Doreen Mende, "In Transit," in: Katja Gretzinger (ed.), Blind Spot. In a Manner of Reading Design,...

7182019 Doreen Mende In Transit in Katja Gretzinger (ed) Blind Spot In a Manner of Reading Design Sternberg Presshellip

httpslidepdfcomreaderfulldoreen-mende-in-transit-in-katja-gretzinger-ed-blind-spot-in-a-manner 115

17

d e b a t e i n t h i s fi e l d h a s f o c u s e d o n a n a l y s i n g h o w k n o w

l e d g e r e l a t e s t o c o n n e c t e d n o t i o n s s u c h

a s t r u t h b e l i e f a n d j u s t i fi c a t i o n I t a l s o d e a l s w i t h t h e m

e a n s o f p r o d u c t i o n o f k n o w l e d g e a s

w e l l a s s c e p t i c i s m a b o u t d i ff

e r e n t k n o w l e d g e c l a i m s M

a n y d e fi n i t i o n s g i v e t h e i m p r e s s i o n t h a t

e p i s t e m o l o g y i s c l o s e l y r e l a t e d t o c r i t i c a l t h i n k i n g B u t

i n p a r t b e c a u s e e p i s t e m o l o g y d e fi n e s

Te blind spot is a moment in the future we can nevercapture it but it is ever present We carry it aroundin our bodies as it walks with us We cannot get rid of itnor can we step out It draws a line between inside andoutside but the line is both a crevice and a stitch dilut-

ing the clear distinction We cannot quite say at whatmoment each comes into operation Does the blind spotdetach us from our field of action Or does it attach us

What do I need to carry out my creativesabotage of the future1

Te Otolith Group

And this always takes place in the exchangein the system of reflection where it is theother we look atmdashwe never see ourselves

we are blind we see of ourselves what comesback through (the difference of) the other

And this is not much 2 Heacutelegravene Cixous and Mireille Calle-Gruber

1 Te Otolith Group lsquoOtolith III Voiceover Scriptrsquo in A Long Time between Suns eds the Otolith Group and Will Holder (Berlin Sternberg Press 2010) See alsothe essay 991256Sabotage the Futurersquo by J Demos in thesame publication

2 Heacutelegravene Cixous and Mireille Calle-Gruber Rootprints Memory and Life Writing (London Routledge 1997) 16

ransit

In

by Doreen Mende



18

to it At present we can only say that it marks a possi-bility where a train of thought pauses for a moment inorder to allow an uncertainty of blindness taking place

Uncertainty is a hallmark of our times there is uncer-tainty in keeping a job in getting a project funded inforecasting earthquakes and volcano eruptions Butinstead of fighting against uncertainty the blind spotcould be taken as an enabler of it We are uncertain ofseeing in times where there is an excess of the seenOur lives are directed not by our secured knowledge but

by an inability to seeHow can a good thought be hidden between theimages and sounds of a space in order to resist a fastcommodification of its mind-opening potential Itsresistance mig ht be misunderstood for an intellectualmontage3 or it might be mistaken for a negation of theexposing apparatus Yet the place of action here is not

the speech act in the first row of a protest march Nor does it appear in a favoured manifestation of the lsquomak-ing ofrsquo as can be observed in many recent artistic a ndcuratorial projects A n exhibition practice operatingthrough the blind spot for example initiates the strongintuition that the political does not take place underan all-enlightening spotlight

Te beauty of the blind spot is that we cannot iso-late its appearance because it is a line of action providingthe conditions of seeing without becoming manifestin a n imag e It would be good to not exclusively address

3 Intellectual montage is a technique developed and appliedby Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s as aneducational tool in revolutionary cinema It cuts thecontinuity of editing by juxtaposing two images with thepurpose of creating a shock effect distancing the viewerfrom preconditioned modes of perception

k n o w l e d g e a s b e i n g o f t h e t r u t h u n l i k e c r i t i c a l t h i n k i n

g e p i s t e m o l o g y n e a r l y i g n o

r e s m e c h a n i s m s

t o p i c s a n d m e t h o d s e m p h a s i s e d i n c r i t i c a l t h i n k i n g s u c

h a s t h e t e s t i n g o f s p e c i fi c p r o p o s i t i o n s

l o g i c a l f a l l a c i e s b i a s a n d d e c e p t i o n f o u n d i n e v e r y d a y r e a l - l i f e c o n d i t i o n s a n d p r o b l e m s o l v i n g

