Re: [-empyre-] Notes and a comment
--empyre- soft-skinned space--So much has been said here in what's been posted overthe last day and a half—incredibly intelligent posts—that I wonder if I can addanything of importance. Police brutality all over the world has concerned mefor a long time. I think of the concept of the hegemon and the abuses of elitepower groups time and again in different histories—Napoleonic France, colonial Britainn America, colonial Spain in America,U.S. abuses, most recentlyin Ferguson. Oursymbolic treatment of these things here is important to me because I feel thatit can make some difference—large, small—a difference somewhere. I think againof context and what occurs to me is to mention that same essay I mentioned theother day, Walter Benjamin’s “The destructive character.” It’s availableonline, easy to find, two pages of symbolic action to the extent that text isaction. I wish I had more right now but I don’t. So just thanks. William ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
[-empyre-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as slaves are for me more horrific than the beheadings. Ana -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] creative powerlessness/ creative power theatre of the oppressed
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- thank you Aristita for expanding on your first post, and illuminating the election process in Romania and the voting in of a new president who seemed not to have a chance to be elected. Your evocation of the collective will or action, and the post-Soviet/communist era de-traumatizing process, was vivid and encouraging, and it was so also (in response) following some of the discussions on nihilism (Alan) and powerlessness, and what Murat yesterday called My own work carries failure in its heart, it helps some people (I hope) cope with the world - we all hope for that - it has no effect on the systemic, however[Alan] In this sentence by Alan, I think, the most succinct crystalization of power in powerlessness is expressed. In the objective sense of political action, political change, art (Alan's or others) may be useless. But in hope -created out of hope and projected in hope- *creating* a conversation between soul and soul, art is all powerful. I urge us all to discuss this further - I had invited critical feedback to Monika's and Ana's visions of collective lament and protestation (visual choreographies of public space-pollution) - I would ask Sonja to tell us more about her work on cities, public space, and memory from her perspective - And we should look at Aristita's suggestions regarding the power of theatre (Boal's theatre of the oppressed) which Polish critic Michal Kobialka, whom I mentioned last week when I refered to Hamed Taheri's Home is in Our Past, has subjected to critique, proposing that Pisactor, Brecht, Boal, etc are all outdated models that have outlived their promise to give us a praxis to challenge existing politica regimes. I wonder what Rustom and Olga would say to this, and others out there working in performance and new media? - Simon's response to Alan included a reference to his Minus Theatre –– and their using the different languages of individuals from different cultures –- thus also to accents (as we debated them also in the second third week) -- can we please discuss Simon's very thought-provoking comments on Eastern philosophy (I tried the same on Monday by moving against Heidegger and evoking Kuki Shūzō) and on nihilism? Now, from the little I understand of the point of view which makes violence particular to a place and the point of view which makes violence a singularity in any place whatsoever, I would agree that these positions seem irreconcilable, and yet... this is not the irreconcilability of violent acts, or terrorism /tout court/, but of a singularity with a particularity. [Simon] thank you, Johannes Birringer [Alan schreibt] Nihilism isn't a course of action, and it doesn't mean giving up; instead it references taking a stance, most likely useless, just to assert that one is human, that anguish is still possible. My own work carries failure in its heart, it helps some people (I hope) cope with the world - we all hope for that - it has no effect on the systemic, however... On the other hand, one may well change the attitudes of the police - through education, community learning, dialog, and this is (I think) happening in some places. (I'd appreciate any bibliography you might be able to supply on nihilism and its potential.) But ISIS - or other groups believing in absolute inerrancy, absolute power, absolute truth, absolute annihilation - what is to be done? How to reach them? Is anything possible? ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Ana, maybe it is because sexual images are easier to censure. The authorities create a code, as in the movies. Though they may occur as often, if not more, one should not forget *scenes* of violence are not shown in the United States, such as executions that occur every day by means of *forbidden to be named* drugs. Though everybody else saw it, we in the United States were not shown images of people jumping off the Twin Towers on September 11. As a revolutionary medium (either for the good, freedom, or the bad, control) the internet crosses national lines and weakens the enforcement of those codes. The powerless may actively search those sights, access to information. Is that not a way of gain power through powerlessness? What I am struggling with is the ambiguous nature of the concept of violence. It can be physical or social (beheadings, tortures, enslavements), mostly what we are discussing here. But violence can be on the level of ideas, something that does damage to our prejudices, jams our natural flow of thought (that is partly what Artaud, Bataille are referring to, a symbolic violence). Ana, to me the most intriguing part of your post is Voltaire being places in the cubicle of hell after two hundred and fifty years in a country where, I assume, one can find Sade's writings in public book stalls. What is that virulent, violent idea by Voltaire that has lot lost its potency after so many years, at least in one country that still believes in the power of ideas. That discovery would be the elixir of of benevolent violence (a contra-violence), power thtough powerlessness that we are looking for. Ciao. Murat On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés agora...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as slaves are for me more horrific than the beheadings. Ana -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ 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-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/arts/design/16eros.html?_r=2oref=slogin; http://www.expatica.com/fr/out-and-about/arts-culture/Adults-only-as-Frances-National-Library-allows-peep-at-sex-hell_100043.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sex-please-were-french-pariss-dirty-secret-761348.html And Voltaire's long erotic and politcal poem about Jean d'Arc is also there, La Pucele d'Orleans. Ana On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Murat Nemet-Nejat mura...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Ana, maybe it is because sexual images are easier to censure. The authorities create a code, as in the movies. Though they may occur as often, if not more, one should not forget scenes of violence are not shown in the United States, such as executions that occur every day by means of forbidden to be named drugs. Though everybody else saw it, we in the United States were not shown images of people jumping off the Twin Towers on September 11. As a revolutionary medium (either for the good, freedom, or the bad, control) the internet crosses national lines and weakens the enforcement of those codes. The powerless may actively search those sights, access to information. Is that not a way of gain power through powerlessness? What I am struggling with is the ambiguous nature of the concept of violence. It can be physical or social (beheadings, tortures, enslavements), mostly what we are discussing here. But violence can be on the level of ideas, something that does damage to our prejudices, jams our natural flow of thought (that is partly what Artaud, Bataille are referring to, a symbolic violence). Ana, to me the most intriguing part of your post is Voltaire being places in the cubicle of hell after two hundred and fifty years in a country where, I assume, one can find Sade's writings in public book stalls. What is that virulent, violent idea by Voltaire that has lot lost its potency after so many years, at least in one country that still believes in the power of ideas. That discovery would be the elixir of of benevolent violence (a contra-violence), power thtough powerlessness that we are looking for. Ciao. Murat On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés agora...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as slaves are for me more horrific than the beheadings. Ana -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ 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 -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Re: [-empyre-] gender war, mythic violence
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- well, the discussion never went off track, as far as I am concerned. and the more combustuous dialogues we had yesterday, around Alan's comments on violence, racial conflict, etc in Ferguson, Missouri, were most welcome, as we can perhaps look more intensely at the repercussions of the within/without non-issue. The violence of war is within-without;and Alan, I venture to say, you were recruited the last few days by the cameras and technological instruments of war (as I pointed out in my paraphrase of Judith Butler yesterday), you were 'constituted' by them. But did we not overlook something important, in grappling with war, physical violence, symbolic violence (I agree much with Murat's last post here) and ISIS, namely what Sonja Leboš yesterday called gender war: Coming from Croatia, Balkan, I have a close experience of war. Not like US citizens, the experience of mediation of the terror via CNN or the body of one's son being sent in the body bag. I saw it in my own backyard. And have one conclusion on the war on Balkan: it was largely a gender war. Can we explore, then, what that means, and what the means (space) of alteration would be? Spatial Justice? Aristita made a start, following Monika. And Ana, just today, went into the same direction asking why the sexual, the erotic, is considered more revulsive and in greater need for censorship than violence. How do we understand this? And (remembering what Andreas, Simon, Reinhold, Christina and others have