art painting painter portrait biography body light lucian_freud lost naked bare corpse affect figure subject individuation
✖ Via Artchive: “Reflection (self portrait)” by Lucian Freud, oil on canvas, 56.2 x 51.2 cm, 1985
Freud, Lucian (1922- ). German-born British painter. He was born in Berlin, a grandson of Sigmund Freud, came to England with his parents in 1931, and acquired British nationality in 1939. His earliest love was drawing, and he began to work full time as an artist after being invalided out of the Merchant Navy in 1942. In 1951 his Interior at Paddington (Walker Art Gallery, Liverpool) won a prize at the Festival of Britain, and since then he has built up a formidable reputation as one of the most powerful contemporary figurative painters. Portraits and nudes are his specialities, often observed in arresting close-up. His early work was meticulously painted, so he has sometimes been described as a `Realist’ (or rather absurdly as a Superrealist), but the subjectivity and intensity of his work has always set him apart from the sober tradition characteristic of most British figurative art since the Second World War. In his later work (from the late 1950s) his handling became much broader. (WebMuseum)



• Sep 19, 2010 link notes tagged: art  painting  painter  portrait  biography  body  light  Lucian Freud  lost  naked  bare  corpse  affect  figure  subject  individuation 

An especially disturbing section of the book delves into a lawsuit brought against Eli Lilly by survivors of a rampage by Joseph Wesbecker, who was the company’s worst nightmare: a Prozac user who went on the rampage in 1989 with an AK-47. Fortunately for Eli Lilly, the 1994 trial was concurrent with the O. J. Simpson trial, the facts were carefully manipulated, a secret settlement was made between plaintiffs and the drug company even as the trial continued, and Prozac avoided a warning label about possibly violent or suicidal behavior. All the particulars of this remarkable legal travesty are laid out here.
✖ Via The New York Times: “Exploring a Dark Side of Depression Remedies” by Janet Maslin, June 29, 2000.

The quote above is an excerpt from the review of the book Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and Other Antidepressants With Safe, Effective Alternatives by Joseph Glenmullen, M.D. (383 pages. Simon & Schuster). On the same subject, read also “Papers indicate firm knew possible Prozac suicide risk” by Tom Watkins, January 3, 2005:

An internal document purportedly from Eli Lilly and Co. made public Monday appears to show that the drug maker had data more than 15 years ago showing that patients on its antidepressant Prozac were far more likely to attempt suicide and show hostility than were patients on other antidepressants and that the company attempted to minimize public awareness of the side effects. (more)

Previously on Skandalon: Eli Lilly and Co.

• Sep 03, 2010 link notes tagged: technology  rampage  lawsuit  antidepressant  drug  Prozac  depression  suicidal  suicide  homicide  violence  psychiatry  pharmaceutical  science  industry  capitalism  individuation 

Of the many men whom I am, whom we are,
I cannot settle on a single one.
They are lost to me under the cover of clothing
They have departed for another city.

When everything seems to be set
to show me off as a man of intelligence,
the fool I keep concealed on my person
takes over my talk and occupies my mouth.

On other occasions, I am dozing in the midst
of people of some distinction,
and when I summon my courageous self,
a coward completely unknown to me
swaddles my poor skeleton
in a thousand tiny reservations.

When a stately home bursts into flames,
instead of the fireman I summon,
an arsonist bursts on the scene,
and he is I. There is nothing I can do.
What must I do to distinguish myself?
How can I put myself together?

All the books I read
lionize dazzling hero figures,
brimming with self-assurance.
I die with envy of them;
and, in films where bullets fly on the wind,
I am left in envy of the cowboys,
left admiring even the horses.

But when I call upon my dashing being,
out comes the same old lazy self,
and so I never know just who I am,
nor how many I am, nor who we will be being.
I would like to be able to touch a bell
and call up my real self, the truly me,
because if I really need my proper self,
I must not allow myself to disappear.

