Opus IX: Abode of Chaos / Demeure du Chaos 1999-2013

thing off". We can't even backbone
the thing on the mains, which is
a pain. So we end up without UPS
and without mains return.
There's nothing like good old analogical
equipment. By comparison,
digital stuff is always telling us
what we can and can't do. It leaves
traces whereas analogical stuff
doesn't. In Matrix, Morpheus'
phantom ship is analogical. When
they are spotted by the robotic viral
octopuses, they cut off all their
digital equipment and just keep
on with their good old analogical
systems. This is becoming a reality
today. We are conducting experiments
at the Abode of Chaos
to figure out how we could carry
on with only analogue equipment.
With analogical equipment, there
is an enormous distribution of the
frequency spectrum. Therefore I
leave no trace. In the digital world,
there is a binary coding, which is
memorisable and interpolable.
For the policing of digital devices,
there is also the example of GSM
which works on the triangulation
principle. Once again… we're
back in science­fiction. In 1996 a
Reuters photographer was fired
for having used Photoshop to exaggerate
the smoke after an Israeli
attack on a Hezbollah controlled
Shiite suburb of Beirut. After that,
a computer technician developed a
programme that can instantly recognise
any digital modifications
of any photograph. Because to rework
a photo, one has to use raster
mode which involves interpolating
the adjacent pixels. Whatever the
special effects, at 99%. It's an interpolation
in the algorithm that
will search for the adjacent pixel,
and therefore it automatically detects
it.
L.C. - Would you describe yourself as
Utopian?
T.E. ­ (hesitation) Yes, because utopia
is a search for truth. I am a
great believer in the self­fulfilling
prophecy, hence my distopia.
What's amusing about this kind
of prophecy is that it's bound to
work. Imagine or visualise something
that could be described as a
prophecy… but as soon as you focus
on it, a kind of self­fulfilment
takes place.
L.C. - In other words… the magic
thought… which joins dreams to reality?
T.E. ­ Absolutely. (laughs)
L.C. ­ Or at least, bending reality
to your will?
T.E. ­ It's the same old question
that has haunted me for twentyfive
years. The Jews have done a lot
of work on this idea in the Cabala.
Is it the event that creates the individual?
Do you create the event
or does the event create you? Of
course it's a splendid philosophical
debate, but anyway, I am a firm believer
in self­fulfilling prophecies.
I believe in the strength of word,
in the strength of embodiment.
There is a moment when you manage
to break away from the attraction…
when you hit so hard that,
mechanically, embodiment occurs.
L.C. - And the current forsaking of
the word?
T.E. ­ Yes, but the word has become
flesh. The strength of the word
has always been that. Fuck! Wakeup
you dead people! Go to any lecture
hall… you see the guys, you
push them and push them. The
guys beat each other up and bingo…
the word has become a reality.
Then the guys get pulled out of
the lecture hall. I find that incredible.
I am actually banned from lecturing
in certain places. I was told:
"The consequences of your lecture
were very difficult to manage
Mr Ehrmann, so you lectures will
henceforward be 'standardised'
and delivered in a regular fashion
because we do not have the means
to employ security personnel."
L.C. ­ Exactly… that's what we find
on a general scale. They no longer
have the means to employ security
personnel and there is a refusal to
talk. You only have to look at the
situation in France. Who are the
big sellers in literature and philosophy…
we are confronted with a
total devolution.
T.E. ­ Indeed. We are in a period
where we are losing our identity
and losing our direction.
Even if it's totally banal, the politically
correct dominates. And
nobody dares to do or say anything.
Why do people like us manage
to make an impression… at
the price of an extraordinary expenditure
of effort? Because people
no longer dare to stand up for
what they stand for. One day a ma­
http://www.demeureduchaos.org/
jor French politician ­ who died
recently ­ was asked: which people
in the Lyon region have made
an impact on their era. After citing
one or two classic names like
Mérieux and Aulas, his interviewer
prompted: Thierry Ehrmann?
At that moment the "father of science"
paused before answering:
"He's a free man and he has remained
a free man". He had to give
a definition. Old Raymond Barre
was quite a character. I had several
run­ins with him… He was one of
my teachers at school. In any case,
there you have it …being free is
very important! And people are no
longer free. It's very important.
L.C. ­ I recently came across the
following information: wealth is
apparently more unevenly distributed
on the planet today than at
any time during the entire history
of humanity, including the Middle
Ages and Antiquity...
434 435
T.E. ­ That's right. We are facing a
form of degenerated capitalism.
Twenty years ago roughly 15 billion
dollars changed hands on financial
markets. Today, the figure
is more than 2700 billion dollars
per day. We have created fictive issues
which means we are currently
creating phoney money with a totally
phoney level of GDP growth.
It doesn't make any sense anymore.
That's why I say that we are
at the Gates of Hell in the allegorical
and magnificent sense of
the term. The system has worn
out… needs to be replaced. It's
like a man whose T4 levels have
collapsed, his transaminase and
Gamma GTs level have rocketed…
the prognosis is bad.
The West, including Japan and the
whole of Asia in its modernity, is
really like an old man. A dead man,
worn out and corrupted at all levels
and particularly in his capitalistic
organs. All the indicators are
in the red. Regulation tools… flow
controls. …None of these tools will
stop the rot. Everything can be
bought. Everything has a price, including
pollution. The dematerialisation
of the financial sphere and
the capacity of men to imagine financial
instruments like futures
(i.e. which gamble on future prices)
is very interesting. You can buy
futures of issues… futures which
"short" the securities of the principal
stock exchanges… futures
of anything you can imagine. As
though we had arrived at the end
of the runway. That's why we need
to reinvent. Personally, I believe in
a Renaissance.
L.C. - That is precisely the theme of
my next question! Let's indulge in a
little forecasting... from where, and
how, do you imagine this renaissance
coming?
T.E. ­ We may laugh about cyberpunk
but it's a type of fiction that
has had an impact on reality and
which now goes back twenty­five
years. It contains a very strong
"transversal" quality. You define it
a hundred times better than anyone
else. Indeed that's how I met
you. It's in sub­cultures and transcultures.
There are loads of adjectives
to describe this form of
activity Fortunately a small network
already exists which carries
within it the genomes necessary
for the apparition of a new genome,
an additional genome in
fact.
L.C. - How would you define art?
T.E. ­ Art is a space where everything
is possible. A place where total
transgression can take place,
because from a purely legal standpoint,
art is the only area that still
enjoys impunity. Take Lukas's performances
for example. Art allows
him to explore areas that would
get him locked up immediately if
he didn't have an "artistic" atti­
Pages 434/435
Posters
tude in the meaning attributed by
Marcel Duchamp. And it's exactly
because he has an artistic attitude
with deliberately organised
acts and the necessary detachment
that his work cannot be described
as spontaneous acts… that
we don't consider him a psychopath.
What is the difference between
Lukas and a psychopath?
Lukas is a sculptor/artist. He ritualises,
codifies, installs, writes and
questions. He always locates himself
within an art historical perspective.
If that were not the case,
we would be "guilty" of committing
acts that may or may not be
reprehensible? This is not the same
as someone who works directly on
himself without thinking. In the
latter case, we would no longer be
in the field of art and the authorities
would be justified in taking an
interest.
L.Z. I think it is easier to say what
isn't art than what is. Attempts to
manifestation