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Energie_Passages Glossary
The title of the project »Energie_Passagen« is based upon the understanding
of language and information as intellectual energy. It is further derived from
Vilém Flusser’s use of the term »passage« as journey
and it also refers to Walter Benjamin’s »Passagen-Werk«. The
principle of using an artistic installation as a measurement device refers to
Albrecht Dürer’s book on measurements.
1) Energy: The term energy is derived from the Greek word energéia and
means effective force or activity. The understanding of language as intellectual
energy is the basic theme of »Energie_Passagen«. Language as principal
public element is examined as linguistic space in context of the public space.
The objective consists in identifying locally effective (linguistic) forces,
in »measuring« these and in making visible the »genius loci«,
i.e. the spirit of a place.
2) Linguistic Space: The linguistic space which is part of the public space
is formed by different and heterogeneous linguistic statements
of all intellectual
forces locally present. The language of politics, of the media as well as the
inhabitants’ city talks have an impact on this place. The metaphor of
the linguistic space as the city’s invisible dynamic architecture is the
starting point for the attempt to measure energy flows of the urban space.
3) Network of Terms: Visualization of contextual relations among different
terms of the information flow. Electronic dictionaries are the basis for the
automated determination of the context existing among these words.
4) Passage: Vilém Flusser defines »passage« as a journey
in which individual elements form fragments of a larger context which one »passes
through« in order to condense individual impressions as parts of a whole
to a tangible picture. Flusser’s use of the term passage has to be understood
against the background of nomadism, i.e. the contemporary mobile lifestyle of
the »telematic society«. This corresponds to a thinking in relations
in contrast to a »sedentary« thinking in fixed categories.
Walter Benjamin’s method of text »montage« in his »Passagen-Werk«
is inspiration to this project. Just as the cultural theorist tries to »do
without all apparent interpretation and to allow meanings to emerge purely based
upon the shocking assembly of material« [»auf alle offenbare Auslegung
zu verzichten und die Bedeutungen einzig durch schockhafte Montage des
Materials
hervortreten zu lassen«, Adorno], in a similar but more
contemporary form,
newspaper texts are fragmented and presented to the actors as new »montage«.
The users are confronted to always new constellations of terms and thus derive
new contexts.
FLUSSER, Vilém: Medienkultur. Frankfurt a. M.: Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag,
1997.
http://www.zeit.de/2004/12/Passagen-Alpen. (24.10.2004) Passage as »the
expression of a movement in which the human being tries to recreate (compute)
himself in a world ground to dust and electronic pixel)«.
Vgl. BENJAMIN, Walter: Das Passagen-Werk. Gesammelte Schriften. Vol. V. Frankfurt
a. M.: Suhrkamp, 1982.
5) Measurement: »Energie_Passagen« acts as a measurement device
and historically relates to Albrecht Dürer’s »The Art of Measurement«
(1525). Dürer understands »the art of measurement« as »the
right reason for all painting« [»den rechten grundt aller malerey«].
According to the idea that the city represents a linguistic space, verbal statements
and texts in the urban space represent energy flows. They are »measured«
by interactive and technology-based processes. Thus, visual and onomatopoeic
statements emerge in »Energie_Passagen« based upon these measurements.
Cf. DÜRER, Albrecht: Unterweisung der Messung. Nürnberg 1525. 3. Edition,
Nördlingen; Uhl, 2000.
6) Information Flow: This term originates from communication theory and means
the continuous exchange of necessary information between sender and recipient.
In »Energie_Passagen«, texts (from a newspaper) are analyzed, reduced
to their catchwords and presented as information flow in a floor projection.
This visualization of data flows offers a non-linear and dynamically generated
access to language and information.
Moreover the installation refers to the necessary free flow of information which
will be required for the future of the global information society. This relates
to the currently planned changes of copyrights and, more generally, of civil
rights in a digital society.
http://www.attac.de/wissensallmende/ (24.10.2004)
7) Living Newspaper: The interactive de-construction of the newspaper by fragmenting
and transforming its original contents facilitates a new way of reading and
understanding.
The term »Living Newspaper« historically refers to socially critical
theatre plays of the USSR around the year 1917, to Brecht’s and Piscator’s
»epic theatre« of the 1920’s as well as to American theatre
plays during the »New Deal Arts Program« in the 1930’s.
http://xroads.virginia.edu/~MA04/mccain/audiohist/intro5.htm (24.10.2004)