I wonder if ideas aren't recirculated under new names - this really does sound like the framework of the 'cultural relativism' problematic I learned at Brown University all the way back. I'm not sure about 'trajec- tivity' - it sounds like a term I've been using, 'jectivity,' to indicate the impenetrable skein of identifications that occur (online and else- where) through introjections and projections. The last two terms do relate to one's reading of something elsewhere.
I did stop reading Virilio a while ago - I'll look for the book. Thanks, Alan On Wed, 30 Dec 2009, Pall Thayer wrote: > The Virilio essay I'm mostly referring to is titled "The Perspective > of Real Time" and is in the book "Open Sky". This is where he mentions > "the world as just one vast floor" and things such as "objectivity, > subjectivity and trajectivity", "the trans-apparent horizon" and other > cryptic yet interesting ideas. The whole idea is that he suggests that > by experiencing things from afar (being "telepresent") we aren't > getting the whole picture. We might be getting the objective and > subjective but we're always missing the trajective which can only be > acquired by physically traveling to a location such that the way in > which we experience events once we get there will be shaped not only > by our personal experience and culture but also by anything we may > have experienced while on our way there as well as by our > understanding of the physical distance between our "home" location and > this new location, i.e. a heightened awareness of the fact that we > aren't in Kansas anymore. > > best r. > Pall > > On Wed, Dec 30, 2009 at 9:00 AM, Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> wrote: >> >> >> Thanks for this! It gets incredibly complicated - re: Iran, I agree with >> an 'internal' reading, which I think, for those of us in the West, is >> fundamentally impossible at this stage. (I'd argue the same for Israel, >> but Israel is subsumed under a concept of Occidentalism that I find >> problematic.) I think a lot of the concern is with Iran's belligerance, >> missiles and uranium, threats, and things like the 'holocaust conference' >> a few years ago which set out to prove that the holocaust never happened. >> I do judge that, not that it matters. >> >> It's not just Virilio (although I haven't read this source in particular), >> but even things like the 'flat earth' idea in relation to globalization, >> not to mention all the writings on information implosion, etc. I tend to >> find Virilio problematic because of his metaphoricity (?); what you >> describe below is something I learned in anthropology at Brown, and some- >> thing that John Duvignaud talks about in Change At Shebika, in relation, >> say to Levi-Strauss. There's geopolitics at work as well; I think I'd >> condemn nazism, for example, under any framework. >> >> What you say about embedding also works in reverse, which is a horror - >> during the Bush administrations, reporters were 'embedded' with US troops >> - the horror suffered by the other side was always invisible, but here in >> the US there were compassionate images of our soldiers. And the reports >> made it sound as if the newpeople were Edward R. Murrows - on the front- >> lines, telling like it is - when what was really being reported was >> managed news, lies, lies, lies. >> >> Can you give the Virlilio source? Would be greatly appreciated. >> >> Thanks, Alan >> >> >> On Tue, 29 Dec 2009, Pall Thayer wrote: >> >>> Hi Alan, >>> Personally, I would find it hard to address some of these issues >>> without some mention of Paul Virilio's ideas on globalism especially >>> as he portrays it in "Open Sky" (i.e. the world as just one vast >>> floor). A good example of what he's talking about is the recent and >>> ongoing events in Iran. What's throwing things off for the Iranian >>> government is the fact that these events are being judged on a global >>> scale by people who have no knowledge of nor interest in local >>> political and religious culture. You could say that what offends us >>> most is the fact that the Iranian government is displaying behaviour >>> that we would not accept from our own government. But who is to say >>> that our way of doing things is "more correct"? Much of the news, as >>> we see it, is being written by people who aren't necessarily even >>> embedded in the scene where the events are occurring and this has a >>> profound effect on the way in which we evaluate the information we >>> receive. Add to that the fact that we also have access to seemingly >>> unfiltered commentary both from within and without and the whole thing >>> becomes very complex. It's entirely up to the individual to evaluate >>> the information. But is it really fair to evaluate it without knowing >>> anything about the culture from which these events arise? Without >>> physically travelling to the event's location to experience it outside >>> of our own cultural bias? Without getting a true physical sense of how >>> far removed it is not just from our own culture but also our own >>> location? One has to wonder. >>> >>> On Tue, Dec 29, 2009 at 8:42 AM, Alan Sondheim <[email protected]> wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> Hi - I'm teaching this course as an adjunct/replacement; the description >>>> covers >>>> racism, feminism, queer theory, religious factionalism, the shrinking >>>> planet, >>>> and so forth - more