slow learner

overratedthoughts (via papertissue)

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:09:23 -0500

overratedthoughts (via papertissue)

Lillian playing with an abstract thought, by Matte...

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 10:03:03 -0500

Lillian playing with an abstract thought, by Matte Stephens

via sniffyjenkins

Breakfast at Sulimays ep. 40: LCD Soundsystem (via...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:42:58 -0500

Breakfast at Sulimays ep. 40: LCD Soundsystem (via woodshopfilms)

fuckyeahemilyhaines:ehiroko: “Black Sheep” by Metric New Metric...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 17:35:26 -0500

fuckyeahemilyhaines:ehiroko:

“Black Sheep” by Metric

New Metric to be released on the upcoming soundtrack for Michael Cera’s summer flick, “Scott Pilgrim vs. The World”

hipstertracks: The Whigs - In The Dark

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:16:23 -0500

hipstertracks:

The Whigs - In The Dark

(via thepulpgirls)

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 19:51:12 -0500

(via thepulpgirls)

Marshall McLuhan’s claim that “the medium is the message” is a...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 08:44:00 -0500

Marshall McLuhan’s claim that “the medium is the message” is a more-or-less foundational tenet of media studies, and it is exactly this claim that Rancière contests. In an insight that is both groundbreaking and re-hashing some 18th-century observations on aesthetics, Rancière claims that “it’s not the medium, but the operation.”

According to Rancière, the problem with media theory is that it tries to deduce a work’s aesthetic affects and political effects from the formal/empirical properties of its medium. “Contemporary mediological discourse” assumes that “the properties of apparatuses of production and diffusion” (Rancière, 18) determine every aspect of media objects and media discourse.* So, for example, some theorists argue that the aesthetics or politics of “new media” are derived from formal/structural features of specific programs, hardware configurations, or even the fact of digitization itself.** Rancière, however, thinks this tactic conflates of the “technical properties” of a medium with “the aesthetic properties” of a work’s form and content (Rancière, 2) – in other words, he’s arguing that the medium is not only not the message, it’s not what makes something art (as opposed to journalism or advertising or whatever). As famous hackers like Grandmaster Flash and T-Pain well know, the technical properties and constraints of a specific device are limited only by the creativity of their end-users. Turntables are not just for reproducing sound, just as Autotune is not just for pitch “correction,” so it would be foolish to try to find some sort of necessary, causal relationship between hip hop’s aesthetic and its means of (re)production.

What does make something art is its “operation.” An “operation” is not form, not content, but a regime of images, a set of norms and conventions that determine what counts as art and what doesn’t count as art. Rancière defines operations as the “alteration[s] of resemblance” that “produc[e] what we call art” (6); they are the markers that distinguish an art object from a mundane, utilitarian object. Think about Duchamp’s Fountain. It has no material-technical property that distinguishes it, “Fountain,” from any old urinal in any old restroom. It is, however, displayed in an artworld context, it is considered to be the singular work of an author-artist, it is considered to have both exhibit aesthetic properties and to have some sort of substantive content (broadly construed). These features are all “operations” in Rancière’s sense.*** An operation is more or less what Foucault would call a “regime of truth” or what Thomas Kuhn would call a “paradigm” – it’s an epistemological framework that doles out what counts as artistic meaning and affect, how meaning and affect are perceived, and how meaning and affect are communicated. For those familiar with Rancière’s political philosophy, “operation” is another term for “distribution of sensibility”: they are “the link between perceptions, actions, and affects” (Rancière, 5). Operations do not follow from technical-material properties of a medium, but from convention and its vicissitudes. Rancière argues that operations “create and frustrate expectations” (5) – they are norms that, when followed, produce certain kinds of pleasure (like familiarity), or, when frustrated, produce others (awe, interest in innovation). Operations are conventions, the product of history and society; “operations do not derive from the properties of [any] medium” (Rancière, 5).

