Genetologic Research, Very Short Novels and Cinema 299

I am not particularly a fan of “internet memes“, the internet equivalent of chain letters. The “Thinking Blogger Award” is a case in mind which was analyzed most satisfactory by Surreal Documents. However, the current meme started by Broken Projector in response to the work of David B Dale is too good to ignore. Apparently, Gautam of Broken Projector discovered Very Short Novels, an experiment in constrained writing by David B Dale, and liked it so much that he decided to write a 299-word piece on cinema, called Cinema 299. David D Bale responded by writing Surprise Ending, a “very short novel” on cinema, making the circle complete.

From memes to genes is a small step, I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce the work of Maarten Vanden Eynde and Koen Vanmechelen.

Genetologic Research is a blog by Belgian/Dutch artist Maarten Vanden Eynde, subtitled “The Science of First Things”. Randomly picked, interesting posts include Mice and Men, Black Hole House, and The Cosmopolitan Chicken, a work by Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen who cross-breeds chickens. His work is currently on display at the Verbeke Foundation.

P. S. Although I stated that I am not a big fan of internet memes, I was very proud and honored to receive the “Thinking Blogger Award” in the past from Tales from the Reading Room, Beyond Groovy Age and Tim Lucas.

The perfect human

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Andy Warhol by Jørgen Leth in 66 Scenes from America (1982)

“My name is Andy Warhol and I just finished eating a hamburger.”

Hjort: Some of your documentary films experiment interestingly with the relation between word and image. I’m thinking, for example, of “66 Scenes from America”, which presents a series of almost hyper-real, postcard-like images of America, that are identified, in a series of significantly delayed, laconic and minimalist comments. The longest sequence is that of Andy Warhol fastidiously eating a hamburger. Having completed this exercise, Warhol delivers the following line: ‘My name is Andy Warhol and I just finished eating a hamburger.’ What, exactly, is the purpose of the intentionally strained and awkward relation between images and words in “66 Scenes from America”? —Jørgen Leth interviewed by Mette Hjort & Ib Bondebjerg, September 2002

Superfluous man

For reasons I better keep to myself, lest I bore you with my personal life, I feel today like superfluous man. So instead of boring you with stories of myself, I will try not to bore you within The Diary of a Superfluous Man (1850) by Turgenev, the Russian writer better known as the author of Fathers and Sons.

March 23. Winter again. The snow is falling in flakes. Superfluous, superfluous. . . . That’s a capital word I have hit on. The more deeply I probe into myself, the more intently I review all my past life, the more I am convinced of the strict truth of this expression. Superfluous–that’s just it. To other people that term is not applicable, . . . People are bad, or good, clever, stupid, pleasant, and disagreeable; but superfluous . . . no. Understand me, though: the universe could get on without those people too . . . no doubt; but uselessness is not their prime characteristic, their most distinctive attribute, and when you speak of them, the word ‘superfluous’ is not the first to rise to your lips. But I . . . there’s nothing else one can say about me; I’m superfluous and nothing more. A supernumerary, and that’s all. Nature, apparently, did not reckon on my appearance, and consequently treated me as an unexpected and uninvited guest. A facetious gentleman, a great devotee of preference, said very happily about me that I was the forfeit my mother had paid at the game of life. I am speaking about myself calmly now, without any bitterness. . . . It’s all over and done with!

World dance music classics #4

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This Is Not a Love Song (1983) – Public Image Ltd

This Is Not A Love Song is a 1983 of the group Public Image Ltd.. It was written by Johnny Rotten, vocalist of Public Image Ltd. and the Sex Pistols and featured on the album This Is What You Want… This Is What You Get.

See previous entries in this series.