Towards a Methodology of Artistic Research April 3rd
Singularities The word singular has become much used if not always in right sense It depicts features that cannot be explained with the help of general and particular (that are interdependent) Thus the concept of singular challenges our notion of reality since reality is thought to be somewhat generally shared though particularly experienced whereas singular stays singular
Singularities Knowledge and singular don t mix well At least don t, if we take knowledge as something conceptual (already general) Or, if knowledge is what someone thinks it to be in a shared discourse (particular) All shared, communicable realities avoid singularities that seem to belong to another universe But do they, really?
Singularities Otherwise than knowledge is an age-old tradition: mostly we abandon the tradition since it is taken as hermetic, like wisdom of a secret sect We may think, however, how most of the knowledge we have at the moment is like secret wisdom, not really understandable, say, the atomary structure, the nature of light, nerve cell communication, impact of hormones, life of virus, bacteria, other galaxies, etc. They seem quite like wisdom if compared to knowledge of people 100 years ago
Singularities In natural sciences, quite drastic changes in knowledge took place in the beginning of 20 th c., particularly so in the contextual scale (how big, how small is real) The same took place in knowledge of human reality: psychology, psychoanalysis, cognitive science altered the scale and the focus
Singularities Instead, in cultural studies, aesthetics, practice based knowledge we still follow age-old paths, not in concepts but in the scale The scale is culture, society: general Something singular, i.e. true only to someone by his/her experience or insight, is taken as a dead-end, not leading to anything else than a subjective insistence
Singularities Practice-based skills and knowledge are like that, insisting something but with a show: a show that makes the insistence real(ity) though still with an obvious hunch of individuality, subjectivity, strangeness, closure, denial of others, etc. The question goes: is this singularity?
In the discourse on otherwise than knowing (or, knowledge), it is important to know whether we deal with singularity or not or, how singular is the reality and knowledge of it In its exact meaning, singularity excludes all others from the territory of a single experience Nothing is shared, nor communicated
In natural sciences, the moment of singularity indicates the moment when all is turned from one reality to another (like, say, from human to post-human intelligence, or from body-based to virtual reality) In the same sense, we may think that in practice-based or artistic research the moment when we turn from ready-made reality to one that is in-coming in practice may be indicated with the word singular
In this sense, singular describes an attitude or a manner where we don t take for granted any theory, piece of wisdom, or archived knowledge until it is again made from the beginning, anew, through practice, into a becoming This is what takes place every day, through practice, though we don t recognize it since we see all events in the context of tradition
But, think of it, one day we ll watch around and see how everything is done again and again, as if for the first time At that moment we ll see it differently, as well, as if with new eyes We see immediately that the old language, the language we are used to, is not the one that ll be able to describe, define, imagine, make real that what is going on
That would be a moment of singularity for one person S/he may see a wide territory there in front of him/her, without exact limitations but recognizable borderlines though, something well anticipated but never seen before as it is now, easily recognizable but without exact names
Have you ever tried to explain to someone you know well that you ve seen or understood something, quite familiar issue, with new eyes or new concepts? You remember the answer? Oh, yea, yea! as if you were a child But the moment when you are able to put it in some form, any form, even people not known to you may say Oh, yes, I know what you are after
The main point in singular(ity) is to give up the shared closure, the confinement area of narrative history, the we-already-know kind of wisdom that is always there, a dominating attitude that is not easy to avoid And: not to be afraid of not-knowing-already It is understandable to seek for firm base but that is always someone else s
Reiner Schürmann who has written more than others about singularity claims that art and religion are areas where man is closer to singularity than elsewhere since both are areas where reality already left us but both claim to know more of reality than any other human activity
In art, a singular moment (or, a moment of singularity) compels one to work: to make the real appear In religion, a prayer is a kind attempt, like a meditation, but these don t make one work, on the contrary they alienate us from work towards a miracle, an apparition that has its roots elsewhere, not in us
Thus art is working, a preparation of the receptivity, susceptibility, predisposition for the reality that is nothing alreadythere but made here From this angle we may see how singular issues may become communicated, explained, shared, done understandable: by giving the procedure of appearance as they appear in one single making
This is not told as a story, a history, a process, a project, or in any form known as development, a series of event, or a sequence But by representing a new matrix for a reality like a parallel model that gives what one has found out like in the mirror, not directly, not distorted, but however as a strange image
The force of singularity is in its strangeness, in not being familiar, in not ever becoming familiar This is as well an aesthetic feature that keeps the sensory as sensory and restrains them from turning to mind (conceptual) And is is an ethical feature because it keeps the singular singular
At the same time, this keeps doors open to communication, to a dialogue even, where all participants are equal and the discourse is democratic otherwise than knowing is not knowledge but reality-in-making, a practice, then, and we already see how to speak of it: as if (real)
Some further ideas Schürmann claimed that the problem with art and religion is their turning to commodities, things that can be identified, sold, reproduced, bestowed with a price tag Artistic research can, quite easily even, become a player in such a game if we are not alert enough throughout the procedures of planning, doing, evaluating artistic research: we may end up to create commodities
Some further ideas Bright minds of Benjamin, Adorno, Deleuze have written on the problem of commerce, commodification, reproduction and all turning to exchange value only in processes that are not transparent enough to become identified when in action Simone Weil wrote a very hectic criticism against the replacement of presenting with representing where the practice becomes hidden between layers of mimicry
Some further ideas A reason to study singularity more and its special characteristics originates here: we claim that not everything is simulacrum, all is not mimicry, all is not representation, on the contrary, presentation is possible, practice can always return to the start of understanding and the sensory