22nd Nov - 28th Nov
Tom Smith
Snowclones
I have been thinking about linguistic structures, known since 2004 as ‘snowclones’.[I] Snowclones are phrases in which certain words can be altered and substituted, while retaining the phrases’ overall structure. They are malleable clichés in which the relation between entities is fixed, but the entities themselves are interchangeable. For instance Arthur C Clarke’s maxim “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic” – could be thought of as a snowclone—‘technology’ and ‘magic’ can substituted with other entities. It could be rewritten as “Any sufficiently advanced ____ is indistinguishable from ____ ”More examples can be found here -
https://snowclones.org/
The snowclone exemplifies the structure of an example; for Georgio Agamben, an ‘example’ is “Neither particular nor universal”.[ii] Examples are neither singular, nor generic—and yet, like Snowclones, they are both these things. This week I will try to inhabit an eerie connection between the universal and the particular, by identifying snowclone-like structures in different mediums. I will try to represent the difference that inevitably leaks into iterative processes, and to play on the contradictory nature of various forms of standardisation.
[ii] Agamben, G. (1993). The coming community (Vol. 1). U of Minnesota Press.
* Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic
Any sufficiently advanced practice is indistinguishable from doing things
Any sufficiently advanced software is indistinguishable from a preset
Any sufficiently advanced critique is indistinguishable from thinking
Any sufficiently advanced pastime is indistinguishable from leisure
Any sufficiently advanced artwork is indistinguishable from prestige
Any sufficiently advanced argument is indistinguishable from negation
Any sufficiently advanced meat is indistinguishable from an animal
Any sufficiently advanced weaponry is indistinguishable from violence
Any sufficiently advanced film is indistinguishable from cinema
Any sufficiently advanced geopolitical strategy is indistinguishable from self interest
Any sufficiently advanced corruption is indistinguishable from opportunism
Any sufficiently advanced platform is indistinguishable from a web-store
Any sufficiently advanced wav file is indistinguishable from music
Any sufficiently advanced jpg is indistinguishable from a tiff
Any sufficiently advanced pork product is indistinguishable from a pig
Any sufficiently advanced piano is indistinguishable from the bourgeoisie
Any sufficiently advanced tactic is indistinguishable from a repeatable plan
Any sufficiently advanced philosophy is indistinguishable from its thesis
Any sufficiently advanced dialectic is indistinguishable from the arc of history
Any sufficiently advanced book is indistinguishable from a long article
Any sufficiently advanced container ship is indistinguishable from its cargo
Any sufficiently advanced pandemic is indistinguishable from population control
Any sufficiently advanced pathogen is indistinguishable from its vector
Any sufficiently advanced relationship is indistinguishable from its narrative
Any sufficiently advanced ego is indistinguishable from a will to power
Any sufficiently advanced border region is indistinguishable from a threshold
Any sufficiently advanced portal is indistinguishable from a door
Any sufficiently advanced poem is indistinguishable from a sentence
Any sufficiently advanced sport is indistinguishable from a contest
Any sufficiently advanced lie is indistinguishable from swift boating
Any sufficiently advanced strategy is indistinguishable from a plan
Any sufficiently advanced synergy is indistinguishable from a connection
Any sufficiently advanced campaign is indistinguishable from coercion
Any sufficiently advanced political party is indistinguishable from a gang
Any sufficiently advanced musician is indistinguishable from an entertainer
Any sufficiently advanced tradesman is indistinguishable from a sculptor
Any sufficiently advanced human faeces is indistinguishable from canine faeces
Any sufficiently advanced error is indistinguishable from oversight
Any sufficiently advanced red herring is indistinguishable from the truth
Any sufficiently advanced truth is indistinguishable from a truism
Any sufficiently advanced cliche is indistinguishable from a classic
Any sufficiently advanced exhibition is indistinguishable from a selection
Any sufficiently advanced organism is indistinguishable from a model
Any sufficiently advanced recipe is indistinguishable from a dictum
Any sufficiently advanced dictum is indistinguishable from advice
Any sufficiently advanced advice is indistinguishable from instruction
Any sufficiently advanced instruction is indistinguishable from a proverb
Any sufficiently advanced proverb is indistinguishable from a commandment
Any sufficiently advanced commandment is indistinguishable from a law
Any sufficiently advanced law is indistinguishable from a pillar
Any sufficiently advanced pillar is indistinguishable from a foundation
Any sufficiently advanced foundation is indistinguishable from a charity
Any sufficiently advanced charity is indistinguishable from tax avoidance
Any sufficiently advanced tax avoidance is indistinguishable from liberalism
Any sufficiently advanced liberalism is indistinguishable from anarchy
Topoi Koinoi represents infrastructure and the generic, the most basic elements common to life in consumer economies—this focus on relational structures prompted me to think about snowclones. This work has a written component that scrolls bottom left.