[-empyre-] Recent work on 'semiotic splatter' / introduction

Thu Nov 10 07:00:00 AEDT 2016

Foreign entanglements are not part of his central vision, except: of course
we should have a strong military (I assume to look strong).

Murat

On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 1:58 PM, Ana Valdés <agora158 at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Beautiful and scary Murat! And horrible true...Trump had the charisma of à
> boa constrictor mesmerizing its prey. Hillary is clever but no charisma at
> all.
>
> Skickat från min iPad
>
> 9 nov. 2016 kl. 13:58 skrev Murat Nemet-Nejat <muratnn at gmail.com>:
>
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>
> Alan,
>
> Here is the opening section of my essay "Eleven Septembers Later: Readings
> of Benjamin Hollander's *Vigilance*" which was included in Benjamin's
> poem book *Vigilance* in 2005. It related directly to what you are saying
> and also connects with the discussions we started here last week:
>
> "
>
> I. Love and State
>
>
>
>     The genius of fascism is that it is based on love. Here the leviathan
> of state turns into a performer of gentle punishment, loving duress. In
> most fascisms, the public at large –for a short and brute period at least-
> is in love with its leader. Freedom is falling politically out of love. In
> capitalist fascism the eye –*petit-pointed* with pain, and yearning- is
> the sine qua non tool of love. By his images, the leader ogles the public
> into his erotic, protective, parental embrace; the public responds also
> with his eyes to this embrace. T.V. is a pornographic contraption of
> communal fuck, a bait and switch, double-mirrored peep show, while looking
> being looked at,  seeing while being seen into. A colossal move on our
> clits. Freedom starts with an aversion of the eyes -a *moral modesty*!- a
> decision not to see, the eye blurring in mist, choosing a mournful
> blindness, which puts a stop to the erotic synergy. Freedom is a vigil
> towards stasis –an action against flow – a “seeing” into oneself,
> transforming the eye into an ascetic guerilla weapon.
>
>
>
>     Freedom is photographic contemplation,1 contra incest.
>
>
>
>
>
> send home my long strayed eyes to me.
>
> which (oh) too long have dwelt on thee (John Donne, *The Message*)
>
>
>
>
>
> But now I have drunk thy sweet salt tears,
>
>    And though thou pour more I’ll depart;
>
> My picture vanished, vanish fears,
>
> That I can be undamaged by that art  (JD, *Witchcraft by a Picture*)
>
>
>
>
>
>     Photographic seeing wrests a trace of time into a process of
> perception, on time. The computer is the supreme sublime dialectical
> medium. Born out of military seamen, it is the womb of chaos. It is the
> *asymmetric* weapon of subversion and the tool of extreme vigilance of
> the state. Pornography is of its essence, sites of secret communication,
> loci of yearning, condensations most monitored by the state, the place
> where the eye is the common denominator of eros and control. Computer is
> where both the extremely private and extremely public fuse, and are in
> mortal conflict with each other.
>
>
>
>     Born out of a belief in the freedom of light,  photography is the
> anti-digital medium, the awakener from the capital’s illusion that anything
> can be converted into anything, that gravity, the process by which objects
> hit the ground, does not exist.
>
>
>
>     Thinning time and space out of air, computer points to both the
> illusion, and truth, of the Oneness of God. "
>
>
> Ciao,
>
> Murat
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 11:21 AM, Murat Nemet-Nejat <muratnn at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> Alan, It is closer to me to a phenomelogy of abjection, of humiliation
>> and being overlooked. (Not that what you are referring to is not true or
>> relevant.) This election tilted in the rust belt states where for at least
>> twenty years the blue collar population was in a rut, economically stuck
>> with little expectation of improvement. Nobody did anything for them (with
>> the possible exception of the saving of the auto industry). He spoke to
>> them, and they elected him. The unfortunate thing is that nothing in the
>> *concrete* policies he is offering, as far as I can see, has anything
>> that will improve the blue collar lot. In fact, it will do the opposite.
>> The gigantic tax cuts (the  easiest and fastest laws the congress will put
>> through) will aggravate the vast divide. They seem to have been taken by a