said about the maintenance of Law), I'd like to pursue further my own memory of The Market from Here, as a theatre of anthropology / sacred sociology, juxtaposed to my current useless experiments with dance holography – the HOLOSTAGE. I had some very bad dreams (not having watched any news, not recruited in that sense) last night, following my readings of some of the posts here, and thinking about trance, missing and mutilated, bodies, the soldiers and police as ghosts, shamans of the blind country, finding their beach (as Taussig would say), between earth and water. respectfully Johannes Birringer ps. thanks William, for your insistence on The Destructive Character . cf. http://tomclarkblog.blogspot.de/2014/05/walter-benjamin-destructive-character.html + ++ ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] gender war, mythic violence
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On Wed, 26 Nov 2014, Johannes Birringer wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- of the within/without non-issue. The violence of war is within-without; and Alan, I venture to say, you were recruited the last few days by the cameras and technological instruments of war (as I pointed out in my paraphrase of Judith Butler yesterday), you were 'constituted' by them. Hi Johannes, To respond to this, perhaps a misrecognition that is difficult to explain - it's not the 24 hours a day cameras-on-Ferguson (which you mentioned to me personally); it's the deterioration of life here and the increasing violence in this city (Providence, RI), coupled with the erosion of civil liberties across the United States. Ferguson was a flash-point, but was not the recruitment; the recruitment was, for me at least, literally signing up with a number of conservation organizations, then watching legislation fall apart, animal and plant extinctions rising horrendously. Ferguson was all too familiar, and it resonated with the slow burn, the slow war against Blacks and Latinos and otheres in this country, that's all. We're not in New York, where one can pretend to a certain immunity of affect/effect; Providence is not the same sort of liberal bubble, in spite of Roger Williams' legacy. And what we see here are shootings, knivings, arson, as a daily occurrence; the homeless increasing and increasingly desperate; graft at all levels; and the state plundering itself from decrepit and unreachable power, in spite of the fact that almost all the offices are held by Democrats. Providence is the ninth-most economically (read racially as well) divided city in the country - the rest, except for one in Ohio, are all in the south. So when you mention contituted by them - not only this isn't true, but it's a misreading perhaps of the U.S. itself; would you say that Romania is constituted by the media? That pain and intractable poverty elsewhere are? The U.S. is no different in this regard; large parts of it, Rhode Island included (with the second worst employment record in the country) is closer to the mythic and stereotyped third world country, than it is to the dream of a mythic U.S. from so long ago. That's what creates a sense of despair, derailing here, for so many (lots of people leave; this is the state with the highest percentage of people in the country trying to get out), and what was so perturbing about Ferguson, is that, like Occupy (as people have pointed out), there's no real clout in the protests, no political action. I keep thinking how far this is from the brutality elsewhere, but then I remember being violently kicked a year and a half ago in NY (ironically on the way to the doctor's), calling the police - we had witnesses, license plates, etc. - and the police told me if I tried to prosecute, to have the perpetrator arrested, I might be arrested myself for disturbing the peace. Later it came out that the NYC police were ordered to ignore most crimes of this sort, unless killing or hospitalization was required - the cops were trying to keep the stats down. So there you are, and the NYC cops are behaving as badly as ever, under the new mayor, and this country, for all its military power and swashbuckling and back-room international deals, operates on the principle of endocolonization, keeping the uppity poor and disenfranchised under control, making a massacre of the medial system for them, so they'll quietly die away. _That's_ what has recruited me, not CNN. - - Alan ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space--I do not know the work. Is it its politics that is keeping it in enfer or the eroticism? On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 2:38 PM, Ana Valdés agora...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/16/arts/design/16eros.html?_r=2oref=slogin; http://www.expatica.com/fr/out-and-about/arts-culture/Adults-only-as-Frances-National-Library-allows-peep-at-sex-hell_100043.html http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/sex-please-were-french-pariss-dirty-secret-761348.html And Voltaire's long erotic and politcal poem about Jean d'Arc is also there, La Pucele d'Orleans. Ana On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 4:51 PM, Murat Nemet-Nejat mura...