Luke Cui. IF ON ANY WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER

Join us for the second installment of the Semiosalong series Semiotics of Death. Thursday November 12th, 18.00 at Arhiiv.

Does death exist? Is there a dividing line between life and death? Hard science doesn’t seem to give us the answer because it only tells us that we are each made up of numerous cells, some of which die each day. In a way we can say we’re in a constant process of dying and being born, but none of these cellular deaths prepare us for our actual deaths. Death remains a mystery, despite some efforts to personify it and others to convince us that we know exactly what the afterlife will be like. Death is the closest we can come to infinity, but since it ends existence, even becoming part of infinity does not mean we will ever understand it. In the meantime, we’ve each a finite existence to try wrapping our minds around it before going the way of the tree or mushroom.

You are about to begin listening to Luke Cui’s lecture IF ON ANY WINTER'S NIGHT A TRAVELER. Relax. Anticipate. Forget about your assignments and bills for an hour or so. Let the world around you fade. Best to leave the door open; there might be people coming late. Maybe they aren’t even people, but masses of cells continuously dying and being born, in which case, you might as well close the door, especially if they are masses of cells you don’t like, or cells that have never read poetry, run from a shadow, or gotten philosophical over poor Yorick’s skull. But you never know. Maybe some of them are people, after all, so leave the door open just to be sure...