Here's a review I wrote tonight for the new Terrence Malick film, The Tree of Life (one of the only films I gave 10/10). It may or may not be posted on IMDB, but I thought y'all might want to get a peek here. PS you should probably check it out. I'll watch it with you if you'd like. Cheers.
The Tree of Life: Being and time; cyclical and vertical.
Haters gonna hate. A certain fact rendered manifestly true by a
majority bombastic and simple-minded 1-star reviews previously posted.
It is certain that this film is not for everyone. I would not recommend
it for people who arrive at the end a film and immediately demand what
the 'point' is; i would not recommend it for individuals who are not
comfortable with ambiguity; nor people who are impatient; nor those who
have a strict affinity for linearity in films.
People have an insatiable tendency to confuse ambiguity with
pretension. An easy mistake. But certainly not one that justifies the
vehement disregard this film has received from more narrow-minded
viewers. The Tree of Life is difficult to call a 'film' in the
conventional sense. It is one part exploration, one part essay, one
part artistic vision, one part stab at that 'je ne sais quoi' element
of human creative existence. There is no 'argument'; certainly no
'point' that one walks away with. It is simply a jab, a try--an
exploration at existence, transcendence and genesis executed with a
sharp and powerful artistic vision. There are references to the bible,
which naturally is a big turn off for me in general; but I find it more
a gesture at exploring the human relationship with life and death,
which is the perspectival linchpin of the film itself.
The film has no point except for provocation. Ideas? likely; a thesis?
almost certainly not. The fragmentary nature of the film makes it
difficult, but it mimics the function of our own memories, which is
similar to the structures of dreams: outlined by strong yet undefined
tidbits, strongest in their emotional and conceptual ramifications. The
film is long and it can be difficult to follow but only if one wants to understand every scene independent of the context of the whole film. The music is splendid; the production and the cinematography is one of the best I've ever seen; there are a few elements that did not strongly resonate with me, that is certain. Most importantly, however, is the film's ability to captivate and shape its audience and leave you not with something to 'think about', but moreover with something unique and spurious, planted within you that may always remain undefined (hail the haters).
For those of us who approach a film not with a Berlin wall of prejudices and expectations but a tabula rasa waiting to be colored and effected into ourselves: you will enjoy the beauty and questions brought about from this unique and visceral film....
***I would recommend a higher resolution TV and a at least mad decent sound system turned up to 'Thunder' level.*
15 November, 2011
28 October, 2011
Delta, Alpha, Bravo!
I don't know if it's insomnia, that full pot of French roast I drank with a glass of grapefruit juice, that nap till 21h that crept up on me, my cat bouncing off the walls or just my mind racing, but 40 minutes in bed and my mind is still racing...hopefully some late night writing and a generous glass of Sazerac will let me sort through part II in dreams.
I've still been sifting over some of the unstructured questions I nothing short of listed relating to change and interpersonal alteration. What might motivate it; whether it is even manifestly possible or just a kind of perception/interpretation; if so, what might motivate it or bring about. Additionally (or conversely) how does this compare and relate to macro or global change? Do our actions actually account to meaningful change?
What is movement if not basic entropy?
As much as I am loathe to breach into appealing to a notion such as 'nature' perhaps that is simply what lies at heart of things. Some people have change in their personality; some kernel of their being is driven toward flux and readjustment. For them the change is adaptive: hair color; social groups; persuasions, opinions and leanings; habits; et cetera. Of course change is independent of the entity it manifests through. I suppose I mean to gander at whether one creates change in their own myriad of daily, weekly, yearly events and happenings or whether they just adapt to it. Clearly being a neither/nor kind of response, I still wonder what might constitute one for the other. I suppose I really comes down to the ways in which we make change for ourselves: those who move toward goals and move in jerks, those who move to another city, go to college out of state, study abroad; those whose change is mercurial--moods, friends, romantic partners. But perhaps these arbitrary distinctions appeal more to the notion of consistency. We probably just change to try and find something stable, consistent and regular.
I never promised any structure or clarity.
And what of the change in the global sense? I would like to look at history and argue yes; but the history of the present year remains dubious. Looking at Libya and what seems to be unambiguous execution of Muammar Gaddafi as an example: the rebels fought fiercely to overthrow the dictator that had been the mercurial face of Libya for several years. Perhaps ironically, Gaddafi came to power after a successful and blodless coup d'état. Not to argue against the numerous brutalities for which Gaddafi and his regime are doubtless responsible, but simply to post a wrench in the spokes of the notion that 'history' is progressive....
Or take the Occupy Wall Street 'protests' (or are they just glorified sit-ins and tailgate parties? I'm not yet sure...): they aim at addressing...well, let's try and make a list of what they represent:
-First and foremost, they aren't big fans of Capitalism: an economic system or ideology that promotes a free, unregulated market that I would (although callously) call 'Economic Darwinism'. The most natural consequence of this that it creates a fierce competition for the best (or best marketed and monopolized) products and markets. A system that put Western states and sovereign states in the financial power and has had a (perhaps infectious) 'trickle down' effect on political, global and social policies.
