MORE JOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE WORSHIPPERS

1. Zizek interrogates the relation between violence and ethics in globalization by observing the uneven distribution of particularity in which Africans, aboriginies and the like are permitted to speak of their particularity (without being accused of violent closure) while the White, western man must recognize his guilt by accepting the particularity of others (on a sliding scale depending on their distance from power) while denouncing his own. Of course, Zizek points out, this refusal of particularity hands those closest to power the status of universality.

2. Badiou denounces the ethics if the charitable west as a double movement in which the west monopolizes ethics while the Third World is condemned to victimhood, which replicates the current distribution of wealth and power within the sphere of humanitarian values, as well as scuppering any chance of redistribution by putting ethics over politics.

3. Previous epochs have been driven by technology (eg the Stone Age, the Industrial Revolution), and others have been driven by economics (eg capitalism, consumerism), whereas our epoch is shaped by globalization, not as a specific issue that replaces earlier issues but as a force that transforms and redistributes the divisions of class, race, gender, sexuality and religion that continue to buckle the world.

4. Balibar argues that the world after 1989 is one in which religion assumes the place previously held by politics during the Cold War as the principal means of dividing the (now post-secular) world, with the consequence that multicultural tolerance (which regards religious belief as a private matter) must be abandoned as a secular western monopolization of ethical capital.

5. Habermas spells out how we must rethink and renegotiate the very possibility of politics after the decline of the nation state (previously the platform for dissent and social change), arguing that the development of supranational bodies such as NATO, the EU and the IMF, as merely technical bodies for the management of global capitalism, means that there is currently no space for political debate and critical action at the locus of power.

6.  Neither De Certeau’s tactics nor Deleuze’s intensities, which point the artworld away from the supra-national, fail to understand that the local is not a solution for the global – an emphasis on the small-scale will certainly fail to halt the march of globalization.

7.  Jaime Stapleton argues that the emergence of the knowledge economy is linked to new (cultural) conceptions of economic activity rather than technical shifts in production and distribution. Nevertheless, this cultural shift is fully embedded in and functional for global economic interest, turning the Taylorist screw even tighter, placing ever more emphasis on management in the production of value, and preserving the dominance of first world economies by distinguishing them from the physical production of the Third World.

Video by Mustafa Hulusi and Mark Titchner. Text by Dave Beech

OXBOW IN EXCELSIS – A LONG SLOW SCREW

Last night I had the pleasure (pain?) of seeing Oxbow perform at Corsica Studios in London.  This is the fifth time I’ve been lucky enough to experience their whirlwind  and this was just incredible.  The set began with a short but certainly not mellow acoustic set on the venue floor before the group proceeded to the stage to tear through their fine catalogue electrically.  Much, rightly so, is made of vocalist Eugene Robinson’s performance but his intensity is present and correct in all the band members. I have never seen a drummer play with such malice as Greg Davis.  Niko’s skill as a guitarist is truly awesome whilst Dan Adam’s bass playing introduces a strange languidity to the mix.  You get the picture I really, enjoyed the show.  It reminded me why so much half arsed contemporary, performance art fails.  Abstractly mumbling in a white cube is all well and good but this is the ‘Theatre of Cruelty’ that Artaud describes dribbling, screaming and mad but ultimately cathartic. If you ever get the chance to see Oxbow, do not miss it.  Below is a very poor approximation of what might have gone on last night….

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Some better footage coming soon.

After the show I spoke briefly to Eugene. I told him how in 2007 I’d had a panic attack after their performance at the Supersonic Festival. He told me that once when Oxbow played with Jesus Lizard he had had a panic attack and passed out. He came to onstage wondering who all these strangers were and then realising that they hadn’t even started the set yet.

On the factual front there is a new Oxbow vinyl “Songs for the French” out and Eugene has a new book coming soon.  After 2007’s ‘Fight: Or Everything you Wanted to Know About Ass-Kicking but Were Afraid You‘d Get Your Ass Kicked for Asking’ Mr Robinson continues to show his aptitude for titles with ….

HAPPY HAPPY JOY JOY!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Have a great weekend!! m.

GOIN’ BACK TO NEW YORK CITY

I came across these images a little while ago of my 2006 project for Creative Times 59th Minute programme in Times Square NYC.  The video was called ‘Voices you cannot hear tell you what to do’.  It’s an old work but these images were so great I thought I share them.  All images are used with great appreciation and with the courtesy of Brent Burke.  Check out his Blog ‘Heart is Arena’.  Thanks Brent, loving the Cremaster Hoodie!

THE APPROXIMATE DIMENSIONS OF LOVE OR WHAT IS LEFT OF US?

