Įsivaizduojamybė

LTKnygos beveik niekada neatsiranda tik dėl atsitiktinumo, tačiau jose visuomet yra kas nors nenumatyta. Šis tekstas tęsia ankstesnėje monografijoje "Įnirtingas miegas. Vaizduotė ir fenomenologija" pradėtą vaizduotės temos plėtotę, aptardamas šį klausimą šiuolaikinio pasaulio iššūkių - technikos, medialumo, vizualumo įsigalėjimo ir pakitusio meno statuso epochoje - kontekste. [Iš Įvado]

ENThere is a notorious story about Mullah Nasreddin, who managed to unravel the complicated case of an asymmetrical legacy. They say a very rich man died and left his children a message stating that the first son would get half, the second would get one third and the last would get one ninth of the property. Everything went fine except the problem involving 17 camels. One cannot divide this number according to the indicated proportions, unless one camel would be cut into pieces. That is why the children came to Nasreddin, and he offered a solution. He lent one camel, so there would be 18 of them. The first son would get 9, or a half of the wealth. The second would get 6 camels, or one third. The youngest child would get 2 camels, which would be one ninth. There would be one camel left, that is the same one which belonged to Nasreddin, so they could give his camel back to its owner. Nasreddin performs two actions that mathematically and logically contradict each other: he adds as many as he subtracts. Legacy does not change any of its numerical extent. However, there is an essential change in all that. A camel remains safe and healthy, and justice is implemented without casualties. The non-existent being resolves the question of existence. In fact, Nasreddin's camel can even not be present at all. Or, it can be an invented illusion. Or, it can be a symbolical structure, a technological construct, a virtual reality. An artificial or imagined camel would have the same effect on the distribution of legacy as a so-called "real one". What one really needs here is to admit the primordial mutability under the impact of the artificial or unreal - the performative act of adding and subtracting. This action establishes the being but does not efface the non-being. The field of the virtual is an ambiguous reality, which governs under this double economy, enacting what cannot exist as an object but only as a foreign element in the given system. [...]. [From the publication]