Ink and paper, 4 ft × 10 ft (2026)
Bodily Jargon, following philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno, insists on the material consequences of words and images, their embodiment, whether in terms of the agents, the politicians whose directives they follow, or the tech billionaire founders and their workers. Most significantly, the project insists on the actual people whose very bodily selves are at stake.
Jargon such as “operating system”. ““collateral”, or “counterterrorism mission” can be understood as doing something for and to actual people. The project insists that state power be described in language answerable to all. When the vocabulary of enforcement and the vocabulary of the technology enabling it are intended to sound rigorous while resisting any kind of assessment, each lending the other cover, each retreating into ambiguity when questioned, the result is not merely evasive language. It is a mode of governance that speaks fluently about itself without ever owning its actions. Jargon, as Adorno demonstrated, is not simply a stylistic failure, it is a mechanism by which power becomes accountable to no one.
Ink and paper, 4 ft × 10 ft (2026)
Bodily Jargon, following philosopher and sociologist Theodor Adorno, insists on the material consequences of words and images, their embodiment, whether in terms of the agents, the politicians whose directives they follow, or the tech billionaire founders and their workers. Most significantly, the project insists on the actual people whose very bodily selves are at stake.
Jargon such as “operating system”. ““collateral”, or “counterterrorism mission” can be understood as doing something for and to actual people. The project insists that state power be described in language answerable to all. When the vocabulary of enforcement and the vocabulary of the technology enabling it are intended to sound rigorous while resisting any kind of assessment, each lending the other cover, each retreating into ambiguity when questioned, the result is not merely evasive language. It is a mode of governance that speaks fluently about itself without ever owning its actions. Jargon, as Adorno demonstrated, is not simply a stylistic failure, it is a mechanism by which power becomes accountable to no one.