[-empyre-] Yan: empyre Digest, Vol 83, Issue 19

Mon Oct 24 10:03:11 EST 2011

What do I mean by Cultural deceleration
I am sorry if you have misunderstood my point Nilü. But I have to respectfully disagree. As: Politicians, Architects, Civil engineers, Artists and Academics along with a whole host of the other roles in the organs of state, we have a moral imperative to change the social behaviour of ourselves and others towards what is 'good'. You only have to look at recent history to see what effect the actions of individuals, groups, nations and international coalitions have had when facilitating cultural deceleration on dominate state policies. Examples being:

  *   Picasso's Guernica becoming an icon not only for the human tragedies resulting from collateral damage and bringing the horrors of the Spanish civil war to the world's attention, but also the painting heralded the potency of the aesthetic perspective, Cubism in Western Art practice
  *   Nelson Mandela's achievements in deceleration, which facilitated in changing the policies of apartheid through to democracy by standing firm against policies that were culturally accelerating at the time.
  *   Dr Martin Luther King's Civil rights movement to decelerate the then tacit behaviours of inequality and segregation; inspired by Ghandhi example of non violent action that brought about the deceleration and end of British colonial rule in India.
  *   Joseph Mallord William Turner romantic painting, “The Slave Ship” or “Slavers Throwing overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon coming on” painted seven years after the abolition of the slavery in Britain still contributed to decelerating public attitudes to the well healed. He did this by painting the horrors of the insurance claims made by deliberately throwing enslave people overboard by many slavers from other countries still operating the slave trade illegally.
One can argue and rightly so in some cases that attitudes and behaviour have not really changed concerning some individual and groups; however what is certainly true is that cultural policy did changed for those who have been oppressed by the decelerated activity of previous presumed behaviours. In my case being born in 1965 the events mentioned above have provided new possibilities for self expression, identity and behaviour.
Metaphorically, imagine a society as submarine navigating in the dark. If this cultural submarine is accelerating and heading towards a major disaster and all the internal readings from the external sensors concerning the submarine’s progress are indicating a need to decelerate as a way to overt this impending disaster, then is it not true that in this case, deceleration is not only progress but a demonstration of reflective and reflexive intelligence. You see when playing for Plymouth Raider Basketball team in the British National league, deceleration and acceleration were vital for me in the reflective act regarding sudden changes of direction when reading the situation on court. Added to this fact, when I tried out for the team in the mid eighties, I already had knee problems due to bad alignment. It wasn't until I started earnest practice in T'ai Chi Ch'uan that my knee problem was solved. Paradoxically, by having a more relax meditative approach to playing basketball in practice, my performance gave me a regular starting position on court for my team. Deceleration in this context is a strategic act for the cultural submarine as whole, it is not as you say only defined as,
'culture as a whole decelerate other then being ‘lulled into a stupor’. So many tricks are played on human beings: propaganda equals media: ‘a generation of people addicted to intensity and delusive involvement of technological environments’. Could this be a imposed/taught/learned dismissal of communication?
 To use a sporting analogy; 'being ‘lulled into a stupor’' maybe true from the aggressive position of the oppressor, it is not true from the defensive position of cultural resistance. Although, 'tricks are played on human beings: propaganda equals media' on both sides on the power dichotomy. I certainly didn’t feel as though meditation made me less active and aware in my performance on court, on the contrary, I felt more present with sharper reflexive response times.
While I was in Turkey on a street arts workshop conference recently, I gave a lot of thought to the concept of cultural deceleration with regards to the civic and religious roles theatre had in ancient Greek and Roman worlds. I delivered a workshop to some Winchester and Turkish students on techniques of being present in the performance of entrances and exits at Aspendos Theatre, which as you well know is one of the most distinguished representatives of ancient Roman Theatres. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aspendos  I considered the importance of learning to be seen in a circular and semi circular way as a performer, which facilitates a shared cathartic encounter made possible by the architectonics of the amphitheatre. I considered how the experiences at outdoor/street community events can give active observer/participants a chance to be seen by a whole inter-generational community. Of cause we are looking at two things here. On the one hand there are performers perceived to be on the periphery of society and performers perceived to be in the centre of the state designed architecture for the propagation of cultural values. Aspendos was and still is a place for professionals to perform; however, something of the street design still echoes in the structural ethos of its plan. Being in the space and working with the same techniques of ritual presence that I have developed for street art performance, it was exciting to see how these practices made the stones and space come alive. The point of these exercises is provide what Eugenio Barba calls 'scenic bios' or' pre-expressive scenic behaviour' as a basis for the ancient art of rhetoric; the performative art of persuasion.
The Practice of Meditation
‘Culture exists because there is a clear intention to determine the logic of ‘good’.’ This may have been a provocative ironic statement on your part, but I can think of many examples where culture existed to determine the logic of ‘bad’! The dilemma here is what is good for the hunter may not be good for the hunted; however as a Ghanaian proverb states, ‘Though the lion and the antelope happen to live in the same forest, the antelope still has time to grow up’. The question then becomes what the ‘good’ is and how do we wish to persuade? When we consider what was articulated at the beginning of this debate, as part of the theme of the ICLA 2011: "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY deceleration" we see,
‘Stress, breathlessness, exhaustion – these are the symptoms of our modern life-style pursued by most people around us. Our life is determined by the ticking of the clock or the enslavement imposed by electronic 'tags'... One thing is clear: those who do not surrender to the increasing speed of everyday life will very likely end up with the short end of the stick. It almost seems as if the unstoppable disengagement of life from natural and traditional rhythms simply can not be stopped.’
We may agree that these could be the readings from within our various cultural submarines and that one reflexive and reflective response to these reading could be where,
‘Sociologist Fritz Reheis offers the alternative concept of a 'creativity of slowness'. He advocates not to succumb to the duress of constant acceleration but to discover instead the antithesis of a decelerated and self-determined society that promotes the intrinsic time and rhythm of people, culture and nature as its standards of reference. However, this is anything but a return to an idyllic state. Therefore, science and art have to forge a privileged partnership in the process of deceleration’
The ‘good’ can be driven from the values of a supreme being who provides an ultimate cardinal direction, whose qualities act as a moral guide using a divine moral compass. However, in secular humanistic societies, philosophical principles to do with what is good, right and true are developed by democratic consensus with the rule of political law as the ultimate moral guide and compass. Of course this is more spectrum than a distinct dichotomy; however, both systems attempt to regulate and change behaviour via compulsion and persuasion. These can be seen as external cultural forces that endeavour to be deposited into an individual’s psyche. This being the case, the psyche still has to meditate on what the various principles are, what the rules, symbols and icons denote and more importantly connote if real behavioural change is to result; either by challenges or acceptance. Meditation in this context offers not only an internal space to reflect and consider, it also provides a space where we can listen and re-engage with the instinctual values of life, using ‘natural and traditional rhythms...: [Where] science and art have to forge a privileged partnership in the process of deceleration’.
With the kindest of regards
Olu Taiwo

