Sean Connaughty

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AHOTE "20th Generation Approximation" Ron Dahl's Class 1988-89

AHOTE "20th Generation Approximation" Ron Dahl's Class 1988-89 | Media List

20th generation approximation a response to Ron Dahl
20th generation approximation a response to Ron Dahl

Statement

part of the oral history component of "A History of the Earth"
Sculpture 1989 with Ron Dahl.
A really interesting time for me. I was exposed to alot of great people, We had a discussion about language. Is it possible to communicate meaning? I ventured that a word is only an approximation of it's original form as an idea the meaning and the connection is difficult. That idea spawned this response.

I took a beaten old blown car speaker, and ran a speaker wire only to the tweeter, then I placed a microphone over it and recorded onto a cassette recorder, I played an old blues record made by men in Angola Prison, (Lonesome Blues by Guitar Welch) playing through the speaker. Once this was recorded, I took the Cassette and placed it in another machine which played it through the blown tweeter, and recorded it via microphone onto another cassette, and played that through the machine' recorded onto another cassette, onto another casstte twenty times, Thus the name "20th generation approximation" an analogy about language, and communication and loss, I edited out the clicks, I might put them back in.

I also wrote a paper. "Love Letters to Language" I've been thinking about it ever since. Informs my art today.

I've been archiving old stuff, hundreds of tapes actually, stuff from way back amongst it. Experimenting with audio and going to MCAD I had the stereo with the upright turntable, but it had a source/mic knob so I could mix 2 sources onto one cassette. woo. Didn't have money so I had to utilise what was available.

here's the paper:

“How is an idea translated into language in the mind? We can perceive a separation between them, the idea and its expression. It is a nebulous particle around which we form language. I will call it the original form, that which seeks expression to give it form, to bring to the outside that which is inside.

When we find something, hear something, read something in the form of language, what is it that that makes it ring of truth? The words are approaching some kind of alignment with the original form. This illustrates the fact that what one is attempting to clarify has not yet found words. One undergoes a process of translating the original form into language. The idea exists before it is given new form as language. It follows that the idea exists without words. The idea inspires the language. The idea in it’s original form has no words.

Take the word ‘hammer’; why is it that when we say it does not perfectly depict that which we are attempting to describe? What is received and what is lost in translation?

In the word ‘hammer’ there is an element of the universal. Though we may each have different experiences upon hearing the word ‘hammer’, there exist universal qualities conceived by all, conversing in a shared language. It is the universal element that allows us to comprehend one another, and to detect the elements which seem kindred to our own understanding of the object of discourse. What falls into the range of universality is a fairly narrow margin. But the word ‘hammer’ can be further specified by adding other words like, ‘sledge hammer’ or ‘ten penny claw hammer’. However, we could continue to describe the details of the hammer and never have it exactly as it is.

As the ideas become more complex so does the language problem. The more complex the idea the greater the distances we must traverse. In the process of translating the original form the result is an approximation.

Approximation:
1. the act of approaching closely in space, size, number, meaning or the like.
2. The result of such an approach as a nearly correct estimate

From the root ‘approximare’ meaning; to come near to

The original form exists within us in its complete and present form; perfect. Perfect in the sense that it is the thing which is emulated, imitated, reproduced. In the act of translating, something is lost and something is gained. The idea manifested (communicated) gives one insight to continue further inquiry and discourse. Something is lost when we fail to communicate the essence of the idea. There is further damage when our approximations are accepted as infallible. There is no instrument to measure the accuracy of our approximations. We hold a certain faith. We need to be aware however that we are building foundations upon approximations.

Sean Connaughty 11/09/1988

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