avit.d.m.1990.יעקב
אילזה לסקר-שילר
מגרמנית: יהודה עמיחי
יעקב היה הפר של עדרו.
ברמסו בפרסותיו,
נתזה האדמה תחתיו.
שאג והשאיר את אחיו המנומרים,
רץ לתוך יער עד אל הנהרות,
לעצור שם את דמו השותת מנשיכות קופים.
בעד הכאבים העיפים בקרסוליו
צנח קודח לפני השמים,
ופני השור שלו בראו את החיוך.
sometimes. d.m. 1998
Long nude blue hamsin, 1988
מבוא והקשר:
המסה "עיצוב ורוח הדברים" נכתבה בשנת 1993 על ידי דוד מיכאלי, מפתח מודל "טיפול שטח" וההתערבות הטיפולית בתווך הפתוח. הטקסט מציב תשתית פילוסופית-אסתטית עמוקה החוקרת את הזיקה שבין גיאומטריה יסודית, תודעה אנושית ומרחב. דרך ניתוח צורות היסוד, העיגול, המשולש והריבוע, מיכאלי מעמיק במושג המודול כרכיב פעיל המתרבה, מגדיר ומארגן את המציאות. מתוך המפגש בין הריק, הגריד והסדר הצורני, נחשפת הדינמיקה של התפיסה האנושית ומבטאת את הזיקה שבין הפיזי לרוחני — הלוא היא "רוח הדברים".
Context & Introduction
Written in 1993 by David Michaeli, a pioneer of field therapy and
therapeutic intervention in open spaces. The essay "Design
and the Mind of Matter" establishes a profound philosophical
and aesthetic framework examining the relationship between elementary geometry,
human consciousness, and space. Through an analysis of the primary shapes; circle,
triangle, and square, Michaeli explores the concept of the module as an active, replicating entity that
defines and organizes reality. Out of the encounter between the void, the grid,
and formal order, the essay uncovers the mechanics of human perception,
capturing the interplay between the material and the metaphysical; the very
mind of matter.
A Gemini English translation of David Michaeli's essay
DESIGN AND THE MIND OF MATTER
David Michaeli
There are three primary shapes: circle, triangle, square. Upon a bright sheet of paper, ancient characters are inscribed. The edge of the shape’s line lives like a shore, and the waves of the line pulse in space far beyond the visible. For a moment, courtyards appear, bounded by the fences of shape, inside and outside. For a moment, the entire field of the page appears; for a moment, the entire play of shapes.
The square radiates its world through invisible lines. The four cardinal points, the four ordinal points, the four parallels, unto the infinity of derivatives and back to the inert matter at the center from which everything unfolds. Symmetry and reflections. With shaded cubes and lines of thought, the field blossoms into a square. The triangle creates a crystalline network of supports. Right and upward, left and downward, floating bridges and pyramids. A radiating circle echoes circles across the face of the pool. Hidden within its waves are both the square and the triangle. Not many see it. Its center of equilibrium manifests by surprise, birthing new focal points like raindrops, continually fanning out in a glowing sweep to the full perimeter of its pulsing radiation. Its light remains in the field, continuing its journey to the edges of the universe, even after the circle itself has faded. Every primary shape is a module, by virtue of its capacity to replicate.
Space exists from the boundary of the shape inward into infinity, and from its boundary outward into infinity. Intricate patches, the game pieces connect—one to another, one upon another, diagonally, in inversion, by skipping. The gaps, the empty spaces, shape a rhythm. Unit to unit, space to space, void to void, units to units. Continuity bestows the consolation of order. Within it, the fearful one forgets—for moments of constructed grace—the page. He sleeps. The void continues to conceive shapes. Every unit and every connection signifies a decision. From here they replicate, setting off on their way at a gallop. A decision is required as to what the chosen lines of the floating sheet's world shall be; the hands of the skilled artist do not err in measure, direction, or form.