-As a consequence of this system, there is an 'unequal' distribution of wealth. Ergo the 99% slogan that has been adopted. Which works toward the idea that there is a small (1%?) of the population that controls (with hidden hands) some large majority of the wealth leading to greed, corruption, human rights violations, etc, etc...
-Oh, and pretty much every other issue present in the United States that is particularly clear for any individual making less than $50k/year (give or take...ish)
....and what is every one doing but 'Occupying' public parks and squares in major cities and chanting what one individual says en masse. If they were to get more women and children in the park and build walls, they would almost certainly be met with firebombs and tanks.
Anyway, that rye is letting me get carried away. I want to keep things outlined by history. Shockingly similarly, there are the Tea Party 'protests' (or rallies) that consist of an entirely different demographic, but really are attempting to refute a similar trend or problem (if you get kind of abstract and creative...woot! Liberal Arts!).
I want to bring to the par that, despite the fact that we have a black president, we are living in strikingly 'conservative' times. I had a long conversation not last week about how much I admire the time period from 1871-1912 as it seemed to be the most 'liberal' period under which the world (ie our perception of the world, the western world) was under what I view as the most circumspect and self-informed renaissance. Which is not to argue its accuracy, merely its inspiration, strength and brilliance. It seems freedom was more free then and we might just be rediscovering this again after....well, another 100 years war. Just sayin'...
Oh yes, and, while I'm at it: Debt, bailout, unemployment, healthcare, revolt, war (seems to be declining until we declare war on Iran in a couple of months...), 2012 election, famine, natural disasters, technology, death, birth....
I just hope we might happen to stumble on something new....
I've still been sifting over some of the unstructured questions I nothing short of listed relating to change and interpersonal alteration. What might motivate it; whether it is even manifestly possible or just a kind of perception/interpretation; if so, what might motivate it or bring about. Additionally (or conversely) how does this compare and relate to macro or global change? Do our actions actually account to meaningful change?
What is movement if not basic entropy?
As much as I am loathe to breach into appealing to a notion such as 'nature' perhaps that is simply what lies at heart of things. Some people have change in their personality; some kernel of their being is driven toward flux and readjustment. For them the change is adaptive: hair color; social groups; persuasions, opinions and leanings; habits; et cetera. Of course change is independent of the entity it manifests through. I suppose I mean to gander at whether one creates change in their own myriad of daily, weekly, yearly events and happenings or whether they just adapt to it. Clearly being a neither/nor kind of response, I still wonder what might constitute one for the other. I suppose I really comes down to the ways in which we make change for ourselves: those who move toward goals and move in jerks, those who move to another city, go to college out of state, study abroad; those whose change is mercurial--moods, friends, romantic partners. But perhaps these arbitrary distinctions appeal more to the notion of consistency. We probably just change to try and find something stable, consistent and regular.
I never promised any structure or clarity.
And what of the change in the global sense? I would like to look at history and argue yes; but the history of the present year remains dubious. Looking at Libya and what seems to be unambiguous execution of Muammar Gaddafi as an example: the rebels fought fiercely to overthrow the dictator that had been the mercurial face of Libya for several years. Perhaps ironically, Gaddafi came to power after a successful and blodless coup d'état. Not to argue against the numerous brutalities for which Gaddafi and his regime are doubtless responsible, but simply to post a wrench in the spokes of the notion that 'history' is progressive....
Or take the Occupy Wall Street 'protests' (or are they just glorified sit-ins and tailgate parties? I'm not yet sure...): they aim at addressing...well, let's try and make a list of what they represent:
-First and foremost, they aren't big fans of Capitalism: an economic system or ideology that promotes a free, unregulated market that I would (although callously) call 'Economic Darwinism'. The most natural consequence of this that it creates a fierce competition for the best (or best marketed and monopolized) products and markets. A system that put Western states and sovereign states in the financial power and has had a (perhaps infectious) 'trickle down' effect on political, global and social policies.
-As a consequence of this system, there is an 'unequal' distribution of wealth. Ergo the 99% slogan that has been adopted. Which works toward the idea that there is a small (1%?) of the population that controls (with hidden hands) some large majority of the wealth leading to greed, corruption, human rights violations, etc, etc...
-Oh, and pretty much every other issue present in the United States that is particularly clear for any individual making less than $50k/year (give or take...ish)
....and what is every one doing but 'Occupying' public parks and squares in major cities and chanting what one individual says en masse. If they were to get more women and children in the park and build walls, they would almost certainly be met with firebombs and tanks.
Anyway, that rye is letting me get carried away. I want to keep things outlined by history. Shockingly similarly, there are the Tea Party 'protests' (or rallies) that consist of an entirely different demographic, but really are attempting to refute a similar trend or problem (if you get kind of abstract and creative...woot! Liberal Arts!).
