Notes from the Editor
Defining Knowledge is Power
by Laura Ivins-Hulley
One question that has been preoccupying me lately is: what is knowledge? More specifically,what counts as knowledge? Following from that is the inevitable (and familiar) question: who
gets to know? The person who is able to define what counts as knowledge is a person who
holds a certain measure of power. Theories that reconsider gender, race, colonialism, etc. have
long recognized this. We often take for granted the linguistic necessity of knowledge, forgetting
the numerous other ways we experience it in daily life. It takes someone like Michel de Certeau
to remind us that bodily habits (how we move through space) constitute as salient a type of
knowledge as the documents (maps, recipe books) that objectify that knowledge in rational sign
systems. Or, it takes a group like the surrealists to point out that the “unknowable” (linguistically
inexpressible) is as valuable to human experience as an endlessly systematized world.
To ask questions about knowability and access to knowability is at the core of The Wig’s
mission. We hope that through the voices of our contributors we can challenge those habits of
knowledge production that inevitably privilege some voices and stifle others. Each of the pieces
in this issue, in its unique way, asks questions about the form(s) of knowledge or access to it.
We begin the issue with a playlet/poem by Shira Segal that explores the (re)construction of the
archive by the scholar. In “‘Dear Jonas, Jan 6, 1972’ – a commentary on the economics of
experimental filmmaking,” Segal weaves correspondences, stories, lectures and notes from the
Stan Brakhage Papers into a conversation about what it means to be a film artist working
independently. She does not present her research in linear narrative form, and so questions
the very normativity of that form.
Then, we have a declaration from a local artists’ collective based in Bloomington, Indiana called
Women Exposed. In the manifesto, “WE Manifes-To,” written by participating members Filiz
Cicek and Le Anh Nguyen-Long, Women Exposed challenges an art world dominated by men
and male definitions of art. In so doing, they emphasize community and respect for artistic
perspectives both institutionalized and personal.
Thirdly, Gina Athena Ulysse presents us with another playlet, “‘Voodoo’ Doll: Or What if Haiti
were a Woman, On ti travay sou 21 pwen, Or an Alter(ed)native in something other than fiction.”
Drawn from her anthropological fieldwork in Haiti, Ulysse explores the embodiment of artifacts
and ruminates on the pieces of knowledge that numbers miss. Moreover, she points out the
sometimes unacknowledged power dynamics inherent in academic scholarship, asking that we
reconsider our own performance of authority.
Our correspondent in London, Martyn Conterio, ventures into the gallery space to explore how,
culturally, we construct the experience of “art.” His report, “Sophie Calle: Take Care of Yourself
Exhibition,” is as attentive to the details of the gallery as milieu – its floors, restrooms and
patrons – as the art itself, urging us to consider why we attend galleries and arguing that we
construct meaning from more than the art on display.
Finally, I have included an article on temporality that seeks to question the necessary fixity
and linearity of cinematic texts, and by extension academic texts. “The Dimensionality of Time
in Cinema” may be read in any order you wish; simply follow the links at your whim. I leave it up to
you to construct and reconstruct the argument as you click through to each new paragraph, and
I will accept whatever interpretations you draw from the article.
Of course, across all five of the above pieces, we ultimately hope to present a diversity of voices
– from established scholar to emerging scholars to activists to journalist – and a diversity of
ways to approach the multiplicity of issues. Our hope is to help expand the scope of what’s
possible and perhaps inspire others to experiment with how they formulate their own research,
meaning-making or ideas.
We welcome your comments and – hopefully – even contributions to future issues.
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