| Die Mauer, Theoretical notes: Die Mauer is essentially about determinism. Time, space and the human, and their relations. For those who are satisfied, please stop here. From the conclusion to the original theoretical notes: (composed in Berlin, Oct, 2002) The Experiment: An infinite number of events, stretching back into infinite time have combined to cause myself to exist, to cause dumbass to be formed, to cause this concept to form in my mind. This is one of an infinite number of examples of infinite causality. All of this infinite causality stretches back into infinity (infinity/infinity [= 1]). The completion of this album will be another event with an infinite number of causes; another case of infinite causality. AS we approach this point the number of causes shrings (perceptibly so and inactuality though the actual shrinking of the known AND unknowncauses is beyond our vision). Nonetheless, the closer we get to the point of completion, not only does the number of causes shrink, but the rate at which the number of causes shrinks increases. For our purposes we will end observation at one single perceptible cause (the pressing of the album), but the shrinkage of causes (just as the total amount of perceptible and imperceptible causes is always infinite in a single moment of spacetime, through the agency of history) indeed goes on into infinity (th pushing of a button, the moving of a muscle, the nerve signal...). From the early notes: -History of Berlin up to this point -the new building, IE the city as it is now, with its new growth -not the result of the consiousness of the people that compose it, nor of its history, rather of something else -the race foreward, towards? -catching up? -the melancholia + dissasociation -the wall itself -its unique plave in berlin's consciousness -island-city, nation in itself -feelings of confusion, detachment All of the historical causes for this one, songle, verry specific situation/mindset/problem/thing (the berlin mind, the mind and body of the city itself...) stretching back into infinity, involving the whole world and its entire history and each and every event and cause triggering others... An infinite expansion back into time, into infinity... Or to look at it another way, Time, Space, Circumstance, (probability), all contracting and condensing into one single unit of humanity (or if you will, a single spacio-temporal event). As time increases towards any arbitrarily set spacio-temporal event, probability decreases exponentially from infinity and coaleces into a unit (one single point ot spacetime-circumstance). Human existence therefore, moves from a state of infinite causality (where any outcome is uncertain due simply to the impossibility of calculation) towards a state of infinite definition and restriction. What we are dealing with then is a reversed theory of infinite probability. A theory of infinite causality, and infinite restriction (determinism). Infinite causality is constantly collapsing into single spacio-temporal events. A constantly shrinking universe and existence moving toward some possible point of maximum collapse (big crunch?). The ultraspecific nature of the berlin experience can be seen as a metaphore then for the description of not only an aspect of the human condition but a universal theory of existence and reality. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is all highly summary and patchy at the same time, but it gives one an idea. The original theoretical notes are available, scanned in their entirety on the multimedia disc (included in version 3 of Die Mauer) for more detailed information (though no less clear or organised [these were only ever meant to be working notes to myself and were composed in a mad rush in the middle of the night in early October in Berlin, under a dim desklamp, by the window, overlooking a courtyard, in a former telephone factory]) please consult these. Thank you, Zeke Mason |