How it possibly feels like

Spatial exploration

of the emotions while reading a newsletter*

*by AthensLive (independent source for stories throughout Greece), March 20, 2021, Eindhoven

10:25 AM 10:05 AM

I am in a long room, dimmed and empty.

The opening across my sight indicates that there are more rooms to follow. I don’t move around. I read, : Is a cover-up underway for the tragic accident that costed a motorbiker’s life? I am walking and I am thinking about the cost of life, the cost of an experienced tragedy, a question that was crushed in my face. I have never ridden a motorcycle. And I don’t hold a mythical name as the morobiker’s one, Jason. The tragic figure of the underlying accident has the same name as the heroic leader of the Argonauts in their quest for the Golden Fleece. The ancient Greek mythical tragedy comes to meet a modern Greek tragedy in the center of Athens.

And that’s a tragedy by itself. A statement is bouncing on the walls of the space I found myself in,

I am already in the next room. It feels a bit narrow for my moving body; it is empty too. Another question comes running to my eyes, : Does Joseph K. live in today’s Greece? Kafka’s character is

once again the protagonist of an allegorical story. This time, this ordinary bank employee who is on trial for unspecified crimes is the metaphorical representative of the Greek citizens who are facing police brutality and unexplained prosecutions. Is it the poetics of this allegory or the witty reflection on violent events that puts a tiny twitch in my lower lip? I wonder as my now vigorous feet keep me scrolling across the space and towards a double opening. I am already crossing it.

I am again inside a room, red-lit and dark. It must be even smaller. A whisper is slapping my face,

: While doctors struggle with limited means to treat patients, the Greek Police announced they received 53 more vehicles, this time of the

small truck type. I hear it back and forth, 5 times or ever more, until the statement is reordered. It starts making sense now. Greek police are fighting doctors for vehicles. Small trucks are treating patients. Greek police are struggling.

Doctors received means. Yes, this seems more appropriate for a paradoxical ping-pong challenge. The winner is yet to be announced. The ball is on doctors’ side, as I make my way towards the opening across my sight. I turn sideways to go through the opening—pardon me, it is a slit.

: Convicted terrorist ends his hunger strike, right cheek, left cheek. I

cannot move. Is it the terrorist who is convicted or his hunger strike? Is it his hunger strike the terroristic act or the end of it? I hardly know. I am in terror of the whisper that soon comes to an end, releasing my face from the slapping. I am dazed and confused, but now it is clear that the room has space for just standing. With one clicking step, I am out. Or, I am in.

Dusky room, for which I have no perception of the volume. But the words

I read consume it all. : A 25-year-old migrant Afghan father, who is

grieving the loss of his only child, has found himself charged with child endangerment for taking his son on the perilous journey from Turkey to

the nearby Greek island. I see myself in them, the words, on migration and on grief.

My home country, Greece, is no more an idealistic destination; it is perilous and comes with legal punishment and life risk. A distant question reaches me with an echo, : Does the

Greek government signal a hardening of its stance towards migrants? Is it

addressing me? Probably not, but it has already put me against the wall. I slide against it, I scroll o the question, and I reach the end of it, with a cold burning knob that leads me out of this space.

My face is still contracting. I must be smelling of dust and chemicals. My body dissents with my cold feet, and I move on for another round.

10:25 AM

Bibliography

Books

Aristotle. Poetics. Athens: Kaktos Publisher, 1995. Ahmed, Sara. The Cultural Politics of Emotion. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004. Arendt, Hannah. Between Past and Future: Eight Exercise in Political Thought. Penguin Books, 1977. Arendt, Hannah. Lectures on Kant’s Political Philosophy. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1989.

Barad, Karen. Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2007.

Barthes, Roland. trans. Richard Howard. The Rustle of Language. California: University of California Press, 1986.

Bataille, Georges. The Unfinished System of Nonknowledge. Minneapolis–London: University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Baudrillard, Jean. The Ecstasy of Communication. South Pasadena: Semiotext(e), 1987. Baudrillard, Jean. Screened Out. New York: Verso, 2000:45-50. Beckett, Samuel. Three Novels: Molly, Malone Dies, The Unnamable. New York: Grove Press, 1958. Bennington, Geoffrey. Writing the Event. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1988. Butler, Judith. Frames of War: When is Life Grievable?. London: Vers, 2009. Cage, John. Notations. New York: Something Else Press, 1969. Carey, James W. Communications as Culture: Essays on Media and Society. New York/London: Routledge, 1988.

