Wednesday, 31 October 2007

In this space


In this space we have stars
In this space we have atmosphere
In this space we have darkness
In this space we have light
In this space we have objects
In this space we have planets orbiting each other
In this space we are matter
In this space we have no edge
In this space we have synchronisation
In this space we have relationships
In this space we hear sounds
In this space we see signs of life
In this space we are observers
In this space you are astronomers
In this space we are always being watched

Tuesday, 30 October 2007

Create a space

Peggy Phelan 'Long commitment not to' (Certain fragments)

Exploration – Illuminating – Discover – Transmissions – Investigate – Ignite - Witnesses (Audience) - ‘Ignite the conscience of an ethical observer’ – Makers – Escapist - ‘Traffics in Fiction’ - ‘Echoes of the real world’ – Operates - Map. ‘Structuring metaphor’ – Places – Tour – Sites – Strange – Reflecting – City – Layers - ‘Individual Residents’ - ‘The challenger space shuttle had blown up in Manchester in 1985’ - Spectator’s - consciousness ‘slipped the surly bonds of earth’ - Crashed – Company - Witness - ‘Mapping space time in this manner transforms history (and travel) into an actively composed set of personal stories and not a passively experienced set of external events and locations’ – Group -‘Events of the rest of the world comes to them sizzling across fibre-optic cables, electronic pixels, wire services, and satellite dishes’ ‘These events go whizzing by’ - ‘Processed by some reading-machine’ ‘Decipher these codes’ - ‘This reading-machine is both technological and affective, both collective and personal’ - ‘The territory between the real and the phantasmatic’ - ‘Like a net flung floating across two continents’ – Generations – Capture - ‘the fusion that allows a mechanical pump to keep our otherwise irregular hearts beating’ - ‘become witness to events that you may only encounter here on the pages of this book’ - Encountering Reanimates - ‘we rediscover their force in our ongoing present’ -Snap shots - ‘To solicit an ethical witness in a theatre event requires one to trust that the border of the performance exceeds its spatial and temporal boundaries’ - ‘in the process of becoming’

Excerpts and words taken from 'Performing Questions, Producing Witness' by Peggy Phelan featured in Tim Etchells book Certain Fragments.
Scanning the page I drew out words and sentences I felt related to our piece.

Thursday, 18 October 2007

On August 16, 1960, Joseph Kittinger surpassed the altitude record set by Major David Simons, who had climbed to 101,516 feet (30,942 meters) in 1957 in his Man-High II balloon. Kittinger floated to 102,800 feet (31,333 meters) in Excelsior III, an open gondola adorned with a paper license plate that his five-year-old son had cut out of a cereal box. Protected against the subzero temperatures by layers of clothes and a pressure suit--he experienced air temperatures as low as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius)--and loaded down with gear that almost doubled his weight, he climbed to his maximum altitude in one hour and 31 minutes even though at 43,000 feet (13,106 meters) he began experiencing severe pain in his right hand caused by a failure in his pressure glove and could have scrubbed the mission. He remained at peak altitude for about 12 minutes; then he stepped out of his gondola into the darkness of space. After falling for 13 seconds, his six-foot (1.8-meter) canopy parachute opened and stabilized his fall, preventing the flat spin that could have killed him. Only four minutes and 36 seconds more were needed to bring him down to about 17,500 feet (5,334 meters) where his regular 28-foot (8.5-meter) parachute opened, allowing him to float the rest of the way to Earth. His descent set another record for the longest parachute freefall.
During his descent, he reached speeds up to 614 miles per hour, approaching the speed of sound without the protection of an aircraft or space vehicle. But, he said, he "had absolutely no sense of the speed." His flight and parachute jump demonstrated that, properly protected, it was possible to put a person into near-space and that airmen could exit their aircraft at extremely high altitudes and free fall back into the Earth's atmosphere without dangerous consequences.

This article is about Joseph Kittinger a former pilot and career military officer in the United States Air Force. The way in which he climbed high into the atmosphere without 'rocket power' as similarities to 'The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment'. This article also gives some facts on the reality of such a journey.

