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The World

Is there actually any real world beyond the image served us by our senses? After reading a slew of philosophers and their eloquent ripostes on the subject, I feel too intellectually pedestrian to provide an answer, but since we are on the subject: I deal with the world presuming it´s actually there.

I do, however, subscribe to the notion that we cannot encounter it directly. Instead we build images of it as we go along, fusing raw sense data (which in themselves are filtered through the incompetence of our sense organs) with a mix of experience, assorted ideas and suppositions. This means a dynamic image under constant change, since all entities in this amalgamation are undergoing changes.

For the sake of ontological simplicity, I treat the ingredients in this casserole as “layers”, a pretty common thing to do. This is not a statement about their true design, those layers could possibly just as well be described as ingredients in a stew or dachshunds in heat. The layer metaphore is for convenience, not acuity.

The layers build the image and they don´t have a given hierarchy, thus they cannot be said to veil or obfuscate each other (or indeed, the Reality), since no meaning exists outside the stack of layer. Reality unfiltered, untreated, is incomprehensible (by definition, since any form of comprehension would constitute a layer in this context).

The Picture

Pics exist in the real world, meaning that perceiving them means juggling the above mentioned layers. Images are also man-made and thus adding a possible message, a sender of said message and both intended and inadvertent meaning. A rose is a rose is a rose, but a picture of a rose might actually be something completely different, like a metaphor for really deep stuff, or just a misinterpreted tulip.

Images could be built in layers from the very beginning, though not in the meaning discussed here. This complicated the project somewhat, since the ideal would be to build a laboratory where layers of perception could be handled as animation cels. In this Lab of My Dreams qualities of the imaged object, e.g. it´s pre-history or mental disposition, could be added or subtracted easy as handy sheets of acetate.

This flannellboard rendition of metaphysics is of course impossible, the neat layer model would implode into a bunch of very lively dachshunds. The project is from the outset heavily flawed, philosophically speaking. It is really, really bad science.

But this is not a scientific project, nor is it a venture into the field of applied research. The connections between interfering images are to be interpreted poetically, the effect of the mergers will be discussed as art only. This inevitably will mean that the project gets smudged by ideas and flings from outside the project, that it´s purity will be compromised. That is not a bug, it´s a feature.

The Project

(A not very web friendly text)

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