An Ontology Dinner - Publication Draft

An Ontology Dinner

To “solve”, or provide a solution to a problem, premeditates the idea of being able to control the problem. In a world where design is considered to be the act of problem solving, our attempt is to change this top-down narrative where the only thing that can be seen as a solution in our work is our stance as a voice to be recognized.

The 21st century has seen some exciting shifts in schools of thought such as the emergence of object-oriented ontology, where human thought or existence is not seen superior to non human entities. In our act, we borrow from this ideology among with alternative ways to define reality to underline the fact that we accept the unknowability of things and the complexity of nature beyond our ability to control it with consciousness.

• Myth as New Reality: how fiction and myth can be a new way to define reality. Myth itself is actually real, constructed reality relies on “currencies” defined by systems which are fragile. The subjective nature of reality allows us to define new ways of reality and consider myth/fiction as a narrative which has the potential to be real.

• From Duality To Cylicality - Philosophy has long been dealing with mind/body as duality and human existence as the only legitimate existence. Object-oriented ontology and deconstructionist ideologies are helping us to change this way of thinking and equip us with new ways to imagine cyclicality. (Unravel--Buddhist thought, Cartesian school of thought as a poor way to define corporeality)

• Non-Reductionist Ways of Thinking & Making - Science, in its attempt to simplify complex systems and arguments for the sake of being understood, has long been reductionist. Non-reductionist thinking recognizes the unknowability or irreducibility of objects and systems around us. Singularitarians believe that AI or technology will prevail human thought and reign as one super power with an ability to control everything. As opposed to this, we choose to embrace myth over constructed reality, poetry over factual arguments, emotions over the false heroism of the logical mind. What is imposed on science by what is sensual is an endless act of explaining. MIT Professor Joichi Ito refers to this in his Resisting Reduction manifesto as the tendency of science in an act of reduction of complex things namely to be able to explain them elegantly.

• The Unknowability of Things Beyond Human Awareness - Kantian philosophy offers the true nature of objects as things-in-themselves. Kant considers this phenomena as noumena, something unavailable to human access. We may perceive objects and our world with our senses, but their true nature may be hidden from us. With a similar thinking, we accept the complexity of systems surrounding us and we retain a humble attitude in trying to understand them. This is key since we attempt to understand, and not control or exploit or dominate.

• Food as an Ontological Narrative - Two processes has made human existence to see its day until today: evolution and culture. Food, as something inextricably linked to survival as well as culture, is shaping our social narrative greatly today. But can food be a medium, or a tool of narrative to reflect our reverence to non-human entities surrounding us? When stripped down from culture, food, is a complex structure of what just like every creature like humans need: nourishment. Food is reward, as well as reinforcement. Food is luxury, as well as survival. Food is story, as well as stillness. Our take on food as an ontological narrative provides us with a new lens to look at the world. Nourishment, knowing that every animate and inanimate living are dependent on same molecules and elements, should give us a metacognitive perspective into seeing the world.

The perspective which considers politics, power and money fundamental is because our social structures rely on them and take them as the only currency. Same perspective takes fiction and myth as inferior to reality mainly because these narratives don’t seem to be contributing to the perpetuation of the currencies that we rely on today to define our very existences. But we don’t have to embrace this narrative to be a part of the world in which we want to create. 

The emergence of speculative realism and design fiction matters. In these methodologies, alternative futures, namely based on realities of today can help us to navigate our experiences and understanding of the complex systems surrounding us. 

Ecofeminism already regarded currencies of power, politics and money as something that reduces nature to be inferior to mind, which tends to be male.

‘‘radically contingent creature called the human and of the complex web of embodied relations which have brought both species into being’’

‘‘Queering has the job of undoing ‘normal’ categories and none is more critical than the human/ nonhuman sorting operation’’

Our consciousness, which is something that enabled us to put our existence on top of everything else, is actually a pattern of self-destructive behaviors. So how come we still praise consciousness or human mind as key to coexistence or sustainability?

Where did we ever get the strange idea that nature —as opposed to culture— is ahistorical and timeless? We are far too impressed by our own cleverness and self-consciousness… We need to stop telling ourselves the same old anthropocentric bedtime stories.

Karen Barad: Why are language and culture granted their own agency and historicity while matter is figured as passive and immutable, or at best inherits a potential for change derivatively from language and culture? 

It is a performative understanding. We act. As Graham Harman says, maybe before the cave painting, the mask was the first artwork, that theatricality came first.

Does language accurately represent its referent?

Does scientific knowledge accurately represent an independently existing reality?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMVkg5UiRog