Words:

“It is not frivolous to challenge the hard logic of biology or material facts with the sot and multiple logics of play – play with it’s transformations, it’s power reversals, its illogic’s, it’s joys, it’s potential escapes.. It’s not frivolous to insist that, even as we die we’re creatures of fiction and pretending, that we’re not simply ‘facts’ or biology, that we may not be contained by either. I don’t think it is frivolous to insist that, even as one dies, one is multiple, playful, partial, strategic and indeed fictional”

I felt it may go with the feeling of escape?

Russian warm up words

Hello! = zzdrast wi tyeh Здравствуйте

1 = a-din один
2 = d-va два
3 = tri три

http://listen2russian.com/lesson02/a/index.html
http://listen2russian.com/lesson04/a/index.html

Cossack lullaby English/Russian

Cossack lullaby

Russian

Spi mladyenets, moi prekrasný,
bayushki bayu
tikho smotrit myesyats yasný
f kolýbyel tvayu.

English

Sleep, good boy, my beautiful,
bayushki bayu
quietly the moon is looking
into your cradle

Казачья Колыбельная Песня

Спи, младенец мой прекрасный,
Баюшки-баю.
Тихо смотрит месяц ясный
В колыбель твою.


Mikhaïl Iourievitch Lermontov
(1814-1841)

http://www.kaikracht.de/balalaika/english/songs/spim_not.htm

Monday, 15 October 2007

link to history lesson

http://www.guggenheim.org/artscurriculum/lessons/russian_L9.php

Stage Asthetics. Left Wing / Right Wing - Stage Left/ Stage Right

Is there a scene in which the stage can be split in two, one side representing the Leftwing the other the Rightwing and inbetween?

In a Directing class last year we looked at the difference between action on the stage. The result of this was to find that action on stage right was easier too look at than action on the left. If stage right represents 'the norm' aand left 'the strange' with most political parties trying to balance between the left and right it would be interesting to see how this dynamic might work on stage.

Words:

Da, krazy komrade
There's a little side room here, an installation piece by some Soviet nutcase, Ilya Kabakov. "The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment." Dumpy cold-water flat with pinko-prop posters and infantile space doodles on the wall, a jerry-rigged slingshot contraption and a hole in the roof. "Represents homo sovieticus trapped between material poverty and idealistic dreams," says the placard. Some fool nonsense about planets in conjunction and cosmic energy streams, suggesting that Kabakov wasn't that crazy. He just wanted to get the hell outta red Russia. Who wouldn't?

I loved the way this was written, “Trapped between material poverty and idealistic dreams” Perhaps another view point on the room. “He just wanted to get the hell outta red Russia. Who wouldn’t?” “Some fool nonsence.” I felt it illustrates the owner of the room as a crazed man, but a man who could be felt for.. Is this the thought of an on looker to our man?
Are these cosmic energy streams the ones drawn on the box, it sounds so crazed it could be true, I imagine the man talking passionately and enthusiastically about his idea.. crazy as it sounds.. his whole life focused on it.. excited with hope.

Da Krazy Komrade

Da, krazy komrade
There's a little side room here, an installation piece by some Soviet nutcase, Ilya Kabakov. "The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment." Dumpy cold-water flat with pinko-prop posters and infantile space doodles on the wall, a jerry-rigged slingshot contraption and a hole in the roof. "Represents homo sovieticus trapped between material poverty and idealistic dreams," says the placard. Some fool nonsense about planets in conjunction and cosmic energy streams, suggesting that Kabakov wasn't that crazy. He just wanted to get the hell outta red Russia. Who wouldn't?
I loved the way this was written, “Trapped between material poverty and idealistic dreams” Perhaps another view point on the room. (found text?) “He just wanted to get the hell outta red Russia. Who wouldn’t?” “Some fool nonsence.” It illustrates the owner of the room as a crazed man, but a man who could be felt for..

Thomas Pynchon talks about George Orwell (1984 intro pg VII)

Orwell, G (2003 edition) 1984. London. Penguin books.