In his work ‘Ethics’(1677) Benedict Spinoza developed a framework in which reason could be used to approach the tumult of impulse and desire:  An idea that we find reflections of all around us, from psychoanalysis to self-improvement.  However these fields of exploration do t prefigure our ability to talk about our emotions and the terminology that we have to do so: If passions lead our lives how do we develop the language that we have to express them?  Who speaks of love and why?

We learn from what we see, from what we hear and what we experience.  In ‘The Revolution of Everyday Life’ Raoul Vaneigem writes that ‘The face of happiness vanished from art and literature as it began to be reproduced along endless walls and hoardings, offering to each particular passer by the universal image in which he is invited to recognise himself’.  What is identified here is the historical point where our emotions become relative not only to an archetype but an archetype that is produced by capitalism and the vested interests therein.  Our experiences are both overpowered and infected by this. It is painfully clear that our lives do not measure up to the images and words that we receive.  To attain a state of personal emotional balance goes against the endless flow of consumption and production and is therefore impossible. As a product happiness and love must be constantly present yet unattainable.

Returning to Spinoza’s concept of approaching the passions via a logical schema let us approach a contemporary manifestation of such a thing, a rigid and well known form for locating the passions, of love and hate, of desire and loss.  What does this form tell us about how we perceive the emotions today and why is this the case?

LOVE IS ALL AROUND, IN THE AIR AND ON THE AIRWAVES…

Whilst all popular artistic media rely on an understandable and reliable form, we find that in popular music this form is intensely refined.  Ever since the well-tempered tuning, or circular system taught our ears to hear in a certain way, the formula has been heightened and reduced.  A life or love reduced to 3 minutes formed of verse, chorus, verse, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus.  On closer examination this organisation can be seen to extend further to the use of rhyme, syllabic patterns and a reduced lexicon of words.  With little effort and no formal understanding of music we are able to empathise with chord progressions that lift our spirits or tug our emotions.  This affinity is based on a repetition of a vernacular form and also the ability of a global industry to place these sounds within our lives, sound tracking our experiences and reinforcing the process of identification.  Variation with the form is permissible and within reason.

The classic subject matter for the pop song is a pretty good match for the emotions that Spinoza identifies as primary; Joy/Love, Sadness and Desire. As Vaneigem suggests we are invited to recognise our (weaker) experiences of life in what we hear.  This is mechanisation of an art form to its constituent and most effective parts.

The other vital component of the song and the way that emotion is conveyed, in our world of images, is via the performer and the role they play for us.

THE MARTYR OR THE HARLOT?

The lives of our pop stars are no mystery to us.  They perpetuate aspirational life style and personal torment in equal measure, both of which provide valuable content when inserting their particular brand into the popular psyche.  This is also a gift for the record executives who are able to tailor the artists material to the story that the media suggests is their private life.  The best stories; loss, death, addiction provide the juiciest material.

In 2003 MTV, the apotheosis of pop music, produced the series ‘Newlyweds’ which followed the life and marriage of the singers Jessica Simpson and Nick Lachey.  Jessica Simpson duly played the rising star and the dumb blonde, whilst her husband portrayed the fading star (he had been the member of a ‘Boy Band’) whose money barely disguised his pathos.  Three years and four seasons of the series later and the couple were filing for divorce.  The month before their divorce was finalised Lachey released the album ‘What is left of me’ which in contrast to the album he made during the marriage, was a hit.  It seems fairly evident how the album was being marketed, this is embodied most strongly in the hit single “I can’t hate you anymore” a generic, radio friendly track that was in fact a love song that the listener was easily able to relate to the Lachey/Simpson story.  It also morally elevated Lachey above his ex wife because of his saintly ability to forgive her failings.

‘BEING IN LOVE MEANS REALLY WANTING TO LIVE IN A DIFFERENT WORLD.’

Love is a dangerous thing, as is hate, both cause people to act in extreme and dangerous ways. This has the effect of separating the emotions from any kind of dissection or logical framework and pushing us into the realm of mysticism and cupid’s arrow.  This is useful because one thing that is particularly problematic about love is that it falls outside of normal economic exchange.  Let’s just say that the idea of giving yourself entirely to another individual by your own volition despite potential loss or harm is not an acceptable idea.  Normal exchange does not apply in this transaction; reciprocation is the only appropriate price.  Love, like hate, should be without not within, the product of the ‘other’.  It is not ours to control, only to be guided towards and in it we identify the weak light of our own existence.  The causes of love and hate must remain external. We have as little control over what and how we love as we do over any hatred that is applied to us.

A CORPSE IN THE MOUTH.

If you say a word enough times it ceases to have any meaning, it becomes a sound not a signifier. The prevalence of the use of the word ‘love’ applied ad nauseum to any product, object or person has the effect of reducing ‘I love” to at best ‘I like’.  Is the vernacular logic, ‘I like this.  You should like this too. You want this. You need this.  We need this’?

