What's wrong with this picture?

http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/10/19/business/global/20101019-ghost-slideshow.html

Here's a link to a text by Russell Means, it's from a speech he gave in 1980- Means speaks to the problem of indigenous cultures becoming "Europeanized."

http://www.countercurrents.org/means181010.htm

Here's an excerpt-

"But each new piece of that “progress” ups the ante out in the real world. Take fuel for the industrial machine as an example. Little more than two centuries ago, nearly everyone used wood–a replenishable, natural item–as fuel for the very human needs of cooking and staying warm. Along came the Industrial Revolution and coal became the dominant fuel, as production became the social imperative for Europe. Pollution began to become a problem in the cities, and the earth was ripped open to provide coal whereas wood had always simply been gathered or harvested at no great expense to the environment. Later, oil became the major fuel, as the technology of production was perfected through a series of scientific “revolutions.” Pollution increased dramatically, and nobody yet knows what the environmental costs of pumping all that oil out of the ground will really be in the long run. "

Hi Everyone- Out of our Detroit discussions we see alternative and parallel strategies of land use and geographic narratives-

http://www.hantzfarmsdetroit.com/

http://www.urbanfarming.org/

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/us/30detroit.html?ref=us

Here's a new project by artists Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle that proposes a parallel economy to our current neo-liberal model- it's called Time/Store... another utopian economic alternative to our 'morning after' hyper-capitalist collapse?

Time/Store on Essex Street follows the historic Cincinnati Time Store, opened by the American anarchist Josiah Warren in 1827 as a three-year experiment in alternative economics. Warren's idea was to develop an exchange system where the value assigned to commodities would come as close as possible to the amount of human labor necessary to produce them. For example: 8 hours of a carpenter’s labor could be exchanged for eight to twelve pounds of corn. This system eventually led to the creation of time currency, and to contemporary time banking—an international movement of alternative economics.

http://www.e-flux.com/timebank/

Through the Eye of the Sufi

Parallelism and intersection

parallel |ˈparəˌlel; -ləl|

adjective

1. of lines, planes, surfaces, or objects) side by side and having the same distance continuously between them : parallel lines never meet
2. occurring or existing at the same time or in a similar way;
3. computing involving the simultaneous performance of operations.
4. of or denoting electrical components or circuits connected to common points at each end, rather than one to another in sequence.
5. the opposite of series.

noun

1. a person or thing that is similar or analogous to another a similarity : e.g. he points to a parallel between biological evolution and cognitive development.
2. a comparison : e.g. he draws a parallel between personal destiny and social forces.

phrases

[in parallel]occurring at the same time and having some connection.

Orig

mid 16th cent. : from French parallèle,

via Latin from Greek parallēlos,

from para- ‘alongside’ + allēlos ‘one another.’

(fig.1)

After a brief analysis of the above terminology a curious conflict arises, pertaining to wether parallel can include points of intersection pertaining to the subject being addressed in any specific context. (fig.1) Basic perspectives on this issue vary, ranging from basic geometry where parallel lines don’t meet, and more mystical perspective believing that two parallel line in fact meet - same as any other aspect of creation.

Sufism & Parallel Lives

(fig.2)

Here, applying the basic principles of Quantum physics and application of the behavior of atoms to the human condition, it is believed that all forms of creation, at their very core are in fact created from nothing but wave structures. When these waves cross at specific points and frequencies, they manifest in material forms - ones that we refer to as tangible, materiality, etc. - while at all other times these wave forms are non-tangible (such as spirituality, sound, gamma rays, etc.) (fig.2)

(fig.3) Isfahan Mosque (Dome), Iran

Bringing forth the idea that parallel applies to intersecting as well co-existence, we can conclude the from the Sufism existential perspective, that we - s well as all forms of creation - are created by waves, that at times manifest as bodies. Hence we do in-fact live “parallel lives” at every moment of our existence. This is belief is reflected in various Islamic Sufism art forms throughout time, but more specifically the Tazhib form. (fig.3)

Notes:

• Quantum mechanics, also known as quantum physics or quantum theory, is a branch of physics providing a mathematical description of much of the dual particle-like and wave-like behavior and interactions of energy and matter.

• Sufism is defined by its adherents as the inner, mystical dimension of Islam. A practitioner of this tradition is generally known as a ṣūfī (صُوفِيّ) or a Dervish. Most consider themselves to be in search, and hence "students" of Sufism. Traditional books or conventional methods are discarded in search of a direct relationship with one's god.

