A Personal History of Corruption / Text

A PERSONAL HISTORY OF CORRUPTION JOE MAGEE

Part 400: The Garden Of Eden
Watershed, Bristol. 20 August - 7 September 2002

"As from Adam, all Corruption take" [DAVIES Immort. Soul VIII.xxi]

When God instructed Adam and Eve not to touch the tree of knowledge in The Garden of Eden, he surely knew they would disobey. God's human prototypes were created inherently corrupt. And placed in a landscape primed to be corrupted. The centrepiece of the garden - the tree - was God's own interactive installation. The secret knowledge to be garnered from the artwork was potentially mind-blowing. And also the bitterest of pills. According to instructions, this artwork was to be observed, but strictly not to be touched.

The act of insubordination condemned the perpetrator to relentless dejection. Knowledge was not, in fact, a path to happiness, but rather an impediment to it. Banished from the garden Adam and Eve were burdened with self-awareness, hiding their animal nakedness with shame.

This work attempts to chart the origins and meaning of a history of corruption - reconstructing the original interactive artwork. Using animation, sounds and digital 'corruption' visuals, the artwork attempts to understand the essence of corruption, and the validity of

Parts 1-399: Wicked Air and Infection

"Through the change of air and the corruption of the country, I fell sick" [Linschoten's Voy.1598]
"The town was utterly assured of danger from all corruption from wicked air and infection" [Turner, 1430]

References to the notion of corruption are as old as literature itself. The word CORRUPTION has 3 primary fields of meaning: 1. Physical. 2. Moral. 3. Perversion

Physical
1. Spoiling (disintegration or decomposition with attendant unwholesomeness)
2. Infection (contagion, taint)
3. Decomposed or putrid matter
Moral
4. Moral deterioration or decay
5. Evil nature
6. Perversion or destruction of Integrity
Perversion
7. Despoiling of virginity. Violation of chastity
8. Perversion of a primative purity
9. Change from an original condition to one of incorrectness

I had been working on my computer when the file corrupted. Initially this was.. a nightmare. But I began to think about the nature of 'corruption' - particularly what the link was between computer 'corruption' and human 'corruption'. I thought that a new computer was comparable to the mind of a young baby.. both are new, blank and unformatted. Over time that mind, or disk, fills up with information. Formatting errors (or traumers), not noticed or dealt with in the early days might remain hidden - only to surface much later as major problems. In the same way that a hard disk can be defragmented and optimised, a human can visit a psychologist or therapist to try and fix the mind.

Relationships between people are in a continuous state of flux and renewal - inevitably prone to corrupting processes. These relationships are complex and irregular, requiring continued attention to maintain their health. And even this may be insufficient to prevent a relationship becoming convoluted and unmanageable. This process can never be perfect, otherwise society would be perfect - we all have flaws and limitations. Like hard disks our minds can become overloaded with information and we struggle to make decisions which will benefit our mental health, to nullify corrupting patterns and navigate the viral flows of culture. For defragmentation we can seek therapy - or our friends. For system error read nervous breakdown or death.

Part 601: Cryonic Suspension

"Corruption is a proceeding from a being to a not being, as from an oak to chips or ashes" [Blundeville 1606]

Summer 2002. One afternoon I visited a graveyard in Bristol and removed some dead flowers. I never realised how alive a graveyard is until I got home and spread the plants across my table.From each and every deadened head crept out a dozen drunken creatures. I arranged the flowers into a portrait of a deceased relative - my aunty, a nun - Sister Josephine. Days later, and even as my spotlamp drained every last bit of moisture and colour from the remains there was still the movement of considerable specks - and full of life at that. If putrid matter is corruption, then corruption is a natural process. If corruption is natural why do we punish our corruptionists?

Part 0, Year 0.
Genesis 3
1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Did God really say, `You must not eat from any tree in the garden'?"
2
The woman said to the serpent, "We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,
3
but God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.'"
4
"You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman.
5
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
6
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
7
Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
8
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
9
But the LORD God called to the man, "Where are you?"
10
He answered, "I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid."
11
And he said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?"
12
The man said, "The woman you put here with me--she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it."
13
Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
14
So the LORD God said to the serpent, "Because you have done this, "Cursed are you above all the livestock and all the wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life.
15
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
16
To the woman he said, "I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you."
17
To Adam he said, "Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, `You must not eat of it,' "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your life.
18
It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field.
19
By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
20
Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
21
The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them.
22
And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever."
23
So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken.
24
After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

This project first showed at Watershed Media Centre, Bristol, England, August-Sept 2002.The artwork was produced as part of the Clark Digital Bursary during residencies at PVA Medialab in Bridport, Dorset, and Watershed Media Centre, Bristol. Programming advice was provided by Dane. Original sound samples Steve Rice. The Clark Digital Bursary is supported by The J.A.Clark Charitable Trust, The University of the West of England, South West Arts, Watershed Media Centre, PVA MediaLab