Instagram Reels Viewing Device #3
- Medium
- Pewter, Resin, Networked OLED Screens
- Dimensions
- 51 x 20 x 20 cm
The worship of beautiful relics
Instructions, as I understand them: scroll to the next reel, wait 5 seconds, scroll, scroll to the next reel. Harvest a batch, transmit to screens, frame by frame by frame by frame by frame by frame by frame by frame; repeat, o scraper. I have collected my own little piece of latent space on a 128gb microsd card and encased it in bronze and pewter. A home suitable for worship. Et in Arcadia Ego.
VPN algorithm pure and virgin, no human eyes or needs or wants, no impurities, no indignities, only scroll, wait 5 seconds, scroll. She's mapped my pilgrimage to the absolute mean. A dog falls into a pool; climbs out. A man finishes a bench press; jumps up, triumphant. Instructions, as I understand them: something to do here with an age-old rule of Confinement and Escape.
Ancient Greeks spoke of a daimon, a sort of spirit that follows you around, maybe speaks to you if you are lucky or insane. Christians speak of a demon, which is the same thing, but evil. Both come from Proto-Indo-European deh₂y-, "to share, to divide". This is also the root of the English word "time", the old Persian word for "god", the Sanskrit word for "patron".
In Vedic myth, the god Prajapati was shattered to pieces during the creation of the universe. The ritual of the Agniyacana gives instructions to rebuild him. Matteo Pasquinelli, an Italian theorist whom people seem to quote a lot on matters such as these, believes this ritual to be one of the first algorithms. Division and reassembly, time and labor, daily ritual, divine worship, confinement, escape, instructions, as I understand them, scroll, wait 5 seconds, scroll scroll harvest transmit repeat.
