Nothing to say…

July 3rd, 2009

… and a whole internet in which to say it. Sometimes there’s just too much space to fill and a real desire to fill it, but not in response to any ideas or books or magazines that I’ve read.

Incidentally, David Simon, who created The Wire, has said in many talks, that, as much as he loves the Internet and feels that it’s going to completely change the way we get news, he worries that so much of it is secondary reporting and commentary. This is instead of actual going out to events, interviewing people and filing copy to an editor. He’s right, as much as it can be a wonderful way to find out information and have it distilled for you in the voice of whichever writer(s) you choose to listen, there is a sense that often people are reporting on reported news, from either the BBC or other online presences of  wel-known news sources.

But that’s only the viewpoint if you’re seeking out current affairs type news items. Of course, blogs are much more than that. In fact, it’s a shame that ‘Bogging’ often seems to be viewed as a genre in itself, with constraints and language and stylings of it’s own. If you read enough Blogs, you know this isn’t the case of course, but it’s the way they are often referred to in the press. Which some Blogs will then respond to. So there we go full loop.

Ha! The Internet really is a snake swallowing it’s own tale!

Electric Sheep Magazine Summer 2009

June 15th, 2009

electricsheep.gif

The latest issue of Electric Sheep magazine is now out. I picked up a copy of the magazine at the latest Flatpack Festival in Birmingham and it’s a collection of really good, well written pieces on recently issued films, as well as older movies. A sort of Sense of Cinema in print form, albeit with a slightly alternative  take on cinema. (”Electric Sheep: A Deviant View of Cinema”).

The latest issue is based around the theme of Substitute. I’ve taken out a year-long subscription, to ensure I get my copies, but also, to help support the journal. small press magazines like these need the support of readers.Here’s the website blurb:

Electric Sheep exists as a quarterly magazine published by Wallflower Press, for sale at the price of £3.75. Each issue explores a different theme taken from the dark cinematic basement we have made our home. It contains exclusive content not available on the website. Electric Sheep online continues to review weird, wild and wonderful film and DVD releases every month.

SUMMER 09
SUBSTITUTE: Black for white, stranger for lover, master for servant, robot for human, cross-dresser for femme fatale.

Substitute is the theme of the summer 09 issue of Electric Sheep, with articles on the fraught relationship between Takeshi Kitano and ‘Beat’ Takeshi, the various cinematic incarnations of Patricia Highsmith’s Ripley, interchanging identities in Joseph Losey’s films, the dangers of false impersonation in neo-noir Just Another Love Story, the paradoxes of black and white twins in offbeat lost classic Suture, not to mention cross-dressing criminals, androids and body snatchers.

Slump City

May 27th, 2009

Slump City:
Laura Oldfield Ford, Karen Russo & Tessa Farmer

As the consequences of the global recession take effect, the regeneration of the traditional home of London’s largest artist community in East London has slowed and the promised Olympic legacy looks in doubt. It is within this context that SPACE presents Slump City, an exhibition of three emerging artists whose haunting work combines gothic fantasy, poetic social realism and psycho-geography to imagine the urban periphery.

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Exhibition Opening
Friday 5 June 6.30 — 8.30pm

Exhibition Dates
6 June — 26 June

Opening Times
Monday to Friday 10am — 5pm
Saturday 12 — 4pm

Free Admission

[  s p a c e  ]

129 — 131 Mare Street
London E8 3RH

www.spacestudios.org.uk
exhibitions@spacestudios.org.uk
020 8525 4330

Bus 26 & 48 from Liverpool Street
106 & 254 from Bethnal Green
55 from Old Street
Tube Bethnal Green
Train Hackney Silverlink

Sonic Yoof?

May 15th, 2009

evol.jpgK-Punk (aka Mark Fisher) has written up his thoughts on Sonic Youth and encompassed the career of Sonic Youth, after:“someone called me on the deliberately provocative, “boldly counter-intuitive and funny … elision of Sonic Youth with Primal Scream and Oasis” in my review of the dreadful Brand Neu! ‘tribute’ album in The Wire 303. In his post (and his follow-up post) he talks about Sonic Youths’ ambivalent flirtation with so-called mainstream culture. K-Punk posits that they haven’t really produced any great albums since the early eighties with their album bad Moon Rising. I won’t reiterate his argument, as it’s all laid out in his post and it would be better to go to the source, rather than for me to rehash it all here. But what he goes on to discuss in his follow-up, is the fact that Sonic Youth have always been seen as the white anglo-male shorthand for ‘cool, indie’ and not being a part of the mainstream, no matter how far up the corporate ladder you go. If you’ve got your Sonic Youth album on, then you’ve still got some credibility.

