“Man acts as though he were the shaper and master of language, while in fact language remains the master of man.” -Martin Heiddegger
Lyric Portrait 2nd Attempt by Chris Wicks
Text is the interface through which we explore our thoughts and describe our realities. In this exploration we begin to shape our reality and develop a system of symbols to represent both sounds and greater archetypes in human society. While text was created to share our thoughts and mental imagery, it also creates our reality.
In the artwork above, text creates the person and provides layers of meaning beyond the imagery created by the conglomeration of text. This is a new style of digital art that provides the concept of text creating our reality. Language indeed becomes the master and creates a reality through which we interact with each other, with knowledge and with our thoughts. In the space of flows of cyberspace, this reality becomes even more apparent, as depicted in the artistic work above, since we communicate through social media in quick text strings which begin to combine to create a digital persona for us. In this way we move between the digital and physical worlds through text, and thus, as Heidegger states above, language becomes the master and transforms our reality and imagery of our own selves.
If we are then constructed of text, or language (being labels, titles, nicknames, digital handles), then does the authority of our opinion come from the text we are created from, or from the essence of the individual striving to define oneself beyond the text that creates our reality?
Kenneth Buis
