The Conference Report

Paradox

2011-12-15T10:55:00.000Z

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Occupy Yourself

2011-11-12T06:45:00.001Z

I read somewhere that humans are the only creatures which judge one another not according to their actual behaviour but against what we feel is their potential, an ideal that the person may or may not live up to. Actually, having said that I'm not sure if it makes sense to say that any animal other than humans really 'judges' itself or other creatures at all, I suspect that itself is a peculiarly human trait. Nevertheless, it does seem to be true that when we make evaluations of one another we do it primarily by measuring what we see against what we think is possible. School report cards (do schools still issue report cards?) carry phrases such as 'could do better' and army recruitment posters promise that a few years in uniform will make you 'all that you can be'. It's almost as if we posit ourselves behaving in situations in a certain way, an ideal way, the way of the master maybe, and then evaluate our actual selves according to how closely our actions match up to that standard, or how far they fall below it.

This sounds like a recipe for low-esteem and continual disappointment, but perhaps there's a way of thinking about it which is less condemnatory and more affirming. One way to look at it might be to think of ourselves not as these dual beings stretched between a high ideal and the fallen flesh but as the ground on which being might walk (does this make any sense?) Maybe we can imagine ourselves as the spaces of history and culture; Wall Street, Trafalgar Square, St. Paul's Cathedral; with our constant identities built into the cities of life by the processes of life. We are each architecture and town planning, red tape and back-handers, resource management and natural erosion. What goes on inside us and through us, in our rooms and corridors, is rarely visible to us but we often get a feeling that it's not all for the good. These edifices and facades that are our selves were put together from plans that we had no part in drawing up, and are maintained by systems we are not accountable for. The purposes of these buildings, if they have purpose at all, is either beyond our ken or operating outside of human scale, and we often feel the pointlessness of the bricks and mortar that make us up. Ivy may grow on the outside but the basement is home for mildew, and there are dark streaks of damp mould in the kitchens and bathrooms of our being. There is no janitor to take of these problems, and no man from the council is going to come round and sort out our plumbing. When the doors swing open on creaking hinges there is no-one to apply the squirt of oil or fix the lock.

These buildings cry out for occupation. Where governance by the universe fails to make effective machines for living there is hope only in the personal touch. The loving hand of a curator and the warm body of a tenant is needed to put this little world to rights. In this troubled township any occupant is better than none and the rowdiest most unreliable squatter is superior to any architectural ideal. Let the cry go out that here are the buildings that we need to occupy, these crumbling ruins of people empty and unloved need inhabitants and we should each make a home there. Let's go together into the darkness of these hovels and palaces and sweep the dust from the floor. Let's wipe the windows and unstraighten the furniture. These rooms are for adventure and their coldness will soon dissipate with the press of flesh. Go in, make your self a home, make a home at yourself, and be fully and completely occupied.

Bootstrapped Thought

2011-11-10T08:10:00.002Z

I made a video earlier this morning drawing on conceptual metaphor theory and cognitive linguistics and it reminded me again of how bootstrapped a lot of thought processes seem to be. Let me just see if I can explain what I mean by that. Firstly, I think Mark Turner was pretty much bang on when he described the mind as 'Literary' inasmuch as such a lot of thinking involves the mobilisation of the same strategies that poets and other wordsmiths use to generate and convey meaning and significance. This observation has been extensively developed, most notably by Lakoff and Johnson, but by many others also, and cognitive poetics is a pretty well established field of study now. The circularity, or 'bootstrapping' comes in when we/I try to think about how thought processes themselves operate. Since cognition is outside of the range of any of the senses, and because there is no direct concrete access to its operation except via instrumentation of various sorts, all thought and speech about cognition must necessarily make use of figuration and metaphor, so in order to thalk about the literary mind wi must inevitably use literary and poetic processes. There's no escape from the circle and the rhymes and rhythms of mind turn around on themselves in an endless mobius dance, like a dance, or a strip of paper, or words on a page, or pigment on canvas, never ending or beginning in the ever-spinning real.

What to Do

2011-11-09T07:39:00.001Z

I still don't feel like I'm firing on all cylinders for some reason, and am having trouble concentrating on any one particular project. That's not really like me at all, since if anything I tend to get obsessively single-minded about whatever captures my interest, often to the exclusion of other things I should be paying at least some attention to. Whatever it is I guess I'll just have to go with it and wait for the monkey to stop jumping around.

