This is the third post in a series commissioned for The Drawing Center that will expand on topics related to the exhibition Lebbeus Woods, Architect, which is on view in our Main Gallery until June 15^th, 2014. The form is inspired by Lebbeus’ own masterful and insightful blog which can be read here. The first two posts are available here and here.

Chris Mann

THE STATE OF USEFULNESS:

‘you know youre in the presence of a system when youre standing in shit.’

Note: For optimal listening experience, please use headphones to listen to the embedded audio file.

The following is a transcription of the audio file embedded above:

(facts spend an inordinate amount of time studying humility, so theres def a tendency to be born again as data (you know, one of those ToobigtoFail metrics, (and dont tell me about Social Algorithms, the Weather is a Social fucking Algorithm. i mean does the Nail in the coffin suffer a fear of missing Out?

.. may i help you? (You know what That means (but do it Quick or we’ll be stuck with the mean average white Slap of an excuse (a fully creditedCredentialled Indictment of .. (and its true the word likes to whinge (its the callingcard of Style afterall, inks in its complaint, punches clock, tips its shade, Waits, (but you cant blame it forShit mugging for theWhat might Look like an aside, but .. but to Prove there was an idea? (proof having a monopoly on poverty. (as posed to being held to the Hearsay standard of some academics petty little My life as a Bitcoin.

but being a labrat in the definition game (that library of untranslatable caveats and disclaimers of a reason redeemed only by its Obligations (Hijacks the metaphor (that good old golden calf) and, and, .. Where was, oh yeah, This.

the word is also strangely passiveaggressive re Peers, so is a particularly retarded learner. (you trying to jinxI mean Every tech legislates its own Accidents (you know, those defs that constitute Added Value, (though words tend to get their theory with no downpayment and a dollar a day so they need reminding that self incrimination is not Necessarily a form of guilt. (anyway, guilts much happier being a Tool, and as any fact will tell you, bringing up the dialectic rear is a full time Occupation .. so Here follows a list of all known possible conjugations of silence .. (maybe its from a powerpoint presentation .. (that Vanishing point was Nicked.

(i mean form is just the attempt to make its content Invisible, you know, the goodenough Blonde version of explanation. and while facts suffer Addition, and addition is nothing if not promiscuous (and somewhere Else in the past (its hard to tell Where exactly, it keeps Interrupting, (not that its metaphysically Wrong mind you .. the Next word but is not mere a theory of intuition, its a full bloody rehearsal of Revelation (the object being its moment of Piety, a forensic Thanking .. it colonises itself by Improving the future. ( .. or the other way round.

.. that just about sums it up .. so heres what we’re going to Do .. lets start with Negation (i mean if its good enough for the girl guides), the scienceThe Experience of explanation (the word is basically a Subby, contracts out the Other bit (otherwise it ends up making a fetish of its persecution. (i mean a word Does have an economy of Scale. (anyway a Tendency, if not an outandout Vector. (i mean sure they dress as purposedriven syndicalists, but they Do tend toI mean talk about Testify, (and as mum has it, its the Medium is of course the Subject, (but then again, the very idea of a subject is a ridiculously middle class sin, so you only get what you Pay for.

.. for the word to be its own Transcendence but, for it to Quote itself, to stutter, play at Heresy tag, the metric of the Grievously Misunderstood .. and its not like Law is admissible as evidence.

.. in The cat sat on the Mat, the cat is the mats Ethics. (in twoplustwoequalsfour, two is a mistake (theres no business like show business (form is a type of Hypochondria, one of its more vicious abstractions, the model Cost. Legislated Opportunity, is how the cop has it. (Cop, terrorist with a pension, the obsessive compulsive (The, for example. or Cross, .. i mean, when english invented, Space, what did she Think she was doing? (i mean Sense was clearly built as a consolation prize (the mere understudy that is existence being one of those Arrangements, a menage that you quote til the real thing comes along (you know, like, like, Swapshop, a Dating site for Objects (List being its nervous definition, (.. actually, why not, you know, an app where you Type in what you have and filter the response by clues from possible futures .. Value (intellectual Property, a competitive exchange with the design life of a single PR cycle .. coding ld be a breeze ..

.. Hey, is a Cat a quantum computer? (There, between the book and the lamp, the Fix, (you know its a chair coz it sits that sat has All chairs as true contradictions (One, an object is what doesnt Understand itself, Two, so There, (no words were seriously harmed inI mean you couldnt make it Up. (the subject but, is the Sum of these differences, so its not really Reciprocal (it Curates information, algorises the past, and Resists, what More do you want? (i mean if you were me, i’d be Jealous (Word, the last thing to .. (though its not Solely adolescent. Yes, it has a messy metaphysics of Access, a flaccid normative gift shuffling into the bitter shriveled trivia ofOh Bite your Tongue, we dont need That sort of talk roundI mean what would the end Be if it wasnt the Romance of the end? ( .. so What are the Odds?

— Chris Mann

language is the mechanism whereby you understand what i’m thinking better than i do (where i is defined by those changes for which i is required).