"But for what purpose was the world created then?" said Candide
"To drive us mad," replied Martin
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Friday, January 21, 2011
The Role of the Hangover in Cultural Production
Listening to Mezzanine by Massive Attack. Thinking about whether not it is proto Dubstep
(probably not- too mainstream). Though i really like how it taps into the UK Bristol/ Brixton vein. When will my current perverse fascination with dubstep end? A genre that,
up until a few months ago, i completely despised as white intellectual take on electronic music without the balls, and replete with where's-the-weed-anxiety. Dubstep is typically UK, very dark. Now i feel that I am straying away from the subject, especially after having a gchat YT overload with Ed. I'm really fascinated with the progression of Garage-UK Garage-Dubstep-Grime-UK Funky.
But back to Massive Attack. I was listening to Mezzanine and thinking back to when it was released, and not getting it, but always being a little curious about it. However the guitars on it have this weird NIN vibe, which is really not good. I feel like i'm in the Matrix or Fight Club or something (also not good).
Inertia Creeps, however is pretty good, managing to date better than stuff at the time like Ian Brown (that time when the UK music scene was obsessed with Mercury Music Proze style fusion- Primal Scream collabing w/Asian Dub Foundation being a case in point)
So, NIN guitars aside, Mezzanine is suprisingly okay to listen to.
Though NO TRIP HOP RECONSIDERATION!
(probably not- too mainstream). Though i really like how it taps into the UK Bristol/ Brixton vein. When will my current perverse fascination with dubstep end? A genre that,
up until a few months ago, i completely despised as white intellectual take on electronic music without the balls, and replete with where's-the-weed-anxiety. Dubstep is typically UK, very dark. Now i feel that I am straying away from the subject, especially after having a gchat YT overload with Ed. I'm really fascinated with the progression of Garage-UK Garage-Dubstep-Grime-UK Funky.
But back to Massive Attack. I was listening to Mezzanine and thinking back to when it was released, and not getting it, but always being a little curious about it. However the guitars on it have this weird NIN vibe, which is really not good. I feel like i'm in the Matrix or Fight Club or something (also not good).
Inertia Creeps, however is pretty good, managing to date better than stuff at the time like Ian Brown (that time when the UK music scene was obsessed with Mercury Music Proze style fusion- Primal Scream collabing w/Asian Dub Foundation being a case in point)
So, NIN guitars aside, Mezzanine is suprisingly okay to listen to.
Though NO TRIP HOP RECONSIDERATION!
Artist Statement
Steven Warwick is a time based media artist, living and working in Berlin.
Using his film and video background, he works with loops and assemblage through the medium of music, to create an inter-relational play of sounds and the images that they evoke. The loops are self generated and Warwick is particularly interested in presenting loops in infinitely different orders, to see how they work (or don't) in those contexts,
evoking the methodolgies of Jack Smith and the use of the Version in dub music.
With his background of experimental long form drone music, Warwick is interested in the prolongation of a mood or emotion, which lends itself to further meditation and "nachdenken" or reflection. This reflection has been developed by his interest in dance music, a fascination in both the use of infinite interplay of DJ mixing, and the phenomenon of its social setting (where the music is invisible, and can be seen more as a live installation in real time fluxus).
Warwick is also currently working on a magazine "Feeling a Bit Mental" which can be viewed as an conceptual art piece, focusing on the deconstruction of the use of mass media and interplay, meditations of schizo-geography and the mid point between his musical practice and the frames of film, akin to the use of slide film.
Using his film and video background, he works with loops and assemblage through the medium of music, to create an inter-relational play of sounds and the images that they evoke. The loops are self generated and Warwick is particularly interested in presenting loops in infinitely different orders, to see how they work (or don't) in those contexts,
evoking the methodolgies of Jack Smith and the use of the Version in dub music.
With his background of experimental long form drone music, Warwick is interested in the prolongation of a mood or emotion, which lends itself to further meditation and "nachdenken" or reflection. This reflection has been developed by his interest in dance music, a fascination in both the use of infinite interplay of DJ mixing, and the phenomenon of its social setting (where the music is invisible, and can be seen more as a live installation in real time fluxus).
Warwick is also currently working on a magazine "Feeling a Bit Mental" which can be viewed as an conceptual art piece, focusing on the deconstruction of the use of mass media and interplay, meditations of schizo-geography and the mid point between his musical practice and the frames of film, akin to the use of slide film.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Money
"Money has never seemed to me as precious as people think it.