Dimitriadis, Dimitris. Catalogues 1-4. Athens: AGRA Publications, 1986. Dimitriadis, Dimitris. Insenso: Opera. Athens: Saikspirikon, 2013. Gilbert, Annette, ed., Publishing as an Artistic Practice. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016. Glatzer, Nahum N., ed., Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories. New York: Schocken Books, 1971. Gorling, Reinhold, Barbara Gronai, and Ludger Schwarte, ed., Aesthetics of Standstill. Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2019. Hall, Stuart. Representation: Cultural Representations and Signifying Practices. London: Thousand Oaks, Calif.: Sage, Open University, 1977. Heidegger, Martin. trans. John Macquarrie and Edward Robinson. Being and Time. Great Britain: Blackwell Publishers Ltd, 1962. Hill, Leslie. Marguerite Duras: Apocalyptic Desires. New York: Routledge, Inc, 1993. Kafka, Franz. The Metamorphosis. Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915. Keeble, Richard. Ethics for Journalists. USA and Cana da: Routledge, 2009. Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984. Marmarinos, Michail. National Anthem. Athens: Koan,

2000.

Massumi, Brian. The Affect Theory Reader. Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2010. Nelson, Deborah. Tough Enough: Arbus, Arendt, Didi on, McCarthy, Sontag, Weil. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2017. Pasolini, Pier Paolo. trans./ed. Stephen Sartarelli. The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Bilingual Edition. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2014. Pulitzer, Joseph. The School of Journalism in Columbia University: The Power of Public Opinion. Sagwan Press, 2018. Ranciere, Jacques. The Politics of Aesthetics: The Distribution of the Sensible. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, 2013. Sims, Norman, ed., The Literary Journalists. Ballantine, 1984 Sontag, Susan. Against Interpretation and Other Essays. London: Penguin Classics, 2009. Sontag, Susan. Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Picador (Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), 2003. Tuchman, Gaye. Making News: A Study in the Construction of Reality. New York: The Free Press, 1978.

Wurgaft, Benjamin Aldes. Thinking in Public: Strauss, Levinas, Arendt. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2016. Wynants, Nele, ed., When fact is fiction: Documentary Art in the Post-Truth Era. Amsterdam: Valiz, 2020. 87

Barad, Karen. “On Touching—The Inhuman That Therefore I Am (v1.1)”. diaphanes, Power of Material / Politics of Materiality, eds. Susanne Witzgall and Kerstin Stakemeier, 2014. Chambers, Brendan. “Phenomenological Reproduc tion in Thompson and Mailer’s New Journalism”. Dianoia: The Undergraduate Philosophy Journal of Boston College, Spring, 2019. Eason, David L., “New Journalism, Metaphor and Culure” [online]. Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley. com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.0022-3840.1982.1504_142.x Eason, David L., “Telling stories and making sense”. The Journal of Popular Culture, 1981. [online] Available at: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ j.0022-3840.1981.1502_125.x. Eason, David L., “The New Journalism and the Image-World: Two Modes of Organizing Experience”, In Critical Studies in Mass Communication, 1984. Eng, David L. “The Value of Silence”, The Johns Hopkins University Press, Theatre Journal Vo. 54, March, 2002, p.85-94. Fiore, Thomas M., “Music and Knowledge in Two Texts by Franz Kafka”, Pennsylvania: University of Pittsburgh, 1998. Haraway, Donna. “Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial”, Feminist Studies, Inc.: Feminist Studies,Vol. 14, No. 3, 1988.

Jonsson, Stefan. “Facts of Aesthetics and Fictions of Journalism: The Logic of the Media in the Age of Globalization”, Linköping University, REMESO, January, 2008, [online], Available at: https://www.nordicom. gu.se/sites/de fault/files/kapitel-pdf/157_057-068.pdf Keeble, Richard. “Literary Journalism as a Discipline: Tom Wolfe and Beyond”, Brazilian Journalism Research, December 2018 14(3):862-881. Lütticken, Sven. “Abstract things”, New Left Review 54, 2008. Steyerl, Hito. “Documentary Uncertainty”, The Long Distance Runner: The Productive Unit Archive, No.72, Copenhgen: KunstFilmBiennale, 2007. Toorn, Jan Van. “A Passion for the Real” [online]. Available at: https://www.mitpressjournals.org/ doi/pdf/10.1162/DESI_a_00043 Yiting Li, Raul. “Affective facts - public manipulation, politics and religion”, essay published on Samizdat Online, March 3, 2016. Warner Herzog, trans. Moira Weigel, “On the Absolute, the Sublime, and Ecstatic Truth”. ARION, 2010. [online] Available at: https://www.bu.edu/arion/on-the-abso lute-the-sublime-and-ecstatic-truth/ Wolfe, Tom. “The Birth of ‘The New Journalism’; Eyewitness Report by Tom Wolfe”, New York Magazine February 14, 1972. [accessed online]. Available at: https://nymag.com/news/media/47353/#print