I want to bring to the par that, despite the fact that we have a black president, we are living in strikingly 'conservative' times. I had a long conversation not last week about how much I admire the time period from 1871-1912 as it seemed to be the most 'liberal' period under which the world (ie our perception of the world, the western world) was under what I view as the most circumspect and self-informed renaissance. Which is not to argue its accuracy, merely its inspiration, strength and brilliance. It seems freedom was more free then and we might just be rediscovering this again after....well, another 100 years war. Just sayin'...
Oh yes, and, while I'm at it: Debt, bailout, unemployment, healthcare, revolt, war (seems to be declining until we declare war on Iran in a couple of months...), 2012 election, famine, natural disasters, technology, death, birth....
I just hope we might happen to stumble on something new....
09 October, 2011
Float...
A cup of french press is an excellent way to strike 23h on a Sunday night. The smooth jolt of caffeine complemented with some Drankenstein 2 bumping in these new headphones (although I still feel that the FMJs are the best) really does the trick to calm my nerves that have felt like suspension cables the last few hours...
...least it's not anxiety: fear of the 'je ne sais quoi'; I know exactly what's making me uneasy, which is nice in some regard--to be liberated from such an empty, rotting ambiguity. Feeling stupid, blind and fumbling in the face of this looming specter is the real dagger, however. Contemporary dread; sloped in a hole of debt, bankruptcy, and like I'm just shooting in the dark. Never have I felt so without personal liberty and twisted into denial and worry (normally trying to deny my worry more specifically). Brief, it's quite degrading this feeling of being so hopeless. This is the worst employment situation I've been in since I was 19. Cool.
Ok, so if you're feeling bummed on life, you should probably bump the earlier mentioned Drankenstein 2 real loud. And make sure you got some bass on your phones! If dat shit don't make you feel better, you either got some serious shit to figure out or you're a hater and got a bad taste in music and you got yerself some real shit to figure out!
Anyway, started reading this book today. More work in my pursuit of super human strength and extended life. Should be a fun/interesting read. Really got me thinking (in a mostly abstract way) about the notion of change, appropriation, personal commitment and discipline and I wondered if the notion of a 'personal change' ie I want to make myself better, etc is even something realistic; or, moreover, what shapes and influences individual change. Or, how does one find the motivation to stick to it? Aw, hell, I'll try and figure this out in a little minute...
I'll be more on the ground next time.
...least it's not anxiety: fear of the 'je ne sais quoi'; I know exactly what's making me uneasy, which is nice in some regard--to be liberated from such an empty, rotting ambiguity. Feeling stupid, blind and fumbling in the face of this looming specter is the real dagger, however. Contemporary dread; sloped in a hole of debt, bankruptcy, and like I'm just shooting in the dark. Never have I felt so without personal liberty and twisted into denial and worry (normally trying to deny my worry more specifically). Brief, it's quite degrading this feeling of being so hopeless. This is the worst employment situation I've been in since I was 19. Cool.
Ok, so if you're feeling bummed on life, you should probably bump the earlier mentioned Drankenstein 2 real loud. And make sure you got some bass on your phones! If dat shit don't make you feel better, you either got some serious shit to figure out or you're a hater and got a bad taste in music and you got yerself some real shit to figure out!
Anyway, started reading this book today. More work in my pursuit of super human strength and extended life. Should be a fun/interesting read. Really got me thinking (in a mostly abstract way) about the notion of change, appropriation, personal commitment and discipline and I wondered if the notion of a 'personal change' ie I want to make myself better, etc is even something realistic; or, moreover, what shapes and influences individual change. Or, how does one find the motivation to stick to it? Aw, hell, I'll try and figure this out in a little minute...
I'll be more on the ground next time.
23 April, 2011
Quoi de Neuf!
Let's start this off right with this killer video:
This guy came out with this little EP less than a month ago and he debuts this as his first video?!? Hot damn! More, please?!?
Here's a sick remix of that same song:
Woodkid--Iron (Mystery Jets Remix)
What the hell has been going on in my life lately? Been bouncing all over the place, that's for sure. For starts, work is going better. A lot better. After a laborious series of weeks where I wrote more than 100 cover letters and dressed up for in person interviews, etc, etc. Ended up flat dry. Wasn't too terribly bummed, except for a couple jobs I came real close to getting but ended up a touch short. Would have been real nice to be involved in the science community again. Wasn't accepted to teach in France with TAPIF--got my 'official' transcript in too late. Another bummer. Boef
But, things have finally settled down a touch now. Been modeling , which has proven to be as introspective and fascinating as I had hoped it would be and been trying to get things off the ground at Translations Gallery, which is the first time I've enjoyed a job in a long time--and something that could eventually manifest into something tangible. Been gardening, trying to compost, biking and loving being back on my motorcycle consistently again. Things are good, real good.
I lovethis song
Anyway, wanted to let y'all know (all 10 of you!) that I'm still kicking and that the angel's share is getting better!
MJ Signing out!
Oh, BTW, anyone who likes all things brilliant and beautiful, stream one of my favorite artist's new album:
Son Lux--We Are Rising
Woodkid - Iron from WOODKID on Vimeo.
