THE GRACE MACHINE




The plan is to, each year, organize a symposium during the Fall semester, where speakers are invited to embody or enact one of the five figures:

  • standing: the figure of existence, a word that literally means “standing forth,” but that implies an activity of stance, a stance in contrapposto we find in the statues of Barthes.
  • jumping: the figure of play and sports, which seek relaxation as well as the tension that awaits opportunities and relies on timing.
  • hanging: the figure of ornament, of tresses, tassels, garlands and tendrils; the figure of puppets as well, of automatons and robots, perhaps even of us and our own free will. 
  • floating: the figure of media, that oceanic world without horizon, without up or down, but with light shining in all directions. A world of dolphins, octopi and Vampire Squids. 
  • falling: the figure of chance, of the falling of dice. A Lucretian world of accident and coincidence that suddenly seems so close to one of images and reckoning.