Indeed it has never seemed to me very useful. For it has no value in itself
and must be transformed to be enjoyed. One must bargain and purchase and often
be cheated, paying dear for poor services."
J.J.R- "The Confessions"
Indeed it has never seemed to me very useful. For it has no value in itself
and must be transformed to be enjoyed. One must bargain and purchase and often
be cheated, paying dear for poor services."
J.J.R- "The Confessions"
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Space
"But the moment of discharge, so desired and so happy, contains its own danger. It is based on an illusion; the people who suddenly feel equal have not really become equal;nor will the feel equal forever. They return to their separate houses, they lie down on their own beds, they keep possessions and their names. They do notcast out their relations nor run away from their families."
E.C- "Crowds and Power"
The tower dated from the 13th century, and there was only one cell on each level. The floor was of brick, the walls whitewashed. Three steps led up to a window with three rows of bars, and there were bars inside the chimney, making it impossible to climb. The walls were very thick, and so was the door which had three locks.
R.H. "Bastille" from Marquis De Sade, "The Genius of Passion".
E.C- "Crowds and Power"
The tower dated from the 13th century, and there was only one cell on each level. The floor was of brick, the walls whitewashed. Three steps led up to a window with three rows of bars, and there were bars inside the chimney, making it impossible to climb. The walls were very thick, and so was the door which had three locks.
R.H. "Bastille" from Marquis De Sade, "The Genius of Passion".
Sense
"Will you feel a presence? Is that how you'll know?"
"Not really a presence," Lise says. " The lack of an absence, that's what it is"
M.S " The Driver's Seat
"Not really a presence," Lise says. " The lack of an absence, that's what it is"
M.S " The Driver's Seat
Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 17, 2011
Room
My room is situated on the forty fifth degree of latitude...It stretches from east to west; it forms a long rectangle, 36 paces in circumference if you hug the wall.
My journey will, however, measure much more than this, as I will be crossing it frequently lengthwise, or else diagonally, without any rule or method.I will even follow a zigzag path, and I will trace out every possible geometrical trajectory if need be.
X.D.M "A Journey Around My Room"
My journey will, however, measure much more than this, as I will be crossing it frequently lengthwise, or else diagonally, without any rule or method.I will even follow a zigzag path, and I will trace out every possible geometrical trajectory if need be.
X.D.M "A Journey Around My Room"
Sunday, January 16, 2011
Unpacking
"I am unpacking my library. Yes I am. The books are not yet on the shelves, not yet touched by the mild boredom of order. I cannot march up and down their ranks to pass them in review before a friendly audience. You need not fear any of that. Instead, I must ask you to join me in the disorder of crates that have been wrenched open, the air saturated with the dust of wood, the floor covered with torn paper, to join me among piles of volumes that are seeing daylight again after two years of darkness, so that you may be ready to share with me a bit of the mood..."
W.B Unpacking My Library
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Interiors
"In the cinema, a society that has lost its gestures seeks to reappropriate what it has lost while simultaneously recording that loss.
An era that has lost its gestures is, for that very reason, obsessed with them; for people who are bereft of all that is natural to them, every gesture becomes a fate.And the more the ease of these gestures was lost under the influence of invisible powers, the more life became indeciferable. It is at this stage that the bourgeoisie- which, only a few decades earlier, had still been firmly in possession of its symbols- falls a victim to interiority and entrusts itself to psychology".
G.A - "Notes on Gesture".
Feeling a Bit Mental 4
"Thus,if i have been properly understood, painting the face is not to be used with the vulgar, unknowable intention of imitating the fair face if nature, or competing with youth. It has moreover, been observed that artifice does not embellish ugliness, and can only sere beauty. Who would dare assign to art the sterile function of imitating nature?
Make up has no need of concealment, no need to avoid discovery; on the contrary, it can go in for display, if not with affectation, at least with a sort of ingenuousness."
C.B "In Praise of Make Up"
Feeling a Bit Mental 3
"Early on, I learned to disguise my self in words which really were clouds. The gift of perceiving similarities is, in fact, nothing of a weak remnant of the old compulsion to become similar and to behave mimetically. In me, however, this compulsion acted through words. Not those that made me similar to models of good breeding, but those that made me similar to dwelling places, furniture, clothes.
W.B- Berlin Childhood around 1900.
Feeling a Bit Mental
http://www.jstor.org/pss/778604
"Construction plays the role of the subconscious"
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