Posts Tagged → lecture

In the Long Tail

I just watched this lecture performance that Mark Leckey gave in 2009 and I am in awe. The quality of the footage is not great, and it’s split in 7 parts, but it really doesn’t matter. It’s so powerful and prescient that no resolution issue can weaken it. It captures the essence of the internet in its more profound implications, telling a tale that starts with a dematerialized cartoon cat, dives into cybernetic theory, predicts the combinatorial vertigo of generative AI and ends up in pure psychedelic ecstasy, evoking angels and universal spirits.
I found the video thanks to this article written by Gia Festa on Do Not Research, which I can’t help quoting:

“He tells the crowd that, through the long tail machine, we can arrive at the future of desire. Smoke is flooding the stage, IDM is pumping through the speakers. Leckey speaks in foreboding monotone about how all of humanity is going to be united in ecstatic cybernetic equilibrium, a sort of Human Instrumentality Project-like singularity. The long tail will bend into a ouroboros and we “become one with the swarm”. This long tail machine would have a feedback loop so immediate and effectively self-regulating that it becomes almost prescient; our desires are informed by our content / our content is informed by our desires. The long tail know the contents of our dreams before we dream them“.

 

On Pessimism

This lecture by Alain de Botton is inspiring, entertaining and even mindblowing. Have you ever thought that sometimes embracing sadness and pessimism could help you achieve better things in life? It may seem a little odd but it does make sense. If you have half an hour to spend, I suggest you listen to this.

“In this secular sermon, Alain challenges the great bourgeois promise that everyone can find happiness in love and work and suggests that we take on the joys of pessimism instead. He argues that the chances of anyone succeeding in both areas (let alone in one) are extremely remote – and that it is therefore peculiar, and deeply cruel, to base our societies around these values. Indeed, in denying a place for misery and despair, the modern world denies us the possibility of collective consolation, condemning us instead to solitary feelings of shame and persecution. ”

Tempi morti

Oggi ho fatto un’ora di lezione sulla Net Art all’Università. E in ossequio all’immarcescibile legge di Murphy (Se qualcosa può andare male, lo farà) è successo di tutto. Nell’ordine: il primo computer, in dotazione dall’ateneo, si è impallato dopo 4 microsecondi ed era talmente nel pallone che non ha voluto sapere ragioni. Ho dovuto staccare la spina. Comincio la lezione e al terzo sito web la rete va giù. Niente collegamento per il resto dell’ora. Ma io, previdente, ho qualche cosa su cd. Cambio computer esasperata dalla lentezza e attacco il mio portatile al proiettore. Lancio il primo programma: tutto ok, lancio il secondo e si blocca tutto. E’ stato allora che ho cominciato a discettare del tempo, dei miei gusti culinari, di politica e persino di calcio. Per prendere tempo.Ora capisco l’imbarazzo dei conduttori tv quando devo riempire tempi morti cazzeggiando a braccio. Hanno tutta la mia solidarietà.