There's a whole bunch of stuff I really should get on with, so perhaps I should make a list (because everybody knows that making a list is equivalent to solving problems). O.K. These are the things I should be doing, in no particular order:

The Conference Centre - a set of fictional conference abstracts for an imaginary symposium. Somewhat in the style of Stanislaw Lem, or maybe Borges, connected (possibly) by the narrative of a fictional attendee. (This has been on the back-burner for years, and some early posts on this blog use that conceit). I also started a website for it. http://theconferencereport.net/conference1/
The Poetics of Thought - another half-baked project coming out of my PhD research and which I thought might be a book of some kind. As a professional academic I guess this is really what I should be doing. http://poeticsofthought.wordpress.com/
The Last People - a collection of very short stories framed around the idea that at some point in the future there will be no more childbirth. Some utopian, some not. I did think about crowdsourcing this project on Youtube, maybe that would interesting.
Essay/Exhibition on 'Epistemic Objects' - This is something I was researching a couple of years back before life intervened. I liked the idea of defining a class of objects which were neither simply functional (tools etc) but were also not decorative or primarily aesthetic (some art). These 'epistemic objects' are examples of thinking processes extended or outsourced onto the physical world.

That'll do for now. There is other stuff but the dog is wanting a walk and I am powerless to resist. Does anyone read this blog? Probably not (except maybe you J). Let me know what you think.

In the Footsteps of Library Angels

2011-11-08T07:25:00.002Z

Just been reading John Jordan's excellent essay 'In the Footsteps of Library Angels'. Perhaps appropriately this felt like exactly the thing I needed to read right now, bringing together as it does some initial thoughts on the coincidences which seem to lead us through needed experiences with reflections on aesthetics and activism. I remember seeing John in a piece he did many years ago on pornography, a dimly lit uterine corridor leading to a chamber at the end into which you could peep through letterbox-sized slots to see him 'perform' in basque and stilettoes. In fact I think a wrote a review of that piece for the long-dead Hybrid magazine, although I can't remember if it was ever published. In the essay he talks about the necessary rejecting and conscientious avoiding of the labels 'artist' and 'activist'. Both terms categorise and isolate, suggesting alienating expertise and the claiming of responsibility for activities which should be the rights/duties of us all, as of course they are. We have no choice but to create/express and we have no choice but to be activists. Our presence in the world and our movements through it constantly leave traces and transform the landscape through the impressions of our passing. What we wear, or buy, or watch, or speak about, adds to the network of culture, weighting this set of connections and diminishing these others. To be alive and awake is always an aesthetic and a political act.

http://www.thisisliveart.co.uk/pdf_docs/SRG_Jordan.pdf

2011-11-07T10:23:00.002Z

I've been a bit allergic to the written word recently for some reason, but I think I'll try to work past it on this blog.

Bunny on the Edge

2011-08-16T16:10:00.002+01:00

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I'm on the edge. ; I'm right on the edge.

Baby Talk. Re: Why Treat People Differently? (The Laughing Out)

2011-08-09T12:26:00.001+01:00

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Response to http://youtu.be/X0PnPsd1xhc

Arborial Spunk Injection (Fraternal Advisory: Explicit Woody Content)

2011-08-08T23:48:00.001+01:00

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1.) Yes, I love you. 2.) Yes, I'll marry you. 3.) No, I won't come in your mouth.

A Question for Men

2011-08-07T10:56:00.001+01:00

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Let's hear it for the boy Men as Success Objects - http://www.lovesciencemedia.com/love-science-media/men-as-success-objects-or-why-a-mans-job-is-to-have-a-good-j.html Philip Zimbardo "The Demise of Guys" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FMJgZ4s2E3w

Express Yourself

2011-08-06T10:10:00.001+01:00

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Put your loving to the test

Beautiful Tree

2011-08-03T09:08:00.001+01:00

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Who cares about fucking nature, and vice versa. Songs: "Wooden Tree" - The late great Ivor Cutler "Je t'aime moi non plus" - Jane Birkin and Serge Gainsbrough

11 minutes with the Beautiful Tree

2011-08-02T18:15:00.001+01:00

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A mysterious peace.

The Swan Way (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)

2011-07-31T06:25:00.004+01:00

Fuck Beauty

Crow Fucker (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)

2011-07-23T23:32:00.005+01:00

hrafn nálgask. A kenning. Old Norse for 'rabbit'.

Run Rabbit Run (Parental Advisory: Explicit Content)

2011-07-18T07:38:00.000+01:00

My Opia Dance

2011-07-13T13:40:00.001+01:00

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Am I gorgeous yet?

Dance of Myopic Desire

2011-07-13T06:13:00.001+01:00

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Holes (Explicit Content)

2011-07-04T07:42:00.000+01:00

So many of them. So little time.

Balls Deep

2011-07-03T23:10:00.001+01:00

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Crossing (the line)

2011-07-02T21:02:00.001+01:00

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In which the value of the recrossing is not the value of crossing again.

Science is Literally the Poetry of Reality

2011-06-17T20:45:00.001+01:00

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Thinking through Feeling (whilst walking)

2011-06-14T12:27:00.001+01:00

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I don't think you have to ignore 'feelings' (in the broadest sense of the word) in order to make wise choices, but maybe you do have let them do their job.

The Universe doesn't have a Self

2011-06-11T09:00:00.001+01:00

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to be conscious of

Does Sentience Transcend Biology?

