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"Method of this work:
literary montage.
I have nothing to say only to show."
(Passagenwerk (1927 - 1940) - Walter Benjamin)

The "rhizome" allows for multiple,
non-hierarchical entry and exit points
in data representation and interpretation.
--Mille Plateaux - Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari,
volume 2 of Capitalisme et Schizofrénie (1980)

2005, Mar 14; 12:59 ::: Paul Gustave Doré (1832 - 1883)

Samuel Taylor Coleridge, La Chanson du Vieux Marin. Illustration par Gustave Doré, 1875. Planche 12
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Paul Gustave Doré (January 6, 1832 - January 23, 1883), a French artist, was born in Strasbourg. He became a book illustrator in Paris and his commissions included work by Rabelais, Balzac and Dante. In 1853 he was asked to illustrate the works of Lord Byron. This was followed by other work for British publishers including a new illustrated English Bible. He also illustrated a very oversized edition of E. A. Poe's The Raven.

Doré's English Bible (1865) was a great success and in 1867 Doré had a major exhibition of his work in London. This led to the foundation of the Doré Gallery in New Bond Street.

In 1869, Blanchard Jerrold, the son of Douglas William Jerrold, suggested that they worked together to produce a comprehensive portrait of London. Jerrold had got the idea from The Microcosm of London, that had been produced by Rudolph Ackermann, William Pyne and Thomas Rowlandson in 1808.

Gustave Doré also illustrated several fairy tales.

Doré signed a five-year project with the publishers, Grant & Co, that involved him staying in London for three months a year. Doré was paid the vast sum of £10,000 a year for the proposed art work. The book, London: A Pilgrimage, with 180 engravings by Doré, was eventually published in 1872.

Although a commercial success, many of the critics disliked the book. Several were upset that Doré had appeared to concentrate on the poverty that existed in London. Gustave Doré was accused by the Art Journal of "inventing rather than copying". The Westminster Review claimed that "Doré gives us sketches in which the commonest, the vulgarest external features are set down".

London: A Pilgrimage was a financial success and Doré received commissions from other British publishers. Doré's later work included Paradise Lost, The Idylls of the King, The Works of Thomas Hood and The Divine Comedy. His work also appeared in the Illustrated London News. Doré continued to illustrate books until his death in paris in 1883. He is interred in the city's Père Lachaise Cemetery. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustave_Dore [Mar 2005]

see also: illustration

2005, Mar 14; 12:25 ::: Elle () - Roland Bourigeaud

Elle () - Roland Bourigeaud
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

(Né en 1920)

Il perd sa mère en 1930, ce qui sans doute expliquera plus tard son goût obsessionnel pour les «Années Folles».Etrange itinéraire que celui de ce peintre qui conduisit en effet, avec une égale passion, une double carrière: celle de peintre et celle de professeur.

En 1939, il est employé d’octroi, comme le Douanier Rousseau. Parallèlement, il suit des cours de dessin à Montparnasse, dans l’Atelier Lesbounit et prépare un professorat d’Arts Plastiques. En 1953, il est reçu Professeur à la Ville de Paris. En 1970, il est nommé professeur à l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Appliqués et des Métiers d’Art à Paris. Il est reconnu pour ses travaux sur la psychologie des formes et des couleurs, auxquels il travaille depuis 1954, ce qui lui vaudra plus tard d’être promu professeur agrégé. Pendant tout ce temps, il n’a jamais cessé de peindre, malgré quelques interruptions inhérentes à ses activités pédagogiques et quelques commandes de l’Etat (collectivités ou personnelles) de fresques et de tapisseries. Il peint et expose en France et à l’étranger. Sa peinture ? Ses Maîtres à penser ont été très divers : des surréalistes aux classiques, de Magritte au Titien, de Delvaux à Rubens. Comme il conclut lui-même: «Dans ma vie, j’ai eu trois passions : La Peinture, La Femme et l’Enseignement ».Ses oeuvres sont dispersées dans des collections particulières à Paris, Bruxelles, Berlin, Londres, Genève, Milan, Venise, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, etc... --http://www.galerie-du-chateau.fr/PHOTOS/BOURIGEAUD/img0000.htm [Mar 2005]

see also: erotic art

2005, Mar 14; 11:25 ::: Joe Coleman and other transgressive artists

Altar to my demon (1986) - Joe Coleman

An illustrator and painter whose work can be seen in comics/pop art publications like Blab and Juxtapoz, Joseph Coleman, Jr. (22 November 1955) paints modern American Gothic subjects (hobos, serial killers, underground artists) and religious subject matter (Jesus) with a fleshy, bulbous intensity. In some ways, much of his style makes reference to the Spanish-Mexican religious tradition that Frida Kahlo also drew upon.