This guy came out with this little EP less than a month ago and he debuts this as his first video?!? Hot damn! More, please?!?
Here's a sick remix of that same song:
Woodkid--Iron (Mystery Jets Remix)
What the hell has been going on in my life lately? Been bouncing all over the place, that's for sure. For starts, work is going better. A lot better. After a laborious series of weeks where I wrote more than 100 cover letters and dressed up for in person interviews, etc, etc. Ended up flat dry. Wasn't too terribly bummed, except for a couple jobs I came real close to getting but ended up a touch short. Would have been real nice to be involved in the science community again. Wasn't accepted to teach in France with TAPIF--got my 'official' transcript in too late. Another bummer. Boef
But, things have finally settled down a touch now. Been modeling , which has proven to be as introspective and fascinating as I had hoped it would be and been trying to get things off the ground at Translations Gallery, which is the first time I've enjoyed a job in a long time--and something that could eventually manifest into something tangible. Been gardening, trying to compost, biking and loving being back on my motorcycle consistently again. Things are good, real good.
I lovethis song
Anyway, wanted to let y'all know (all 10 of you!) that I'm still kicking and that the angel's share is getting better!
MJ Signing out!
Oh, BTW, anyone who likes all things brilliant and beautiful, stream one of my favorite artist's new album:
Son Lux--We Are Rising
10 March, 2011
Oeuvre
Funny to think that it's already been a month since I last sat in a bout of fun madness and wrote some kind of diatribe about the Frankfurt school, critical theory, Egypt, democracy and the internet....then Mubarak stepped down the next day. Silly.
A month of anxiety, tremendous faith and learning and wild frustration; one of the best; one of the worst; certainly one of the most confusing and personally difficult.
...and so many things are under way...
This is really beautiful:
(Score done by yours truly, our favorite Son Lux
It's been a real pleasure following all of Son Lux's 'Album in a Month project' and the documentation of the album has been wonderful.
Things are in the bustle, and this last week has been a great recovery from last week's barrage of perceived failure. I have an interview with DHA ($18/hr!) tomorrow and am optimistic about a Research Coordinator position at DU. Still pending whether I have the option to go to France in September. I'll know in about a month whether that is an option for me or not. I suppose it depends on a the outcome of prior listed in addition to a special position working for Translations Gallery--of which I am very optimistic and excited. In short, my career goals are moving closer and closer to the niche I'm looking for--time will tell how things will make themselves known....
Going to be in Albuquerque next weekend and Chicago the weekend after that. Come my return from Chicago, I'll know whether either of those job prospects come through. April 1st Jill is back in Denver (need I say FINALLY?) and then I'll hear back from TAPIF as to whether la France is willing to open her doors up to me or not. Choices, Choices, Choices!
Worlds are opening up....
A month of anxiety, tremendous faith and learning and wild frustration; one of the best; one of the worst; certainly one of the most confusing and personally difficult.
...and so many things are under way...
This is really beautiful:
(Score done by yours truly, our favorite Son Lux
It's been a real pleasure following all of Son Lux's 'Album in a Month project' and the documentation of the album has been wonderful.
Things are in the bustle, and this last week has been a great recovery from last week's barrage of perceived failure. I have an interview with DHA ($18/hr!) tomorrow and am optimistic about a Research Coordinator position at DU. Still pending whether I have the option to go to France in September. I'll know in about a month whether that is an option for me or not. I suppose it depends on a the outcome of prior listed in addition to a special position working for Translations Gallery--of which I am very optimistic and excited. In short, my career goals are moving closer and closer to the niche I'm looking for--time will tell how things will make themselves known....
Going to be in Albuquerque next weekend and Chicago the weekend after that. Come my return from Chicago, I'll know whether either of those job prospects come through. April 1st Jill is back in Denver (need I say FINALLY?) and then I'll hear back from TAPIF as to whether la France is willing to open her doors up to me or not. Choices, Choices, Choices!
Worlds are opening up....
10 February, 2011
Mercurial Social Engineering
A recent reading of certain aspects of The Frankfurt School, the strife in Egypt (particularly it's internet-based origins), events in Iran several months ago, and Anonymous' recent actions (articulated here)...and this as a follow up, have manifested a lovely linchpin in function, media, and thinking.
But first, let's kick it off with a good starter tune. Crank the base on this one:
Trentmøller--The Forest
The Frankfurt school--although difficult to categorize singularly--introduced a kind of Theory/Critique that centered around a questioning of how any authentically contrary critique might be conducted in the ubiquitous context of a contemporary society; or, how a sensible critique might possibly manifest from an individual embedded in society. The problematic of this embededness opened a necessary space for auto-critique from any given critic. The Frankfurt School saw mass culture as synonymous with Ideology. Additionally, the Frankfurt School examined this more specifically in light of the advent of mass-media in the early 20th century.