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Ana, maybe it is because sexual images are easier to censure. The authorities create a code, as in the movies. Though they may occur as often, if not more, one should not forget scenes of violence are not shown in the United States, such as executions that occur every day by means of forbidden to be named drugs. Though everybody else saw it, we in the United States were not shown images of people jumping off the Twin Towers on September 11. As a revolutionary medium (either for the good, freedom, or the bad, control) the internet crosses national lines and weakens the enforcement of those codes. The powerless may actively search those sights, access to information. Is that not a way of gain power through powerlessness? What I am struggling with is the ambiguous nature of the concept of violence. It can be physical or social (beheadings, tortures, enslavements), mostly what we are discussing here. But violence can be on the level of ideas, something that does damage to our prejudices, jams our natural flow of thought (that is partly what Artaud, Bataille are referring to, a symbolic violence). Ana, to me the most intriguing part of your post is Voltaire being places in the cubicle of hell after two hundred and fifty years in a country where, I assume, one can find Sade's writings in public book stalls. What is that virulent, violent idea by Voltaire that has lot lost its potency after so many years, at least in one country that still believes in the power of ideas. That discovery would be the elixir of of benevolent violence (a contra-violence), power thtough powerlessness that we are looking for. Ciao. Murat On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés agora...@gmail.com wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as slaves are for me more horrific than the beheadings. Ana -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758 When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been and there you will always long to return. — Leonardo da Vinci ___ 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 -- http://www.twitter.com/caravia15860606060 http://www.scoop.it/t/art-and-activism/ http://www.scoop.it/t/food-history-and-trivia http://www.scoop.it/t/urbanism-3-0 cell Sweden +4670-3213370 cell Uruguay +598-99470758
Re: [-empyre-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Thank you Ana for the links to the French exhibition! Ana raised many issues and this is only a partly, and personal, reply. There is a point where grown men beheaded and little girls sexually exploited meet in the common theme of the exertion of absolute power over the bodies of others. These are demonstrations of what the group can do/get away with. And it is terrorism, meant to create fear and compliance in others. I think this is distinct from the far more common theme of the maintenance of patriarchal social power through control of sexual information. A very influential book for me is Walter Kendrick's /The Secret Museum, Pornography in Modern Culture///(1987)/. /He makes many arguments//but the most compelling for me is that erotic materials actually convey sexual information and that protected classes -- women and youths, poor men -- are kept in subjugation by denial of sexual information. (We can see the latest iteration of this in the United States where some people are trying to put the genie back in the bottle by trying to repress birth control, sexual education, abortion rights, etc.) Traditionally, young warriors (and athletes before competition) are taught that their prowess will be diminished if they have sex before battle. It is not hard to imagine that having sex would reaffirm life's pleasures and make one less inclined to risk life and limb in warfare. Upper classes have always had access to materials forbidden to the rest of us -- hence the Enfer sections of libraries that have become the repositories of materials once held in private collections. L'origine du Monde was painted for Khalil Bey, Ottoman diplomat, who had a collection of erotica. Reportedly he kept it behind a curtain which would be pulled back to show particular guests -- performance as display. Circling back, I do wonder what particular cultural arrangements has produced ISIS. Yes, of course, official propaganda might talk about rejection of western colonialism, etc. but what of the psychological factors local tpo that culture? And somewhere in this discussion we might ask about DeSade who would probably assert that we are dealing with the human condition. And one more circling back -- Alan is writing about what happens to humans when their culture is going off the rails. In the case of the United States, much of our culture arose from the existence of a middle class, now under extreme threat. CS On 11/26/2014 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as slaves are for me more horrific than the beheadings. Ana ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] nothing gives - mathematical reality of biopolitical implants
--empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 27/11/14 09:15, Alan Sondheim wrote: this country, for all its military power and swashbuckling and back-room international deals, operates on the principle of endocolonization two areas of IBM expenditure last year interested me: the internet of things (of course they don't call it this, the actual nomenclature is closer to 'control society' for reversing it as Smart) and Big Data. The first category deals with the widening spread of networked sensor and surveillance technics across cities and fields, inserted into urban traffic flows and agribusiness (and actual bodies, of course - to keep it visceral). This data gathering is for the sake of governing complex systems; for example, water supply in African countries, ensuring greater supply where there is greater need; the traffic system in London uses an IBM system to promote efficient transit, steer flows around obstacles, minimise bottlenecks, distribute peak time across the wider network - controlling the signs which in turn control the people. Potato farmers in Idaho use field sensors to communicate their crops. They tell them when and where fertiliser is needed, pest control, watering. The Idaho data is compiled and 'analysed', processed by a group in Canterbury, New Zealand. Then there is the shibboleth of Big Data. A goldmine for consultants, who, like oracles (shaman) claim to be able to parse an iota of sense from it. Data is in fact not analysed - for detail or to its genesis - but is the object of recursive and reticulating operations of organisation through statistical relationality, following a non-intensive or powerless line of (re)searching for the difference of the same. This statistical same - of these identical organs that are brought to emergence - subjects the erstwhile subjects of states to the governance of a mathematical reality, an abstraction layer isolating power from the points at which it is inflicted. 'endocolonisation' recalls the sometimes cited axiom whereby capitalist states having exhausted their violent energy-resource grab, and having extended the borders of capitalism, its reach and their reach, globally, now turn their violence on their own populations, particularly the middle classes, which history contrived to construct as sacrifice. This process has been called neoliberalism. I know it from the example of Chile and then New Zealand, from 1984, a propitious date. And like the previous colonial period of empire, and the golden Keynesian post-war rise of middle class values - education, art, humanities - that followed for a handful of nations, this present colonisation is dirty, malevolent and violent. And as Ana has indicated it is misogynist. It is misogynist before it is misanthropic. Best, Simon PS: On 26/11/14 20:02, Alan Sondheim wrote: thank you for this - is are there any particular references? would be useful - alan Heisig, James W. /Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School/ but, respectfully, this was nothing compared to travelling in Japan. ___ empyre forum empyre@lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
Re: [-empyre-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Christina, much of our American culture also arose from the cultural extermination of the American Indians (which luckily did not occur with the black culture) rather than integrating that culture into the American mainstream, an integration which I think occurred in a country like Brazil. This extermination occurred in the 19th century simultaneously, if De Tocqueville is to be believed, when the seeds of a vibrant middle class was being sown. I want to be clear the integration I am referring to occurs independently from the suppression of one group of another. Historically, the defeated have often left big imprints over the triumphant. The only cultural echo I see of the American Indian in the United States is in place names so many of which derive from American Indian language. I refer to one of them Oklahoma (as in Kafka's Theatre of Oklahoma) in my essay Questions of Accent. On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 3:41 PM, Christina Spiesel christina.spie...@yale.edu wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Thank you Ana for the links to the French exhibition! Ana raised many issues and this is only a partly, and personal, reply. There is a point where grown men beheaded and little girls sexually exploited meet in the common theme of the exertion of absolute power over the bodies of others. These are demonstrations of what the group can do/get away with. And it is terrorism, meant to create fear and compliance in others. I think this is distinct from the far more common theme of the maintenance of patriarchal social power through control of sexual information. A very influential book for me is Walter Kendrick's *The Secret Museum, Pornography in Modern Culture* (1987)*. *He makes many arguments but the most compelling for me is that erotic materials actually convey sexual information and that protected classes -- women and youths, poor men -- are kept in subjugation by denial of sexual information. (We can see the latest iteration of this in the United States where some people are trying to put the genie back in the bottle by trying to repress birth control, sexual education, abortion rights, etc.) Traditionally, young warriors (and athletes before competition) are taught that their prowess will be diminished if they have sex before battle. It is not hard to imagine that having sex would reaffirm life's pleasures and make one less inclined to risk life and limb in warfare. Upper classes have always had access to materials forbidden to the rest of us -- hence the Enfer sections of libraries that have become the repositories of materials once held in private collections. L'origine du Monde was painted for Khalil Bey, Ottoman diplomat, who had a collection of erotica. Reportedly