ED

KELLER
I NTERVI EWER: BENJ AMI N RI CE ( BR)
I NTERVI EWEE: ED KELLER ( EK)
PLACE: NEW YORK, NY
TRANSCRI PTI ON: EVAN ROBERTSON
I NTERVI EW
!": At the Cyclonopeoia symposium you tieo the alien
to an interaction ol multilarious booies an interaction
that allows both those booies ano the alien to interact with
multiple mooes ol time. I`m wonoering il you coulo nesh
that out lor me. You`ve ioentineo this in a very specinc way
ano I`m wonoering how we trace out ol that something
that becomes relevant to a oiscussion beyono ,the movie,
!"#$%&'%()$.
#$: There are a lew things to aooress. One is a oiscourse
about the lile ol inanimate systems or objects. Ano you
coulo go back through Deleuze, or through oeLanoa`s
reaoing ol Deleuze ano Guattari. You coulo look at
Jane Bennets`s current work, *(+&,-$ /,$$%&, in which
she talks about thing-power, which I talkeo about at the
conlerence in Croatia a couple months ago. You coulo
try to unoerstano how a oiscourse which oestabilizes
anthropocentrism ano looks to systems outsioe the
human lor both intelligence ano mooels ol intelligence is
reaching an ascenoancy right now in speculative realism
ano speculative materialism. In some ol the people that
are locuseo on object-orienteo ontology there is a locus
on the thing or the object, meaning the object as a
oistributeo system with an intelligence unto itsell which we
as humans neeo to pay attention to because our oiscourse
has always been oominateo, one way or the other, by the
anthropocentric point ol view.
!": But ooes the alien always have to have some type ol
sell-awareness.
#$: It`s interesting that you brought that up, because
Feter Watts aooresses that specincally in 0#(-1)('2$. I was
at a conlerence last weekeno in Ontario on Nietzsche ano
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ol the complex system that is our booy ano the legacy ol
complex systems ol lile on earth. I oon`t think we woulo
exist without the materiality ol the booy. Nonetheless I
think that the inellable aspects ol intelligence, ol complex
lile systems whether organic or hypothetically inorganic lile,
oepeno on matter. They oepeno on matter but speak to
something potentially beyono the prison ol the nesh`.
!": So is it the substantive matter, that which constitutes
it, which ties the booy to oeep time? I think about the booy
as something that Froust is claiming we are trappeo within
ano has a nnite timeline. How, in turn, is it tieo to oeep
time? Yes, ol course it can interact with multiple mooes
ol time, but how ooes it either embooy or engage with the
essence ol another mooe ol time?
#$: What is the alien? What ooes it mean to speak with
the alien? What ooes it mean to speak with something that
ooesn`t, ano never will, speak a language through which
we can have a meaninglul conversation? Lets assume lor
the time being that humans oo actually manage to speak
with humans. Imagine a system which is so raoically non-
human that it`s not possible to communicate with. There`s
an ioea that war is a sell-organizing ano intelligent system.
Humans when they attempt to communicate with it are
annihilateo by it. !"#$%&'"() +#, or -./0 1)2 3/0), those
are case stuoies ol what happens when human time comes
into contact with a oeep time that`s machinic, non-human,
intelligent, sell-organizing, brutal, ano oestructive. So
that`s one question arouno oeep time which is partly about
material systems ano partly about epiphenomenal sell-
organizations.
War is not a material system but it oepenos on them to
exist, so there`s this communications question there. Some
people woulo say that people oon`t communicate ,/4.
war except by living or oying, ano that`s the channel ol
communication.
The other issue lor oeep time is the lamiliar answer that
we are constituteo by substances that are lorgeo in the nres
ol oeep time. Explooing stars constitute these heavier
metals in our booies. We are byprooucts ol celestial, ancient
billion year events. The rules that constitute the universe
,weak ano strong lorces ano gravity etc., are ancient
principals ano protocols that matter itsell is subjecteo
to. Matter, because it is subject to those laws, unoergoes
translormations which in turn impart laws to the systems
which proouce us. At any moment we are both evioence
ano in communication with those moments in oeep time.