2011-06-10T14:05:00.001+01:00

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After the sun the rain After the rain the sun This is the way of life Til the work is done

Feelings Count

2011-05-30T07:57:00.001+01:00

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The happenings of what feels

Electreesity

2011-05-28T19:31:00.001+01:00

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illbehere 2

2011-05-21T16:29:00.001+01:00

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I'll Be Here

2011-05-17T18:12:00.001+01:00

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Walk 'n' Talk Poetry

2011-05-16T00:34:00.001+01:00

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How do the various acts that make up walking help to structure the imagination? My Walk'n'Talk channel - http://youtube.com/conferenceofthebirds

Pain is for Idiots

2011-05-15T13:05:00.001+01:00

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Nobody like pain (at least when it's non-consensual) but most people would agree that it does serve a purpose; it's the body's way of telling us to stop doing something stupid that would cause it to be damaged. It seems to me though that pain is a real blunt instrument the body brings out at totally inappropriate moments of our lives; times when we can neither stop what we're doing or learn anything from the experience that might stop us doing something in the future. We're not donkeys for fuck's sake.

No Excuse for Eating Meat

2011-05-11T15:55:00.001+01:00

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None whatsoever, sorry. Carry on doing it if you must, but don't pretend you have right on your side.

Mind Children

2011-05-08T10:12:00.001+01:00

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In which silicon steps up to the plate and carbon retires from the game.

My God, it's full of Brains!

2011-05-07T21:04:00.001+01:00

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What if the universe was organised so that the most complex formations (those containing the highest level of integrated information) were the largest and simpler structures such as interstellar space were smaller?

The Unbalanced Man - inmendham (Re: Get Naked With Me)

2011-05-05T18:09:00.001+01:00

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Mirror of Gary's video 'Fail Flick for Friend Fred'; a response to my video "RelPart4: Get Naked with Me (or not)"

RefPart4: The Safety of the Ephemeral

2011-05-04T07:46:00.001+01:00

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What it was like to get my kit off, and why folk didn't join me.

RelPart4: Get Naked With Me, or not (Viewer Descretion Advised)

2011-05-03T16:42:00.001+01:00

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In which skinned rabbit feels lonely, but says hi to some friends.

Relpert3: What's it all About?

2011-05-03T12:26:00.001+01:00

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Basic rambly overview about the first evening at the Relation Participation symposium at Aberystwyth

Relate Participate

2011-05-02T17:39:00.001+01:00

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Hi Youtube. I'm in Aberystwyth, Wales, for the next couple of day taking part in a symposium called 'Relation and Participation'. I'll be sending videos from there so if you'd like to join in the conversation that would be great. (I've got my bunny ears in case it gets boring). It's being livecast so if you're quick you might be able to see me introduce myself in about 30 minutes time. http://www.relateparticipate.com/index.html Fred

A Youtuber Manifesto

2011-05-01T19:40:00.001+01:00

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Any thoughts? Loosely based on Yvonne Rainer's "No Manifesto" from 1965.

Fuck the Royal Wedding. Very Very Very Very Very Very Slowly

2011-04-30T00:04:00.001+01:00

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Southbound #10 - Slimey Men and Smiley Thermostats

2011-04-28T16:02:00.001+01:00

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Southbound #10 Slimey Men and Smiley Thermostats MP3 at ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 00:00 An Open Winge about Youtube (adverts and drama) 20:58 Bob's Men 25:09 Men are Slime 30:49 Men; what are they like? 33:16 (Gary) Can combox be embedded? 34:19 Value makes Sense (makes Self) 42:34 Smiley Frowny Binary 47:25 Sticking up for Thermostats (choose pain) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DoomGloomBoom video - "RE: Open Letter... AndrewBravener is a jerk": http://youtu.be/BvW3BDv4-Rc Sassibob's video is now private. Azriennoch' video "Brand Bob's Ass": http://youtu.be/_dgu0JqM-jY LaciGreen's channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/lacigreen Inmendham - Comment Box help video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IaN9jQuwp34 Pyrrho314 -"I have to define based on behaviours" (re. thermostats) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zw68GyO3c2U gratex - "Corporate Illuminati Fail": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6m6CZICyZHY -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Conscious With

2011-04-27T17:18:00.001+01:00

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I get a feeling this video is leading toward a dead end, but I've started now so I might as well finish

Where, What, Dot Dot Dot

2011-04-27T06:03:00.001+01:00

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Thinking with the body etc.

Conscious and Conscious Of

2011-04-26T08:33:00.001+01:00

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Does consciousness always have content?

Croix du Monde

2011-04-25T19:14:00.001+01:00

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The nails go right the way through

Forgive them Father (re-edit)

2011-04-24T21:50:00.001+01:00

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I know, I've already unloaded one very similar to this one, but I just like this edit better. Sorry about that.

