Mechanism, Occultism, the Calculus of Environments: The Perpetual Motion of Soviet Space

Abstract

   This article attempts to fix Dmitry Morozov’s Geological Trilogy between three poles or three paradigmatic models. The author takes recourse to Anson Rabinbach’s theory and his account of how the mechanisms characteristic of the 18th century stand in opposition to the motor and electric machines of the 19th century. The ever-renewing processes of Morozov’s installations share with 18th century mechanisms the fact that their the source of movement is not electromagnetism and its conversion but the workings of interrelated parts. Yet Morozov’s machines are distinct from those of the 18th century in the absence of the mimetic. The article also draws a distinction, following Matteo Pasquinelli, between carbon and silicon-based machines. The third theory, on which the author bases his own conclusions, takes an interpretation of the 16th century Kabbalist Isaac Luria and compares it with Pasquanelli’s theory. The material point where this transformation took place is ascribed to occult practices of manipulation. Hypothetically, Morozov’s machine amounts to a machine of the third type: a motive, technical potential of the 18th century while being also a particular transformation of that potential. A machine of the third type is a machine of location which is able to transform the situation as a whole. The basic functionality of such machines is a quadripartite gestural code and general principles of the calculus of environments which allow one to put different socio-cultural aspects together and examine the question of their connection with the paradigm of the “soviet”. The author suggests that Morozov’s machines act to change the past (the Soviet past, especially that of the period of stagnation). However the resolution of other issues raised by Morozov’s machines require a new ontology and new mathematics.