Such a Tool

According to Oxford Languages, ‘a tool is a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function.’ By extension, concepts that support systematic or investigative thought are often referred to as “tools” or “toolkits”. Tool is also an insult used for someone who lacks the capacity to realize they’re being used by someone else—a fool. Also, an idiot or a dick, lacking personal convictions, or one who is easily manipulated. In 1990, a group of four musicians in Los Angeles formed the progressive metal band Tool, known for its austere, intellectual musicianship and emotional, sometimes occultist, lyrical aesthetics. At one point in time it was proclaimed that the band’s name stands for how they want their music to be a tool to be an aid in understanding lachrymology: the ‘study of crying’. In a 1994 interview with Ray Gun Magazine, lead singer Maynard James Keenan explained, “Tool is exactly what it sounds like: It’s a big dick. It’s a wrench. It’s also what it sounds like: it’s a verb, it’s a digging factor. It’s an active process of searching, as in use us, we are a shovel, we are the match […]”

There is a complex history around the concept of tools as objects of intelligence, human problem-solving capabilities and our incessant desire to exponentially increase our impact while minimizing effort. Entire industries are built on the development of objects, strategies and software that fundamentally enhance our labor efforts and effectiveness. And while those industries largely exist as corporations and businesses, on a microlevel the expertise and technical abilities lie with individuals and shared learning. Ontologically speaking, tools are the result of anthropological intuition and ingenuity, but as non-human objects themselves (inanimate up to activation), carry none of the intelligence of their operation. One could say that using tool as an insult is an effort to diminish the tool and remove it from the core of this particular system of effectivity as it relates to individuals. The following objects are exercises and experiments that analyze the breakdown between identity and meaning-making as it relates to individualism, labor systems and success, while unapologetically turning to face the emotional consequences of being called an asshole.