'More or less conciously, he found an analogy between British Labour and the Communist Party under Stalin - both, he felt, were movements professing the fight for the working classes against capitalism but in reality concerned only with establishing and perpetuating their own power.'

Taken from improvisation on the type writer

Taken from improvisation on the type writer.


• Has been untouched since about 1976
• It was my grandmother - novelist
• She didn’t have a life
• When I was younger, there was an old lady down the street.
• I remember the sound of it
• The movement of it
• I don’t remember seeing it
• Maybe you wonder what she wrote about it
• It seemed a bit of a friend to me
• Press down hard to get.. on it
• You can’t use the ‘s’ no more
• Been over 20 years since they used this
• Brings it all back you see, the inadequacy
• Write randomness and listen to it type
• And if you take it apart you could see words on the ribbon
Thoughts on what happened after the man who flew into space from is apartment, flew into space (from his apartment). Stimulus: The sound of the air conditioning:

In a room, there coming
Well they might be,
Is that them I’m going,
Up, away, free,
I didn’t believe any more
I here the air pushing past me,
This is what it’s like to be free
Exhilaration, taking over, overwhelmingly,
I’m flying!
I’m dieing!
I didn’t believe any more.
It’s worth it all worth it,
One moment of freedom, success,
One moment where I was me,
That moment where I knew best,
The air is pushing up around my body as I fall,
Is that them?
I didn’t believe any more!

Russian politics today

'Village of fools' BBC4 10pm 8th October 2007

Sergei Nikolaevich (The vice speaker of the Russian parliament)

Commentator
'He is convinced that the west want to launch a new cold war against Russia.'
'He is a Nationalist.'
'He stands for a great Russia, a super power like the Soviet Union was, A country that inspires fear and commands respect.'

Sergei Nikolaevich
"Gorbachev opened the floodgates during perestroika when freedom of speech was raised level of complete irresponsibility. And now that permissiveness is disappearing. Today the state controls television and radio. Now we are happy."
"Our party ‘The peoples will’ stands for the ordinary man and for imperial Russia"
"There is a new force in Russia. It could really become one of the global centres of power again"

I'm ready to fall (The Rocketman)

Wind blowing through my hair, face , shoulders.
I'm a bullet,a bullet waiting for impact...
...Explosion, Light, blast, sparks, heat.
Particles in the atmosphere.
I'm a firework, a rocket. Rocketman
'Fly me to the moon Alice'
I don't care where I fall
Nobody else can feel this - suspension
Realisation - this is it
no more birthdays
no more christmas, fairgrounds, children, love, happiness.
Not for me...
... I dont need, want, have, desire.
I'm ready to fall.
I dont believe anymore.






picture 1
Artist Unknown.
Rot Front! (Red Front! Freedom to the prisoners of Fascism), 1939

picture 2
Zvorykin, B.
The Struggle of the Red Knight with the Dark Force, 1919

picture 3
Moor, Dimitri.
1st of May - A Festival of Labor, 1920

picture 4
Moor, Dimitri.
The Last Decisive Battle, 1920

picture 5
Moor, Dimitri.
Be on Guard!, 1921

Collecting Soviet Posters
Soviet posters are a relatively new area of collecting. Virtually unavailable in the West until Perestroika, they were thoroughly researched by Stephen White in his 1988 monograph The Bolshevik Poster. With the decline of Communism, there is more interest than ever in the images from this bold social experiment.

Although most Soviet posters were issued in editions of 5,000 to 50,000, they are extremely rare today. The primary reason is that most posters - as intended - were posted, and survived only weeks or months. The remainder were generally not recognized as valuable historical documents or collectibles at the time they were printed. They usually were recycled or lost due to the ravages of war or neglect. Others were destroyed for political reasons (it was dangerous to keep images of Trotsky after 1928, for example).

