unplug the infinite

We need to "reinvent movement, the vector of our actions. We need to not forge ahead into the infinite, but learn to step back, to unplug, in the face of the finite. That's another way of liberating yourself. A form of feeling your way, and, curiously, of becoming capable again of reacting." Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis. 

Photo of tapestry (80 x 74 cm) by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October, 2024.

The real thing

"there’s a particular kind of disappointment when you begin to admire a bouquet or a blossom at a distance and find out closer up that it’s fake. The disappointment arises in part from having been deceived, but also from encountering an object that is static, that will never die because it never lived, that didn’t form itself out of the earth, and that as a texture coarser, dryer, less inviting to the touch than a mortal flower.” (Solnit, 2020, Orwell’s roses). That's what I think about chatGPT, artificial things, and fakes. When everything is automated, human interaction is precious. More than ever, the natural, the handmade, the imperfect, becomes the real luxury. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"To remain aloof from the group while honouring one's organic ties to it; to exist between loneliness and alignment, remaining always a bit of a stranger; to resist the resolution of the narrative, the closing of the circle; to keep looking, to not feel too at home." Isabella Hammad (2024). Recognising the Stranger. Photo by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC). November, 2024.

November

"It's the spectator who judges and who decides, to the point where every relationship between forest, sun, lake, animal and sky goes via him and is establish for his sole good. It scarcely matters, moreover, whether what’s been stuck in front of him is an old master, an industrial development project, a battle plan, a view of the sky, a theatre scene or the map of a realm some prince hopes to control.” Bruno Latour (2023). After Lockdown: metamorphosis.

Photo of mini tapestry (15 x 9 cm) with dry flowers, plant leafs and fibers. by Monica Pinheiro CC BY-NC-SA (CC) October 8, 2024.