Paranoia agent
Soundtrack by Susumu Hirasawa
...
To the dismay of many, the disjointed presentation of the story makes it hard to understand what is going on at times. The plot is told from the perspectives of many different characters and some of the episodes don’t directly affect the progression of the plot. Near the end, Paranoia Agent becomes almost as confusing as Neon Genesis Evangelion and much like the latter anime leaves many important questions unanswered. The fates of a lot of the main characters were left ambiguous and the purpose of some of the characters and events is equally obscure.
Of course Kon Satoshi wasn’t out to tell a coherent and normal story, his intents were to provide social commentary with a unique presentation. There are some symbols such as the moon, Shogo’s palm tree, and the crows in episode three that offer a little insight into the characters, but might as well be red herrings for as little as they tell us about Kon’s intent. Where Paranoia Agent truly shines is in the social commentaries it makes. Covering a wide variety of topics from consumerism, to self-victimization, and even commenting on otaku sub-culture, Paranoia Agent has a little something to say to everyone...
<http://www.nihonreview.com/anime/paranoia-agent/>
Mononoke
Mononoke (モノノ怪) is a Japanese animated television series produced by Toei Animation. A spin-off of 2006's horror anthology series Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales, Mononoke follows the character of the medicine seller as he continues to face a myriad of supernatural perils.
The wandering, nameless character known only as the "Medicine Seller" always proceeds in the same manner, using his knowledge of the supernatural to fend off the mononoke until he can learn the spirit's shape (Katachi), truth (Makoto) and reasoning (Kotowari). Only then can he unsheathe his sword and exorcise the demon.
The Porcelain Project
Watching a performance by Grace Ellen Barkey is like entering an unfamiliar world that derives its coherence only from itself and not from any preset narrative line. The only logic that applies in this fantasy is a poetic one and although various elements (bodies and limbs, contours and lines, images and objects) are reminiscent of a world we know, they are here reconstituted in accordance with playful but barely fathomable associations.
http://www.needcompany.org/
The Deer House
Jan Lauwers on The Deer House:
'Art is actually all about man and human nature and all good art is a self-portrait of the observer. ‘One sees what one has learnt.’ In good theatre things happen which cannot happen in video, film or art. As a medium, theatre has the most direct link with ‘human nature’ since it is performed by people and for people. It is essential to seek out this human nature so that theatre can redefine itself in order to survive. This means it is necessary to tell new stories.
I was prompted to write The Deer House by the sometimes tragic peripheral events that take place within the close circle of NC. While we were on tour somewhere in France, one of our dancers, Tijen Lawton, received the news that her brother, the war journalist Kerem Lawton, had been shot dead in Kosovo. His tragic death provided the starting point for a play about a group of theatre-makers who are increasingly faced with the harsh reality of the world they travel around in. Everything is politics, but art isn’t everything. Art always gets caught between the pages of history: it is futile and has no influence on any events at all, which is where the mysterious necessity for it lies.'
http://www.bam.org/
Nick Knight - Natural History Museum & Victoria and Albert Museum
NICK KNIGHT
Nick Knight is among the world’s most influential photographers as well as being Director & founder of SHOWstudio.com the fashion & art internet broadcasting channel. He has won numerous awards for his editorial work for Vogue, Dazed & Confused, W magazine, i-D, and Visionaire, as well as for fashion and advertising projects for clients including Christian Dior, Alexander McQueen, Calvin Klein, Levi Strauss, Yohji Yamamoto and Yves Saint Laurent. On the 24th October 2006 Nick Knight was awarded the prestigious Moet Chandon Fashion Tribute for 2006, which he celebrated by throwing a masked ball at Horace Walpoles Gothic revival treasure, Strawberry Hill.
As a fashion photographer, Nick Knight has consistently challenged conventional notions of beauty. His first book of photographs, skinheads, was published in 1982. He has since produced Nicknight, a 12 year retrospective, and Flora, a series of flower pictures. Knight’s work has been exhibited at such institutions as the Victoria & Albert Museum, Saatchi Gallery, the Photographers Gallery and Hayward Gallery and recently The Tate Modern. He has produced a permanent installation, Plant Power, for the Natural History Museum in London.
http://www.nickknight.com/
http://showstudio.com/project/rawpower/
Jeremy Rifkin on "the empathic civilization"
In this talk from RSA Animate, bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin investigates the evolution of empathy and the profound ways it has shaped human development and society.
The Age of Access
Similarly, companies around the world are selling off real estate, shrinking inventories, leasing equipment, outsourcing activities, and becoming "weightless". Ownership of physical property, once considered a valued asset, is now regarded as a liability in the corporate world.
Rifkin argues that the capitalist journey, which began with the commodification of goods and the ownership of property, is ending with the commodification of human time and experience. In the future, we will purchase enlightenment and play, grooming and grace, and everything in between. "Lifestyle marketing" is the buzz in the commercial world as more and more consumers become members of corporate-sponsored clubs and participate in corporate-sponsored activities and events. People are even living out their lifestyles in planned commercial residential communities. The business of business, therefore, is no longer about exchanging property but, rather, about buying access to one's very existence in small commercial time segments. In the Age of Access, Rifkin asks, will any time be left for relationships of a noncommercial nature?
The changes taking place are part of even a larger transformation occurring in the nature of capitalism. We are making a long-term shift to a system based on the selling of cultural experiences. Global travel and tourism, theme cities and parks, destination entertainment centers, wellness, music, film, television, the virtual worlds of cyberspace, and even social causes are fast becoming the center of an economy that trades in cultural resources.
The old giants of the industrial age, companies such as General Motors, Sears, USX, Boeing, and Texaco, are giving way to the new giants of cultural capitalism, Viacom, AOL Time Warner, Disney, Sony, and News Corporation. These transnational companies, with communications networks that span the globe, are mining cultural resources in every part of the world and repackaging them in the form of commodities and entertainments. The top one-fifth of the world's population, says Rifkin, now spends as much income accessing cultural experiences as buying manufactured goods and basic services.
Rifkin warns that when the culture itself is absorbed into the economy, only commercial bonds will be left to hold society together. The critical question posed by The Age of Access is whether civilization can survive when only the commercial sphere remains as the primary arbiter of human life.
<http://www.foet.org/books/age-access.html>
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