Affective ZenoPhobia

i've been moseying around on some affect articles... haven't been able to get that one wendy recommended by ien ang, 'in the realm of uncertainty', but

brian massumi has his own website, as does steve shaviro

massumi's introduction to parables of the virtual, 'concrete is as concerete does', is interesting. it's a bit general, being an introduction, but i got some really golden stuff out of it, especially in terms of affect and navigation.

he uses one zeno's paradoxes to talk about movement. the paradox works in that if someone shoots an arrow, it has to pass through a certain number of points to get to its target. however, because there are an infinite number of points in space, and infinity has no end, the arrow in theory should never arrive at its final destination.

obviously it does, and hence the paradox. one of the answers to the paradox (which is bergson's) is that there is a differentiated between space and movement. movement cannot between broken into discrete, "extensive' locations. as beautiful as muybridge's animations are, they are beautiful because they are inherently asymptotic, and will, of course, never be able to fully map/capture the qualitative/intensive experience of human movement.

where massumi takes this to the next level is that once the the arrow actually stops, we can map it.

and therefore:

"A thing is when it isn’t doing. A thing is concretely where and what it is – for example a
successfully shot arrow sticking in a target – when it is in a state of arrest. Concrete is as
concrete doesn’t."

so a thing becomes concrete when it stops becoming, yeah? this fits well into the problem of trash, especially with the gyre and the beaches. we can't map the gyre because the objects are in a constant motion, whereas once trash stops moving, that is when we can manipulate it, or have a more affective relationship with it??

the question of navigation comes up pretty heavy here--and another physics paradox too, when does 'stopping' begin and end, when does 'starting' begin and end? when are we sure that we are navigating, and when are we sure that we have stopped? in terms of navigating the internet, how do the pre-meditated structures from websites to advertisers dealing with the problem of forcing an internet surfer (shouldn't we say drifter??) to follow a certain path?

massumi jabs at the practice of semiotics and representation, that signs are not just based on deconstructed linguistic/cultural/cognitive meanings, but on their location, when they stop. a trash bag has a totally different signified meaning based on its location. i guess that's obvious, but something to keep in mind


Also, cool article, cool blog. reminded me of the eye-surveillance stuff.