The mid-'80s saw a steady trickle of images out of Russia, but that trickle has slowed, and many of the highest quality pieces are already unavailable. The works of Rodchenko, Lissitsky and Klutsis can reach into the tens of thousands, but many museum caliber pieces from before World War II are available at $300 to $1500. The Bolshevik period is particularly filled with collecting opportunities. Post WWII images can be found at less cost, but still are fascinating and valuable as collectibles.


this research shows that in order for ilya kabakov to plaster the walls of his installation in these posters he must have had some great demination and will power to find these things.
did the posters provoke some kind of reaction for him to go adhead with the build of his idea?
picture number 1 espically pay's reference to the feeling of escape.
if the man who flew to space had this particular poster would it have given him the reason to "escape" his life and build the contraption?
maybe these pictures and posters were his inspiration and his spur to help finish his dream??????

the unreachable dream

As I fly threw the air I start to think of what I’ve left behind, not just my family and friends, but my belongings and the rest of my ideas. What will happen to them? Will they ever be discovered? And if so, who by? Will someone test them out? I know I’m not going to be able to, but I did leave them in a good place to be rediscovered.
Now I’m falling. How is it that there are always a few seconds in between the transition from flying to falling, but the second seems to linger as if I’ve just lived another lifetime.
The speed is picking up now. I can feel the cold air against my skin as the gravity pulls me down hard and fast. Now I know how it feels to fly, how free and alive it can be, but I’ll never have anyone to share it with. No one to compare the feelings or the state of mind that I’m in.
I feel that I’ve really lived my life now. I really pursued this idea to the full and made it spring out of the paper and the scrolls and the models to make this a reality. No regrets.
As I crash to the earth again the sounds around me start to fade and I begin to lose myself.
That’s when I stopped believing.

the aquarium

This is my aquarium ticket. I keep this because it’s the first aquarium that I ever went to. I remember this because I went with my family, but that was the only time. Really what I mean to say is that each one I’ve been to since I have always gone on my own. This particular aquarium I remember was really run down and there were not many type of fish in it. I mean you get your basic fish and everything, but I always remember that there was a little turtle and I think this is what made me like turtles so much.
I do think its so strange though. I go to aquariums to escape and feel free, but all the fish are locked up inside massive tanks. They always look so sad like they want to escape. I remember thought that the first aquarium I went to had this one tiny tank with five huge silver fish in it. They were just swimming around bumping into each other, not a very nice situation to be in. most of the fish that live in the tanks have probably never been free in the ocean, they’ve all been bred in captivity. They must be so sad knowing that. I feel so sorry for them. I think about setting them free sometimes but I’d never get away with it. I’d have to plan it so much and then I’d never be able to do it alone. Look at them, don’t they look like they’re saying ‘help’. ‘Help me, get me out of here. Help me be free, please…just help me…help!’

space

Looking for Life

How do we search for life in the Universe?
From sending probes to the planets to discovering new worlds, find out how we are looking for alien life.

In this section:
Life in the Solar System?
Planet hunting
SETI looks for life

IS THERE LIFE IN THE SOLAR SYSTEM?

Over the next few years, space probes will be visiting alien worlds looking for life. Our first contact with extraterrestrials could be just around the corner


The main candidates in the Solar System to harbour life are Mars, Europa and Titan

Many astronomers now believe that life has a good chance of evolving wherever the conditions are right. So our Solar System could be teeming with living creatures!

Join us as we take a voyage around the Sun's family looking for life...

monologues

Stu’s monologue
First monologue on his own (/ = unable to make out)

I can see erm, on the wall are my plans to sort of get out of this place, loads of posters and pictures representing the time that I’m in, I suppose, / claustrophobia. I’m feeling that’s why, this is like my workshop space, it’s very tight. So, so I need to obviously escape / . er I have to be here a lot so I’ve sorta got a bed, it’s not much of a bed, with sorta springs and a bit of a blanket / but it’s a bed. And this, this is the actual device I’m working on, it’s a sort of contraption. I’ll just take you over here first because this is the table with the plans on. Can you see, that? So you got… this is the city, a river, right, I’m planning to shoot up. In that, can you believe it? In that, to get out of here. Erm of course I have to do a lot of work on this so I got my own bench, two chairs and a piece of wood, right, little jar full of stuff, erm whatever I’m using at the time, I suppose, and a lot of debris, it looks quite messy because we, we did have, well I did have a failed attempt of trying to get out. I sorta smashed in to the ceiling, needs a bit of improvement. So er, that’s my workshop.