H o l i s m

DOREEN MENDE



19

the optical sense through the blind spot though instead we could take its modus operandi as an allegory forthinking around exhibiting the lsquoexrsquo in the verb lsquoexhib-

itingrsquo is not only coded to inscribe meaning onto animage in a space or into a sentence of a print It alsoprefers an lsquooutsidersquo the act of exposure when the lsquoexrsquotravels through the circuit of a closed knowledge

Te absence of light-detecting faculties will exilethe blind spot at the very moment when we think wehave applied our knowledge and finally brought it to

light Te moment when it seems we have detected a word an image or a space the blind spot makes themdisappear Following the blind spot leads towards afuture away from utopian concepts that would replaceone existing imperative system by another Tis type offuture is hitched onto other temporalities like the pastand present in order to 991256carry out my creative sabotage

of the futurersquo as one Otolith III character suggests atthe end of the last part of the Otolith Trilogy 4 Tat doesnot sound like a stage declaration of a thoroughlyarranged plan but rather as a not quite predictablearrival time where thoughts are shaped without havingthe means of production and beyond the subjugationto a representative voice Tat is a powerful potential

In that relation an image a word or an exhibition mayreject attempts of signification and representationbecause the blind spot permanently changes the field ofactionmdashlike a wild animal that can only be caught atthe risk of losing its life

Our brain fools us into thinking we have controlover the exposedmdasha seemingly complete control over

4 Te Otolith Group Otolith Trilogy Otolith I (2005)Otolith II (2007) and Otolith III (2009)

e t c ) s h o u l d

b e v i e w e d a s w h o l e s n o t a s c o l l e c t i o n s o f p a r t s T

i s i n c l u d e s t h e v i e w t h a t t h e i r

f u n c t i o n i n g

c a n n o t b e f u l l y u n d e r s t o o d

s o l e l y i n t e r m s o f t h e i r c o m

p o n e n t p a r t s

991256 T e w h o l e i s

g r e a t e r t h a n

t h e s u m o f t h e p a r t s rsquo

( A r i s t o t l e ) T i s c o n c e p t w a s a l s o

u s e d b y M a x W e r t h e i m e r

i n

G e s t a l t t h e o r y ( 1 9 2 0 s ) a n d i n S y n e r g e t i c

s E x p l o r a t i o n s i n t h e G e o m e t r y o f T i n k i n g b y B u c k m i n s t e r

IN RANSI



20

an exposure in public But no camera lens will be fastenough to record the vanishing point Becoming blind(a process and not a given) is rather a way to exit an

instance of control and it follows its own set of rulesIt demands that we think about the political in a differ-ent way a way that implies silence exile and uncertaintyTe blind spot sha tters the illusion of absolute knowl-edge just like the blackout on V deranges the image

A pause in direct action Public presence is not lost herebut generated through an accident a blockage or an

inhibition that disturbs a nd opens a patterned systemEncountering the blind spot indicates a possibility togive a thought a twist a way from a position of knowingOf course we cannot fully abandon this position since

we are politically and socially constructed beings inhab-iting a set of cultural codifications that enable us tomanage our everyday life at our location of action But

the blind spot makes us enter a moment of non-knowl-edgemdashnot as a ga p to fill but as a component of a textureof being permanently on the road

Tis feeds a way of thinking that believes in exhib-iting as a mode of production arriving from the inhabi-tation of a blind spot a silence which is shared in publicand in which various sets of knowledge are only useful

throug h their exchange It activates a being on the roadthat puts us in a place of waiting for the next flight while dealing with misunderstandings because we cannotfollow the language spoken on the street when asking astranger for the way watching a fellow traveller orsearching f or a place to eat We might encounter ourblind spot while travelling in a foreign place we need

to ask questions in order to find our bearings and a placeto stay a grocery store to buy some food and a street where a friend lives While we look at the map we might

