LITERATIONS: Exploring the Unknown



Introduction:

This section is so new that it defies description. Somebody suggested to me that perhaps I should start a blog and that this could be an indirect form of contact under difficult emotional circumstances.  However -although the idea of indirect communication rather appealed to me (and I fully support the idea of "Art as Therapy") -I must also admit that most of my life has been spent struggling against the egocentric hyper-subjectivity of western culture -and it is exactly this aspect of the contemporary use of "digital media" that I find most disturbing.

Worst of all for me, is the feeling of aggressive abuse (coupled with a total denial of that abuse) that I get from the people who promote these subjective systems -as if it was the only approach possible and my work has no real right to exist. With one exception -I do not like blogs -and I did not wish to have the technology of blogs and wikis invade the simple (and almost hand coded) nature of my own site -just as others apparently do not like the disruption of my thoughts invading their safe conceptual spaces.


Nevertheless, negativity produces bad karma -and it is nice to have a simple playground where one can relax and enjoy the basic pleasures of life... perhaps a newsletter, where one can keep distant friends and family informed without spending all day writing individual letters.... it is also interesting to see if some kind of literary form can develop out of  the project, and of course it is important (and perhaps essential) to have a dialogue (direct or indirect) between different aesthetics without fighting for their mutual destruction..... Perhaps, nicest of all,  is simply to do things without rhyme or reason (but perhaps rhythm!) -without knowing why or what..... Just as it is nice to have friends who can be themselves and do not need to "prove" anything....

Indeed, perhaps the most dangerous and self-destructive aspect of of contemporary global non-culture is the way it forces everybody and everything into separately organised and non-communicating segments -with nobody allowed to dissent or disagree because this offends the delicate sensibilities of the powerful: The principle of  "divide and conquer" practiced on a mega scale, with connivance from intellectuals -who if they trully did their work, should know better. Mono-culture is a subtle form of suicide! So what the hell: Every garden that exists outside the madness of mainstream collective destruction is another victory in the war against global commercial fascism. Let a thousand flowers bloom..... and with luck, the enemies of civilisation will all die of hayfever....


Maybe "Literations" has something to do with literature -perhaps with iteration, perhaps with "art as therapy".... who knows! If people like feedback -then they are welcome to email me <trevor at tebatt.net>.  I may, or may not, post their comments (or a reaction to them) here..... I'm also hoping to start a mailing list to discuss "Subjective Programming", the rest of my site and other related issues -but that is the more formal approach. This section is to show that I am open to newideas and new approaches -and, although I philosophically object to the excesses of "free-expression" -I'm not scared of subjectivity, emotion or the loss of recognisable structure....


My beloved stepfather once told me of a friend who kept short bits of string in a box labeled "Bits of string -too short to save"...... I guess that explains pretty well the nature of this new section:


Bits of string -too short to save:




Trevor Batten
<trevor at tebatt.net>
Manila, November 2006