________________________________
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of nilufer ovalioglu [niluferovalioglu at yahoo.com]
Sent: 22 October 2011 13:47
To: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Subject: [-empyre-] Yan: empyre Digest, Vol 83, Issue 19

Dear list,
I've been absent from the discussion for a while because I had to travel to Diyarbakır (Eastern Turkey) for an important meeting of Turkish universities urgently. Overwhelmed by all the baklava'a and kadayıf's (Turkish sweets, impossibly good stuff) I got sick but now I'm back. Have been reading and have been inspired more and more. Here's some more thoughts:

What is Olu’s ‘real cultural deceleration’? How does such thing happen? How does anything cultural decelerate? Culture exists because there is a clear intention to determine the logic of ‘good’.

I need to react!
Decelerate? Emotion? Motion? It’s like a joke. Last week, the head of board of trustees of my university had me called in to his office with other colleagues to discuss internalisation (as I am also the Erasmus Coordinator of the university). I sat, crossed my legs in a respectful manner and took the physicality of ‘I’m listening’. He told me to bring my leg down and to not cross my legs in from of him. Having lived in New York and then in London for almost a decade I stood there incapable to react.Immobile! Motionless and emotionless!
Why?
A psychologist friend of mine told me once that I was too advanced in being human to communicate with other humans. He said that for instance, I’m doing a PhD in being human whereas people around me are in high school. Then what was the point in learning anything at all. Why did I not stay ignorant in the first place? Isn’t meditation a way of going back to ignorance?
If I/we are alone in being/acting conscious then how does a community, a culture as a whole decelerate other then being ‘lulled into a stupor’. So many tricks are played on human beings: propaganda equals media: ‘a generation of people addicted to intensity and delusive involvement of technological environments’. Could this be a imposed/taught/learned dismissal of communication?

