Uncomfortable
As part of the Chapter Freedom transdisciplinary team, artist Koen Vanmechelen selected Uncomfortable as the artwork to integrate the ideations of group 1 with the feedback and reflections of the transdisciplinary team.
Transdisciplinary team feedback
Here’s the paradox of freedom: when you define it, it seems to shrink. Freedom seems impossible to capture in words. The narrative circle is an interesting attempt to rationalise the concept of freedom. The circle doesn’t resolve the paradox, but rather seems to amplify it – by arriving at the status quo again and again. Can the sense of freedom, a dream, or the imagination break those boundaries?
Is freedom inherently human? How we experience freedom is dependent on whether we’re aware of ourselves in our environment, and able to communicate and reflect on this. Quite rightly, you ask: Can an atom be free? Or does freedom require a narrative to be told and understood?
Can we break out of that narrative circle made up of language, and escape from Plato’s cave to better understand freedom? Does humour have any relevance in this respect? Are we, or are you, able to conceptualise freedom without getting caught up in its very definition? The question then would be whether the narrative circle will turn into a single line, or a growing snowball… Make the circle versatile/fertile.