>> snake oil salesman. I hope I am wrong. Of I am, it will make the result
>> maybe a bit more bearable.
>>
>> As for the rest of the awful consequences of this result, you are right
>> --desire (or hatred) will probably be the emotions stoked to get the engine
>> running. Personally, I have been very reluctant to use the word "fascist"
>> when I didn't like someone or some decision. But what happened here is so
>> similar to what happened in the thirties in Europe, particularly in the
>> case of Mussolini. A leader who jutted his chin out and projected sexual
>> prowess, who inflamed the grievances (some of it justified) of the
>> populaca, while at the same time making alliances with the privileged, the
>> captains of industry, the Pope. A divided polity and spineless politician
>> who supported him believing they could control the guy. Then a militia
>> group that will "protect" the movement. Does it all sound similar?
>>
>> A year ago, I would have said all this is not possible in this country.
>> There are laws, the constitution, etc. etc. But the open, unabashed
>> contempt for the law that Trump showed without any punishment and
>> rejection. Politicians for their venal purposes (a tax break here, a safe
>> congressional seat there, etc.) supported him.
>>
>> Ciao,
>> Murat
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 9, 2016 at 3:14 AM, Alan Sondheim <sondheim at panix.com> wrote:
>>
>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>
>>>
>>> Not that it matters, but I've talked about a Trump win for the past
>>> fourteen months; I thought it inevitable - not because of policy, but
>>> because of a violent phenomenology of desire he played through. This is
>>> covered somewhat in the splatter text below. I'm too distraught to have an
>>> empyre discussion on aesthetic issues, at least at this point; I'd like to
>>> discuss what a phenomenology of desire might be - not only in terms of
>>> economic/sexist/racist fury, but also in relation to bodies and virtual
>>> attacks upon them. The public misogyny was nothing I've seen before; I want
>>> to understand this. We must learn how to resist, now, or at least open a
>>> discussion about this.
>>>
>>> Apologies if I'm wrong on this; it's difficult to think of anything else.
>>>
>>> - Alan
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, 8 Nov 2016, Alan Sondheim wrote:
>>>
>>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> My name is Alan Sondheim and I approve this message. I'm an
>>>> artist, writer, and musician, working in entangled media.
>>>>
>>>> Recently, I've been think of "semiotic splatter" - fragmented
>>>> and chaotic semiosis (the process of signification in language
>>>> or literature, the production of meaning), and splatter both as
>>>> control and dissolution. I use this term to indicate that
>>>> semiosis is never totalized, that it falls apart, fails,
>>>> coagulates and clumps; it's related to an incessant presencing
>>>> of material which appears more and more stale and derogated.
>>>> Semiotic splatter is related as well to strange attractors in
>>>> chaos theory and leads to the problematic of semiosis and
>>>> "coagulative hardening" - for example the rise of
>>>> totalitarianism out of (political, economic) chaos.
>>>>
>>>> The semiotic splatter work is at
>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/splatter.txt - a good introduction
>>>> to my work in general.
>>>>
>>>> A word about my practice - to write and produce as continuous
>>>> praxis; ; I've been doing daily pieces (text/music/image/video)
>>>> since 1994, as an ongoing meditation - first, on 'cyberspace,'
>>>> but now extended elsewhere. The pieces are organized through a
>>>> series of texts; the most recent are at
>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/uf.txt and
>>>> http://www.alansondheim.org/ug.txt .
>>>>
>>>> Thanks to Murat, Renate, and Timothy, for the invitation to
>>>> participate for the week!
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> empyre forum
>>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>> ==
>>> email archive http://sondheim.rupamsunyata.org/
>>> web http://www.alansondheim.org / cell 718-813-3285
>>> music: http://www.espdisk.com/alansondheim/
>>> current text http://www.alansondheim.org/ug.txt
>>> ==
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> empyre forum
>>> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
>>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>>>
>>
>>
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