Forgive them Father

2011-04-24T11:57:00.001+01:00

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When I lay me down to die Going up to the silicon in the sky.

Jesus Wept

2011-04-23T18:12:00.001+01:00

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It's only a plant for Ah Pook's sake. It doesn't have a cruciform gyrus (or any other brain bits).

Piss on Bunny Christ (Anoint with Pure Spirit)

2011-04-23T08:51:00.001+01:00

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If in that Syrian garden, ages slain, You sleep, and know not you are dead in vain, Nor even in dreams behold how dark and bright Ascends in smoke and fire by day and night The hate you died to quench and could but fan, Sleep well and see no morning, son of man. But if, the grave rent and the stone rolled by, At the right hand of majesty on high You sit, and sitting so remember yet Your tears, your agony and bloody sweat, Your cross and passion and the life you gave, Bow hither out of heaven and see and save.

Piss (on Bunny) Christ

2011-04-22T07:14:00.001+01:00

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Even if it isn't on fire. Response to http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/18/andres-serrano-piss-christ-destroyed-christian-protesters

Signifying Somatosensory Systems

2011-04-21T22:32:00.001+01:00

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Kind of like affective computing, but with gonads

The Truth is Out There and In There

2011-04-20T07:07:00.001+01:00

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What do people mean when they say that something isn't real because it isn't taking place 'out there' in the world as opposed to just 'in the mind'?

Fibonacci's Ghosts

2011-04-18T09:24:00.001+01:00

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Music is Erik Satie: Sonnieres

No Value without Sentience (and vice versa)

2011-04-16T16:07:00.001+01:00

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Most of the universe is incapable of making value judgments, of acting according to the principle that some things are better than others. Regardless of the specific content of those value judgments, of what particular things are favoured or disfavoured, the very fact that some entities are capable of this kind of discrimination sets them apart from the rest of the physical world and places them together in kinship. The core value is valuation itself

Hunter Gatherer Slaughterer

2011-04-16T07:31:00.001+01:00

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Some people condemn the (factory) farming of animals but support the hunting of wild animals for human consumption. The logic seems to be that, because this is a more 'natural' process it is therefore ethically neutral. This is flawed on a number of counts, not least of which is the fact that, if the concern is for animal suffering it should be remembered that animals in the wild usually live much more stressful lives that those in domesticated captivity. The apparent respect that is being shown by valuing the 'natural' life of the wild is a romanticization of a nature that humans have spent 100,000 years trying to civilise themselves out of. The call of the wild is not a call that any animal, given a choice, would want to respond to, and the affection for this call by humans (usually male humans) is evolutionary tourism. I'm reminded of the lines from Pulp's "Common People": Are you sure you want to live like common people, you want to see whatever common people see, you want to sleep with common people, you want to sleep with common people, like me." But she didn't understand, she just smiled and held my hand. Rent a flat above a shop, cut your hair and get a job. Smoke some fags and play some pool, pretend you never went to school. But still you'll never get it right, cos when you're laid in bed at night, watching roaches climb the wall, if you call your Dad he could stop it all. Article in SciAm: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=bambi-or-bessie-are-wild-animals-ha-2011-04-12

Gerrymandering Time for Positivity

2011-04-12T10:25:00.001+01:00

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Our assessment of how positive or negative an experience was does not depend simply on either its intensity or its duration, but seems to be related to the overall 'shape' of the experience over time. Pain, for example, is evaluated as less uncomfortable when it has a profile in which its intensity reduced toward the end, even if the duration is longer and the average intensity is higher. Maybe this can be parlayed into a method for taking a more positive view of one's own life experiences (should one wish to do that). By carefully organising the boundaries of our experience so that sections of our lives have the right temporal profile we can see our time on Earth as a greatest hits album rather than a collection of b sides.

The Origins of Value

2011-04-11T22:09:00.001+01:00

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The concept of 'value' comes into being with the emergence of sentient life. New Scientist article on seeding life in the galaxy - http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20927983.200-to-boldly-sow-why-we-should-fertilise-the-galaxy.html (subscription needed) Similar article from Popsci - http://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2010-02/professor-we-have-moral-obligation-spread-life-throughout-universe

Determinacy Mind and Metaphor

2011-04-06T08:15:00.001+01:00

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Our intuitions about Determinism and Free Will are largely dependent upon the Conceptual Metaphors we use to understand these terms. Since Determinism is a function of Time (the past determines, or does not determine, the future), then our these concepts are derived from a more pervasive metaphor that conceives of Time as a kind of Space. It is this metaphor which obliges us to think of life as a kind of journey, in which the passage of a lifetime is a passage through space (c.f Mark Johnson and George Lakoff etc.) Within this metaphorical structure the past is seen as the single unchangeable road we have travelled but the future, like the field ahead of us, seems to offer multiple ways we might walk. Our intuitions about 'Free Will' are largely a product of this conceptualisation.

