Borut Savski – druga od treh miniatur iz serije Zvok kot metafora
Borut Savski – second of three miniatures from the series Sound as Metaphore
Instalacijo sem zgradil neposredno med 45-minutnim (meta) predavanjem, ki je bilo že prej označeno kot performens. Objekt je bil le delno delujoč, vendar je bila njegova funkcionalnost namenjena prav performensu gradnje. Konferenca je bila zanimiva, saj je skušala na enem mestu zbrati tako različne posameznike, kot so skladatelji ter Dj-je. V simbolnem bi to pomenilo: »združimo telo in duha!« (čeprav se je nato pokazalo, da so bili Dj-ji tisti, ki so spraševali »kje je logika!« (eksperimentalne glasbe)). Tudi pri gradnji Električnega Jezusa je šlo za vprašanje telesa (->improvizacije) in duha (->strukture). Meso (telo, trenutek, tekoči čas, materialna / oprijemljiva realnost…) in Struktura (duh, ne-materialno / abstraktno – a enako realno, koncept časa, zmožnost uvideti popolno,…).
Močno simbolno polje (Jezus na križu), ki je bilo prisotno, je omogočilo hkratno občutenje / razlikovanjemed različnimi konteksti (->evaluacijskimi polji – diskurzivnimi polji, ki proizvedejo pomen). Gre za vertikalno prebadanje skozi plasti različnih diskurzov. Orodje za to je bilo nekaj psihoanalize (in psihologije). Osrednji del predavanja je bil celosten pristop uravnotežanja dualističnih vrednosti, ki so osnova vsakršne spoznavne matrice (-> diskurzivno polje). Evaluacijsko polje je bilo označeno kot dinamičen sistem, ki ga oblikuje aktivni (->generativni) udeleženec z kibernetsko / autopoetsko (nelinearno in kompleksno) zanko samo-opazovanja. Zadnje ne omogoča, da bi bila krožnost spoznave precizna (enoznačna), saj pri tem nujno prihaja do nizanja (zaporedij) asociativnih prevodov / translacij / transformacij / reprezentacij. Kljub temu se človeški um lahko dotakne popolnega / absolutnega.
Predavanje se je začelo z enačbo Človek=Stroj=Bog (Human=Machine=God). Reprezentacija absolutnega je Bog. Angleški jezik je pri tem v veliko pomoč:
Man=Machine=God
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Mean Good
V slovenskem jeziku sem našel besedo, ki povezuje Boga s kvalitativnim vrednotenjem – boljši (oziroma v prekmurščini je to bokši, bogši). Verjetno je beseda boljši nekoč pomenila “Bogu podoben” – oziroma dober, kot Bog.
Ta enačba vodi v odnose (hu)man=mean, god=good – torej smo še trdneje v “uravnovešanju”. Prva ideja za instalacijo je bil nekakšen preprost sistem poslušanja in ustvarjanja zvoka, s tem da bi posamezni elementi poslušali zvok celote in s posledičnim gibanjem prispevali k spremembam zvoka celote. Podobno kot pri projektu »Zvočni biotop« bi to potekalo na ravni nadzirane mikrofonije.Metafora družbe ali “kolektivnega principa”. Na dveh straneh poenostavljenega sistema bi bila dva elementa, ki bi delovala kot dve strani tehtnice. Na sredini bi bil motor, ki bi pretvarjal zaznani zvok v gibanje – zdaj malo na levo, zdaj malo na desno. Ideja razpela / križa je po tem postala jasna. Manjkal je le še sistem za elastično vračanje »tehtnice« v ravnotežno lego – da, zvit kos gumijaste cevi (z notranjo shranjeno torzijsko energijo) je postal Jezus. Jezus je torej element »uravnoteževanja«. Prej je kazalo na to, da je Jezus bližnjica človeka do boga (v zgornji enačbi je to vlogo imel stroj / »machine«). Res, koncepti (ideje, vera, motivacija, ideologije,…) so popolnejši / trdnejši od človeka.
Po predavanju je postalo jasno, da je Jezus, kot metafora človeškega trpljenja (-> pasijon), sila, ki uravnoveša (svet). No, motor je bil sicer preslaboten (-> ali morda Jezus premočan?).
In povezava s psihoanalizo: manko, kot neločljivi del človeške psihologije je enak … trpljenju. To je tudi bistvena os, okoli katere se vrti (uravnoveša) vse. Temeljna motivacijska os.
Dodaten razmislek se je vrtel še okoli vloge časa. Tehtnica lahko predstavlja dualni vrednosti preteklost in prihodnost, z uravnoteženo točko, ki je tekoča sedanjost – ta je dinamična. Tu se odpre polje telesnega (tukaj in zdaj), čustvenega in statičnega abstraktnega – polje uma.
Električni Jezus 2 – distribuirano telo in študij simbolov
Nadaljnje delo je potekalo v skladu z domisleki, ki se tičejo gradnje sistemov / objektov / »teles«. Umetno telo, ki ni podobno človeku, je tudi drugače sestavljeno. Oko je lahko večje od glave, glava je lahko na tleh, namesto dveh rok je lahko le ena, itd… Dodatna vprašanja so še: kaj je pri stroju srce, kaj možgani, itd… – govorim o t.i. »distribuiranem / porazdeljenem« telesu. Pri prvi izvedbi »distribuiranega telesa« sem ponovno posegel po Električnem Jezusu. Telo je bilo grobo spleteno iz žic, vmes so bile črne škatle z elektroniko in senzorji. Ideja kablov je povsem jasna – to so žile telesa, funkcijske škatle so notranji organi, senzorji pa so organi zaznavanja. To je preprosto razumevanje, saj je jasno, da ljudje prav vse zgradimo (in razumemo, merimo) po svoji podobi.