Nic’s monologue

I can see a bed with a blanket on it,
I can see a portrait of a man,
I can see posters and pictures, a bench, a plank of wood resting on two chairs to make a bench, a leather belt,
I can see plaster on the floor, a teapot and a jug, a jar of seeds, a lamp, an open box,
I can see a spring and I can see rope,
I can see designs,
I can see a river and I can see clouds, that is what I see.

MP: can you see anything above your head?

I see a hole, and some more clouds , I see the sky.

Nic and Stu, first run together. Stu =black Nic = pink

-So erm this is er my workshop, here we go, got em loads of stuff on the walls, proberbly feels claustaphobic, abit cluttered at the moment, got loadsa plans for this erm contraption that I’m making.
-I see designs
-So very important to get things right, coz this is going to catapult me through this /, you can see a hole already in the ceiling, erm that’s the debris that’s from the thing, attempt that I had not long ago.
-I see a large spring.
-Over here you can see, erm, I use it as my bed. Just some springs and a rusty blanket erm, it’s not amazing but it’s good to get my head down from time to time.
-I see a bed and a blanket.
-erm so you’ve seen the contraption, over here we got more of a specific plan, got this table and on it a diagram of the city I live in, erm, the river, and marked out my workshop, got it planned here.
-I see an open box, with clouds and a river.
-I suppose when I have clouds on / / I was being optimistic because it often stays quite dull round here, but you know, positive, on the day we do need a clear sky. You can see me shooting out, tragection, get up there.
-I see a bright light, a lamp.
-And over here we’ve got erm two chairs and a piece of wood, coz erm, I coundn’t really find a bench, quite pricey, so I thought make do with what you got, er a little jar with things in it, it helps me //
-I see a plank of wood on two chairs, a bench, a belt and a jar with seeds in it.
-Sometimes keep seeds in a jar…. we’ve got my shoes which er are always there, just ready to pop em on, I just like to get in them, I suppose.
-I see a pair of shoes.


Nic and Stu 2nd run together (in the same space)

-So, er this is my workshop space, ok, all over the walls you can see there’s a lot of plans, a lot of stuff. I’m basically planning an escape, erm, on this contraptopn, err, hopefully it’s going to shoot me up. I had a failed attempt already which is why there’s so much debris on the floor.
-I see a big spring in the centre of the room
-I do spend a lot of hours in this workshop, about seventeen hours a day, so I’ve got my own bed, my own space, you know, and a blanket there, not great, not too comfortable but it will do.
-on the right hand wall, pushed up against the wall, I see a small camp bed and a blanket.
-Over here you can see we got a sort of , a diagram with what I’m planning to do, you can see this is the city, erm, the river, and hopfully this device when it’s working properly is going to shoot me out of the city. Of course you can’t just walk out of the city // you / also have to disappear over the wall or you will get stopped///.
-In the corner of the room I see an open box with clouds and a river painted inside.
-Here I got a bench, well a make shift bench, it’s er, I planned to do it that way, it don’t cost that much, I got my two chairs and a plank of wood, a jar, bits and bobs and stuff// contraption.
-In the centre of the room I see a large plank of wood, two chairs which the plank of wood is rested on, a big clear empty jar, with seeds in it.
-Of course there are my shoes, coz, when you use the device you can’t have any shoes on, so yea / I take them off.
-I see a pair of shoes surrounded in plaster in the centre of the room.

Sunday, 14 October 2007

writing exercise

Pushing through the cracks in the ceiling the polystyrene tiles shatter into a thousand pieces, dusting my head like snow. The force of my make-shift machine propells me through the earths atmosphere into a world beyond beauty and nature, an unknown feeling grabbed hold of me for this was completely new, no-one besides me had ever felt this way but...... I don't believe.....I don't believe. It's true what they say in space no-one can hear you scream; There is no atmosphere, my throat starts to tighten, like someone has their hands clasped tightly around my neck. I am being smothered. I gasp for breath, clawing for just one last breath before the oxygen is slowly sucked from my being. I'm hot but there is no air, no not hot nor cold, this is the strangest, feeling my eyes become heavy there is no fear for I have felt what no-one else could ever feel, the liberation of a reckless act which launched my frail body into the abyss. As my body melts back into the earths shell, at the speed of light...my eyes are dying now... who will remember the man who flew to space from his apartment.........................................

