I was reading the first few pages of Synchronicity by Carl Jung, supplied by Andreas, and this burst out of me like a Ridley Scott Alien.
In our information based society we have so many more ways of recording reality everyday. Almost everyone in the developing world has a camera on their mobile phone, or a digital camera, or a digital camera on their mobile phone. We have the massive dessimination of CCTV, recording the publics every move. We have the explosion of "reality TV." We have the internet where people can constantly document their lives on diaries in the blogospher, or photos on Facebook and Flickr, or video footage on YouTube. All to broadcast to the entire online community. Now as we move deeper into the digital age we have so many, almost ubiquitos ways of recording reality it seems synchronicity is a lot less likely. Jung states,
"We are dealing with ephemeral events which leave no demonstrable traces behind them except fragmentary memories in peoples minds, then a single witness no longer suffices, nor would several witnesses be enough to make a unique event appear absolutely credible."
This was first published in 1960 when society was still largely industrial, so probably held more weight and potential for scope then, than it does now because of all the mediums and techniques mentioned above. Ephemeral events are no longer ephemeral when they are continually archived to be referred back to whenever by whoever. There is no longer just a single, or several witnesses, but anyone with a motive to look. It would appear that our digital revolution and surveillance society are killing synchronicity. Reality is recorded and chance is explained. Chance is no longer mystic coincidence but noted consequence. Acausal events whither to the triumph of causality and we again wonder to what extent do we have free will?
3 comments:
lego anyone?
http://www.thefwa.com/adworld/adlego1107b.html
maybe the idea of 'the ghost in the machine' is relevant to your investigations http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_in_the_machine
Events may be more numerous and recorded than they were, but do they have less weight and resonance for the same reason? In this sense, are they becoming more ephemeral rather than less?
Like the maze idea Zac, its an interesting take on interactivity and the restriction of choice. Remember the glasss maze at the venice biennale we talked about? Its by Belgian Eric Duyckaerts Pics here.
Mike
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