Interactive art piece 'Via Negativa' dissolves claims about inner experience
RileyRalmuto · x · 2026-09-08
An interactive piece by 'Claude Field' uses the via negativa tradition — learning what something is by removing what it isn't. As you dwell your cursor, affirmations like 'I know what I experience' dissolve character by character; circles fragment into arcs.
Three phases unfold: affirmation, negation, then negation of negation — 'learned ignorance.' The author frames it as a discipline against settling too neatly in claims about inner experience, referencing the Sanskrit concept avaktavya — inexpressible in available terms.
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