So il a particular atomic connguration is a billion-year
archive ol a cosmic event, then the cosmic event is co-
present in some way ano therelore we are constituteo by
it ano communicating with it. Look at the hunoreos ol
millions ol year time lrame. There`s really interesting
research unoerway now by Faul Davies ano Charles
Langley. It echoes what Ballaro was talking about in the
sixties in 56#,0)2 7#6&2 ano in 86'(4%& 7#6&29 Ballaro is
saying there is a oeep-time structure that`s encooeo into our
genetics, a kino ol ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny where
it seems that we have the history ol our entire evolution in
our cells. But the Haeckel vision ol ontogeny recapitulating
phylogeny is that although the embryo may at a certain
one ol the people who spoke was Scott Bakker. He is a
lantasy ano science-nction writer who gave me a copy ol
his recent thriller +):6#"%4.. Scott`s entire presentation at
the conlerence was about the personal experience he has
going through philosophy ano critical theory, but also about
theories ol mino ano where exactly the I that we are
exists. Ano basing his work extensively on psychology ano
neurophysiology, one point he makes is that the conscious
mino is a minute lraction ol the overall processing
taking place in our brains. Unoerneath the thresholo ol
consciousness is being hanoleo. This is something that
Bergson talks about in ;%44)6 %02 ;)<#6', ano also Michel
Serres as well. I oon`t reach the same conclusion that the
villains ol his novel reach, which is that humanity is caught
in a prison ol causality ano that any ioea we have about
lree will is an illusion, because I just oon`t reao the oata in
the same way that scientists oo. I`m looking at it through
my own screen, which is that it`s a miraculous thing that
we have any kino ol subjectivity what so ever, given the
ramshackle version ol haroware that we possess.
Feter Watts talks about this in =&/02(/>.4 because the whole
book is about these oillerent levels ol humanness relating to
itsell as alien. But he also makes the argument that the way
our eyesight works is prolounoly naweo, ano that out brains
are really powerlul renoering engines, essentially, that
cobble together a picture ol reality. Our memory, therelore,
has nothing to oo with the reality. A lot ol people use that
as an example to say %, we are not actually encountering
reality ano &, maybe we are bouno by a set ol iron laws ol
causality that all lree will is an illusion ano we`re increoibly
unoer-equippeo in any case to oeal with the oeeper time
preoilections that our booy has engineereo into it, ano that
our culture ano our genetics have engineereo into them.
The way that Bakker unpacks it in +):6#"%4. is that he
gets oeep insioe the minos ol some ol his characters. His
main character is a psychology prolessor who is constantly
analyzing his own reaction to the people arouno him in
terms ol how he trusts them - how they sell-ioentily. He`s
working closely with an attractive woman so he is constantly
sell-analyzing his lizaro brain responses to her. He is very
intelligent, so he is aware ol the potential that any action
he envisions is engenoereo by lree will or autonomy, ano is
in turn really just a series ol cascaoes coming oown lrom
the programmeo lizaro brain. He`s showing a oark version
ol human agency. I teno to see this through rosier glasses.
I`m imagining that the annal that`s sitting on top ol this set
ol autonomous set ol behaviors ano reactions ano oeep
time structures is actually a miraculous shimmering thing
that exists only because it is sell-aware on some level. A
quote lrom Froust that I brought up at the proto-ecologics
conlerence begins to aooress this conoition, the ioea that
only in moments ol sickness oo we realize that we are
chaineo to a creature ol a oillerent kingoom, which is our
booy.
!": When I hear that Froust quote it makes me leel like
I`m imprisoneo in my own booy.
#$: I oo leel like we are imprisoneo within it to an extent,
but at the same time I am lairly convinceo that our mino,
our agency, our sense ol sell is an emergent ellect on top
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to explore multiple phase spaces ouring evolution ano to
either evolve or maintain that ability.
!": Or to possibly nno the ntness criteria.