F u l l e r i n 1 9 7 5

A n o t h e r a d v o c a t e o f G e s t a l t t h e o r y K u r t K o ff k a e

x p l a i n e d

991256 i t h a s b e e n s a i d

T e

w h o l e i s m o r e t h a n t h e s u m o f i t s p a r t s I t

i s m o r e c o r r e c t t o s a y t h

a t t h e w h o l e i s s o m e t h i n g e l s e

t h a n t h e s u m

o f i t s p a r t s b e c a u s e s u m m

i n g u p i s a m e a n i n g l e s s p r o c e d u r e w

h e r e a s t h e w h o l e - p a r t

r e l a t i o n s h i p

i s m e a n i n g f u l rsquo

1

A e s t h e t i c

DOREEN MENDE



21

see from a birdrsquos eye view how the city is shaped andorganised but being within a system of crossings squaresbusinesses and social actions the quotidian usage of

space makes us blind Te excess of mobility and speedthe noise of traffic and voices envelops our itineraryBeing on the road does not so much fix a moment theongoing movement rather lets us clandestinely movearound for the sake of an immersion into a foreign place ime and again the exhibition space is a foreign placeEach manifestation changes its appearance and gives a

temporary domicile for guests We can see the blind spot Tis may seem incontradiction with what was previously written But itbecomes temporarily manifest through a movementbetween proximity and distance We all k now thisfamous technical experiment and it may be published inthis book a couple of times A star on the left and a circle

on the right are drawn on a paper Te left eye is closedlooking at the circle on the right Depending on sizeand distance moving the paper back and forth the stardisappears until all w e can see is the circle two marksand a bodily movement provide a measuring tool fordetecting for seeing the blindness Te test might delivera proof for the existence of the blind spot which seems

to be magic and simple at once But we see nothingthat could serve as evidence of the truth in a legal senseEncountering the blind spot is encountering an excess

we see nothing but remember an appearance that wasthere just a moment ago but isnrsquot anymore yet will bethere again soon It is an excess because the conditionof seeing is shaped by blindness by the layering of one

possible exposure after the next We know the star isthere because how can it have disappeared if we saw it just a moment ago or can glimpse it ahead Te world

i s t h a t w h i c h i s p e r c e p t i b l e b y t h e s e n s e s m

a t e r i a l t h i n g s ( a s o p p o s e d t o t h i n g s t h i n k a b l e o r i m m a

t e r i a l ) a l s o lsquo p e r c e p t i v e s h a r p i n

t h e s e n s e s rsquo T e t e r m w a s a p p l i e d i n G e r m a

n y b y A l e x a n d e r G o t t l i e b B

a u m g a r t e n ( AElig s t h e t i c a ) t o a lsquo c r i t i c i s m o f t a s t e rsquo c o n s i d e r e d a s a

s c i e n c e o r p h i l o s o p h y a g a i n s t w h i c h p r o t e s

t w a s m a d e b y K a n t w h o a

p p l i e d t h e n a m e i n a c c o r d a n c e w i t h t h e a n c i e n t d i s t i n

c t i o n

t o lsquo t h e s c i e n c e w

h i c h t r e a t s o f t h e c o n d i t i o n

s o f s e n s u o u s p e r c e p t i o n rsquo B u t B a u m g a r t e n rsquo s u s e f o u n d

p o p u l a r a c c e p t a n c e t h o u g h i t s

a d o p t i o n w a s l o n g o p p o s e d

IN RANSI



22

before us appears to be a phantom a figment of themind How ever to borrow a thought from Serge Daney lsquounidentified images are engraved in the retina unknown

events inevitably happen and spoken words become thesecret code of an impossible self-knowledgersquo5 Is the dis-appearing star in front of our eyes like a secret code ofan impossible utterance Tere and not there at onceIt sounds promising and enables us to enter a conditionof secrecy It does a way with the function to carry atheme and a meaning Tis image of a void discards the

delivery of information and a word denies serving aproper name but it insists in its multi-directionalityImage and word follow their own course not represent-ing anything but moving back and forth as a subject

would Te condition of the blind spot enables the seento decide about appearance and disappearance as we candecide to stand in front of a ca mera or not A secret

