Forceps - Recurses

CEP PROPOSAL 5: METACEP

Third sense, "higher than, transcending, overarching, dealing with the most fundamental matters of," is due to misinterpretation of metaphysics as "science of that which transcends the physical." This has led to a prodigious erroneous extension in modern usage, with meta- affixed to the names of other sciences and disciplines, especially in the academic jargon of literary criticism, which affixes it to just about anything that moves and much that doesn't.
        Etymology Online on 'meta-'

[from analytic philosophy] One level of description up. A metasyntactic variable is a variable in notation used to describe syntax, and meta-language is language used to describe language. This is difficult to explain briefly, but much hacker humor turns on deliberate confusion between meta-levels.
        Jargon File on 'meta-'

Reflexivity, recursion, introspection, are important cultural practices, and occupy a special place in human thought. It is telling that it strikes one as odd, slightly uncanny, that Jakobson's six functions of language includes metalinguistics (language about language). It seems strangely like the odd one out. I am reminded of the strange notion that Borges' Library of Babel has floors (and that a significant portion of each room is dedicated to ascension and descention, while traversing horizontally takes up no space.

It is out of this milieu that I intend to work on my CEP.

As artists, and as people, our necessary practice is that of self-examination. To consider what we are doing, why we are doing it; analysis, evaluation. It is the cornerstone of self-actualization, of any meaningful self-directed activity. It is a requirement of any revolution, no matter how small or personal.

As such, I propose that my CEP be an investigation into my CEP.

Forceps - Intimates, on Letters and Packages

CEP PROPOSAL 3: ART IN INTIMACY

I propose to investigate the kind of creative activity that goes on as part of intimate relationships.

Common examples of this are:

• Creative letter writing.
• Hand-made cards.
• Art given as gift.
• Playful note-writing.
• Love poetry.

There are few things more intimate than this, the most authentic, the most phatic of communications. Saying, "this is a part of me, a part of my life and a part of myself, that I want you to have."

It is no coincidence that these are often the possessions most treasured, often with their own dedicated place (commonly a box) in the recipient's life. They are actualizations of the giver, and actualizations of the giver and recipient's relationship. As such, they often remain as precious memories, long after the relationship—or the giver—has ended. In this respect they are similar to Susan Sontag's description of photographs:

"All photographs are memento mori. To take a photograph is to participate in another person's (or thing's) mortality, vulnerability, mutability. Precisely by slicing out this moment and freezing it, all photographs testify to time's relentless melt."

In a world where distance-intimacy is increasingly relevant in most peoples' lives, such easily packaged intimation is becoming an important part of today's relationships. Different forms of transmission, email, post, SMS, are each being positioned as having unique creative-intimate possibilities. And it is lovers who are the vanguard of such technologies, far more desperate to bridge the gap than any poet.

I propose to investigate this sphere of creation, desperately important to many people's lives, yet necessarily private. In a world with such easy available creative potential, I would not be surprised to find that most people's artistic practice is the tip of an iceberg, while innumerable letters, poetics, and gifts remain submerged.

Forceps - Initiates

I'm ill. Or rather, I was. It's a reasonably exciting illness too, one that mostly comes from more interesting activities. And it came with some more interesting symptoms than your average cold. Swollen liver! How exciting.

But, currently, it's resulting in the fact that I'm going to be steeped in lethargy for an unknown number of weeks. So the usual way I have of starting projects—having an idea, getting excited, and then immersing myself in it—seems not to be working.

I have no conviction.

I have plenty of ideas, and I think they're pretty good ideas, but I have no motivation to pursue them.

So, I have taken the only available option: do all the ideas, and see what sticks.

('four' is a misnomer, I may have greater or fewer than four at any one time)

Maybe this will end up being my CEP...