Could consciousness also be a learned state? Classical music is a very good example of this. Many would agree that the ear needs to be educated to listen, hear, understand and sense the beauty in classical music pieces where structure and musical formulas are important. No one who lives in an isolated village all his/her life comes to sense the complex structure and satisfaction that classical music gives asit would to  the educated ear of the ‘intellectual’.

Another irony: In London, I worked in the kitchen of a restaurant.
The restaurant: One Portuguese guy who speaks some English, listens to some sexy club music (and he chooses what the whole kitchen should listen to) and signs along shouting, never stops talking; an Italian guy also doesn’t stop talking for 8 hours of shift but says nothing really; a Chinese 50 year old woman who doesn’t speak English and doesn’t speak at all; the polish chef who is silent mostly but when he has enough, he shouts at everyone, no one listens; two Chinese girls who don’t stop talking to each other for 8 hours in chinese, one manager who shouts orders; waiters who come in and out, making simplistic jokes; and me, mostly silent but since I am the only western looking(!) girl, the male crowd tries to get my attention, I don’t respond and when I do, they don’t listen and talk over my words. Everyone makes dirty jokes including me, everyone is mocked...A big chaos and finally I get out having finished my shift.
My heartbeat and soul is overwhelmed. I am shaking from having my nerves stimulated by such negative environment, my brain is num and so I walk to the National Gallery. Sit in front of a Carravagio  painting and look. After watching the painting for 40 minutes my heartbeat is back to normal, I am capable of facing the world again so I do.
Does my brain naturally relax by the beauty I percive or did I learn to appreciate and therefore decelerate in the presence of art?
We the intellectuals, do we have better tools then ‘normal’ people in decelerating, feeling, sensing? If I/we are that different, who are I/we to talk about decelerating culturally or anything about society and culture?

Very Best,

Nilü

________________________________
Kimden: "empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au" <empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
Kime: empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
Gönderildiği Tarih: 21 Ekim 2011 2:00 Cuma
Konu: empyre Digest, Vol 83, Issue 19

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY (sonja lebos)
  2. METAFORMANCE - Redefining Relationality ___Genealogies    of
      perception: from proprioception to otherception (Jaime del Val)
  3. (no subject)
  4. Re: "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY deceleration" (Gordana Novakovic)

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Message: 1
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 02:00:33 -0700 (PDT)
From: sonja lebos <sonjalebos at yahoo.com<mailto:sonjalebos at yahoo.com>>
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY
Message-ID:
    <1319101233.78419.YahooMailClassic at web120524.mail.ne1.yahoo.com<mailto:1319101233.78419.YahooMailClassic at web120524.mail.ne1.yahoo.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8

Dear people,
I have enjoyed a lot the texts that you have shared so far this month. Johannes asked me to put forward some thoughts, connected to my work on space and memory. So here there come. The words that follow are assembled in a simple way, whereby I tried to briefly put the efforts that have lasted for more than a decade and still are pulling me into the future in a comprehensive format.
'I found myself moving through a city, while the  consciousness was forced only to develop concepts which could help me to avoid bumping into other people...or objects. Objects which are seemingly more powerful than those people'
Architects nowadays render virtual spaces, but we all know that the urbanism as a science of planning urban life has transgressed into something that ceased to be a playground where only architects, urbanists and politicians reign. Not because they abdicated on their free will, but because they were forced to admit that the idea of what urbanity could be had become too complex for that, once holy, trinity.
Throughout the XXth Ct urban life found its accessary in speed.  The more urban an environment is, the faster the pace of life should be performed in it. Why this paradigm of urbanity still reigns? Taxonomy of life in programmed habitation cells, architectures of power, endless slums surrounding cities or intersecting them ...why?
To talk about music is like to dance about architecture, Laurie said wittily not so long time ago. When architects in Bauhaus were not just dreaming, but also working on a concept of architecture in connection to concepts of music and movement, strongly connected to medium of light, photography and cinema, they couldn't even dream about people who were simultaneously preparing horror that produced one of the most profound civilizational intermission in the history of all civilizations. They didn't think about architecture and art on the same terms. They thought of it as ? wartime propaganda. A sort of industry of culture. That also became known as the murderous industry. I find us living in a similar precarious times, where the cultural industries beloved by politicians and policy makers somehow still seduce artistic communities.
It all brought me to work with concepts of memory. Official narratives are present in history text books, our children being fed with it. They are also monolithized in public space. However, that paradigm is slowly being changed, too. Art in public space more and more is becoming ephemeral and temporary, without imposing one and only overstructured narrative.
In between, the skin of our cities still remains inflexible, and the choreographies of public spaces are shockingly limited and overly neurotic.  Unable to deal with the ambiguities of these choreographies, the majorities world ?wide look for re-recreation in escapism and consumerism.
There were many intrinsic links between cinematic movement and emerging of modernist cities already at the end of the XIXth Ct. Unfortunately, architects and urbanists are rarely trained to identify these links and lighting in our cities is still boring and inadequate, while actually technology could allow imagination to go much further than over the borders of commercials hitting our retinas without mercy wherever we go.
The darkness, on the other hand, is scary as it has always been. I tried to combat this through projects where cities have been illuminated by imaginariums usually projected only in cinema-halls. Archive moving images have been transforming streets and squares into memorial mediascapes that have overgrown the simplified triviality of media-facades. The inflexible and harsh skin of cities has been softened by its own simulacra, where an interplay between shadow and light enabled new forms of urbanity to possibly emerge in large media-scapes.
Imagine Times Square, eg, bathed in light of a completely different kind.
Or, globally, think light, moving images and architecture emerging in forms not dominated by forces of wartime propaganda.
Imagine (e)motional deceleration as a notion of urbanity.

