Mapping of Sensorical Spatial
51 web pages, 14 sections, 5 movements (“becomings”), 2 assemblages (minor), 1 assemblage (major)
Let Us Begin
Time Division Multiplexity by Lucky Dragons
Sensorical Spatial is about observing spaces, interrogating spaces, interrogating ourselves within these spaces and likewise, these spaces within us. It is to blur the line between the “in-here” with the “out-there”, to ease forth an interconnectedness of energy, a dialogue between body and space through movements, stillness, and the in-betweens. It is to say that we cannot help but exist within space, to have space(s) exist within us, shaping our affective potentialities as well as literal movements or becomings. It is to say that we cannot help but move and in so doing, interact every moment with our surroundings, our spaces of within and beyond. It is to ask: what work does it do to become conscious, to subjectively observe, to place oneself with all of one’s complexities within a space, moving through a space, and in so doing, being moved upon? What questions does this pose to an existent vision of the world, of one’s self within that world, of the daily, momentary dialogues between body and space which so often we ignore? For we cannot help but move and how interesting it all might be to see a space for what it may offer, listen to what a space may say, smell the rolling landscapes of spaces from the sublime to the downright putrid. To subjectively enter the dialogue with spaces through the resounding echoes of wingtips or stilettos on marbled floors, padded knocks on wooden doors, silences of long-beholden hallways, residual smells of waffles in warm kitchens, screams of maddened insomnia from homeless shelter quarters, swirling dialogue from conversations compounded, or the silent laughter of absent children from abandoned swing sets. What stories exude from spaces never asked? What stories are yet to come?
This project aims to blur the lines between the animate and the inanimate.
Note: when first distributed, this project was accompanied by a series of viles, each containing sponges soaked with various smells which were to be found within particular spaces (i.e. rubbing alcohol, latex gloves, clove and cinnamon, sterility, and others). Additionally, tactile objects were attached which allowed those experiencing the project to feel certain things one would encounter in such spaces (i.e. rubber tile, rough plastered walls, and others). Due to the current limitations of the internet, these have of course been left out.
Assemblages
As found in Deleuze, Gilles, and Felix Guattari. A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia . trans. Brian Massumi. Minneapolis : University of Minnesota Press, 1987:
“In a book, as in all things, there are lines of articulation or segmentarity, strata and territories; but also lines of flight, movements of deterritorialization and destratification. Comparative rates of flow on these lines produce phenomena of relative slowness and viscosity, or, on the contrary, of acceleration and rupture. All this, lines and measurable speeds constitutes an assemblage. A book is an assemblage of this kind, and as such is unattributable. It is a multiplicity—but we don’t know yet what the multiple entails when it is no longer attributed, that is, after it has been elevated to the status of the substantive. On side of a machinic assemblage faces the strata, which doubtless make it a kind of organism, or signifying totality, or determination attributable to a subject; it also has a side facing a body without organs, which is continually dismantling the organism, causing asignifying particles or pure intensities or circulate, and attributing to itself subjects what it leaves with nothing more than a name as the trace of an intensity… Literature is an assemblage. It has nothing to do with ideology. There is no ideology and never has been.” (3-4)
Assemblage as defined by Merriam-Webster dictionary:
Major/Minor
Major Sample
Minor Sample
From Listening to Music: Lecture 5 Transcript (09.18.2008) on Open Yale Courses:
Professor Craig Wright: Go through the [music] literature, see what–but mostly, for the most part, it shows minor–major. Occasionally, minor is chosen. Here’s a good example of a minor from the second movement of Beethoven’s Third Symphony. [plays piano] . But from Mozart, major–difference between major and minor. [plays piano] Lovely major. [plays piano] So, we’re used to making associations with major and minor. Major: happy, bright, optimistic, a day like today. Minor: somber. [plays piano]
Why is that the case? Is there anything in the physics of this music? No, not really. There’s nothing in the laws of acoustics here that cause that to be the case. If you look back over it, there was no major or minor in western music up until about sixteenth century, and then people started writing these things called madrigals, that were tied to texts. And they got in this habit of, every time they had a bright, happy text, they’d set this in one kind of mode or key–a major mode–and every time they had a sad one, they’d set it in minor. We got used to hearing it that way, so it’s kind of–every time, you know, Schumann wants to write about the merry farmer– [plays piano] [major]
But every time Chopin wants to write a funeral march–[plays piano] [minor]. And there’s a tendency also–minor: low, major: high kind of thing. So, we get used to this.
Movements (“Becomings”): “Home”, Walking, Subway, Taxi, Airplane, “Home”
Photo: Raoul Hausmann Austrian, 1886–1971 Mechanischer Kopf (Der Geist unserer Zeit) (Mechanical Head [The Spirit of Our Age]
From Rhizome.net website:
“‘Becoming’ is a process of change, flight, or movement within an assemblage. Rather than conceive of the pieces of an assemblage as an organic whole, within which the specific elements are held in place by the organization of a unity, the process of ‘becoming’ serves to account for relationships between the ‘discrete’ elements of the assemblage. In ‘becoming’ one piece of the assemblage is drawn into the territory of another piece, changing its value as an element and bringing about a new unity. An example of this principle might be best illustrated in the way in which atoms are drawn into an assemblage with nearby atoms through affinities rather than an organizational purpose. The process is one of deterritorialization in which the properties of the constituent element disappear and are replaced by the new properties of the assemblage—’becomings-molecular of all kinds, becomings-particles.’” (D&G 272).
Discussion of musical “Movement” in Wikipedia:
“A movement is a self-contained part, or section, of a musical composition or form. While individual movements from a composition are sometimes performed separately, the performance of a complete work requires all the movements to be performed in succession.
Often a composer attempts to interrelate the movements thematically, or sometimes in more subtle ways, in order that the individual movements exert a cumulative effect. In some forms, composers sometimes link the movements, or ask for them to be played without a pause between them.”
Below you will find suggestions on how to navigate and read this project.
Suggestions on How To Navigate/Read This Project
Here are a few suggestions on how to navigate and read this project. Feel free to work against them and find your own way.
- The author has literally moved through these spaces in the order that they are listed in the menu of pages. Proceeding from “Depart: ‘Home’” to “Movements 1: Walking” to “Cubicle” to “Movements 2: Subway” to “Bellevue Hospital” to “Movements 3: Taxi” to “Movements 4: Airplane” to “Development Organizations” to “Movements 5: Heart” to “Return: Home” will lead you through the contexts in and through which the author moved and made observations.
- You will notice in various sections and movements there are suggested smells. Given the limitations of the web (as of today at least), no smells can be transmitted over the web. What the author can offer are “ingredients” of what he was smelling in particular parts of his movements. For the adventurous, collect the ingredients for the smells, mix them together and smell them at the suggested times within the sections and movements.
- You will also notice audio tracks in various sections or movements. These can be listened to as a “written piece,” as a section of audible words generally lacking words. The audio sections are meant to pull you as the reader into the space through the sounds (or lack thereof) experienced in such spaces or movements. Others have listened to these pieces while continuing to read and found it interesting. Try different combinations and see what works best for you.
- In the latter section, development organizations, there are videos accompanied by music, other audio overlay, or no overlay whatsoever. These should offer additional visual stimulation to you, giving you a sense of the chaotic, repetitive and at times, jarring movements inherent to the space of development organizations in the “field.”
- Lastly, you will find an “Archive” section wherein any scanned notes, remaining audio clips, photos, or interview transcriptions live.
