The Material Anatomy of the Handgun and Its Representations
05.19.06Script for a Performace: Academic Lectures, Video and Poetry
This Project is a performance based lecture that uses a video as a large scale backdrop to expressive, academic spoken word. It is the first in a series of expected performaces to be based around weaponry, war and violence. This lecture was inspired by a statement by Gilles Deleuze in the book 'Negotiations' where he proposes that 'lectures should be like rock concerts'. These, therfore, are experiments with what would be traditional academic presentations.
Preface
Marshal Mcluhan once stated in Understanding Media - "if the arrow is an extension of the hand and arm then the rifle is an extension of the eye and teeth." If this is so, then what extension or human appendage is that of the handgun or pistol? Neither a bow nor a rifle the handgun is both an extension of the eye and the hand simultaneously for it can either be pointed in the direction of someone or somewhere else - this I will refer to for the rest of this presentation as ‘sighting-in’ - OR the handgun can just as easily be pointed at ones own-self as in suicide or self-destruction. This point makes the handgun particularly interesting for study for it can either be a long range weapon in relation to the immediate distance of the body - or a short range weapon, one that can just as easily be turned against oneself in an act of self-destruction.
Unlike the rifle and bow - both of which must be stabilized by the body – for example the rifle is stabilized against the shoulder and the bow is stabilized by the position of a ‘locked arm’ - the handgun has free range and motion, a larger possible phase-space of capabilities in relationship to the human torso. These possibilities are as diverse as the combination of body, shoulder, elbow, and wrist movements can be – as many positions as the arm in combination with the body can move, the handgun can follow – a much larger scale of variables of possibilities of motion – an accumulation or multiplication of all the potential movements of the joints.
Again - on the one hand - when firing forward OR “sighting-in” - the arm stabilizes the weapon and the eye looks down the barrel - the handgun is pointed in a direction of "somewhere" else. On the other hand the wrist and hand play the important pivot point where the end of the barrel has the potential possibility of being pointed toward oneself.
The handgun, in its uniqueness, allows for three main stages to be illustrated effectively under the scope of the visual – stages that effectively show its material versatility – a versatility that can be used in order to make many analogies to sociological and political systems outside the immediate realm of the micro-space that is the body. I have illustrated in my visual artistic studies of the handgun 3 distinct stages that are as follows: 1) Deterrence 2) Self-destruction and 3) ‘Sighting-IN’
Stage 1: Deterrence
The first stage – deterrence (illustrated on the screen) – is one of an effective defensive and/or aggressive strategy that’s underlying action is to demonstrate to an outside force that any attempt to trespass in action or physicality on ones personal space can result in dire consequence. It is an act of preventing or controlling actions or behavior through fear of punishment or retribution.
The handgun – hidden and out-of-site – restricted from being seen – in one’s own house – under the bed – in ones apartment – in the glove box – in ones pocket – in a bag – a lunchbox – a bookbag - under ones clothing.
We do not know it is there – we do not see it – it is there but it is not – it is hidden in the shadows – in the basement – and documented with the immateriality of the photograph – present on the television – on the Internet. This is how we know that they exist – yet we do not know where they exist.
We shall not come to close to one another because we do not know what ‘the others’ actions might be – we do not know what is hidden – we do not see ‘the void’ because we can not see ‘the void’ – we do not want to understand ‘the void’ – so we just stay away.
Because what may eventually protrude with force is a bullet – a dished heel base bullet – a jacketed bearing surface bullet – a round nose flat based bullet – a full metal jacketed bullet – a round nose cup based bullet – a truncated cone exposed tip bullet – a hollow based wad-cutter bullet – a full jacketed hollow point bullet – a semi wad-cutter cup based bullet – a jacketed soft point bullet – a semi wad-cutter gas check bullet – an exposed tip hollow point bullet – a semi wad-cutter half-jacket bullet – a semi wad-cutter full jacket bullet…
We do not wish for our bodies to meet any of these nasty metallic creatures that our neighbor has the potentiality to deliver onto us.
Deterrence – a last ideological rampart against a kind of global destruction – a global suicide – a deterrent in the fact that we could all disappear. Which leads to the current escape, the escape of nuclear war, of deterrence.
