Sex Art Crime Madness #5
Aphrodite Apocalypso
With the advent of photography it became apparent that technology is far more adequate in representing reality the way our eyes perceive it. Under the impact of technology’s colonization of mind and reality, our ways of navigating and inhabiting reality have changed as well. Our view on life, reality and ourselves became as cold and detached as the technology we are using, and as superficial and alienated …
Photography started with boxes on spindly legs, and the objects of inquisitive curiosity were told to freeze and hold their breath as if they had died all of a sudden. When shown the frozen images that emerged from a long process in the dark, the prey of curiosity were convinced they had been robbed of something essential, their face, their true self, their soul. The images looked so true in representing what they were used to see with their own eyes, it seemed inconceivable that they themselves who were looking at their frozen reflection had survived the incident …
Something mysterious had happened. The intimate relation between consciousness, perception and reflection was broken, reality itself had disappeared in the gap between observer and performer. In the decades to follow life became ever more fragmented, and presently reality is dissolving in a blizzard of bits and pixels. The more enlightened man has become, the more the mystery of what it all may be about eludes us. Relativity itself may be but a word referring to something not real, just as ‘real’ itself may be but a word, referring to something as hypothetical as a rumor …
Having somebody take your picture, however, is a serious matter, an intrusion bordering on rape. The line between virtual and real may not be as clearly defined as is generally assumed. So called VIPs are known to freak out and go to court over having their picture taken without their consent, never mind they are making a living on whoring and prostituting themselves. The more common folks don’t have the means to defend and protect themselves against copyright infringements, whether on their visual representation or their genetic code. The issue at hand, however, may not be copyright infringements …
Copyright is about ownership on something real. If reality is relative, then how to define the object of disputed claims, its limits and boundaries? Animals are known to react aggressively when I look them in the eyes. They know and feel that they are being intruded on. It would be pointless to call for a lawyer. The apparatus and lenses of a camera rather intensify the notion of rape and intrusion, the camera being a weapon that disowns the prey of its identity and reality within spacetime ...
The act of observing is a one-way street, the prey and victim is exposed and has no means to defend her- or himself. The only way to deal with the rape is to turn the game around and taunt and seduce the Peeping Tom, drive him out of his hiding place behind the camera. This would be the moment when Aphrodite enters reality as a dream that may be too beautiful to ever become real, yet the challenge and invitation may be in what I make of it, where it takes me, whether I allow for it …
It is the game of Aphrodite, Goddess of grace and beauty, to counter advances by playing me along, taunting and seducing me until I let go of my routine attitude. Life and reality are happening in the in-between, the result of what you and I may allow for in the moment of now, coming alive and gone within a blink, hopefully evolving into something new and possibly at an higher level than our ordinary lives. Life and creation are born from the play of open hearts, uninhibited without being shameless …
Shame, actually, is the secret at the core of seduction and enticement. A natural barrier that keeps me from falling for just any woman who happens to be around when the balance of my hormones is tilting. To drive me out of my cave requires manners and style that are capable of overriding the security code which under normal circumstances would pop up and warn me, ‘Not safe at work!’ Whatever you make me do will be draped in the frills of grace and beauty that won’t allow for me to feel embarrassed …
