Lacan relates the story of Matisse's reaction to a film that was taken of him painting. He says that it was a "strange slow-motion film in which one sees Matisse painting. The important point is that Matisse himself was overwhelmed by the film. Maurice Merleau-Ponty draws attention to the paradox of this gesture which, enlarged by the distension of time, enables us to imagine the most perfect deliberation in each of these brush strokes. This is an illusion ... what occurs as these strokes, which go to make up the miracle of the picture, fall like rain from the painter's brush is not choice, but something else" (114). As a person who paints, I know that brushstrokes are not always the choice of the painter. There is a randomness (which perhaps isn't random at all) to how the painting comes about. Sometimes it has to do with the size of the brush, sometimes with the contours of the subjects on the canvas. But to think about the slowed down brushstrokes of a Matisse painting is interesting because watching people paint seems to have the opposite effect these days. These days, on youtube, people's brushstrokes are sped up so that the viewer can get to the end of the painting as quick as possible. There is no hyper slowing down of the film production of a person painting. I think that would be fascinating. It is especially fascinating when one considers something that Matisse said and my art teacher related that has always stuck with me: "I don't paint things," he said, "I only paint the difference between things." The unsettled way that he feels, I think, points to that. He is watching himself paint the in between, the limbo, and watching himself bring something back out of that limbo.
Lacan says, "Let us not forget that the painter's brushstroke is something in which a movement is terminated. We are faced here with something that gives a new and different meaning to the term regression---we are faced with the element of motive in the sense of response" (114). This termination and regression allows us to see things that we may not have otherwise. Perhaps that is why art historians study the great painter's brushstrokes, why people who can detect reproduced paintings can somehow tell that a masterpiece is real or just a fake copy. I think this is an interesting process to think about, also, when trying to understand Electracy. Instead of brushstrokes, we have people's methods of scrolling, and people's keystrokes. In fact, one can figure out someone's identity by understanding their specific type of keystrokes (at least this is what I've heard), something that's always present: "This terminal moment is that which enables us to distinguish between a gesture and an act. It is by means of a gesture that the brushstroke is applied to the canvas ... the gesture is always present ... All action represented in a picture appears to us as a battle scene, something theatrical, necessarily created for the gesture" (114-5).
Instructions: Take a video of yourself typing and using your mouse. Try painting on a simple program like MS Paint, and record your painting's progression and the way that you move your fingers on your track pad or use your mouse. What happens when you misspell a word? Do you delete the whole word or do you actually use the mouse to go to the problem area? How slow do you type? Fast? How often do you stall as you're typing up a word or sentence? Remember to slow down your video. Do you feel strange watching yourself type?
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