Worth noting as well, the Frankfurt School mediated the balance between the technical, economic, material and the manifest, symbolic and subject-effecting. This spawned out of the conflict inherent betweenMarxist/Historical Materialist and Freudian/psychoanalytic traditions wherein one argued a determinism via economics/class struggle on a molar level and the other argued determinism via the Psychodynamic forces of individuals on a molecular level. Ín rejecting the Hermeneutic tradition due to its 'fetishistic' focus on Textuality and Subjectivity, they attempted to remain grounded in the purportedly 'scientific' discourse of historical materialism whilst remaining cognizant of individual and group psychodynamics....or something like that...yeah?
In an Essay, The Culture Industry: Enlightmenment as Mass Deception which can be found in this book, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer coined the term culture industry to describe how the processes of production of a culture are explicitly determined by the very resources and technologies of the mass media. This mass media in turn was an insidious medium under which individuals were repressed and not emancipated. The primary consequence of this was the generation of cultural homogeneity or the blurring of cultural and class distinctions by the narrowing down of individual spontaneity though the standardization of aesthetic/cultural appeal; and the consequent predictability of the masses through said standardization.
I call attention to Horkheimer/Adorno's notion of the culture industry to reveal the potentials for correctness therein; more importantly to lay bare the assumptions and straight-up inaccuracies of such a notion (as well as to lay bare that Adorno is a jerk!).
Contrary to the presumptions of the culture industry, Herbert Marcuse proposed what he called affirmative culture, a culture sought through forms of art that transcend the snobbery of traditionally cannonical forms of 'art' by defying (deliberately or not) the traditional aim of art at demonstrating technical skill or art aimed at invoking an experience of 'beauty'(?) and instead confronted its audience with the limitations and potential for control inherit in contemporary experience and augment critical possibility by placing the viewer back into his or her own resources of personal experience and consequently that of society. Here we have Marcuse's analytical left hand.
And the right:
In Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, Marcuse responds to Freud's thesis in Civilization and its Discontents that the advancement of civilization, with the advent of more specialized labor, an increase in bureaucratic administration and more normative social conduct would result in increased psychological repression, resulting in pervasive aggression, neurosis and alienation by a more stratified and 'advanced' society. Blah, blah, blah--enforced by his theory of the instincts, etc...man is at conflict with himself in the midst of his assimilation into civilization. Yes, everyone still with me?
Marcuse took the biological drive out of Freud and argued that the potentially destructive dimensions of a more 'advanced' civilization theorized by Freud would be better understood as existing within the historical structures of a given culture, from whence can one better understand the potential for 'destructiveness'. More concretely, Marcuse drew attention to the fact that the extent of repression present in a society is directly related to the level of scarcity of a given population.
Now, Egypt and Iran, two differently similar countries caught up in a static dialectic of repression and revolt are clear examples of the principle Marcuse was talking about. Marcuse went on to discuss surplus repression(see: the Patriot Act, or any measure of the Iranian government and Mubarak) consequent of a more "modernized" society....
Because I wish not to go into Walter Benjamin, let me paraphrase:
"The development of such media as photography, sound recording and film signaled, for Benjamin, the dawn of a new epoch in the democratization of culture and hence in the revolutionary potential of the proletarian class"(Surber, 137)
Now..
If there was an immense failing of the Frankfurt School--Marcuse included--it was in their inability to identify the possibility for an item to be turned on itself....or in other words, humankind's greatest emancipator:
THE INTERNETZ
In other words, Adorno/Horkheimer's purported culture industry, one in which the tools and technologies of the media were instruments of control and repression failed to see what Benjamin saw as the "revolutionary potential for the ruling class"--seeing the potentiality of media through the lens of a controlled power-manipulator and not as a powerful tool of instantenious democratization. The internet additionally reinserts the individual/subject within his or her own social/media discourse by freeing him or her from power structures and 'leveling the playing field' so to speak...which leads me to everyone's favorite noone:
Anonymous
An instrument of terrorism? or a empty signifier signifying all and none? Or, in short, a proletarian revolution?
The shutting down of the internet in Egypt as well as the terse control of its use in Iran and China are articulations of Marcuse's connection between societal scarcity and it's consequent repression--particularly in light of a given culture's historical configurations. Additionally, maybe Marx was on to something (a somewhat latent something) when he argued that the expansion of technology under capitalism would go hand-in-hand with growing self-consciousness and ensuing political action on the part of the proletarian...but maybe he got it all wrong and the advent of humankind's greatest democratization, the internet is a demonstration that Historical Materialism missed the mark by failing to anticipate the Analog power potential of a Digital entity.
Maybe this is why Philosophy is dead: it has been imbued to the masses through an epiphenomena of a singular yet divided network or system. Is our supposed proletarian revolution an immaterial one?
What I can say however, is:
Circular Reeducation
But first, let's kick it off with a good starter tune. Crank the base on this one:
Trentmøller--The Forest
The Frankfurt school--although difficult to categorize singularly--introduced a kind of Theory/Critique that centered around a questioning of how any authentically contrary critique might be conducted in the ubiquitous context of a contemporary society; or, how a sensible critique might possibly manifest from an individual embedded in society. The problematic of this embededness opened a necessary space for auto-critique from any given critic. The Frankfurt School saw mass culture as synonymous with Ideology. Additionally, the Frankfurt School examined this more specifically in light of the advent of mass-media in the early 20th century.
