Via Flickr:
Abstractions, impressions and reflections about nature......
:-)
Simon
14 Jun 2012
6 Apr 2012
22 Mar 2012
Notes on Gay Marriage
Here's an interesting one. The UK Government is deciding whether to legalise gay marriage. An emotive topic, no doubt and problematic, intrinsically problematic! Civil partnerships and equal rights for gay people (the latter is a must) may raise eyebrows, however legalising gay marriage raises objections that are not based on prejudice (although I'm sure there are those that argue everything that is spoken by a heterosexual individual is prejudiced) but on absurdity!
Whereas all human activity contains elements of politics, there are fundamental realities within societies that are commonsensical. For example, it makes sense to have health care for those who are ill as people get ill. It makes sense to have work for people to do because people require products and services. Reasonable? I thought so. It makes sense to have marriage for heterosexual couples as this acts as a way providing a stable and lasting base to bring up children successfully. Whether people agree with the religious aspects of marriage and the political elements is another matter, but the fundamental argument is reasonable.
Gay marriage is different. Let's clear away the prejudice. Let's say we want equal rights for gay people as fellow human beings. Let's say that we don't want to prevent gay people from getting married because we want power over them and wish to keep them oppressed. OK, so what are we left with? It seems we are left with a situation that is hyperreal; a simulacrum. We are left with an actuality that no longer bears any relation to the original occurrence. This, essentially is a flawed concept that reflects Western, cultural trends and, in doing so adds to the gradual dismantling of Western power. Is gay marriage, therefore, a good idea?
Of course there are arguments that the notion of the heterosexual sex act is somehow flawed in the sense that we are regarding something that is authentic (as a means to have children naturally) as intrinsic to marriage. Authenticity is authenticity. It would not be commonsensical nor realistic to say that a tree is not a tree and doesn't grow leaves! Indeed, if there is a good reason for something to occur, then why change it?
Should surrogate motherhood, artificial insemination and adoption become more commonplace? Surely, commonsensically, these practices should not be considered primary but a way of having children where the usual, natural means has not been successful. If this not the case then we are creating an increasingly artificial society, that leaves the door open for greater use of legislation and governmental control, that increases the hyperreal aspects of contemporary, Western societies, dismantles family life and the Western power base and creates a theatre-absurd, where it is impossible to comprehend any point or justification for the legalisation of gay marriage. The latter is particularly relevant as gay couples can already enter into a civil partnership. Increases in artificial insemination may also pave the way to more genetic experiments on human embryos that could have devastating consequences.
It seems that we should think very carefully before we legalise gay marriage as it may have profound consequences that affect us all.
Whereas all human activity contains elements of politics, there are fundamental realities within societies that are commonsensical. For example, it makes sense to have health care for those who are ill as people get ill. It makes sense to have work for people to do because people require products and services. Reasonable? I thought so. It makes sense to have marriage for heterosexual couples as this acts as a way providing a stable and lasting base to bring up children successfully. Whether people agree with the religious aspects of marriage and the political elements is another matter, but the fundamental argument is reasonable.
Gay marriage is different. Let's clear away the prejudice. Let's say we want equal rights for gay people as fellow human beings. Let's say that we don't want to prevent gay people from getting married because we want power over them and wish to keep them oppressed. OK, so what are we left with? It seems we are left with a situation that is hyperreal; a simulacrum. We are left with an actuality that no longer bears any relation to the original occurrence. This, essentially is a flawed concept that reflects Western, cultural trends and, in doing so adds to the gradual dismantling of Western power. Is gay marriage, therefore, a good idea?
Of course there are arguments that the notion of the heterosexual sex act is somehow flawed in the sense that we are regarding something that is authentic (as a means to have children naturally) as intrinsic to marriage. Authenticity is authenticity. It would not be commonsensical nor realistic to say that a tree is not a tree and doesn't grow leaves! Indeed, if there is a good reason for something to occur, then why change it?
Should surrogate motherhood, artificial insemination and adoption become more commonplace? Surely, commonsensically, these practices should not be considered primary but a way of having children where the usual, natural means has not been successful. If this not the case then we are creating an increasingly artificial society, that leaves the door open for greater use of legislation and governmental control, that increases the hyperreal aspects of contemporary, Western societies, dismantles family life and the Western power base and creates a theatre-absurd, where it is impossible to comprehend any point or justification for the legalisation of gay marriage. The latter is particularly relevant as gay couples can already enter into a civil partnership. Increases in artificial insemination may also pave the way to more genetic experiments on human embryos that could have devastating consequences.
It seems that we should think very carefully before we legalise gay marriage as it may have profound consequences that affect us all.
10 Mar 2012
CCTV [Rotarius/Gyro]
Via Flickr:
Original photo by XstockX, layered, distorted and abstracted. Themes of compromised identity, suspicion, fear and unreality, caused by living our lives via media/the media and continuous observation.
