الأشياء التي تعلق وتتشبث في الخلاء
The world is composed of contrasting binaries, such as black/white, good/evil, yes/no, and others, which are connected by a gradient that attempts to explain the extremes. However, the human mind is finite and cannot fully comprehend the pure and absolute states of these infinite binaries. This trilogical world-view model is a visual embodiment of this attempt. The model would proposedly behave through means of ordered chaos, similar to a fractal, which is complex in essence and infinitely repeats its patterns. Even within such a digital age and advancements, a computer cannot fully explore all the generated iterations, and there always remains a limit to the infinite algorithm.
If labels were placed for each component of this trilogy, the most general word in any language is "thing". Then the two opposing variations of it would be "no-thing" ("لا شيء") and "every-thing" ("كل شيء"), which are states or conditions that result in "no-thing-ness" ("الا شيء") and "every-thing-ness" ("الكل شيء"). These binary states have infinite qualities with "some-thing-ness" ("البعض الشيء") as a gradient connecting both. The creator (الخالق), the first virtual character in the film, will be assumed to exist singularly in the unity beyond all creation. However, the trilogical separation of two binaries and a gradient within the total unity of the creation is for the observer (المراقب), being the second virtual character, to exist in. Both states of nothingness and everythingness are equally opposite and symmetrical to each other.
Existence in each of these realms is beyond the comprehension of the finite observer ("النهائي") due to their infinite natures ("الا نهائي"). However, the state of somethingness is bound and limited by the material within the context of immaterial (space-time). It remains a gradient, meaning that the observer is constantly traveling through it. The observer seeks unity with the creator at the end of the finite, yet they remain to be left with the realism of this gradient's ecology. This ecology is filled with visible forms that the observer considers them as the embodied infinity which is used to communicate with the creator. These forms vary in kind whether them being religious scripture, icons, etc.
Within the gradient, the observer acts and reacts through experiencing space-time through happenings, events, occurrences, etc. More so, if it is ordered chaos that governs such a world, then the “butterfly effect” would be an applicable worldview model. Meaning, a small change in initial conditions would create a drastic ripple of change for future events. The observer, hence, would experience chaos through different cases. First off, one must picture the entities of chaos, events, and the observer separately. Case (A) includes the events themselves being lost in chaos, while the observer is still and just observing the events. Chaos in the events starts appearing to the observer in the form of a curse or a blessing. The closest representability of this would be using cursed imagery, and even events that are blessed are too blessed that they are also cursed. This comes out to the observer with uncanny and liminal feelings of nostalgic recollection of memory. Case (B), however, involves the observer themselves getting lost in chaos detached from the events themselves. The events are neither good nor bad, neither cursed nor blessed, etc., they are what they are. Yet, the closer the observer is towards chaos, they become stuck in a loop of attempts at memory retrieval. The process of this retrieval is not fully possible as the observer reaches a threshold, and the full memory is corrupted and impossible to fully recollect. Case (C) includes both the events and the observer getting lost in chaos. This can happen in two ways.
One of these ways, (c.1) would imply that the events and the observer already exist within chaos. The observer would then surrender to the events and the mundane of the day-to-day. Such surrender holds a form of resultant appreciation towards the mundane phenomenon ("الظاهرة الدنيوية"). Through such appreciation, the observer and creator become equivalent. The observer, singularly or in plurality, when witnessing any phenomena consensus builds that it is reality and, thus, becomes accepted as an end to what it is. The acceptance of the phenomenon in its true form must be independent from delusions and the phantasmal. Hence, the phenomena of the mundane would feel euphoric and serene.
In the second way, (c.2) the observer and the events are in motion to eventually reach chaos. The observer, still in search for unity with the creator, demands the happening of the so-called “miraculous event”. Supernaturally and ideally, the creator would send an image to the observer in the form of an apparition. The apparition is received as some miraculous light, which can be considered as material and immaterial due to the dual nature of light, it being a particle (a photon) and a wave. However, what happens if the contrary occurs, and the observer attempts to send an image to the creator? The observer translates his attempt via the photograph since it shares the same properties as an apparition. The result is an experience of the phantasm ("الوهم") rather than the phenomenon ("الظاهرة"). Yet, the observer is judged to be controlled by the phantasmal and is a phantasm manifester ("فهو موهوم ويتجلى الأوهام"). Whereby the image remains as a figment of internal manifestation. To maintain the presence of the manifested phantasm, one must obsess and fantasize it constantly. The image eventually never reaches the creator, yet it becomes fractalized along a certain range of coordinates within the space-time fabric of somethingness. The image, therefore, undergoes or experiences time with its photons getting translated accordingly.
This film essay series is an attempt to explore the virtual tri-nature of such abstract theological ecologies and worldviews of chaos, order, and randomness while testing the thresholds of digitality. The first volume of “The things that cling and suspend to the void” is an overview of the explained above. Meanwhile, the second film essay focuses on the butterfly effect as a governing mode for events and the stance of the observer. Overall, this visual embodiment attempts to explore the unrepresentable totality of the virtual.