Every time the artist wants to quit smoking, she turns the wrench in the installation to the left, and it
will print out a sentence “I decide to quit smoking for the xx time.” And every time she starts smoking
again, she turns the wrench to the right and it will print out a sentence "I smoke again for the xx time."
In line with the different ways in which the artist quits smoking and resumes smoking in the moving image, the length of sentences printed by this installation fully demonstrates the vacillation of will- repeatedly swinging between two decisions, and often acting against her best judgement.
The decisions she ever made on both sides constitute a seven-meter vacillation of will in which the artist shows the dilemma of will in a humorous way and thus mocking on the failure of will.
In line with the different ways in which the artist quits smoking and resumes smoking in the moving image, the length of sentences printed by this installation fully demonstrates the vacillation of will- repeatedly swinging between two decisions, and often acting against her best judgement.
The decisions she ever made on both sides constitute a seven-meter vacillation of will in which the artist shows the dilemma of will in a humorous way and thus mocking on the failure of will.
During
the two months, each time I decided to quit smoking and smoke again, I pulled the
wrench or manually recorded the time I made this decision. And every time I pull it,
one of the two printers on the corresponding side will print out one line as “I decide
to quit smoking for the XX times” or “I smoke again for the XX times”. In the end, the
paper on each side is 3.5 meters long and is 7 meters long in total. “The elusiveness
of the will as a concept has historically come from the fact that it isn’t an organ but a
bargaining situation.” (Ainslie, 2001)
The frequency I vacillate noticeably increases when I set up the will to overcome the weakness of my will by quitting smoking. To demonstrate that I attach importance to certain moments, I demonstrate my loyalty by smoking. When tackling with serious jobs, I smoke to show I am taking the work much more seriously than the will to quit smoking. Therefore, quitting smoking no longer appeared as a goal of will to overcome the weakness of will, but turned into a scale, a measuring unit of my will. I used it to compare and measure my will towards other things and used smoking to attach importance to a certain moment in every present.
Similar to the paradox of active forgetting, attempts to suppress an already existing trace are often futile. Every will of being continent commands a wholehearted complete will, this will that cannot be complete by commands becomes fatigued and disappointed in the commands, and turns to a more retaliatory weakness of will which not only appears as acting against one’s best judgement but also in the infinite generation of commands to make the last will complete due to the inability to achieve the previous commands, leading to constantly shifting and changing of decisions.
That is the paradox of the weakness of will, and the most likely question to be raised is whether successful continent actions prove the paradox is nonsense. That's not the case as most successful transitions from incontinence to continence are not achieved through the will to overcome the weakness of will itself but through other strategies such as eating sugar to divert attention during smoking cessation and adding an hour of walking after meals during the process of quitting alcohol.
Pulling the wrench to the two sides symbolizes the struggle of my will: when I emphasize to myself the significance of overcoming the weakness of will, my rational judgment at many moments refuted this will from different perspectives: “Isn't overcoming the weakness of willpower a scam?”, “Isn’t the urgent need for a cigarette now more real and intense than overcoming the weakness of will?”, or even worse, “I admit that I am a weak-willed person, what can you do with me?”
The frequency I vacillate noticeably increases when I set up the will to overcome the weakness of my will by quitting smoking. To demonstrate that I attach importance to certain moments, I demonstrate my loyalty by smoking. When tackling with serious jobs, I smoke to show I am taking the work much more seriously than the will to quit smoking. Therefore, quitting smoking no longer appeared as a goal of will to overcome the weakness of will, but turned into a scale, a measuring unit of my will. I used it to compare and measure my will towards other things and used smoking to attach importance to a certain moment in every present.
Similar to the paradox of active forgetting, attempts to suppress an already existing trace are often futile. Every will of being continent commands a wholehearted complete will, this will that cannot be complete by commands becomes fatigued and disappointed in the commands, and turns to a more retaliatory weakness of will which not only appears as acting against one’s best judgement but also in the infinite generation of commands to make the last will complete due to the inability to achieve the previous commands, leading to constantly shifting and changing of decisions.
That is the paradox of the weakness of will, and the most likely question to be raised is whether successful continent actions prove the paradox is nonsense. That's not the case as most successful transitions from incontinence to continence are not achieved through the will to overcome the weakness of will itself but through other strategies such as eating sugar to divert attention during smoking cessation and adding an hour of walking after meals during the process of quitting alcohol.
Pulling the wrench to the two sides symbolizes the struggle of my will: when I emphasize to myself the significance of overcoming the weakness of will, my rational judgment at many moments refuted this will from different perspectives: “Isn't overcoming the weakness of willpower a scam?”, “Isn’t the urgent need for a cigarette now more real and intense than overcoming the weakness of will?”, or even worse, “I admit that I am a weak-willed person, what can you do with me?”
Ainslie in Breakdown of Will (2001) gives a more subtle explanation for this situation: “To save your
expectation of controlling yourself generally, you’ll be strongly motivated to find a line that excludes
from your larger rule the kind of choice where your will failed so that you won’t see your lapse in
this setting as a precedent for choices in all other settings as well. This means attributing the lapse
to a particular aspect of your present situation, even though it will make self-control much more
difficult when that aspect is present in the future. It may even mean that you abandon attempts to
use willpower where that aspect is present.” From this perspective, the will to self-control makes
people constantly redefine the boundaries of special situations, and this process continuously
expands the collection of special situations until self-control is abandoned.
Throughout the process, the initial will to overcome the weakness of my will becomes a constant question to be doubted and questioned, detached from my will to quit smoking itself. As a result, my vacillation of will became more and more extensive, reaching the length of seven meters in the end.
Throughout the process, the initial will to overcome the weakness of my will becomes a constant question to be doubted and questioned, detached from my will to quit smoking itself. As a result, my vacillation of will became more and more extensive, reaching the length of seven meters in the end.