collections > procrustes bed
Greek mythology tells the story of Procrustes, son of Poseidon. Procustes was a rogue and a smith, who would offer hospitality to passing strangers. In return Procrustes would question his guests and if their answers did not fit his arbitrary standard, he would stretch or amputate them to fit his ‘bed’ thereby conforming to his desired standard.
Arbitrary standards are philosophical questions around reality and knowledge relating to the human condition. A ‘standard’ is a form of measurement that can be objective or subjective. Much of my previous work deals with this philosophical question which is fundamental to the human condition.
In the work procrustes bed, I frame the inquiry from a different perspective: how do we as individuals, live life with an imperfect understanding of reality, which is constrained through imperfect knowledge? One possible answer is that we apply arbitrary standards to our and others conduct.
For example, a documentary film depicting any subject that you care to mention will be filmed using a finite sample of all the information (truth/reality) available to the film-maker and this will be subjected to editing so as to maintain an entertaining narrative for the viewer. Photographs, paintings, all represent a finite data sample chosen, or depicted, by an individual to their arbitrary standard. Or in law, there is the ‘objective test’ of the reasonable man riding the Clapham Common omnibus. What is this objective test? It is a Judge, who decides (arbitrarily) whether the behaviour exhibited by the defendant rises to the standard of our reasonable men riding the bus. This is subjectivity dressed as a peacock and called objective.
The myth presents Procrustes in a negative light, portrayed as a bad person. The myth illustrates rather the more accurate representation of the human condition, that we as individuals, employ arbitrary measurements (standards) all of the time through our endeavours in day-to-day living.
