I: an English letter which stands for myself,

I: solid, a solitaire, a one letter word.

EGO: a Latin triple, two vowels appearing like elephants ears and the G: somehow open and not open.

ICH: again a triple, a German: a solid statue seems to offer itself as a construction supporting the C: the openness towards what is coming next. The H serves as a rocket, catapulting the C into other dimensions.

I: solid like a skyscraper, tender and rank like Pounds New York,

I: one tower of the World Trade Center, no longer proud and solid, but vulnerable and suffering from recycling its dignity.

I: fragile not since September 11, but since Turings paper of 1936/37, challenging Descartes`Ego, by programming:

I = blank or – , i.e. possibly nothing.

Nils Röller: On Art, Sex and Mathematics II- Interest

Tao means at first “path“.

Reading about Tao, we learn that it is all about opposites and the energy that can create a balance between two poles, for example the energy that rises up from the earth and the energy that descends from the sky. From the study of opposites it is possible to infer something about the relationship between the sexes. Tao tells us that this relationship is dynamic rather than static: a taking in and letting out of the steam that arises when water is heated, by Qi. Tao also tells of the unity and diversity that emerge from one, two and three. A linear model derives from Tao the one, then from one the two, from two the three, and from the three all things.

Another model is binary. It derives from Tao a Yin and a Yang. One Yin gives rise to connections between Yin and Yang. And one Yang gives rise to connections between Yang and Yin. Of Yin and Yang it is said that one gives off energy and the other takes it in. The intake and expenditure of energy has to do with Tao. Yin and Yang are not simply male and female, but they can indeed change the discourse about what is male and female. The Qi that flows between them is invisible; it is not restricted to organs, blood vessels or body parts, but it does change attitudes toward bodies, biological gender and gender identity. Through Qi we can conceive of male and female as poles.

Polarity is one of Oken’s central concepts. He writes:

“Polarity can be seen as a single setting of +-: and when this setting is repeated, movement results, from setting many +- +- one after the other. The main poles thus repel one another, like what happens on a iron pole when it is magnetized.” (§ 80)

Similar here does not mean the same. Oken regards nature as the realization of ideas. The sum of all ideas is zero, nothingness, which is also what constitutes God: “In the ether everything is preformed, just as everything mathematical is preformed in zero, and everything that acts is preformed in God: but this is also why nothing individual is preformed therein; instead, it comes about only when the poles are fixed in substance. This is the true meaning of the original creation of the organic.” (§ 954)

(Translation by Jennifer Taylor)

To be continued

Literature

Chen (Joseph) Cheng-Yih: “Cultural Diversities: Complementarity in Opposites”. In: Zielinski, S. und Fürlus, E. (eds.): Variantology 3. Cologne: Walther König, 2008

Butler, Judith: Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter – Gender Studies [Routledge 1990]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1991

Jullien, François: Über das Fade – eine Eloge – Zu Denken und Ästhetik in China [Arles 1991]. Berlin: Merve, 1999

Needham, Joseph: Science and Civilisation in China Vol. IV (Physics and Physical Technology), Part 1 (Cambridge, 1962)

Oken, Lorenz: Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie. Zürich: Schulthess, 1843

Röller, Nils: “Thinking with Instruments: The Example of Kant`s Compass”. In: Zielinski, S. und Fürlus, E. (eds.): Variantology 3. Cologne: Walther König, 2008

(more…)

(more…)

The middle, the state of Zeroness has to do with extremes.
Mediality is a response to extremes. It can be found via connection, a connection between extremes. Connection is a construction.
A construction fueld by compassion.
I wonder wether the compass has something in common with compassion,
with compassion that Journalists should have with others,
with terrorists for example, as Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh argues in Indian Newspapers “Times of India”.

Is something between positive and negative,

between plus and minus,

between extremly rich and extremly poor,

between children working at night in order to prepare holy statues for selling and newspapers advertising healthy yogi moments in lifestyle hotels,

between soldiers who fight for their regular income and a political structure that buys combat helicopters,

between a nation that is engaged in a prestigious run to moon

and a nation that admires a monk who talks about non-me elements,

a culture which challenges foreigners to find their way in the middle between all this,

a middle, a form of zeroness.

One newsline says that India will become a nuclear power.

Another newsline says that terrorists are victims.

Both news are spread around Gandhis birthday in Indian newspapers.

Both news formulate possibilities of Indias future role within the global community:

One extremly peaceful: A power which connects and which is compassionate.

One extremly fearful: A power which will dominate less powerful nations.

Both possibilities are ways of dealing with zeros.

India is embarking for a mission to the moon. 2014 the nation will be in the orbit and reach the moon with an own spacecraft.
In the meantime others are buiding flexible timeships in order to reach the orbits of Indian history. This is a history of dealing with zero and nothingness, a history of discontinuities which fuel the mind with a manifold of different rhythms.

In one short sentence Lorenz Oken, a 19th-century scientist, brings together two extremes, writing in his 1809 “Textbook of Natural Philosophy”:

“The eternal is the nothingness of nature.” (§ 44)

(more…)

Das lateinische Wort “interesse” bedeutet “Sein im Dazwischen”. Dieses Sein ist nicht entschieden. Es orientiert sich nicht an Zwecken, die es erreichen will. Es sieht die natürlichen Dinge nicht als Mittel zum Zweck der menschlichen Ernährung an, sondern als reine Mittel, als Mittel, die um ihrer selbst willen betrachtet und geschätzt werden. Das ist ein Impuls des “Lehrbuchs der Naturphilosophie”. Es ist auch ein Impuls der taoistischen Philosophie. So heisst es in der Abhandlung über die menschlichen Fähigkeiten von Liu Shao aus dem 3. Jahrhundert nach Chr.:

“Im Allgemeinen sind im menschlichen Charakter Ausgeglichenheit [als das Vermögen, sich ‘in der Mitte’ zu halten, zhong] und Harmonie am höchsten zu schätzen.“
So in der Mitte zu sein, so im Dazwischen zu sein, das fördert die Möglichkeit, “etwas sich ereignen zu lassen”. Dass sich etwas zwischen Mathematik, Kunst und Sex ereignet, das möchte das Journal darstellen. Das ist sein “Interesse”.

Literatur

Chen (Joseph) Cheng-Yih: “Cultural Diversities: Complementarity in Opposites“. In: Zielinski, S. und Fürlus, E. (eds.): Variantology 3. Cologne: Walther König, 2008

Butler, Judith: Das Unbehagen der Geschlechter – Gender Studies [Routledge 1990]. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1991

Jullien, François: Über das Fade – eine Eloge – Zu Denken und Ästhetik in China [Arles 1991]. Berlin: Merve, 1999

Needham, Joseph: Science and Civilisation in China Vol. IV (Physics and Physical Technology), Part 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1962

Oken, Lorenz: Lehrbuch der Naturphilosophie. Zürich: Schulthess, 1843

Röller, Nils: “Thinking with Instruments: The Example of Kant`s Compass“. In: Zielinski, S. und Fürlus, E. (eds.): Variantology 3. Cologne: Walther König, 2008