Some of the textures look like watercolours or thick layers of oil paint. However, the picture uses only digital effects and digital paint, layered over a photograph.
Simon
xstockx.deviantart.com
8 Jan 2012
"Evidence"
Via Flickr:
Taken in England December 2011 on a cold, Winter's day with compromised light. Too early for twi-light, a dull light reflected off leaves and other fauna, creating a cold-looking and misty effect. The naturally occuring "art" of nature often suprises us; here there is a suggestion of some woodland drama that unfolded recently. I can only capture the "evidence" but not the actual event that occured. The tree, keeled over by lightning or the wind, creates an evocative, surreal image that can suggest much more to the human mind than the reality of a fallen tree!
Simon
Reflections on Virtualness
Via Flickr:
Subtle editing on Miss Boux's original portrait, that creates a painterly effect.
:-)
Simon
missboux.deviantart.com
"Ma Corps"
Via Flickr:
Colour version of "Ma Bouche".
"Playing with the strong, natural architecture of Julie's form. Julie's pronounced bone-structure and muscle forms suggested the textures and light/shade that I used to create a quaisi-abstract effect."
www.flickr.com/photos/thecrescent/6655592815/in/photostream
"Ma Corps" also utilised colour which I used in an arbitrary way, at least initially,
then editing layers of textures to create a painterly effect with disparite hues that, nevertheless compare and contrast well together.
Simon
xstockx.deviantart.com
24 Dec 2011
During November 2011 (1. Burning a Poem)
Burning a poem
in love with you
forsooth as
letters fragment a page
to breathe an eye
for an eye
a tooth for a tooth
Sans doute! Yo soy
letters in flight
the flame of tongues
the crackle of spit
the lunge of meaning
perceived by
a sheath of being
This flesh of doing
by shards of letter fall
a glassy perusal
the body in motion;
the enigma of a
sideways glance
one is reminded of an Eastern
dance
for the vines throughout your corps
Tongue by tongue
our lives are handed down
During November 2011 (2. Our Mother Tongue)
Thought by thought
words are welded here
our mother tongue,
turn begin again
Rushing water chances its thumbs
petering gridlock
the motorway is still
folding onto running wind
a copse by chance
a glassy siren
pulsing yellow, brick red
notes
badgering arabesque trees
give way to painterly verde
a scrimmage of
prehensile brushes
make a prose of entwining sky,
an intelligent blur
for your photograph.
Women for moments elapsed
in cars chasing tails
as if
predicting the Cutty Sark,
walking through pitch green
passing food
through fingers by hand
Standing by the night of trees
porous nigh to the welt of sky
a young woman as amassed
as lean
in flickering light her body carved
her face
etched by anger
mute yet visceral.
During November 2011 (3. The Intrusive Poet)
And this! And this!
is reason or something
dissimilar, erudite
or an empty vessel
worthy or meaningless
The truth, a truth
or not a truth at all
or something as strange as
Galilean, as everything
nothing
or something that may not
resemble anything
at all
The Dromedary has one hump and
the Bactrian two and this should
be as clear as it is true!
During November 2011 (4. A Dance for Horus)
Spliced by several cataclysms
Persephone is diced
and a Falcon
became our sexual freedom,
a longing for truth
that otherwise
should not be written
for an Owl is greater
than an Eagle
and an Eagle Owl is neither.
Roll the dice
your hand is gratuitous,
the ecstasy of the female
form
chessing as the leaves of
a book a Jazz hand
flamboyant at the carvery
a Pigs head, a la morte
de la morte, rings the
pain of parting
And dessert is an open wound
Sisyphean, Dionysian
beyond the scope of words
we should paint or photograph
this Shakespearian moment
as feeding our culture,
as being its downfall.
Ballerinas dancing, balancing
the table on our laps
a twist of fate
as a die is thrown,
a finger points a la asymmetrical
vaginas pivoted West,
pirouettes through pork
and sherry trifles
Apples fall to the floor
and bread is soaked in wine
and whiskey.
The dancers' beauty by some
implicit chemistry alludes,
allegorically to a guest
masturbating then spurting
onto bread
fickle sliced
by scissored hands.
By luck, as near intrinsic
as truth
to the duck and mushrooms
vinaigrette, salsa and
oranges soaked in white rum,
for the steel of an
Achilles tendon
feathers Apollonian
A stage, a theatrical performance
via CCTV
slipped into shadows by
covert snappers
for Flickr and Youtube
Facebook or Twitter,
Art is consumed like a
Jackal at a lamb
and art's traces are sold for
greater monies
than to put this poor project
beyond the realms of imagination
borrowed, begged or stolen
bruised or finished by the
ups and downs
of inflation.
