|
|
Insight in Real Objects
|
||
|
|
ObjectiveI only might get insight in reality, when I know how the glasses pushed on my face early in my life - my reference frame - deforms and colors that same reality. In fact I should look outside, and then through the same glasses at that very glasses themselves. I try to understand the symbols standing for real objects, by manipulating symbols standing for that symbols. First with sensory representations and then with words - pointers to symbols without direct connection with reality hidden behind the curtains. Pointer to pointer internal communication. SubjectiveOr : how we bridge the gap between real objects and imaginary subjects.[Without our human mind, the splendor and beauty of jewels and gems wouldn't even exist. There has to be a subject to enjoy the object.]
On our little trip to Denmark, some 35 years ago, we crossed the bridge between Jutland and Funen ... The bridge opened just before, and like you can see, we were practically alone to be there (picture taken from within the car, while we were driving). A new bridge - then. Just like every big little bridge we cross for the first time, quite an experience prepared by suggested expectation... After a short time, bigger little bridges are built, with still greater expectations. Until we, at the end, arrive at the same point where we started to begin with. Try to enjoy the trip, Ladies and Gentlemen, don't forget to look at the mist (obj.) and see it (subj.) from time to time. Introduction : just to get a little bit the taste of it. We (we) found a picture of the Atomium, symbol of the world exhibition 1958, in Brussels. It is a big (the biggest) ball and stick model of a unit cell in metallic iron, say the smallest crystal of iron. This leads us directly into the world of metals and gems. The top ball houses a buffet-restaurant, "Chez Adrienne", and then it should be said that Adrienne was the name of my very own grandmother, the mother of my mother, and that my first golden ring was a transformation of two of hers, when she died. Gold:
Gold (Ref. 2), a precious metal, symbol for precious feelings and memories. In 1958, when I was thirteen, my father began thinking about becoming self-employed, as a beer merchant. Although he did not sell Stella, he had a lot of beer mats, and this association about 1958 in my mind has nothing to do with jewels nor gems, but everything with my own memories and experiences and feelings. Perhaps the golden color of bubbling beer, in a glass standing on top of the 58 mat, initiated my love for gold and pearls. So you see what can be done with free associations, one of the main issues in this website. Free associations... what is free? [Dream quote, 11 Aug 2005 : a glass box-like construction is to be built in the church. It will be a sort of kindergarten. The reason for the erection in the church is, that it will result in a cheaper roof construction. In the meantime my lawyer-in-law is digging pits between the pillars : for the fundaments of my future house
I had a dream this night and, curious as I am, wonder what it might be for stuff I had in mind - have in mind. I go to see Freud, the inventor of psychoanalysis. He invites me to lie down on his couch, and tell him what comes into my mind concerning the dream I told him, and everything else either. So... ... before I went to bed, yesterday, I saw a movie on TV about Luther, the first Protestant. A German. Wonderful man. Apparently he had a difficult youth, with a demanding father wanting him to become a lawyer. ... Mine was not demanding, but never gave me affirmation for my activities either - never could satisfy him, how hard I ever tried to do so... very frustrating for your self esteem, you know. Had no balls, I think... Freud writes something in his notebook. "Wants father's castration - fears to be subject himself". [Thoughts are whirling in my head ... Of
course I can't say everything. ... Luther could not find his feet after he met death, in the person of the plague, taking three of his best university friends. He decided to enter a convent : Augustinians - Augustine is a fine Belgian beer... Luther went to Rome to find God, I think, and he found bureaucracy and business. Big business and money making... God wasn't there at all. Nobody seemed to bother about spirituality or The Thing to be found, some-thing he was looking for. Strong feelings came up into my mind that he was looking for the affirmation of his father, his Father, who still wanted him to become a successful lawyer... Freud writes : "Yellow as father's beer career - Brussels - Manneken Piss. / Rome - Father's bedroom - Where's the mother?". [The dream pulled out the handle to activate the second register of my organ in the church. In the dream-church, my lawyer-in-law laid down the fundaments for my career, and the teacher - in the glass kindergarten-box - would tell me how to reach for the Crown. Gold and gems, Royal dignity I still am looking for - under the hood : strong affirmation for my activities and a label for what I am. Strange coincidence or not, the label I found - the metal strength of the ecstasy balls - burned into my brains for ever, is still situated in the Capital (Rome). Out of reach for me. Shit.] ... Luther apparently lived in a period of strong religious power, centralized and well, selling salvation to people manipulated to be anxious for hell and eternal punishment... I know about that, met the devil on my path. Holy Father, please forgive me my mortal sins... Luther and his fight against the indulgence trade. Strange... Nowadays you aren't offered indulgences, but a promise for products yielding good feelings, and when you buy them and pay for them, the associated dream (sexy women, power, wealth) evaporates in a minute... Nothing has changed since Luther's time. Shit! Freud : "Mortal sins - sex - pay for it / Brothel in Brussels / Shit - anal regression". [Then the third register is the most promising of all. At Luther's time printing books was something novel. Here and now, we have the invention of the internet, greatly ameliorating freedom of speech (words, language, symbolic representations, personal impressions, things like that - points of interest in this website)...] ... Luther published his ninety five statements, nailed them to the church door. My jewels are hanging in the internet - much better. Of course, some people could not stand it. But. Book printing guys copied the whole story, and others made copies of the copies... nothing could stop me...eh... him. Protestantism conquered the world... Pope gone with the wind. Freud : "Mother earth - the world to be conquered. Old guy still wants to fuck his mother / Jewels - jewel-box - vagina". [My free associations don't seem to be free at all, after all...] Objects and Subjects - Crystals, Representations and Impressions
Objective facts about the mineral corundum (with the red ruby variety) you can find on the internet. Example : "Ruby & Sapphire", Ref. 6..
