6‘50“ ,colors, sound, 2003
The hydraulics principle in psychoanalysis refers to the libido theory, and in this context Freud uses terminology strongly tied to liquids: efflux, discharge, repository, channelling etc. As the narrating voice, in a didactic tone, speaks about what is occurring at a psychic level, images taken in physics and chemistry laboratories run showing scientific experiments relating to liquids.
The hydraulics principle in psychoanalysis refers to the libido theory, and in this context Freud uses terminology strongly tied to liquids: efflux, discharge, repository, channelling etc. As the narrating voice, in a didactic tone, speaks about what is occurring at a psychic level, images taken in physics and chemistry laboratories run showing scientific experiments relating to liquids. Schematic graphics, images of test tubes, water pistons, valves and connecting vessels seek to paradoxically illustrate what is occurring in the psychic apparatus, that is, what by its very nature cannot be represented. What interests me is the human tendency to comprehend phenomena, even the most complex, via schematic representation, via a generalisation that leads to the identification of organising principles. I quote Oliver Sacks who, as a child, was dazzled by Mendeleev’s Table: “The periodic table was incredibly beautiful, the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I could never analyse adequately what I meant, in this context, by beautiful: simplicity? coherency? rhythm? inevitability?”.