An Individual is a four-dimensional object of greatly elongated form; in ordinary language we say that he has considerable extension in time and insignificant extension in space.’

–Eddington, Space, Time and Gravitation

Marey’s Chronograms. Dr. Nathan passed the illustrations across his desk to Margaret Travis. ‘Marey’s Chronograms are multiple exposure photographs in which the element oftime is visible -the walking human figure, for example, is represented as a series of dune-like lumps. ‘ Dr. Nathan accepted a cigarette from Catherine Austin, who had sauntered forward from the incubator at the rear of the office.Ignoring herequizzical eye, he continued.‘Your husband brilliant feat was to reverse the process. Using a series of the most commonplace objects – this office,let ussay, a panorama ofNew York Skyscrapers, the naked body of awoman, the face of a catatonic patient – he treated them as ifthey already were chromograms andextracted the element oftime. ‘ Dr. Nathan lit his cigarette with care. ‘The results were extraordinary. A very different world was revealed. The familiar surroundings of our lives, even our smallest gestures, were seen to have totally altered meanings. Asfor the reclining figure of a film star or this hospital…’

— from J.G. Ballard, the Atrocity Exhibition

Thyssen
Duisburg-Ruhrort, June 2017

Ozymandias

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed:
And on the pedestal these words appear:
‘My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!’
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.

— Percy B. Shelley

Es zahlt sich teuer, zur Macht zu kommen: die Macht verdummt… Die Deutschen – man hieß sie einst das Volk der Denker: denken sie heute überhaupt noch? Die Deutschen langweilen sich jetzt am Geiste, die Deutschen mißtrauen jetzt dem Geiste, die Politik verschlingt allen Ernst für wirklich geistige Dinge – »Deutschland, Deutschland über alles«, ich fürchte, das war das Ende der deutschen Philosophie… »Gibt es deutsche Philosophen? gibt es deutsche Dichter? gibt es gute deutsche Bücher?« – fragt man mich im Ausland. Ich erröte; aber mit der Tapferkeit, die mir auch in verzweifelten Fällen zu eigen ist, antworte ich: »Ja, Bismarck!« – Dürfte ich auch nur eingestehn, welche Bücher man heute liest?… Vermaledeiter Instinkt der Mittelmäßigkeit! –

— Friedrich Nietzsche, Götzendämmerung

https://vimeo.com/218042283