Monday, January 14, 2013

From the Publication


The Think Again Catalogue is nearing completion. Here is a snippet from Per Hüttner's text on the logic of the project:

"In order to make sure that our lives become interesting and meaningful, we need to safeguard diversity, difference and the right to foster and develop each individual’s inherent uniqueness. This holds true whether you come from a country with 10 million or around 1,5 billion inhabitants. As the title suggests, the project also stipulated that all creativity is connected to thought (even if its output is physical, practical, corporeal or visceral). So what does it mean to think? The question is as old as thinking itself. Certain philosophers say that as long as thought continues to presuppose its own good nature and good will, as long as “thought” is grounded in common sense, it will think nothing. Thinking is therefore two-sided. One side is grounded in tradition and the other breaks with the same. Or phrased differently, we cannot break all the rules at the same time. But we also need to break some of the rules in order to be creative. Rule breaking is fundamental for our survival.

But other thinkers go further. They claim that thought is the act of thinking something that no other human being has ever thought before. We have to ask ourselves if there is there a limit to thought? If so what are the boundaries defined by language, technology, tradition and the physical restrictions of our brains? Does thinking have to be logical? Or can thought embrace paradox, the absurd or even madness? An explicit goal of the project was to create space for the enjoyment of misunderstanding, non-understanding and other nonsensical forms of communication. The project takes inspiration in Taoist thinking and strains of western philosophy. We do so to overcome the fear of the unknown - which is thinking’s worst enemy. But I will return to this in a moment."