From the NRA Handbook:
“A major factor in determining the “best” method of carry is the mechanical design of the handgun in question, particularly the firing pin. Here are considered, in order, semi-automatic pistols, revolvers, single-shot pistols and derringers.”
The handgun is cocked and ready to fire, hiding in the shadows.
Stage 2: Self-Destruction
Self-destructive (implosive) – Paul Virilio’s “the suicide state”, - Pol Pot in Cambodia - deregulatory territory, environmental self-destruction - our own intentional initiation of the apocalypse – a suicide machine . Death as weapon – death as pure war. The war on terror – the war against ourselves. The war against our own state authorized terror. Destruction of the mirror image. The silent genocide. It is easy to see the crimes that are committed by others, but it is much harder to see the destruction against one-self.
How do we kill the ultimate self-destructive weapon? How do we get rid of it? - Especially when we have no real time for reflection – when speed is essential and the day is endless. When work and labor replace pleasure. When sweat and long hours replace family and relaxation. When complexities replace simplicities. When technologies that are supposed to make our lives easier do nothing but make our lives harder. This is an endless positive feedback loop of self-annihilation. A struggle for survival – a new social Darwinism that leaves us all deprived of life.
War has been turned against ourselves. War begins organized - but somehow always escapes. War has self-replicated many times in places that are not expected – internally. In the bunkered fortified ghettos where “form does not follow function as much as it does fear” , in prisons, in the streets, in the institutions, under our skin. War against the self is a viral infection. Culture has become super-homogenized to the point where only the extreme as ‘the other’ can exist. A super-viral infection. HIV and bird flu terror. Often it points back to the one that started it - a backlash of sorts - a conscious suicide of the self.
We are now in a stage of “terminal art” of suicidal art. The abuse of television – “producing various morbid phenomena such as obesity or anorexia nervosa, poor cerebral performance, language problems, special disorientation, aggressiveness, alcoholism and drug abuse.” A television pathology particularly affecting children and underprivileged communities – a suicidal-genocidal machine.
And do we not filter our industrial byproduct toxins through the bodies of our population? Would it not cost more to bury them OR to dispose of them than to reuse them? Or is it easier to recycle our waste in our food supply. Let the body process what we do not want. Cancer as a population reduction method. A slow death. A stealth death. A death we know is there - yet we cannot see because of our blindness to our own self-destructive tendencies. A self-initiated genocide. A war on the environment - an environment that has a direct effect on a population. A war on ourselves.
What we often call “natural materials”, according to the an-architect Lebbeus Woods - “materials that involve the mining of the earth and the felling of forests [result] in the disruption of plant and animal life, the pollution of rivers and air, and the degradation of human existence … produce buildings that begin to decay even as they are built. The effects of this decay, which continues regardless of all maintenance, contribute to the spiral of human life, indeed of the whole environment, downward toward an ultimate heat death.” A death that is self-initiated.
And our safety rules do not help!
The 10 Rules of the Handgun Cited in the NRA Firearms Handbook.
1. Always point the muzzle in a safe direction.
2. Keep your finger off the trigger until you are ready to shoot.
3. Keep the action open and gun unloaded until ready to use it
4. Know how the gun operates
5. Be sure your gun and ammunition are compatible.
6. Carry only one gauge/caliber of ammunition when shooting.
7. Be sure of your target—and what is beyond
8. Wear eye and ear protection as appropriate
9. Don’t mix alcohol or drugs with shooting
10. Be aware that circumstances may require additional rules unique to a particular situation.
… and again
10. Be aware that circumstances may require additional rules unique to a particular situation.
… and I ask the question – do these rules apply when one is pointing the gun at ones own self?
Stage 3: Sighting-In - Externalizing Direction
How A Fire Arm Fires……………Cartridge in chamber………Firing pin strikes and ignites primer which in turn ignites powder………Gas from burning powder expands in case…………Gas pushes bullet out with force……………speeding bullet out through barrel.
Aggression and defense (both of which deal with externals) – to point a finger at the ‘axis of evil’ – you are wrong and I am right – I am good and you are bad – both the language of ‘aggression’ and both the language of ‘defensive’ – both are ‘sighting-in’. Putting ‘the other’ in my sights and firing because I am good and you are evil. I am right and you are wrong.