I’ve got a handful of SY albums, but I bought them around mid-to-late 90s, having only been vaguely aware of them during the eighties. I confess to never really getting them as the experimental musicians that they were claimed to be by certain areas of the music press. Being immersed in the techno-dystopia of Throbbing Gristle and early Psychic TV, and Jim Thirliwell etcetera, they seemed like a very rock n roll band, playing traditional sounding ditties, their de-tuned guitars and multi-layering, pretty much lost on me. But I was aware of their image and that they had art connections, which triggered an interest from me. Particularly their involvement with the underground film movement of 1980s New York and Richard Kern and Beth B et al (See Jack Sargeants’ Deathtripping book from Soft Skull Press). I’m a sucker for bands that make film soundtracks of nearly all genres.

I’ve listened to them on and off in the last five years, but I’m just not sure how convinced I am, any more that they are saying anything interesting. They seem to have been filed in the same cabinet drawer as Rage Against the Machine and Pearl Jam. Sure, they are/were probably saying something worthy and interesting, but they’ve been co-opted as such by the type of people who will soon be entering the corporate elevator and foregoing their student ideologies and dress codes as nothing more than ‘crazy’ side alley adventure on their route to true fiscal enlightenment.

And perhaps this is why they are so suitable for the Starbucks bohemians (confession, I do frequent Starbucks, so may well be talking about myself. But I do try to go Cafe Nero as much as possible!). They reflect their audiences’ pseudo, anti-establishment, bohemian desires, but within the safe, leather clad sofas of chainstore coffee shops.