Dystopia

A dystopia (from the Greek δυσ- and τόπος, alternatively, cacotopia,[1] kakotopia or anti-utopia) is a fictional society that is the antithesis of utopia. It is usually characterized by an oppressive social control, such as an authoritarian or totalitarian government. In other words, a Dystopia has the opposite of what one would expect in a Utopian society.

Some academic circles distinguish between anti-utopia and dystopia. As in George Orwell's 1984,and Yevgeny Zamyatin's "We", a dystopia does not pretend to be good, while an anti-utopia appears to be utopian or was intended to be so (e.g. Aldous Huxley's Brave New World or Andrew Ryan's Rapture in BioShock), but a fatal flaw or other factor has destroyed or twisted the intended utopian world or concept.[2]

Common traits of a dystopian society

The only trait common to all dystopias is that they are negative and undesirable societies, but many commonalities are found across dystopian societies.

In general, dystopias are seen as visions of "dangerous and alienating future societies," often criticizing current trends in culture.[5]

It is a culture where the condition of life is "extremely bad," as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.[6]

[edit] Counter-utopia

Many dystopias, found in fictional and artistic works, can be described as an utopian society with at least one fatal flaw.[7] Whereas a utopian society is founded on perfectionism and fullfilment, a dystopian society’s dreams of improvement are overshadowed by stimulating fears of the “ugly consequences of present-day behavior”.[8]

[edit] Society

Most dystopias impose severe social restrictions on the characters' lives.

This can take the form of social stratification, where social class is strictly defined and enforced, and social mobility is non-existent (see caste system). For example, the novel Brave New World's class system is prenatally designated in terms of Alphas, Betas, Gammas, Deltas, and Epsilons, who lack the very ability to advance.

Another, often related form of restriction lies in the requirement of strict conformity among citizens, with a general assumption that dissent and individuality are bad. In the novel We by Yevgeny Zamyatin, people are permitted to live out of public view for only an hour a day. They are not only referred to by numbers instead of names, but are neither "citizens" nor "people", but "numbers." In the lower castes, in Brave New World, single embryos are "bokanovskified", so that they produce between eight and ninety-six identical twins, making the citizens as uniform as possible.[9]

Some dystopian works emphasize the pressure to conform in terms of the requirement to not excel. In these works, the society is ruthlessly egalitarian, in which ability and accomplishment, or even competence, are suppressed or stigmatized as forms of inequality, as in Kurt Vonnegut's "Harrison Bergeron". Similarly, in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the dystopia represses the intellectuals with particular force, because most people are willing to accept it, and the resistance to it consists mostly of intellectuals.[10]

In a typical dystopia, there is a total absence of any social group besides the state, as in We, or such social groups being subdivisions of the state, under government control, for example, the Junior Anti-Sex League in 1984.

Among social groups, independent religions are notable by their absence. In Brave New World, the establishment of the state including lopping off the tops of all crosses (as symbols of Christianity) to make them "T"s, (as symbols of Henry Ford's Model T).[11] The state may stage, instead, a personality cult, with quasi-religious rituals about a central figure, usually a head of state or an oligarchy of some sort, such as Big Brother in 1984, or the Well-Doer of We. In explicitly theocratic dystopias, such as Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale, the religion is the state, and is enforced with the same vigor as any secular dystopia's rule; it does not provide social bonds outside the state.