--- On Wed, 10/19/11, sergio basbaum <sbasbaum at gmail.com<mailto:sbasbaum at gmail.com>> wrote:

> From: sergio basbaum <sbasbaum at gmail.com<mailto:sbasbaum at gmail.com>>
> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY - rpm" --- killing me softly
> To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
> Date: Wednesday, October 19, 2011, 6:13 AM
> Gordana,
>
> Thank for for your lovely (although frightening) message.
> Those who
> were at the McLuhan congress in Barcelona can testify that
> Manoel
> Castells seemed like an Apple propaganda boy: maybe we
> should adapt
> the Beatles fantastic song (God, I love Lennon's voice in
> that
> song...) and sing "Happiness is an IPhone"... to be
> attached to an
> IPhone seems today the closest place to happiness in our
> compulsive
> technocomodities culture!
>
> I'll forward you message for my student?s list.
>
> good vibes from Brazil
> s
>
> On Wed, Oct 19, 2011 at 10:07 AM, Gordana Novakovic
> <gordana.novakovic at gmail.com<mailto:gordana.novakovic at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
> > Ah, Michele, thank you so much for your poetic and
> wise reflections.
> >
> > Thanks to you had a wonderful dancing hour... ?Lennon
> / McCartney's
> > Happiness.. ?then Killing me softly.. until I hit the
> ?(Pink Floyd)
> > Wall
> >
> > Apologies for not being clear. Had no intentions to
> criticise Rist's
> > work, it was intended to be more of a question rather
> than statement.
> > I ?found Johannes remarks as a good start to share
> with you all my own
> > doubts and questions around spectacle and how do we
> relate our own
> > practice to it. Is there escape from the Baudrillard's
> simulacrum? and
> > so on...
> >
> > .Maybe because it was empty like a body without organs
> did it open up
> > new vista/old suppressed vista... I didn't expect this
> and yet, it was
> > rather a beautiful afternoon, which left me feeling
> quite light, and
> > as though I had recaptured something from my (earlier)
> youth.
> >>
> >
> > Yes, this is what I remember when I saw her work few
> years ago. Have
> > to see Hayward one.
> >
> > But I'd like to respond to Sergio's brilliant
> observations and share
> > with you my concerns about the mind control, and also
> I think quite
> > related to the above.
> >
> >> Honestly, it seems theoretically possible to both
> leave yourself to
> > the current and try to enjoy it, as creatively as
> possible, or to try
> > to find what one could name "the eye of the
> hurricane", a moving
> > center of calmness from which one could think abouit
> what's going on.
> >
> > I think, however, that the first choice is too
> uncritical of the new
> > forms of power and the new forms of consciousness
> which are being
> > favored by technological omnipresence; and the second
> simply do not
> > exist, or is precisely the confortable product labs
> where powerfull
> > corporations are developing the next
> techno-commoditties to keep
> > culture hipnotized with so-called interactivity.
> > Thus, It may be necessary (maybe more maybe less than
> I expect,
> > anyway), to ask if the discourses for interactive arts
> and web 2.0 are
> > entangled with this logic of perpetual acting and
> producing, as
> > opposed to (usually presented as deepply negative)
> contemplation and
> > thinking.
> > I'm not a heavy Deleuze reader, but yesterday, loosely
> reading his
> > "Conversations"(pg 162, in the Brazilian edition), by
> chance I came
> > across the following passage:
> >
> > "?(...) Repressive forces do not prevent people from
> expressing
> > themselves; on the contrary, they force them to
> express themselves.
> > The smoothness of having nothing to say, the right to
> have nothing to
> > say; thus is the condition for something exquisite or
> rare to emerge,
> > which deserves to be said. One dies nowadays not from
> interferences,
> > but from propositions which are absolutely devoid of
> interest (...)".
> >
> > This is a surprising quote in the context of the
> present social
> > movements, the way new media is beeing related to
> them, and all the
> > hopes they are raising.
> >
> > Last night I had a heated discussion with a bright
