nevermind the bricolage

iGNANT

iGNANT is an interdisciplinary Berlin-based blog featuring creatives in the fields of art, design, photography and architecture. The team behind iGNANT is dedicated to the picture, to moods and esthetics, finding its expression in our in-house productions of photographs, videos and original written content. Since its launch 2007 it steadily built up a strong esthetical identity, appealing readers from all over the world. We are passionate about exciting, captivating and original work from well-known creatives and emerging talents.

A recent post focused on the work of John William Keedy, whose works explores personal identity and normalcy. I thought that investigating the idea of normalcy was inspired, I think we assume that our own lives are the model of normalcy, it's on when they are lined up against other lives that abnormalities might be exposed.

This image really hit me when I saw it, the idea of being trapped inside a construct of our own making and the limitations it reveals. Both the images posted here are from, It's Hardly Noticeable project, which apparently explores the world of a character whose life is framed by anxiety.

There is a load of interesting stuff on iGNANT, and you can spend some quality time exploring. I love this image from photographer, Chloe Newman(if you love photography you'll realy enjoy her work)

on evil blogs and dustbins of history

 

“I have never seen it. I find these things, these blogs, to be perverse, disgusting. Evil, even.”
Slavoj Žižek

Idiot Joy Showland is a genius blog. Caustic, sarcastic, ironic, insightful and often blistering in canny critique of cultural artifacts, high and low.

Of particular brilliance was a fairly recent post on the above piece of ad/schlock. One of the world's biggest and probably richest companies and their idea of innovative strategy is initiated by ripping off RSAnimate! Combine that with a load of sloganeering and ridiculous marketing talk and, well, watch and then read. They should have listened to one of their own key strategies which is "the role of content excellence is to behave like a ruthless editor...otherwise we'll risk just creating noise," yes, noise, like this fucking video.

fre.quenc.ies

This looks interesting, a colaboration between The Immanent Frame and Killing the Buddha, and curated by Katherine Lofton and John Lardas Modern.  They invite writers and artists to reflect on what spirituality means to them. The project statement declares,

America has always been rife with spiritual songwriters. I announce the great individual, fluid as Nature, chaste, affectionate, compassionate, fully armed, Walt Whitman wrote. I announce a life that shall be copious, vehement, spiritual, bold.

Whitman’s announcement was but a measure of the American atmosphere, a persistent promise that the proclamation of a national freedom was not just a patriotic rallying cry but also a passionate mysticism. Descriptions of the spiritual and spirituality emerged as a way for seekers to define their wanderings in new worlds of experience, colonial occupation, and social order.

Yet there is more to spirituality than this sort of creative belief. From the transatlantic mission of Christopher Columbus to the planning session of this very project, spirituality has always been an argumentative tool, a political project, and a sectarian squabble. Scholars now evaluate the meaning of spirituality in theological questions. Pundits and political leaders worry about the competing claims of ascendant spiritual authorities. Philanthropic institutions invest in the exposure of the spiritual to the sick, the hungry, the needful, and the sad. And certain religious leaders argue vehemently over the role of the spirit in the expansion of religious empires. To approach spirituality is to be deeply complicit in the unfolding idea of liberal democracy as well as its refusal.

Frequencies seeks to commence a genealogy of spirituality. This project approaches spirituality as a cultural technology, as a diverse reverberation, as a frequency in the ether of experience. We begin in a moment when novelists wonder about the divine, psychological counselors advertise as spiritual advisers, and scholars seek to capture spirituality’s ephemeral nature through survey research. Spirituality abounds, even as it is unclear what it is. Whatever it is, it seems hard to capture. Spirituality takes hold beneath the skin and permeates below the radar of statistical surveys. It resists classification even as it classifies its evaluators and its believers as subjects of its sway. Frequencies will focus this profusion into an epic anthology of wide-ranging analysis.

There is much more to explore on the site. You can also find an interview with Lofton here, talking about her latest book on Oprah, which looks to be worth a read.

trichotomous exploration

  

I have found myself spending some time at the well that is The Trichotomous Exploration. It's a lot of over-the-top, and unfortunately, usually pretty legitimate video snippets from all points of the compass--mainly the religious/christian compass. The above video about healing is just an example of what they post. It is usually even more troubling than this one--I mean, I suppose I hope the girl really was healed of her inability to read or whatever it was, but I also hope that reading physics at university helps her get over metaphysical conceptions of the divine, but I doubt that was the intention in the healing testimony. The following video is a bit of a worry, a PSA from the 1950s doing its part to affirm cultural stereo-typing and cementing a certain view towards human sexuality in the hearts and minds of at least one generation.

 

Wow! That's really all I can say about this. I don't remember this kind of stuff at school in England--we had Quentin Crisp!!

 

world wide web

Twenty years ago today the World Wide Web was made available to the public. Twenty years, that's not a long time especially when one considers how much things have changed because of it.

Some Grey Bloke

 

I like this one even better,

Found then via this very good site.

Jonathan Harris

Have I mentioned Jonathan Harris before? Maybe in terms of the amazing programmes he has created online--We Feel Fine, Sputnik Observatory etc. but he also offers up a daily photo, many of which are sublime. Sometimes there is a little blurb, but often just a title. Today's image is entitled, So Much Emptiness, and I think it is beautiful. You can subscribe for the daily photo and explore his other imaginative works here.

Has Man A Future?

I lost a lot of links and stuff when my hard drive crashed and rather than try to recreate what I had I decided to take it as gift and start from scratch, breaking old patterns and link-habits, and discovering new sites etc. I have become a big fan of Tumblr's--I just like the format and the kind of people who seem drawn to use it. This is one site I like.

2churchmice

"President Obama argued that the questions we face today need entirely new thinking, because not only is the old thinking incapable of resolving them, but in most ways it is what created them in the first place.  When all the dust has settled, these are essentially spiritual questions.  Those faced with unemployment, or diminished pensions, or just uncertainty, are trying to figure out what it means to live a life that is at least worthy, if not wealthy.  And we are all wondering who and what we can now trust in, and why?  Not to mention how we can personally respond to the laying waste of social and individual life, to take us forward into a better place.  The spiritual traditions that engage honestly and openly with the big questions of our age are the only ones that will be part of the new future that so many of us now seem to be searching for.  It’s enough to send you back to the stories of Jesus, another one who called for a radical rethink of how we live and who we are becoming.  History repeating itself?"
The paragraph above is just a taste of the creative thinking of John and Olive Drane, who are blogging now over here. J+O offer some of the most creative and critical theological thinking and practice around, and if you don't know them this is a great way to get an introduction.

Deep Soul Heaven

 
I have always loved soul music, it has formed a soundtrack to much of my life. I turn to it again and again as I move through my life, I mine it's emotional arc, groove to it's impossibly funky rhythms, and lean on it's achingly simple, lovelorn and love-worn lyrics. When I was younger, Motown was my daily diet and Northern Soul was my weekend fix--it was the perfect foil for my amphetamine-fueled escapades on the dance floor at Wigan Casino and other all-nighters, but I always harboured a deep love for other, less frantic and dance-focused soul. It was mainly because of the education I received from my friends--the elders who schooled in the finer points of rhythm and blues and soul--well, here's a site for sore ears: Sir Shamblings Deep Soul Heaven, a destination full of gems and jewels of the soul-kind. Mining the smaller labels and artists, this is a site so rich in material it should be used as an educational tool. You will perhaps find many names here that you have never heard before--it's never too late to add to your canon, so listen good.