Worth noting as well, the Frankfurt School mediated the balance between the technical, economic, material and the manifest, symbolic and subject-effecting. This spawned out of the conflict inherent betweenMarxist/Historical Materialist and Freudian/psychoanalytic traditions wherein one argued a determinism via economics/class struggle on a molar level and the other argued determinism via the Psychodynamic forces of individuals on a molecular level. Ín rejecting the Hermeneutic tradition due to its 'fetishistic' focus on Textuality and Subjectivity, they attempted to remain grounded in the purportedly 'scientific' discourse of historical materialism whilst remaining cognizant of individual and group psychodynamics....or something like that...yeah?
In an Essay, The Culture Industry: Enlightmenment as Mass Deception which can be found in this book, Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer coined the term culture industry to describe how the processes of production of a culture are explicitly determined by the very resources and technologies of the mass media. This mass media in turn was an insidious medium under which individuals were repressed and not emancipated. The primary consequence of this was the generation of cultural homogeneity or the blurring of cultural and class distinctions by the narrowing down of individual spontaneity though the standardization of aesthetic/cultural appeal; and the consequent predictability of the masses through said standardization.
I call attention to Horkheimer/Adorno's notion of the culture industry to reveal the potentials for correctness therein; more importantly to lay bare the assumptions and straight-up inaccuracies of such a notion (as well as to lay bare that Adorno is a jerk!).
Contrary to the presumptions of the culture industry, Herbert Marcuse proposed what he called affirmative culture, a culture sought through forms of art that transcend the snobbery of traditionally cannonical forms of 'art' by defying (deliberately or not) the traditional aim of art at demonstrating technical skill or art aimed at invoking an experience of 'beauty'(?) and instead confronted its audience with the limitations and potential for control inherit in contemporary experience and augment critical possibility by placing the viewer back into his or her own resources of personal experience and consequently that of society. Here we have Marcuse's analytical left hand.
And the right:
In Eros and Civilization: A Philosophical Inquiry into Freud, Marcuse responds to Freud's thesis in Civilization and its Discontents that the advancement of civilization, with the advent of more specialized labor, an increase in bureaucratic administration and more normative social conduct would result in increased psychological repression, resulting in pervasive aggression, neurosis and alienation by a more stratified and 'advanced' society. Blah, blah, blah--enforced by his theory of the instincts, etc...man is at conflict with himself in the midst of his assimilation into civilization. Yes, everyone still with me?
Marcuse took the biological drive out of Freud and argued that the potentially destructive dimensions of a more 'advanced' civilization theorized by Freud would be better understood as existing within the historical structures of a given culture, from whence can one better understand the potential for 'destructiveness'. More concretely, Marcuse drew attention to the fact that the extent of repression present in a society is directly related to the level of scarcity of a given population.
Now, Egypt and Iran, two differently similar countries caught up in a static dialectic of repression and revolt are clear examples of the principle Marcuse was talking about. Marcuse went on to discuss surplus repression(see: the Patriot Act, or any measure of the Iranian government and Mubarak) consequent of a more "modernized" society....
Because I wish not to go into Walter Benjamin, let me paraphrase:
"The development of such media as photography, sound recording and film signaled, for Benjamin, the dawn of a new epoch in the democratization of culture and hence in the revolutionary potential of the proletarian class"(Surber, 137)
Now..
If there was an immense failing of the Frankfurt School--Marcuse included--it was in their inability to identify the possibility for an item to be turned on itself....or in other words, humankind's greatest emancipator:
THE INTERNETZ
In other words, Adorno/Horkheimer's purported culture industry, one in which the tools and technologies of the media were instruments of control and repression failed to see what Benjamin saw as the "revolutionary potential for the ruling class"--seeing the potentiality of media through the lens of a controlled power-manipulator and not as a powerful tool of instantenious democratization. The internet additionally reinserts the individual/subject within his or her own social/media discourse by freeing him or her from power structures and 'leveling the playing field' so to speak...which leads me to everyone's favorite noone:
Anonymous
An instrument of terrorism? or a empty signifier signifying all and none? Or, in short, a proletarian revolution?
The shutting down of the internet in Egypt as well as the terse control of its use in Iran and China are articulations of Marcuse's connection between societal scarcity and it's consequent repression--particularly in light of a given culture's historical configurations. Additionally, maybe Marx was on to something (a somewhat latent something) when he argued that the expansion of technology under capitalism would go hand-in-hand with growing self-consciousness and ensuing political action on the part of the proletarian...but maybe he got it all wrong and the advent of humankind's greatest democratization, the internet is a demonstration that Historical Materialism missed the mark by failing to anticipate the Analog power potential of a Digital entity.