THE ELECTRIC JESUS
This concept (->story) was built on the basis of the above reasoning on objects and contexts. Again it resulted in deliberate use of existant symbolic field, but hopefully with enough of humour and wit, so that it didn’t hide the conceptual issue. The installation was built live during a (meta) lecture that was declared as performance from the very start. It took about 45 minutes to present the concept and build (a functioning?) object. True: the functionality of the object was all in building it in real time and afterwards it did not have any purpose anymore. It can still function as a sound object in a different context, but the story that it would tell wouldn’t be as interesting.
The path (towards the truth?) was the opposite than with the bazooka. Since it proved that it is hard to decompose (->to uncover the innermost layers) a ready made object (because of it’s primary functionality -> “the looks” of it, “the use” of it,…), I decided (in a period of a month of preparation it was decided just a day before the lecture/performance) that the building (of metaphorical relations) would be more appropriate. However the bazooka also had a shortcut to “understanding” – it was a large print of this text just beside the object.
The experiment took place in May 2004 in Warszawia, Poland at the Turning Sounds conference/meeting. The word experiment also means that it will not be repeated anymore. The conference took an interesting direction bringing into close contact the composers and the Djs – in symbolic domain this could mean: the mind and the body (though it turned out also that it was the DJs who were asking “where is the logic!”). Anyway, it was about body (->improvisation) and mind (->structure). In building the Electric Jesus it was also about that. Flesh (the body, the moment, the real-time, the material reality, the rotting,…) and the Structure (the mind, the non-material but equally real, the concept of time, the ability to get a glimpse of the absolute,…).
The story of the lecture was organized around the stereotype that Poland is “a very” catholic country. The presence of “god” was therefore a very powerfull symbolic field (-> with a lot of “flesh”). In the sense that the flesh is the emotional potential of the particular symbolic field which defines an object. But this was not the path I took – it would be a manipulation and a very cheap one. Therefore the final object (->the crucifix) didn’t have any value left when the lecture was over.
Having a strong symbolic field present made it possible to simultaneously feel/compare the difference between multiple contexts (->spaces of evaluation – fields of discourse that provide the meaning). It was about the vertical piercing through the layers of discourses (as mentioned high up above). The tool for this was a little bit of psychoanalysis (and psychology). The heart of lecture was a holistic approach of balancing the dualistic values that form the basis of any cognitive matrix (discoursive field). The space of evaluation was described as dynamic system structured by active (->generative; mentioned up above) participants with cybernetic/autopoietic (nonlinear and complex) loop of self-cognition. The latter does not allow for a “circle” of cognition to be precise, since there is a sequencing of associative translations/representations taking place.
Still, a human mind can touch the absolute. The beginning of lecture started with the equation Human=Machine=God. The representation of absolute is God. English language comes handy in this case:
Man=Machine=God
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Mean Good
I didn’t use it during lecture, but this leads to relations (hu)man=mean, god=good and we are even more firmly into “balancing”. The first idea for installation was a simple dynamic system made of listening and sound-generating elements that would have their autopoietic loops individualy listening to the sound that the whole system produces. This is a kind o a metaphore of a society or “the collective principle”. There would be two elements on both halves of the weighing scale (balancing the already mentioned dualistic categories). In the middle there would be a motor, which would translate sound into movement (motor control via microphone – this moves the “hands” with two more microphones caught in a acoustic feedback loop). The idea of the crucifix slowly became apparent.
I had an idea for Jesus too – a piece of rubber hose twisted together. I bought it and it’s colour was tan – like the flesh. Great! But the idea already seemed too cheap. Better to be formless (->abstract), than to let the parasitical meanings spread all over the recognizable form. So I temporarily dropped the idea, but I brought the material over to Warszawa. The “fleshy” substance was regained when the idea of live performance came about.
Before the “show” it was apparent that the Jesus was a “shortcut” from man to god (in the equation the intermediate link was the machine). True – concepts (ideas, beliefs, motivation, ideologies,…) are more (perfect) than a human. After the show it became apparent that Jesus as a metaphore of human suffering (-> the passion) is the balancing force. Well, the motor was too week (-> Jesus was too strong?). So, the link with the psychoanalysis: the psychologic split immanent to humans is… the suffering. Ok, simplified – but the simplification is part of the structural view. Still, the result seemed obvious. One could draw conclusions even at the start of this text – but with analysis we provided a kind of mathematical proof. Hopefully with the above mentioned method of vertical cut.
Elektric Jesus 2 – distributed body and study of symbols
Further work was done according to the ideas described above – in relation to systems / objects / »bodies«. Artificial body that does not ressemble human’s, must also have a different structure. An eye can be larger than head, the heayd can be on the floor, instead of two arms there can be only one, etc… Furher questions can be: what represents the heart in the machine, what is the brain, etc… – I am talking about the so-called »distributed« body. At my first approach to »distributed body« I returned again to Electric Jesus. The body was made out of roughly knitted wires, in-between there were black boxes with electronicsand sensors. The idea of cables is very clear – these are veins of the body, the functional boxes are the internal organs, and the sensorsare the organs of reception. A very simple way to understand – as it is also very clear that the humans build (understand, percieve, measure) everything according to our image.
