Palingénétique at Traverse Video, 2023

Much of my poetry video is set up to work at different levels. In general, I don’t mind how they are interpreted by others – that is an essential part of the process. But when someone really gets into the multiple layers of a piece, it is incredibly satisfying. I did an English / French version of my video Palingenetics / Palingénétique that was accepted for the 2023 edition Traverse Video Festival in Toulouse, France. Each year they produce an annotated program of the event and this time it includes an article about Palingenetics / Palingénétique by Simone Dompeyre. The original poem is very complex, and refers to evolutionary and developmental biology, ancient number counting systems, discredited social theory, and climate change (!!!!). But as you can see below, Simone Dompeyre gets it as well as the visual / audio aspects… I was quite overwhelmed by her words. Merci beaucoup!

Here is the text in the original French and then my (literal) translation of it. The full video is below that.

Que le numérique soit médium, s’avère, dès le milieu des années 1990, grâce à l’invention d’étranges organismes en formes enroulées se dupliquant, variant dans la reprise d’elles-mêmes en étranges faune et flore jamais achevées. William Latham en conçut de sculpturales loin du réel, en 3D, leur accordant des règles comportementales et de « sélection naturelle » de l’artificiel vivant. Dieter Huber afficha avec ses Klone #, un projet d’autre monde modifié ; liant biotechnologie, ingénierie génétique et esthétique, il calcula des plantes mutantes encore reconnaissables…

Années 2020, l’algorithme se confirme comme langage. Palingénétique non seulement reconnaît en son titre, son rapport serré avec la science mais prolongeant la bande-son envoûtante, il leur accorde la polysémie et la compatibilité esthétique/savoir, en osant une glose de termes(1), en précisant l’origine du texte.

Ian Gibbins accorde les enveloppements musicaux en 60 mesures, au rythme 6/4. Le nombre participe du beau. La forme est pleine poésie pensante.

La transformation du discours, en une tessiture claire très prégnante, provoque ou est provoquée par celle d’une écharpe irisée, bleu-vert sur noir, venant de nulle part, tournoyant, étalant et rétrécissant sa brillance comme sous un souffle lui aussi hors-lieu. Rien de réaliste, des passages ouïs et écrits, en anglais, en français dont le sens devient « aïsthésique » loin du démonstratif. Le roulé de la forme y va à l’infini comme le pli du baroque, se dépliant dans son passage constant ainsi que Deleuze décrivait ce motif du baroque, mais sans le mode du feuilleté et du stratifié. L’étole coule et glisse ici.

Ainsi se prendre au plaisir du signifiant image, son, lettres et/ou à celui du sens qui inscrit la longue lignée du chiffre, nécessaire à l’image numérique, ce que son nom même assume, alors que le système de chiffres reste parallèlement ancestral. S’y croisent la conscience actuelle que beaucoup reste à comprendre, que beaucoup nous échappe du sens, à celle des débuts, des tentatives de l’homme pour comprendre et maîtriser le monde.

Le film dessine le portrait en creux de l’artiste. De formation zoologiste et neuroscientifique, professeur d’anatomie, il usa très tôt des programmes scientifiques de traitement d’images et de reconstruction 3D alors que, déjà, durant ses études de sciences au premier cycle, il écrivait et interprétait de la poésie.

Simone Dompeyre

Since the mid-1990s, it has been clear that digital technology is a medium, thanks to the invention of strange organisms in coiled, duplicating forms, varying in the way they reform themselves as strange, unfinished flora and fauna. William Latham designed sculptural forms that were far from real, in 3D, giving them the behavioural and ‘natural selection’ rules of artificial life. Dieter Huber, with his Klone #, presented a project for a modified other-world; linking biotechnology, genetic engineering and aesthetics, he generated mutant plants that were still recognisable…

In the 2020s, the algorithm is confirmed as a language. Palingénétique not only acknowledges, in its title, its close relationship with science, but extends the spellbinding soundtrack, granting them polysemy and aesthetic/knowledge compatibility, daring to gloss terms, and specifying the origin of the text.

Ian Gibbins constructs the musical wrappings in 60 bars, in 6/4 time. The number is part of the beauty. The form is full of thoughtful poetry.

The transformation of the discourse, in a very prominent clear tessitura, provokes or is provoked by that of an iridescent scarf, blue-green on black, coming from nowhere, swirling, spreading and shrinking its brilliance as if under a breath that is also out of place. There’s nothing realistic about it, just passages heard and written, in English and French, whose meaning becomes “aïsthésique”, far from being demonstrative. The rolled form goes on infinitely like the fold of the Baroque, unfolding in its constant passage as Deleuze described this Baroque motif, but without the layered, laminated mode. The stole flows and slides here.

The pleasure of the signifier – image, sound, letters – and/or that of the meaning that inscribes the long lineage of the cipher, necessary to the digital image, which its very name assumes, while the system of numbers remains ancestral. The film brings together today’s awareness that much remains to be understood, that much has escaped us in terms of meaning, with that of the beginnings, of man’s attempts to understand and master the world.

The film paints a portrait of the artist. Trained as a zoologist and neuroscientist, and as a professor of anatomy, he made early use of scientific image processing and 3D reconstruction programmes, even though he was already writing and performing poetry during his undergraduate science studies.

Simone Dompeyre

Click here to read more about the background to this piece.