There is a wealth of information to be gleaned from the displacement of a thing. The subtle disturbances created, the effect on the surroundings, the change in atmosphere once the thing is absent. In fact, an entity's vacancy is as revealing of its nature as it's substance: the imprint left behind is teeming with details like a swarm of tiny sweat bees on an overripe cantaloupe. The absorption or radiation of energy is not the least of these, but other factors can also be just as relevant. A sense of completeness or its lack, and the attraction or conservation of other things' attention ('attention' intended here in a broader and not consciousness-oriented sense) can all reveal clues towards quiddity.
And, contrary to the accepted scientific precept, nature does not abhor a vacuum, because the existence of a vacuum is not a legitimate possibility. Once a thing -- or the residue of a thing, or even the concept of the potential of a residue of a thing -- has come into being, the entire universe is contaminated by it, and can never be disinfected of its presence -- or the absence of its presence, or the idea of the possibility of its presence being absent -- again. This contamination is not a question of contact or even proximity, because proximity itself is equally contaminating in nature: through the unremitting continuity of space, every location is proximate to some other location, and, thereby, inevitably by association and the relative nature of space, every location is ultimately proximate to every other location extant.
II.
Intention and rationale are like ethanol in the blood: they leech existence of its potential. As 'accepted practice' and 'received wisdom' clutter up the scenery, the fragile, new growth of inspiration trapped underneath is left to wither or rot, or simply never come into existence at all. Fortunately, invention is not a passive form of energy: even a load-bearing rationalisation will gradually be undermined by an accumulation of tiny, corrosive doubts; insecurities bubble up during sleep, instigating dreams with tiring, long-form, procedural content and a sense of something that urgently needs to be done but that can never possibly be resolved.
When robbed of any feeling of achievement, our building materials will be rendered flimsy and weak; the fundamental, structural units within lose their resilience and collapse. Limp, yielding architecture slouches towards a wayward axis. Colours become wan. Food loses its flavour. Comedy becomes irritating. Failures become accustomed and predictable. A anemic landscape stretches out in a tiresome manner beneath a pallid, declining star. This is the legacy of intent.
III.
From some perspectives, even involuntary movement can be regarded as an act of violence. While it will typically appear as consequentially neutral within the perpetrator's observational context, a wake of severe disruption and disorientation can usually be found at any sub-scalar contexts, and complete devastation will be the result on basal communities and configurations. But immunity to this violence (voluntary or not) is always the condition at the fundamental scale. On the level of quantum impulse, the separation of materials itself disappears and the very possibility of destruction becomes obviated and irrelevant. At this vantage, there is only interaction. Duration is so brief and renewal so constant that the fleeting and the eternal become unnecessary distinctions, and are essentially interchangeable.
IV.
The shifting configurations of genetic material exist in an unpredictable dynamic system much like the weather. But, like the weather, the range of permutations is not infinite: it is contained within a distinctly bounded range of possibilities. However impossible it may be to predict the precise atmospheric conditions in a month's time, it will never be the case that it will rain scissors and false teeth. Similarly, a breeding enclave of field mice will not give rise to a cluster of amethysts. Within these boundaries, however, an astonishing variety can manifest itself, and any particular outcome within this variety has no possibility of being anticipated. How exotic and incomprehensible all these fleshy, awkward humans would be to the elegant array of trilobites that populated the deep and distant past.
Similarly, memory is a rich, dense compost heap, encompassing so much more than its superficial layers can reveal. The introduction of the subtlest sensory input can instigate a long-buried experience to emerge distinctly into primary consciousness once again. Things that were inaccessible and ignored for decades will suddenly re-appear with utter clarity. Where were they hidden? Why do these interred impressions persist for so long? What else is concealed within the gloom? Is every minute fragment of sensory input stored somewhere, remaining dormant until the appropriate catalyst coaxes it out of hiding? Why are some completely frivolous details retained for a lifetime, while distinct events are subsumed within a few weeks? Our subjective evaluation of importance is clearly not the guiding principle at work. How much of our existence is about us anyway? This vast, teeming society of builders and regulators and maintenance crews has no association at all with our values or ambitions. We are nothing but oblivious passengers carried along by forces too subtle and too profound for us to recognise, much less comprehend or control. Our dreams give us a glimpse of this: so many people, places and events that exist fully outside of our experience are conjured up for us night after night. The most a passenger can do is observe and try to enjoy the journey.
Official download resource for the titillating & inscrutable At Jennie Richie. Well worth investigating for anyone with a pair of ears and one or more lungs. irr. app. (ext.)
St Celfer returns with tracks culled from a series of live shows, each one a showcase for his inventive experimentalism. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 26, 2023