Interestingly, Rancière’s claim here is nearly identical to Rousseau’s critique of 18th century music theorists. In his Essay on the Origin of Languages, Rousseau argues that “Whoever wishes to philosophize about the force of sensations must therefore begin by setting the purely sensory impressions apart from the intellectual and moral impressions we receive by way of the senses, but of which the senses are only the occasional causes: let him avoid the error of attributing to sensible objects a power which they either lack or derive from the affections of the soul which they represent to us” (289). Rousseau is speaking about Jean-Philippe Rameau, a very prominent music theorist and author of one of the canonical and foundational texts of Western tonal harmony. Rameau thought that all of music’s properties could be deduced and derived from the physics of sound (specifically, the relations among intervals in the overtone series). Rousseau disagrees with Rameau, claiming that the latter “attributes to sensible objects” – i.e., sound waves – an affective power that can arise only through convention. “Sounds act on us not only as sounds,” Rousseau explains, “but as signs of our affections, our sentiments; this is how they arouse in us the emotions which they express and the image of which we recognize in them” (Rousseau, 288). Music works like a language. It is a semiological system wherein certain sounds or combinations of sounds have come to be associated with certain meanings.**** Like Rancière, Rousseau argues that it’s not the medium, the physical/technical properties of sound waves, but the conventions or “operations.”

* All Rancière quotes are from The Future of the Image (Verso, 2007).
** In The Language of New Media, Lev Manovich describes his project as “beginning with the basic, ‘material’ principles of new media – numeric coding and modular organization – we moved to more ‘deep’ and far-reaching ones – automation and variability” (45). Clearly he’s following McLuhan to a certain extent insofar as he tries to deduce a metatheory of new media from the material/empirical properties of networked computers. This tendency to deduce aesthetic properties from material-technical properties is likely also indebted to Walter Benjamin’s theory that the means of artistic production bear directly on the status and functioning of art objects as such.
*** The last one, the idea that it has a meaning in need of interpretation, is an operation Rancière identifies as central Western art from the 19th century onward.
**** Or, as Rousseau says, music “is a language for which one has to have the Dictionary” (286). All Rousseau quotes from the Gourevitch translation.

text from its-her-factory

photo via GLOBAL DEMIX : MATTHIEU LAURETTE: [APPARITION] “JACQUES RANCIERE IS SO COOL”, THE TODAY SHOW, NBC, 30 OCTOBER 2009

The BBC is to close two radio stations and scale back its web...

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 07:36:42 -0500

The BBC is to close two radio stations and scale back its web presence to make £600m in savings, according to a report in the Times newspaper.

BBC Asian Network and 6 Music will be closed under the proposals, it says.

The Times claims the measures are part of a plan, due to be made public next month, to reduce the BBC’s services and focus on quality over quantity.

A statement from the BBC called press speculation “premature” but acknowledged the existence of a review.

The National Union of Journalists, however, said it had “received a detailed briefing” from the BBC this morning “confirming media reports as largely correct”.

The Union warned of strikes if cuts went ahead.

Strategic review

The Times claims the proposals are currently being considered by the BBC Trust, the corporation’s governing body.

They allegedly involve a wide-ranging series of cuts that will make £600m available for higher quality programming.

Savings will reportedly be made by limiting spending on rights to sporting events and reducing the money spent on imported TV shows.

The BBC Switch and Blast! websites are also to be closed as part of a larger reduction in the BBC’s web presence, the newspaper alleges.

INSIDER’S VIEW
Torin Douglas, Media correspondent

The Times report is very detailed so the paper has clearly been shown a BBC document. Whether these will be the final decisions remains to be seen.

The report is to be considered by the governing body, the BBC Trust, and The Times quotes “BBC Trust sources” as saying they would like the Director general to impose even greater cuts to budget for imported programmes.

There could also be last-minute lobbying on behalf of the two radio stations said to be due for closure. A campaign to save BBC 6 Music has been running on Facebook for some time.