word in the textile of blinding does not hide knowledgebehind a spotlight but moves on in its own right Tatrsquosa vulnerable existence Te imperative of the seen isbroken through the right of being not-exposed Proximi-ties and distances alternate and take the blind spot intoappearance yet it is impossible to attribute some propermeaning to its appearance It directs the gaze towards us

into our eyes watching a scene a busy street in Sarajevoon a sunny day Te city hosts a literature festival where Jean-Luc Godard delivers a lecture attended by OlgaBrodsky He talks about shot and reverse-shot docu-mentary and fiction Palestine and Israel At the end ofthe conference a friend of Olgarsquos w ill give Godard herDVD of a film that she made during the festival She is

5 Serge Daney 991256Te racking Shot in Kaporsquo in Postcards from Cinema (London Berg Publishers 1997) 21

A e s t h e t i c

s

i s a b r a n c h o

f p h i l o s o p h y d e a l i n g w i t h t h e n a t u r e o f b e a u t y a r t t a s t e a n d

w i t h t h e c r e a t i o n a n d a p p r e c i a t i o n o f b e a u t y S c i e n t i fi c a l l y i t i s d e fi

n e d a s t h e

s t u d y o f s e n s o r y o r s e n s o r y - e m o t i o n a l v

a l u e s s o m e t i m e s c a l l e d j u d

g m e n t s o f

s e n t i m e n t a n d t a s t e M o r e b r o a d l s c h o l a r s i n t h e fi e l d d e fi n e a e s t h e t i c s a s

DOREEN MENDE



23

Stills pp 23ndash27 of Notre Musique by Jean-Luc Godard 2004

991256 c r i t i c a l r e fl e

c t i o n o n a r t c u l t u r e a n d n a t u r e rsquo

I m m a n u e l K a n t d e c l a r e d t h a t B a u m g a r t e n rsquo s a e s t h e t i c s c

o u l d n e v e r c o n t a i n o b j e c t i v

e r u l e s l a w s o r p r i n c i p l e s

o f n a t u r a l o r a r t i s t i c b e a u t y

( C r i t i q u e o f P u r e R e a s o n ) I n h i s C r i t i q u e o f J u d g m e n t t h o u g h K a n t c o n f o r m e d t o

B a u m g a r t e n rsquo s n e w u s a g e a n d e m p l o y e d t h e w o r d a e s t h e t i c t o m e a n t h e j u d g m e n t o f t a s t e o r t h e e s t i m a t i o n

IN RANSI



24

walking in the street In her bag are books which will bemistaken for bombs in a cinema in Paris some weekslater She is walking in a street in Sarajevo We cannot see

her yet the image is blurred and only the red bag maygive an indication that it is her while she approaches us991256Itrsquos like an image coming from a distancersquo When sheappears before us the sunlight blinds her and she blinksHer gaze seeks a focus out of the light Her eyes meetthe camerarsquos eye her image looks at us the sound ismuted and we only see her speak What we see is an

image covering the sound Te image is too loud so wecannot hear anything Olga has become an image with-out a voice Silence In the moment we share our mu-tual silence for which we will need to develop a languageTen a speech shoots through the image 991256there are two

women side by side l a m one of themrsquo Where is thesecond woman We only see Olga And who is this I

Is it another voice that has been attached to her mouthmdashCUmdashShe has turned her back to us Olga wonrsquotanswer these questions but leaves us with a sense ofuncertainty he lens of a camera and the lsquoexrsquo of exhib-iting are performed through an act of ref usal Tisgesture of revolt has opened the closed circuit of a secureframe of knowing

