On the Limitations of the Archive Affective Traces, Sensible Intensities and the Humming Background Noise of the Universe
The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences On the Limitations of the Archive Affective Traces, Sensible Intensities and the Humming Background Noise of the Universe A Thesis Submitted to The Department of Philosophy In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts By Mohammad Shawky Hassan Under the supervision of Professor Graham Harman April 2016 The American University in Cairo The Image of the Past: Between Material Traces and Sensible Intensity “To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it ‘the way it really was.’” - Walter Benjamin, Theses on the Philosophy of History1 After months of navigating dozens of texts and hundreds of images, highlighting segments and jotting down thoughts, today as I attempt to find a first sentence, I find myself asking: Why did I choose this particular topic for my thesis? As I try to remember, my recollection of the initial motivation behind embarking on this project and what seems to be driving the writing process today, with an abundance of quotes, notes and fragmented thoughts in between, seem to be hardly distinguishable. I realize the impossibility of this endeavor to capture a single moment. Comforted by this realization, I surrender to the fleeting moments, thoughts and emotions, and it is in this jumble that I begin. I have always been a hoarder, habitually saving even the most seemingly trivial things. At a distance from the desk on which I am sitting, I can spot several cabinets, cupboards, shelves, drawer chests and storage units, all filled with boxes: boxes which contain letters, train tickets, movie stubs, receipts, photos, film negatives, dried leaves, drawings, postcards, job contracts, old snippets of newspapers, school records, wine corks, empty bottles, fragments of images cut up and taped back together, and many more random objects.
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