Society of the query

tylerwilde2

Google screenshot painting by Tyler Wilde.
A powerful article by Dutch-Australian media theorist Geert Lovink on google, society of the spectacle/query, net criticism and the XXXXXX
‘The society of the query and the Googlization of our lives’
http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-09-05-lovink-en.html
An excerpt
Ever since the rise of search engines in the 1990s we have been living in the “society of the query”, which, as Weizenbaum indicates, is not far removed from the “society of the spectacle”. Written in the late 1960s, Guy Debord’s situationist analysis was based on the rise of the film, television and advertisement industries. The main difference today is that we are explicitly requested to interact. We are no longer addressed as an anonymous mass of passive consumers but instead are “distributed actors” who are present on a multitude of channels. Debord’s critique of commodification is no longer revolutionary. The pleasure of consumerism is so widespread that it is has reached the status of a universal human right. We all love the commodity fetish, the brands, and indulge in the glamour that the global celebrity class performs on our behalf. There is no social movement or cultural practice, however radical, that can escape the commodity logic. No strategy has been devised to live in the age of the post-spectacle. Concerns have instead been focusing on privacy, or what’s left of it. The capacity of capitalism to absorb its adversaries is such that, unless all private telephone conversations and Internet traffic became were to become publicly available, it is next to impossible to argue why we still need criticism – in this case of the Internet.

Google screenshot painting by Tyler Wilde.

Article by Dutch-Australian media theorist Geert Lovink on google, society of the spectacle/query and the shape of critical thought in this info-glut.

‘The society of the query and the Googlization of our lives’

http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2008-09-05-lovink-en.html

An excerpt

Ever since the rise of search engines in the 1990s we have been living in the “society of the query”, which, as Weizenbaum indicates, is not far removed from the “society of the spectacle”. Written in the late 1960s, Guy Debord’s situationist analysis was based on the rise of the film, television and advertisement industries. The main difference today is that we are explicitly requested to interact. We are no longer addressed as an anonymous mass of passive consumers but instead are “distributed actors” who are present on a multitude of channels. Debord’s critique of commodification is no longer revolutionary. The pleasure of consumerism is so widespread that it is has reached the status of a universal human right. We all love the commodity fetish, the brands, and indulge in the glamour that the global celebrity class performs on our behalf. There is no social movement or cultural practice, however radical, that can escape the commodity logic. No strategy has been devised to live in the age of the post-spectacle. Concerns have instead been focusing on privacy, or what’s left of it. The capacity of capitalism to absorb its adversaries is such that, unless all private telephone conversations and Internet traffic became were to become publicly available, it is next to impossible to argue why we still need criticism – in this case of the Internet.

This entry was written by EZ, posted on December 4, 2009 at 6:20 pm, filed under defiance, electricity, plastic, submission and tagged , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Mock up on Mu

 

 

Mock up on Mu
dir. Craig Baldwin (USA, 2009, 110 min)
Première: 3 December, 22:00 hrs Smart Project Space

A new movie by Craig Baldwin, straight out of the Other Cinema compound in San Francisco. The latest in his canon that includes Tribulation 99, Sonic Outlaws and Spectres of the Spectrum, all intoxicating feature-length films that use pre-exisitng media. Screening this Thursday night in Amsterdam.

Mock up on Mu dir. Craig Baldwin (USA, 2009, 110 min) Première: 3 December, 22:00 hrs. Smart Project Space Amsterdam

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A radical hybrid of spy, sci-fi, Western, and even horror genres, Craig Baldwin’s Mock Up On Mu cobbles together a feature-length ‘collage-narrative’ based on (mostly) true stories of California’s post-War sub-cultures of rocket pioneers, alternative religions and Beat lifestyles that creates an alternative American history.

‘..an often hilarious, sometimes inscrutable, always original film that’s part pop-cultural fantasia, part capitalist critique’ – New York Magazine

This entry was written by EZ, posted on December 2, 2009 at 11:15 am, filed under electricity, exhaustion, submission and tagged , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Far East Audio Visual Socialization

This festival opens this weekend in Osaka. Jona is showing a number of my videos in the screening program. Check it out if you’re in the neighborhood.

http://www.feavs.org

boshu

This entry was written by EZ, posted on December 1, 2009 at 11:15 am, filed under blood, exhaustion, hysteria and tagged , , , . Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.