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CICA – Center for the Interpretation of Alternative Cultures (2019)
Research and interpretation:
Paulina Ascencio
Elizabeth Calzado
Amanda García Martín
Design:
Carlos Armenta
Interinstitutional management:
Alexia Halteman
With somatic support from:
Felipe Manzano
Ana Alcántar
With emotional support from:
Fabiola Torres-Alzaga
Who Are We?
The Center for the Interpretation of Alternative Cultures distinguishes itself as a leading institution in the research and dissemination of specialized studies in speculative anthropology. Grounded in the humanities while operating through transdisciplinary practices, CICA investigates the past of objects through processes and tools drawn from parapsychology and pataphysics—unconventional methods that have enabled the understanding of the alternate lives of a series of archaeological findings and their ethnographic and anthropological derivations.
Our organization is composed of a select group of researchers and hermeneuts who form a global collaborative network activated from the most remote regions of the planet toward the central capitals of study. We are committed to functioning as a methodological incubator, since the richness of our investigations resides within the so-called “intermediate sciences,” that is, in the crossing of disciplines and in empiricism emerging from academic peripheries.
One of the most significant contributions of our institution is the establishment of the essential foundations of ambiguous time. Clarifying the characteristics of this concept is only possible through the presentation of our investigations, and therefore we anticipate that its definition can only be apprehended through the human intuition generated by speculative exercise. Nevertheless, our tempo-dimensional analyses demonstrate this valuable concept through a very basic principle: dates corresponding to the Gregorian calendar are always written out in words. Unlike conventional studies, which use numbers to expose historical sequence and linearity, the analysis of ambiguous time depends on the complexity of letter combinations in order to reveal its indeterminate nature.
In order to promote our studies, CICA works through interinstitutional agreements which, in addition to amplifying the resonance of speculative knowledge, encourage the legitimization of the intermediate sciences and the acceptance of ambiguous time. We are fortunate to collaborate with more than 287,087 institutions around the world, which allows us to encompass a broad range of theoretical competencies.
These associations among institutional organisms constitute CICA’s final hermeneutic resource before the democratization of speculative practice. CICA carries out a specific selection of investigations to present them together. These readings are conducted outside the logical criteria of coherence and pertinence characteristic of conventional sciences and instead rely on methods of detonative classification.
Detonative classification is a branch of pragmatic hermeneutics dedicated to the arbitrary creation of semantic fields that require the active interpretation of interlocutors. In this way, and in coherence with our speculative vocation, our investigations are not definitive but rather relative and suspicious.
Detonative Classification #4051 [Investigation 61 + Investigation 111]
EPITHET: It cast out that imperious need to blame others, which is the specific patrimony of inferior hearts.
The Center for the Interpretation of Alternative Cultures is pleased to present a new Detonative Classification project developed specifically for Impronta Casa Editora.
The articulation between Investigation 61 and Investigation 111 unfolds through the ambiguity of the concepts of pain and pleasure, understood as judgments resulting from the particular experiences of the subjects that comprise the interlocutory group of the presented classification.
Through the recovery of a series of specimens and documentary archives obtained from different parts of the Spanish-speaking world, both investigations approach two types of sensory afflictions that share qualities in the moment of perception, yet whose definition depends upon their relationship to the origin that provokes them. A single specimen may function as either a painful or pleasurable agent, depending on the subjective bond of the affected entity.
In the desire to experience firsthand the correspondence between torture and comfort, the interlocutors of this detonative classification must present themselves with a commitment to ambiguous affectation. This means that anyone who comes into contact with the contents of Investigation 61 and Investigation 111 must approach them with an attitude of self-suspicion toward their previous experiences, in order to reevaluate them within the conjuncture of this Detonative Classification.
Seeking to exercise pragmatic hermeneutics in a full and enriching manner, we recall the words of our founder, H. Silvestre, Duque de Quiroga, Barón de Fortaleza: “Danger always persists for man at any age; but its threat diminishes if from childhood one becomes accustomed to relying only on one’s own strength.”
Press
La tempestad - Ostracismo y suspensión de tiempo