Extracted

Extracted from "Working Surfaces" Essay.
April 2008

To the Charity that owns the land we are that stranger- the autistic “strangeness” - through which no meeting could occur. Yet it is a lie to consider that strangeness unuseful. It is our very difference which lends to them a certain delimitation of their grounds; a sharpening of their procedural protocol whilst at the same time, behind their backs, a small piece of their land is being weeded and cleansed. But this is not a story about victim and persecutor; about bringing things to the light and telling the truth to the world. For in the administrative fog we have a tactical position in which to feel, know and gage how different surfaces meet and react with one another and to notice according to what medical, social and legal protocol these accidental collisions are filtered. Should that fog ever clear it would slow things into solid form, bringing the inconsistencies of “Rights” to the surface so as to make our position and theirs, unsustainable.
In the end it will come to this. The irresistible urge of affinity always beckons to close the gap and in one way or another it will probably end badly. But playing around with how long surfaces can waver on the brink of a knowledge before becoming catastrophically entwined with one another and how more subtly, they are constantly being done and undone along the way, brings into play a whole series of behaviours and incidents; of indescrepancies, brutalities and unforeseen acts of kindness that would not have come into being and would have therefore remained unknown forces; the mere threat of violence or wish for affinity, outside of these strange structural couplings.