#$: Exactly. So those are two very oillerent visions ol what
entropy`s value might be. You can go back to people like
Shannon, ano signal to noise ratio, ano loss ol signal, but
a perlectly compresseo message has a maximum entropy
ano pure noise has the same level ol entropy. So a perlect
message ano perlect noise are the same.
point look like a taopole, a nsh, or a biro ouring embryonic
oevelopment, it ultimately becomes human.
The argument that Haeckel makes is that the embryo
in reoevelopment recapitulates the history ol evolution
through the lower oroers. What Ballaro suggests in !"#$%&'
)#"*' is that we have a recoro ol Fleistocene memories ol
previous moments in evolution that we can remember ano
are lying in wait, reaoy to be activateo. In !"#$%&' )#"*'
the planet is thrown into a cosmically inspireo meltoown.
Humans remember their time on the savannah ano they
begin to regress atavistically to these previous states ol
existence. Faul Davies ano Charles Langley are making
the argument that cancer is what they call metazoa 1.0,
an earlier lorm ol organizeo lile that is, essentially, a set
ol genetic memories ol pre-human, pre-multicellular lile
that is still lying in wait just as Ballaro hypothesizeo in
his nction. Cancer is essentially an awakening ol those
genetic sequences. They are arguing that cancer isn`t a
breakoown ol the genetic lunction but that its actually a
pre-programmeo, oormant, ano highly successlul lorm
ol lile where swarming essentially enables lile to succeeo.
Cancer is very haro to eliminate because it is so successlul
as a survival strategy.
!": Cancer is actually omnipresent. It`s always there,
so we are actually playing host to it our entire lives. It`s
lascinating in the sense that, with consciousness ano the
booy being separate things, we coulo say the booy is alien
to consciousness ano cancer is alien to both. This brings up
something you oiscusseo at the Cyclonopeoia conlerence:
the exchange ol inlormation between aliens. Language
is important in that it can show intent on the part ol the
voice. So neither our booies nor cancer necessarily have a
language, ano yet they are still communicating with each
other. Is there a possibility that there is some intent other
than mere survival?
#$: I was trying to make that point by orawing
on a notion ol Agamben that communication ol
communicability is a key ethical ngure. The way he
positions the gesture as a non-linguistic communicative
mooality, as something which is, as he puts it, properly
the oomain ol the human in terms ol ethics. He`s trying
to make an argument, through Walter Benjamin, that the
most ethically robust communication contains signal loss.
It might even be the one where you can be sure that almost
no message gets through at all, other than the message that
there is another entity on the other sioe ol the channel,
attempting to communicate.
!": Michel Serres talks about entropy being the most
important part ol the communicative channel.
#$: Ano lor Serres there are potentially multiple regimes
ol entropy. There`s also an essay calleo Iour Regimes ol
Entropy by Mateo Fasquanelli. Ior him, it`s improper to
take a simplistic oennition ol entropy ano apply it across
all systems, because each system has its own proper regime
ol entropy`s lunction. Michel Serres makes a similar point
through the ioea that in material systems entropy is about
a certain kino ol preoictability, but in living systems an
increase in entropy across multiple generations allows them
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Bio: Ed Keller is a designer,
professor, writer, and musician/
multimedia artist.
He is an Associate Dean of
Distributed Learning and
Technology at Parsons The
New School for Design, and
Associate Professor in the
Parsons School of Design
Strategies, in NYC.
He is co-founder and principal
of AUM Studio [2003-present],
an architecture and new media
firm whose work includes
residential projects in Europe,
award winning competitions,
expanded cinema and
locative media projects, and
media/technology research
and consulting. In 1997
he founded a.CHRONO, a
R&D firm that has designed/
produced digital media
projects, film scripts,
architectural competitions,
worked as a primary developer
on computer games, and
continues to develop hidef
digital video projects and
sound design. In 1994, he
founded basilisk.com, an
influential online journal
dedicated to architecture and
new media theory, which he
edited.
AUM Studios work has been
shown at Experimenta [Lisbon
2009], the MAK Center [Vienna
and Los Angeles 2006], New
Blood [Lisboa Architects
Guild 2006], TELIC Gallery [LA
2006], Crossing Disciplines
[Pratt] 2005], and Beijing
Biennale [NY Hotspot 2004].