Te lens of a camera and the lsquoexrsquo of exhibiting areconfronted with an act of refusal We are confronted with our own blindness a blinding moment in an auraland visual sense dilutes a clear distinction betweenthe criminal and the defeat Te image looks back at us

while taking its own path A gesture of independenceIt does not wait for us while categories of known knowl-

edge analyse lsquowhat is going onrsquo It wonrsquot help because we are blind since we a pply a pre-figured pattern to ana-lyse the seen But this is not what the image is waiting

o

f t h e b e a u t i f u l F o r K a n t a n a e s t h e t i c j u d g m e n t i s s u b

j e c t i v e i n t h a t i t r e l a t e s t o t h e i n t e r n a l f e e l i n g o f p l e a s u

r e o r

d

i s p l e a s u r e a n d n o t t o a n y q

u a l i t i e s i n a n e x t e r n a l o b j e c

t

S i g m u n d F r e

u d i n a u g u r a t e d a e s t h e t i c a l t h i n k i n g i n P s y c h o a n a l y s i s m

a i n l y v i a t h e

991256 u n c a n n y rsquo

a s a e s t h e t i c a l a ff e c t

( C a n n y i s f r o m t h e A n g l o - S a x o n r o o t k e n k n o w l e d g e u n d e r s t a n d i n g o r c o g n i s a n c e m e n t a l p

e r c e p t i o n a n

rsquo

DOREEN MENDE



25

eaeyon

onesen

M a u r i c e M e r l e a u

- P o n t y s e e s a n a c t i v e d i m e n s i o n i n p e r c e p t i o n i n t h a t

i t i s a p r i m o r d i a l o p e n n e s s

t o t h e l i v i n g

e n v i r o n m e n t A t t h e c o r e o f h i s p h i l o s o p h y

i s a s u s t a i n e d a r g u m e n t f o r

t h e f o u n d a t i o n a l r o l e t h a t p e r c e p t i o n p l a y s

i n u n d e r s t a n d i n g t h e w o r l d a s w e l l a s e n g a g i n g w i t h t h e w o r l d 991256 T e w o

r l d i s n o t h i n g b u t ldquo w o r l d - a s - m e a n i n g rdquo

rsquo

2

IN RANSI



26

for it resists interpretation and categorization Tisapproach no longer makes it possible to look at a sceneas a given fact or to locate the power of exposure merely

within an image-forming apparatus in the distance weare implica ted in this apparatus he act of exposure inthe exhibition space on the cinema screen or on a com-puter display results in an entanglement of temporalities

within the exposed coming from a past their publicdisplay marks a present that enables a condition to 991256carryout a creative sabotage of the futurersquo Te act of exposure

is an explosion of contradictions including us Borrow-ing a sentence from Juan Goytisolo 991256 What lies ahead ofus now is like a story without thought as if bequeathedby an impossible will More than ever wersquore faced withthe voidrsquo6 Te blinding moment exposed as silence as acut or a blackout denies a complete picture of the worldor to phrase it diff erently our blindness is an intrinsic

condition perforating the realDoes our ability to see conceal even more than wethink We walk around with a fragmented gaze It lookslike an image being rea dy to serve as evidence of thetruth or an identifiable image But the blind spot teachesus what we encounter will always remain incomplete

with quite some unexpected holes and sometimesmdash

while being on the roa dmdash991256I was clandestinersquo as SergeDaney writes It will not occur in a state of being detect-ed but in the temporality of a movement a passage

NO PRODUC In a recent talk the Indian think-er Gayatri Spivak talked about her visit to Kosovo Shereg ularly undertakes trips with a group of thinkers toplaces like Kosovo which have become known through

6 All quotes taken from Jean-Luc GodardNotre Musique 2004

P i e r r e B o u r d i e u a r g u e s t h a t K a n t rsquo s

991256 a e s t h e t i c

rsquo

m e r e l y r e p r e s e n t s a n e x p e r i e n c e t h a t i s t h e p r o d u c t

o f a n e l e v a t e d c l a s s h a b i t u s a n d s c h o l a r l y l e i s u r e a s o p p o s e d t o o t h e r p o s s i b l e a n d e q u a l l y v a l i d

a e s t h e t i c e x p e r i e n c e s w h i c h

l a y o u t s i d e K a n t rsquo s n a r r o w d

e fi n i t i o n

J e a n - F r a n ccedil o i s L y o t a r d r e - i n v o k e s t h e K a n t i a n d i s t i n

c t i o n b e t w e e n t a s t e a n d t h e s u b l i m e

991256

DOREEN MENDE



27

t o s e e i t w i l l p l e a s e o n l y b y c a u s i n g p a i n rsquo

3 H e a d v

o c a t e d a s t r i c t s e p a r a t i o n o f a e s t h e t i c s a n d

p o l i t i c s b e c a u s e t h e i r c o n v e r g e n c e w o u l d n e c e s s a r i l y l e a d i n t o l e f t o r r i g h t f a s c i s m

