Sharing the World
We are done with images telling us what to see, telling us what to do
We are done with images posted and reposted on social media
We are done with the image as a lure and as a deception
We are done with the image as representation and repression (of life)
We are done with the image as made by and made for human minds
We are done with the poor image, we want rich images!
rich in meaning, rich in bonding
Images that are intervals, images that happen in between
Images that are no longer carried by light only
as if the other elements were not involved
Image as a visual entity is nothing but a collective hallucination
We have learnt to see images where there is only ambient light
We have learnt to correlate image and world
following the rules of central perspective
The basic meaning of images
is that forced correlation
But flickering on our digital screens is light, is waves
spreading out and being captured without intention
And what about those other waves, the electromagnetic waves that are pulsing through our bodies,
the constant change in electric tension of our cellular membranes that makes us alive
And what about those other waves, the electromagnetic waves that are pulsing through our universe,
that impact life on earth and on other planets
What if the image had nothing to do with the visual?
What if the image had something to do with sound?
What if the image had everything to do with the dance of the community?
What if the image were nothing but the infinite connectedness of being,
the connectedness of bodies and minds… as waves?
Image: an eco-relation, an eco-bonding
Image: an interspecies commons
Image: a sharing of the world1
This text was written and performed for the overture to POSTIMAGE OPERAAAHHH!, an experimental “Singspiel” by Ingrid Hoelzl, first performed at the Collegium Helvticum, ETH Zurich, on June 20, 2019.
1 “Sharing the world” refers to Sharing the World by Luce Irigaray (Continuum, 2008). Michael Marder’s contribution to the Caliban special issue Sharing the World, entitled “To Share without Dividing,” addresses Luce Irigaray’s notion of (female) logos as an ecology, which she contrasts with (male) nomos as an economy. While the former is “a sharing without dividing,” the second is “a dividing without sharing our planetary dwelling.” Michael Marder, “To Share without Dividing,” in Sharing the World, ed. Scott Slovic, Caliban 55 (2016): 69-86, here 70.
GENERAL HUMANITY 