Arbitrary Suffering (Re: Human Privilege, a reply - Tooltime9901)

2011-04-04T08:31:00.001+01:00

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Pointing to the existence of gazelle-killing lions is not a useful contribution to a discussion on the appropriateness of a carnitarian diet.

Walking with TechnoGhosts

2011-04-03T07:08:00.001+01:00

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Of course, we already can.

Walking with Ghosts again

2011-04-03T07:07:00.001+01:00

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If the sense of sight had the characteristics of the sense of smell, what would the world be like? (Follow up)

Rebecca Black sings the Blues

2011-04-02T07:20:00.001+01:00

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I used to listen to rock 'n' roll music But you taught me to sing the blues Rebecca Black sings 'Friday' in an acoustic stylee - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CBzT2pv1Jc Duffy doing the white blues thing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBC_RWGkEvY My Southbound 8 video with a bit about postmodernism and Rebecca Black http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xL1RLiUiUp4 16:38

Southbound 8: Death and Media

2011-03-31T06:25:00.001+01:00

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Death and Media MP3 at http://blip.tv/file/get/Conferencereport-Southbound8450.mp3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 00:00 Intro - IdiotVillage, a modest proposal 06:06 The Veil of Universal Ignorance 15:30 Meat or Fake? 16:38 Parody and Pastiche in the Work of Rebecca Black 23:44 Mum on Death's Door 27:00 Youtube Scalability 29:52 We are All Pornographers 35:54 No Middle Sized Ponds 39:30 Screaming Cow 39:46 "Flagged" 42:56 Demographics 49:10 Reincarnation (will this journey never end?) 53:12 conferencereport is a tool 55:05 Transparency and Drama 59:44 Am I finished Yet? 01:07:00 I want to die in the same place I was born. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BubbaMickMac - "Broadcast and Socialize Youtube (conferencereport)" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=20w7lP_ZAlk Jeremy Bentham on the suffering of non-human animals - http://www.utilitarianism.com/jeremybentham.html Richard Ryder on 'Painism' - http://www.richardryder.co.uk/painism.html John Rawls 'Veil of Ignorance' on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veil_of_ignorance Rebecca Black "Friday" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2LRROpph0 Gavin Turk's "Pop" - http://gavinturk.com/artworks/image/43/ Marina Abramovic "Balkan Erotic Epic" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIN8Cm5rYXY (Viewer discretion advised) Andres Serrano's "Piss Christ" on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ Thunderf00t video "Time to Quit" featuring demographics - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8XsEDyyzo David Brin's website about "The Transparent Society" - http://www.davidbrin.com/transparent.htm My "Transparent Society" playlist - http://www.youtube.com/my_playlists?p=AD61A8BF3386CFC8 The Only Ones "Miles from Nowhere" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZljqNmz-MI

Whisky Tango Charlie

2011-03-30T07:26:00.001+01:00

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Marina Abramovic 'Balkan Erotic Epic' (Viewer Discretion Advised) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MIN8Cm5rYXY

Cause and Purpose

2011-03-29T06:59:00.001+01:00

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One thing after another. NoelPlum99's video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NPbAvMnEIeU

Youtube Village Visualiser

2011-03-27T03:00:00.001+01:00

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See who your friends are

Phoebe's Game

2011-03-26T16:37:00.001Z

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But not for anything

southbound7

2011-03-25T08:03:00.001Z

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00:00 Intro (and biodegradebleman) 03:35 Girls just wanna have fun 04:04 Northern Dad 07:50 No Shit Easy What 14:04 Googlewhack Identifiers 20:15 Firing on all cylinders 20:48 Stay inside the Media 29:14 You are not what brought you here 36:41 Shit or Sorry? 38:40 Ah dospook is here 56:50 Response Decathlon 01:02:28 Outro, in which the sun comes out. ------------------------------------- 'Northern Dad' advert (for Yellow Pages) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMYZyUygW6Y Motivational Speaker Tony Robbins - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Af4QLc2vhs My 'Frederick' video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajS_kCAYWtM Pyrrho314 'identity of wave - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUBIHoQDwAs Pyrrho314 'you are what leads to you' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=096kFeHkUpk Article on Non-existence from the Independent - http://richarddawkins.net/articles/605761-the-blurred-reality-of-humanity dospook 'Demarcations & unity, rationality, vegetarianism and so forth' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sfs-t-PFul4 Autistic slaughterhouse designer Temple Grandin on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Temple_Grandin Text of Kurt Vonnegut's 'Harrison Bergeron' - http://www.tnellen.com/cybereng/harrison.html Video of 'Harrison Bergeron' on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmEOI5zwFMM William Burroughs' 'Ah Pook' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2C5XuylNFLo

Youtube Village (OldHacks, Gratex, TheBubbaMan)

2011-03-24T19:42:00.001Z

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Social vs Broadcast Media OldHack video - "rage against the company man" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKEVpHXhpiA Gratex video "Rage against not being in the machine's spotlight" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHZajhV4oSQ TheBubbMan video - "GOOGLE SUCKS: 100 views for a 1000 view-worth video?!?!?! " - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-4FTls3qw_I

Myopic Philosophy

2011-03-24T09:27:00.001Z

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Response to Loreleila - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orT_73TDGfQ

Tasty Space

2011-03-21T14:08:00.001Z

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Rambling about Youtube being a kind of space demarcated by the (occasionally contradictory) architectures of aesthetic taste and corporate greed.

