Transformation

Rabbit Holes /  by Justin Harrison

In thinking and researching about ‘Belonging’, ‘Boundaries’, ‘Transformation’ ‘Formation’

I have been looking at Derrida a lot, his exploration of ‘Differance’ ‘Trace’ Deconstruction’, ‘Spectres’ and ‘Hauntology’. I have now discovered Homi Bhabha. I see similarities of thought and approach, descriptions and models. I don’t know either work well enough to specifically state what exact differences or similarities they share. However I do feel the readings I have already made around Derrida - help me to being to approach Bhaba’s work.

I am also aware that Bhaba criticises Derrida’s work in falling short and failing to address Ethnocentricity and yet…

I do find the exploration of Space more specifically the third space and linguistics very interesting and return to my own enquiries to the language of art, navigation of change and the liminal.

Translation, Afterlife, Ghosts.

It’s a Rabbit hole I fear to go down, the depth of both authors work feels beyond me.

Translating transformation by documenting change. Looking back at the afterlife.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVQcdbSV6OI

 

T up >> T down<< /  by Justin Harrison

Image my own

In writing my Study statement - I began to think about Transformation in a particular model. The problem with models is they are often wrong. Things don’t fit into categorisation or structure neatly - but it’s a way of temporarily holding the information for me, a way of looking at it - till I find a better way…

Actually a lot came out of writing my Assessment and Study statement, I’ve not considered my practice, art or interests so formally before. It was hard, I had a headache after posting it all. But so worth it, to find structure, plans and actually discover that my interests do connect.

Does transformation exist in two differing states that cycle round:

Transformation down <<

In the transformation down<<<  the process of deconstruction, decomposition. The gradual and eventual disassembly of structure, division of cells, molecules and elements.  

A rendering down to constituent parts.

“Everything is divisable” (Derrida)

Transformation up >>

In transformation up>>> looking at the coalescence, aggregation, cumulation of elements or events. The newness of creation. Being RePlaced. Becoming new, becoming more.

A circle of transformation cycling through stages of Life>>>Death >>> Decomposition >>> Creation>>>New life>>>

“Far from being ‘dead,’ however, a rotting corpse is teeming with life. A growing number of scientists view a rotting corpse as the cornerstone of a vast and complex ecosystem, which emerges soon after death and flourishes and evolves as decomposition proceeds.” (Mo Costandi (2017). Life after death: the science of human decomposition. [online] the Guardian).

So in light of the nature of Derrida's approach to deconstructions and undecidability - where in his thinking does he reference a constructive approach? What if anything isn’t left undone -  Reinscription? Somewhere I read about a part of his work that touched on this but cannot remember which book it was.

I need to locate more specific and rigorous texts that at least allude to something akin to Transformation up>>>

 

Derrida /  by Justin Harrison

"Great works [philosophy/literature/writing] transform the context of their reception and this takes time". Royle Nicholas - Jacques Derrida Routledge P73

What if writing or a work of art could physically change the space/ landscape around us because of the power of the text/ message/ essence of the meaning. Quantum physics - transforming the environment similar to the word? Observed particles behave differently///

Pharmakon poison and remedy, both or sacrifice (Human)//////

"Adrian Mróz, a Polish-American philosopher and musician, analyses its application to art and argues that pharmakon is any physical, mental, or behavioral object[7] which can cut (techne). In other words, pharmaka are agential and responsible for changes in consciousness." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pharmakon_(philosophy)

More reading in Pharmakon?///

Deconstruction

"Derrida has spoken of what impels his writing as a trembling, a 'shaking' or a 'soliciting'. He has written again and again, but always differently, about 'producing a force of dislocation that spreads itself throughout the entire system', about deconstruction as 'de-sedimantation', about a force of irruption that '[disorganises] the entire inherited order'" Royle Nicholas - Jacques Derrida, Routledge P25

"Even the most apparently simple statement is subject to fission or fissure. This is deconstruction as destabilisation always already on the move within. 'There is no atom', as Derrida remarks what is one of his most succinct and most quietly, subterraneously explosive formulations. Everything is divisible. Unity, coherence, univocality are effects produced out of division and divisibility. This is what gives rise to the elaboration of terms such as differance, iterability, the trace, the supplement"  Royle Nicholas - Jacques Derrida, Routledge P26

"It is about shaking up, dislocating, and transforming the verbal, conceptual, psychological, textual, aesthetic, historical, ethical, social, political, and religious landscape. It's concern is to disturb, to de-sediment, to deconstruct". Royle Nicholas - Jacques Derrida, Routledge P26

  • Print Derrida - A letter to a friend - read and pull threads about Phramakon, deconstruction, atoms, everything is divisible, constituent parts, diagrams. Liminal?

  • Read Liminal - Greg V 

  • Find Artists to research

  • Find Book from Christian Perspective? Scripture?