"Fire is motion / Work is repetition / This is my document / We are all all we've done / We are all all we've done / We are all all we've done / We are all all defenses."

- Cap'N Jazz, "Oh Messy Life," Analphabetapolothology

Friday, July 28, 2006

spectacled society



In societies dominated by modern conditions of production, life is presented as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has receded into a representation.

The images detached from every aspect of life merge into a common stream in which the unity of that life can no longer be recovered. Fragmented views of reality regroup themselves into a new unity as a separate pseudoworld that can only be looked at. The specialization of images of the world evolves into a world of autonomized images where even the deceivers are deceived. The spectacle is a concrete inversion of life, an autonomous movement of the nonliving.

The spectacle presents itself simultaneously as society itself, as a part of society, and as a means of unification. As a part of society, it is the focal point of all vision and all consciousness. But due to the very fact that this sector is separate, it is in reality the domain of delusion and false consciousness: the unification it achieves is nothing but an official language of universal separation.

The spectacle is not a collection of images; it is a social relation between people that is mediated by images.


--Guy Debord (1973), "The Society of the Spectacle"

statement of intent

the free radical manifesto, if you will:

this blog is...
--a mirror, in so much as it reflects my thoughts and reactions to my messy life, and perhaps reflects on those of the reader or stranger and projects an ideological longing
["The mirror is, after all, a utopia, since it is a placeless place. In the mirror, I see myself there where I am not, in an unreal, virtual space that opens up behind the surface; I am over there, there where I am not, a sort of shadow that gives my own visibility to myself, that enables me to see myself there where I am absent: such is the utopia of the mirror." -Michel Foucault, "Of Other Spaces" (1967)]

--action potential: In chemistry, radicals (often referred to as free radicals) are atomic or molecular species with unpaired electrons on an otherwise open shell configuration. These unpaired electrons are usually highly reactive, so radicals are likely to take part in chemical reactions... [wikipedia]

and so, will strive to be...
1. uninhibited, uncensored, irreverent, maybe even intrepid
2. truth-seeking thru art and dialogue
3. no pretensions (i know i can only speak for myself and my experience, i don't want it --or pretend to have or want it-- any other way)
4. creation and destruction and recreation and innovation
5. mediated creativity as a way to subvert and balance the ordering and limiting of artistic and academic filters
6. exploration of time and space and memory and physical presence, materiality and immateriality, eternal and ephemeral, the infinite and the indefinite
7. attempt to connect strangers across a physical and emotional distance thru shared experiences and longings
8. a visionary ordinary
9. (added 11.27.06) subversive practice, the fulfillment of theory and dream sequences.
10. going against the grain, the rubbing, the friction, the contact i need to start the fires i need to survive.

"fire is motion. work is repetition. this is my document. we are all all we've done. we are all all we've done. we are all all defenses."
--cap'n jazz, "oh messy life," analphabetapolology

-
stephan!e
7.28.06

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

ad free blog

attn: this blog is ad free!

no corporate sponsorship!
freedom of content and expression!

woo hoo!