The politics of pressure

This is man; sometimes it solidifies, sometimes it liquefies or vaporizes. American physicist Arthur Iberall likens the states of humanity to the states of matter. Just as matter changes phases from one state to another (gas, liquid, solid), humanity has also gone through similar phase changes. The first hunter-gatherer groups resembled gas molecules because they lived separately from each other and interacted rarely and irregularly. With the transition to agriculture, there was a concentration of relationships and energy, and humanity became liquid. Then, with the accumulation of surplus production and surplus value in certain hands, and the emergence of hierarchies, institutions and laws, humanity crystallizes and solidifies. It is said that we now live in a liquid society. Liquids can change shape depending on the container they are placed in.

Depending on the pressure they are subjected to, they can speed up or slow down, change their direction, or get caught in a vortex and spin around a center. Pressure is political. And powers now have to deal with bodies in flux, as well as single bodies. And managing flux requires knowledge of fluid mechanics. Knowledge is power.

Everything is related to force, everything is force. Relationships occur between forces. Sensation is closely related to force. When a force acts on a body, sensation occurs. Sensation also depends on the intensity of the pressure. Pressure is the amount of force acting on a surface, and the amount of forces acting on a body, that is, their intensity, can vary. Under natural conditions, the forces acting, gravity, gravitation, weights, may not be felt by bodies. It is up to art to make imperceptible, invisible forces visible.

Bacon's paintings are exactly like this:

“It is as if invisible forces were attacking the head from different angles” (Deleuze, The Logic of Sensation, Norgunk). In addition to invisible forces, there are also visible forces that monopolies of violence apply to bodies. In fact, these forces are produced to be seen and felt. The pressure that monopolies of violence apply to bodies is called social pressure. The intensity of pressures can hurt you. If the intensity of a force hurts you physically and mentally, you naturally tend to escape from it. Fluids also exhibit similar characteristics.

According to Bernoulli's principle, pressure and speed are inversely proportional to each other in fluids. The speed is low in areas where the pressure is high, while the speed is high in areas where the pressure is low. Fluids tend to move rapidly from areas where the pressure is high to areas where the pressure is low.

In order for a fluid to move in a region, a force must be effective. If the region with low pressure remains in the middle of the high pressure, the low pressure region becomes the center and thus a vortex is formed. Bernoulli's principle is also at work in society. The vortex is the center of power that swallows and digests everything that opposes, a black hole. Power uses violence on bodies to ensure that those who are suffering from the pressure move desperately towards the center where the pressure is low. The pressures on the opposition press are to reduce the pressure in the center and direct the direction of the fluids towards the center.

The center around which the fluids revolve can be fixed or mobile. Consumption spaces are mobile centers, a consumption space can be opened anywhere at any time. Bodies under pressure can also relieve their souls by consuming. The display cases are carefully designed for those who want to fulfill their pilgrimage obligations.

A body becomes deformed under pressure. Bodies can also take refuge in the center to escape deformation. However, to exist means to survive despite and with forces, and a body can continue to exist to the extent that it can sense forces. Even if bodies are subject to pressures and oppressions, they can still resist being caught in a vortex and spinning around a center. To resist is to exist despite forces and oppressions. To “stay in the flow,” as the well-known saying of today is very dangerous; a body caught in a vortex can cease to exist and be digested by the center.