While I am writing, I am far away;
and when I come back, I have already left.
I should like to see if the same thing happens
to other people as it does to me,
to see if as many people are as I am,
and if they seem the same way to themselves.
When this problem has been thoroughly explored,
I am going to school myself so well in things
that, when I try to explain my problems,
I shall speak, not of self, but of geography.
✖ Via “We Are Many” by Pablo Neruda, in We Are Many (poems), translated by Alastair Reid, Cape Goliard Press, 1967, Grossman (New York, NY), 1968.

More of Neruda’s poems online over at PoemHunter.com

Compare with An Evening With Mr. Teste by Paul Valery (French poet, essayist and philosopher):

“Stupidity is not my strong point. I have seen many persons; I have visited several nation; I have taken part in divers enterprises without affecting them; I have eaten nearly everyday; I have tampered with women. I now recall several hundred faces, two or three great events, and perhaps the substance of twenty books. I have not retained the best nor the worst of these things. What could stick, did.
This bit of arithmetic spares me surprise at getting old. I could also add up the victorious moments of my mind, and imagine them joined and soldered, composing a happy life… But I think I have always been a good judge of myself. I have rarely lost sight of myself; I have detested, and adored myself―and so, we have grown old together.

(from the Selected Writings of Paul Valery, tr. byJackson Mathews, New Directions Publishing, 1964, p. 236)

See also The Who’s album Quadrophenia

• Jan 24, 2010 link notes tagged: art  experience  identity  individu  individuation  life  philosophy  poem  poet  self  subject  representation 
✖ Via Entretien de mécanologie avec Gilbert Simondon, par Jean Le Moyne, Office National du Film du Canada, 1968.

From YouTube : «Entretien sur la mécanologie» est une entrevue d’une durée d’environ une heure quatorze minutes conduite en 1968 par Jean Le Moyne avec Gilbert Simondon. Elle est réalisée par Jacques Parent, du Ministère de l’Éducation du Québec, et produite par l’Office National du Film du Canada. Jean-Claude Labrecque est crédité pour la direction photographique.

Le document original en 16mm (trois bobines) est conservé dans le fond d’archive Jean Le Moyne (MG 30 D 358, vol. 5, dossier 16) de la Bibliothèque et archives Nationale du Québec (BaNQ, au centre d’archive de Québec). Il est répertorié dans le catalogue Pistard.

La transcription complète, révisée et précédée d’une introduction (PDF) par Vincent Bontems (Centre interuniversitaire de recherche sur la science et la technologie – CIRST) a été publiée dans un numéro de la Revue de Synthèse consacré aux «Machines. Objets de connaissance» (t. 130, no 1, mars 2009).



• Nov 20, 2009 link notes tagged: communication  technology  author  philosophy  machine  individuation  movie  film  documentary 

Without question, the most socially and economically significant technological event of the last quarter-century has been the invention of the surrogate. As this paper will show, never before in human history has the consumer been offered a product capable of delivering such a dramatic personal change. The ramifications of the surrogate’s rapid assimilation into everyday living can be witnessed in virtually every facet of culture, particularly in the United States where in the twenty years since their introduction the portion of the adult population that either owns or has operated a surrogate has risen to an astounding 92%. With surrogate technology in a constant state of refinement, there is no evidence to suggest this trend will be reversed. The improvements and transformations enjoyed by the operating public are here to stay, which leaves us with the question: What, if anything, remains to be overcome?
✖ Via aphelis : Paradise Found. Possibility and fullfilment in the age of the surrogate. Full paper in PDF.

” “Paradise found…” is a fictional paper appearing in the first volume of the comic book series The Surogates, created and written by Robert Venditti. The film was recently adapted into a film by Jonathan Mostow, starring Bruce Willis.”

Previously on SKandalon.

• Sep 25, 2009 link notes  [via] tagged: technology  art  comic  film  movie  future  science fiction  science  virtual  cybernetic  individuation  self  man  body  evolution  double  avatar  surrogate 

skandalon

1 2



ARCHIVE / TUMBLTAPE / RSS / CONTACT / Theme based on D&D