The Discipline of DE

17 April 2011 • watchings
tags: cinema, conscience, control, fiction, patterns

This short film by Gus Van Sant is so absurd in a sort of [search for proper adjective] way that it reminds me to Peter Greenaway.

The script is based on The Discipline of DE, a short story by William S. Burroughs from the book Exterminator!

Watchings

6 March 2011 • watchings
tags: activism, apocalypse, capitalism, cinema, consumism, control, copy, data, documentaries, economy, music, politics, sound, television, tv series

• The Walking Dead (2010)
Frank Darabont

• Sound in Context (2009) [watch]

• The Social Network (2010)
David Fincher

• Remington Steele, Seasons 1-5 (1982-1987)
Robert Butler and Michael Gleason

• The Eye of the Heart (2003)
Mark Kidel

• Artscape – Stephen Vitiello – Listening With Intent [watch]

• The New Sound Of Music (1979) [watch]

• SYGNOK & The War For Radical Computer Music (2011) [watch]

• The Future of Art (2011) [watch]

El tormento de la elección

30 January 2011 • out of context
tags: books, conscience, control, quotes

“En cada acción siempre queda irrealizada la posibilidad contraria. Tenemos que elegir y decidirnos entre quedarnos en casa o salir, trabajar o no hacer nada, tener hijos o no tenerlos, reclamar el dinero o perdonar la deuda, matar al enemigo o dejarlo vivir. El tormento de la elección nos persigue constantemente. No podemos eludir la decisión, porque «no hacer nada» es ya decidir contra la acción, «no decidir» es una decisión contra la decisión”.

La enfermedad como camino
Thorwald Dethlefsen y Rudiger Dahlke

Exponential growth of stupidity

26 January 2011 • out of context
tags: cinema, consumism, control, music, quotes, television

“I have a completely schizophrenic relationship with television. (…) The exponential growth of stupidity and vulgarity is something that everyone has noticed, but it’s not just a vague sense of disgust – it’s a concrete quantifiable fact (you can measure it by the volume of the cheers that greet the talk-show hosts, which have grown by an alarming number of decibels in the last five years) and a crime against humanity. (…) And since you are exploiting my Russian penchant for confession, I must say the worst: I am allergic to commercials. In the early Sixties, making commercials was perfectly acceptable; now, it’s something that no one will own up to. I can do nothing about it. This manner of placing the mechanism of the lie in the service of praise has always irritated me, even if I have to admit that this diabolical patron has occasionally given us some of the most beautiful images you can see on the small screen (have you seen the David Lynch commercial with the blue lips?). But cynics always betray themselves, and there is a small consolation in the industry’s own terminology: they stop short of calling themselves “creators,” so they call themselves “creatives.”

And the movies in all this? For the reasons mentioned above, and under the orders of Jean-Luc, I’ve said for a long time that films should be seen first in theaters, and that television and video are only there to refresh your memory. Now that I no longer have any time at all to go to the cinema, I’ve started seeing films by lowering my eyes, with an ever increasing sense of sinfulness (this interview is indeed becoming Dostoevskian). But to tell the truth I no longer watch many films, only those by friends, or curiosities that an American acquaintance tapes for me on TCM. There is too much to see on the news, on the music channels or on the indispensable Animal Channel. And I feed my hunger for fiction with what is by far the most accomplished source: those great American TV series, like The Practice. There is a knowledge in them, a sense of story and economy, of ellipsis, a science of framing and of cutting, a dramaturgy and an acting style that has no equal anywhere, and certainly not in Hollywood.”

Chris Marker, originally published in Libération, March 5, 2003. Documentary is Never Neutral

Toxic Ideas

8 January 2011 • outer
tags: analysis, brain, capitalism, civilization, conscience, control, perception, politics, religion

Under control of a mighty force

4 January 2011 • out of context
tags: books, civilization, control, freedom, politics, quotes

“(…) la privacidad, tal y como la defendemos ahora, no ha existido jamás porque jamás hizo falta. Y no hizo falta porque nunca un Estado, un tirano o una corporación tuvo las herramientas necesarias para mantener bajo control y bajo vigilancia a toda la población en todo momento”.

La sociedad de control
Jose F. Alcántara

This painting is not available in your country

8 November 2010 • outer
tags: capitalism, control, criticism, freedom, painting, politics

By Paul Mutant.

Akrasia

14 October 2010 • out of context
tags: analysis, brain, conscience, control, desire

Akrasia (ancient Greek ἀκρασία, “lacking command (over oneself)”), occasionally transliterated as acrasia, is the state of acting against one’s better judgment.

The problem goes back at least as far as Plato. Socrates (in Plato’s Protagoras) asks precisely how this is possible – if one judges action A to be the best course of action, why would one do anything other than A?

Wikipedia

Globalización

7 August 2010 • out of context
tags: books, capitalism, civilization, control, existence, quotes, situationism

“En un mundo unificado, no es posible exiliarse”.

Panegírico by Guy Debord