D e s i g n k n o w l e d g e

i s a t e r m t h a t s t e m s f r o m a p

p r o a c h e s i n p r a c t i c e - b a s e d

r e s e a r c h i n a r t a n d d e s i g n t h a t s u p p o r t t h e i d e a t h a t a n

y

c o g n i t i o n ( i n a r t a n d s c i e n c e ) i s c o n d i t i o n e d b y i t s f o r m

o f m e d i a l - a e s t h e t i c a g e n c y ( m e d i a t i o n ) G e o r g P i c h t

s e e s

IN RANSI



28

mass media curatorial projects and UN reports as991256places of conflictrsquo She spoke about a form of knowledgeproduction that does not for the umpteenth time

emerge through an interview with a local taxi-driveror through context analysis and lsquodoing goodrsquo for thecommunity Instead of having a specific goal or itinerarythe group follows the route of hanging out talkingmeeting colleagues that are local inviting guests maybereading a text together sitting in a cafeacute and entering astage of thinking where 991256a critical position is that which

breaks onersquos own worldrsquo7

Spivak called her travelling a N O PRODUCproject Tis is hard to achieve since we are li ving intimes of Capitalist R ealism in which we are so-calledcultural producers and in which the British writer MarkFisher sees the conflation of economics and politicsregulating our speech and action Tere is no way out of

capitalism since there is no outside anymore But wecan achieve different forms of practices which enable usto move between disciplines and thoughts below thepower of state and above another lsquoalternativersquo capitalismPractice here follows different temporalities It is notso much the case that the distinction between pastpresent and future ceases to exist but time follows a

movement of thought shaking the categories of a lineartime chronology We might set up an exhibition takea picture or finish a piece of writingmdasha practice ofthinking will establish a further complicity with thematter of concern folding past into future and multi-plying the present tense

7 Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak 991256 What isCritiquersquo 21 May 2011 18ndash21h Frankfurt ResearchCenter for Postcolonial Studies Goethe UniversityFrankfurt

i n a c o m m o n t h e o r y o f p r o d u c t i o n a b a s i c s c i e n c e o f t h

e m o d e r n w o r l d a n d p u t s u p t h e q u e s t i o n i f lsquo t h o u g h t rsquo i t s e l f

s h o u l d n o t b e u n d e r s t o o d a s lsquo d e s i g n rsquo 4 D e s i g n i s h e r e b e i n g d r a w n a s a c o n s t r u c t i v e p r a c t i c e w h i c h i s c o n s t a n

t l y

c h a n g i n g s h i f t i n g a n d r e i n v

e n t i n g

991256 t h e w o r l d a n d t h e r e f o r e t h e c o n d i t i o n f o r o f k n o w l e d g e rsquo

i n c l u d i n g t h e

991256

s u b j e c t -

m a t t e r o f d e s i g n r e s e a r c h rsquo 5

DOREEN MENDE



29

Te crevice and the stitch here it is again We mighthave walked away somewhat from our blind spot thatrefers so much to the aspect of seeing yet we can now

take from the blind spot its rejection to keep the creviceand the stitch as separate but entangled entities Teblind spot moves us between the exhibited lsquotherersquo and our lsquoherersquo not in order to come up with a new productbut with uncerta in trains of thought voids in mind anda desire to resist colonising patterns which have occu-pied the eye the ear and the body Te lsquoandrsquo does not

indicate a n addition a further element in a chain ofoperations and even not just a relation between insideand outside Betwixt and between is a condition ofthinking Tis space in-between the AND according toGilles Deleuze unfolds as 991256precisely a creative stammer-ing a foreign use of language as opposed to a conformistand dominant use based on the verb 991260to berdquo itrsquos al-

ways in between between two things itrsquos the borderlinetherersquos always a border a line of flight or flow only wedonrsquot see it because itrsquos the least perceptible of thingsrsquo8 Tis form of movement does follow a possibility to learnhow not to see in order to see It enables a thinkingpractice in form of a display in transit Tis lsquodisplayrsquo isnot another view-fixing apparatus as we might find it

in modern architecture or in the shape of another mani-fest element in space such as a wall a plinth a showcaseas displays are generally considered It rather is a reso-nant body which includes us