he kept it behind a curtain which would be pulled back to show particular guests -- performance as display. Circling back, I do wonder what particular cultural arrangements has produced ISIS. Yes, of course, official propaganda might talk about rejection of western colonialism, etc. but what of the psychological factors local tpo that culture? And somewhere in this discussion we might ask about DeSade who would probably assert that we are dealing with the human condition. And one more circling back -- Alan is writing about what happens to humans when their culture is going off the rails. In the case of the United States, much of our culture arose from the existence of a middle class, now under extreme threat. CS On 11/26/2014 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- I was trying to find a red line in our discussion, reading what others wrote, Aneta, Monika, Murat, Alan, Johannes, Christina, Aristita, Andreas, Simon, Rustom, Alicia, Leandro, others... I go always back to Modernity. Yesterday we discussed with Alicia about Bataille and all the French writers and painters using erotic as a kind of rebellion against the power, again the etablished norms. In the French National Library there is a place called Enfer (Hell) where erotic texts written by Voltaire, Diderot and many other are hidden from public view. They can only be consulted and peroused by researchers with several degrees of clearing. Why are these texts so revulsive today? In a society where pornography is an industry with millions of people employed these texts are still so revulsive and must be kept secret. The same with the paintings. Gustave Courbet L'Origine du Monde, showing the vulva of a woman, was censored by Facebook several times only a few years ago. Bear with me, I am trying to find paralleles here between beheadings and naked women. The beheadings are shown in You Tube and can be seen by anyone with a screen nearby, the real erotic seems more powerful and more dissident and must be kept from the public. Isis marriages with small girls and the selling of women as
Re: [-empyre-] nothing gives - mathematical reality of biopolitical implants
--empyre- soft-skinned space--Simon, how internet businesses (from Facebook to younameit) are monetized give the underlying malevolent dynamic in the web. The populace is given candy, a product for them to enjoy, whereas themselves (their psyche) are the product sold (in a sense, that is a kind of slavery), as you describe, for an elusive, impersonal statistical construct. All of us, to the degree that we use a smart phone, are caught in it. It is the incipient violence (like the climate change) in the air. On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 4:27 PM, simon s...@clear.net.nz wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- On 27/11/14 09:15, Alan Sondheim wrote: this country, for all its military power and swashbuckling and back-room international deals, operates on the principle of endocolonization two areas of IBM expenditure last year interested me: the internet of things (of course they don't call it this, the actual nomenclature is closer to 'control society' for reversing it as Smart) and Big Data. The first category deals with the widening spread of networked sensor and surveillance technics across cities and fields, inserted into urban traffic flows and agribusiness (and actual bodies, of course - to keep it visceral). This data gathering is for the sake of governing complex systems; for example, water supply in African countries, ensuring greater supply where there is greater need; the traffic system in London uses an IBM system to promote efficient transit, steer flows around obstacles, minimise bottlenecks, distribute peak time across the wider network - controlling the signs which in turn control the people. Potato farmers in Idaho use field sensors to communicate their crops. They tell them when and where fertiliser is needed, pest control, watering. The Idaho data is compiled and 'analysed', processed by a group in Canterbury, New Zealand. Then there is the shibboleth of Big Data. A goldmine for consultants, who, like oracles (shaman) claim to be able to parse an iota of sense from it. Data is in fact not analysed - for detail or to its genesis - but is the object of recursive and reticulating operations of organisation through statistical relationality, following a non-intensive or powerless line of (re)searching for the difference of the same. This statistical same - of these identical organs that are brought to emergence - subjects the erstwhile subjects of states to the governance of a mathematical reality, an abstraction layer isolating power from the points at which it is inflicted. 'endocolonisation' recalls the sometimes cited axiom whereby capitalist states having exhausted their violent energy-resource grab, and having extended the borders of capitalism, its reach and their reach, globally, now turn their violence on their own populations, particularly the middle classes, which history contrived to construct as sacrifice. This process has been called neoliberalism. I know it from the example of Chile and then New Zealand, from 1984, a propitious date. And like the previous colonial period of empire, and the golden Keynesian post-war rise of middle class values - education, art, humanities - that followed for a handful of nations, this present colonisation is dirty, malevolent and violent. And as Ana has indicated it is misogynist. It is misogynist before it is misanthropic. Best, Simon PS: On 26/11/14 20:02, Alan Sondheim wrote: thank you for this - is are there any particular references? would be useful - alan Heisig, James W. *Philosophers of Nothingness: An Essay on the Kyoto School* but, respectfully, this was nothing compared to travelling in Japan. ___ 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-] discussion on track again
