Aleksy Domke
Thesis: Bypassing Immanence
The Mathematical Inscription of the World
Through two interlinked parts, an installation and a short film, The Mathematical Inscription of the World works with the semantic dimensionality of molds. The conceptual notion of a mold is applied in the context of contemporary knowledge systems and image-driven reality production in today’s society.
Modern technology is fundamentally a product of Western history. With its spread across the globe, it carried its European ways of thinking, driven by objectivity, computability and scientific knowledge. This hegemonic force however, has necessitated all other philosophies be translated and trialed against its Western framework, a homogenizing process of erasure. A framework that proclaims it has transcended its status as a system of metaphors and become “what the world is.”
The installation is formed around an industrial injection mold, a tool used to produce most consumer objects. Lacking an imprint of an object to mold, it takes on a symbolic role as an allegory of said modern technology. The cooling oil recirculating in its internal channel system has been replaced with a metal etchant, which slowly leaks out, scarring its precision-machined surface. The mold attempts to conceal this internal, non-conformal flow, intensifying its selective compatibility.
The film explores a different kind of mold, a psycho-social mold, an algorithm–as–mold. Through a fragmented, non-linear narrative structure mirroring the nature of thought, the film addresses the recurring crisis of reality in our post-truth, digital society. A young man lives in a world governed by molding machines – ever-present reality-production systems that mold using screens, extending into everyday life. He, like others, is unaware of their existence until he stumbles upon an online conspiracy theory suggesting they might be real. Having uncovered a fraction of the condition of his world, he has a vision in which he enters the realm of molding machines.