Classical Sufi scholars have defined Sufism as "a science whose objective is the reparation of the heart and turning it away from all else but the one and only creator (also known as God).

Pierre Huyghe's Carpenter Center Project

Thanks everyone for a great class- all of your comments, posts and questions were wonderfully challenging and insightful!

... and thanks to Larissa James for sharing her work- here's a link to Larissa's site-

http://larissajames.com/#photography/series/bus

...and thanks to Amy for sharing her project at the Carpenter Center- here's a link to the Pierre Huyghe's Le Corbusier/Carpenter Center project that I mentioned-

http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2004/11.11/01-huyghe.html

...and here's a link to some recent images of Las Vegas- a portrait in parallel-- economic collapse embedded in a desert landscape of casino capitalism- 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/27/las_vegas_foreclosures_unemployment_nevada__n_774257.html#165747

:-)

http://parallelworlds2010.tumblr.com/

161 Greatest Arnold Schwarzenegger Quotes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDxn0Xfqkgw

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtDIcdbFfaI

-Cory Thomas Hanson

James Raymond

The idea of a parallel world is a very loose term. While the idea conjures up imagery of science fiction tales including time travel, wormholes and space exploration, the term is more based in reality than we believe. While people haven’t discovered any alternate dimensions, our actual world is devised up of an endless amount of cultures and lands to explore. Now with new technology such as television and the Internet people can suddenly conjure up images all over the world. With this new technology people can see images never seen before however the price of this is a loss of exploration.
It is hard to believe that a few hundred years ago that the planet was uncharted and mysterious. The idea of a someone discovering a new continent must have been the closest to discovering a true parallel world. One of the most famous and memorable fiction made about this feeling is the comic strip Little Nemo. The comic strip, which began in 1871, followed the boy Nemo who while sleeping would travel to slumber land and have various adventures. While this parallel world was a surreal and fantasy world filled with magic and monsters the world was clearly a caricature of the real world. When Nemo dreamt that he was in the ice kingdom he was in Russia and when he was in the jungle he was actually in Russia. The comic shows the childlike feeling people have while discovering new things. And while Little Nemo shows the brighter side of colonization, it gives a glimpse into a world filled with wonder and mystery that does not exist anymore.
Although the planet is now fully mapped and, humans are still trying to find ways to simulate the feeling of exploration. Video games emerge such as Second Life where people literally build and create their own worlds. And while the feeling of walking through a poorly constructed 3D environment may not compare to discovering Africa, it shows that there is a need and desire for discovering a parallel world.

The novel "Day of the Locust" and the Hollywood dream dump

Picture from "Singing in the Rain" - a film that indulges in Hollywood's art of artifice


From Day of the Locust:


"In the center of the field was a gigantic pile of sets, flats and props. While he watched, a ten-ton truck added another load to it. This was the final dumping
ground. He thought of Janvier's "Sargasso Sea." Just as that imaginary
body of water was a history of civilization in the form of a marine
junkyard, the studio lot was one in the form of a dream dump. A Sargasso
of the imagination! And the dump grew continually, for there wasn't a
dream afloat somewhere which wouldn't sooner or later turn up on it,
having first been made photographic by plaster, canvas, lath and paint.
Many boats sink and never reach the Sargasso, but no dream ever entirely
disappears. Somewhere it troubles some unfortunate person and some day,
when that person has been sufficiently troubled, it will be reproduced on
the lot."



"But not even the soft wash of dusk could help the houses. Only dynamite
would be of any use against the Mexican ranch houses, Samoan huts,
Mediterranean villas, Egyptian and Japanese temples, Swiss chalets, Tudor
cottages, and every possible combination of these styles that lined the
slopes of the canyon.

When he noticed that they were all of plaster, lath and paper, he was
charitable and blamed their shape on the materials used. Steel, stone and
brick curb a builder's fancy a little, forcing him to distribute his
stresses and weights and to keep his corners plumb, but plaster and paper
know no law, not even that of gravity."


Hollywood is a hub for parallel worlds. Movies can take you to any time, to any place without being there. Movies also depict places that actors aren't actually present in. Blue screens and painted dropbacks (from the time of author West) can be the showcase of your dreams.

Moreover, the actual neighborhood or landscape of Hollywood also provides residents the possibility to live in any kind of house-- a palace, a tudor home, or even in the style of a buddhist temple. People can live and indulge in their fantasies- the artifice in the studio migrates to (an artifice of) the home.


Read the novel here for free: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0609041.txt


Singing in the Rain scene:

"New Forms of Fiction"

William Gibson, Zero History, Network Realism

where i found the article:
http://technoccult.net/archives/2010/10/25/network-realism/

original article here:
http://booktwo.org/notebook/network-realism/


Celeste M. Evans 

utopia dystopia

Detroit Links

Hi Everyone- I posted some links related to our discussions today on Detroit.

See the Links page.

Version:1.0 StartHTML:0000000183 EndHTML:0000004955 StartFragment:0000002375 EndFragment:0000004919 SourceURL:file://localhost/Users/jamesraymond/Desktop/Parralell%20worlds.doc

The idea of a parallel world is a very loose term. While the idea conjures up imagery of science fiction tales including time travel, wormholes and space exploration, the term is more based in reality than we believe. While people haven’t discovered any alternate dimensions, our actual world is devised up of an endless amount of cultures and lands to explore. Now with new technology such as television and the Internet people can suddenly conjure up images all over the world. With this new technology people can see images never seen before however the price of this is a loss of exploration.

It is hard to believe that a few hundred years ago that the planet was uncharted and mysterious. The idea of a someone discovering a new continent must have been the closest to discovering a true parallel world. One of the most famous and memorable fiction made about this feeling is the comic strip Little Nemo. The comic strip, which began in 1871, followed the boy Nemo who while sleeping would travel to slumber land and have various adventures. While this parallel world was a surreal and fantasy world filled with magic and monsters the world was clearly a caricature of the real world. When Nemo dreamt that he was in the ice kingdom he was in Russia and when he was in the jungle he was actually in Russia. The comic shows the childlike feeling people have while discovering new things. And while Little Nemo shows the brighter side of colonization, it gives a glimpse into a world filled with wonder and mystery that does not exist anymore.

Although the planet is now fully mapped and, humans are still trying to find ways to simulate the feeling of exploration. Video games emerge such as Second Life where people literally build and create their own worlds. And while the feeling of walking through a poorly constructed 3D environment may not compare to discovering Africa, it shows that there is a need and desire for discovering a parallel world.

Parallel Worlds - The novel "We"

Parallel worlds are the alternate futures and pasts of our reality— different and darker shades of what is and what could be. While parallel pasts rethink our history, parallel futures follow the possible consequences of our actions in the present. These types of parallel futures, dystopias, project a fearful conscience of the current living— if we continue to live a certain way, our future will be disastrous. Writing that depicts such parallel futures are like light houses in the dark-- warning us of impending danger of crashing into shore if we do not take caution.

Dystopian texts portray types of parallel worlds where mankind has either failed or succeeded too far with his technological advancements. The successful, technologically advanced futures are the most intriguing, because man's fabulous achievements are always failures in the end. Technology comes with a price, as man sacrifices himself in order to achieve things greater himself. Consequently, man assumes the role of God and loses his self in the process- sacrificing his spirit, emotions, morals, history in exchange for perfect equations, formulas, and ultimate human order. The dystopic world is then utopic in having an overly organized society.

One of my favorite dystopian novels that depicts such hopelessness (or doomed triumph) is "We," written by Yevgeny Zamyatin. The diarist/protagonist, D-503, is a first hand witness to the inevitable and terrifying future, and his candid thoughts not only capture the experience of the future but project the changes within mankind- his altered sense of identity, attitude, behavior, emotions, beliefs, etc. Zamyatin shows the future humankind to be repulsed by the very thought of actually being human-- morality, poetry, and emotions such as happiness are to be shunned or distorted into praise for the oppressive government ruling over the narrator's world. The concept of soul is dead within such a society. The Garden of Eden is replaced then by the Garden of Superior Technology and Infallible Logic:

"The ancients' God created ancient-- that is, prone to error-- man, and so erred himself. The multiplication table is wiser and more absolute than the ancient God. It never-- repeat, never-- makes a mistake. And there's nothing happier than figures that live according to the elegant and eternal laws of the multiplication table. No wavering, no wandering."

May 68 -redux in parallel

Thanks to Eliot for drawing our attention to what's happening in

France- the strike is entering its fourth day....

