Reading 3: The Order of Things

This reading, like the other we have had, was very rich. The author's thought process and description of the relationships, conversations and effects of things on one another was very engaging in that it made you really think about subtleties and details that often we do not consider deeply.

The author talked about 4 main "figures that determine the knowledge of resemblance with their articulations." The first of these was convenience (convenientia), or the juxtaposition of objects, like the touching of the beginning of one to the ending of another, or the edges of two objects coming in contact. This is not the normal connotation of connotation of the word convenience I think of. As I read about this figure, I kept thinking of our critique's in class, when we set up our work and this convenience starts to play out, without us even intending it to sometimes. Often though, we try to use this as a tool, or at least keep the possibility of it in mind as we put our work out on display. The second figure the author described, aemulatio, is "the means whereby things scattered through the universe can answer one another. This figure creates circles of connection, like convenientia, of resemblance with out needing contact. This relationship or interaction between objects of some kind seemed a little more abstract, requiring maybe a little bit more investigation of something to see. But of course this is something that I think many of us are trying to achieve in our work, creating the resemblance of something deeper or different through more than proximity or exact replication. The third figure was the  first two superimposed, analogy, this one seemed a little more familiar because I think is something that is obviously taught to us but the author describes on a much more complex and deep level. The author describes analogy as being able to create resemblances across space (like aemulatio), but also speak to "adjacencies, bonds and joints". The author talks about this figure being about subtle resemblances of relations, these relations can be reversed or refocused without losing their force or contradicting each other. This was good to think about in relation to how we are always seeking after different or new ways to go about building things or generating ideas. Why not start at the other end of an idea or form to get to a conclusion? The final figure was called sympathies. The author describes this figure as one that transforms, as a principle of mobility, a displacement of qualities that take over from one another in a series of relays. He talks about this being dangerous if left alone without other figures at work, that everything would run the risk of becoming the same. This is good to be reminded that there is a balance to be acquired in similitude. This concept also reminds be of the idea of entropy, or the disorder of the universe. It is the measure of progression towards thermodynamic equilibrium, at which forward and backward reactions are at an equal occurrence, things would be the "same", which would actually be very bad.

The author's writing made all of these interactions and relationships between things visually, physically and contextually carry intense significance. This was an interesting thing to think about and realize the power in working with, in and around all of these forces. We often underestimate or are unaware of these things being at work with in, between, around and through our work.