His pranks -- including appearing to blow himself up and medieval-style geek antics -- have been documented in the "Pranks" volume of Re/Search Books, along with the works of other sinister clowns like Boyd Rice.

Coleman is striking in appearance, with a long black beard, resembling Coffin Joe to a superficial extent. As an avid enthusiast for weird, dark American culture, he is a serious collector of sideshow oddities -- he's a patron of Johnny Fox's Freakatorium in New York City, where he lives -- and is a supporter of strange artists like primitive rockabilly legend Hasil Adkins. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Coleman_%28painter%29 [Mar 2005]

Transgressive artists
* GG Allin * Butthole Surfers * Lisa Crystal Carver * Joe Coleman (painter) * Costes * Crash Worship * Crust (band) * Cindy Dall * Dame Darcy * Vaginal Creme Davis * Foetus (band) * Richard Kern * Lung Leg * Lydia Lunch * Misty Martinez * Panicsville * Rat Bastard * Boyd Rice * Suckdog * To Live and Shave in L.A. 2 * Nick Zedd --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Transgressive_artists [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 14; 11:13 ::: Tree of Knowledge as Death

Jost Amman: Adam and Eve with the Tree of Knowledge as Death (1587), from Jacob Ruegg's De conceptu et generatione hominis

2005, Mar 14; 10:30 ::: Magic realism

Magic realism (or magical realism) is a literary genre in which magical elements appear in an otherwise realist setting. It is most often associated with the Latin American literary boom of the twentieth century, marked by the publication of One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez in 1967, which is considered the seminal magical realist text. Magical realism has been viewed at different times as a specific historical-geographical literary movement and as a style that can be located in a large variety of novels, poetry, painting, and even film. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_realism [Mar 2005]

see also: magic - realism

2005, Mar 14; 09:08 ::: Metamorphoses of the body

The Fly (1958) - Kurt Neumann [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

The Fly is a 1958 American sci-fi / horror film, directed by Kurt Neumann. Written by George Langelaan (story) and James Clavell. The film was remade in 1986 and 2005.

A scientist (David Hedison) has an horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device. As he attempts to transport himself, a fly gets inside the machine and a malfunction results in a half man, half fly hybrid - a human with a fly's head - being transported. The creature is ultimately destroyed. In the famous twist ending, the scientist's original head, now on the fly's body, is seen in a spider's web, screaming "Help me! Help me!" as the spider approaches.

Tagline: She had to kill the thing her husband had become -- But could she? --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fly_%281958%29 [Mar 2005]

Physical metamorphosis as a theme in painting, sculpture, photography, and cinema reveals an ongoing fascination with all manner of transformations and distortions of the human form. Ranging from classical to modern times, this program presents zoomorphism; hybrids from mythology, the hells of Hieronymus Bosch, and the caricatures of Granville; "botanomorphism," people as plants; treatments of body as landscape and landscape as body; the personification of genitalia; digital manipulation of images, to model bizarre new races of people; and engineered beings such as Frankenstein-type creatures and cyborgs. (27 minutes, color) --http://www.films.com/Films_Home/Item.cfm/1/30687 [Mar 2005]

Shapeshifting or transmogrification
Shapeshifting, transformation or transmogrification refers to a change in the form or shape of a person. It primarily refers to:

  • a change from human form to animal form and vice versa
  • a change in appearance from one person to another
  • a change in age in the person

Although shapeshifting is not believed to be scientifically or medically possible, it is a common theme in myth and a popular theme in science fiction and fantasy stories.

"Shapeshifting" often refers to characters who change form on their own, whether voluntarily or involuntarily, while "transformation" refers more commonly to externally imposed change of form, whether by magic or sufficiently advanced technology. However, there is no settled agreement on the terminology. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shapeshifting [Mar 2005]

see also: metamorphoses

2005, Mar 13; 21:52 ::: Green man

Green Man depiction from British Cathedral
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

The Green Man is a symbol of uncertain origin common in the British Isles. Classic examples are most frequently found among the stonework in and on churches, though it is more likely pagan in nature. It depicts a man with foliage for hair, usually with either a leafy beard or with leaves growing out of his mouth and nose. A similar nature spirit is the wild man of the woods, the woodwose. Other possible references to him are Green George, Jack-in-the-Green, John Barleycorn and the Green Knight.

The image of the Green Man is popular with modern Wiccans and other Neopagans.

The name "Green Man" was a term coined by Lady Raglan in 1939. It appeared in her article The Green Man in Church Architecture, published in the Folklore Journal. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Man [Mar 2005]

see also: biology

2005, Mar 13; 21:34 ::: Princess Mononoke (1997) - Hayao Miyazaki

Tree spirit in action in Princess Mononoke (1997) - Hayao Miyazaki [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Princess Mononoke (Mononoke Hime 1997) is a Japanese animated film by Hayao Miyazaki.

It is set in medieval Japan, and centres on the struggle between the supernatural guardians of a forest and the humans who need its resources, as seen by the outsider Ashitaka. "Mononoke" is not a name, but a description that might be rendered in this context as "avenging spirit", making the title of the film Princess of the Avenging Spirits. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Mononoke [Mar 2005]

see also: biology

2005, Mar 13; 19:19 ::: Amazon.com Statistically Improbable Phrases

The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film (2002) Jack Morgan [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Amazon.com's Statistically Improbable Phrases, or "SIPs", show you the interesting, distinctive, or unlikely phrases that occur in the text of books in Search Inside the Book. Our computers scan the text of all books in the Search Inside program. If they find a phrase that occurs a large number of times in a particular book relative to how many times it occurs across all Search Inside books, that phrase a SIP in that book. --sitb-feedback@amazon.com

SIPs for ISBN: 0809324717:
horror invention, macabre literature, contagion horror, literary horror, literary gothicism, horror mode, horror aesthetic, horror literature, horror imagination

Product Description:
Unearthing the fearful flesh and sinful skins at the heart of gothic horror, Jack Morgan rends the genre’s biological core from its oft-discussed psychological elements and argues for a more transhistorical conception of the gothic, one negatively related to comedy. The Biology of Horror: Gothic Literature and Film dissects popular examples from the gothic literary and cinematic canon, exposing the inverted comic paradigm within each text.

Morgan’s study begins with an extensive treatment of comedy as theoretically conceived by Suzanne Langer, C. L. Barber, and Mikhail Bakhtin. Then, Morgan analyzes the physical and mythological nature of horror in inverted comic terms, identifying a biologically grounded mythos of horror. Motifs such as sinister loci, languishment, masquerade, and subversion of sensual perception are contextualized here as embedded in an organic reality, resonating with biological motives and consequences. Morgan also devotes a chapter to the migration of the gothic tradition into American horror, emphasizing the body as horror’s essential place in American gothic.

The bulk of Morgan’s study is applied to popular gothic literature and films ranging from high gothic classics like Matthew Lewis’s The Monk, Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho, Charles Maturin’s Melmoth the Wanderer, and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, to later literary works such as Poe’s macabre tales, Melville’s "Benito Cereno," J.S Le Fanu’s Uncle Silas, H.P. Lovecraft’s "The Shadow over Innsmouth," Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hillhouse, Stephen King’s Salem's Lot, and Clive Barker’s The Damnation Game. Considered films include Nosferatu, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Friday the 13th, Halloween, Night of the Living Dead, Angel Heart, The Stand, and The Shining.

Morgan concludes his physical examination of the Gothic reality with a consideration born of Julia Kristeva’s theoretical rubric which addresses horror’s existential and cultural significance, its lasting fascination, and its uncanny positive—and often therapeutic—direction in literature and film. --via Amazon.com

see also: gothic - horror - biology - film - literature - Julia Kristeva

2005, Mar 13; 19:19 ::: Mondo 2000

Cover of "Mondo 2000" issue 13 by Keichi Ohta
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Parents who thumb through Mondo 2000 will find much here to upset them. An article on house music makes popping MDMA (ECSTASY) and thrashing all night to music that clocks 120 beats per minute sound like an experience no red-blooded teenager would want to miss. After describing in detail the erotic effects of massive doses of L-dopa, MDA and deprenyl, the entry on aphrodisiacs adds as an afterthought that in some combinations these drugs can be fatal. Essays praising the beneficial effects of psychedelics and smart drugs on the ''information processing'' power of the brain sit alongside RANTS that declare, among other things, that ''safe sex is boring sex'' and that ''cheap thrills are fun.'' --http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,977654,00.html [Mar 2005]

Mondo 2000 was a glossy 'cyberculture' magazine published in California during the 1980s and 90s. It covered cyberpunk topics such as VR and smart drugs. It was seen as a more anarchic or subversive reflection of its later contemporary, Wired magazine.

Mondo 2000 originated as High Frontiers in 1984, edited by R. U. Sirius (pseudonym for Ken Goffman) and Queen Mu (Allison Bailey Kennedy). Sirius was joined by hacker Jude Milhon (a.k.a St Jude) as editor and the magazine was renamed Reality Hackers in 1988 to better reflect its drugs and computers theme. It changed name again to Mondo 2000 in 1989. The magazine continued to be published under this name until the last issue, published in 1998.

Writers featured included William Gibson, Rudy Rucker, Bruce Sterling, and Robert Anton Wilson. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondo_2000 [Mar 2005]

see also: Mondo - cyber - R.U. Sirius - William Gibson

2005, Mar 13; 18:48 ::: Ron Mueck (1958 - )

Ghost (1998) - Ron Mueck
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Ron Mueck (born 1958) is an Australian hyper-realist sculptor working in Britain.

Mueck's early career was as a model maker and puppeteer for children's television and films, notably the film Labyrinth for which he also contributed the voice of Ludo.

Mueck moved on to establish his own company in London, making photo-realistic props and animatronics for the advertising industry. Although highly detailed, these props were usually designed to be photographed from one specific angle hiding the mess of construction seen from the other side. Mueck increasingly wanted to produce realistic sculptures which looked perfect from all angles.

In 1996 Mueck transitioned to fine art collaborating with his mother-in-law, Paula Rego, to produce small figure as part of a tableau she was showing at the Hayward Gallery. Rego introduced him to Charles Saatchi who was immediately impressed and started to collect and commission work. This lead to the piece which made Mueck's name, Dead_Dad, being included in the Sensation show at the Royal Academy the following year. Dead Dad is a rather haunting latex and mixed media sculpture of the corpse of Mueck's father reduced to about two thirds of its natural scale.

Mueck's sculptures faithfully reproduce the minute detail of the human body, but play with scale to produce disconcertingly jarring visual images. His five metre high sculpture Boy 1999 was a feature in the Millennium Dome and later exhibited in the Venice Biennale. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Mueck [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 13; 18:18 ::: Paula Rego (1935 - )

work by Paula Rego
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Paula Rego (born 1935) is a Portuguese painter, illustrator and printmaker.

Born in Lisbon, Rego was sent to finishing school in Sevenoaks in England. She left to the Slade School of Art where she met the artist Victor Willing, whom she eventually married. The two divided their time between Portugal and England until 1975, when they moved to England. Willing later died after suffering for some years from multiple sclerosis.

Rego has stated that illustrative art (such as that in the Beatrix Potter books) and fairy tales were important early influences. Her work sometimes includes imagery from fairy tales with a sinister edge. Early pieces sometimes use collaged elements taken from Rego's own drawings, with later works often being in vinyl paint on paper.

Rego's style is often compared to cartoon illustration. As in cartoons, animals are often depicted in human roles and situations. Later work adopts a more realistic style, but sometimes keeps the animal references - the Dog Woman series of the 1990s, for example, is a set of pastel pictures depicting women in a variety of dog-like poses (on all fours, baying at the moon, and so on).

Rego has also painted a portrait of Germaine Greer, which is in the National Portrait Gallery in London.

Rego was shortlisted for the Turner Prize in 1989. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paula_Rego [Mar 2005]

see also: contemporary art

2005, Mar 13; 17:50 ::: Three Ages of the Woman and the Death (1510) Hans Baldung Grien (1484 - 1545)

Three Ages of the Woman and the Death (1510) Hans Baldung Grien (1484 - 1545)
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 13; 17:50 ::: Dead Lovers (1528) Matthias Grünewald

Dead Lovers (1528) Matthias Grünewald
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

Matthias Grünewald (c1470-1528) is one of the greatest figures in German Renaissance art. The visionary character of his work, with its expressive colour and line, is in stark contrast to Albrecht Dürer's.

His real name was Mathis Gothart Niethart. A seventeenth-century writer mistakenly identified him by the name Grünewald, his real name was not discovered till the 1920s. He was born in Würzburg in the 1470s. He served as court painter and engineer to two successive archbishops of Mainz from about 1510 to 1525. He left this post apparently because of Lutheran sympathies. Grünewald died in Halle in 1528.

The greatest of his works is the Isenheim Altarpiece, completed 1515, now in the Musée d'Unterlinden, Colmar. It contains his most famous images: the Crucifixion, the Temptation of St Anthony, and the Resurrection.

See also: Early Renaissance painting --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthias_Gr%FCnewald [Jun 2004]

2005, Mar 13; 15:48 ::: Histoire de l'érotisme (1961) - Lo Duca, J.M.

Histoire de l'érotisme (1961) - Lo Duca, J.M.
image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

LO DUCA Jean-Marie, Histoire de l'érotisme, Paris, Jean-Jacques Pauvert, 1963; 18x18 cm., brossura, sovracopertina, pp. (2) 250, volume interamente illustrato b.n. Pubblicato per la prima volta nel 1961, il testo viene qui ristampato come primo volume dell'opera De Erotica e della collana «Bibliothèque d'Erotologie». (Luinetti 1968: vol. V pag. 85).

Also published in 1969 by La Jeune Parque.

Ontology at L'Arengario, 25064 Gussago (BS),Italy

  • ARCHITECTURE
  • FINE ARTS
  • AUTOGRAPHS
  • AVANT-GARDES
  • BIBLIOGRAPHY
  • CINEMA
  • COUNTERCULTURE
  • OENOLOGY
  • EROTICA
  • PHOTOGRAPHY
  • LITERATURE
  • ILLUSTRATED BOOKS
  • MAGAZINES
  • HISTORY OF IDEAS
  • OTHER SUBJECTS
--http://www.arengario.it/homepage/archivio.htm [Mar 2005]

Joseph-Marie Lo Duca (1905-2004)
De Italiaanse filmkenner, journalist en criticus Joseph-Marie Lo Duca werd in 1905 in Milaan geboren. In de jaren dertig vestigde hij zich in Parijs. Lo Duca regisseerde enkele korte films en schreef talloze scenario's. Joseph-Marie Lo Duca was de oprichter van het Internationale filmmuseum in Rome. Ook was hij betrokken bij het Franse invloedrijke filmtijdschrift "Cahiers du cinéma". Daarnaast schreef Lo Duca vele boeken, met name over film. Belangrijke boeken van Joseph-Marie Lo Duca zijn onder meer: "Histoire du cinéma" (1942), "Le cinéma français" (1943) en "L'Érotisme au cinéma" (1957). Joseph-Marie Lo Duca overleed in augustus 2004 in het ziekenhuis in Fontainebleau bij Parijs. --http://www.absofacts2.com/filmendvd/data/filmdvd0030.htm [Mar 2005]

One of France's leading historians of the cinema, Joseph-Marie Lo Duca has died aged 98. Lo Duca, who was born in Milan and moved to France in the 1930s, made short films, cartoons and wrote numerous screenplays as well as books and articles for France's leading intellectual film magazine, Cahiers du Cinema, which he co-founded in 1951. He also founded the International Museum of Cinema and Entertainment in Rome and his book, History of the Cinema was translated into 32 languages. --http://www.worldmoviemag.com/index.php?request=NewsInBrief&key=1698 [2004-08-09, Mar 2005]

J.M. Lo Duca (1911 - )
Biographie Lo Duca est né à Milan en 1911. A l'âge de 16 ans, il écrit son premier livre, La Sphère de Platine, lancé par Marinetti, le père du futurisme. Il sera en France préfacé par Marcel Griaule et devance de quatre ans Le Meilleur des Mondes d'Aldous Huxley, auquel on l'a souvent comparé. A partir des années 30, Lo Duca n'écrit plus qu'en français. Il se fait tout d'abord connaître par ses écrits sur l'art : Giorgio de Chirico, Rousseau Le Douanier, Eros im Bild (préfacé par George Bataille); et plus tard par ses études sur le cinéma (Histoire du Cinéma qui sera traduit en douze langues), sur l'art de la bande dessinée (Manuel des confesseurs et Krafft-Ebing) et sur l'érotologie (L'Erotisme au cinéma - 1945, L'Histoire de l'Erotisme - 1968 -, Dictionnaire de sexologie - 1972 -). Au total, une oeuvre résolument en marge, qui conjugue de façon unique érudition, érotisme, et imagination. S'il ne fallait ne retenir qu'un, ses admirateurs, André Breton, Jean Cocteau, Jean Dutourd, Marcel Pagnol, George Bataille..., crieraient d'une seule voix : Le Journal Secret de Napoléon Bonaparte, édité par J. J. Pauvert en 1948, puis réédité aux éditions Phébus en 1997. Bibliographie La Sphère de Platine (1927), Giorgio de Chirico, Rousseau Le Douanier, Eros im Bild (années 30); Histoire du Cinéma (1942), Manuel des confesseurs et Krafft-Ebing, L'Erotisme au cinéma (1945), Le Journal Secret de Napoléon Bonaparte (1948), L'Histoire de l'Erotisme (1968), Dictionnaire de sexologie (1972), et Les Mines de Sodome (2001). --http://www.maxmilo.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=26 [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 13; 15:48 ::: Le printemps et l'hivers () - Franco Schina (1612-1660)

Le printemps et l'hivers () - Franco Schina (1612-1660)
black and white rendering of color original, image sourced here. [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 13; 15:25 ::: Hackers (1984) and the geek canon

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (1984) - Steven Levy [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution (ISBN 0385191952) is a book by Steven Levy about the hacker culture. It was published in 1984 in Garden City, New York by Anchor Press/Doubleday. Levy describes the people, the machines, and the events that defined the Hacker Culture and the Hacker Ethic, from the early mainframe hackers at MIT, to the self-made hardware hackers and game hackers. However since the book was written in the 1980s, there is no mention of the network hackers of the 1990s. Below is a summary of each chapter of the book, mentioning some of the principal characters and events. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hackers:_Heroes_of_the_Computer_Revolution [Mar 2005]

The non-fiction book Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution by Steven Levy is unusual in that it is both a part of the canon and a work which describes geek culture and other elements of the canon. Twenty years after being first published, it is still in print. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_canon [Mar 2005]

Geek canon
The Geek canon is a canon of books, art, films, television series, games, electronic gadgets, or other miscellanea, which have been influential in the shaping of geek culture[s]. The selection of canon is very loose, and varies significantly between communities. However, there are a number of works — particularly books — which can be said to be geek canon. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geek_canon [Mar 2005]

See also: computer - canon - subculture - 1984

2005, Mar 13; 15:13 ::: Le musée des supplices (1968) - Roland Villeneuve

Le musée des supplices (1968) - Roland Villeneuve
image sourced via http://marchese-desade.org/saggi/saggiuv.htm [Mar 2005]

Jusepe de Ribera (Spanish, 1591-1652), Apollo Flaying Marsyas, 1637, oil on canvas, Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. --image sourced via http://www.artlex.com/ArtLex/a/apollo.html [Mar 2005]

Inspired by Hugues

2005, Mar 13; 13:27 ::: Illustrierte Sittengeschichte (1909-1912) Eduard Fuchs

Illustrierte Sittengeschichte vom Mittelalter bis zur Gegenwart (1909-1912) - Eduard Fuchs

Albert Langen, München 1909/1910/1911/1912

  • Volume 1: Die Renaissance.
  • Volume 2: Die galante Zeit.
  • Volume 3: Das bürgerliche Zeitalter.

Acquired these three volumes at Nuit de Chine. Usually, 6 volumes are mentioned. There is a 6 volume collection

See also: Eduard Fuchs - history of erotic art - German erotica - erotic books

2005, Mar 11; 17:41 ::: Comment

Amazingly the world's greatest blog and best time wasting website are one in the same. --James K., Bellingham, Washington, United States via http://tkniques.blogspot.com/2005/03/puddles-are-and-this-entry-is-as-well.html [Mar 2005]

See also: blogging - site - comments - greatness

Greatness
Greatness is a vague concept that is heavily dependent on a person's perspective and biases. It is a term that is often used, however, by people trying to emphasize a thing's superiority. In Europe the most lauded rulers were given the suffix "the Great" (e.g. Alfred the Great).