Orphan Youtube Videos

2011-03-20T16:56:00.001Z

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Rambly thoughts about how irritating it can be when Youtube takes it upon itself to delete channels or videos.

Stark Bollock Naked

2011-03-18T07:07:00.001Z

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On a coffee table Ann Liv Young video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s0_QKL3O8s 60 Seconds Dance. Call for entries - http://www.60secondsdance.dk/ 60 Seconds Dance on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/60secondsdance

Southbound6: Meat Pain Naked Slaves

2011-03-17T07:41:00.001Z

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Meat Pain Naked Humans ---------------------------------------------------- The Vegetarian Myth 00:00 Coming Home to Long Pig 18:18 Passion is no Ordinary Word 20:57 The First Ouch: Steps toward an Ecology of Pain 21:14 Take Your Kit Off (Take on Me) 33:44 A History of Meat 43:34 Outsourcing Slavery: A Meatless Future in a World of Pain 51:44 Abrupt Ending (sorry) ------------------------------------------------------- The Vegetarian Myth Video with Lierre Keith (not Lear Jet) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNON5iNf07o Beauty Myth author Naomi Wolf on Aljazeera - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bX2fsUq6mp8 Beauty Myth author Naomi Wolf inteviewed by Ali G - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNON5iNf07o ----------------------------------------------------- Graham Parker "Passion is no Ordinary Word" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPQWPxfPYKo ---------------------------------------------------- Gregory Bateson "Steps to an Ecology of Mind" (pdf, entire book) - www6.ufrgs.br/horizon/files/teoria2/bateson.pdf Gary (inmendham) video on "The First Ouch" went down with the DoNotGod channel. My response to it is here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4M_NYtwBkE ---------------------------------------------------- Ann Liv Young video "Michael" (NSFW) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s0_QKL3O8s Ann Liv Young's "Michael" on Vimeo - http://vimeo.com/annlivyoung Clockwork Napalm channel is down. His new channel is http://www.youtube.com/user/BoogieNapalm Latumway video on Ann Liv Young seems to have been taken down, sorry. Contrapoints (Nykytyne2) video on William Bouguereau - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6I6ja51jNg Article on Lefebvre "Production of Space" (not "Politics of Space" as I called it) - http://www.notbored.org/space.html ---------------------------------------------------- Steven Pinker's TED talk on "A Brief History of Violence" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ramBFRt1Uzk Pinker's " A History of Violence" on Edge - http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/pinker07/pinker07_index.html

Tree

2011-03-14T18:46:00.001Z

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With a slight curve to the right (if you're looking at it from where I am/was)

To The Moon

2011-03-13T08:22:00.001Z

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'm a space bound rocket ship and your heart's the moon And I'm aiming right at you Right at you 250,000 thousand miles on a clear night in June And I'm aiming right at you Right at you Right at you

95 Percent is Crap

2011-03-12T17:58:00.001Z

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The science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon, when asked at a cocktail party how he could stand his work being published in magazines in which the contents were 95% crap, is reputed to have replied that 95% of everything is crap. An area that this aphorism most clearly applies to is that of Contemporary Art, a fact evidenced by the most cursory glance around our galleries, trawl through our theatres, or listening experience in auditoria. Disappointment and a sense of anticlimax are the dominant emotions one has on exiting these experiences, possibly coupled with an irritation at the money wasted and the hours mis-spent. The bathos associated with Contemporary Art is worsened by the apparent upward spiral of hyperbole which accompanies its promotion, advertising, and dissemination. Every new exhibition, performance, choreography, composition, or literary work is inevitably heralded as ground-breaking and a work of huge personal and social significance, but what begins with the bang of publicity almost inevitably ends with the whimper of complaint. The irony of this is that it is exactly as it should be. If all is going well then most of what we see should be disappointing, deflating, underwhelming, and an appropriate target for mockery, insult, and violence. Creativity in the arts, as elsewhere, is only partly an individual process. It is to a large extent contingent on the social and cultural processes through which the wheat is separated from the chaff, through which the elegant solution to the mission-critical problem is separated from the impractical solution to the non-existent problem. History is the great curator of all creative endeavour and contemporary is the name we give to all those artworks submitted to historys sword. When we look at Contemporary Art we are not looking at a fully conceived body of practice, and we are certainly not looking at a particular genre of that practice. Looking at Contemporary Art is watching the falling blade of history. The body of Contemporary Art is bloated, malformed, and full of crap. Let the sword fall, for it is only through this beheading that we will know what deserves to be raised on the pike and paraded through the city. We should sit in the theatres gleefully knitting while the tumbrel cart brings the next piece of art before us. Our visits to galleries should be made with the sole purpose of mocking the afflicted, pointing to the inelegant and bastard mooncalves that line the walls, and relishing their demise.