Maybe this is why Philosophy is dead: it has been imbued to the masses through an epiphenomena of a singular yet divided network or system. Is our supposed proletarian revolution an immaterial one?
What I can say however, is:
Circular Reeducation
04 February, 2011
Fossick
"C'est assez fort d'être seul dans un lieu si immense et si insolit, où le contact ne se fait q'entre toi et les murs, et rien d'autre. Tu entres dans un monde parallèle, fermé sur toi-même. J'aimais aussi cetter idée d'un lieu éphemère. Une dernière intervention et puis tout disparaît."
Here's to Chaos:
..and contemplation? Or are they the same?
Hours in tattered cover pouring over Neuroscience, art and fashion magazines and a cup of coffee while the snow drifts down is lovely lovely way to spend a day. Meditation is in the calm whilst the mind churns some kind of vatic and menacing vision, material, concept or space?
A combination of the recent unrest in Egypt, reading of Freud and the unconscious, snow, article in Discover magazine about how the input from the internet is a change in the functionality of the brain and attention (which I tried to repost here), a skimming of this book, and the color and happenings of last night have left me twiddling upon a susurrous orb of thought. Fragmentary at best, but it's fluttering as I tap and scallop text upon the box. Here's to attempting to delineate distractions and enhance a keenness of function and focus. Intentionality? Perhaps. Direction? I would hope so. Fortified directions or just strong gusts and blusters? There is something uncanny and beautiful to be found here, hence the commencement of a rigorous (re)search! To the uncanny aggregate!
Here's to Chaos:
..and contemplation? Or are they the same?
Hours in tattered cover pouring over Neuroscience, art and fashion magazines and a cup of coffee while the snow drifts down is lovely lovely way to spend a day. Meditation is in the calm whilst the mind churns some kind of vatic and menacing vision, material, concept or space?
A combination of the recent unrest in Egypt, reading of Freud and the unconscious, snow, article in Discover magazine about how the input from the internet is a change in the functionality of the brain and attention (which I tried to repost here), a skimming of this book, and the color and happenings of last night have left me twiddling upon a susurrous orb of thought. Fragmentary at best, but it's fluttering as I tap and scallop text upon the box. Here's to attempting to delineate distractions and enhance a keenness of function and focus. Intentionality? Perhaps. Direction? I would hope so. Fortified directions or just strong gusts and blusters? There is something uncanny and beautiful to be found here, hence the commencement of a rigorous (re)search! To the uncanny aggregate!
13 January, 2011
Rule of thirds.
5
Perhaps that will be my first stencil in my New Years resolution. Seems fitting given the shit-storm that has been and will be.
Terrifying, really.
No need to recount or hark about the incomprehensible, Kafkaesque and the absurd. I need perhaps remind myself however that it's about time this came around, in fact as it really seems the case that the stupid and incomprehensible of circumstance is drawn to me with unimaginable force.
I initially started this post quite some time ago, and haven't really taken it upon myself to wrap things up until now.
Even though it doesn't seem to be the case that anyone really downloads the music I throw up here, I really like this track off of Iron & Wine's new album that came out just last week:
Iron & Wine--Rabbit Will Run
New York was phenomenal. I wish I could have been riding on the cloud of calm and peace that I came back on, but I had to spend days cleaning my old place more throughly than I've ever cleaned something then move into a new place. Then my car died in the middle of a bustling car wash the following day. Wonderful. Fortunate for my case, I was able to get all the moving done before the big freeze that is still clinging to this city. The cold that has not only fallen upon Denver, but the rest of the United States is one of the boldest we've yet seen. Strange times indeed.
13 & God are putting out something new this spring. Here's a preview of their new song, Armored Scarves
I'll leave it at that for now. I can say that things are moving, churning and bubbling. Let's hope something sticks....
Perhaps that will be my first stencil in my New Years resolution. Seems fitting given the shit-storm that has been and will be.
Terrifying, really.
No need to recount or hark about the incomprehensible, Kafkaesque and the absurd. I need perhaps remind myself however that it's about time this came around, in fact as it really seems the case that the stupid and incomprehensible of circumstance is drawn to me with unimaginable force.
I initially started this post quite some time ago, and haven't really taken it upon myself to wrap things up until now.
Even though it doesn't seem to be the case that anyone really downloads the music I throw up here, I really like this track off of Iron & Wine's new album that came out just last week:
Iron & Wine--Rabbit Will Run
New York was phenomenal. I wish I could have been riding on the cloud of calm and peace that I came back on, but I had to spend days cleaning my old place more throughly than I've ever cleaned something then move into a new place. Then my car died in the middle of a bustling car wash the following day. Wonderful. Fortunate for my case, I was able to get all the moving done before the big freeze that is still clinging to this city. The cold that has not only fallen upon Denver, but the rest of the United States is one of the boldest we've yet seen. Strange times indeed.
13 & God are putting out something new this spring. Here's a preview of their new song, Armored Scarves
I'll leave it at that for now. I can say that things are moving, churning and bubbling. Let's hope something sticks....
