16 Oct. 2011

DISCLAIMER: This is not a proposal. Merely a glance in the rear-view mirror.

In order to eventually arrive at making a proposal, I feel the need to look back. To pinpoint what exactly has been the leading thread in 'what I have done' so far, is not an easy task. Nevertheless, it is crucial to 'what I will be doing' this year. This contemplation is a process of catching and crystallizing fleeting glimpses of overlaps, recurring themes and interests. What follows is an attempt to highlight only a small particle of this matter of considerations. I will mainly build on the projects and writings I have been working on last year, since those might provide a good start to narrow down the list of possibilities.

A constant seems to be the tendency to work with text and different modes of reading. I am aware of the fact that this sounds rather general and broad, but I am convinced that this is the glue that keeps all of my work together. More specifically I like to explore the interplay between reading as an act of production and reading through an act of production. Print - whether on paper or on screen - is an essential element in this conjunction. Where last year I approached the concept of print from a rather literal angle (although trying to recontextualize it), I would like to delve deeper in the concept of print as a cultural determinant in Western civilization since Gutenberg's invention of the printing press. While Chinese culture had a print practice long before that, they did not have the notion of movable type. And that is exactly what reshaped and defined Western culture over the span of five hundred years. It created certain social structures that did not exist before. Then the new kid on the block arrived: electronic media. What took the printed book half a millenium, electronic media seems to do in only half a century. It is this shift, and the way that electronic media relates to print, that I find fascinating. Not exactly what you would call 'narrow', but it is a focus.

Particularly the relation between reading and looking is something I would like to, well, 'look' into. When does the one turn into the other? What is the effect of print on these notions, and how does electronic media affect them? Where do they overlap? How do they produce meaning or knowledge? What are their boundaries and which boundaries do they constitute? I am convinced that there is a way to work with these questions in a practical manner, driven by a theoretical research. The symbiotic man-machine relationship, which is one of empowerement and amputation, is something you inevitably encounter in this field of research. It has been one of the recurring themes in both my writing and practical work of last year and will probably remain the case for this year. The eventual outcome of this is still a huge questionmark right now, but I guess the purpose of the time given to me this year is to find that out, starting by immersing myself in a more in-depth study of the history of print and the rise of electronic media.