We must only see with adequate
eyes
and enquire with open minds
to witness the truth
we cannot escape
that we are the prisoners
of our own devices.
11 Dec 2011
A Consequence of Post Modernity
Misanthropy is the most essential and ubiquitous form of prejudice today. Rather than sexism, racism, discrimination due to illness/disability or class, human beings intolerence of humanness (the state of being human) and other human beings is more sinister and encompassing.
10 Dec 2011
The new "Internet art" (or poetry) may well lie beyond the Internet. I.e. a return to real-life! If this is so, which it probably is, then art/literary theory will have to go back up its arse and return to cancel its self out and begin again! Never mind!
Poetry/Art rebelled against postmodern, real-life by utilising the Internet, which was freeing, but now seems passe, dull, consumed by Capitalism, legislation, censorship, mediocrity and ironic, narcissistic navel-gazing. Perhaps, even worse than this, is the desperation for "fame", whatever that is? A kind of ironic, non-famous kudos, that fails to dull the line between those who really are famous and those who are not.
Therefore, the Internet (in its burgeoning early days we had hopes of a new 60's, intellectual, creative and democratic) has become a reflection of the societies that it criticised and became a much needed escape from. Put in more cogent terms, the Internet has become stale. A flag for Western, High Capitalism, Orwellian, Big-Brotheresque paranoia, stultifying legislation/censorship and a Media driven, sex-fuelled mythology that speaks to our genitals, before legislation "castrates" us of our normal, healthy needs!
I suppose that the Internet, now subsumed by societies, is beginning to take its place as another rather useless, but somehow essential modern-day, technological or mechanical device. Just like the TV sits in your living room and spouts a thousand channels of crap (and the odd, good program), or your car cocoons you like a neurotic cyborg and speeds you into gridlock, these inventions hang about as if we couldn't live without them. Somehow the notion of a spurious "advantage" of the above and other inventions persists in our postmodern, artificial lives. Sure, there were advantages of the car, but today you're quicker on a bike. Unless your going very far and can guarantee some clear roads, you may as well pedal or walk.
What are the new poetics? How will art respond to the stagnancy of the Internet? By returning to the real? Probably, at least for a while... After all our transition is from distinct societies to global economies and cultures. We can see this unfolding before our eyes as leaders from around the world struggle to cope with a global recession. Maybe reality is becoming sweeter than the virtual? It is by addressing real problems that artistic individuals can reflect on the major difficulties that we are currently experiencing. This is surely a more fertile ground for creativity than the stultifying Internet, that has always been compromised by excessive information and questionable quality?
Poetry/Art rebelled against postmodern, real-life by utilising the Internet, which was freeing, but now seems passe, dull, consumed by Capitalism, legislation, censorship, mediocrity and ironic, narcissistic navel-gazing. Perhaps, even worse than this, is the desperation for "fame", whatever that is? A kind of ironic, non-famous kudos, that fails to dull the line between those who really are famous and those who are not.
Therefore, the Internet (in its burgeoning early days we had hopes of a new 60's, intellectual, creative and democratic) has become a reflection of the societies that it criticised and became a much needed escape from. Put in more cogent terms, the Internet has become stale. A flag for Western, High Capitalism, Orwellian, Big-Brotheresque paranoia, stultifying legislation/censorship and a Media driven, sex-fuelled mythology that speaks to our genitals, before legislation "castrates" us of our normal, healthy needs!
I suppose that the Internet, now subsumed by societies, is beginning to take its place as another rather useless, but somehow essential modern-day, technological or mechanical device. Just like the TV sits in your living room and spouts a thousand channels of crap (and the odd, good program), or your car cocoons you like a neurotic cyborg and speeds you into gridlock, these inventions hang about as if we couldn't live without them. Somehow the notion of a spurious "advantage" of the above and other inventions persists in our postmodern, artificial lives. Sure, there were advantages of the car, but today you're quicker on a bike. Unless your going very far and can guarantee some clear roads, you may as well pedal or walk.
What are the new poetics? How will art respond to the stagnancy of the Internet? By returning to the real? Probably, at least for a while... After all our transition is from distinct societies to global economies and cultures. We can see this unfolding before our eyes as leaders from around the world struggle to cope with a global recession. Maybe reality is becoming sweeter than the virtual? It is by addressing real problems that artistic individuals can reflect on the major difficulties that we are currently experiencing. This is surely a more fertile ground for creativity than the stultifying Internet, that has always been compromised by excessive information and questionable quality?
6 Nov 2011
Altering Definitions
Via Flickr:
Thank you to Julie Brocklehurst (XstockX) for allowing me to use her photo in this picture :-)
Simon
xstockx.deviantart.com
Untitled
Via Flickr:
Thank you to Julie Brocklehurst (XstockX) for allowing me to use her photo in this picture :-)
Simon
xstockx.deviantart.com
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