Constellation: Grammatized Self
The self as it appears through the filter of the socio-symbolic material (SSM)—as irreversibly overcoded with symbols and never appearing “pure” or unmediated, especially in the mirror.
Skin Game
Source: I Remember by Baden Abroad Skin Game (Extract) The skin, white and flickering, faintly moist in the bright light, taut around a skull in which two large sockets hold two dark orbs, irises deep and black. The skin fascinates, hums a reverberating message, plays an offbeat tune. I listen with my eyes. I won’t…
The Broken Mirror
Source: Roads The Mirror’s Longing by Niclas Tamas I Am X (Excerpt) 14. M [Mirror] It’s not love. It’s just another version of me for you to play with. And what the image giveth, so shalt the image taketh away. First, your spirit. Then your mind. Then your body. [Sung] “You do it to yourself,…
Lifosuction
Source: The Disintegration Loops by William Basinski The Trial (Excerpt) As he was going back into the next room, the door opposite opened and Frau Grubach was preparing to come in. She was only visible for a second, for as soon as she saw K. she was clearly seized with embarrassment, apologized, vanished and shut…
The Text of Self
Source: Music for Solo Performer by Alvin Lucier. What Can Go Wrong in the Mirror (Excerpt) What the orders of grammatization from primeval to communicative to situational call for is a unity of the text of self—that is, a final order of narrativization that represents a coherent story of self that acts as “justification” for…
The Body Without a Face 1
Source: O Superman by Laurie Anderson Faciliality and Pathology (Excerpt) To understand the significance of [the faciality machine], we must properly understand the register of face as “character”. The face is a double facing entity that represents a socially legible symbolism that with other faces forms the web of connections that is at the basis…