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/16/world/europe/16france.html?ref=global-home

Ways of Worldmaking and Haunted Media

I mentioned Nelson Goodman's Ways of Worldmaking this week in class, thought I'd send some information about it if anyone is interested. Nelson Goodman was an American analytic philosopher, who's students included Noam Chomsky and Hilary Putnam, who focused on topics in aesthetics (as well as other things). His Book, Ways of Worldmaking (which can be previewed on Google books HERE) posits that we are constantly producing new "worlds" all the time out of previously constructed worlds. The work is very relativistic for analytic philosophy but is extremely accessible. I highly recommend it.


I also thought I'd also mention Haunted Media by Jeffrey Sconce for those who were interested in spirit photography, the paranormal, and new media. Jeffrey Sconce is a media historian and cultural theorist at Northwestern University and his book, Haunted Media (which can be previewed on Google books HERE), is a history of new media starting with photography and moving all the way into the contemporary period. It is brilliantly written and his thesis is smart and cogent. Again, I highly recommend it.

Persian Art of Tazhib: The Micro & Macro

animation& the uncanny/jan svankmajer's alice & wonderland as a parallel world

Metropolis (behind the scenes)

Nostalgia in Day is Done

In 2005, Mike Kelly presented "Day is Done," a project that appropriated found images of high school ceremonies and yearbook portraits into a series of performances, sound works and installations. Reproducing these images and events alongside the original documentation, Kelly created doubles of these rituals and thus created an uncanny work of fact and fiction, memory and reality. The resulting work presents a personal utopia/ dystopia through one's nostalgia for simpler days and the recognition that memory romanticizes the past and inevitably distorts the reality we so strongly miss.

James Raymond - Dark Krystal a world within our own mind

उटोपिया द्य्स्तोपिया

Gandahar-Cory Thomas Hanson

From _Magic Highway USA_ (Disney 1958)

also, first minute and 40 of this.

William Mumler - A Spirit Photograph

Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts

Parallel After the Corner

“Even your death is unnecessary in a traditional sense.”

Tilda Swinton tells Tom Cruise’s David Ames in Vanilla Sky. The ability to purchase your future subconscious while in the process of freezing the present moment.
As the future quickly approaches our current moment, or perhaps, as our current moment approaches the future. We seem to attract, invent and integrate the ability to separate our moment to moment lives from the wider scope of the present and what will inevitably become the future. Waking each day into a world with seamless mechanization “improving” the human condition. Cars that stop for you, detect dangers ahead, mobile phones that memorize store and calibrate your every text, email search and key tap, computers that tabulate permutations of information at speeds rivaling that of anything known in the history of technological innovation.

Then, perhaps in the middle ground of what the majority would bill as “progress,” we find ourselves. Often awaking in the middle of the night when the mind has gone to sleep and the technological engines have turned up to catch a hold of time not yet recognized, wondering where is the “more” the visceral and experiential component of being.
Peter Handke writes in his Kaspar:

“I want to be someone like somebody else was once.”

Considering the pace of contemporary global human culture we can modify this to illustrate the message of progress:

“I want to be somebody like the other was once.”

That other for us as an ever accelerating global culture being “progress.”
The artist Paul Klee has his famous watercolour, Angelus Novus, who while accelerating blindly into the future has no perception of the “storm of Progress” gathering at his feet. We as a global human culture might consider this present moment our moment of turning the corner of Paradise, and the inevitable storm has be gun, propelling us blindly towards an ultra-integrated future. We follow along as the mechanism of invention that the human hands are, attempting to guide our creations to do no more than assist in conducting human life along a supposed “better path,” more health, more ease, more capacity for completion and communication. Untold bundles of information flying through the waves around our ears at an unfathomable pace. All while we move about the Earth, human as ever, in a world more pseudo human than we might imagine.

Richard III asks:

“Why, I, in this weak piping time of peace.”

May we look to that as a sort of transgression of common trends in human history, the weak time of peace we face now in a world where we can buy the super manipulation of our subconscious, lulling ourselves into a haze of technological integration while the war progresses around us. As a global culture the parallel is a machine of our own design, what is to better our lives and to assist in the optimum levels of human existence is actually that which rides alongside of us, unseen, educating itself the further we press on into the future. The parallel is blind, because we have designed it with seamless features in mind. As a global culture we are turning the corner, arms outstretched to embrace the integration and our eyes falling blind to the realization that what is riding along with us, is learning to be us, like walking a Los Angeles side street as a BladeRunner extra, if it all came to life in a instant of hyper-progress, the technology loses its distinction from the actual, and culture fades into the seam. Maybe Swinton should have spoken...

