Saturday, October 31, 2009
the river that flows both ways
long time ago some one dear wrote a beautiful essay on that very same river - but that was before the days things like that were put online.
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
thomas demand
"nationalgallerie"
brilliant exhibition by thomas demand at the nationalgallerie berlin, excellent exhibition architecture by caruso st. john.
(foto: nic tenwiggenhorn)
"However, lots of artistic effort goes into restaging a moment that has passed, and only through that act does it get recognized as being significant." from a conversation between todd solondz and thomas demand in 032c.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
the individual and the system
a few notes on "hunger" by steve mcqueen
- a naked man gets beaten up by prison guards and is forced into a bath tub. this is 40 minutes into the film. we did not get to know this man, he was not introduced to us, we didn't see his personal backstory - the usual means of enabeling the viewer to identify with a person on screen and therefore feel with and for that person are not used in this film. and still we feel strong compassion for him, we suffer with him - because he is a human being (btw: embedding that scene is disabled by youtube, which, i think, is a good decision. one comment says: "How someone could do that to another person.....")
- it made me think about frederick wiseman's documentaries which are always about individuals in an institution
- an institutions becomes helpless when it is confronted with the indestructible will of an individual
- i was surprised to see that the prison guards (=the system) only used pure violence and endurance/stubborness in the attempt to break the will of that individual. no "silent torture" or psychological manipulation was used (at least the film doesn't show it).
- making loud noise brings a group together and gives it power. the film opens with such a moment and the prison guards do it before they beat up the naked man.
from an interview with steve mcqueen: "What was incorporated into the script was when Sands died and there was the banging of the dustbin lids. But that was also a ritual that they did when the army was coming. It was to allow people to know what was going on."
- "Steve McQueen remarked recently: 'It was as if the whole history of the Troubles, and of Britain's relationship to Ireland, was distilled in that moment. It came down to two opposing and immovable forces: Margaret Thatcher and Bobby Sands.'" from an article in the guardian.
reminds me of how stephen frears in "the queen" also focused on one conflict to tell a bigger story. very smart and elegant as far as storytelling is concerned.
- " 'The French government offered the Dublin government two gestures of solidarity, which Dublin declined. One was to boycott the British royal wedding, the other that President Mitterrand attend Bobby Sands's funeral.'" from the same article in the guardian
- "It's striking that Sands had an appeal that went beyond Irish nationalism. The Iranians named the street where the British Embassy is Bobby Sands Street - where, of all things, there is a Bobby Sands Snack Bar.
Yes. They named the street for Bobby Sands, and then the British government changed the entrance to the building to the street behind it. It was the same time as the revolution in Iran, and the mythology of martyrdom in Iran was huge. One of the people whom they took up was Bobby Sands." from an interview with steve mcqueen
- "I was eleven years old, and an image appeared on the TV screen every night, with a number underneath it, and the image was of him, so every night the numbers went up, and as an eleven year old kid the whole idea that, in order to he heard, someone had stopped eating was kind of weird for me. It was an oral situation - food wasn't going in, but the words were getting louder." from the same interview
- "These are people who made their bodies in some shape or form into a weapon. It's always been there. Of course, this is different from 9/11, when airplanes were used to blow up other people. This is someone who was using his body, and not hurting anyone but himself to make a point." from the same interview
- "Only a single 90-second snatch of film exists of conditions inside the H Blocks at the time, shot by an Ulster Television camera crew for a documentary that was subsequently banned by the government. It shows two prisoners, bedraggled and Christ-like, wrapped in dirty blankets, shouting out their demands from a filthy, excrement encrusted cell. From that image, the artist Richard Hamilton created the first work of art based on the H Blocks, a painting called The Citizen, which he completed in 1983. Twenty-five years later, with several former IRA men now sitting in the Northern Ireland Assembly, McQueen has created the second." from another article in the guardian
- "In the final part, in which the skeletal Sands falls into fitful reveries and remembrances, there are hallucinatory scenes of his childhood that struck me as the only false note in a film that otherwise eschews any kind of easy romanticism." . i agree. also from that article in the guardian
- a naked man gets beaten up by prison guards and is forced into a bath tub. this is 40 minutes into the film. we did not get to know this man, he was not introduced to us, we didn't see his personal backstory - the usual means of enabeling the viewer to identify with a person on screen and therefore feel with and for that person are not used in this film. and still we feel strong compassion for him, we suffer with him - because he is a human being (btw: embedding that scene is disabled by youtube, which, i think, is a good decision. one comment says: "How someone could do that to another person.....")