> young star in
> > computer science who passionately tried to convince me
> that Google is
> > softly building a new wonderful world (ended up
> without bloodshed).
> > What caught my attention this morning was a text in
> Wired titled:
> > Darpa Wants to Master the Science of Propaganda (full
> text
> > http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/10/darpa-science-propaganda/)
> >
> > (for those not familiar - The Defense Advanced
> Research Projects
> > Agency (DARPA) is an agency of the United States
> Department of Defense
> > responsible for the development of new technology for
> use by the
> > military. DARPA has been responsible for funding the
> development of
> > many technologies which have had a major effect on the
> world,
> > including computer networking, as well as NLS, which
> was both the
> > first hypertext system, and an important precursor to
> the contemporary
> > ubiquitous graphical user interface.)
> >
> > " Darpa is asking scientists to ?take narratives and
> make them
> > quantitatively analyzable in a rigorous, transparent
> and repeatable
> > fashion.? (....) In the first 18-month phase of the
> program, the
> > Pentagon wants researchers to study how stories
> infiltrate social
> > networks and alter our brain circuits. One of the
> stipulated research
> > goals: to ?explore the function narratives serve in
> the process of
> > political radicalization and how they can influence a
> person or
> > group?s choice of means (such as indiscriminant
> violence) to achieve
> > political ends.?
> >
> > Once scientists have perfected the science of how
> stories affect our
> > neurochemistry, they will develop tools to ?detect
> narrative
> > influence.? These tools will enable ?prevention of
> negative behavioral
> > outcomes ? and generation of positive behavioral
> outcomes, such as
> > building trust.? In other words, the tools will be
> used to detect
> > who?s been controlled by subversive ideologies,
> better allowing the
> > military to drown out that message and win people onto
> their side.
> >
> > ?The government is already trying to control the
> message, so why not
> > have the science to do it in a systematic way?? said
> the researcher
> > familiar with the project.
> >
> > When the project enters into a second 18-month phase,
> it?ll use the
> > research gathered to build ?optimized prototype
> technologies in the
> > form of documents, software, hardware and devices.?
> What will these
> > be? Existing technology can carry out micro-facial
> feature analysis,
> > and measure the dilation of blood vessels and eye
> pupils. MRI machines
> > can determine which parts of your brain is lighting up
> when it
> > responds to stories. Darpa wants to do even better.
> >
> > In fact, it?s calling for devices that detect the
> influence of stories
> > in unseen ways. ?Efforts that rely solely on
> > standoff/non-invasive/non-detectable sensors are
> highly encouraged,?
> > the solicitation reads.
> >
> > Forget lie detectors; invisible propaganda-detectors
> are the future."
> >
> > So - we who are 'in bed' with neuroscience, cognitive
> sciences and
> > technology - how do we relate ourselves to the true
> nature of the
> > fascinating scientific findings and super-futuristic
> technology that
> > we are, or wish to incorporate in our own research? I
> feel that we
> > might be faced with the same set of ethical questions
> that confronts
> > roboticists whose work has been heavily funded and
> exploited for
> > military purposes? (attended last night panel
> addressing ethics in
> > robotics at Imperial College. And robotic experts
> expressed their deep
> > concerns)
> >
> > Perhaps, we could help people re-occupy their
> body/mind (while still
> > not illegal)?
> >
> > In spite of all - hope you are having a soft, lovely
> day
> >
> > Gordana
> > _______________________________________________
> > empyre forum
> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -- Prof. Dr. S?rgio Roclaw Basbaum
> -- Vice-coord. Tecnologia e M?dias Digitais
> -- P?s-Gradua??o Tec.da Intelig?ncia e Design Digital -
> TIDD (PUC-SP)
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>