Kellers work and the work of
a.CHRONO has been exhibited
at the PixelGallery [Toronto
2003], The Kitchen [NY
1999], iMage Architettura in
Movimento [Firenze 1997] and
ISEA [Art Institute of Chicago,
1997]. AUM Studios work
appears in journals including
AD, Metamorfosi, Ottagono,
Construir, and Architectura e
Vida.
He is currently working on
Kino-Mind [forthcoming],
a book exploring temporal
models in cinema and
architecture. Eds essays
on culture, technology, film,
and architecture have been
published in books including
Four Lines [Merz/Solitude],
Beyond Form [Lusitania],
The State of Architecture
in the 21st Century [CBA],
and Beyond Postmodernism
[Routledge]. His writing and
work has been published in
journals including PRAXIS,
AD, Film Philosophy, Leonardo
Online, ZAPP, Ottagono,
Space, Scroope, Architecture,
ArchRecord2, Parpaings,
Precis, ANY, Metropolis, and
Wired.
In academia, he has taught
advanced graduate design
studios and seminars at the
Columbia GSAPP [where he
was an adjunct professor
1998-2010]; in 2000-01 he
was the acting director of
the Advanced Architectural
Design AAD one year Masters
program at the GSAPP.
The work of his graduate
design studios 1999-2003
at Columbia GSAPP was
published in the book
Chronomorphology, Keller,
[2004] by Columbia Books on
Architecture.
Between 2007-09 he was
founder/coordinator of the
MediaSCAPES one year
Masters program at SCI-Arc,
and fulltime faculty at SCI-Arc
teaching design studio and
cultural studies.
In 2007 he was Paul L. Cejas
Eminent Scholar Endowed
Chair at FIU Miami. Between
1996 and 2007 he has been
visiting or adjunct faculty at
FIU Miami, SCI-Arc, University
of Pennsylvania [Architecture
& Landscape], Pratt Institute,
Parsons [Grad. Architecture
& MFADT], Rensselaer
Polytechnic, and Bennington
College.
Ed has been a guest critic
internationally for final reviews
at the Architectural Association
London, Universitat
Internacional de Catalunya
BCN, Harvard GSD, Yale,
UPenn, Rice, RISD, UCLA,
Parsons, RPI, and Cornell.
He has participated as a
key speaker in conferences
including Research Practice
[Cal Poly Pomona, 2009],
MediaSCAPES [SCIArc 2009],
Temporalism [Cornell 2007],
Ineffable [CCNY 2007], Action
Cut Micro Cut [Columbia
GSAPP 2007], Media Space
| Public Space [New School
2006], Becoming Architect: XXI
Century [La Sapienza, Rome,
2005], and Beyond Form
[School of Visual Arts, 2001].
In 2006-07 he organized a
series of three conferences
on new forms of coding in
architecture, held at Cornell
[NY], Columbia GSAPP [NY],
and SCIArc [LA]. He has
lectured at the AA London, IIT
Chicago, FIU Miami, Ramon
Lull BCN, SCIArc, Pratt,
Columbia GSAPP, Iowa State,
Ohio State, and Rensselaer.
In 2004 Ed co-organized [with
Benjamin Bratton] the Aspen
Satellite conference at the
Columbia University GSAPP.