Look At Modern Art

2011-03-11T05:35:00.001Z

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In which Droog Bunny has an edgy encounter with Suprematism

Southbound 5

2011-03-10T06:52:00.001Z

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Pain and Vegetarianism Introduction 0:00 Elsie's Great Escape 1:30 The Word 'Vegetarian' 5:27 Pain in the World (Language Doesn't Exist) 22:28 Painism 27:35 Inmendham's 'First Ouch' (tm) 35:44 ---------------------------------------------------------- Fatted Calf Video on TED - http://www.ted.com/initiatives/aws/the_fatted_calf.html My response to Fatted Calf video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfcedA9w2jE&tracker=False Peggy Phelan's 'Unmarked' - http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iCwCowstnvYC&lpg=PP1&ots=hHuhU2EhqY&dq=peggy%20phelan%20unmarked&pg=PR7#v=onepage&q&f=false David Sloane Wilson's 'Darwin's Cathedral' - http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=nMnfISTYnC4C&lpg=PP1&ots=knLToW3VSe&dq=david%20sloan%20wilson%20darwin's%20cathedral&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=false Horizon Documentary 'The History of Pain' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4D6uUuoWKIc&tracker=False My 'Pain Doesn't Exist: Modern Mystic Remix' video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2THN6T3FOE&tracker=False 'Painism' by Richard Ryder - http://www.richardryder.co.uk/painism.html R.N Smart on Negative Utilitarianism - http://www.utilitarianism.com/rnsmart-negutil.html Inmendham's 'First Ouch' video - Was on DoNotGod but channel was taken down (Maybe re-upload Gary?) Damasio on 'Self Comes to Mind' - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0L_mfpYwIk&tracker=False (first in a series) My 'Bunny Comes to Mind' video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCQQ9kqlNyY&tracker=False

Why Am I Always Already Here

2011-03-08T08:57:00.001Z

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Walk 'n' Talk

2011-03-07T15:51:00.001Z

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I missed a bunch of people out who also do the walk 'n' talk thing. Sorry about that. If you know anybody who makes them please let me know.

Guy in Heaven

2011-03-07T08:16:00.001Z

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Again

The Fatted Calf

2011-03-07T07:02:00.001Z

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God-bothering Cattle Farmers FTW Response to this video from TED's 'ads worth spreading' competition - http://www.ted.com/initiatives/aws/the_fatted_calf.html

Re: Modern Art is Not a Scam (Contrapoints)

2011-03-04T11:09:00.001Z

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Response to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Kx_FqSOeg

About Mountain Dew

2011-03-03T11:35:00.001Z

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The choice of the name 'Mountain Dew' for the popular carbonated beverage is no accident. It is meant to invoke a series of related embodied metaphors which non-consciously act to associate the product with positive qualities totally unrelated to over-priced fizzy drinks. My anti-ad - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WtwPXm6hy3E

Not Art

2011-03-02T15:00:00.001Z

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and not not art My 'not art' playlist - http://www.youtube.com/user/conferencereport#grid/user/B453B84AA4015A93

Southbound 4. The Bible and the Mind (and my car)

2011-03-01T06:57:00.001Z

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1. I'm in love with car 2. Open Education 04:10 3. The Mind Network 06:50 4. The Bicameral Mind (Abe and Isaac) 11:21 5. The Bicameral Mind (Jesus and Julian) 20:58 6: The Trinity of Consciousness 24:30 7. God in the Language 27:35 Open Courseware on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenCourseWare The Open Courseware Consortium - http://www.ocwconsortium.org/ Dan Ariely - http://www.youtube.com/user/danariely Julian Jaynes model of the Bicameral Mind - http://www.julianjaynes.org/articles.php

