18th March - Moire and Metaphor

Research notes: The matter of migration and metaphor

In 2002 Artstation created the user language ‘suspension’ whilst in residence at the Le Petit Chateau, Asylum Seekers' Reception Centre, Brussels. The concept encapsulates the life of those who are in suspension of every aspect of their lives. The work was distributed though various high level and public events and is the subject of two academic papers available through: www.artstation.org.uk where the term 'user language' is discussed further.

Subsequently, in establishing the new project about eco migration, we have recently became aware of suspension used as metaphor in Gaijin-San's Mr Foreigner performance theatre (covered 14th Feb); we also assume this is probably wide spread.

In thinking about the way in which metaphors are used in describing migration and how these are created and distributed and become quotable, the question of forming new contemporary language to engage with the subject is raised. (Alexis will discuss later the binary history within terms currently in use and defend a rejection of metaphor )

The subject of cultural material is evoked in the work of Proboscis' Urban Tapestries project. (Probosics website: http://proboscis.org.uk/. Urban Tapestries website: http://urbantapestries.net/). This seminal work establishes a range of metaphor and processes on which we may build.

The tapestries in Proboscis' case are those woven across urban landscape as people act within the network of communication that they live within. The tapestries become visible in objects and processes like Story Cubes (proboscis.org.uk/storycubes). The Urban Tapestries project establishes the metaphor of cultural fabric.

Our proposal is to build meta-objects from the cultural fabric of migration - a way in which local entities combine, magnify and oscillate as frequencies. (Meta-object is a term borrowed from computer science, and can be defined as 'en entity that manipulates, creates, describes or implements other objects'.) This technique is to be used on specific words and text, creating new compound artifacts in both language and pattern. The work created will be disseminated as images, as media forms and as critical texts, allowing maximum impact on the culture.

The meta-objects are produced within a moire' pattern – a signal to ground disruption. Pattern is generated by the material weave of culture. If such a pattern is passed across itself, in self-intersecting feedback, signals create interference, thus a moiré is transmitted which can be interpreted by our perception.

Moire - A new conceptual space and (metaphor) for thinking about migration...

Pattern is generated in the material of such tapestries by secrets, gossip and rumour within, or at the level of, the veil. Objects we wish to extract are expressed as keywords/concepts, which capture and embody communicable experience of the group.

Tapestry gives a range of metaphor - a cultural material weave, a moire', and also aperture grille.

GD