Here, Henry David Thoreau meditates on the nature of knowing. Not an analytical argument as to whatever equivocation lay between knowing how to count money and knowing what life is, but instead a wielding of descriptive language to evoke a feeling for this difference. It does bring to mind something more philosophically bound, like the debate between Thomas Hobbes’ materialism and René Descartes’ dualism. Whilst both were a pursuit towards reductionism, they differed conceptually as to how…
essays:
a different kind of dualism; information and knowledge (2024)
shadi ghadirian’s Qajar series (2023)
A woman sits on a chair wearing clothing indicative of the Qajar dynasty period in 19th-century Iran. The image is in sepia tone, and one might almost be convinced it is a photograph from the Qajar period except for the Pepsi can the woman holds. It has been said that Shadi Ghadirian’s portraits from her seminal Qajar series display the tension between tradition and modernity through an anachronistic effect. However, this paper will argue that there is another perspective from which to view the series.
artificial meaning (2021)
We humans are a unique form of nature due to our intelligence. It is what sits us at the top of the food chain, and the inspiring force behind the initial launch of inquisition into consciousness. Let’s face it, we are fascinated by ourselves. So much so that we are actually endeavoring to create a new being, called AI, through the use of our own intellect rather than letting nature carry its course. It feels like our own self-aggrandizing attempt to surpass nature like we are somehow greater than whatever it is that created us.
identity is not self (2021)
Consider for a moment that identity shapeshifts, and has little to do with who you are. It seems counterintuitive to our colloquial use of identity, which suggests a relatively static human ontology. This static part of ourselves is further validated through identity documents like a passport, or a fingerprint. Though none of these identity artifacts remain as any conventional method with which my friends, family or I identify.