tick-tack

.

In Greek language a clock ticks in a regular

tick-tack

tick-tack

tick-tack

and a heart also sounds like

tick-tack

tick-tack

.

However, in a Greek folk song the anonymous composer writes (translated freely into English by me)

“Tick tick ticki-ticki-tack goes my heart

once I see you passing by”

.

Several conclusions can be drawn from these sentences.

A human heart is thought of as a time-measuring device. A machine that needs to work constantly in a regular and consistent pace-just like a clock-in order to keep the body alive.

“Objects function to bring society within the self […and] serve as foundation of ‘disciplinary society'” (Turkle, 2007, 310-311 and Foucault, 1977, cited in Turkle, 2007, 310-311). With the clock, measured time (which is a manifestation of technologies of temporality) has shaped the way humans think of their body and of themselves. Language visualizes, here, a transformation that has already happened: the body has been disciplined by the ticking clock in order to fit in with the society of measured time. The human self alike the clock needs to work constantly in a regular and consistent pace.

.

.

Heartbeats

are closely related to

the state that a body is in.

An increased heart rate might testify to a state of anxiety or excitement or intense bodily activity. In the folk song, the regular tick-tack changes into tick, tick, ticki-ticki-tack once the composer sees a person he desires and loves.

It goes to show that heartbeats can fluctuate

according to the condition of the body and

its relation to the environment,

whereas Western clocks do not.

However, the interchangeability of heart and clock shapes bodies that function according to a single, regular, and homogeneous pace,

that of a clock,

and disguises the fact that the pace of the heart

and of the body in general

may change at times.

Considering that the society of measured time is the society of work (Han, 2017, 85-114), the disciplined body ticks regularly with the aim to work and produce. Not only is this single pace regular, it is also considered objective because it is manufactured by measuring clocks. Objective equals unquestionable.

We do not question the pace of the clock

we do not question its singular regularity

Any individual that cannot or will not work, produce or simply tick by this given pace is rendered inadequate.

We rarely ask whether the clock is inadequate

for all states of the body

for states of love

desire

coexistence.

I acknowledge, hereby,

by the power vested in me by tick,tick,ticki-ticki-tack

that the paces and temporalities of a body are multiple and do change according to its state and its relation to other bodies and to its environment.

.

.

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