The Times states the BBC’s budget for foreign acquisitions, which currently stands at £100m, will be cut by a quarter.

This could mean the end of such US TV shows as Heroes, Mad Men and The Wire on BBC channels.

The BBC’s website budget, which currently stands at £112m, will also be cut by 25 per cent.

The Times says this will be achieved by halving the number of web pages and reducing its staff by a quarter.

BBC Worldwide will be ordered to divest itself of its British magazine publishing arm, the newspaper continues.

If approved, this could see the Radio Times, Top Gear magazine and other publications put out to tender.

In a statement, the BBC said: “Last summer, the BBC Trust challenged the BBC to develop a new strategy to meet the opportunities and the threats of the rapidly changing media landscape.

“Although the details have yet to be agreed… the BBC expects to present its proposals to the BBC Trust in the near future.” HAVE YOUR SAY 6 Music is the only reason I have a digital radio. As far as I’m concerned they can cut back anything else Reada

The corporation did not comment on the specific details of the leaked report, but said it was “fully committed to online and to digital television and radio”.

‘Not rampant’

Speaking to 5 Live, Guardian media columnist Steve Hewlett said the plans, if verified, could be politically motivated.

The BBC has drawn criticism of late amid speculation that an incoming Tory government would seek to freeze the licence fee in 2013 and replace the BBC Trust with another body.

“The BBC needs to create the impression that it’s not rampant in terms of its expansion,” said Hewlett.

“It needs politically to look like it’s going back into its shell a bit,” he continued.

The NUJ said the plans “smack of an attempt to appease political and commercial interests”.

“Hard-working staff shouldn’t be used as a political football and we will fight any compulsory redundancies,” said general secretary Jeremy Dear.

Last year Mark Thompson gave a speech at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference in London in which he said changes would take place after the digital switchover is completed in 2012.

THE BBC’S FUTURE
“ Expect to see reductions in some kinds of programmes and content [and] a look at the current scope of our website ”
Mark Thompson last year

“Expect to see reductions in some kinds of programmes and content - a look at the current scope of our website - and a close examination of the future of our service portfolios once switchover has been achieved,” he said in November.

Earlier this month a BBC Trust review appeared to allay fears that 6 Music would be closed in a report which praised its “distinctive approach”.

The review added that the digital station “needed to grow its audience base without losing its unique selling point”.

Fans have already set up a campaign protesting changes to the station, rallying support on Facebook and Twitter.

Among them is musician David Bowie, who issued a statement saying: “6 Music keeps the spirit of broadcasters like John Peel alive and for new artists to lose this station would be a great shame.”

Story from BBC NEWS: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/entertainment/8538130.stm

infographic via static.guim.co.uk

Richard Sica, Death (via A Journey Round My Skull)

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 21:04:20 -0500

Richard Sica, Death (via A Journey Round My Skull)

Banksy in "the world’s first street-art disaster movie" - Times Online

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 17:31:54 -0500

Banksy in "the world’s first street-art disaster movie" - Times Online: Whether it is snogging...

athensmusicandarts: So glad to see this is coming...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 16:01:58 -0500

athensmusicandarts:

So glad to see this is coming out!

ryanetics: biggray: veniceissinking: It’s official! Venice is Sinking’s 3rd album, Sand & Lines will be released on June 15, 2010!

Our third album, Sand & Lines, will see release on June 15th of this year via One Percent Press. It was recorded live onstage at the now-defunct Georgia Theatre with only two mics, straight to 1/4” mixdown tape. Beyond mastering, it was never touched after that…no overdubs, no digital tweaking, no nothing. David Barbe (of Drive-By Truckers recording and Sugar bass-playing fame, among many other things) handled the recording duties with the help of Andy LeMaster on a few songs. It was an interesting recording session, to be sure, and we’re very proud of the results. They really capture the expansive, boomy sound of a beautiful room that doesn’t exist anymore. We’re releasing it on vinyl and digitally (vinyl folks get the digital version as well). The release date coincides with the one year anniversary of the fire that destroyed the Georgia Theatre, a landmark in the Athens music scene. All proceeds from the album sales will go to rebuilding the Georgia Theatre.

