----------empyre- soft-skinned space---------------------- Dear Randall,
I understand and share your anger about the current temporary holder of the title of US president, but I wonder whether the focus on "diabolical fakery" and the introduction of XTreme TRUMPology targets the core of the problem. Bertold Brecht made an observation once, that by continously mentioning the "Führer" and his name, one would just make addititonal propaganda for the NAZIs, and he came up with a solution: He introduced a fake profession for Hitler, and called him "Der Anstreicher". This is German for someone who covers dirty walls with fresh paint to hide the dirt underneath. By doing so Brecht made a joke on Hitler's failure in getting accepted at the painters Academy class in Vienna, he reminded his readers on Hitler's whitewashing attempts, but at the same time he avoided repeating the name of the political enemy. Brecht faked the professional title of Hitler, but he did so in working against his regime. I think that we need not spend half of our lives in correcting all of the lies and the fake facts of the president's administration, but rather look at political problems from a viewpoint that goes beyond personification of political activities conduction in favour of a concrete political system, i.e. turbocapitalism, without assigning it to a demon or a devil. Do you see what I mean? It is hard to find mediatic truth within the political system we are forced to live in. How can messages of a tweet length format be true anyway? And why do we still hope that communicating on the basis of such would leave a chance for truth, correctness or appropriateness? The difference between true and false and the problem of keeping such a distinction as a valid guide for action is a matter that is rooted in a mediatic structure and a political system. The man with the yellow hair is just a puppet of a wider interest structure and once he leaves - I am afraid - we cannot celebrate having solved the problem. My main point here is that I think a personalisation of a political problem distracts from the problem. Having said so, may the man with the yellow hair soon stumble and fall.
Best Mathias -- Prof. Dr. Mathias Fuchs Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM) Scharnhorststr. 1, C5.318 21335 Lüneburg Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/ Co-Editor Journal of Performance Research, Vol. 21 (4) http://www.performance-research.org/
Message: 3 Date: Tue, 27 Jun 2017 16:14:52 -0400 From: Randall Packer <rpac...@zakros.com> To: soft_skinned_space <empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au> Subject: Re: [-empyre-] Week 4: Welcome Lindsay Kelley, Anna Munster, Randall Packer, and Ana Valdex Message-ID: <cf7c86be-63dd-4eb9-83af-65d4b6bb1...@zakros.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Dear List: Since August of 2015, I have been chronicling the TRUMP phenomenon, which I refer to as XTreme TRUMPology. Here are 50 posts I have written to date: http://www.randallpacker.com/category/xtreme-trumpology/ I see the developing fake news issue as the catalyst of a much greater problem: the intentional distortion of reality for the purpose of gaining political control. Fake news is a means to an end, what happens when morally bankrupt demagogues are in pursuit of absolute power. To this end, it beholds us to construct critical ?weapons? that we can use to deconstruct and defuse this diabolical fakery, and it is my hope, that during this next week, the empyre list can serve as both a virtual roundtable for discussion, as well as a space for developing tactical methods we can employ as media artists, theorists, and educators in our everyday lives and work. Some of these methods have already been identified in past weeks? I hope to see more! These are dangerous times and I am interested in the kinds of critical tools we can develop collectively to combat the torrent of fakery and disinformation that is consuming our government, our country, and the world. It?s time for action. Best, Randall
-- Prof. Dr. Mathias Fuchs Institute of Culture and Aesthetics of Digital Media (ICAM) Scharnhorststr. 1, C5.318 21335 Lüneburg Co-Editor Journal Digital Culture & Society http://www.transcript-verlag.de/zeitschriften/digital-culture-und-society/ Co-Editor Journal of Performance Research, Vol. 21 (4) http://www.performance-research.org/ _______________________________________________ empyre forum empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au http://empyre.library.cornell.edu