|
The Measuring Man Measures:
is Himself Measured
| In front of the
British
Library there is a statue of a man, measuring. As he measures,
he defines an area and differentiates it from what is NOT that area.
Measuring defines what IS and IS NOT.... but that definition is driven
by the tools (mechanical and cultural) used to make the measurement.
As this man measures what IS and IS NOT, what is within and without, he
attempts to sort the chaos of fluid perception and experience with a sharp
rigid tool into order and knowledge. For an institution like
the British Library which claims to hold "The World's Knowledge" in perpetuity,
there are choices of what will be included and excluded from "The
World's Knowledge"... and the curators and budget managers have tools (mechanical
and cultural) that include, exclude, define, refine, prioritize,
catelog and file ... and the readers access what those tools designate
as "knowledge".
The measuring man has chosen
tools to define that which is in front of him. The measuring man's body
is also becoming measured, changed, by his process. He is becoming
defined by his own definitions, and each stroke of the compass limits his
subject and limits his own existence. When he excludes some disorderly
bit, some part of his self is excluded.
When we attempt to organize,
define and perfect knowledge, we include and exclude things. What happens
to the discarded thoughts? Do they become derelict bits to be exterminated
or to perish from neglect? |
Henna Pattern adapted from
architectural ornament at St. Pancras Station, next to the British Library.
|
Kings Cross/St. Pancras
street people, who live about 500 feet from the British Library, "The
World's Knowledge". |
My husband imagines
that at night, this British Library measuring man statue may stand up and
walk down Pentonville Road, past the night people: the disorderly, discarded,
unmeasured, excluded people, drunks, the junkies, the derelicts who live
on the sidewalks. I wouldn't want to see them excluded from the definition
of "what IS man?"
Traditional
henna artists in India often were members of the Nai caste, who were barbers.
Nai were a very low caste, and most upper caste people would not take water
from a Nai's hands. If a strict high caste person was shaved by a
Nai, he would wash afterwards to remove the impurity of having been touched
by such a low caste person. The barbers, particularly the henna artists,
often carried messages between lovers, and were distrusted because
they knew the upper class's personal secrets. |
Research
Grant
Locus:
Focus
Set
Breakfast #1
Executive
Breakfast
Where
is Captain Peacock?
Measuring
Man
Method
Madman
Museum
Street
The
Bucket Women
Eleanor
Rigby has Gryphoemia
Phone
Sex
The
Answer
Tea
Break
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