Construct #11 (May 1, 2017)

Our entire history in a way is made up of constant articulation and rearticulation of Narratives—Narratives that work like tangling lines of stories that we tell ourselves to make sense of who we are, our purpose, and our relation to others. Stories woven, within and around us, ad they give meaning to our very existence.

Like those who came before us, we seek to define the meaning of meaning itself. More often, we stop at the dead end of Personal Narratives—as it is something that would comfort us the most, while giving stability to our sense of self. That the world is a playground or a stage to which we would conquer from one level to another.

While on the other end of the spectrum, our Collective Narrative dictates who we are in the larger scope of things—what song to be sung in what uniform with which color for which flags by whose father's fathers who had found which land... There are more tangled strings between those Narratives than we would like to admit.

Yet often we choose to forget, if not ignore, the much subtler web of strings that strangles us in the first place: the materiality of the narratives or an entirely different history and context that by itself makes those narratives possible.

Our Reality works as our bounded Narratives and vice versa, our Narratives as our bounded Reality. We'd rather choose to believe that it's solely us who articulates how the world was/is/should be—while dismissing the role of 'the world' (or things that are beyond us) in articulating how we were, what we are, who we will be.

Would it be enough to just let ourselves get tangled in the mess that has always been? And if there are no better ways to detach ourselves from that mess, would there be a much subtler blade that we can grip onto in order to cut it off?

Let us hope and strive for it—that it's neither to give in nor to cut loose, but rather to refine and make them clear. And by that, we shall rearticulate what needs to be.

Contents

1. Bright Future

2. She Who Was Generous with Her Joy

3. Scribbles #1:

Conversing with Children

4. We Are as Dead as Can Be

5. Sambutan

6. Untitled

7. Ribelli (Rebels)

8. Collega Il Passato Con Il Futuro

(It Connects the Past with the Future)

Click here to download Construct #11.