Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Something I wanted to contribute on Alan'spost, regarding performing. Is it worth it, is itegoistic? Quoting in part: we find ourselves on the verge of a planet so violated that the environment ... might well collapse ... within the century, and we perform? we were brilliant for that moment, then the horrors take over again. (Personally I don't think ego plays a role in this, and personally as well, Buddhismhas failed me, or vice versa.) this is the raw world, perhapsat its worst. Ok, so first of all, thanks to all for the sharp input--truly welcome to one who also feels a need to do something,to perform away (from) the raw worst. My comment is onwhether or not ego plays a role. I think it must. I take fromdifferent psychologies the view that there is a subject(hood)which produces multiple egos. One doesn't (always? usually?)speak to one's parents as one speaks to one's schoolmates,etc. Hence the performing ego does, I think, in some way tryto ameliorate for that audience of schoolmates, moms, armsmanufacturers So fwiw. Thanks again for the discussion, wb ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Amery and others talk about the dissolution of the self in torture; the 'ego' to me is actually a knot that's fairly easily dissolved in dire circumstances. The selves are varied, at times they've been related to different intelligences (Howard Gardner) or roles in classical capitalism - torture, horrendous pain in general, transforms the ego into something else entirely, seems to dissolve it. It may just be a matter of nomenclature? - Alan On Sun, 16 Nov 2014, William Bain wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- == email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285 music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/sw.txt == ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space--SIS uses beheadings, other violent acts to crush civilians, UN report says Newsday - .5 hours ago. UNITED NATIONS -- Beheadings, stonings and mutilation are common weapons of terror employed by the Islamic State in its campaign to subdue civilian populations that have come under its control in Syria, according to a UN monitoring group. By referring to these, to us, unspeakable acts of violence as terrorism, we are describing them implicitly as instinctive, irrational acts of violence ignoring their ritualistic, imitative, therefore, rational, almost bureaucratic, self-perpetuating aspect. Let us pick up, for instance, the recent news that ISIS has been picking up little girls, ten-twelve-year-olds and marrying them to ISIS fighters as spoils of war. These acts, along with the beheadings, are, perhaps parodic, recreations of Koranic universe (girls married at pre-puberty age,soldiers of Holy Jihad rewarded even prior to death). In that respect the the violence by ISIL, reinforced by TV images ISIL itself shoots, has a theatrical, self-consciously ritualistic aspect. ISIL itself, it seems to me, sees what it does as a performance. As I said before, attached to rationality, violence becomes self-perpetuating, reinforced by its own act. At one time (that God we are not there yet, I think) we arrive at the banality of terror. Ciao, Murat On Sun, Nov 16, 2014 at 9:36 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Amery and others talk about the dissolution of the self in torture; the 'ego' to me is actually a knot that's fairly easily dissolved in dire circumstances. The selves are varied, at times they've been related to different intelligences (Howard Gardner) or roles in classical capitalism - torture, horrendous pain in general, transforms the ego into something else entirely, seems to dissolve it. It may just be a matter of nomenclature? - Alan On Sun, 16 Nov 2014, William Bain wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- == email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285 music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/sw.txt == ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space--a thing, to be art, must represent a thing by other means. so, the life in a flower (a feature of time) is re-presented in arrangement (a feature of space). [barba, dictionary of theatre anthropology] to represent killing by killing is anti-performance. st. cecilia was beheaded and her head kept singing. a reason to cut off the head: it destroys that which begs. that which could persuade. it destroys a key means by which the mortal shape provides context. a beheading is the demonstration of a power's capacity to mute all context but power - vertical power, the power to silence. performance resists by performing. how we gonna sing king alpha's song? by singing a song called rivers of babylon. e On Saturday, November 15, 2014 5:07 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I won't keep sending these out. Last night I couldn't sleep, worked over again the times I was beat up or hit or bullied in my life. Then this, I keep going over the same ground repeatedly: ISIS uses beheadings, other violent acts to crush civilians, UN report says Newsday - .5 hours ago. UNITED NATIONS -- Beheadings, stonings and mutilation are common weapons of terror employed by the Islamic State in its campaign to subdue civilian populations that have come under its control in Syria, according to a UN monitoring group. Islamic State sets sights on Saudi ArabiaBBC News New UN report shows relentless assault on civilians in ISIL-controlled SyriaXinhua. Hong Kong student leaders blocked from taking democracy fight to Beijing Reuters - .1 hour ago. 1 of 3. Hong Kong Federation of Students leader Alex Chow (C), committee members Nathan Law (L) and Eason Chung react after being refused to board the plane at the Hong Kong International Airport November 15, 2014. Nigeria insurgents retake village of abducted schoolgirlsReuters Africa Boko Haram seizes town kidnapped girls are fromSydney Morning Herald - And this same ground repeats itself, day after day, night after night, no longer events or news, so much as a background of horror. Then what? A serious question: How can art, art performance, performance, heal, help one make it through the day, inspire one, against this background of continuous performance, where everything, lives, cultures, languages, are at stake? We watch other species world-wide going extinct (the rate is something like several an