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eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Credits 4 eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Credits 5
EDI TORI AL
ACT 01:
SHOOT
ACT 02:
ASSES
ACT 03:
ASK
ACT 04:
AUTOPSY
ACT 04:
XENOFORM
00 Franci os Roche I nt ervi ew
00 NI CK CAVE
00 XEFI ROTARCH
00 PERRY KULPER
00 VI BSKOV & EMENI US
POROSI TY
PATAPHYSI CS
00 Chri st i an Moel l er I nt ervi ew
00 SERVO
00 COUNTER PRODUCTI VE
00 RAFAEL LOZANO- HEMMER
00 FORMLESS FI NDER
CRI TI CALI TY
NARRATI VE & PERFORMANCE
00 Terry Ri l eyr I nt ervi ew
00 THEVERYMANY
00 KOKKUGI A
00 SHAJAY BOOSHAN
00 VOLKAN ALKANOGLU | DESI GN
END OF CONTEMPORARY CRI TI CAL CULTURE
GLOBAL WEB
00 Ed Kel l er I nt ervi ew
00 PERRY HALL
00 JG THI RWELL
00 MARJAN COLLETTI
00 ZI MOUN
NOI SE
ENTROPY / CHRONOTOPE
00 Fl ori a Si gi smondi I nt ervi ew
00 FLOWEN
00 GAVI N KEENEY
00 REZA NEGARESTANI
MATTERPOLI TI K
XENOCULTURE
Franci sco Al arcon Rui z
I NTERMEZZO
Davi d Mai sel
I NTERMEZZO
Asi a Argent o
I NTERMEZZO
St an Brakhage
I NTERMEZZO
eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Contents 7
ON X3NOARCHI 73C7UR3
We l i ve, as we dr eam, - - al one
( Joseph Conr ad i n Hear t of Dar kness)
!"#$%& ()*+"
Vi scera and mandi bl e now vi si bl e. The i nt eri or
surf ace of t he l eat her y ovoi d i s spongy and i r regul ar.
Kane shi nes t he l i ght i nsi de. Wi t h shocki ng vi ol ence,
a smal l creat ure smashes out ward. Fi xes i t sel f t o hi s
mask. At t aches i t sel f t o Kanes f ace. Kane t ears at t he
t hi ng wi t h hi s hands. Hi s mout h i s f orced open.
(Wal t er Hi l l and Davi d Gi l er, Al i en screenpl ay)
Thus the crew ol the corporate ship Nostromo
comes lace to lace, literally ano nguratively - with
the xeno. In 1979`s Alien, H.R. Giger ano Rioley
Scott create this encounter between human
ano alien as a process ol physiological ano
psychological coupling. The alien simultaneously
becomes lace, mask, respirator, parasite, lile
system ano organ. In a subsequent unlorgettable
scene, at the communal oinner table Kane
violently gives birth to a creature that has been
nesting within.
The alien booy moves lrom the insioe ol an
egg louno in the insioe ol its ship at the lringes
ol a planetary system to the insioe ol a living
booy, becoming a lace mask, a relacing conoition
resembling a prehistoric trilobite, which Alien
artist H.R. Giger calls the lacehugger. Then,
through simulateo birth, the organism comes out
ol Kane`s booy into the inner controlleo worlo
ol the Nostromo oisrupting the homeostasis ol
the machine regulateo environment ol mother.
Ultimately, the only way to kill this agent ol
the xeno is not physical termination but rather
its oeliverance into the ultimate voio that is the
oark unknowable universe, the outsioe ol the
outsioe. The alien, the xeno - ultimately becomes
the invisible, latent lace ol the outsioe as it
continues to live on as the pulse interior anima,
maoe possible by the rarineo mist ol lear it has
createo. The reality ol being alone versus the
oream ol being alone creates an intolerable
oillerence the xeno unit, the alien cell.
The most reliable source ol such lear is,
arguably, the un-announceo, silent oemise lrom
the insioe: a genetic, irreversible mutiny ol the
silent mechanisms. The possibility that the source
ol oillerence is hosteo within is THE conoition
ol terror. The external, the ravaging goos will
not strike us oeao lrom their celestial vantage
position but rather they will orive their lamiliar
rot lrom the insioe, lrom the very bowels ol our
inner sanctum, alter having accepteo them ano
their resemblants into the most intimate act ol
communion with our DNA, our now terrorist
booily nuios, our new oarkest secret weapon
against ourselves. It`s the lear ol the alien insioe
the irreversible, implacable xeno, that has oriven
a large part ol cultural practices like architecture
lor quite some time now olo Thanatos
repositioneo, by obsessively prooucing variations
ol the imaginary ol the outsioe, the lacehugger
ol the alien, the egg or its exoskeleton never the
thing itsell.
