ARCHIVE: The Evidence of the non-existence
As the paradox of active forgetting lies in the impossibility of erasing traces, I captured 100 traces which is evidence of the absence of existence in the form of photography. Traces serve as a manifestation of the absence of existence.
The doomed failure of active forgetting and the ironic counterproductive effect of the deepening of the memory during the active forgetting process is a typical
counterproductive case. Apart from being an emotional issue as memory is independent of the control of will (Talay, 2019), This counterproductive effect is generated by the
will of active forgetting, as forgetting intentions can result from a counter-will of unwillingness to forget in the subconscious (Freud, 1979).
To look closely into the paradox of active forgetting, a set of analogy experiments is conducted. I sorted out metaphors from different theories in active forgetting: suppression (Freud,1979), shutting doors to block intruders (Nietzsche,2013), indigestion (Nietzsche,2013), etc., and simulated these metaphors in practice to experience the confrontations taking place within these actions.
All actions in this process are the power of negation. As all negation is the negation towards something rather than a void, in applying the force of negation to all objects I feel a reactionary force from the existence of the object, it is me that confirmed their existence, until then, they've been quietly asserting their existence like “I’m here... I’m here...”. My negations of them are like stamping with legitimacy on them.
To look closely into the paradox of active forgetting, a set of analogy experiments is conducted. I sorted out metaphors from different theories in active forgetting: suppression (Freud,1979), shutting doors to block intruders (Nietzsche,2013), indigestion (Nietzsche,2013), etc., and simulated these metaphors in practice to experience the confrontations taking place within these actions.
All actions in this process are the power of negation. As all negation is the negation towards something rather than a void, in applying the force of negation to all objects I feel a reactionary force from the existence of the object, it is me that confirmed their existence, until then, they've been quietly asserting their existence like “I’m here... I’m here...”. My negations of them are like stamping with legitimacy on them.
As active forgetting itself is an attempt to erase existing memories, I adopted a second more targeted experiment, taking different approaches to destroy a piece of paper with my unwanted memory written on it “A dog jumped out of the cliff”. I tried blackening it, crossing out the sentence, putting tape on it, sewing a piece of curtain on it, shredding it, burning the whole paper off, and reorganizing it after shredding it into pieces. The paradox lies in that the will of active forgetting is the admitting to the existence itself, which evolves into the counter-will. During the process, all of my attempts to erase the materialization of the memory - the sentence “A dog jumped out of the cliff” are creating new traces instead of demolishing it, even the ashes of the paper indicate that there was something I’m not able to face. The traces I created in erasing the traces (memory) only bared my willingness to erase it, and the failure of erasing it.