04 January, 2011
et encore
...and let this be a second piece to what I started yesterday, as I quite realized I am a few steps shy from finished...
This song is real pretty and nice. I think I'm throwing it up here because the main chorus articulates a certain way of feeling that's been streaming through me lately. "Let me know when we get there, if we get there..."
Fink--Sort of Revolution (Cinematic Orchestra Remix)
4 Days in and,as hinted at, 2011's been a bit of a maelstrom. Not sure how to take it but the shock of it's violence as a reintroduction and a recreation of things--they certainly feel that way. Not refreshed, but new and young. With a new sense of youth comes a new sense of fear and direction.
Anxiety. Excitement.
The dynamics of color on this video really intrigue me:
and these tracks:
Lorn--Bretagne
Lorn--Cherry Moon
Resolution #1: Commit to Creating (street) art. Watching this documentary (any any akin to it, like Bomb-It!) pull out that drive in me, that person that I want to be more of. This year, I am going to be more of it.
Resolution #2: Write, record and document more. Create and Generate. Be more of who I am. Simple enough.
More will come as they arrive. That is how change comes about.
Not sure whether I am an anchor or a feather. To float and drift or dwell. The lust to burst out may have lost the strength of its heat (although it still remains!) and I don't know how to put it. I suppose there are so many things left untouched for me that I still feel pulse toward. Also, such a bursting realm of the possible. The possible ranks higher than the actual. So many things just within my touch: a beauty and strength needing only trust. The next month will determine its arrival or withering. I love knowledge that you can feel.
Look Alive (Blockhead Remix)
En attendant.
But, really, all else must yield to the importance of remembering:
15 December, 2010
Tumult
I'm gonna kick it off with a short video of magnificence.
Damn:
Not only is that the road that marks the border between Italy and Switzerland, but it is also probably my favorite single place in the world. If only because the road itself is so extreme and I can remember being exposed to an unrivaled clarity here. One of the most visceral and heightening moments of my life. And this guy is smug enough to kill it on a track bike. Not too outlandish to add this to my "Things I just gotta do" list, perhaps with my hommie, Mr. Ted0, non?
It also shells off as an image into the tumult and exertion that this last weekend has been. Granted, damnit, I wasn't biking through the alps. But shit, it nearly feels like it. In a moment, I lost a piece of everything in a suckerpunch of confusion and neglect. I destroyed myself to bring in the new year, and had it back within my grasp. I don't know if I've ever felt thrown is such a loop. I think my innards will bee feeling whiplash for the next few days...
Underworld--Bird I
But such violence consequently tore this scared kind of lethargy that has been sticking inside of me like some molded sap. Terror is a phenomenal motivator. So, a consequence of being thrown around has refreshed a kind of drive in me. A drive to a new job, an alteration in style, an upping of self-expectation and shit I plan to do. Looking forward to auditing a PhD-level Philosophy course/colloquium on 21st Century thought and various adaptations of "Culture". Throwing myself back into the challenge of Philosophy again should augment this regrowth I want to kick start.
I hope such aggressiveness will provide some clarity as to where I want to take myself in this A venir of tomorrow: back to France? Peace Corps? Establish something more real in Denver? Grad School? Elsewhere? Strange enough, remaining in Denver seems the brightest diamond at this point...
It's terrifying! It's happening! It's up in the air! But goddamn, it's beautiful.
Damn:
SEABASE vs STELVIO from YUHZIMI Ltd. on Vimeo.
Not only is that the road that marks the border between Italy and Switzerland, but it is also probably my favorite single place in the world. If only because the road itself is so extreme and I can remember being exposed to an unrivaled clarity here. One of the most visceral and heightening moments of my life. And this guy is smug enough to kill it on a track bike. Not too outlandish to add this to my "Things I just gotta do" list, perhaps with my hommie, Mr. Ted0, non?
It also shells off as an image into the tumult and exertion that this last weekend has been. Granted, damnit, I wasn't biking through the alps. But shit, it nearly feels like it. In a moment, I lost a piece of everything in a suckerpunch of confusion and neglect. I destroyed myself to bring in the new year, and had it back within my grasp. I don't know if I've ever felt thrown is such a loop. I think my innards will bee feeling whiplash for the next few days...
Underworld--Bird I
But such violence consequently tore this scared kind of lethargy that has been sticking inside of me like some molded sap. Terror is a phenomenal motivator. So, a consequence of being thrown around has refreshed a kind of drive in me. A drive to a new job, an alteration in style, an upping of self-expectation and shit I plan to do. Looking forward to auditing a PhD-level Philosophy course/colloquium on 21st Century thought and various adaptations of "Culture". Throwing myself back into the challenge of Philosophy again should augment this regrowth I want to kick start.
I hope such aggressiveness will provide some clarity as to where I want to take myself in this A venir of tomorrow: back to France? Peace Corps? Establish something more real in Denver? Grad School? Elsewhere? Strange enough, remaining in Denver seems the brightest diamond at this point...
It's terrifying! It's happening! It's up in the air! But goddamn, it's beautiful.
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