Even more than religion, family is attacked by dystopian societies. In some societies, it has been completely eradicated, but clearly at great effort, and continuing efforts are deployed to keep it down, as in Brave New World, where children are reproduced artificially, where the concept of a "mother" or "father" is obscene. In others, the institution of the family exists but great efforts are deployed to keep it in service of the state, as in 1984, where children are organized to spy on their parents. In We, the escape of a pregnant woman from the United State is a revolt; the hostility of the state to motherhood is a particularly common trait.[12]

The dystopia often must contain human sexuality in order to prevent its disrupting society. The disruption often springs from the social bonds that sexual activity foments rather than sexual activity itself, as when Ayn Rand's Anthem features a hero and heroine whose revolt stems from a wish to form a human connection and express personal love.[13] Therefore, some dystopias are depicted as containing it through encouraging promiscuous sexuality and lack of ideals of romantic love, so that the characters do not impute importance to the activity.[14] In Brave New World, Lenina Crowne confesses to having sexual intercourse with only one man and is encouraged by her friend to be more promiscuous, and in We, "numbers" (people) are allowed sexual intercourse with any other number by registering for access. Alternatively, antisexualism is also prevalent as a way of social control (the Junior Anti-Sex League in 1984), where the state controls so heavily the lives of its citizens that sexual activity is often an act of rebellion.[15]

The society frequently isolates the characters from all contact with the natural world. Dystopias are commonly urban,[16] and generally avoid nature, as when walks are regarded as dangerously anti-social in Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451.

Tuesday, 9 October 2007

Goodbye lenin synopsis

The film is set in the East Berlin of 1989 . Alexander Kerner's mother, Christiane Kerner, an ardent supporter of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany, suffers a heart attack when she sees Alex being arrested in an anti-government demonstration and falls into a coma shortly before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After eight months she awakes, but is severely weakened both physically and mentally, and doctors say that any shock may cause another, possibly fatal, attack. Alex realises that her discovery of recent events would be too much for her to bear, and so sets out to maintain the illusion that things are as normal in the German Democratic Republic. To this end, he and his family revert the flat to its previous drab decor, dress in their old clothes, and feed the bed-ridden Christiane new, Western produce from old labeled jars. For a time the deception works, but gradually becomes increasingly complicated and elaborate. Despite everything, Christiane occasionally witnesses strange occurrences, such as a gigantic Coca-Cola advertisement banner unfurling on a building outside the apartment. Alexander and a friend with film-making ambitions edit old tapes of news broadcasts and create their own fake special reports to explain them away.

In one scene, Christiane wanders outside the flat while Alex is asleep, and sees all her neighbours' old furniture piled up in the street for garbage collection, a car dealer selling BMWs instead of Trabants and advertisements for such Western corporations as IKEA. Then, a huge military helicopter flies past carrying the upper half of an enormous statue of Lenin, which at an angle appears to be offering Christiane his hand. Alex and his sister find her and take her back to the flat. Alex and his friend create a fake special report stating that East Germany is accepting refugees from the West.

A subplot involves the earlier defection to the West of Alexander's father when Alexander was a child, an event which apparently drove his mother temporarily insane, and which prompted her ardent support of the party. Later it is revealed that the defection was planned by them both, but she bailed out to protect her children. Alexander's sister Ariane, now working in a Burger King drive-through, one day sees her father with a new family. Christiane later admits the deception and Alexander goes to find his father, partly for himself and his sister, and partly to honour Christiane's dying wish that she see him one last time. On the way, Alex meets a taxi driver who looks just like his childhood hero, Sigmund Jähn, the first German in space.

Christiane relapses, and is once again taken to the hospital. Under pressure to reveal the truth about the fall of the East, Alexander creates one final fake film segment. Alexander convinces the taxi driver to identify himself as Sigmund Jähn, who in the segment becomes the new leader of East Germany, and gives a speech promising to make a better future by opening the borders to the West. Christiane is very impressed by the "broadcast," but in fact already knows the truth, as Alexander's girlfriend revealed everything when Alexander was not around. The tables are turned completely, and it is Alex who is being protected from reality. Christiane dies soon afterwards, and Alex never knows that she did, in the end, know the truth.

The Utopian Project

Utopia
'Any real or imaginary society, place, or state considered to be perfect or ideal.'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ilya_Kabakov
'Rather than depict the Soviet Union as a failed Socialist project defeated by Western economics, Kabakov describes it as one utopian project among many, capitalism included. By reexamining historical narratives and perspectives, Kabakov delivers a message that every project, whether public or private, important or trivial, has the potential to fail due to the potentially authoritarian will to power.'

