“the eye thinks even more than it listens” (Deleuze) I now recall that, before I started reading Deleuse, I had been wrestling with a process aesthetics. I had cobbled together a 100-page manuscript, with notes, quotes, structural sketches. I wanted to move away from the idea that art consists of objects perceived in a particular form, because this leads to two essential threads of consideration: 1.) What constitutes an object we designate as art, and 2.) why is the perception...
I didn't take much with me to India, just a backpack full, mostly clothes, books, and electronics. However, I did pack good headphones and recently bought an external Hi-Fi sound card from Tempotec for my USB-C port. It wasn't cheap, but it's excellent. I was really happy when it arrived today, and of course, I tried it out immediately. What a mixed experience. The music immediately brought back memories; I remembered listening to it in...
For three weeks now, I've been reading in India: Deleuze, the Upanishads, Sri Aurobindo. In between, I meditate sometimes. The rest is still a remnant of everyday life from the New World. Reading news, consuming entertainment media, organizing things that don't actually matter here but require continuity so they don't break apart in the Old World, and the New World. So, reading... It seems to me that I've been preparing myself for decades to read here. My thinking oscillates between Deleuze and the Upanishads. This wisdom in...
Highways have always been special places for me. Most of the time, I wasn't under time pressure; I rarely had to get from A to B by a certain time. Rather, highways are travel routes. I find myself in transitional states there, a kind of no-man's-land with endless possibilities. That opens up room for thought. Often, these rooms are simply empty. The brain is busy navigating safely in traffic. It's a pleasant form of occupation; consciousness is occupied and alert, a mistake would be fatal. When I...
Life is so complex, and there are so many different ways to live. There is no right or wrong way to live. Life is a gift. But what do you say about the negative energies, destruction and aggression, greed and envy? All of that is part of it. There is only acceptance. But acceptance doesn't mean approving of everything, nor does it mean tolerating everything. If a community decides to establish rules and penalize the violation of those rules, then…
I love complexity, but sometimes also radical simplification – to get some clarity. For example, the history of ideas in visual art. In Europe, after the great migration period, art history can be sketched woodcut-style as a history of ideas: In medieval art, stories were told visually – mainly the stories from the Bible. Most people couldn't read, let alone Latin or Greek. The wood panel painting of the altars is therefore a kind of comic strip, and just as free in its spatial...
When I first came ’home‘ from India, I looked at my library and saw that almost nothing in it interested me anymore. What had happened? What is in this library, and what is not? My library is that of a philosopher and art historian who taught in Europe and the USA. It contains many books that deal with discourses of modernity and postmodernity – theoretical, historical, analytical, comparative... Often, the topic of representation is addressed. What is...
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