#519 Wheel Of Desire

“A body has the property of being able to be seen, poorly seen.
People think of it as a bubble of air, a bag of skin. Here, one is dealing with a support, a figure (of the imaginary), with a material that I posit as real.”

Jacques Lacan, Lecture on the Body

Reality, as it is beyond language, is hidden from us. But just as when the invisible man has paint thrown over him and suddenly appears in front of us, we can perceive reality with the help of language. Language covers the raw, unmediated matter and makes it understandable. At the same time, it hides our inability to see, reach and directly participate in the innermost core of existence. In this way, we recognise a deficiency in our perception of the world around us, which creates a lack–something is missing. This lack is what propels humanity. To explore, penetrate, investigate, conquer, surrender, immerse and invest in. To love. But it’s never enough. We are always on the outside. It’s the primordial, inevitable and everlasting wheel of desire.

Perception is an interpretation and thus consists of language in the same manner as understanding words. To the mind, a word is always also an image. In that sense, understanding words function no differently than normal perception. When we see, images are constructed inside the mind. We never perceive reality objectively or in itself.
However, to use language, we have to speak or write it. We have to realize it. Nothing ever communicates without being inscribed into a matter of some sort. But how words are inserted into reality affects how we perceive them. Thus, reality itself seeps into language. There exists no clear or unmediated communication. Matter adds to the message. Because which matter we choose to communicate through and how we shape it reflects on who we are, it can reveal unconscious or hidden meanings.
 
Humans inscribed the first written words in stone or clay. One of the purposes was to save them for the future, to protect them from the volatility of time. To speak or to write is always, to some extent, an act of power. The receiver must initially submit his or her attention to the message. No matter how insignificant, its meaning will always, in some way, change the receiver forever.
 
There is a constant tension between language and reality as matter. The human subject is defined by an individual will, as opposed to the strict causality of nature. This will strive to be expressed through language. Maybe self-awareness is a result of language use. Language as a way for the ego to invent itself, to inscribe itself into the world. It is no coincidence that many of the first examples of texts are curses, prayers, laws, or inventories — different ways of trying to influence and master reality.

Res Ipsa is a compilation of works made by an act shaping the filler once it is prepared inside the frame. The works thus function as a recording device and give a statement of the event taking place while the filler was still wet.

Res Ipsa is Latin for "the thing itself" and is part of the juridical term "Res ipsa loquitur" (the thing speaks for itself), used when an injury or accident in itself clearly shows who is responsible, such as an instrument left inside a body after surgery.