--empyre- soft-skinned space--... Christina, much of our American culture also arose from the cultural extermination of the American Indians (which luckily did not occur with the black culture) rather than integrating that culture into the American mainstream... Reading my previous post, I realize that a section of it may be read in a different way than how I intended. I do not mean that Native Indian culture has been exterminated. It has remained alive through ceremonies, social gatherings like powwows all over the country. I was referring to the integration of the beliefs, ceremonies into the middle class, midstream culture. Alan has pointed out to me the Native Indian culture has been thriving in the last fifty years. And perhaps the penetration of the sensibility has been deeper than I think. It made me think of films, the medium I am most intimate with, like Jarmousch's Dead Man and The Way of the Samurai, Powwow Highway, Smoke Signals in all of which the actor Gary Farmer, besides his part, embodies an iconic spiritual presence or Thunderheart where Val Kilmer, an FBI agent, has to face his own Native Indian identity as a dreamer of visions. The list goes on... Recently I discovered to my utter surprise that Myrna Loy, the very essence of urban sophistication, had Native Indian roots. On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 4:52 PM, Murat Nemet-Nejat mura...@gmail.com wrote: Christina, much of our American culture also arose from the cultural extermination of the American Indians (which luckily did not occur with the black culture) rather than integrating that culture into the American mainstream, an integration which I think occurred in a country like Brazil. This extermination occurred in the 19th century simultaneously, if De Tocqueville is to be believed, when the seeds of a vibrant middle class was being sown. I want to be clear the integration I am referring to occurs independently from the suppression of one group of another. Historically, the defeated have often left big imprints over the triumphant. The only cultural echo I see of the American Indian in the United States is in place names so many of which derive from American Indian language. I refer to one of them Oklahoma (as in Kafka's Theatre of Oklahoma) in my essay Questions of Accent. On Wed, Nov 26, 2014 at 3:41 PM, Christina Spiesel christina.spie...@yale.edu wrote: --empyre- soft-skinned space-- Thank you Ana for the links to the French exhibition! Ana raised many issues and this is only a partly, and personal, reply. There is a point where grown men beheaded and little girls sexually exploited meet in the common theme of the exertion of absolute power over the bodies of others. These are demonstrations of what the group can do/get away with. And it is terrorism, meant to create fear and compliance in others. I think this is distinct from the far more common theme of the maintenance of patriarchal social power through control of sexual information. A very influential book for me is Walter Kendrick's *The Secret Museum, Pornography in Modern Culture* (1987)*. *He makes many arguments but the most compelling for me is that erotic materials actually convey sexual information and that protected classes -- women and youths, poor men -- are kept in subjugation by denial of sexual information. (We can see the latest iteration of this in the United States where some people are trying to put the genie back in the bottle by trying to repress birth control, sexual education, abortion rights, etc.) Traditionally, young warriors (and athletes before competition) are taught that their prowess will be diminished if they have sex before battle. It is not hard to imagine that having sex would reaffirm life's pleasures and make one less inclined to risk life and limb in warfare. Upper classes have always had access to materials forbidden to the rest of us -- hence the Enfer sections of libraries that have become the repositories of materials once held in private collections. L'origine du Monde was painted for Khalil Bey, Ottoman diplomat, who had a collection of erotica. Reportedly he kept it behind a curtain which would be pulled back to show particular guests -- performance as display. Circling back, I do wonder what particular cultural arrangements has produced ISIS. Yes, of course, official propaganda might talk about rejection of western colonialism, etc. but what of the psychological factors local tpo that culture? And somewhere in this discussion we might ask about DeSade who would probably assert that we are dealing with the human condition. And one more circling back -- Alan is writing about what happens to humans when their culture is going off the rails. In the case of the United States, much of our culture arose from the existence of a middle class, now under extreme threat. CS On 11/26/2014 10:02 AM, Ana Valdés wrote:
