Comments for ephemera

Comment on utrecht 1942 by ephemera

ephemera — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:15:03 +0000

i haven’t.
but it sounds very interesting.
traumatized by one’s very parentage (…) having drunk victimhood, so to speak, with one’s mother’s milk?
!

Comment on utrecht 1942 by annap

annap — Sun, 21 Jan 2007 12:00:21 +0000

have you read any eva hoffman? i haven’t. her memoir ‘lost in translation’ is very highly regarded, but i am more interested in ‘after such knowledge’, and thought there was some resonance between your writing in this post, and hoffman’s reflection on ‘the hinge generation’: the children born of holocaust survivors. the quote referring to the war as a story of origins is interesting.
new york times review here

Comment on the hours by annap

annap — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 07:12:51 +0000

well, like charlize theron winning an oscar for ‘monster’, kidman only got her oscar because ‘the academy’ went through a phase of being stunned that beautiful actresses (or should that be actresses known for their beauty) could possibly accept roles playing characters who were not beautiful. kidman’s oscar was for the fake nose, just as theron’s oscar was for gaining weight.
it should’ve gone to meryl!

Comment on travel is boring by annap

annap — Sun, 31 Dec 2006 14:24:11 +0000

i have been thinking about this for a while. and i can’t get over the contradiction: how is a remote russian republic ‘the most boring place in the world’? boring seems to be a designation made by someone looking for entertainment….

Comment on hello i’m a reject by poo tee weet? :: doubting silence

poo tee weet? :: doubting silence — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 10:44:57 +0000

[...] ephemera is writing about rejection. i have little to say at the moment. i am thinking… and enjoying reading albert camus’ carnets. [...]

Comment on hello i’m a reject by annap

annap — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 05:20:27 +0000

I RECEIVED A REJECTION LETTER FROM CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS YESTERDAY. ALAS, I TAKE MYSELF TOO SERIOUSLY TO BE ABLE TO OFFER A REVIEW
AND:
damein frost collected qUITE A STACK OF REJECTION EMAILS HERE:
http://renewal.va.com.au/stickygum/randomstuff/101jobrejections/jobrejects.shtml

Comment on rejections by ephemera / hello i’m a reject

ephemera / hello i’m a reject — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 23:12:01 +0000

[...] so bookmark this page for my reviews of the rejection slips i receive as i build my collection [...]

Comment on uncertainty by annap

annap — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 02:24:52 +0000

this idea of a ‘device’ is interesting. there’s a kind of psychoanalytic undertone there, or is it just me? it seeme to imply that the untruth covers over the truth (perhaps unwittingly? or at least incompletely) while the lie seeks to deny, erase the truth.

the cop is like the analyst in this case – seeking to expose the processes of repression, and identify the truth.

Comment on uncertainty by ephemera

ephemera — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 10:00:42 +0000

as a student of truth and beauty, another bit in the book which interest me is the description by joseph wambaugh (an ex-cop) of the difference between a lie and an untruth :

a lie is something that's told with ill will or in bad faith that is not true, whilst an untruth is part of a device wherein one can get at the actual truth

p54

Comment on tarnation by annap

annap — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 22:27:50 +0000

ten cd set?
yes please!

you’re right about the proliferation of ‘life documenting’ – i think one of the reasons tarnation is so interesting is that it is made by someone who has been recording himself since he was a child, and (although i’m loathe to make such ‘era defining statements’) this marks a significant shift in how we think about the production of autobiography. among other things, this changes the role of memory as an organising phenomena in the production of life narrative.

Comment on my second life by ephemera

ephemera — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 20:26:32 +0000

i felt hungry but i haven’t eaten anything : i think you need lindens to buy food

so i made a crumpet with honey in rl instead

Comment on my second life by annap

annap — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 12:12:45 +0000

i agree: it’s interesting that the parameters for your visual self-representation are constrained by – what i imagine are – a set of aesthetic assumptions made by the builders/programmers of sl. the assumption being that you wouldn’t want to be too ugly, too fat, etc etc.
(for some reason tyrell – the mastermind behind the replicants in blade runner – springs to mind here)
better reflections, ’superior’ lives…
can you eat and eat and get fat?

Comment on my second life by ephemera

ephemera — Thu, 19 Oct 2006 20:32:47 +0000

as i said in my post i think it is interesting that it is impossible to make yourself seriously ugly and fat in sl, so maybe you are right about a better reflection – maybe you can buy a really fat and ugly body if you have the lindens – which gives me a great idea for a sl store…

oh stop it already!

Comment on my second life by poo tee weet? :: simulations and reflections: the internet and me(me)s

poo tee weet? :: simulations and reflections: the internet and me(me)s — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 13:08:10 +0000

[...] ephemera has recently been introduced to second-life an online community, immersive environment thing that i – for many reasons – cannot even bring myself to click the link to. reading his post about it, i was struck (and i don’t use the term lightly) by this observation: [...]

Comment on my second life by annap

annap — Wed, 18 Oct 2006 12:42:13 +0000

i have been thinking, on and off, about this post all day. and just then i realised that there is a relationship between this fascination you have for 'the psychology of human beings and their attraction to simulations' and my thoughts on narcissism and the internet are the second-lifers constructing a better reflection?

Comment on word of the day : grok by poo tee weet? :: doubt too

poo tee weet? :: doubt too — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 08:39:16 +0000

[...] i wrote in a text message to jk that: the gyoza taught me that i am in conflict with my ambition. and that my ambitiion has a distinct(ive) relationship to my doubt. i lack grok on this issue with the important, longstanding people in my life. and am thus… at sea. [...]

Comment on i can walk fast! by annap

annap — Wed, 11 Oct 2006 05:13:14 +0000

i am interested by the ‘we’ in your wagga wagga gag… all the others i’ve heard (which are not many) say ‘they had to name it twice’…

Comment on delta by poo tee weet? :: what’s the rush? notes on doubt2 / wiki / publishing (while in glebe)

Tue, 10 Oct 2006 12:50:55 +0000

[...] perhaps its just that most of the talk i see and hear about blogs, the internets, and so on leave me cold. even those that try to grab at the fleshy, affective parts of the experience of communicating and making projects happen online are too fascinated by their own reflections in the pool of digital communication. they like the way the internet makes them look; it’s like vaseline on the lense capturing their intelligence. they just look so sexy. young. risky. flirtacious. in response to this, and the problems inherent in the instant obsolence of technologies, software and the cultural theories of their usage, i have been taking comfort in the idea that doubt2 is project of slow-gestation. that is may never be ‘launched’, may never be ‘ready’, ‘finished’ or move beyond the delta phase. that it will take a slow road on the (now retro) superhighway of technology and its theorising. [...]

Comment on word of the day : grok by ephemera / song of the year

ephemera / song of the year — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 19:10:50 +0000

[...] in other news the new sparklehorse album Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain is out – the grauniad said : “It is like drinking one too many port and lemons in the afternoon and then drifting off, slightly dazed, in a sun-filled bedroom.” (hope i don’t wake up with a headache!) there is an mp3 of a track (Knives of Summertime) from it here – meanwhile if you grok joanna newsom and can’t wait for her new album ys which is out in november, it was inadvertently left on a publicly accessible server by pitchfork and downloaded by squillions of people – so those who know where to look should have no trouble finding it – the 55 minute album has only five tracks with one of them going for nearly seventeen minutes… [...]

Comment on delta by ephemera / delta

ephemera / delta — Mon, 25 Sep 2006 19:45:34 +0000

[...] this is now a page [...]

Comment on word of the day : grok by ephemera

ephemera — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 04:34:42 +0000

knowledge and doubt are not mutually exclusive which is demonstrated by the fact that i have a phd in fine art yet my doubt about art has only been increased by the knowledge i have gained whilst doing it – to grok, for me, means to be able to behold both the doubt and the knowledge yet not be frozen into inertia by it – thus to grok is to experience a truer more transcendent knowledge which also contains doubt – this may or may not correspond to the wikipedia or any other definition of grok, but i feel that the newness of the word allows me to help define it…

Comment on word of the day : grok by annap

annap — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 03:50:57 +0000

over on the forum, you ask “is doubt essential to grok”?
i wonder if you have had any further thoughts on this recently…i am interested to know what you think.
i am still grappling with grok as a concept, in no small part because a definition sourced from wikipedia is problematic for me. i don’t quite trust it.

it would seem to me though, that grok wants to imply an absence of doubt. that to grok something, or someone, is to grasp them more fully than an observer could comprehend. this ‘grasping’ implies a certainty does it not?

perhaps we need to think about how knowledge relates to doubt in this instance: does “greater knowledge” mean less doubt?

Comment on stolen property by ephemera

ephemera — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 09:21:56 +0000

done!

Comment on stolen property by annap

annap — Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:36:43 +0000

wow

please play on saftmasheen for the podcasters?
(it has no swear words so the management can’t complain)

Comment on Monument (If it Bleeds, it Leads) by annap

annap — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:33:56 +0000

well yes. the artist statement is kinda clunky isn’t it.
i would like this on a t-shirt please:
“an ironic gesture of grotesque absurdity that only an artist could hope to get away with…”

Comment on Monument (If it Bleeds, it Leads) by ephemera

ephemera — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 02:45:54 +0000

i would have thought a more straight-forward reading would be about how all these individual acts of dying are reduced to a very simple blip or hit by the newsfeed and then into the appearance of a small yellow mass produced object manufactured for the purpose of consumption – an ironic gesture of grotesque absurdity that only an artist could hope to get away with…

Comment on Monument (If it Bleeds, it Leads) by annap

annap — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 13:29:48 +0000

INTERESTING! QUANTIFYING DEATH… A STRANGELY TECHNOCRATIC RESPONSE TO CURRENT EVENTS.
I FOUND THIS PART OF THE ARTIST’S STATEMENT THOUGHT PROVOKING:
“There is an inherent dichotomy between the playfulness of the materials: the Legos, the bright yellow balls, the cake-pan BB hopper, and the sobering reality of the subject matter. This tension is combined with the viewer’s natural inclination to expect and desire activity from a kinetic sculpture. However, that desire represents a morbid reality in that every time the mechanism drops a ball, a real person has died.”

PLAYFULNESS / REALITY
DESIRE / MORBIDITY

(INHERENT? NOT SO SURE…)

I LIKE THE IDEA OF THESE DICHOTOMIES WORKING IN TENSION IN THE EXPERIENCE OF VIEWING THE WORK: HOW DO THEY FUNCTION IN OUR EXPERIENCE OF READING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE OF VIEWING THE WORK? AT ONE STEP REMOVED, ARE WE LEFT WITH ANYTHING OF THE PLAYFULNESS AND DESIRE?

MAYBE THIS FOLLOWS UP FROM MY NON-COMMENT ON THE NATASCHA KAMPUSCH POST: THIS DOUBT BLOG SEEMS TO DRAW OUR ATTENTION TO PARTICULARLY DARK ELEMENTS. POTENT FERTILISER FOR DOUBT…

Comment on word of the day : grok by annap

annap — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 00:50:26 +0000

can you have an appreciation of grok while holding on to your doubts about essentialism?
(see here for definition(s) http://academic.udayton.edu/gender/01Unit/essent.htm)