written 12/2022
for Ann Stoler’s class Grammars of Time
Full essay here.
Cover photo by ari-duong nguyen
for Ann Stoler’s class Grammars of Time
Full essay here.
Cover photo by ari-duong nguyen
This
essay uses Nam June Paik’s Zen For Film to argue not only for that time is an
essential political concept, malleable, absorbent, inevitable, and that time
exercises its power through being a metaphor. Conflicts are metaphorized by
time, and time is also metaphorized by our investigation of it, either
purposely or coincidentally, like in Nam June Paik’s scratch-and-dust blank
film.
Methodologically, this omnipresence is demonstrated through firstly, a multifaceted analysis of the experience that is Zen For Film, from the curatorial demands - and liberties attached to the work, to its place in the museum as well as art history, to the nature of the art object at the center of the work. This is part 1, “Zen for film: temporal blankness?“.
. Methodologically, this omnipresence is demonstrated through firstly, a multifaceted analysis of the experience that is Zen For Film, from the curatorial demands - and liberties attached to the work, to its place in the museum as well as art history, to the nature of the art object at the center of the work. This is part 1, “Zen for film: temporal blankness?“.
In part 2 “the metaphor of time” the work is set aside, yet the universality of the time metaphor remains. I surveyed three among many cases where the temporality functions at the core of inequality, namely logistical capitalism (Paul Virilio), queer utopia (José Esteban
Muñoz) and carcerality (Dominique Moran).
Part 3 “transparent film, transparent time” synthesizes the metaphor of time and the actuality of temporal inequalities. I argued for time to be an step towards an equalizing variable, a prism that reveals connections between systems of oppression.
“In the experiment that we are instantly reminded of the existence of time to be equal in the confrontation of near-nothingness, it is not that time is stripped bare in
the artwork, but that in the barest form we experience our existence through time.“
Part 3 “transparent film, transparent time” synthesizes the metaphor of time and the actuality of temporal inequalities. I argued for time to be an step towards an equalizing variable, a prism that reveals connections between systems of oppression.
“In the experiment that we are instantly reminded of the existence of time to be equal in the confrontation of near-nothingness, it is not that time is stripped bare in
the artwork, but that in the barest form we experience our existence through time.“