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"TODAY"

"The everyday is covered by a surface: that of modernity.

. . .

By its flash, the miracle separates the indistinct moments of day to day life, suspends nuance, interrupts uncertainties, and reveals to us the tragic truth, that absolute and absolutely divided truth, whose two parts solicit us without pause, and form each side, each of them requiring everything of us and at every instant.

. . .

The everyday breaks down structures and undoes forms, even while ceaselessly regathering itself behind the form whose ruin it has insensibly brought about."

Maurice Blanchot

"Greetings, my friends. We are all interested in

the future, because that is where you and I will

spend the rest of our lives. You are interested in

the unknown, the mysterious, the

unexplainable...

That is why you are here..."

Criswell in Plan 9 From Outer Space

"All the cocks have been butchered, Tomorrow has been cancelled."

Heiner Muller in Hamletmachine

What a confusing mess. Today that is. Of course, It's always Today. Everything happens Today, even those events which happened yesterday; and apparently even those events that will happen tomorrow. And yet how impossible it is to hold on to Today, always threatening to slide back or forward, like putting a finger in a puddle of mercury. Evanescent for all that (or because of all that), yet more implacable than the most concrete object. The everyday is as light as air and yet, ultimately (if such a concept can exist in Today), as opaque and obdurate as lead: completely open (we are always already there) and completely resistant. Today always seems to be where the action is, right here in the everyday world where it's noon all the time (we are even determined to turn midnight into noon). It will most certainly be noon tomorrow ("the future's so bright, I gotta wear shades") since it can only be Today. (Yesterday may be a different story since it has its own shades to deal with. )

So a few questions: how about those folks who don't do so well in the bright, florescent light (adjusted to mimic sun light) of Today? And Today implies a certain simultaneity of effect everywhere, no matter what 'time zone' you are in---is the net (of all kinds) that powerful that it can bend all time to Now? (a very 'modern' thing, no)? What will be the effect when everyone lives Today IN the everyday? What will have happened to history, memory, trauma, hope, chance? Will we be happier? Or just more efficient? What scales of measurement, of judgement, will we use when there is only Today? Is it possible to have the 'flash of the miracle' -- as both Marx and Christ thought -- in the contemporary machinic global Today? Does the body evaporate under the hot lights of Today, or does flesh begin to feel its true home? Is it even possible to tke a 'snapshot' of today anymore, to get a feel of what is happening 'now'?

DEADLINES: Perforations no longer has deadlines as such. All Perforations issues are ongoing artistic and research projects, each issue being updated on an irregular basis.

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