Thomas Evans

Armchair Emblems, Prosthetic Mottos and a Walking Definition

 

 

The Armchair Emblems, Prosthetic Mottos and Walking Definitions are three types of mental furniture for a pedestrian philosophy theatre. “Furniture” is defined as what is lived with: “the relation of with”; as an instrument or form housing information best absorbed by accompaniment.

The Armchair Emblems (“Facts are to nervous…”; “Martial…”; “Wisdom as fudge…”) are derived from the Renaissance emblem’s tripartite structure of epigram (usually moral in theme), icon (often referred to as the emblem’s ‘body’) and commentary on the theme in prose or poem form. The upholstered emblem, or Armchair Emblem, incorporates the epigram-icon tension of the Renaissance emblem, retaining its conceptual aim but omitting the commentary.

The Prosthetic Motto (Cassian Prosthetic, Nietzsche Prosthetic) offers enhanced mobility via an ingested foreign body—“building the muscles of mind’s legs.”

The Walking Definition (“To upholster”) is an indoor walking stick, a ‘getting underway’ instrument inscribed with embroidered definitions. These definitions provide the terms or parameters of the theatre.