[-empyre-] From a distance

[PierMartonGmail]

Yes, Yoko, I  agree with you. We have a very basic understanding of otherness that allows us to create boundaries outside our skin.
The very idea of a self in my view may be defective and creating wars. If we are “everything/everybody” then we may care about that immensity, that complexity.
I will try to address some of that in an upcoming post on catharsis.

Indeed too Yoko, I agree that there is power within the body too. I am trying to address the powerlessness of our commentaries, even our “anti-war” work. Even if it is not just spectatorship, we consume the news and are primarily recipients of it. 
Recognizing our powerlessness, while a threatening concept, may need to be acknowledged.
Something useful may happen. 
Action, agit-prop, outrage have their place, and I will try to speak of them in my upcoming post on catharsis.
Thank you,
Pier


> On Nov 13, 2014, at 5:00 AM, Yoko Ishiguro <yoko_jimmysparty at yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
> 
> Additionally, I believe that even if you try to 'annihilate' THE OTHERS, it should not be possible in a genuine sense since THE OTHERS you want to annihilate have tons of ANOTHER OTHERS that THE OTHERS have left the traces, memories, effects, DNAs and viruses on.
> 
> What are THE OTHERS to WHOM then? Is not it mere a systematic strategy of a bunch of people who make up an aesthetic in order to encourage the people 'inside'? Why do humans have to have the notion of THE OTHERS -is it actually our innate behaviour to try to eliminate THE OTHERS? Should our societies and our recognitions be necessarily consisted of the dualities/polarities of Figures and Ground (Gestalt) = Inside and Outside = Us and The Others...? If babies should develop/learn by acknowledging how to define themselves and THE OTHERS a prior as their nature, what kind of methodology is affective to create a different point of view to the adults? This must be the point that many art practitioners can speak something loudly.



> On Nov 13, 2014, at 5:00 AM, Yoko Ishiguro <yoko_jimmysparty at yahoo.co.jp> wrote:
> 
>> Johannes and Pier,
> 
> Powerless? Is it the write word really...?
> 
> Doesn't power exist anywhere (in our body, cells, societies, arts and galaxies)?
> 'War against war' does not make any good since the war against war is still a war. So what is the 'ethically CORRECT' attitude for art practitioners? Maybe there is no such a thing. As well as the examples you mentioned so far on this mailing list, the Salt March of Gandhi, for example, could be a good example of a slow/soft/'powerless' performance against an authority/power but what else approaches can we think of -that was the starting point of my moving/performance/installation 'Fuji-copo 102, Higashi-ogu, Arakawa-ku, Tokyo' in 2011?
> 
> 
> We might want to talk about POWER itself a bit, from the different points of views other than theologies and politics, not necessarily artistically but, for example, socially, physically, kinetically, psychologically, linguistically, or as Alan suggested, logically and mathematically.
> 
> How would our bodies be if we became 'powerless' while we are 'against' any kinds of forces such as gravity? How can we think about the power balances of our right hand and left hand? How can we live without any power supplies for our rest of our lives?



My e-mail signature this month of November (during my direct involvement with -empyre) will have a growing list of works that I found to be powerful - but I do question what “power” means.
"Chechen Lullaby" - Directed by Nino Kirtadze —> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEmqHZAn8lQ (also on my website)
“Is Anyone Taking Any Notice?” by Don McCullin —> http://piermarton.info/don-mccullin/
"War Against War/Krieg dem Kriege/Guerre à la Guerre! War against War! Oorlog aan den Oorlog" by Ernst Friedrich (recent intro by Doug Kellner) - Various editions. Last one published in Sept. 2014 (available online).
"At the Mind’s Limit" by Jean Améry
“Shoah” -  Directed by Claude Lanzmann
And this quote: “. . . only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation be safely built.” - Bertrand Russell, 1923
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PM_uoʇɹɐɯ_ɹǝıd —> http://piermarton.info
School Of No  Media —> http://schoolofnomedia.com/
About —> http://about.me/piermarton 
BrainBleed—> http://brainbleed.wordpress.com/
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One of the signs of passing youth is the birth of a sense of fellowship with other human beings as we take our place among them. Virginia Woolf
The essence of normalcy is the refusal of reality. Ernst Becker
When something seems "the most obvious thing in the world," it means that any attempt to understand the world has been given up. Bertolt Brecht
An idea becomes false the moment one becomes satisfied by it. Alain
There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking itself is dangerous. Hannah Arendt
When around you, you hear the word "Jew" pronounced, be on guard, they are speaking about you. Frantz Fanon
If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom and yet renounce controversy are people who want crops without ploughing the ground. Frederick Douglass
Silence is the authentic mode of speaking. Claude Lanzmann