a writer's notebook
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Alice Diop colors in the blind spots of art history with this thoughtful short starring Kayije Kagame (Saint Omer). Countering clichés and absences in Black portraiture with the joys of real life, Fragments for Venus leaves behind Old Masters to widen the frame on where we find aesthetic pleasure.Comments closed
Late Junction: Warped laments, serpentine hums
Verity Sharp presents another round of experimental listening taking in the unusual and exhilarating from around the globe. There’s chastening, contorted, laments from Peru’s Alejandra Cardenas (Ale Hop) as she delves into the trauma not only of her own life but that of her homeland – charting colonialism, cultural turbulence and addiction with a steely gaze. Plus an inquisitive and emotionally immediate return from Japanese experimenter Phew, paired this time with American multimedia artist Danielle de Picciotto, the duo melding their singular voices into sparse yet tense collages. Berlinde Deman meanwhile offers droning reflections on the Serpent, a unique wind instrument enhanced with effects pedals and her unique vocal stylings; and Will Glaser presents a bewildering collection of ‘Ethnographic Recordings From An Imagined Future’.
SS Rajamouli Announces “VARANASI,” a Globe-Trotting IMAX Adventure — Two 3-Hour Movies Set for 2027 Release
In a recent paper published in the Journal of Holography Applications in Physics, University of British Columbia Okanagan adjunct professor Mir Faizal and colleagues say they’ve proven that the fundamental nature of reality simply cannot be simulated on any computer.
By using mathematical theorems, they argued that some truths can only be understood through non-algorithmic understanding.
From ARMAGEDDON GOSPELS (2019)
We’re racing towards a future in which devices will be able to read our thoughts.
You see signs of it everywhere, from brain-computer interfaces to algorithms that detect emotions from facial scans. And though the tech remains imperfect, it’s getting closer all the time: now a team of scientists say they’ve developed a model that can generate descriptions of what people’s brains are seeing by simply analyzing a scan of their brain activity.
They’re calling the technique “mind captioning,” and it may represent an effective way for transcribing what someone’s thinking, with impressively comprehensive and accurate results.
One from 2010 today:
Also, GOD DESTROYER, Osvor, 2011:
Unclassified: Resident Shadows
I caught Just Mustard on Jools Holland last night:
Just realised I have two issues of THE WIRE magazine and at least one TLS waiting to be read.4
https://newmodels.substack.com/p/nm-talkcore-kevin-munger-on-spiraling – what’s here is the “preview,” somehow I got the entire episode on my podcast app even though I don’t pay for the full New Models feed…?
If you redefine “thinking” to mean “arriving at a solution through an iterative linguistic loop” … yes, that’s what these models do. That definition is pretty thin. We talk about humans thinking harder, which is not the same as thinking longer. I think most people know from experience that thinking longer generally just makes you anxious. But that’s what the models do, and not only longer, but in parallel, all those step-by-step monologues spilling out simultaneously, somewhere in the dark of a data center.
The modern smartphone, laden with the corporate ecosystem pulsing underneath its screen, robs us of this feeling, conspires to keep us from “true” fullness. The swiping, the news cycles, the screaming, the idiocy — if anything destroys a muse, it’s this. If anything keeps you locked into a fetid loop of looking, looking, and looking once more at the train wreck, it’s this. I find it impossible to feel fullness, even in the slightest, after having spent just a bit of a day in the thralls of the algorithms.
“Dreams of the Past“, dir. Dmitri Frolov, 2022 (via)
Japan’s space agency successfully launched Sunday its most powerful flagship H3 rocket, carrying a newly developed unmanned cargo spacecraft for its first mission to deliver supplies to the International Space Station.Comments closed
The blu-ray dropped in price so I treated myself. It’s not a perfect film – scenes run a hair too long, there are moments when you realise this was in fact made for pennies, it touches on cliche a few times. But it is made with huge ambition, that shot of the upside-down Statue of Liberty is going to be considered one of the most iconic images of this period, and I like the ending better than most people. It’s a film to study. And I always buy copies of the things that fascinate me.
PREVIOUSLY:
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TODAY:
The mancub slept in his usual spot last night, has apparently eaten today, but is now back in his hideyhole under the bedroom sofa, because he knows in his evil little soul that today is the day I have to try and give him antibiotics. He informed me yesterday that I am permitted to feed him but we are no longer friends and I should no longer look directly at his royal personage.
OPERATIONS: Given I have to give pills to a small Tasmanian Devil twice today, I don’t fancy my chances for producing much material or keeping all my fingers.
STATUS: 7hrs 12m sleep, which is not an improvement. Short term memory still not working. I’ve put the Maven watch on today, as I don’t need to be across comms quite so much now everyone’s home for a bit.
READING: HERESY: JESUS CHRIST AND THE OTHER SONS OF GOD, Catherine Nixey (UK) (US+)
LISTENING: Bloomberg Daybreak Weekend podcast right at this moment.
MISSION CONTROL: I can be contacted via the Cheng Caplan Company or Inkwell Management. Link in masthead to join my free newsletter.
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Which immediately put me in mind of the film SLEEP HAS HER HOUSE, which I bought as a download from Ether Films six years ago. Apparently a revised version has been released since then? Here’s the link for more.
morning computer: some useful things first thing in the day.
My free weekly newsletter is at https://orbitaloperations.beehiiv.com/
Comments closedTom Service presents a live set from the Polish sound artist and composer Anna Zaradny, recorded at at this year’s Eavesdropping festival at Cafe Oto in London. We’ll also hear the London Sinfonietta with a modern classic by Salvatore Sciarrino, his ghostly, shimmering …da una Divertimento, from 1970; and GBSR Duo perform Tim Parkinson’s Project 9000 for piano, percussion and backing track, described by the composer as “a sunset that’s been photographed, laminated and pinned on the wall of a disused office”.
Cult Pens sent out an email to tell everyone it’s 100 days to Xmas and I almost unsubscribed.
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