hour), we find ourselves on the verge of a planet so violated that the environment (cultural, global) might well collapse (yes, into something else) within the century, and we perform? Three nights ago, we did just that, perform from our last two cds at a place in Brooklyn, and we were brilliant for that moment, then the horrors take over again. (Personally I don't think ego plays a role in this, and personally as well, Buddhism has failed me, or vice versa.) I won't post more headlines like these again, and apologies for doing so; this is the raw world, perhaps at its worst. - Alan ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- and of course there's a news blackout, or so it would appear, on the Ferguson verdict. and yes, your Brooklyn performance was sublime. On 11/15/14 6:07 AM, Alan Sondheim wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I won't keep sending these out. Last night I couldn't sleep, worked over again the times I was beat up or hit or bullied in my life. Then this, I keep going over the same ground repeatedly: ISIS uses beheadings, other violent acts to crush civilians, UN report says Newsday - .5 hours ago. UNITED NATIONS -- Beheadings, stonings and mutilation are common weapons of terror employed by the Islamic State in its campaign to subdue civilian populations that have come under its control in Syria, according to a UN monitoring group. Islamic State sets sights on Saudi ArabiaBBC News New UN report shows relentless assault on civilians in ISIL-controlled SyriaXinhua. Hong Kong student leaders blocked from taking democracy fight to Beijing Reuters - .1 hour ago. 1 of 3. Hong Kong Federation of Students leader Alex Chow (C), committee members Nathan Law (L) and Eason Chung react after being refused to board the plane at the Hong Kong International Airport November 15, 2014. Nigeria insurgents retake village of abducted schoolgirlsReuters Africa Boko Haram seizes town kidnapped girls are fromSydney Morning Herald - And this same ground repeats itself, day after day, night after night, no longer events or news, so much as a background of horror. Then what? A serious question: How can art, art performance, performance, heal, help one make it through the day, inspire one, against this background of continuous performance, where everything, lives, cultures, languages, are at stake? We watch other species world-wide going extinct (the rate is something like several an hour), we find ourselves on the verge of a planet so violated that the environment (cultural, global) might well collapse (yes, into something else) within the century, and we perform? Three nights ago, we did just that, perform from our last two cds at a place in Brooklyn, and we were brilliant for that moment, then the horrors take over again. (Personally I don't think ego plays a role in this, and personally as well, Buddhism has failed me, or vice versa.) I won't post more headlines like these again, and apologies for doing so; this is the raw world, perhaps at its worst. - Alan ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Alan’s long lists of “bad news” that keep him up, and should keep us all up, but then we need to sleep to function. The cut and paste function bring it all together... but there is nothing new there though. Violence, cruelty are forms of stupidity (even if it is animals). Here are some words that have made it to my signature during this month of November: “Human stupidity is the only thing that gives an idea of the infinite/La bêtise humaine est la seule chose qui donne une idée de l'infini. Ernest Renan (also later by Einstein the Hungarian proverb: “Human stupidity is endless/Az emberi butaság végtelen”) I am sure there are tons more, all over recorded history. == On Nov 15, 2014, at 5:07 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: I won't keep sending these out. Last night I couldn't sleep, worked over again the times I was beat up or hit or bullied in my life. Then this, I keep going over the same ground repeatedly: My e-mail signature this month of November (during my direct involvement with -empyre) will have a growing list of works that I found to be powerful - but I do question what “power” means. ”The Theater and its Double” by Artaud Chechen Lullaby - Directed by Nino Kirtadze — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEmqHZAn8lQ (also on my website) “Is Anyone Taking Any Notice?” by Don McCullin — http://piermarton.info/don-mccullin/ Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution by Peter Kropotkin War Against War/Krieg dem Kriege/Guerre à la Guerre! War against War! Oorlog aan den Oorlog by Ernst Friedrich (recent intro by Doug Kellner) - Various editions. Last one published in Sept. 2014 (available online). At the Mind’s Limit by Jean Améry “Shoah” - Directed by Claude Lanzmann In the King of Prussia - Directed by Emile de Antonio And these quotes: “. . . only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built.” - Bertrand Russell, 1923 “If there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake, signaling through the flames.” And these quotes: “. . . only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built.” - Bertrand Russell, 1923 “If there is still one hellish, truly accursed thing in our time, it is our artistic dallying with forms, instead of being like victims burnt at the stake, signaling through the flames.” Artaud, The Theater and its Double, 1938 “Human stupidity is the only thing that gives an idea of the infinite/La bêtise humaine est la seule chose qui donne une idée de l'infini. Ernest Renan (also later by Einstein the Hungarian proverb: “Human stupidity is endless/Az emberi butaság végtelen) === PM_uoʇɹɐɯ_ɹǝıd — http://piermarton.info School Of No Media — http://schoolofnomedia.com/ About — http://about.me/piermarton BrainBleed— http://brainbleed.wordpress.com/ _ One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. Virginia Woolf The essence of normalcy is the refusal of reality. Ernst Becker When something seems the most obvious thing in the world, it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up. Bertolt Brecht An idea becomes false the moment one becomes satisfied by it. Alain There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous. Hannah Arendt When around you, you hear the word Jew pronounced, be on guard, they are speaking about you. Frantz Fanon If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet renounce controversy are people who want crops without ploughing the ground. Frederick Douglass Silence is the authentic mode of speaking. Claude Lanzmann ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- Hi Erik, I do want to reply, briefly, to you here. You state (the quote didn't work): a thing, to be art, must represent a thing by other means. so, the life in a flower (a feature of time) is re-presented in arrangement (a feature of space). [barba, dictionary of theatre anthropology] - and it seems to me, that to be art - in order to be art - is problematic; certainly there has been a lot of writing on the iconic (in Peirce's sense) to claim otherwise - a thing can represent itself. This was fundamental to a lot of West Coast feminist art from the 60s and 70s - where sweeping a floor for example wasn't representing sweeping by other means but was exactly what it seemed - work. Chris Burden played off this a number of times as well. So when you state to represent killing by killing is anti-performance. - for me it's performance, a horrifying one, but performance nonetheless. (I'm always suspicious as well about anti-anything, such as anti-poems, anti-art etc.; these exist within the same fold.) Thanks, Alan ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space--represented by other means in the sense that the floor didn't need to be swept or if it did that wasn't the point - what was being represented was the labor, above the activity, or specifically spectatorship... so the work of sweeping transferred to the work of watching sweeping? On Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:38 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: Hi Erik, I do want to reply, briefly, to you here. You state (the quote didn't work): a thing, to be art, must represent a thing by other means. so, the life in a flower (a feature of time) is re-presented in arrangement (a feature of space). [barba, dictionary of theatre anthropology] - and it seems to me, that to be art - in order to be art - is problematic; certainly there has been a lot of writing on the iconic (in Peirce's sense) to claim otherwise - a thing can represent itself. This was fundamental to a lot of West Coast feminist art from the 60s and 70s - where sweeping a floor for example wasn't representing sweeping by other means but was exactly what it seemed - work. Chris Burden played off this a number of times as well. So when you state to represent killing by killing is anti-performance. - for me it's performance, a horrifying one, but performance nonetheless. (I'm always suspicious as well about anti-anything, such as anti-poems, anti-art etc.; these exist within the same fold.) Thanks, Alan___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space--and - many overlaps, but also looking at the difference between destruction and decreation. On Saturday, November 15, 2014 12:33 PM, Erik Ehn shadowtac...@sbcglobal.net wrote: represented by other means in the sense that the floor didn't need to be swept or if it did that wasn't the point - what was being represented was the labor, above the activity, or specifically spectatorship... so the work of sweeping transferred to the work of watching sweeping? On Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:38 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: Hi Erik, I do want to reply, briefly, to you here. You state (the quote didn't work): a thing, to be art, must represent a thing by other means. so, the life in a flower (a feature of time) is re-presented in arrangement (a feature of space). [barba, dictionary of theatre anthropology] - and it seems to me, that to be art - in order to be art - is problematic; certainly there has been a lot of writing on the iconic (in Peirce's sense) to claim otherwise - a thing can represent itself. This was fundamental to a lot of West Coast feminist art from the 60s and 70s - where sweeping a floor for example wasn't representing sweeping by other means but was exactly what it seemed - work. Chris Burden played off this a number of times as well. So when you state to represent killing by killing is anti-performance. - for me it's performance, a horrifying one, but performance nonetheless. (I'm always suspicious as well about anti-anything, such as anti-poems, anti-art etc.; these exist within the same fold.) Thanks, Alan___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] more and the question about performance
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- I think it was the work; there was a lot of art based on everyday activites. There's always what Smylie called the work of the audience, but there is also audience, for beheading, unfortunately. - - Alan On Sat, 15 Nov 2014, Erik Ehn wrote: represented by other means in the sense that the floor didn't need to be swept or if it did that wasn't the point - what was being represented was the labor, above the activity, or specifically spectatorship... so the work of sweeping transferred to the work of watching sweeping? On Saturday, November 15, 2014 9:38 AM, Alan Sondheim sondh...@panix.com wrote: Hi Erik, I do want to reply, briefly, to you here. You state (the quote didn't work): a thing, to be art, must represent a thing by other means. so, the life in a flower (a feature of time) is re-presented in arrangement (a feature of space). [barba, dictionary of theatre anthropology] - and it seems to me, that to be art - in order to be art - is problematic; certainly there has been a lot of writing on the iconic (in Peirce's sense) to claim otherwise - a thing can represent itself. This was fundamental to a lot of West Coast feminist art from the 60s and 70s - where sweeping a floor for example wasn't representing sweeping by other means but was exactly what it seemed - work. Chris Burden played off this a number of times as well. So when you state to represent killing by killing is anti-performance. - for me it's performance, a horrifying one, but performance nonetheless. (I'm always suspicious as well about anti-anything, such as anti-poems, anti-art etc.; these exist within the same fold.) Thanks, Alan == email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/ web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285 music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/ current text http://www.alansondheim.org/sw.txt == ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