------------------------------

Message: 2
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 16:45:36 +0200
From: "Jaime del Val" <jaimedelval at reverso.org<mailto:jaimedelval at reverso.org>>
To: "soft_skinned_space" <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
Subject: [-empyre-] METAFORMANCE - Redefining Relationality
    ___Genealogies    of perception: from proprioception to otherception
Message-ID: <69D65248CE6049B68FAB81B3978D57D3 at nombre253a8b4b>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Dear all,

herewith I start my contribution to this discussion, with a number of posts in which I introduce some of the issues I am working on at the moment, both theoretical and practical.

thanks to all for the wonderfull contributions.

yours

Jaime del Val

www.reverso.org

www.microsex.org

METAFORMANCE - Redefining Relationality

Genealogies of perception: from proprioception to otherception

Perceptual technologies and the production of the cartesian subject-object divide

How is it that the cartesian, humanistic and logocentric subject-object divide has come to be in terms of the articulation of sensory anatomies?

I will focus on some of the technologies that are bound to this genealogy. In particular technologies of vision and the camera-screen paradigm.

Since the XV century specific uses of the camera obscura gave birth to a realistic paradigm of representation in paiting. This has developed further through the photographic camera, film and with the ubiquitous proliferation of camera-screens in information society.

Fixed framing, distance and exteriority to the observed, centralised perspective, clear focus and "correct" exposure time have become normative and standardised parameters, indeed conditions of possibility for the very notion of objectivity in representation.

Fixed framing relates to the faciality of the humanist subject, where the camera acts as an extension of the eyes, fixed in the face that represents the subject as an abstract, disembodied and rational mind. Distance allows to situate oneself as exterior to the observed thus making the divide subject-object possible. Centralised perspective accounts for humanism's anthropocentrism and universalism and for space as extensive reality. Clear focus allows the mapping and representation of the object exterior to the subject, its subjection to control. "Correct" exposure accounts for the fiction of real and linear time, of the present as an instant between past and future.

I will argue indeed that the production of the subject and the object as pervasive political fictions relies upon the sensory standardisation induced by the proliferation of these parameters of the technical image, without which the subject-object divide, and its related dualisms (mind-matter, soul-body, culture-nature, mental-physical, virtual-real, artificial-real, masculin-feminin, heterosexual-homosexual) would not be possible.

This political fiction, this paradigm permeates all of scientific enquiry and lies in the foundations of information-communication-control society at large.

The obsolete notion that we have 5 senses which work independently pervades not only the arbitrary divisions of the art disciplines, but society at large.

Visualisation and control

Visualisation is a long-standing control technology that has evolved in the midst of, and foundational to, imperialisms of diverse kinds. The attempt to subject all of reality to control, (which is more present than ever in media and simulation culture), is the intentionality which lies behind the production of technologies of visualisation.

In surveillance societies such as ours, cameras still need to have the fixed framing, distance, perspective, focus and exposure that allows for an object to be identified as such and be subjected to control.

The production of the subject as something distinct from its environment relates directly to this long tradition of control, which is however challenged increasingly from the most diverse perspectives going from quantum mechanics, symbiogenesys or enactive congnition theories to posthumanist critique: all of these question the possibility to place oneself as an exterior observer and stress the way in which we are part of immanent relations which are indeed productive: from the atomic and molecular through the bacterial and cellular, to the social and planetary, we are effects of relationalities happening at multitude of interrelated levels. Quite contrary to what the humanistic dream attempted to make us believe, with its tales of autonomy, superiority and free will.

What control is it possible to excercise upon something that we are part of and which is contitutive of what we are? Arguably, in order to excercise control it is necessary to place oneself, however fictional and problematic this may be, outside of the controlled. Since this can never be really the case control is continually failing, and life is exceeding its boundaries in always unexpected movements. There is our only hope.

------------------------------

Message: 3
Message-ID: <mailman.6.1319158802.11087.empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:mailman.6.1319158802.11087.empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>

=20

Paradoxically the same framework that constitutes the viable limits of =
objectivity are those that constitute the possibilities for the =
fictional. No wonder that reality and fiction are incresingly confounded =
in spectacular society, where technical images become hiperreal, as =
Baudrillard suggests, i.e. more real, indeed politically, than whatever =
is outside them, while reality seems to hover on the edge of the =
invisible.

=20

Behind the apparent liquidity of media culture and web 2.0, ubiquitous =
interfaces and camera-screens are reproducing frontiers and barriers, =
those of the cartesian subject-object divide, where every subject =
connected to a terminal assumes the tragic (and delusive) erasure of the =
bodie's specificity for the sake of the abstract mind, which thinks of =
itself as capable of transmiting universal signifiers and meanings.

