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The Museum of Vestigial Desire

Corrosion and friction

tags: prosthetics published on:

Yesterday, we had a plan. But this plan had variables which were not really sure if they were a part of it. These variables and generally our own inability to map the usage of time tightly meant that nothing happened. Yesterday, nothing happened.

Did nothing happen, really? Can nothing ever happen?

The imposition of the expected set of events onto what really happens is the reason for all perceptions of success or failure. If there is a match, there is a celebration. If there is no match, there is general mourning. Where does each of these states come from? Does celebration mean the underlying sentiment becomes above reproach forever? Is critique the subject to the efficiencies of execution? We feel it is possible to go beyond the template of experience and openly dissect experience regardless of its quality.

When things succeed, there is a joy that is felt and smelt in the air that it tides over the coarseness of critique. We get distracted by this frothy drama and forget to think about the series of accidents that led to the celebratory zeal. Success is an emotion felt after an execution of a plan flawlessly. Glitches in execution, lead of questions about the earnestness of the organiser. We disagree with this.

Success and the possibility of analysing experience are two separate things. Clinging on the frothy drama does not aid growth at all. The opposite of success, whatever it might be, is a more genuine reflection of the state of the field. The state which is complex and is not invested with obsessive attention to detail to project a smoother and error-free terrain is fiction. At least when things fall apart, in the shambles we can see reflections of the nature of the field where everything was coming from.

Truth is experience while it is being generated and after it is past only gets reduced when you attempt to analyse it in too simple a fashion. We need to learn how to make peace with the frayed edges of the way things are, sooner or later, one way or another, these are going to show though. No amount of polish and hiding things away under the carpet is going to help then.

When time is still current, we find it insulting if you refer to it in the past tense. Within each moment of current time available, the opportunity is relentless. Once this opportunity is past, you can keep groping around in the dark to find a reason to explain the failure. In the thick of the moment, a capacity to extend oneself over and above any fraternising logic is necessary. We do not know the significance of most things that we do in life until after we have done them. Action requires the magnified attention to detail and making meaning requires the benefit of perspective.

The dependence of performance on logic defeats the role of performance. Given a stage given a moment, do you want to wait for the script or make your own?

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