A blank page is a window laid upon the great, dim void. The nothingness will give birth to action. All that is necessary is to frame the void. The premise is the beginning of the game. It may appear incomprehensible, arbitrary, random, whimsical, unexpected. An axiom. With the premise and the field, time will appear, and with it the horizon, the zenith, the angle, and the symmetry. Then, immediately, the second choice in the hierarchy will appear: the choice of shape that dictates the lines of the floating world. This is the primary shape whose lines will determine the character of the page, its relationships, and its times: sunrise and sunset, autumn and spring, birth and death, light and darkness, male and female. Shapes pass like a cloud across empty skies. Do you see the father? The mother? The receiving firstborn, the rebellious middle son or daughter, the fragile youngest children whose thoughts are unbound? The wind blows. What is the window through which you gaze? Does the cloud's center of gravity match the window's center of gravity? What is the weight of the cloud? What is the color of the thunder? Do you hear the heavens? A spectrum of relationships and emotions is projected unto and from the occurrences, across the stage of the page. Texture, weave. Harmony sends forth waves that strike waves that strike waves. Planes trickle melody in shifting textures. The thunder of the void is well covered. Upon closer inspection, the continuities are revealed. Closer still, the complex module. Inward further, the foundational unit and its distant, empty courtyards. These are things whose way of contemplation is poetry.
Every light requires darkness around it. Every patch of light in the darkness is an action. A new cycle. All shapes share the same role. So too the menus of language, the grid over the chaos, and in the beginning was the word. In the formal layout, the word is a patch. Placed correctly by a skilled artist, the meaning will integrate into another layer and create an overtone. The weight of the body is assessed relative to the boundaries of the window of observation, and relative to the other bodies on the field. A "good" picture will touch upon something ancient, nameless, eternal, and instantly recognizable. "This." A completeness existing in its own right. And the poet? Ah, after the decision, you are outside the world, my friend. How sad.
On the surface of the existing status quo, the new patch arouses the same dread as discovering cancer cells. Its meaning is a threat to the existing order, exposing it as relative. A new shape, a new opinion. Yet even such a wild patch, if we yield and repeat the action again and again, will also create a pattern of action, a pattern of shape. Hesitant new directions will mark themselves as illusions beneath the mists of accumulating characters and patches. In their wake, a foundational rhythm will be revealed, and from it a complete landscape pattern will emerge, which is nothing other than our own reflection as the creators or originators of the action. Surprised, we discover ourselves. The moment one identifies order, simultaneously, one identifies with it. Imprinting! Yet order does not express values of good or evil; rather, it represents a path alone. Then, as it appears, celebrated, it is the very thing that will be chosen by the bewildered condemned, drawn toward that which exists. Once again, the void has trapped the observer.
Look at the directions! Look at the rhythm! The entity of the module can be a visible shape, a body, an action, a sound, a touch, a scent, a memory, an idea, the living, the vegetative, the inert—and indeed any phenomenon and its compositions capable of summarizing movement and replicating. The module is a sentence. In this sense, it defines, divides, discriminates. The module is an active thing. It creates space, an environment, and a world by virtue of the network of relationships it originates. Even abstract or highly complex ideas create a grid the moment they become a closed, replicable module. Thus, we have come to know the spatial lines created by bread, the Ten Commandments, the dialogues of Plato, the Crucifixion, the Quran, Gutenberg’s printing press, the Communist Manifesto, or the persona of Marilyn Monroe. They create an environment and a technological aspect by the very fact of being a model for replication.
A factory manufactures both the product and the consumption, creating an environment derived from it. To a great extent, the weapon manufactures the war. The automobile manufactures the roads. Words and sights manufacture consciousness. It is by no means certain that this is the distinct reality by which we wish to live, but as long as there is no action and no creation of an alternative module, this will remain that which exists. This essay, falling into the pool of the environment, creates lines of influence derived from it, and naturally the option of replication, until it can pave the entire space. The entire space, in fact, is designed according to that same primary factor, and everything existing within this space is governed by its lines and directions. Furthermore, any action performed within this space will move along those same coordinates that continue to be generated from the original, actual existence that continues to echo, or from its memory, which echoes as well.
Therefore, the only way to escape from there is to turn one's back and ignore it. Not to use this world. When I do this, I allow myself to move within an empty space, ready for a new action, which, if it becomes sufficiently consolidated, will be able to create a reality whose waves will generate a new network of relationships, and thus the game continues unto infinity.
When I arrive at an understanding of a grid, I tend to perceive and
judge the entire world according to it and according to the source through
which the grid was revealed to me. This is, of course, a one-dimensional view
and a naïveté that brings fanatical zeal in its wake, with all its appendages.
Moreover, many seekers find worthy of identification only the defined
directions, failing to see at all the source or the primary module that
established them. These are utter fools, sometimes murderous fools, being blind
worshippers, free riders of the direction and of the capacity to act as
something that justifies itself alone by its mere existence, granting a sense
of security.
Givatayim, 1993
ההודעה
(א. פלטשר, ס. רובינסון, ס. צ'ייס, מ. גלובר –שוגרהיל הקלטות 82)