=20

The notion of information itself, as Katherine Hayles points out, =
relates to this pervasive attempt to erase corporeality. Yet, if =
according to enactive congition, other cognitive theories and =
phenomenology, consciousness is the effect of bodies moving in relation =
to other bodies, i.e. the effect of relational movements, whatever we =
call the mind cannot be other than bodily.

=20

The architecture of theatres, concert halls, auditoriums and cinemas, =
with their centralised perspective and their framing of the stage is =
equivalent to the camera-screen, where the spectator is placed, sitting =
at a certain distance from a fixed framing, a distance that safely =
allows to identify, in this case, the limits of the fictional, and to =
place oneself problematically outside it.=20

.....

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</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=3D#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT size=3D2 face=3DArial>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3>Dear all,</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3><STRONG>&nbsp;</STRONG>herewith I start my =
contribution=20
to this discussion, with a number of posts in which I introduce some of =
the=20
issues I am working on at the moment, both theoretical and=20
practical.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3></FONT></SPAN>&nbsp;</P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3>thanks to all for the wonderfull=20
contributions.</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3>yours</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3>Jaime del Val</FONT></SPAN></P>
<P style=3D"MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt" class=3DMsoNormal><B><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT size=3D3><A=20
href=3D"http://www.reverso.org">www.reverso.org</A></FONT></SPAN></B></P>=

<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><A=20
href=3D"http://www.microsex.org">www.microsex.org</A></=
P>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>&nbsp;
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>&nbsp;
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>METAFORMANCE - Redefining=20
Relationality
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Genealogies of perception: from =
proprioception to=20
otherception
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>&nbsp;
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Perceptual technologies and the production =
of the=20
cartesian subject-object divide<?xml:namespace prefix =3D o ns =3D=20
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" =
/><o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>How is it that the cartesian, humanistic and =
logocentric=20
subject-object divide has come to be in terms of the articulation of =
sensory=20
anatomies?<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>I will focus on some of the technologies =
that are bound=20
to this genealogy. In particular technologies of vision and the =
camera-screen=20
paradigm.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Since the XV century specific uses of the =
camera obscura=20
gave birth to a realistic paradigm of representation in paiting. This =
has=20
developed further through the photographic camera, film and with the =
ubiquitous=20
proliferation of camera-screens in information=20
society.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Fixed framing, distance and exteriority to =
the observed,=20
centralised perspective, clear focus and "correct" exposure time have =
become=20
normative and standardised parameters, indeed conditions of possibility =
for the=20
very notion of objectivity in =
representation.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Fixed framing relates to the faciality of =
the humanist=20
subject, where the camera acts as an extension of the eyes, fixed in the =
face=20
that represents the subject as an abstract, disembodied and rational =
mind.=20
Distance allows to situate oneself as exterior to the observed thus =
making the=20
divide subject-object possible. Centralised perspective accounts for =
humanism's=20
anthropocentrism and universalism and for space as extensive reality. =
Clear=20
focus allows the mapping and representation of the object exterior to =
the=20
subject, its subjection to control. "Correct" exposure accounts for the =
fiction=20
of real and linear time, of the present as an instant between past and=20
future.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>I will argue indeed that the production of =
the subject=20
and the object as pervasive political fictions relies upon the sensory=20
standardisation induced by the proliferation of these parameters of the=20
technical image, without which the subject-object divide, and its =
related=20
dualisms (mind-matter, soul-body, culture-nature, mental-physical, =
virtual-real,=20
artificial-real, masculin-feminin, heterosexual-homosexual) would not be =

possible. <o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>This political fiction, this paradigm =
permeates all of=20
scientific enquiry and lies in the foundations of=20
information-communication-control society at =
large.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p><SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333399; =
mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; COLOR: #333399; =
mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>The obsolete notion =
that we have 5=20
senses which work independently pervades not only the arbitrary =
divisions of the=20
art disciplines, but society at =
large.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Visualisation and=20
control<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Visualisation is a long-standing control =
technology that=20
has evolved in the midst of, and foundational to, imperialisms of =
diverse kinds.=20
The attempt to subject all of reality to control, (which is more present =
than=20
ever in media and simulation culture), is the intentionality which lies =
behind=20
the production of technologies of visualisation. =
<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>In surveillance societies such as ours, =
cameras still=20
need to have the fixed framing, distance, perspective, focus and =
exposure that=20
allows for an object to be identified as such and be subjected to=20
control.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>The production of the subject as something =
distinct from=20
its environment relates directly to this long tradition of control, =
which is=20
however challenged increasingly from the most diverse perspectives going =
from=20
quantum mechanics, symbiogenesys or enactive congnition theories to =
posthumanist=20
critique: all of these question the possibility to place oneself as an =
exterior=20
observer and stress the way in which we are part of immanent relations =
which are=20
indeed productive: from the atomic and molecular through the bacterial =
and=20
cellular, to the social and planetary, we are effects of relationalities =