“Life is now unnecessary in a traditional sense.”



Bibliography:

The Tragedy of King Richard III
Edited by Anthony Hammond
1981 Methuen & Co. Ltd.

Vanilla Sky
Directed by: Cameron Crowe
Screenwriter: Mateo Gil
2004 Paramount Pictures
Kaspar
Playwright: Peter Handke
1967 Germany


Angelus Novus
Artist: Paul Klee
1920

Celeste M. Evans

More blurred lines between fact and fiction:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/05/julian-fellowes-joanna-tr_n_751601.html

Check out these anti-garden cities:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/10/07/images-of-the-foreclosure_n_754272.html

Sisyphus, by Tiziano Vecellio

Parafiction Link

http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/octo.2009.129.1.51

Raqs Media Collective

http://www.raqsmediacollective.net/

The Parallel World in Panels

Jordan Johnson

One of the most prominent forms of sci-fi media to address the idea of parallel worlds is the comic book medium. Parallel worlds are a regular part of many comic book mythologies; often used as a tool with which to order the infinite number of narratives that occur in the context of the universe created. The topography created by the comic book form lends itself to the description of a space and manner in which parallel narratives interact.

Although the parallel world performs many functions in the context of the comic book narrative, most commonly it is interpreted literally and is depicted as a space in which aspects of the narrative (fictional histories) are re-written or re-interpreted.

The idea of the “multiverse”, (a term coined by psychologist William James in 1825) is also a popular convention of many super hero comic universes. Usually described as a space that functions outside of, but contains and connects a string of dimensions that are a part of the narrative of that universe as a whole. The DC comic universe provides a good example of this space, which is represented by “The Bleed”, a liminal area outside of space and time that serves as a buffer between the various worlds, as well as acting as a connecting vein through which travel between realities is possible.

Parallel World in Sound?

What is a "Parallel World"? How does it relate through sound? Maybe even a Panorama created with sound. With the help of a friend, I explored improvisation, both of us at the piano, which we recorded first, and then both of us vocalizing twice, creating the sound of four voices.



Art by aadrianmusic

Imagined Realities in The Country of the Blind

H.G. Wells must have heard the saying the grass is greener on the other side more than a few times in his life as he takes this idiom and runs with it. He creates a greener space in the parallel worlds of “The Country of the Blind.” Whether romanticizing about the world of the blind or that outside, Wells’ protagonist Nunez allows his imagination to distort reality and create a paradisiacal fantasy that can never be attained.

H.G. Wells introduces this tale with an unstable narrator who immediately admits “the rest of this story… is lost to me.”[1] The narrator establishes a temporal and physical lower world that is “somewhere over there”[2]. This is a story of an Other World with over a dozen versions altering and editing the facts. It is also one with unreliable citizens who revise reality to suit their collective condition of blindness. From the beginning, H.G. Wells is hinting to the reader that everything read, seen, or heard should not be trusted. Or rather, various versions of one narrative can exist.

These are tempting fictions that contain the possibility of a better life. The country of the blind is a paradise “with sweet water…slopes of rich brown soil…and great hanging forests of pine” [3] where Nunez can be king. The outside world is freedom where he can escape servitude.

It is only when Nunez enters these worlds that his absurd fantasies reveal themselves to be false. Despite various attempts, Nunez is never fully able to fit in with the blind citizens. He is punished for his difference and bullied into an irreversible surgical procedure. When he finally escapes to the outside of the valley wall, he becomes paralyzed with thoughts of the “Unexpected” and ultimately returns to the blind. Paradise is not so kind and freedom not so empowering.

By the end of the tale Nunez is again creating a fiction of the Other World. He imagines the outside world to have “stirring beauty, a glory of day…and a place of palaces and fountains...”[4]. However, this paradise is never reached. H.G. Wells ends the story in a state of suspension, where Nunez is laying under the vast sky in a space between worlds. The story will change the moment he enters this outside world. Reality will revise his narrative, adding to the multiple versions that already exist “somewhere over there.”

---

[1] H.G. Wells, “The Country of the Blind,” 1904, http://www.online-literature.com/wellshg/3/, 2010.

[2] Ibid.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.