Introduction #1 : Meditations on Mobility
mobile ¤ moveable; able to move easily + (of a person) being able to change ones social status
mobilization ¤ the process of becoming mobile. to organize for service or action (especially troops in a time of war). associated with mobilization for war: increased production of the tools for war-making, gathering of funds to finance the military campaign, galvanization of public opinion against the enemy, propaganda. it is the accumulation of force.
agility is motion beyond mobility - beyond mobilization. we don't speak of mobility when it comes to the mind, then we speak of agility. we aren't used to speaking of agility in terms of military machines. agility is demotion, retrograde or a sideways step when necessary, against the force of the mobilizing/mobile mass.
Oil + Rockets 2001-2004
THE TRANSMISSIBILITY OF THE PAST
HAD BEEN REPLACED BY ITS CITABILITY
/Hannah Arendt
HAD BEEN REPLACED BY ITS CITABILITY
/Hannah Arendt
Introduction #2 : suspended animation
2001. lived experience assumed a scripted, almost fictional aura. we had the uncanny feeling that the story had been written, its conclusion already determined, and that one had nothing more to do than go along with the show. facts and other inconveniences were of no consequence.
we asked ourselves, how might one not go along with this show? if the narrative were moving in a linear manner through time, we would have to collapse this time using a non-linear motion. by means of a series of revisions, substitutions, repetitions and combinations/montages, all moments - past, present, future, possible, imagined - could be contained within the present moment.
by collapsing time, we could also disrupt the sense of inevitability contained in this narrative structure. we could collapse the [apparent] stability of its assumed causalities, since causalities are nothing but temporally linear arguments.
the material used is largely footage collected from 2001-2003 over periods of time ranging from one day to some months and following certain criteria. it seemed that none of this material was sufficient to document any one of these particular moments. however, a given material came to seem more accurate when combined with the other materials, and finally that none of the final works was really complete without the others.
all works in this series: document 1 (2001/7) tire (2002) liberty international (2003) basra (2003/4) roadblock (2003/7)