Thoughts about my blog

May 7th, 2009

<meta content="OpenOffice.org 2.0 (Linux)" name="GENERATOR" /> <meta content="20090507;23511600" name="CREATED" /> <meta content="16010101;0" name="CHANGED" /> <style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { size: 8.27in 11.69in; margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } --> </style>Scanning through my blog posts since I started blogging here (and my previous blog Pigeons Are Evil, now lost to the sands of time) it’s obvious that I’ve never particularly focused on the one topic for very long. Within these archives are half-started stories, captured and experimented with and then tossed to the sidelines. There are the odd book reviews trying to capture some of the thoughts that I’ve had about them and formulate an opinion. Sometimes, that opinion only comes in the writing of the review of course. As Isaac Asimov famously said, it’s “thinking with my fingers.” Susan Sontag said a very similar thing actually. Maybe there’s something about the construction of cogent sentences that helps certain people to better frame the random ideas whizzing around in their heads? Like trying to capture the fizzing, warping shapes created by the iTunes visualizer!</p> <p>Writing it out and then making it public (publishing it) even if there is no one reading it, puts your words into a new and uncertain position with the world. It creates a tension for the writing and the writer. A tension that an unknown reader might break with a pithy off-hand comment, or a searing insight that hadn’t been thought of before. Despite the proliferation of blogs and the harsh treatment of them by mainstream media* they have a very real value in creating small groups of readers or helping someone think about their writing in a public sphere, even if it isn’t that good sometimes. But really, what constitutes good writing?</p> <p>Anyway, I’m getting away from my point a bit. I’ve never really known what my blog is for, except I’ve enjoyed doing it and felt that need to do it. Even when I’ve been editing my own magazines or websites in a professional capacity for companies, or having my art writing published. The thing that’s always bothered me is this idea of the ‘theme’ of my blog. Is it a this or that, type of blog. It contains so many odds and ends, it’s hard to know, even for me at times, so god help anyone who ever read it.</p> <p>But what I think what it does do well, is give me that scope for testing out ideas and thoughts that might be useful for turning into fuller articles. I’ve been trying to… understand, recently, where I could find ideas for writing about things for publication. My mind is totally blank, I could stare at a scrap of paper for hours and nothing would come. Yet, ironically, open a new blog post and something comes to mind straight away. Or alternatively, an idea stirs in my mind and it’s a blog post, in no time at all. There’s no pressure to be profane or insightful or even written well, the blog post can just sit there, fermenting.</p> <p>Perhaps that is why I blog, only I didn’t realise it? Whatever the reason, I’ll probably think something completely different tomorrow. But you can bet I’ll blog about it.</p> <p>*that’s a very sweeping statement, I know. What I’m thinking about is the attack on blogging by so-called amateurs, as opposed to professionals writing for newspaper blogs like the guardian.</p> <p style="margin-bottom: 0in"> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=2" title="View all posts in Research" rel="category tag">Research</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=7" title="View all posts in Creative Writing" rel="category tag">Creative Writing</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=19" title="View all posts in Text Mutterings" rel="category tag">Text Mutterings</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=25" title="View all posts in Publishing" rel="category tag">Publishing</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=276#comments" title="Comment on Thoughts about my blog">2 Comments »</a></p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-275"> <h1><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=275" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to A dream vlog">A dream vlog</a></h1> <small>May 4th, 2009 <!-- by mark --></small> <div class="entry"> <p>This first interactive Vlog is using a film I made of myself, dreaming about a trip to London and some of the things that I’d seen there. Just a way to capture those moments afterward, when you lay back and let the events of the day flow over you. A bit like the way you capture your thoughts in a blog perhaps? The man in the wheelchair, listening to the cello, was compelling. The way he gave himself up to the moment and was just enjoying the music, was enchanting. The clips of the candle, are just something I filmed on my new video camera, much later on. But they work well with the sleep footage,  I think.</p> <p>Each of the four movies has a soundtrack that I’ve composed using Audacity. Just simple electronica glitch and noise loops. They aren’t well ‘composed’ and I’m sure as I create more works, I’ll develop something a bit better for each one. The idea is that, as each movie is triggered, the sound builds up to create the final soundtrack. Listening back to them, they sound like the flickering of the candles magnified slightly.</p> <p>This isn’t a cinema of narrative control, deciding what the hero should do next, this is an exploration of the language of cinema and the affordances of the environment that it exists within. Having each sibling movie independently triggered by the viewer, gives them a chance to cross-reference the random appearance of different moments in the films. Each time it is watched and activated, brings a slightly different viewing experience, depending on the delay between triggers. The actual language of my own net cinema practise, will develop over time.</p> <div class="hvlog {width: '480', height: '382', controller: 'false'}"><a rel="enclosure" href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/Vogs/Sleep.mov"> <img src="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/Vogs/Sleep.jpg" /><br /> Sleep</a></div> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=14" title="View all posts in Music" rel="category tag">Music</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=20" title="View all posts in Vogging" rel="category tag">Vogging</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=30" title="View all posts in Cinema" rel="category tag">Cinema</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=275#respond" title="Comment on A dream vlog">No Comments »</a></p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-268"> <h1><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=268" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Vlogging round-up">Vlogging round-up</a></h1> <small>April 29th, 2009 <!-- by mark --></small> <div class="entry"> <p>Amongst other personal projects going on at the moment, I’ve purchased a new video camera (JVC EVERIO HD, with HD recording), and I’ve been filming all sorts of odds and ends, as well as improvising short scenes to develop some narrative ideas. One of my ideas was to get back up to speed with vlogging and start to post a few videos here. Here’s a quick roundup of some stuff that I’ve been getting up to speed on recently:</p> <ul> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://solublefish.tv/">Soluble Fish</a> Will Leurs as ever thought provoking and creating mesmerising work. Some of his previous pieces made an appearance in my MA paper.</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://braintrustdv.com/wordpress/">Braintustdv.com</a> I’ve read an essay or two that has been posted here, but haven’t really engaged too deeply with the site and users. Maybe I will in the future?</li> <li><a target="_blank" href="http://patalab02.blogspot.com/">spacetwo: patalab</a> I’ve only just discovered this vlog through Will, whilst reading, but I like the idea of a body of work that  “is a forum for subdued, yet powerful and complex, indirectly moving imagery.” based on an idea coined by the French writer Alfred Jarry.</li> </ul> <p>I must remember to add them to my blogroll and reorganise accordingly into a few sub categories.