why the potential use of creativity is often limited to those that affiliate with the identity of artist, as similarly the potential use of magic and healing is usually wielded by those that affiliate themselves with the identity of healer or shaman? And in the case of writing; how can one tell a story that does not become history? for how can we ever be accountable for a reality that is transient, often local, and of slumbering progression?

In the process of creating a body of writing I intend to assemble written accounts of meetings and events I have been part of, such as meetings with specific artists or body workers, but also encounters I have with spirits in trance journeys and in daydreaming. I will attempt to assemble a bunch of strands to form a pile of hay at first, only later to decide how to dissect this pile. For the sake of undermining the evident problematic of writing to an anonymous audience I will attempt to address certain readers, be them human or not, in journal-style notes, letters, prayers, spells and possibly do-it-yourself kits.

I envision my thesis to be partially a report on my practice and research, as well as addressing several related artistic and theoretical practices to eventually hopefully formulate a text as a body of work.

In the way that I see it now, I will foremost focus some parts of the thesis on my definition of magic in relation to the creation of one’s reality. Also, I will highlight the idea of undergoing as a way of understanding by assembling the accounts as stated above. At some point I will also make a plea for the re-appreciation of heretics as cultural engineers, and the queer as an agency of infinite diversification and multiplication of particularities, potentially offering healing to the constitutions of social-relations. For the large part I will attempt to give my view on healing in relation to magic trough a semi-analytical text orbiting around and trough my assembled accounts.

In a sense, I want my thesis to be less morally sound than magically sound.

I envision myself taking specific moments in the assembly period to use divination-techniques as milestones showing me the way to continue. Also the idea of using the cut-up technique at some point to rupture written narratives to formulate bodies of texts seems to offer an ‘out-of-my-hands’ alchemy that might work well with the content of my research. In a way I want to avoid to function as a narrator that goes trough the body of this text as a needle with a thread routed to shape a pre-conceived sweater or polo from its mass. In this way I will offer not only my eyes on matter and fail to activate your perception, as a differentiated familiar one to mine, but I will also offer nothing more than my reading, rendering you unnecessary. Like watching the Star Wars epos and seeing Anakin Skywalker turn to the dark side of the force over and over again no matter how often you start watching the films again. In a way I would like this writing to be one that does not offer its conclusion in the end anyway as such, rendering you as a reader merely a sponge, prone to suck up whatever this text has to offer, though perhaps this is what we have together.

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