Im-mediations

Two Informative Anecdotes

My first informative anecdote of an im-mediation is the construction of a “portal”. What we conventionally call a “portal” (e.g., an archway or a doorway) does not mediate between two different spaces, rather, it articulates a space that immediately relates two different spaces. By contrast, a “barrier” mediates between two spaces or, in other words, a “barrier” closes off an immediate relation between two spaces. From this informative anecdote, I want you to recognize that im-mediate relations involve “portals of entry, exit, and communication”, and I want you to recognize that mediated relations involve “barriers to entry, exit, and communication”. More profoundly, I also want you to recognize that the difference between two spaces that are immediately related to one another need not actually precede the construction of a portal that articulates their immediate relation. For instance, I can create two different spaces in a single open field by constructing an archway portal in the middle of such a field. In this example, the different spaces on either side of the archway only existed virtually prior to the creation of the archway: the creation of the archway is what made the different spaces actually exist.

My second informative anecdote of an im-mediation is the dissemination of a “germ” (e.g., a “cutting”, a “rhizome”, a “seed”, or a “spore”) that facilitates plant propagation. The dissemination of a germ is the articulation of a bio-geography that immediately relate different bio-geographies. Let’s say that I take a seed from a plant that grows in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America, on the Olympic Peninsula, and that I transport this seed to the temperate rainforests of Japan, to northern Honshu. Ay, and let’s say that I plant this seed on northern Honshu. Now, no matter whether this seed from the Olympic Peninsula takes root or fails to take root on northern Honshu, this seed articulates a biogeography that immediately relates the biogeography of northern Honshu to that of the Olympic Peninsula: if the seed takes root, this immediate relation is a similarity; if the seed fails to take root, this immediate relation is a difference. Now, going further, if the seed fails to take root and I intervene in the ecology of northern Honshu, making the biogeography of northern Honshu more similar to the biogeography of the Olympic Peninsula and enabling such a seed to take root in future, this unifying intervention in the ecology of northern Honshu mediates between the biogeography of northern Honshu and that of the Olympic Peninsula. Alternatively, if the seed succeeds in taking root and I intervene in the ecology of northern Honshu, making the biogeography of northern Honshu less similar to the biogeography of the Olympic Peninsula and preventing such a seed from taking root in future, this divisive intervention in the ecology of northern Honshu mediates between the biogeography of northern Honshu and that of the Olympic Peninsula.

With my second informative anecdote, I want you to recognize that im-mediations are disseminations of germs that convey similarities and differences amongst different grounds, and I want you to recognize that mediations are interventions that make different grounds more or less similar to one another. Again, however, I also want you to recognize that similarities and differences amongst different grounds are actual only in relation to im-mediations: the biogeographical similarities and differences manifested by dissemination of the seed from the Olympic Peninsula to northern Honshu were virtual until the the actual dissemination of the seed from the Olympic Peninsula to northern Honshu.