Subjective information about the gem 'ruby' - the same corundum - you can find on the internet as well. Example : "...ruby grading system", Ref. 7. In grading we speak about the elements of interest in gems for the determination of the value of the stone. Color, Cut, Carat, Clarity (the four C's). It can be translated into dollars. Real subjective information about the picture of the stone is a little bit more complicated, and can't be expressed in dollars directly :
Much of our interest goes in the direction of objects having special subjective effects on everyone of us, different in diverging circumstances, perhaps a little bit congruent in converging experiences. Words are skating on the surface of a frozen see of memory, and interactions - intersubjective interactions - are bound to the representations in our mind of objects representing objects, copies of other objects, copies of copies of copies... Copyrights in this sense are very difficult, for everything I have in my mind is stolen from somebody else. Every creative act I might perform is a slight modification of a combination of copies out of our collective (un-) consciousness, spread over words, art, multimedia, internet and lived experiences recorded in my brain - not as if it were a recorder - but fragmented, categorized and contaminated with overlapping symbolizations. In a first attempt to bridge the gap between object and subject, we travel to the past, in search for pre-scientific engagements of people now categorized in the realm of magicians and alchemists. Secrets and forgotten knowledge. But, lets us first go back to the Atomium in Brussels
The picture (BCC) shows the crystalline structure of iron, and with a little bit of imagination, it resembles the Atomium (Ref. 1), symbol of the world exhibition 1958, in Brussels. The way Au (gold) atoms are arranged in the lattice, results in a different kind of cubic 'Atomium':
The alchemists tried to transform common metals (iron perhaps) into gold. Just like me, trying to identify myself with the Holy Father in Brussels - trying to find the philosopher's stone, yielding power, satisfaction and eternal life. Strange enough there is a striking resemblance between iron and gold... Let's walk to the technical university of Wien for a little moment :
To make a golden Atomium, we need some more balls : one in
each face of the cube, and none in the middle.
Warming up a piece of iron above 920 degrees centigrade changes the arrangement of the atoms, and we get cubes with six balls in the faces, instead of the one in the center. With all that, the structure of iron resembles very well that of gold, although unfortunately it does not become gold, or, perhaps we may be happy about it, for else the gold-price might collapse in a very short period of time. Although, concerning the making of gold, some people already tried a few things.
Alchemists tried to transform metals into gold by means of a mystical object, the philosopher's stone. It has never been found until now, but many other chemical substances of course. In our site, we hope to find some other bridge to the land of mystics - in spite of or thanks to the mist. With a little bit of imagination, Freud has something of an Alchemist, here in his archeology lab. Free associations are for a great deal determined (made un-free) by history, berried in deep layers of brain tissue, hidden in safe libraries, whispered in dark corners of the village, and now perhaps unearthed for free speech on the couch - and publication on our internet novel.
At Acam, the school where we studied gemology, they have an archeology department, with fossils. Digging in the earth for precious stones, minerals and metals apparently goes together with delving in the past. Psychoanalysis is interested in the past as well, to reveal useful elements for a stable synthesis of the present. Some people declare that psychoanalysis is old-fashioned, just like alchemy, but we don't. We try to reveal something of it in what follows and precedes.
The broche Lieve made, with Tourmaline. Some people believe that Tourmaline - and other minerals - have a sort of healing capacity. We ourselves don't share that point of view, but the fact that so many people are occupied with the quest, indicates their restless searching for something, 'it', what ever that might be. Sometimes religion is used, to eventually grasp the desired object (it).
|
||
|
A. Syberg, Belgium
Copyright © 2005 A. Syberg
|
