One final piece of synchronicity in tonight's posting session. Manuel DeLanda is renowned for "War in the Age of Intelligent Machines", and this lecture (only one part of which I have posted here) is useful in clarifying the meaning of Deleuze's "geology [sic] of morals". I say this in light of the possibilty that it may in principle be distinguished from some of the developments foregrounded in Laurie Anderson's work (to say nothing of the comments by Deleuze's contemporary, Derrida, that the insidious emergent forms of bioterror will one day almost make people nostalgic for the visibility of the style of attack adopted in 9/11).
It is interesting to consider whether an earlier understanding of biocultural implications in part motivated DeLanda's own switch from his early path as a "transgressive" filmmaker (Nick Zedd even mentions him in his book on the subject). What future for the spectacle when the real effects would be felt beneath the threshold of visual perception? I resisted posting the youtube clip from the documentary Snuff, even though its makers appear sincere in their motivations, in part because of the point I'm making here. Isn't it incumbent on the filmmakers to situate their investment in such material with reference to the ready availability of websites such as ogrish.com? What effect does this have on the taboo nature of their topic, even if they choose to ignore the future biocultural ramifications (which will tend to date their work that much quicker).
At the very least, DeLanda's talk, if not his personal biography, will help me revise my manuscript to some extent, which touches on "becoming animal", bioculture more generally, and violence.
No comments:
Post a Comment