- it made me think about frederick wiseman's documentaries which are always about individuals in an institution
- an institutions becomes helpless when it is confronted with the indestructible will of an individual
- i was surprised to see that the prison guards (=the system) only used pure violence and endurance/stubborness in the attempt to break the will of that individual. no "silent torture" or psychological manipulation was used (at least the film doesn't show it).
- making loud noise brings a group together and gives it power. the film opens with such a moment and the prison guards do it before they beat up the naked man.
from an interview with steve mcqueen: "What was incorporated into the script was when Sands died and there was the banging of the dustbin lids. But that was also a ritual that they did when the army was coming. It was to allow people to know what was going on."
- "Steve McQueen remarked recently: 'It was as if the whole history of the Troubles, and of Britain's relationship to Ireland, was distilled in that moment. It came down to two opposing and immovable forces: Margaret Thatcher and Bobby Sands.'" from an article in the guardian.
reminds me of how stephen frears in "the queen" also focused on one conflict to tell a bigger story. very smart and elegant as far as storytelling is concerned.
- " 'The French government offered the Dublin government two gestures of solidarity, which Dublin declined. One was to boycott the British royal wedding, the other that President Mitterrand attend Bobby Sands's funeral.'" from the same article in the guardian
- "It's striking that Sands had an appeal that went beyond Irish nationalism. The Iranians named the street where the British Embassy is Bobby Sands Street - where, of all things, there is a Bobby Sands Snack Bar.
Yes. They named the street for Bobby Sands, and then the British government changed the entrance to the building to the street behind it. It was the same time as the revolution in Iran, and the mythology of martyrdom in Iran was huge. One of the people whom they took up was Bobby Sands." from an interview with steve mcqueen
- "I was eleven years old, and an image appeared on the TV screen every night, with a number underneath it, and the image was of him, so every night the numbers went up, and as an eleven year old kid the whole idea that, in order to he heard, someone had stopped eating was kind of weird for me. It was an oral situation - food wasn't going in, but the words were getting louder." from the same interview
- "These are people who made their bodies in some shape or form into a weapon. It's always been there. Of course, this is different from 9/11, when airplanes were used to blow up other people. This is someone who was using his body, and not hurting anyone but himself to make a point." from the same interview
- "Only a single 90-second snatch of film exists of conditions inside the H Blocks at the time, shot by an Ulster Television camera crew for a documentary that was subsequently banned by the government. It shows two prisoners, bedraggled and Christ-like, wrapped in dirty blankets, shouting out their demands from a filthy, excrement encrusted cell. From that image, the artist Richard Hamilton created the first work of art based on the H Blocks, a painting called The Citizen, which he completed in 1983. Twenty-five years later, with several former IRA men now sitting in the Northern Ireland Assembly, McQueen has created the second." from another article in the guardian
- "In the final part, in which the skeletal Sands falls into fitful reveries and remembrances, there are hallucinatory scenes of his childhood that struck me as the only false note in a film that otherwise eschews any kind of easy romanticism." . i agree. also from that article in the guardian
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
im schatten der macht
"Ob eine Demokratie lebendig sei, sagen die Lehrbücher, zeige sich nicht am Zustand der Regierung. Es zeige sich an der Lebendigkeit der Opposition."
"Im Kern, so schreibt Crouch in seinem Buch Postdemokratie (Suhrkamp Verlag), verfolgen alle große Parteien nur noch ein Programm, nämlich die »Anpassung« an den Sachzwang der Wirtschaft."
"Immer mehr öffentliche Bereiche werden in die Zuständigkeit des Marktes überstellt. Dem Markt und dem Management wird eine überlegene Intelligenz zugeschrieben, während Parteien, Behörden, Universitäten und sogar das Parlament im Verdacht angeborener Unfähigkeit stehen."
"Betrachten wir noch einmal die Formel von der »Postdemokratie«. Alles in allem läuft sie auf die Behauptung hinaus, Regierungen glichen zunehmend einer Reparaturanstalt. Sie betreiben Finanzkrisenbewältigungspolitik, Bankenrettungspolitik oder Umweltschädenminimierungspolitik. Regierungen, heißt das, beschränken sich auf Gefahrenabwehr und agieren dabei notgedrungen technokratisch. Es gibt immer ein Feuer mehr, als sie löschen können, und was sie gestern privatisiert haben, darauf haben sie heute keinen Einfluss mehr."
"Denn die politischen Räume verschwinden ja nicht, sie verschieben sich nur. Auch wenn man sie kaum sieht, so entstehen neue Entscheidungsräume jenseits der Nationalstaaten."
auszüge aus einem klugen artikel von thomas asshauer in "die zeit" vom 1.10.09.
