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Twitter Meme: Paul Klee's Twittering Machine (MoMA)
“Art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” Paul Klee
Did Paul Klee knowingly or unknowingly "tweet" the first Twitter?
Did Twitter find its birth place in Paul Klee’s "Twittering Machine" painted in 1922?
In an alchemical combination of musical tones, nature symbolism, and a magical sigil of lines; Paul Klee may have concocted a spell for the Twitter meme.
"In modern uses, the concept was mostly popularized by Austin Osman Spare, who published a method by which the words of a statement of intent are reduced into an abstract design; the sigil is then charged with the will of the creator. Spare's technique, now known as sigilization, has become a core element of chaos magic. The inherently individualistic nature of chaos magic leads most chaos magicians to prepare and cast sigils in unique ways, as the process of sigilization has never been defined rigorously and the magician is expected to 'fill in the blank spots' by his or her self. Sigils are used for magical spells as well as for the creation of thought-forms."
"The appendix to The Art Of Memetics by Edward Wilson & Wes Unruh defines a sigil as 'an intersection of the glyph, the time of the glyph’s making, the energy behind the glyph, and the intent in which the glyph was formed."..."From the threads of these four energies a knot is tied on the altar of the mage’s consciousness. This 5th energy, this secret knot now tied, is the true sigil.'"
"Klee was aware that in a conventional system of images, the sign is a 'trigger' to meaning. Klee wanted his signs to live in our visual awareness as facts themselves, as well as have the sense of being triggers toward meaning. Toward the end of his life, Klee immersed himself in the study of ideographs of all kinds, including hieroglyphics, hex signs and prehistoric cave images." Modern Art Prints
Why did Paul use birds in his Twittering Machine sigil?
Besides mating songs there are certain bird vocalizations called calls:
“Calls are brief sounds with relatively simple acoustic structure, usually mono- or dysyllabic and usually don't involve more than 4 or 5 notes. Calls may occur in bursts of extended duration (alarm calls, flocking calls of Chickadees), but there is no clear organization or pattern detectable.”
Localizable calls are short notes with broad frequency range that give information on the location of the sender. Ornithology Lecture
Bird calls are micro-blogging at it's best. Pretty close to what Twitter is about. Paul Klee's "thought-form" and the resulting energy accumulated around this meme over the years, may be part of Twitter's present success.
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Twittering Machine (Die Zwitscher-Maschine) 1922
Paul Klee (German, born Switzerland. 1879-1940)
Oil transfer drawing on paper with watercolor and ink on board with gouache and ink borders,
25 1/4 x 19" (64.1 x 48.3 cm). Purchase. © 2009 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
564.1939
The Museum of Modern Art
11 West 53 Street
New York, NY 10019
(212) 708-9400
In New York City: Other works of Paul Klee
Arches of the Bridge Break Ranks
Curtain (Vorhang), 1924
In the Current Six Thresholds
Magic Garden (Zaubergarten), March 1926
New Harmony
Portrait of Mrs. P. in the South (Bildnis der Frau P. im Süden), 1924
Red Balloon
Runner at the Goal
The Bavarian Don Giovanni
12 Works by Paul Klee
Temple Gardens, 1920
The One Who Understands, 1934
123 Works by Paul Klee (Listed below are some of the artist works)
Demon above the Ships, 1916
Destruction and Hope, 1916
Gifts for "J.", 1928
Girl with Doll Carriage, 1923
Head, 1925
Hoffmannesque Scene
Introducing the Miracle, 1916
Pastorale, 1927
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Comments
very interesting. i'm intrigued...
Stop using the term "meme," for Christ's sake. As a metaphor, it completely fails to describe the deep structures of communication. Try discourse theory if you really want half a hope to describe viral communication in some useful way.
Zephyr -- a superhero webcomic in prose
wereviking.wordpress.com
Well, Wereviking....I would like to use the term Egregor which simply means a thought form ...but it's association with arcane magical practice is too weighty. "Discourse theory" well...that would just have to make a reader go and Google it. And if I had to explain "discourse theory", it takes too much space. What I do know is that quite a few people are familiar with the term meme...since Twitterers have coined the phrase. The point is to use common terms so "everybody" can understand, in short articles as these.
Tima...thank you. Were you aware of the Molecular Twitter Party that happened this week to coincide with Deleuze conference in Cologne? This is what we contributed (We being Chordata, a desert arts non profit UNorganization ;) WWWDOTanodyne2artDOTcom) regarding Klee and The Twittering Machine: tinyurlDOTcom/MTwtrP
We notice Wereviking included url but this is not allowing!So fill in blanks?
Are you on Twitter? I'm launching an experiment using twitterdrawerDOTcom to tweet (in close to "real" time) in drawings. Tag drawing #artsevo #MTP
"Meme" was not coined by Twitterers,although after a week of Deleuzian language, simpler and clearer the better. I noticed that many were actually afraid to join the #MTP stream because of the sense it was a closed and inscrutable secret order. Thankfully, a lot of people still have an intact sense of humor. With that said, it's words thrown about like "Shaman",that truly drive me to the edge. Ha..
best to you,
Twitter anodyne2art waterbea
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