or less of a grab-bag. I want to emphasize the global >>>> aspect. For reading materials, I'm hoping to use Ryan's Culture Studies: An >>>> Anthology (as background), and all sorts of online materials (as >>>> foreground). >>>> The approach will be less theory and more description, etc. than usually >>>> the >>>> case (perhaps). Anyway, below is a description of the first two classes' >>>> material, which is designed to create a kind of backdrop; it's divided into >>>> 'Picture' and 'Framework' - the former, a rough description of global >>>> issues, >>>> etc.; and the latter, a close division emphasizing theory, practice, and >>>> example. Any feedback will be greatly appreciated, including URLs of >>>> relevant >>>> sites. >>>> >>>> Thanks greatly, Alan >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Notes for course on 'cross-cultural human relations': >>>> PICTURE and FRAMEWORK >>>> >>>> PICTURE: >>>> >>>> EXPONENTIAL, SINUSOIDAL, and LINEAR models: >>>> CATASTROPHE THEORY: >>>> The UNIVERSAL and the CASE: >>>> Global resources: ecological constraints: water, territory, food, >>>> climate, population. >>>> Group resources: cultural inhibitions, identifications. >>>> Carrying-capacity of earth: EXPONTENTIAL POPULATION INCREASE. >>>> Wars and their causes, increased weaponry, numbers and power. >>>> Expansion gap between haves and have-nots: enclaves, gangs, 'rogue >>>> states,' and >>>> shifting territories. >>>> >>>> FRAMEWORK: >>>> >>>> Heredity and environment: entangled (Waddington's chreod). >>>> Essentialism and 'choice': what is taken as a given in human experience. >>>> Prosthetic technologies: transformations of essentialism. >>>> Identifications, a-identifications, non-identifications, issues of - >>>> tolerance, prejudice, advocacy, all the way up and down. >>>> Projections and introjections. >>>> Purity and abjections. >>>> What are the cultural and political manifestations?) >>>> Race (how defined, how divided, how is it culturally and >>>> biologically manifest, what sorts of groups are created?) >>>> 'Traditional' male/female divisions: political and biological issues >>>> (wage, pregnancy, life-span, crime, socio-cultural issues). >>>> Cross-gendered, trans-gendered, gays, lesbians, heterosexuals: queer >>>> theory. >>>> Religious divisions: issues of inerrancy, truth, world-view. >>>> Subcultures: punk and other divisions. >>>> Class and caste divisions: related to economic divisions. >>>> Cultural and economic capital (Bourdieu, Distinction). >>>> Age divisions (individual and national/international demographics). >>>> National divisions. >>>> Bias, stigma, bullying: symptomology and theory. >>>> Sociobiology, anyone? >>>> History and historiography of divisions, individual and group memory. >>>> Technological capital increasingly important. >>>> Related to technological capital: information/communications capital. >>>> Related to all of the above: attention economy. >>>> Can one speak of an entertainment economy? >>>> Global culture identifications: Michael Jackson, football (soccer), etc. >>>> -- Their relation to corporate production and local cultures. (Think of >>>> radio/television in this regard.) >>>> Splintering of identifications online: Youtube or Facebook for examples. >>>> Hardening of identifications online: Stormfront, jihad sites, political >>>> blogs. >>>> Animals: extinctions, bushmeat, starvation, habitat shrinking, disturbed >>>> systems ('extreme' sports etc.). >>>> >>>> How are all of the above entangled/interrelated? >>>> Ecological constraints: the carrying-capacity of the earth, limited >>>> resources (water, energy, food, shelter, transportation, medical care, >>>> wilderness, changing climate, pollutions, extinctions, etc.). >>>> Labor force. (Slave, wage, surplus, global, etc.) >>>> >>>> What are the lines here? >>>> 1. Ecological constraints. >>>> 2. Inherent identifications: sexual?, health, age, race? >>>> (What constitutes inherency?) >>>> 3. Cultural and territorial identifications: subcultures, religious, >>>> national, global: ~~ selves and others. >>>> (Primatological, psychoanalytical, sociobiological explanations.) >>>> 4. ECONOMIC and SYMBOLIC CAPITAL. >>>> >>>> Think of a playing-field of continuously-changing structures, virtual- >>>> particle vacuum. >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>>> [email protected] >>>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> ***************************** >>> Pall Thayer >>> artist >>> http://www.this.is/pallit >>> ***************************** >>> _______________________________________________ >>> NetBehaviour mailing list >>> [email protected] >>> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >>> >>> >> >> >> == >> email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ >> webpage http://www.alansondheim.org sondheimat gmail.com, panix.com >> == >> _______________________________________________ >> NetBehaviour mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour >> > > > > -- > ***************************** > Pall Thayer > artist > http://www.this.is/pallit > ***************************** > _______________________________________________ > NetBehaviour mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour > > == email archive: http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ webpage http://www.alansondheim.org sondheimat gmail.com, panix.com == _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