"Im Kern, so schreibt Crouch in seinem Buch Postdemokratie (Suhrkamp Verlag), verfolgen alle große Parteien nur noch ein Programm, nämlich die »Anpassung« an den Sachzwang der Wirtschaft."
"Immer mehr öffentliche Bereiche werden in die Zuständigkeit des Marktes überstellt. Dem Markt und dem Management wird eine überlegene Intelligenz zugeschrieben, während Parteien, Behörden, Universitäten und sogar das Parlament im Verdacht angeborener Unfähigkeit stehen."
"Betrachten wir noch einmal die Formel von der »Postdemokratie«. Alles in allem läuft sie auf die Behauptung hinaus, Regierungen glichen zunehmend einer Reparaturanstalt. Sie betreiben Finanzkrisenbewältigungspolitik, Bankenrettungspolitik oder Umweltschädenminimierungspolitik. Regierungen, heißt das, beschränken sich auf Gefahrenabwehr und agieren dabei notgedrungen technokratisch. Es gibt immer ein Feuer mehr, als sie löschen können, und was sie gestern privatisiert haben, darauf haben sie heute keinen Einfluss mehr."
"Denn die politischen Räume verschwinden ja nicht, sie verschieben sich nur. Auch wenn man sie kaum sieht, so entstehen neue Entscheidungsräume jenseits der Nationalstaaten."
auszüge aus einem klugen artikel von thomas asshauer in "die zeit" vom 1.10.09.
silent cities
a few weeks after i moved into my flat in this big city, i woke up very early in the morning. something was different, it felt strange. neither good, nor bad, just strange. it took me a while until i realized: it had been snowing. a thin white layer spread accross the streets, trees, cars, buildings. and the cars had to slow down and the snow silenced their movement even more. it was really quiet for a short time, until the snow had melted half an hour later.
today i went to a brilliant talk by adrian van hooydonk, chief designer of bmw. one of the things he spoke about was how the fact that a hybrid car produces no sound will affect the design of the car:
speed and acceleration (=power) cannot be expressed by the sound of the engine anymore and therefore have to be communicated via the design. (at the same time the design has to express that this car is part of a new era, an era which is maybe not so much about speed anymore but more about mobility/flexibility).
two side-effects of a silent engine are:
sitting inside you cannot hear whether your car is actually running. instead you will hear a lot of other noises, maybe uncomfortable noises, that used to be drowned by the sound of the engine.
and people on the street will no longer notice a car approaching them from behind or the side, which might be dangerous.
sound designers are therefore working on sounds to simulate what we are used to now and will no longer have. and it might even be possible that you can download those sounds from the web and make your own car-sound-mix.
the idea of a more silent city thanks to silent cars is totally exciting to me. just imagine what effect it will have on the real estate market. living next to a huge junction or even a motorway will no longer be a problem. and it will change our mode or perception and alertness when moving through traffic. and what are all the sounds, maybe uncomfortable sounds, on the streets we will suddenly be able to hear instead?
i am sure it will have many more effects that i cannot even imagine right now.
today i went to a brilliant talk by adrian van hooydonk, chief designer of bmw. one of the things he spoke about was how the fact that a hybrid car produces no sound will affect the design of the car:
speed and acceleration (=power) cannot be expressed by the sound of the engine anymore and therefore have to be communicated via the design. (at the same time the design has to express that this car is part of a new era, an era which is maybe not so much about speed anymore but more about mobility/flexibility).
two side-effects of a silent engine are:
sitting inside you cannot hear whether your car is actually running. instead you will hear a lot of other noises, maybe uncomfortable noises, that used to be drowned by the sound of the engine.
and people on the street will no longer notice a car approaching them from behind or the side, which might be dangerous.
sound designers are therefore working on sounds to simulate what we are used to now and will no longer have. and it might even be possible that you can download those sounds from the web and make your own car-sound-mix.
the idea of a more silent city thanks to silent cars is totally exciting to me. just imagine what effect it will have on the real estate market. living next to a huge junction or even a motorway will no longer be a problem. and it will change our mode or perception and alertness when moving through traffic. and what are all the sounds, maybe uncomfortable sounds, on the streets we will suddenly be able to hear instead?
i am sure it will have many more effects that i cannot even imagine right now.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
plan of action
i didn't know they prepared their battles so minutely - or it was drawn afterwards. in any case: amazing details.
from Musee de Bretagne.
from Musee de Bretagne.
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