Methods session six question and text

Research question

What is the difference between natural/biological temporality and the temporality of our contemporary western society?

Draft text

Is a cyclical life a stagnant one?

I think — if not for the purpose of truth, then at least for the purpose of sanity — the answer has to be no. Cyclical movement differs from being stagnant, not only in the fact that it is moving, but also in that the isn’t made of the same exact iteration every time. It is a reiteration informed by the previous ones. It isn’t industrial repetition like a dance move in a De Keersmaeker choreography, the movement comes back to create and flow into the next. I shouldn’t even say that it “comes back”, because that implies there is a beginning to return to. The repetition is not a return, it needs no outside force, it does not exhaust the mover. Its repetition is rather the natural consequence of the movement itself. The revisiting, the retracing of the steps, is done in a way that does not erase the steps that came before. Cyclical time, then, is perhaps not very circular, but rather takes the form of a spiral.

What must follow then, is that there is linearity in cyclical time as well. There is still an after and before, a next and a previous iteration. There is still the building up of a collection of events. I suppose the difference lies more within the the fact that in a spiral, a forward motion can only come from the momentum of the backwards one. Rather than having one direction to be followed continuously, the direction changes all the time, out of necessity, out of inevitability. For there to be progress, there needs to be failure. Or rather, for there to be building, there needs to be breaking down.

A linear view on time also implies that we know its start and its point of termination. A point ‘A’ and ‘B’ between which the line is drawn. That the movement is leading to a certain result, that the start of the line already has an ending in it. A cyclical notion allows for more infinity, more uncertainty, more detours. It cannot have an end-point, because the motion encouraged with the spiral cannot come to a halt. It does not need the thing moving along its lines to be aware of it, to put in the effort, to do the walking. The structure will be there even if you are not there to experience it, or if you change shapes in the meantime.

But a line you can step off. A spiral you are stuck in. A spiral can be downward.

So — again, for the sake of sanity — perhaps the cycle is not necessarily a spiral. Perhaps these ideas of shapes are still trying to put visuals and words to a notion that is unfathomable to humanity. We are not made to move like the seasons, like the waves. Our body still ages linearly. Any form of life, in its overview of it, is lived linearly. But although a life is linear in its overview, there are many cycles in a life as well. Hormonal cycles, sleep cycles, breathing cycles. When you zoom in, the line is made of circles. Our bodies are made of all these seasons, all these waves coming and going, the trees changing colour and shedding their leaves.

These cycles, however, are often seen either as a given or as a distraction. It is rarely what we think defines our life. Instead, here in the 21st century western world, a human life is judged according to achievement. To what your end-point is. Whether you reach that end-point set by yourself or others. Unexpected deviation from the line is only applauded if it still ends up bringing you somewhere “productive”. It shall not be applauded for being change in itself. We are not allowed to feel fulfilled from repetition. We are not allowed to feel fulfilled by slowing down. Slowing down is only allowed if it gives us the needed rest to speed up afterwards. And these traps are not placed for us, we need to set our own. We need to create these expectations on the basis of which our success can be judged. No expectations and no end-goals equals no life.

But who are we living all this progress for? Our ending will be someone else’s beginning, but they won’t experience the same sense of achievement from it. Are they truly happier beginning there, than if they were to start where we did? And at some point, a point not that far away, our ending will be such an ending that nobody that experiences beginnings and endings and linearity will be there to see it, value it, judge it, remember it. There won’t be much left of all our progress and development. All that it eventually caused is destruction.

So, would it be so bad to live a stagnant life? A repetitive life leading nowhere in particular? A life made only of routine and of seeing time pass?