12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Messy Glossary

Term

Information

Texts

Proposed by Heiko-Thandeka Ncube

If this wasn’t a messy glossary, then I would propose a definition carefully placing information between data and knowledge and two steps away from wisdom. Something along the lines of building blocks and stages of constructing abstract notions of knowledge aka WISSENSZUSAMMENHÄNGE. That said, it is far more interesting to look at how we deal with information rather than what it actually is. Information is in one way or another material, and we (the art workers) delight in forming, shaping, and twisting any kinds of material. Thereby, causality and association are tools with which we create intellectual artistic experiences. While truth in science is based on causality, association blooms within the field of creativity and forms the essential mechanism with which we question but also feel. You may think that the lecture performance you just saw made sense, or you may think it didn’t. Yet it certainly challenged your sense of orientation and set up a disposition for radical critique. Do not trust the artist-as-writer. Do not trust the writer-as-artist. Trust whatever you may or may not have thought, felt, or for lack of a better word: experienced.