</p> <p>The vlogs that I’m particularly interested in, generally have some cinematic awareness and explore themes that interest them as film-makers, without an eye to using it to break into mainstream film-making. Perhaps some of them already do it? But the point is, within these works, the aren’t obviously showcasing those skills. Many of them are essays on cinemas’ themes. Montage, quotidian moments, framing etcetera. They are made for the Internet. They occupy the space of the blog comfortably and without housing a secret desire to break into the nearest googalplex cinema. This manifests itself in the acceptance of the pixellated image, or the download option (giving away films for free? how very post-capitalist creative commons of them), the mash-up and pass it on of some works. All while sharing and discussing them as art forms. As Adrian Miles says, it’s like Dziga Vertov, with a laptop and a camcorder (I’m paraphrasing out of laziness, sorry) and it’s in the historical context of critic/auteurs like Godard and the other French New Wave directors who started out with writing and then created their films. And it’s also like so many Underground/Experimental film-makers, taking to the Internet.</p> <p>As a side thought, perhaps that’s the point at which Avant-Garde/Experimental and ‘mainstream’ cinema meet? In the next/current phase of cinema that is bound to the Internet? </p> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=20" title="View all posts in Vogging" rel="category tag">Vogging</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=30" title="View all posts in Cinema" rel="category tag">Cinema</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=268#respond" title="Comment on Vlogging round-up">No Comments »</a></p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-267"> <h1><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=267" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Acting? It’s just pretending isn’t it?">Acting? It’s just pretending isn’t it?</a></h1> <small>April 28th, 2009 <!-- by mark --></small> <div class="entry"> <p>I’ve recently applied to attend acting classes at the <a target="_blank" href="http://www.bsa.bcu.ac.uk/">Birmingham School of Acting</a>. Not out of any desperate ambition to become a stage actor, or anything like a professional actor. I have friends that do that for a living and they are much better and experienced than me. I believe that you should always honour those who have made a lifetimes’ work of something. Not that you can’t ‘have a go’ but with respect to the world they have made their own. My own reasons are because I occasionally do some work with Talking Birds theatre company, and have been lucky enough to be involved in performing a few times around the country. It’s a great experience and I’ve learnt a few things. but there’s always more to learn.</p> <p>The idea of ‘acting’ of being someone else, compells you to think beyond what you are. In some ways it’s an almost cybernetic disconnection with the ’self’. You try to leave behind who you are and adopt the new personality. Like plugging into a new set of values, character tics and movement. Try to understand the need of the character and what they are looking for from the characters around them, subsuming your own personal needs.</p> <p>The trick of course (and it may have been Michael Caine who said this, but I’m sure there have been many) is to stop ‘acting’. That’s my main problem at the moment. Whenever I think about acting and I try a character for size, I start acting like my life depended on it. I think to myself that I’m ACTING now, and have to behave in a certain way. I’m being someone else. In other words, I’ve not subsumed myself and allowed the new character to properly inhabit me. I’m still fighting against the psychic connection.</p> <p>This process of character development is one of the reasons I’m going to try out for the audition to get a place. That, along with the chance to learn a bit more and appreciate the acting process itself. </p> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=3" title="View all posts in Diary" rel="category tag">Diary</a>, <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=9" title="View all posts in Commentary" rel="category tag">Commentary</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=267#respond" title="Comment on Acting? It's just pretending isn't it?">No Comments »</a></p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-264"> <h1><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=264" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Vlog + text = journalism?">Vlog + text = journalism?</a></h1> <small>April 13th, 2009 <!-- by mark --></small> <div class="entry"> <p>I wonder what place the vlog plays in the role of journalism? I’m not sure how many video blogs there are at the moment by journalists who use the form to accompany their written pieces. Is it possible to use the combination of video and text when writing, for example, a critical development of an argument about an art work? Or for that matter, how would it be used to explore the political debate of a writer developing arguments in favour of a particular viewpoint? I think (and I’m only speculating here) that one of the reasons for this lack of combination of the two (video and text) is because traditionally, the written word has been seen to have a certain validation in itself, and so has the documented moving image.</p> <p>To argue a viewpoint, you either make a documentary, or you write an essay. Perhaps the nearest thing has been the book and series or the DVD and accompanying booklet? With many arguments being somewhat abstract, I wonder if it’s possible to explore and experiment with film-making techniques (perhaps borrowing from the avant-garde film world, styles and motifs) to contribute to arguments in blog posts.</p> <p>Of course, I assume here the idea that blog posts are personal and have the voice of the author, as opposed to journalism that is considered to be the voice of the paper (bylines accepted of course). </p> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=19" title="View all posts in Text Mutterings" rel="category tag">Text Mutterings</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=264#respond" title="Comment on Vlog + text = journalism?">No Comments »</a></p> </div> <div class="post" id="post-263"> <h1><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=263" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to Media Camp Nottingham">Media Camp Nottingham</a></h1> <small>April 6th, 2009 <!-- by mark --></small> <div class="entry"> <div style="text-align: center"><img width="496" height="205" alt="MediaCampNottingham" src="https://mediacampnottingham.pbwiki.com/f/MediaCampNottsBanner5.jpg" /></div> <p>The ICEcubes team will be attending MediaCampNottingham in May to mix it up and connect with other folks thinking about all things social media and digital.</p> <blockquote><p>MediaCampNottingham - Saturday 9th May and Sunday 10th May, 2009</p> <p>NOT a BARCAMP - we plan a little before hand.</p> <p>What is MediaCampNottingham?</p> <p>An innovative UnConference exploring the latest digital trends in: * Web design and development * Communications, branding, advertising and PR * Arts, media and culture * Games and virtual worlds * Digital media, blogging and social media.</p> <p>It’s FREE and anyone can get involved.</p> <p>Themes: 1. Technology: Web Development / Design / Accessibility / SEO / Social Media 2. Media: Business / Communication / PR / Advertising / Marketing 3. Culture: Digital Arts / Media / Culture / Games / Education</p></blockquote> </div> <p class="postmetadata">Posted in <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?cat=19" title="View all posts in Text Mutterings" rel="category tag">Text Mutterings</a> <strong>|</strong> <a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/?p=263#respond" title="Comment on Media Camp Nottingham">No Comments »</a></p> </div> <p align="center"><a href="http://www.memecortex.net/blog/index.php?paged=2">« Previous Entries</a>   </p> </div> </div> <div id="footer"> Adapted for wordpress by <a href="http://www.dl2media.com">DL2 Media</a> <a style="visibility: hidden;" href="http://www.dl2media.com">DL2 Media</a> </div> </div>