Does 'The man who flew into space' show Kabakovs view? With the authorative figures represented on the posters does the boxed diorama in the bottom left corner represent the 'Utopian Project' the place in which 'the man' wishes to escape from before the inevitable fall?

Sherrie

Animal Farm

Animal farm
Just thought I'd add some info on animal farm, looking at the book being probably the most successful satirical take on soviet politics. Written around the time of Stalin the book explores the catalyst for the politics that influenced the Ilya Kabakov instalation. The seven commandments of animalism are of particular interest to myself, maybe in connection with the conformity and monotony of the swivel chair scene. For example the commandments read as a chant over the sounds of typing along with the abstract movement could give the scene the sense of rigidity that I feel we are looking for.
The Seven Commandments

1. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
2. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall sleep in a bed.
5. No animal shall drink alcohol.
6. No animal shall kill any other animal.
7. All animals are equal.
* "Though it resembles the Russian Revolution and the rise of Stalin, it is more meaningfully an anatomy of all political revolutions, where the revolutionary ideals of justice, equality, and fraternity shatter in the event. Orwell paints a grim picture of the political 20th century, a time he believed marked the end of the very concept of human freedom. "
* Animal Farm begins by introducing Mr. Jones, the master of the farm, who is too drunk to shut the popholes in the henhouse. The owner of Manor Farm also forgets to milk the cows, a biologically-serious omission, and is irresponsible toward the rest of his animals. (Later yet, the pigs will also forget the milking, an ironic parallel that reveals the subsequent corruption of the revolution.) One of the cows breaks into the store shed and Mr. Jones and his helpers try to fight off the hungry animals. "A minute later all five of them were in full flight down the cart track that led to the main road, with the animals pursuing them in triumph." Then, "almost before they knew what was happening, the Rebellion had been successfully carried through - Jones was expelled, and the Manor Farm was theirs." Yet with the revolution secured, there are graver dangers than the threat of invasion and counter-revolution. The ultimate corruption of the revolution is presaged immediately:
"They raced back to the farm building to wipe out the last traces of Jones' hated reign... the reins, the halters, the degrading nosebags, were thrown onto the rubbish fire which was burning in the yard. So were the whips." Their reaction is understandable, but the desciption of the inevitable and immediate violence foreshadows the fate of the rebellion: reactionary cruelty, the search for the scapegoat, and the perversion of the ideals of the revolution.
*"Throughout the middle and towards the end of the book, when the pigs are becoming ever more like humans, the 7 commandments are broken during the struggle to gain power. For example, Old Major represents Lenin who followed the beliefs of Karl Marx, and like Old Major inspired his people with his ideas of rebellion, but died before he saw his vision completed. ‘The perfect society’ would always end up with a leader, and there was never a case where all of the citizens were happy. He explains to the animals, in less than kind words, that unless they rebel they are going to be killed to feed the enemy - humans. They also broke the rules that they had fought for. ue as an animal story, or on a deeper level – as the story of the Russian revolution, revealing the ugly reality of communism. "
* "In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act"
* "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
JESS

Friday, 5 October 2007

The installation



The viewer enters the installation through a single door and is invited to visit the separate rooms, only one of which cannot be entered and must be viewed through cracks in a door that has been shoddily boarded up. The Man Who Flew into Space from His Apartment tells the story of one of the residents who built a catapult-like contraption to shoot himself through the roof into outer space, where he would travel on powerful streams of energy. A text describes the story as narrated by three of the other residents, one of whom happened to know the cosmonaut better than the others yet admits, “I didn’t know him well.” The room still contains the contraption, a gaping hole in the ceiling, and scientific drawings and diagrams tacked to a wall that is covered with wallpaper composed of old Soviet propaganda posters. A diorama of the town shows the man’s expected projectile path into outer space. The text explains that shortly after the man went into orbit authorities arrived and boarded up the room.