QUAD I—progress #01-06

Abstract

This flyer series is part of the QUAD-quadrilogy from the summer 2021. QUAD contains a double reference: 1) Samuel Beckett’s choreography named QUAD; 2) A set of positions posited by Bruno Latour to explore and map a territory of the terrestrial, as opposite to global, conditions that we may currently have to determine/invent. QUAD is composed of 4 flyer-sets of 6—4HEX—with each their different positions cast as roles: I) someone makes a statement based on assumption: II) someone else forwards knowledge in support of the assumption; III) a third role lies in coming up with a critique of that knowledge; IV) a fourth instance has/claims to have the know-how.

This flyer-series spans a set of assumptions and assertions made by Bruno Latour in his book After Lockdown, which is presently only available in French (but is scheduled to appear in English copy in 1-2 months at the publication date of this flyer set). We are locked in is his assertion: in the universe above us and below is, about 3km up/down.

That is, a thin varnish if measured by the Earth surface (510 million square km) which—by the standards of the universe—is an artefact. How do we move in this textured surface, made up of the living (the terrestrials), as we move laterally (mapping and discovering) according to laws of perception and movement that we yet have to make/develop. We are in a metamorphosis.

The 4 sets in the QUAD series are true to my movements this summer: in a variety of situations and positions, that start out—as here—with the geological scale of the the terrestrial: indeed, how can we comprehend this scale without taking stock of the rock around us, and what it means (as in Norway) that what we see is 1000 million years?

On the drifting continental shield called Baltica, that in times of yore was south of the Equator. This is the geological scale. And this is also the scale of the anthropocene. What we have caused, yet cannot comprehend. At the micro scale the same is true of the metamorphosis (change): the alternative of anamorphosis (formed anew) is explored.

In the last flyer #06 there is a hyperlink, at the bottom, allowing you to return to QUAD II.