happening at multitude of interrelated levels. Quite contrary to what =
the=20
humanistic dream attempted to make us believe, with its tales of =
autonomy,=20
superiority and free will.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>What control is it possible to excercise =
upon something=20
that we are part of and which is contitutive of what we are? Arguably, =
in order=20
to excercise control it is necessary to place oneself, however fictional =
and=20
problematic this may be, outside of the controlled. Since this can never =
be=20
really the case control is continually failing, and life is exceeding =
its=20
boundaries in always unexpected movements. There is our only=20
hope.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>From the camera-screen to the stages of =
spectacular=20
society<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Paradoxically the same framework that =
constitutes the=20
viable limits of objectivity are those that constitute the possibilities =
for the=20
fictional. No wonder that reality and fiction are incresingly confounded =
in=20
spectacular society, where technical images become hiperreal, as =
Baudrillard=20
suggests, i.e. more real, indeed politically, than whatever is outside =
them,=20
while reality seems to hover on the edge of the=20
invisible.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>Behind the apparent liquidity of media =
culture and web=20
2.0, ubiquitous interfaces and camera-screens are reproducing frontiers =
and=20
barriers, those of the cartesian subject-object divide, where every =
subject=20
connected to a terminal assumes the tragic (and delusive) erasure of the =
bodie's=20
specificity for the sake of the abstract mind, which thinks of itself as =
capable=20
of transmiting universal signifiers and =
meanings.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>The notion of information itself, as =
Katherine Hayles=20
points out, relates to this pervasive attempt to erase corporeality. =
Yet, if=20
according to enactive congition, other cognitive theories and =
phenomenology,=20
consciousness is the effect of bodies moving in relation to other =
bodies, i.e.=20
the effect of relational movements, whatever we call the mind cannot be =
other=20
than bodily.<o:p></o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p>
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>The architecture of theatres, concert halls, =
auditoriums=20
and cinemas, with their centralised perspective and their framing of the =
stage=20
is equivalent to the camera-screen, where the spectator is placed, =
sitting at a=20
certain distance from a fixed framing, a distance that safely allows to=20
identify, in this case, the limits of the fictional, and to place =
oneself=20
problematically outside it. 
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>&nbsp;
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>.....
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB>&nbsp;
<SPAN=20
style=3D"FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB"=20
lang=3DEN-GB><FONT=20
size=3D3><o:p></o:p>&nbsp;</DIV></BODY></HTML>

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------------------------------

Message: 4
Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 20:22:55 +0100
From: Gordana Novakovic <gordana.novakovic at gmail.com<mailto:gordana.novakovic at gmail.com>>
To: soft_skinned_space <empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au<mailto:empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au>>
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] "(E)MOTION FREQUENCY deceleration"
Message-ID:
    <CANTmkAOY=G2xLu=WRSuTjjYE6ac5e-YASr6TCSaE_7EoVZz9iw at mail.gmail.com<mailto:WRSuTjjYE6ac5e-YASr6TCSaE_7EoVZz9iw at mail.gmail.com>>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

>
> and following Gordana's horrific post, ?to what extent is control and compliance management a goal of the interactional technologies used by corporate or incorporated practice?

I'd like to respond to the Johannes' very important question.
Economists say that corporations have only one goal: eternal growth of
profit at any cost. Humanitarian, ecological....any. If there is a
customer - they will deliver a product they want. In this case - the
product would be manipulating minds, engineering collective
consciousness. I guess the more reliable the better from the point of
view of the 'client', and I am sure there will be a lot of customers
queueing for it.

Maybe it is the sophistication of contemporary technologies and
sciences that enable horrors beyond anything from the past? Or maybe
just of a different nature?

But why not look at the horrific things with eyes wide open? Think of,
for example  Goya, Hieronymus Bosch, Bunnuel, Artaud...just first came
to my mind from the very long list.

Best, Gordana

------------------------------

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