“a past whose annihilation, consuming itself from within, ending at every moment but never ending its ending.”
"[Aureliano (II)] saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly paced in the order of man’s time and space: The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants. . . . MelquÃades had not put events in the order of a man’s conventional time, but had concentrated a century of daily episodes in such a way that they coexisted in one instant."
"[Aureliano (II)] had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth."
Sunday, 2 December 2007
Saturday, 1 December 2007
AUSTERLITZ - quote on time...
TIME, SAID AUSTERLITZ IN THE OBSERVATION ROOM IN GREENWICH, WAS BY FAR THE MOST ARTIFICIAL OF ALL OUR INVENTIONS, AND IN BEING BOUND TO THE PLANET TURNING ON ITS OWN AXIS WAS NO LESS ARBITRARY THAN WOULD BE, SAY, A CALCULATION BASED ON THE GROWTH OF TREES OR THE DURATION REQUIRED FOR A PIECE OF LIMESTONE TO DISINTEGRATE, QUITE APART FROM THE FACT THAT THE SOLAR DAY WHICH WE TAKE AS OUR GUIDELINE DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY PRECISE MEASUREMENT, SO THAT IN ORDER TO RECON TIME WE HAVE TO DEVISE AN IMAGINARY, AVERAGE SUN WHICH HAS AN INVARIABLE SPEED OF MOVEMENT AND DOES NOT INCLINE TOWARDS THE EQUATOR IN ITS ORBIT. IF NEWTON THOUGHT, SAID AUSTERLITZ, POINTING THROUGH THE WINDOW AND DOWN THE CURVE OF THE WATER AROUND THE ISLE OF DOGS GLISTENING IN THE LAST OF DAY- LIGHT, IF NEWTON REALLY THOUGHT THAT TIME WAS A RIVER LIKE THAMES, THAN WHERE IS ITS SOURCE AND INTO WHAT SEA IT FINALLY FLOW? EVERY RIVER, AS WE KNOW, SO WHERE, SEEN IN THOSE TERMS, WHERE ARE THE BANKS OF TIME? WHAT WOULD BE THIS RIVER’S QUALITIES, QUALITIES PERHAPS CORESPONDING TO THOSE OF WATER, WHICH IS FLIUD, RATHER HEAVY, AND TRANSCULENT? IN WHAT WAY DO OBJECTS IMMERSED IN TIME DIFFER FROM THOSE LEFTUNTOUCHED BY IT? WHY DO WE SHOW THE HOURS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN THE SAME CYCLE? WHY DOES TIME STAND ETERNALLY STILL AND MOTIONLESS IN ONE PLACE, AND RUSH HEADLONG BY IN ANOTHER? COULD WE NOT CLAIM, SAID AUSTERLITZ, THAT TIME ITSELF, HAS BEEN NON-CONCURRENT OVER THE CENTURIES AND THE MILLENNIA? IT IS NOT SO LONG AGO, AFTER ALL, THAT IT BEGAN SPREADING OUT OVER EVERTHING. AND IS NOT HUMAN LIFE IN MANY PARTS OF THE EARTH GOVERNED TO THIS DAY LESS BY THE TIME EHAN BT THE WEATHER, AND THUS BY AN UNQUANTIFIABLE DIMENSION WHICH DISREGARDS LINEAR REGULARITY, DOES NOT PROGRESS CONSTANTLY FORWARD BUT MOVES IN EDDIES, IS MARKED BY EPISODES OF CONGESTION AND IRRUPTION, RECURS IN EVER-CHANGING FORM, AND EVOLVES IN NO ONE KNOWS WHAT DIRECTION?
W.G. SEBALD, AUSTERLITZ, TRANS. A. BELL (LONDON: PENGUIN, 2001), PP. 141F.
W.G. SEBALD, AUSTERLITZ, TRANS. A. BELL (LONDON: PENGUIN, 2001), PP. 141F.
Onomatopoeia- work in progress, notes and ideas...
Onomatopoeia- work in progress.
The initial idea of presenting multiple projection of the “sounds” has evolved slightly…I looked at the material I managed to record and it wasn’t satisfying. Presentation of memorized sounds doesn’t emphasize the issues I would like to raise. I will try to extend the time of the performance itself.
I wanted to combine the video with the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. The issues I want to raise overlap with the book perfectly… The question is how to link all the subjects and elements in ability to present a gently flowing experience.
The calendars, which are included to all mobile phones and computer systems, can “go back” one hundred years in fifteen minutes. I want to combine my sound memorizing performance with the video of the mobile phone scrolling “back in time”. Starting from the date of the exhibition evening, and finishing exactly one hundred years before… Now, the book has to be linked as well. I was considering the huge print of Buendias family tree hanging next to the screen, however still have to experiment with all the elements coexisting next to each other…I’m not sure if including so obvious elements like family tree, doesn’t push the boundaries too much. It’s like stretching the subject to its extreme instead of experiencing it as a gentle flow…
The initial idea of presenting multiple projection of the “sounds” has evolved slightly…I looked at the material I managed to record and it wasn’t satisfying. Presentation of memorized sounds doesn’t emphasize the issues I would like to raise. I will try to extend the time of the performance itself.
I wanted to combine the video with the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. The issues I want to raise overlap with the book perfectly… The question is how to link all the subjects and elements in ability to present a gently flowing experience.
The calendars, which are included to all mobile phones and computer systems, can “go back” one hundred years in fifteen minutes. I want to combine my sound memorizing performance with the video of the mobile phone scrolling “back in time”. Starting from the date of the exhibition evening, and finishing exactly one hundred years before… Now, the book has to be linked as well. I was considering the huge print of Buendias family tree hanging next to the screen, however still have to experiment with all the elements coexisting next to each other…I’m not sure if including so obvious elements like family tree, doesn’t push the boundaries too much. It’s like stretching the subject to its extreme instead of experiencing it as a gentle flow…
One Hundred Years of Solitude- some quotes about/from the book
Mark Frisch, Duquesne University;
"Two types of time govern One Hundred Years of Solitude: the historical time with its births and deaths, beginnings and endings, and its stress on memory; and the mythical time of creation with its emphasis on the frozen moment in which past, present, and future coalesce. Ultimately, the latter predominates (Vargas Llosa 547). The opening line of the work sets the pattern for time throughout: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice" (1). Present time lies between the moment when he will face the firing squad and the moment when he first discovered ice. The future, the present, and the past are contained within the same instant. The narration here and in other parts of the novel then moves back to the past and flows toward that future moment. These concentric circles emphasize reality as myth, legend, fiction, and history."
some quotes from the book;
…the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle."
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, General Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
They felt that they had been the victims of some new and showy gypsy business and they decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings.
At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.
"Two types of time govern One Hundred Years of Solitude: the historical time with its births and deaths, beginnings and endings, and its stress on memory; and the mythical time of creation with its emphasis on the frozen moment in which past, present, and future coalesce. Ultimately, the latter predominates (Vargas Llosa 547). The opening line of the work sets the pattern for time throughout: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice" (1). Present time lies between the moment when he will face the firing squad and the moment when he first discovered ice. The future, the present, and the past are contained within the same instant. The narration here and in other parts of the novel then moves back to the past and flows toward that future moment. These concentric circles emphasize reality as myth, legend, fiction, and history."
some quotes from the book;
…the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle."
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, General Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
They felt that they had been the victims of some new and showy gypsy business and they decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings.
At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.
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