VOIDALISM: Of, In and Beyond the Void
“Everyone is actually someone in whose stead no one can enter.”
Nishida Kitaro
As part of artist residency at Plas Bodfa (Ynys Môn) with Charlie Blake, investigating the nature and being of the void.
The term follows from the Latin term vocitare, “to make empty”. In Welsh ‘gwagle’ or ‘annilys’ (with a familiar latinate ‘nil’ or ‘null’ present), referring to that which is empty, and also invalid. Legally, there are many connotations here invoking states of exception (where emergency state measures may ensue and rights are suspended). It can also infer a terra nullis, a land occupied by noone, a legal claim to settlement used as a justification for colonisation .. and now we of course know, that no land is occupied by noone.
So the void can be controversial, not least for its connotation to lack or the female vacuum. And yet there are so many understandings of it, from quantum physics, to religious and existential experiences of breakdown and breakthrough, it feels important to examine its very (non)existence - and not avoid the void altogether, and really try and make use of it - even if it doesn’t exist! Seeming as we are on a perpetual, and ever accelerating, edge …
So many thanks to everyone at Plas Bodfa for such wonderful support and opportunity to make use of their incredible space, to give these ideas a structure and a home. And the catalysing work‘Void Faction’ by Julie Upmeyer and Marirose Pritchard which has been a true magnet for my voidal incursions.
One of the reasons I became so infatuated with the void was after reading critical theorist and quantum physicist Karen Barad’s text, “What defines scale in the void? What is the metric of emptiness? What is the measure of nothingness?” Barad, K. (2012), “What is the Measure of Nothingness? Infinity, Virtuality, Justice”. This has prompted an online reading group of which there are details below.
Monthly Reading and Practice Sessions
A monthly reading/sharing of practice session that would be either responding to a reading or an artist who will share their practice relating to the void.
Below are the dates for the gatherings, and the readings and practice sessions can also be changed depending on demand.
For those interested please contact yeoldefinch@gmail.com.
1 - 23rd October 6-7.30 UK time - Reading - What is the measure of nothingness? - Karen Barad’s text, “What defines scale in the void? What is the metric of emptiness? What is the measure of nothingness?” Barad, K. (2012), “What is the Measure of Nothingness? Infinity, Virtuality, Justice”. There is a version of it here
2 - 27th November 6-7.30 UK time - Practice - Disclaimers and Other Legal Voids - Carey Young (TBC)
3 - 18th December 6-7.30 UK time - Reading - Decreation - Weil, S. (1977). Decreation, In G. Panichas (Ed.), Simone Weil reader (pp. 350-356). New York, NY: David McKay Company. Reading found here.
4 - 22nd January 6-7.30 UK time - Practice - Void Fraction - Julie Upmeyer and Marirose Pritchard
5 - 19th February 6-7.30 UK time - Reading - Ferreira da Silva, D. (2017). 1 (life) ÅÄ 0 (blackness) = ∞ − ∞ or ∞ / ∞: On Matter beyond the Equation of Value, E-Flux.Issue #79. Reading found here.
6 - 19th March 6-7.30 UK time - Practice - Archeological Void - Sibel Horada (TBC)
7 - 23rd April 6-7.30 UK time - Reading - The Outside and the Fold - Badiou, A. (2000). in Deleuze: The Clamor of Being (pp.79-95). London: University of Minneapolis Press. Reading found here.
8 - 21st May 6-7.30 - Practice - Voidalism - Luce F-M