One common practice is to assemble lists of great people, things, and places. They can be formulated by panels of experts, polls, or an ordinary individual. While these lists can never be considered definitive this is part of their appeal for they inevitably spark debate over what should be listed.

An especially common assembly of great things are greatest hits collections of tracks that are often released by music groups. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greatness [Mar 2005]

See also: bias - canon

2005, Mar 10; 22:17 ::: Neoclassicism: "grotesque" painted decor

"Grotesque" painted decor that hearkened back to Raphael's stanze decorated Mme de Sérilly's Paris boudoir. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoclassicism [Mar 2005]

2005, Mar 10; 10:45 ::: Theory index

By field: art theory - auteur theory - critical theory - culture theory - film theory - genre theory - horror theory - literary theory - music theory - media theory - sex theory -

Related: deconstruction - knowledge - model - reality - semiotics - science - structuralism - poststructuralism -

2005, Mar 09; 23:25 ::: The unresolved clash of incompatibles

The basic definition of the grotesque: the unresolved clash of incompatibles in work and response. It is significant this clash is paralleled by the ambivalent nature of the abnormal as present in the grotesque: we might consider a secondary definition of the grotesque to be the 'ambivalently abnormal' (Philip Thomson, The Grotesque, 27).

See also: grotesque

2005, Mar 09; 23:25 ::: Disco and rainbow politics

Disco relied on phenomenal musicianship and state of the art production. It transformed the way music was recorded and the way radio worked. It also turned around the fortunes of club culture overnight. It was responsible for the remix, the 12" single and the rise of the DJ as storyteller, producer and superstar. It took on the rock establishment and held its own. It changed lifestyles, fashions and attitudes, forging a rainbow politics where for the very first time - gay or straight, black or white, male or female - everyone was invited to the party. Most of all it shaped the course of pop and dance music forever. --http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/r2music/documentaries/disco.shtml [Mar 2005]

See also: disco - DJ - twelve inch

Rainbow politics
The rainbow flag, sometimes called the freedom flag, has been used as a symbol of gay and lesbian pride since the 1980s. The colors symbolize gay pride and gay rights. It originated in the United States, but is now used around the world.

The rainbow flag was first used to symbolize gay pride and diversity by San Francisco artist Gilbert Baker; as of 2003, it currently consists of six colored stripes of red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet. It is most commonly flown with the red stripe on top, as the colors appear in a natural rainbow. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_flag#Gay_pride [Mar 2005]

See also: gay pride - gay rights - gay - queer

2005, Mar 09; 23:14 ::: The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983?) - Marilyn Frye

The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (1983?) - Marilyn Frye [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]

2005, Mar 09; 22:41 ::: Whiteness studies

Whiteness studies is a controversial branch of academic scholarship which began appearing as early as 1983 (see the works of Marilyn Frye). As of 2004, according to The Washington Post, at least 30 institutions including Princeton University, the University of California at Los Angeles, and University of Massachusetts Amherst currently offer courses in whiteness studies.

The central tenet of whiteness studies is a reading of history in which the very concept of race is said to have been created by a white power structure in order to justify discrimination against nonwhites. Advocates of whiteness studies argue that whites do not see their own whiteness racially, but regard race as something that "others" have; by emphasizing "whiteness," they seek to change white Americans' view of their own racial identity.

Critics deride the field as a fad, or as a mask for racism against whites. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteness_studies [Mar 2005]

See also: white - white culture - white music - racism

For various reasons, techno is seen by the American mainstream, even among African-Americans, as "white" music, even though its originators and many of its producers are Black. The historical similarities between techno, jazz, and rock and roll, from a racial standpoint, are a point of contention among fans and musicians alike. Derrick May, in particular, has been outspoken in his criticism of the co-opting of the genre and of the misconceptions held by people of all races with regard to techno. In recent years, however, the publication of relatively accurate histories by authors Simon Reynolds (Generation Ecstasy aka Energy Flash) and Dan Sicko (Techno Rebels), plus mainstream press coverage of the Detroit Electronic Music Festival, have helped to diffuse the genre's more dubious mythology. The genre has further expanded as more recent pioneers of the scene such as Moby, Orbital, and the Future Sound of London have made the style break through to the mainstream pop culture. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Techno_music#History [Mar 2005]

See also: techno - black - black music - white - white music - Derrick May

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