You attack me so I must defend myself. You have something that I want so I must attack you. You have something that I need so I must attack you. You do not really need what you have so I must attack you. I am just defending myself from your attack before you attack so I must attack you. I have a gun and you do not so I must attack you. You have a gun and so do I so I must defend myself. You are “mere things – whose lives are of no value” . “So therefore we can proceed with this with complete equanimity, and total impunity, and only praise for the achievements.”
Let us now bring our great European art into the hands of a “good number of filthy rich American industrialists who [want] to build collections or foundations.” So they can also have the weapon of the image. So art can be controlled. So we can be made great and made righteous for producing what the ‘others’ cannot.
And since Merleau-Ponty stated “Since the same words – idea, freedom, knowledge – cannot have the same meaning in different places unless we have a single witness reducing them to some common denominator” – we are the witness and as the victor we and we alone have the right to define these words and use them to tell ‘others’ where they are wrong.
An extension of the arm – the reaching out of a helping hand? – with a handgun at its end. Becomes a “murderous humanitarianism”
Lets not forget the gun was, as stated by Lewis Mumford, “the starting point of a new type of power machine: it was mechanically speaking, a one cylinder internal combustion engine: the first form of gasoline engine…… [and] because of the accuracy and effectiveness of the new projectiles, these machines had still another result: they were responsible for the development of the art of heavy fortification, with elaborate outworks, moats and salients, the latter so arranged that any one bastion could come to the aid of another by means of cross-fire. The business of defense became complicated in proportion as the tactics of offence became more deadly”
The art of the handgun is a new stage of warfare. It is one that deterritorializes, decentralizes, and non-linearizes ‘the other’, the invisible army of defense and attacks. It is one that ‘sights-in’ away from oneself and just as easily toward one-self. A true deterrent of real contact and understanding with each other.
Rule number 3: Keep the action open and gun unloaded until ready to use it
Quote - “What, in the case of closed action handguns, does “ready to use” mean? Obviously defensive pistols should be “ready to use” when holstered or [deterrently] pocketed by legally entitled servicemen, police, or civilians, but then should they be fully or only partially loaded?” - Endquote From the NRA Handbook
… and then this assumes that legally entitled servicemen, police, or civilians only take a defensive stance. And does this insinuate that non-legal handgun carriers are typically aggressors?
We defend ourselves from ‘the other’ – ‘the other’ is the only aggressor. We are the good and strong – they terror.
End Stage
The visual portion of this project has dealt with the small-arm as a design that has evolve in relationship to the body over the last few centuries to form a seamless and comfortable extension of the human arm. Handguns in particular, small and compact, are designs that have been bred (in terms of moving along a line of flight in what Deleuze called the “machinic phylum”) throughout history to fit the particular desires of a group or individual. What once started with relatively few design variations, handgun designs have emerged to be as diverse as the human populations they serve to empower or at least give the illusion of empowerment. The materiality of the handgun thus becomes one of power - a personal power – one of deterrence, self-destruction or sighting-in - attributed to the comfort-ability of the design that the user makes in connection with the design of the handgun and its handle.
This seamlessness OR the singular point where flesh turns metallic must be a point of analysis in order to better understand the mechanisms involved with handgun design, manufacturing and utilization - be it against oneself (suicide) or against another (nature, human beings, static targets etc). In doing so we can better be prepared to educate on the aesthetic and material effects of the handgun and how feelings of power and comfort are attributed to the effects of design OR the question “What exactly IS a handgun?” - the tactile nature and physicality of the mechanisms involved exemplified by the hand gripping the handle. This visually constructed project and research is about understanding the materiality of the handgun and its relationship to the human hand though my own personal interactions with handguns and their visual documentation. Through the past few years I have been studying the anatomy of the handgun though artistic video and photography – assembling, disassembling, loading, pointing and firing. In the networked systems of guerrilla combat, “terror”, gang violence, ecological violence, and American hegemony and military domination, it has become important that the mechanics - the visualizations and the interactions of small firearms - be explored in this sort of graphic visual detail. The visual portion of this work has given a brief aesthetically oriented understanding of the mechanics and internal and external working of handgun designs and the spoken portion has been a personal reflection on the handguns mechanical significance in a contemporary networked society.
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