Just a suggestion: we like to listen to the album on headphones with our eyes closed.

Read the full story of the recording process.

Download the “Falls City” MP3 (right-click and select “save as”). Here is the link (cleared for posting!): http://teamclermont.com/mp3/veniceissinking_fallscity.mp3

Preorder the album on vinyl at our store.

If you are a press type and would like a copy of the album, digital or otherwise, please contact jon [at] teamclermont [dot] com.

Thank you so much for your continued support!

Charlie Darwin by THE LOW ANTHEM

Sun, 28 Feb 2010 10:14:57 -0500

Charlie Darwin by THE LOW ANTHEM

athensmusicandarts:vizualize:j0e:(via)

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 14:08:01 -0500

athensmusicandarts:vizualize:j0e:(via)

bicpen: max ernst

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 11:55:01 -0500

bicpen:

max ernst

ourtropes: Though the income gap in the United States has...

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:58:55 -0500

ourtropes:

Though the income gap in the United States has slowly decreased over the last few decades, there still remains a significant disparity in income between genders and across races. The earnings of Black women are much closer to the US average than those of their male counterparts, and the trend is similar for those of Hispanic descent. It is also notable that on average, Asian females earn more than both Black and Hispanic males, while Asian males have the highest income among all groups.

via www.3ammagazine.com

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:06:40 -0500

via www.3ammagazine.com

As an avid listener to WHYY’s Fresh Air...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:26:00 -0500

As an avid listener to WHYY’s Fresh Air with Terry Gross, I was pleased to hear she would be interviewing Dr. David Dow of the University of Houston Law Center and author, most recently, of Autobiography of an Execution, an incredibly thoughtful memoir of the realities involved with capital defense. The interview was everything I knew it would be—thought provoking, probing, and highly indicative of Gross’s interview style. It’s also the most painfully awkward Fresh Air interview I’ve ever heard, heavily infused with the gravitas—and the melancholy—befitting the topic. But more than that, and here’s where it ended up being a let-down, Gross and Dow just kind of kept missing each other, Gross either being surprisingly under-informed (for Terry Gross, that is, who has got to be one of the most amazing researchers ever to take to the airwaves) like when she questioned the grounds upon which attorneys can appeal a capital sentence, asking “they’re guilty…so what’s the case about?”; or a little too gung-ho for the topic, like when she asked Dow to recount a client who “you were pretty sure was guilty and who committed an especially monstrous crime,” riffing off of Dow’s earlier contention that the people he defends “aren’t monsters.” Dow’s responses to both questions are, in keeping with Autobiography of an Execution, thoughtfully conceived and patiently articulated. As someone who has worked in capital defense for some time, and who’s waist-deep in a doctoral dissertation on the topic, it’s easy to consign my disappointment to misspent righteous indignation, and remind myself to hop off my high-horse. Still, there’s a nagging feeling that our country—its citizenry and especially its media—are woefully undereducated about the myriad consequences of our judicial system’s insistence on the death penalty as an institutional form of punishment and alleged “deterrent.” I hoped the Fresh Air interview would be a step in the right direction in educating the listening public. It turned out, much like the interview itself, to be more of a missed connection. I just hope that listeners will seek out Dow’s wonderful book and continue the dialogue.

Justice, Texas Style—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine)

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:24:59 -0500

Justice, Texas Style—By Scott Horton (Harper's Magazine): Texas is in the process of declaring...

The Hold Steady Announces New Album

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 11:13:55 -0500

The Hold Steady Announces New Album: Hallelujah! Just a month after keyboardist Franz Nicolay...

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Barbican Centre, London (via...

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 07:23:53 -0500

Céleste Boursier-Mougenot at Barbican Centre, London (via BarbicanLondon)