But letrsquos not forget that the exhibition requireslsquoholding outrsquo something Te lsquoexrsquo in lsquoex hibitingrsquo is like

8 Gilles Deleuze 991256Tree Questions on Six imes worsquo in Negotiations 1972ndash1990 (New York ColumbiaUniversity Press 1997) 45 Originally published inCahiers du Cineacutema 271 (1976)

esgnnowe

gesengcontrastewt

anmageoscenceassearcngor

lsquo t i m e l e s s t r u t h rsquo o r a s b e i n g b u s y w i t h lsquo l a w s

o f n a t u r e rsquo lsquo t r u t h rsquo o r lsquo e x i s t e

n c e rsquo w h i c h i s

g r o u n d e d i n t h e

i d e a t h a t k n o w l e d g e i s i n d i s p e n s a b l y c o n n e c t e d t o lsquo t r u t h rsquo lsquo a n a l y s i s rsquo

lsquo l o g i c rsquo lsquo o b j e c t i v i t y rsquo a n d lsquo r i g i d e v i d e n c i n g rsquo

IN RANSI



30

the lens of a camera or the pen in the writerrsquos handIt contains the potential to create a public display Butthe inexhaustible movement of the blind spot disturbs

a western paradigm which has placed exhibiting alwayson the side of light History ceases to exist as a lineartrajectory and emerges from the instability of an on-going movement between light and blindness between amanifest inscription and a flux of thought Te maindrive however is not to establish a competition betweenmanifestation and movement but to unf old the co-exis-

tence of both in order to utilise the political potentialof exhibiting Te exhibiting moment then perforatedby blind spots unfolds a texture with acts of exposuresthat might leave a trace Some kind of manifestation isneeded because not anything goes but the display intransit deranges the inscription of a historically protectedmeaningmdashit ex-inscribes those protections and by doing

so it is sending us on the roadTe blind spot then is not so much a model buta condition of thinking It does not stand for anothercuratorial theme or an exhibition topic For us it enablesa practice to realise an exhibition not so much about atheme but how to walk around a theme includingour relation to it It makes it more difficult to think of

a lsquocommon groundrsquo from where we all could start Teground has become a blinding texture where codes ofknowledge contrast with displaced places silenced voicesand phantom images in which w e are implicatedmdashmoving in the crevices of exposures

W ith this in mind a blinding texture enables us tothink through exhibiting not as a clash of cultures but

through a shared silence where knowledge comes intobeing through 991256the exchange in the system of ref lection where it is the other we look atmdashwe never see ourselvesrsquo9

N i g e l C r o s s s e e s d e s i g n a s a n i n d e p e n d e n t f o r m o f k n o w l e d g e a n d c o i n e d t h e t e r m

s 991256 d e s i g n e r l y w a y s o f

k n o w i n g rsquo

a n d

991256 d e s i g n k n o w l e d g e rsquo

991256 D e s i g n k n o w l e d g e r e s i d e s fi r s t l y i n p e o p l e i n d e s i g n e r s e s p e c i a l l y b u t a l s o i n

e v e r y o n e t o s o m e e x t e n t [

] D e s i g n

k n o w l e d g e r e s i d e s s e c o n

d l y i n p r o c e s s e s i n t h e t a c t i c s a n d s t r a t e g i e s o f d e s i g n i n g [ ]

T i r d l y [ ]

d e s i g n

k n o w l e d g e

rsquo 6

DOREEN MENDE



31

As long as w e walk around with our blind spot a struc-ture only appears to be a model for living It takes usto a possibility of 991256exposurersquo of 991256making publicrsquo without

describing or explaining what we see but unfoldingthe conditions of not seeing Because 991256we are blindrsquo andthe only thing we can do about it is to see ourselvesthrown into strangeness which Heacutelegravene Cixous describesas 991256a passage from the one to the other de lrsquoune agrave lrsquoautrersquo