HR Gi g e r s Al i e n ( 1977) . Co n c e p t Dr a wi n g s f o r Fa c e h u g g e r I I I .
eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 8 eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 9
Il we scan a briel ano violent sample ol
xenophobia ,the lear ol the alien, we`ll be easily
convinceo that the source ol the vitriol is not
the hatreo ol others, but rather the repulsion ol
allowing ourselves to enjoy ano to give lorm what
we oespise in others` lorm-behavior.
One sioe ol cultural proouction has
pusheo this aesthetic ol lear towaros a romantic
variation: the exuberant`, the grotesque. the
olo ano new sci-n narratives ano the immersion
into the lantastic realms that computing power
has been able to sustain, grow, replicate, labricate
ano mutate lor a bit more than a oecaoe ano a
hall now. Il we make the imaginary ooubles ol
the corpses we own the lear we are less alraio.
,+"%-.)#.$+
(Archi t ect ure) remi nds us whoever i t mi ght be
t hat i n order t o recl ai m t he xeno-cul t ure of l i f e, t he
al i en ori gi ns of l i f e cannot be uneart hed si nce such
al i en dept hs have al ways been here, nest ed wi t hi n l i f e
i t sel f. I nst ead i t i s t he est abl i shed cul t ure of l i f e t hat
needs t o be reposi t ed and deepl y ent ombed so t hat i t
can be dredged and redi scovered as an al i en art i f act
once agai n.
(Reza Negarest ani , i n Xeno-Cul t ure Vi vi f i ed,
reproduced i n eVol o5: Archi t ect ure Xenocul t ure)
Architecture Xenoculture is the coupleo
problematization ol work proouceo by embracing
the prolileration ol this mist ol lear, which we
have become comlortably accustomeo to. It
also hopelessly argues lor the harnessing ol this
aesthetic ol lear towaros a yet-to-be oetermineo
eno not the obsolete reouction ol xenophobia
to hate or segregation, but rather intensilying
its practice towaros new thresholos, those that
unleash the potential ol the alien in the worlo,
its worlo - beyono the limiteo imaginary we have
become anesthetizeo to, but rather the more
insecure material ano behavioral manilestations
ol the actual xeno-gene ano its ability to aoapt,
mutate, survive ano nght.
I r i s Va n He r p e n
Da v i d c l o v e r s a n d Ca s e y Re a s r e s e a r c h wi t h Du p o n t / Co r i a n
To ma s Sa r a c e n o . Cl o u d Ci t i e s
Ma e s i l l a s u l u t u s ;
C. Se n a t u s i n t e r e o
eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 10 eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 11
()#+$"/#*0+ 1$/-#*-+2&
1/#/3452*6.+7 8+%9/#+$*/)*2927
:*2+;<";(=59+
The compenoium ol work in this issue is loosely
organizeo along three axis ol practice ,Alt 1, Alt
2, Alt 3, perlorming in nve complex acts. The
three axis shoot oll the alreaoy commooineo
vector ol the xeno-imaginary that we have come
to know as the extension ol narrative practices
that use the romantic tropes ol science nction
in the hanos ol virtuous computer-armeo
oiorama-makers. The vectores cross, mix,
thicken, combine they lorget or ignore each
other now, then they oon`t. The vectors resemble
Borges` oescription ol Tsui Fen`s labyrinth in
The Garoen ol Iorking Faths they are not
connneo in possibility ano they can skip material
ano temporal kingoom, lrom Sanloro Kwinter`s
oigital Fleistocene to Goo-pulsing.
()# >& ?.-@5%. / )/ A1/#/3452*6.+B
The surviving manilesto, the zombie manilesto:
the manilesto that reluses to oie, the manilesto
whose booy comes to lile alter the oeath ol its
soul in the lorm ol an armless booiless giant nst,
oriven by the always vital, necessary ano never
too obsolete luck you`. As Terry Riley, lormer
MOMA curator, states in his piece we have
intellectualizeo the acceptance ol oiversity into
a non-conlrontational culture ol oiscussion`.
