Eskhaton

A painting can look painted.

A painting can look like a photograph.

A photograph can look like a painting.

A photograph can clearly look photographed.

A painting can be intentionally made to look painted.

A painting can be intentionally made to look like a photograph.

A photograph can be intentionally made to look like a painting.

A photograph can be intentionally made to clearly look photographed.

A painting can look painted unintentionally.

A painting can look like a photograph unintentionally.

A photograph can look like a painting unintentionally.

A photograph can look photographed unintentionally.

A painting can be intentionally made to look painted, and this painterly quality made to look as if seemingly made without intention.

A painting can be intentionally made to look like a photograph, and this photographic quality made to look as if seemingly made without intention.

A photograph can be intentionally made to look like a painting, and this painterly quality made to look as if seemingly made without intention.

A photograph can be intentionally made to clearly look photographed, and this photographic quality made to look as if seemingly made without intention.

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You can see; you can see and know, you can see because you know, and you can see and not know; you can see and you were told, you can see because you were told, and you can see without ever having been told; you can see.

You know or you do not know; you know without having been told, or you know after having been told, or you know irrespective of whether you have been told or not; or you do not know… which could be because it happens that you were never told.

Perception is retrograde; you do not need to know to see; you can see because you remember; perception is memory. Clearly you can see.

Self-violation, the only possible violation of the Self, neigh, the only violence possible, is the violation of the Self by the Self – the Self recanting before itself.

Nothing exists and nothing can be known.

Knowledge is like “an eskhaton—that is, something that belongs to historical time and its law and, at the same time, puts an end to it” (AGAMBEN 1999:174). To know is to put an end to things.

You do not need to know; you remember. You do not need to remember; just be. Clearly you are.

The world is created. And the Self is oriented or inclined towards the Other.

I propose new definitions to the terms ‘objectivity’ and ‘subjectivity’. Objectivity: sighting/siting the object beyond the sightful/site. Subjectivity: sighting/siting the object within the sightful/site, making the object sighted/sited beyond the sightful/site.

No one else could ever be admitted here, since this gate was made only for you I am now going to shut it.

Franz Kafka, ‘Before the Law’ (KAFKA 4)

(The gatekeeper seeks the one who will seek the law, knowing that the law will remain inaccessible to the one who will seek the law. The man from the country figures out that the gatekeeper seeks the one who will seek the law and that the law will remain inaccessible to the one who will seek the law. “Indeed, there is no law.”)

The art of photography was discovered after the art of painting, but the art of painting came first.

References:

AGAMBEN, Giorgio. 1999. Potentialities: Collected Essays in Philosophy. Stanford University Press, USA. 

KAFKA, Franz. 1999. The Complete Short Stories of Franz Kafka. Vintage, London.

Featured Image:

Alan C. Bonnici, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons