Beneath Your Very Eyes

I will start with a wandering. Not necessarily a physical one, although this could also have taken place. In ancient Greek, a wandering is a meta-hodos ( Yi, 2021 : 11) – from which we derive the word “method”. Meta means “through”, “across”, and hodos is the way, so a meta-hodos is a wandering practice without a clear destination, without a destiny known beforehand, a loose method, therefore, perhaps also without a map and its gridded view from above. In this sense, I will start with a wandering to explore a scene that is a topos . Topos , also one of those evocative Greek words, is a place in both theoretical and geological terms. “One can place one's feet on a topic because one can place one's tongue on it” ( Wark, 2007 : §052). The topos I want to explore I better not explore, since “explore” is the act of mining for gold, silver, cobalt, diamonds, and other precious materials to take possession of them. I will, however, try to wander around without putting anything into my own pocket. The topos I would like to wander through is the site of a former exploration; the ruins of an ancient silver mine and its production of wealth as well as knowledge.