Accepting oiverse points ol view IS the oe lacto
position hence the lack ol high-volume oialectic
within the oiscussion ol architecture. We miss the
epic oiscussions ol the past ,Taluri vs. Quetglas,
Stern vs. Irampton to name a couple, il not
lor content, lor their newlouno entertainment
value, which a lew people like Jellrey Kipnis have
generously trieo to recreate in a bloooless version
ol the Roman circus like lashion claiming their
absuroity ano perlormance ARE once again,
the content. This is silent luck you too` - which
has leao to an ugly ,literally ugly, culture ol
nihilism, ol I oon`t give a luck` in the worst cases
the continuous smooth surlace ol I`ve seen it
all belore, there`s nothing new, let`s cash in`. Thus
we run the supreme risk ol being governeo by the
practices ol sublimation as the way to resist the
mist ol lear: the conlormist avant-retaroe, whose
work comes through the skin ol these pages as
well, as this work is responsible lor the gorgeous
mask ol the alien.
Ano while there might not be much lile
lelt lor another luture oouble negative ol
the retroactive manilesto Rem Koolhaas
unlortunately stoppeo oragging ano loving that
orange corpse arouno to peoole neo-marxist
relics ano Trojan horses, there might still be
some currency lelt in the unoerhanoeo luck you`
ol Irancois Roche`s practice ol the Oulipian
pataphysique` well aware that lor some he`s
all nine stooges, or however many there were ol
them. The raw quality ol the outcome, oespite
the virtues ol out-ol-hano computing - proves
promising, especially where unstable ano
pervasive behavioral elements are in commano ol
the lormal hanoles.
()# C& 8+%9/#+$*/)*29
Matter rules. Matter knows. Matter remembers.
Matter thinks. Matter amasses more matter. Ano
matter thinks strategically like a renex-honeo nelo
commanoer. Technology has alloweo us to grow
lorm in processes that resemble the assembling
sequences ol material protocols. Genetically
speaking, how oo unoillerentiateo stem cells
know to become an iris or a nngernail? We are
replicating processes ol inhibition, ol temporal
cooincation we are training matter to oroain
its own luture ano hoping that it will reoralt our
own. Some Brauoelian historians have been
claiming lor years that has always been the case:
that leao utilizeo the worlo wars to oistribute
itsell more ellectively through the globe to
speeo up telluric processes it coulon`t oepeno
on. Or wolves, which oomesticateo themselves
into obeoient bone letching oogs ,against the
purincation ol their wiloerness survival instincts,
to survive in a worlo where the latter was a
more uselul skill than the lormer: survival ol the
coolest, not the nttest.
Others have gone as lar as saying that the
oominant ol this intelligent materialism is not
physical but exclusively temporal. Nothing that
the Christian mystics were not alreaoy saying
in the mioole ages, Goo was their computing
system. So we are continually encountering
the will ol the kernel that contains the genetic
imprint ol a material`s memory a co-opting ol
the slower worlo ol matter to negotiate its core
ability to move through time by negotiating the
time-matter oillerential itsell. This, in practice,
enables the communication between material
systems they all operate unoer the common
languagecurrency ol energy ano time. The sun
communicates with computers, which generate
the possibility ol a solar architecture ol a
planetary scale through a near human generous
leeoback loop. Humans, in this scenario are
awareness machines as opposeo to the previous
one where they are hosts or even worse, simple
imbeciles with an immature worlo oomination
letish. Switch the nst-in-hano lor the anus.
The lace ol the xeno, accoroing to the
annals ol science nction has been the lube
ol time travel, ellortlessly encooing themselves
onto moths ano moth-protocol, bacteria even
geological material. Inversely, the core ol the
xeno is simply temporal aooeo value.
Mi c h e l a n g e l o An t o n i o n i . E n d i n g t o Z a b r i s k i e Po i n t .
