Borders, frames and supercuts

Loading - week 2

things I found

1 - Teleportation against borders
Life on the CAPS is a film trilogy by artist Meriem Bennani. It is set on a fictional island where American troopers have exiled immigrants who attempted to enter America via teleportation. In the world of the CAPS, teleportation has replaced air travel, and displaced populations utilize this portal to cross oceans and borders. Layering live action footage and computer-generated animation, Bennani intuitively adapts editing techniques that evoke documentary film, science-fiction, phone footage, music videos, and reality TV.

2 - A Supercut of Supercuts
An amazing video essay by Max Tohline.

“Three years in the making, this feature-length pop-academic investigation of the SUPERCUT asks where supercuts came from, how they hold our attention, and why they became so popular when they did. Tracing back the genetic lines of experimental film, fan remix, documentary, news, and more, this video essay uncovers the roots of the supercut well before YouTube: back in the 1920s and beyond. These multiple interlocking genealogies reveal that the supercut isn’t just a new form of compilation editing; rather, it’s a new way of thinking expressed by a mode of editing. In fact, the supercut is only a small part of a much larger story about a culture that traded one paradigm of knowledge and power, that of the archive, for a new one: the database.”

3 - Suicide in videogames
While I was researching for a lesson, I bumped into this classic work of game art by Brody Condon. I remember seeing it at the time, but then forgot about it. Suicide Solution (2004) is a compilation of suicide scenes from various first and third-person video games. You can watch it here.

4 - From Counterculture to Cyberculture
Fred Turner’s book “From Counterculture to Cyberculture. Stewart Brand, the Whole Earth Network, and the Rise of Digital Utopianism” (2006) is a great read that I often quote in my lectures on digital culture. But, even if you already know it, I suggest you take some time to listen to this lecture Turner gave in Berlin in 2013. It’s clear, inspiring and funny.

5 - Art belongs in a frame (here we go again)
You can ramble about “newness” in art as long as you want, but in the end everything ends up in a frame. Over a couch (or an armchair). Please welcome the Tokenframe, a frame for your NFTs.

new entries in my bookshelf

Andrew Smart, Beyond Zero and One: Machines, Psychedelics and Consciousness, 2016
Stephen King, The Langoliers, 1995
Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others, 2003

things that are coming soon

SIMPOSIO is back. Submissions open until March 21st.

the great wall of memes updates

The Great Wall of Memes is a research project in the form of a visual archive.
I started it in 2012 and it’s the place where I collect images and memes that feel relevant. Click here to see the latest uploads.

That’s all for this week. Feel free to send me an email or leave a comment.