Writing as an Intimacy with Machines
Eric Schmaltz
We are born into language, into its flows, into its
complex of shifting & shimmering circuitry. Every component of language has
a machinic life that emerges in & through interactions with humans &
non-humans. Each language component is a piece of data, encrypted with visual
& sonic information which we meet in endless recombinance like lovers among
& upon themselves. Writing is an intimacy with machines.
When we write, we construct a multitude of machinic
assemblages. Beginning within, our body initiates an interaction of synaptic
events coupled with the application & interaction of muscles, tissues,
textures, & pressures that guide the flow of data. These bodily processes assemble
with a technologic realm––taut skin on a fine tipped pen; graphite on a
yellowed notepad; a Macbook held close as it purrs at midnight. Like antennae,
we receive & transmit data thru & into these assemblages. This is an
intimacy.
For us, writing opens at these realizations: the
machinic & the assemblage. Letters, sentences, paragraphs, poems, &
books are machines formulated from various strains of input & output, all
of which are created collaboratively in & thru the meeting of bodies, of
machines, & of systems. The visual & sonic information of language is
that which acts upon us & with us. It alters
our biochemistry & neurology, & we respond with our placement of &
response to the mark. This
is how we arrive at the delicate curve of a meticulously designed serif, the
flick of a tongue sounding “love” or, the epic span of the long poem. There is
no one assemblage. Each language component is a block of data that we couple to
another to formulate a machinic enterprise of potentiality. Writing is being intimate with an assembly line of
infinite configurations.
Yes, that is true, and well said.
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