Featured Films/Essay Films/ Documentaries

Aguirre, the Wrath of God. Directed by Werner Herzog. Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, HessischerRundfunk (HR), 1972. 1h., 35min. Aurélia Steiner (Melbourne). Directed by Marguerite Duras. Paris Audiovisuel, 1979. 27min. Citizen Kane. Directed by Orson Welles. RKO Radio Pictures, Mercury Productions, 1941. 1h., 59 min. Hannah Arendt. Directed by Margarethe von Trotta. Heimatfilm, Amour Fou Luxembourg, MACTProductions, 2012. 1h., 53 min. Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold. Directed by Griffin Dunne. Netflix, 2017. 1h., 34min. John Berger: The Wonder of Seeing. Directed by Cord elia Dvorak. BBC Films, Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktion, ZDF/Arte, 2016. 54 min. Lessons of Darkness. Directed by Werner Herzog. Canal+, Première, Werner Herzog Filmproduktion, 1992. 54min.

Manifesto. Directed by Julian Rosefeldt. Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Ruhr Triennale, Schiwago Film, 2015. 1h., 35 min. Network. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Metro-GoldwynMayer (MGM), 1976. 2h., 1 min. The Stuart Hall Project. Directed by John Akomfrah. Lina Gopaul, David Lawson, 2013. 1h., 43 min.

Endnotes

i Stasimon (coming from the Greek word στάσιμος, meaning literally being still) was a part of the lyrical section of Greek tragedies. It followed the Episode (that contained the main dialogues of the tragedy) in an alteration for many times. When stasimon was performed, the actors were usually off-stage and the Chorus had central position in the stage, singing, to give details for the story and express opinions and feelings. The Chorus was composed of characters directly involved and affected by the progress of the story, but with no active role inside the story. Although the Chorus was generally expressing broad thoughts and opinions, both towards the main characters of the story and the audience, during stasimon, the Chorus could also offer complementary elements to illuminate the plot. In Greek tragedies, the Chorus was deemed to be the main contributor to the tragedy, along with the actors.

ii The term aporia has its roots in the homonym Ancient and Modern Greek word. It is broadly used in philosophy and rhetoric. Aporia is principally found in Greek philosophy, for example in Plato’s early discussions and in Aristotle’s “Metaphysics”, where it was used as a method of inquiry. A similar use is found in post-structuralist philosophy. Jacques Derrida has employed the term to “indicate a point of undecidability, which locates the site at which the text most obviously undermines its own rhetorical structure, dismantles, or deconstructs itself.” (William Harmon, 2009). iii Franz Kafka, “The Silence of the Sirens”, Franz Kafka: The Complete Stories, ed. Nahum N. Glatzer (New York: Schocken Books, 1971), 431. iv Gregor is the main character of Franz Kafka book, The Metamorphosis. (Leipzig: Kurt Wolff Verlag, 1915). v Joseph Pulitzer, The School of Journalism in Columbia University: The Power of Public Opinion (Sagwan Press, 2018), 34. vi Old riff as cited by Susan Sontag (At The Same Time: Essays and Speeches, New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007. 214). vii Being, here, is a reference to the course of our physical existence, from the point of departure to the point of arrival, borrowing Martin Heidegger’s ideas related to Geworfen, Dasein, and Sinn des Seins, namely being “thrown” into the world, being-there, and having sense of being. (Being and Time, 1927). viii “… A book must be the axe for the frozen sea inside us.”, Franz Kafka, “Letter to Oskar Pollack”, January 27, 1904. Languagehat blog, http://languagehat.com/kafka-on-books/. ix Warner Herzog, “On the Absolute, the Sublime, and Ecstatic Truth”, trans. Moira Weigel, (published at ARION), 2010. Originally delivered by Werner Herzog in his speech in Milano, Italy, following a screening of his film Lessons of Darkness. x Ibid. xi Pier Paolo Pasolini, “Presence” (August 23, 1970, Original Title: La “presenza”), in The Selected Poetry of Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Bilingual Edition (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2014), 401. My sincere gratitude for the research and the execution of this thesis goes to the ones who offered fundamental contribution: Aris Chatzistefanou for his inspiring work and his eagerness and transparency to discuss his journalistic practice, Bianca Schick, Ned Kaar, and Valeria Fabiano for their constant reading and thinking along with me, Konstantinos Alexandrou for his generous comments, my tutors, Patricia Reed and Saskia van Stein, for their insightful observations, and my parents, Anastasia and Christos, for their unconditional support.

I Take It Personally: Deciphering the Ethical Responsibilities in Journalistic Practices by Sofia Topi

Master Thesis Tutor: Patricia Reed

MA The Critical Inquiry Lab Design Academy Eindhoven April 2021