“There is no inside or outside, and no boundary separating the two domains. Rather there is a trial of movement or growth” (Ingold 2011, p.69).  I think that this particular sentence from the reading perfectly summarises the journey every organism and inanimate object possesses. Everything is open and able to be entangled with many other things. Although it may seem that we as individuals are at the small end of the scale of life in this entire universe, this isn’t true. That instead, through our ability to be entangled into this world, our influence on other things is large. Furthermore, the reading as well as discussion in class developed my existing viewpoint on entanglement. Prior to beginning this class, my viewpoint of entanglement was based upon a quote by Barry H. Gillespie which I am fond of. “The path isn’t a straight line; it’s a spiral. You continually come back to things you thought you understood and see deeper truths.” This to me is a part of entanglement. Not only are we able to become entangled with an array of things but sometimes these entanglements reveal new truths of what we have already discovered. Therefore it links with the quote from the reading by which we are all on “a trial of movement or growth.” This idea of revisiting stands out to me. The reason being that at this stage of adolescence, the entanglement experienced often has the underlying theme of revisiting as we move from stage to stage as well as from place to place and we learn about others but also about ourselves. In learning about ourselves we may sometimes have to revisit things but often only after being entangled with something new. This allows us to reflect and move forward.

The complexity of youth and what each person experiences in these years is what I want to explore. Everyone has their story of entanglement and by exploring it, it gives rise to others becoming entangled within it, leading to a copious number of new entanglements each person and the rest of the world will experience. This reminds me of the butterfly effect by which one minor entanglement now could cause a major entanglement somewhere down the line. It highlights that life is complex and that we are forever making new entanglements that leads to new perspectives, passion, people, places and so much more.

The first week of class opened my eyes to the entanglement inanimate objects have. I put my focus on hair ties and I realised that it isn’t only humans or other living organisms which are complex. Hair ties on a superficial level are a product used to tie hair. But once you look beneath the surface, they are so much more. Firstly, who is using the hair tie and for what purpose? Could they be tying hair or are they bundling a stack of cards? If they are tying their hair, how are they tying it? Hair ties lead to hairstyle which leads to self expression and what control the individual or other people have on it. The entanglements can go in a different direction too. What is the hair tie made of? Where was it made? Who was making it? What life do they live? There are historical entanglements too. Who invented hair ties? What were they originally made of? As you can see, the entanglements are endless. It can at times be overwhelming to think about however, it is important to think about. Everything holds a story and we can learn a lot if we take the time to listen and investigate. Entanglement is fascinating and I’m excited to develop my ideas.

Reference:

Ingold, T (2011) ‘Rethinking the animate, reanimating thought’, Being Alive: Essays on movement, knowledge and description Routlege: London, New York 67-75