luka

Well-known member
The cybernetics stuff in K-Punk comes, I'm fairly sure, from Bateson and from Bateson's influence on Deleuze and Guattari. The concept also influenced his reading of Spinoza. The K in K Punk stands first and foremost for cyber.

"The word cybernetics comes from Greek κυβερνητική (kybernētikḗ), meaning "governance", i.e., all that are pertinent to κυβερνάω (kybernáō), the latter meaning "to steer, navigate or govern", hence κυβέρνησις (kybérnēsis), meaning "government", is the government while κυβερνήτης (kybernḗtēs) is the governor or "helmperson" of the "ship""
Wikipedia

"In accord with the negative character of cybernetic explanation, "information" is quantified in negative terms. An event or object such as the letter K in a given position in the text of a message might have been any other of the limited set of twenty-six letters in the English language. The actual letter excludes (i.e eliminates by restraint) twenty-five alternatives."

Bateson. Cybernetic Explanation.
 
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luka

Well-known member
One of the possible readings of fragmentation is that the parts have ceased to communicate with one another, or at least are no longer able to form an emergent order. They don't come together into the great crystal. Society itself starts the break down. The personality is no longer coherent. Mark used to quote Jamesons's observation that postmodern culture is schizophrenic as it cannot form a coherent image of time.

"The basic levels of experience that motivate art are related to those of the objective world from which they recoil. The unsolved antagonisms of reality return in artworks as immanent problems of form. This, not the insertion of objective elements, defines the relation of art to society."

Adorno. Aesthetic Theory.
 
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luka

Well-known member
Dissensus has been good last little while. Perfect level of pretension (high) and nice playgroup cooperation happy fun together.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
“with the rapid progress of communication technology, every one will have a “brain wave receiver” in his ear, which conveys directly and exactly what other people think about him and vice versa. What I think will be known by all the people. There is no more individual consciousness, only the will of mankind as a whole”

Noboru Kawazoe

the terminology of "the web" speaks to this notion of sinister interconnectivity. we're all flies entangled within the interconnected threads of our impending doom.


"Anansi (/əˈnɑːnsi/ ə-NAHN-see) is an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. Taking the role of trickster."

the Harlequin thread is about these modern musical vectors of the trickster archetype. my schtick about that is that they’re people whose minds have been fractured and shattered by the the constant, schizophrenic stream of other peoples thoughts that are broadcast to them via social media.
 

version

Well-known member
This is something I read last night. I dunno that I agree with all of it, but it made me stop and think for a little while.

You know how people often times get upset when one of their interests becomes "mainstream"? It is as if the more well-known an interest becomes the more it is demystified. And the more it is demystified the less social and monetary value it contains, leaving only intrinsic value. It threatens the economic and social place of the individual. People understand what it takes to do it and talent is distributed more widely. Everything else becomes...almost a supply and demand calculation.

To some degree this same thing seems to be happening to life itself where people are projecting an identity on social media and the result is a great banalizing of life. To have even just the belief that they are a unique, necessary, autonomous, and contributing component in what little community they have they become an echo.

It's like modernity requires a kind of hyper involvement, a presence, in a process of reproduction. And this results in a kind of disconnection in the individual (anomie?). I think that's what is going on to some degree with identity. Social media has mass produced identity to such a degree that it removes all human autonomy. Or - in the event autonomy is itself illusory - it at the very least removes the sufficient doubt necessary for us to assume we have autonomy (the belief is likely all that really matters there anyway). It erases the subject.

So in some sense anomie starts to seem almost like a defense mechanism. I speculate what a schizoid break from this would look like...invisibility? A radical un-presence?
 

luka

Well-known member
"Anansi (/əˈnɑːnsi/ ə-NAHN-see) is an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. Taking the role of trickster."

the Harlequin thread is about these modern musical vectors of the trickster archetype. my schtick about that is that they’re people whose minds have been fractured and shattered by the the constant, schizophrenic stream of other peoples thoughts that are broadcast to them via social media.

thats a good one when did you make that one up?
 

version

Well-known member
my schtick about that is that they’re people whose minds have been fractured and shattered by the the constant, schizophrenic stream of other peoples thoughts that are broadcast to them via social media.

 
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sadmanbarty

Well-known member
thats a good one when did you make that one up?

i was listening to terry g and though he was an african trickster. i looked up african tricksters and found that one.

when it said that not only was it a trickster, but also looks like a spider and knows everything i thought it'd be perfect for this thread.
 

luka

Well-known member
In primary school it seemed like every other week a 'story teller' would come in and tell us an Anansi story.
 

version

Well-known member
Along with what we've discussed re: The Joker, another major villain/anti-hero in popular culture at the moment is Loki. Another 'trickster' and also a shapeshifter.
 

luka

Well-known member
This

people whose minds have been fractured and shattered by the the constant, schizophrenic stream of other peoples thoughts that are broadcast to them via social media.

Not hear you do that routine before
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
This

people whose minds have been fractured and shattered by the the constant, schizophrenic stream of other peoples thoughts that are broadcast to them via social media.

Not hear you do that routine before

i pull genius out my ass. i'm just gifted
 

version

Well-known member
If you run with the idea that the internet is an organism in its own right then it starts to look like an example of a parasite...

In evolutionary biology, parasitism is a relationship between species, where one organism, the parasite, lives on or in another organism, the host, causing it some harm, and is adapted structurally to this way of life.

... or an invasive species.

An invasive species is a species that is not native to a specific location (an introduced species), and that has a tendency to spread to a degree believed to cause damage to the environment, human economy or human health.
 
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