Temporal Textures

We use the concept of texture to think about humans’ relation to their surroundings. Continuous, textures suggest endless repetition; a false promise of infinitude. Glimpses of our environment have textural qualities.

Texture: a repetition at any level; in any dimension and in time. This is why we add ‘temporal’.

As such we can perceive discrete elements of the world as temporal textures. A 30 by 30 centimeter quadrant of sand is repeated countless times to make up the desert. A chicken is cloned millions of times to stock the chicken farms. The nodes in a neural network are continuously tweaked to let the system ‘learn’.

Texture: a finite entity creating the illusion/ serving as a temporary embodiment of infinity.

The assumption of texturality implies ignorance to bounds. It is a material parallel to ambience; that which surrounds, fills space-time, but can only be foregrounded by paradox. Matter, whether physical or of concern, becomes material in the presence of mind. Any attempt at texture is an attempt at materialism. A desire to see and have infinitude. Another go at finding a tangible encounter with the so-called sublime.

We propose the concept of temporal textures as an analytical tool to relate (to) our surroundings. Extending Guattari’s (1989) three ecologies – the material environment, social relations and the subjective experience – to the nonhuman realm, we see the potential for texture as an overarching commonality.