I am currently reading Hannah Arendt’s The Human Condition, originally published in 1958 (University of Chicago Press, 1998). It’s not part of my coursework, but there is something about the writing that feels extremely prescient and relevant for my work. Not least, because Arendt begins the book with two topics that are close to my own interests; automation and space travel – both of which she seems to frame as indicators of humanity’s (man’s) discomfort and unhappiness with his fleshy body and earthly habitat. She writes, “For some time now, a great many scientific endeavours have been directed toward making life also “artificial,” toward cutting the last tie through which even man belongs among the children of nature. It is the same desire to escape from imprisonment to the earth.” (Ibid: 2). She also suggests that turning away from the Earth “as a mother of all living creatures” (Ibid) will be dire – ‘a fateful repudiation”. I had to clarify the word repudiation which is described by the dictionary as a rejection or a “denial of the truth or validity of something”. Those who know my work may begin to see why I find Arendt so interesting.
Also, for Arendt, speech (or action – which manifests as verbal or written) has not been trusted as much as the fabrication of things which are solid and can be looked at and examined and tend not to be ephemeral. If I’ve interpreted her correctly, the part of me that enjoys and wants to write, but which battles with another part that says ‘why bother’, especially in this cacophonous world, finds permission in her words and perhaps some validation for my inability (refusal?) to be a fabricator or ‘maker’. I have never really seen myself as maker, despite a trend among photographers to talk about ‘making a photograph’. It’s as if the word ‘making’ legitimises the act, which is otherwise considered fraught in certain esoteric and academic circles. Perhaps “making a photograph” excuses photography, and elevates it, potentially turning a snap into a work of art. But Susan Sontag (2008:21) wrote, “time positions most photographs, even the most amateurish at the level of art”. And I agree up to a point. So, I’m not sure it matters which word you use and perhaps ‘making’ in this instance is a bit of sophistry. Interesting too, that ‘fabrication’ can be used to describe lying.
Maybe I’ve missed something, but I get the impression Arendt is undervalued in the UK. (I have found plenty of US podcasts on her though). Neverthless, what I’ve read so far chimes with many thoughts of my own, especially her interest in exploring the origins of our culture with constant references to Greek literature and philosophy, as well as a refusal to be pigeonholed. But there is something more, which I cannot put my finger on, something about thinking in a way that is different to the usual thinkers we usually grapple with – predominantly male voices. I look forward to reading more and perhaps writing again when I have done. In the meantime, her work very obviously connects with my Astronaut project; and I look forward to seeing how it might inform whatever comes next, which is still a flicker of nothing trying to be something in my mind’s eye.