Perhaps we are unreasonable to expect love.  The radical psychotherapy of the 1970’s suggested that this expectation, that we place upon our loved ones and family, is in fact not only a source of psychosis but also the manifestation of manipulative subjugation. This negative behavioural reading of love may relate more closely to the prevalence of consumer love I described earlier, as both relate to lack above all else.  The difference here is that the object subject role is reversed.  We use love, and the expectations it carries, to enslave those that we claim to love.

So what we have are two concepts of love.  One as a radical state which attacks the value system of capital and the other which identifies love as an aggressive form of inter personal control.  We have Spinoza. We have manufactured pop music.

‘WHAT IS LOVE, BABY DON’T HURT ME, DON’T HURT ME, NO MORE, BABY DON’T HURT ME, DON’T HURT ME, NO MORE, WHAT IS LOVE, OH, I DON’T KNOW.’

IT’S BEEN A WHILE….

Yes, it’s been a long time since I posted anything. I’ve just been busy and also generally questioning whether the world needs another Blog.  After coming to the conclusion that it definitely doesn’t I decided to have another go but to focus a little bit more on art rather than animal photos.  I’m willing to admit that this is probably a bit of a mistake given the popularity of ‘Weird Owl’ and ‘Satisfied looking Monkey’.  Below is a text that I wrote recently for a catalogue on the artist/writer/visionary Brion Gysin.  It’s really more of a personal reflection than anything and I was so nervous about writing it that an hour and a half session on Gysin’s Dreamachine was necessary to calm the nerves.  The images are of a video installation I made which employed a visual and audio flicker similar to that produced by the Dreamachine. Thanks

The Frequency of Modern Life.

'The Eye don't see itself' by Mark Titchner. Installed Baltic, Gateshead. Image Colin Davison.

My first encounter with Brion Gysin, like that of many others, came through the work and reverence of William Burroughs.  Finding a copy of ‘The Job’ in the library at Central St Martins I was first exposed to an alternative history of averted potential, a time-line populated by the likes of Wilhelm Reich, Buckminster Fuller, L Ron Hubbard and at the tip of that arrow, Brion Gysin. Being the mid 90’s and thirty years since the book’s publication it was painfully obvious that the suppression and manipulation of such technologies and ideas had been as effective as Burroughs suggested.

As a young artist trying to negotiate the idea of function in an art object I was fascinated by how these ideas were crystallised into objects, as Orgone Accumulators, Dymaxion Cars, E-Meters and Dreamachines.  Whilst each object presented a vision of a future only the Dreamachine seemed still entirely viable as environmental pollution, multinational industry and religious dogma compromised the existence of the other devices.  As I discovered Genesis P-Orridge’s texts on Gysin in Re/Search and Rapid Eye it became clear that this was a very special person indeed.  A fountain; the cut-up, permutation poetry, calligraphic paintings, novels, collage and sound experiments, too much for one person to achieve and plenty left for the rest of us to fill in.

GYSIN/DREAMACHINE/BURROUGHS

Despite such an abundance of expertise it is the Dreamachine that is Brion Gysin’s masterpiece.  In collaboration with mathematician, Ian Sommerville, he created an object that flies in the face of commodity and utilises the greatest Readymade of them all, the Human Brain.  Somehow the duo managed to interpret W. Grey Walter’s discoveries about the brains electrical activity into a transcendental device that could be fabricated using simplest of means.  Self-Authored eyelid movies free for all, free forever.

Perhaps it was once possible to imagine a future/present when every home would have a Dreamachine, around which the family would gather, leave their bodies and dream.  Instead we have another kind of light we choose to gather around, a light show that we passively absorb and have little or no opportunity to influence.  The act of creation is inverted to absorption.

Perhaps at the heart of this is the failure of the Dreamachine as a commodity, like Duchamp’s Rotoreliefs before them.  Several attempts were unsuccessfully made to market the Dreamachine, there are many reasons for this failure but essentially the Dreamachine is a set of principals rather than an object as such:  One is as good as another and the aesthetics of a device that one views with eyes shut are always going to be difficult to market.  Even Gysin’s classic Dreamachine design is a little misleading because as long as the ratio between slots and rotation are correct the thing can look anyway it pleases.

'The Eye don't see itself' by Mark Titchner. Installed Baltic, Gateshead. Image Colin Davison.

However there is one more flaw in the device and that is that it requires concentration and repeated meditative use.  There is not an immediate hit, what is attained is well earned.  This is not the way of a world with a strap-line that proclaims ‘More, more, more, now, now, now!’  Speed in productivity, speed in consumption.  One Dreamachine will last you a lifetime.