And it is the lsquoIrsquo as a lsquoWersquo from which we have tostart Permanently on the road

N e x t t o t h i s t h e t e r m

991256 d e s i g n t h i n k i n g rsquo

e v o l v e d m a i n l y

i n e c o n o m i c a n d a d m i n i s t r

a t i v e c o n t e x t T e t e r m

i s n o t c l e a r l y d e fi n e d a n d o p e r a t e s i n b e t w e e n d i c h o t o m

i e s o f lsquo r a t i o n a l i t y rsquo v e r s u s lsquo c

r e a t i v i t y rsquo lsquo t h e o r y rsquo v e r s u s

lsquo p r a x i s rsquo a n d t h e c o n n e c t i o n o f lsquo d e s i g n rsquo w i t h lsquo i n n o v a t i o n rsquo I t i s s o m e t i m e s d e fi n e d a s lsquo c o n s c i o u s n o t - k n o w i n g rsquo

a n d s e e n a s a n i n d i s p e n s a b l e a b i l i t y i n l e a d e r s h i p a n d i n n o v a t i o n p r o c e s s e s

7 8 9 Cixous Rootprints 16

IN RANSI



18

to it At present we can only say that it marks a possi-bility where a train of thought pauses for a moment inorder to allow an uncertainty of blindness taking place

Uncertainty is a hallmark of our times there is uncer-tainty in keeping a job in getting a project funded inforecasting earthquakes and volcano eruptions Butinstead of fighting against uncertainty the blind spotcould be taken as an enabler of it We are uncertain ofseeing in times where there is an excess of the seenOur lives are directed not by our secured knowledge but

by an inability to seeHow can a good thought be hidden between theimages and sounds of a space in order to resist a fastcommodification of its mind-opening potential Itsresistance mig ht be misunderstood for an intellectualmontage3 or it might be mistaken for a negation of theexposing apparatus Yet the place of action here is not

the speech act in the first row of a protest march Nor does it appear in a favoured manifestation of the lsquomak-ing ofrsquo as can be observed in many recent artistic a ndcuratorial projects A n exhibition practice operatingthrough the blind spot for example initiates the strongintuition that the political does not take place underan all-enlightening spotlight

Te beauty of the blind spot is that we cannot iso-late its appearance because it is a line of action providingthe conditions of seeing without becoming manifestin a n imag e It would be good to not exclusively address

3 Intellectual montage is a technique developed and appliedby Soviet filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein in the 1920s as aneducational tool in revolutionary cinema It cuts thecontinuity of editing by juxtaposing two images with thepurpose of creating a shock effect distancing the viewerfrom preconditioned modes of perception

k n o w l e d g e a s b e i n g o f t h e t r u t h u n l i k e c r i t i c a l t h i n k i n

g e p i s t e m o l o g y n e a r l y i g n o

r e s m e c h a n i s m s

t o p i c s a n d m e t h o d s e m p h a s i s e d i n c r i t i c a l t h i n k i n g s u c

h a s t h e t e s t i n g o f s p e c i fi c p r o p o s i t i o n s

l o g i c a l f a l l a c i e s b i a s a n d d e c e p t i o n f o u n d i n e v e r y d a y r e a l - l i f e c o n d i t i o n s a n d p r o b l e m s o l v i n g

H o l i s m

DOREEN MENDE



19









e t c ) s h o u l d







991256 T e w h o l e i s





i n



IN RANSI



20










F u l l e r i n 1 9 7 5


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A e s t h e t i c

DOREEN MENDE



21

















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22








A e s t h e t i c

s

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DOREEN MENDE



23










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t

S i g m u n d F r e







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25

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991256

DOREEN MENDE



27


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s u b j e c t -


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29








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gesengcontrastewt








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k n o w i n g rsquo

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27


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27


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31















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31















IN RANSI

Doreen Mende, "In Transit," in: Katja Gretzinger (ed.), Blind Spot. In a Manner of Reading Design,...

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Transcript of Doreen Mende, "In Transit," in: Katja Gretzinger (ed.), Blind Spot. In a Manner of Reading Design,...