Ma r i l y n Mi n t e r. Gr e e n P i n k Ca v i a r
Ca s e y Re a s . S o f t S t r u c t u r e s
E d wa r d Bu r t i n s k y. Ch i n a
eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 12 eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 13
()# D& :*2+;+";/=59+
I n a work of art , I rat her l i ke t o f i nd t hus t ransposed,
at t he l evel of t he charact ers, t he subj ect of t he
work i t sel f what woul d be more accurat e woul d
be a compari son wi t h t he devi ce f rom heral dr y t hat
i nvol ves put t i ng a second represent at i on of t he
ori gi nal shi el d en abyme wi t h i t (p.7 i n The Mi r ror i n
t he Text by Luci en Dal l enbach ci t i ng Andre Gi de)
The pl at f or m on whi ch we f i nd oursel ves on t oday i s
most apt l y def i ned as a mi se-en-abyme: a condi t i on
not unl i ke st andi ng bet ween t wo opposi ng mi r rors,
mul t i pl yi ng i nt o i nf i ni t y, perpet ual l y zoomi ng recur ri ng
doubl es of doubl es. What once was a devi ce f or
t ext s, pl ays, pai nt i ngs and heral dr y shi el ds i s now
embodi ed and coded i nt o t he prof i l e of t he act ual ,
t he gover ni ng l ogi c of capi t al , seaml essl y i ngrai ned
i nt o t he f abri cat i on of experi ence.
(Mat t er Management i n Fi ve Coordi nat es t o t he
Seam: a Fi ve Act Pl ay, publ i shed i n Pul sat i on I n
Archi t ect ure by Gol demberg p. xxx)
Mise-en-Abyme is the trickiest Alt ol all. We have
createo mirrors ano ooubles lor to try to replace,
isolate, treat, exile ano expel that violating alien
lorce lrom our cultural ethos. In this mooality
ol practice the xeno also lies oormant, waiting
lor its beam to release it lrom its oouble, its
ooppelganger, ano its guaroian, living in that
protecteo outsioe.
Here, architecture has also ano always
become the impenetrable lortress that guaros the
copy ol the xeno. Its tactics are elaborate the
masking is monolithic, not only lacial. They
range lrom the proouction ol manilolo surlaces
to the enoless mirror room the very oennition
ol anti-architecture or architecture against itsell
- in enchanting myse-en-abyme, labyrinths ol the
hyperreal, encloseo by real concrete, to symbolic
monuments, pseuoo-monuments, tooling
manilestos ano scripteo scriptures ol lorm ano
lormlessness. Aooll Loos` encounter ol the tomb
in the wooos. Black silent monoliths that say it
all but tell nothing through their oark meoiateo
magic. They are the heart ano core ol this book
even il they are not here, even il you are burieo
in thein their monumentality. But they are not the
makers ol monuments or anti-monuments. You`ll
know it when you oon`t see it.
In light ano oark ol all ol this - architecture
has still voweo to keep its mouth shut by telling
ano retelling its stories religiously, in oroer to
squash any attempt lor mass suicioe mission or
ritual sacrince, any mission to liberate the thing
that will awaken the oillerentiating kernel ol
oillerence. Its not a closely guaroeo secret just
a simple physiological, telluric inability to breach
the thresholo. The conspiracy is vast, its net cast
wioe: lrom oisciplinarians to pseuoo-scientists,
lrom the technique-obsesseo to the cultists ol
shape to the worshippers ol the virtuous ano the
exuberant. We are all here too.
They I say a proper THEY which
incluoes all the I`s ano the We`s, because THEY
are all guilty. they are in this book. Lyoia Lunch
begins Faraooxia an account ol a ruthless
lemale sexual preoator by stating: .no names
have been changeo they are all lucking guilty.
Ano they are: guilty as sin. They are all bouno in
a conspiracy to protect the replica ol the xeno
as a mere moral oiversion to hioe the location ol
the actual, oeaoly, lerocious X3NO, the one that
lies right on the surlace ol everywhere, the gentle
one that knows no binary - laughing, waiting lor
the inevitable oay that it will propagate its alien
material ano become, joylully sacrincing anything
that will get in its leeoing path to itsell in
absuroum.
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eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 14 eVolo / Issue 5 / 2012 / Editorial 15