Task 30 - Entanglement
Marie writes:
At the end of my Response 29, I used the word ‘entanglement’ to describe the interconnectedness between the internal and external experience of my pregnancy. I like the word. It brings to mind an image of concepts interlaced. I freely admit that I utilised this word with reference to Karen Barad (New Materialism,Dolphijn & van der Tuin 2012 p. 50) and her use of ‘entanglement of matter and meaning’ (ibid) but without really understanding what she means. As a matter of fact there is a lot in New Materialism that I do not really grasp...
I went to a conference in London last week on artistic doctorates called ‘Per/Forming Futures’. During the many talks, panels and sharing of practices the words diffraction, entanglement and agential realism came up repeatedly. I was glad that you had talked about the work of Karen Barad in the past year, so I didn’t feel completely lost when this terminology was mentioned. However, this task wants to get closer at explaining them and this is where you come in!
Your task
As I was telling you anecdotes from the conference about the repeated references to Barad’s work, you asked me if anyone was talking about how it was used to explain and make sense of the artists’ work. I fell short of an answer. This task asks you to give me the answer to this question.
For your task I want to give examples of ways in which the words ‘entanglement’ and/or ‘diffraction’ can be used to explain/get closer to an art work or a process.
I would like you to make/construct/draw something that explains and illustrates the chosen concept(s).
What object/process can you produce to make the concept more tangible?
Does using any of the responses we have given in the project so far help explain these concepts? If so, find a way to use them/it to clarify.