Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: 3d, after henry, attention theory of value, cinema, dominic angerame, editing, experimental, film, harold edgerton, joan didion, jonathan beller, strobographic cinema, stroboscopic photography, stroboscopy, synaesthesia, the new inquiry, writing, xerox, zines
From The New Inquiry, Joan Didion from “After Henry”:
“What editors do for writers is mysterious, and does not, contrary to general belief, have much to do with titles and sentences and ‘changes.’ The relationship between an editor and a writer is much subtler and deeper than that, at once so elusive and so radical that it seems almost parental: the editor … was the person who gave the writer the idea of himself, the idea of herself, the image of self that enabled the writer to sit down alone and do it.”
I like this a lot. Stroboscopic photography, too, is fascinating. From what I understand, the camera’;s shutter is left open, and a strobe light is set to the desired frequency. A picture is essentially taken, and imprinted onto the same frame every time the strobe light flashes. It seems well suited to capturing movement; human bodies dancing seem especially beautiful.
Following Didion, I suppose the strobe light is the editor, to the dancer-as writer. Illuminating, clarifying, revealing: not just in the immediate moment but the same kind of stroboscopic image of what a piece, and the writer’s movements through it, could be? There’s a strange and lovely jouissance here too. Or perhaps it is that everything shot; penetrated, if you will, with a mechanic lens or kino-eye has the same sense of heightened transgression that’s only made undeniably apparent in this kind of image?
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: battle of algiers, bones, crass, dubai, francois robert, ghost of petrodollar bubble past, headspace, mount kimbie, music, photography, posters, punk, skeletons, zines
The weather’s really been turning lately, and with it comes new music. Or, new-old music—I’m currently reacquiring most of that late 80s extended dischord family turn to post hardcore. (And at that, can’t find Embrace anywhere). It’s not quite right though, and older hardcore and crust still seems a little too abrasive for the moment. Suggestions please? Otherwise it’s been a lot of dubstep, or post-dubstep, or whatever people are calling it lately. This weekend I saw Mount Kimbie at Public Assembly quite by accident – the first gig I’ve ben to in I don’t know how long. I don’t think I even know how to just listen to music anymore, nevermind obsessively live and consume. (more…)
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: andrew dosunmu, attribution, intellectual property, microblogging, photography, records, reproduction, tumbling, tumblr, zines
I’m exiting one of those black-navy-and-grey aesthetic phases. These gorgeous portraits, from Nigerian-British photographer and filmmaker Andrew Dosunmu make it easier. And—that’s it. There’s something touchingly honest and humble about these photos. Perhaps it’s the way the subjects are generally centred and facing the camera, or that they seem to connect through. I can’t put my finger on it, and I don’t have the visual-technical vocabulary to say much else, but there’s something here that eludes both photographic sterility and that awkward kitschy fetishising tendancy. Via my other hypertalented filmmaker roomate, Fran (or rather, her tumblr).
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Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: adbusters, advertising, art, censorship, consumerism, future gutter status, hijab, hijabism, hijabizing, korinna irwin, no logo, orientalism, post-consumerism?, princess hijab, rock star with words, street art, veil, visual terrorism, zines
Who is Princess Hijab? She’s my age, yet anonymous; an “unseen character” And
since 2006, the Princess, who has begun a movement (Hijabism) based on the subverting of advertisements (Hijabizing) veils faces on billboards using a black marker pen.The black hijab encompasses every existing form of distinction. PH also operates on the Internet by creating animated gifs. She initiated the hijab_ad collective.
There’s some debate over whether she is a hijabi or even a Muslim. Or even a woman (take that as loosely as you will). I kind of like that it’s ambiguous
and that you don’t necessarily need to subscribe to certain identities to dislike the oversexualisation of women’s bodies, and especially the creepily prepubescent
(hello, Tom Ford! though I do think those ads are kind of unintentionally brilliant in their hyper-plasticity, kind of like lucy and bart). Princess Hijab, anyway, sees her work as a kind of culturally specific Adbusters-ish response – except for the part where you consume to cut down comsumption. She tells Menasset that
“I created PH to be connected. I wanted to mix elements from different extractions and cultures, starting from my initial subject: the veiled woman. I believe it’s the reason why PH had such an impact. She never let herself be defined by religion nor gender. It was really crucial for me,: she said”.
more: her manifesto and the anti-Day-GLo Fatwa
