Subway thoughts

The 20th Century philosopher Martin Heidegger made an important observation when he spoke of 'Being' as a verb rather than a noun. Being, the basic unit of existential analysis ranks next to 'Self' in importance. Or rather they are one and the same thing. Form and function become indistinguishable.

Heidegger's texts formally understand this in terms of the discursive tools he uses to construct his arguments. He takes the reader through a journey and demands of them not a passive understanding, but an active engagement. Process determines product. Theory is derived from practice.

Trocee and I have been going back and forth about the role of verbs and verb tense in relation to culture, awareness and consciousness. The basic subject has to do with the relation of verbs and verb tenses in language and how they serve as a reflection of that culture's understanding of the world. As a result then, one might be able to map a relationship between language, culture, cultural production, and possibly individual action.

Heidegger';s claim of being as verb and being as noun is often misunderstood by speakers of English. The German language denotes a verb by the use of a capital letter at the beginning, just like we do with proper nouns. (I personally prefer a little impropriety in my nouns, but that is a separate post.) As a result an everyday German understanding of language,when translated into English takes on an esoteric metaphysical quality. 'Being,' 'Capital 'B' Being, and so forth. This common misunderstanding obfuscates the essential meaning that Heidegger is trying to make, life is action. The form coexists with content in a mutually necessary almost symbiotic relationship. Heidegger further placed an emphasis on context, an element ignored by his French readers who came to be known as the Existentialists. So we have an evolved network of relationships. Form, content and context all inform react to and guide one another.

Why does this matter?

It matter because this is life. This is how we live. We are placed in a context(born), and we react and interact with it. This is also theatre. We have a text(content), performed(form) within a given place and time(context). When I write about minimalism or lyrical humanism within the context of a networked meta-theatrical setting I am already creating that theatre through the use of hyper links, common cultural references, tags and so on.

If I mention the most beautiful sun set ever, I have helped create that for you in your mind by referencing your memories locking onto my words in an attempt to understand and we begin to break the fifth wall. When we go see Dorothy's Mash-Up Theatre we will be experiencing a live, whole and contained theatre event. But we will also be experiencing contemporary music trends, hip-hop, the theatre blog world, visual art, technology and so on. And on.

Endless associations.

Endless associations that feed in on themselves. It is truly a web. But not a mere object. It is a living thing. It is information evolving like and organism. A thought becoming aware of itself.

Just as the work of Plato, in a sense, did not become fully realized until Derrida's deconstruction of it, so too does information not become alive until it has the proper technology to live its content and make concrete the associative networks it has always operated under. All that is left is to package it and sell it like Cola.

Oh, wait. Someone did.