The Dreamachine creates a very specific flicker corresponding to the Brains electrical activity in Alpha State, that is a bandwidth of between 8 to 13 Hz.  Most flickering light sources we encounter in our daily lives work at a much higher rate for instance Television uses a rate of 50 or 60hz, Computer monitors work at a rate of around 100hz and modern LCD screens at 200hz.  Technology embraces speed and in doing so reinforces the illusion of a single flawless flow of imagery, a faultless impenetrable wall. An illusion so real it supplants reality?  Sometimes I wonder whether like the Orgone Accumulator, The Dymaxion Car and the E-Meter, the Dreamachine is lost because even the archetypes and dreams it promises are polluted by this black spring of relentless images.

As Genesis P-Orridge writes in his tribute to Gysin, ‘His name was Master’, ‘Today (in) a society with a vested interest in the suppression of imagination…Dreams are merely disturbed nights or entertainment.’  Lest we forget the politics of internal life.

A TRIBUTE TO ‘EYES (ALL EYES)’ – AMMENDED.

I just saw this on the way to the studio this morning. It’s part of a new ad campaign against ‘Drug Driving. Don’t do it.

As well as being relevant to the below post it also reminded me a lot of a video I made in 2002 called ‘Artists are Cowards’.

'Artists are Cowards', 2002. (Video still)

Anyway – A tribute to a half remembered project by another artist.

Around 8 years ago Markus Vater produced a photocopied publication called, I think if memory serves me correctly, ‘Ten Magazines’. It featured a series of drawings of covers for imaginary magazines.  My favourite was for a  publication called “EYES”, which promised it’s content was “Eyes, all Eyes”.

So with that in mind here’s some eyes:

Eyes, all eyes.

LIBERTY PLAYLIST (IN MOVING PICTURE FORM)

Following on from a much earlier post, LIBERTY PLAYLIST, here are the songs in video form….

1. ‘The Kill”, by Fugazi

2.“Yes Sir I Will”, by Crass

3. “Blaise Bailey Finnegan III” by Godspeed You Black Emperor!

4.”A Beast Caged” by Dälek

5 .“Vastness and Sorrow” by Wolves in the Throne Room

6 .“Paranoid Chant”, by Minutemen

7. “Thief”, by Can

8. “Hypnotised”, by Mark Stewart

9.“The Anvil Will Fall”, by Harvey Milk

10. “You shouldn’t do that”, by Hawkwind,

11.  “Farewell”, by Boris

THE SOUND OF JOHN SPITERI

In 2002 artist John Spiteri produced a series of video works based on the vernacular of the pop video.  My first experience of these was in a show curated by Brian Griffith’s at the Bart Wells institute.  A giant video projection (at least in my memory) showed the artist running psychotically around a house in Malta to the accompaniment of a brief loop from the  Cher song ‘Believe’. ‘Can’t do that,  Can’t do that, Can’t do that, Can’t do that….”  I was struck by this piece and still am; it seemed to me the most evocative portrait that I had ever seen of what happens, when the mind nudges at the edges of its normal functions and the body can only follow.  Trapped within itself fevered, insane, high.

The works produced in a relatively short period, whilst John was living in London were made with the sparest of artifice. The songs obey the rudimentary song structure verse, chorus and bridge and are composed of such simple loops that they can barely be called samples.  Even though constructed using mini disc and digital software this sampling with a blade and sellotape.  In 2003 John and I put out a limited picture disc single, ‘Permanent Blue/Only the one’.  I should have stuck to the artwork because my need to make the construction (slightly) more complex removed something vital from the formula.

The songs that John chose as his base sampling material, deeply unfashionable at the time, are the kind of tracks that the Hypnagogic Pop Kids are making cool again.  Billy Idol, Cher, The Pet Shop Boys, Al Stewart. Songs that you don’t even notice. Bland, familiar or perhaps archetypal.  Much of the talk around Hypnagogic Pop discusses the edge of liminal space of half remembered songs, half heard through walls. John’s choices for sampling were the kind of songs you don’t remember actually having heard, especially by choice, but they are the songs, that strangely you know all of the words for. Somehow and somewhere these songs have been implanted in all of us.

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Vocally the artists range is limited to subtle intonation. There is barely any contrast but instead a veneer which rises and falls with certain emphasis and accent. This tone is matched lyrically with often repeated refrain, familiar rhymes and generic imagery which sit comfortably upon the music.  There is a distinct sense of reverie, of  vacantly humming along to the radio, of not knowing the real words and approximating your own.

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John kindly gave me a cd with the songs from the films and it’s been a favourite in the studio ever since.  It’s partly because I really think these are great songs and partly because it reminds me of John over  on the other side of the world.  There is something incredibly disconcerting about the simplicity of the songs, rather like a brain fixated on a detail of a song and caught in a loop.  There is one particular song called ‘What is it’ that I find genuinely disturbing and there are others that like ‘Knowing/Le Vous’ which defy the odds and are genuinely beautiful (and also pretty funny). The songs really belong with their accompanying videos but they have their own life too. Enjoy.

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