Southbound #3. Jesus Spirit Drama

2011-02-22T08:00:00.001Z

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Driving South, thoughts going West. http://blip.tv/file/get/Conferencereport-Southbound3JesusSpiritDrama498.mp3 1. How did I get involved in this crap? 00:16 2. Dying for a piss. 07:08 3. Richard Dawkins, Poet. 07:25 4. There is No God. Really, there isn't. 13:06 5. Rabbit Brains. 15:52 6. Magical Thinking and Immorality. 18:31 7. Telling God to Fuck Off. 27:48 8. Self-deluded Rabbits. 29:52 9. Dramatic Irony is different on YT. 33:30 10. The Age of Spiritual Rabbits. 29:52 11. The New Wooden Cross. 42:45 12. Spiritual Science vs. Narrative Spirituality. 43:18 13. Metaphors of Knowledge and Spirit. 48:43 14. Natural Xenophobia. 54:06 15. Experiments in Bunnyvision (help wanted). 57:37 16. Maimonides; A Guide for the Perplexed. 59:35 Can't find the study on the the negative moral value people give to thinking about taboo subjects but there's some good stuff at http://www.yourmorals.org/ Laurie Anderson song (The Dream Before) containing references to Walter Benjamin's 'repair the things that have been broken' - http://vimeo.com/6836341 Susan Sontag quotation: "Every era has to reinvent the project of 'spirituality' for itself. (Spirituality = plans, terminologies, ideas of deportment aimed at the resolution of painful structural contradictions inherent in the human situation, at the completion of human consciousness, at transcendence." From 'The Aesthetics of Silence' available online at - http://www.scribd.com/doc/14536809/Sontag-Susan-The-Aesthetics-of-Silence Thunderf00t video response to VFX - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLxNc_Mtw-4 My video on racism and the Implicit Associat Test - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrN288dvQjw My 'Experiments in Bunnyvision' contraption - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpXlEYoWKu4 BBC Radio 4 'In Our Time' broadcast on Maimonides - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00yjqz3 Wikipedia on Maimonides "Guide for the Perplexed" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guide_for_the_Perplexed

Mutual Knowledge

2011-02-20T06:35:00.001Z

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I know you know I know you know Dan Ariely video on how he started his class - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-9wHttUayMo Steven Pinker on 'Language as a Window onto Human Nature' featuring a reference to mutual knowledge. - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-son3EJTrU Postmodern Generator - http://www.elsewhere.org/pomo/ Planned Parenthood video (link followed from Divinity33372 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kuz3fB1yRbs Aux les barricades: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RMuXPPQjoI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SSLyMasge0 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZGjykY9o_zY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aOiYt_yiVs

Can a Culture have a Character?

2011-02-19T20:35:00.001Z

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Can a country be racist? Sexist? Dr Anthony Greenwald (one of the originators of the IAT) talking about implicit associations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRUs9Ni3Bv8 (Long intro, skip to 4:10) IAT (Project Implicit) at Harvard University - https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/

Drop It

2011-02-19T05:41:00.001Z

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It's not about the ball, it's about the game. Half-baked sophistry featuring a dog and a guy in a woolly hat

The Voice of God, Mental Health and Violence

2011-02-18T06:54:00.001Z

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If anyone has more experience or knowledge of these things than I do, whether as mental health professionals, as clients, or as people with religious knowledge, I would greatly value their input.

Guy (and Phoebe) on the Edge

2011-02-17T20:52:00.001Z

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The Voice of God in Cultural Practices

2011-02-17T08:22:00.001Z

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I know, it's just a metaphor.

Jezusfreek777s Moral Dilemma

2011-02-14T23:51:00.001Z

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Sorry for the shoddy camerawork

Dead Bunny Tattoo (freestyle)

2011-02-10T16:13:00.001Z

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Guy and Bitch

2011-02-09T20:39:00.001Z

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Ok, maybe not 90%

Southbound #2 (Money Death Intuition)

2011-02-09T18:03:00.001Z

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00.00 Intro+ Monitizing Youtube Update 12.45 Fingernails 13.08 Intuition and Performance 23.08 The Meaning of Death 31.40 Guy without Balls 34.15 Nagging Thunderf00t 36.55 In the Midst of Death we are in Life Dan Ariely's channel on Youtube - http://www.youtube.com/user/danariely Dan Ariely on TED - http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CCEQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ted.com%2Ftalks%2Fdan_ariely_asks_are_we_in_control_of_our_own_decisions.html&rct=j&q=dan%20ariely%20tedtalks&ei=BTVSTf2BC9CXhQeU8I2pCQ&usg=AFQjCNFfdZcGiJRx5uE7jFejnkHF7nhr8w&sig2=0Pe3j7QuSyx2eua-midPsg&cad=rja

Monitizing Youtube

2011-02-07T07:56:00.001Z

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Asking for donations is probably the least interesting way of making money on Youtube TogetherForPeace video asking for donations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6d058o_1_bA Thunderf00t video asking for donations - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut8XsEDyyzo TheModernMystic video on Flattr - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptc7iUbPA4M Brett Keane - http://www.youtube.com/user/MrEvilution777 qdragon - http://www.youtube.com/user/qdragon melsbasketcase - http://www.youtube.com/user/melsbasketcase TJdoeslife - http://www.youtube.com/user/TJdoeslife Pat Condell - http://www.youtube.com/user/patcondell Just to be clear, I'm all in favour of the whole 'information wants to be free' thing, but I also think it wouldn't do any harm to find a way of injecting some currency into the system. As long as the ways in which it circulated didn't allow for massive disparities in user value or in the restriction of genuinely useful information.