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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
Digital Media Tree this blog's archive OVVLvverk Lorna Mills: Artworks / Persona Volare / contact Sally McKay: GIFS / cv and contact |
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I recently saw Logan's Run again for the first time since I was a teenager. It's a curious film. I remembered it as a tight little dystopic narrative, a neat, discrete vision of the future to stack up with Andromeda Strain and Planet of the Apes. The first third fits this model, but as the protagonists approach and breach the boundaries of the city, the story becomes more and more surreal. Eventually Peter Ustinov shows up, talking in cryptic verse. There are serveral highly choreographed modern dance type scenes, such as the carousel, where costumed folks in tights are hauled upward on not-so-invisible wires.There is also a truly strange A.I. moment in which the computer at a security checkpoint grills Michael York about consorting with lefties (Runners) while at the same time re-assigning him to a top secret mission, and changing the colour of his palm crystal (or life clock), thereby significantly shortening his life. The computer, passive/aggressive and omniscient, says very little while Logan stumbles and staggers through a series of "questions" that seems far too evocative for effective communication with a machine. I've excerpted this discussion below. The entire transcript has been made available online by Joe Rauner. There is a pretty thorough synopsis of the film (with images) here, at transparencynow.com.
C: Logan 5, approach and identify. (APPROACH AND IDENTIFY) Sit facing the screen, Logan 5. (IDENTIFY) Identify. (IDENTITY AFFIRMED: PROCEDURE: 033-03). Logan 5, do you identify this object?
L: Negative. Question, what is it?
C: That is the name of the object, "ankh". (ANKH, SANCTUARY) Do you identify this word, "Sanctuary"?
L: Negative.
C: “Sanctuary” is a pre-catastrophe code word used for a place of immunity.
L: I don’t understand.
C: The object “ankh” has been identified with the code word “Sanctuary”. The object and the word both relate to runners who have not been accounted for.
L: Question.
C: Hold. (UNACCOUNTED RUNNERS: 1056) Unaccounted runners 1056. You may state your question.
L: 1056 unaccounted for?
C: The number is correct.
L: That’s impossible. Question, maybe they weren’t all runners. Maybe most of them reached life renewal on Carousel. (UNACCOUNTED RUNNERS: 1056) Question, nobody reached renewal? But, everybody believes that, that some ...
C: The question has been answered, Logan 5. (PROCEDURE: 03303)
L: You mean, nobody’s ever been renewed?
C: The question has been answered. You are authorized to penetrate City seals and search outside the Dome. (PROCEDURE: 033-03)
L: Umm, seals? Question, what seals? Outside? Well, there’s, there’s nothing outside.
C: You will find Sanctuary, and destroy. (PROCEDURE: 033-03)
L: Question, what if I need help from another Sandman?
C: Negative. You will begin assignment by becoming a runner seeking Sanctuary.
L: Question. I’m only a Red 6 now. How can I pretend that I’m approaching Lastday?
C: Identify. (PROCEDURE: RETROGRAM) [Red crystal below Logan glows. He is age-progressed. His life clock now blinks]
L: My life clock. Question. My life clock!
C: (RETROGRAM COMPLETE) Retrogram complete. Proceed 033 03.
L: But am I still Red 6? But I had 4 more years! I will get them back, won't I?
C: You will take the object "ankh" with you for identification.
L: Question. Do I get my 4 years back? [computer falls silent]
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Please have a look at my ongoing art and physics project, The Trouble with Oscillation. I am launching this phase of the storyboard as part of this weekend's weewerk exhibition in Toronto (with Rebecca Diederichs, Gordon Hicks and Corinna Ghaznavi). Please have a browse through the story and leave your trace (ie: make comments, post links). If you are in Toronto, come down and see the show. Many thanks to everyone on Digital Media Tree, Joe, Kristin, Mark,Tom, and other posters to this blog who have been helping me shape the project since November. |
image, Ambition, c.1998. From mrnobody.org
I admit, about 5 years ago I figured Mr. Nobody for a charismatic flash in the pan, but the dude (Tanya Read's creation/alter ego?) just doesn't go away. Missing Krazy Kat and Ignatz? How about Felix, or Steamboat Willie. Willy Loman? Rosencrantz and Guildenstern? You need a dose of Mr. Nobody. This catlike everyman cipher has Toronto wrapped around his little ...uh...finger. Now he's got telephone poles in Korea covered too.
Wow. There's a really nice spot about this blog in the current issue of THIS Magazine. I've always had a great deal of respect for THIS because of their probing, left-wing take on politics and alternative culture. It's a bit of a thrill to be on their pages again (first time was in '98 when I was quoted saying "beauty is boring." Try living that down. And yes, I said it. I'm a dork). The current issue looks really good. There's a guide to religious troublemakers, the groups who are "working to promote international debate" and who "simply refuse some of the official tenets of their faith." There's a piece on Tooker Gomberg, and an article by Clive Robertson that I can't wait to read defending the cultural value of science to left-wing activists. There's much more of course, including a really positive little write up about digitialmediatree.com/sallymckay by Joyce Byrne. Thanks Joyce! I hope it brings new people to the blog.
I do have a few small additions. Lola (the art magazine I used to work on) was co-founded by myself, Catherine Osborne and John Massier (readers of THIS might think from the piece that it was all me -- so very much not the case.) The piece also quotes me as saying that this blog is the "most intellectually stimulating thing I've ever done." I'm sure I said it, cause I do say things like that, but it's no slur on Lola. That magazine had me all fired up 24-7. Anyhow, the write-up makes me proud, and it's nice to show up in ink on paper once in a while. Thanks THIS!
Image of Totoro at the bus stop from www.totoro.org
My Neighbour Totoro (Miyazaki again) is a romantic story about animism that turned all my world weariness to jelly and melted it away (for an hour or so). There are big strange creatures, spirits resembling animals to some degree, that inhabit nature and remain neutral with regards to human concerns. Yet they might relate to us, and occasionally there can be a meeting between person and spirit beast. In this case the spirit is Totoro, a furry sleepy grumbling creature. He stands with the girls at the bus stop and although he is cute he is also scary; his eyes are inhuman and stare with fixed incomprehension at such foreign curiosities as little girls. He rumbles and roars, and when he opens his mouth it is huge enough to swallow a house. He seems to be on the brink of eating somebody most of the time. Eventually a cat bus pulls up. Yes it is a flying cat with many legs, wild eyes, a crazed manic grin and zany, bus-like enthusiasm for freakish careening around. The cat has a furry, enclosed seating area in its back. When it picks someone up it opens a door-shape in its own hide for them to enter.
Totoro gives the girls a packet of seeds and they plant them. They wait and wait for the seeds to grow. One night Totoro and his two little companions (small-sized and smaller-sized versions of Totoro) show up, hopping around by the garden. The girls run out to join them and they do a sort of yogic dance, raising their hands and bowing to the earth. The plants start to grow and all of a sudden a giant bursting tree is boiling up out of the earth. It's momentous and breathtaking. Too much growth -- that scary out-of-control power of nature spirits. But its okay, fun even, a sort of permission to mania and exultation in life. Totoro has a spinning top for flying around. The girls jump onto his chest and hang onto his fur, and up they go into the air. Then they all sit up high high in a tree branch and play little owlish night tunes on their ocarinas. It's beautiful.
Today I was inspired by Mr. Wilson's May Day post to go outside and look at plants. I am fond of plants, and prefer that they live, therefore I've given up trying to grow things myself. Luckily my good friends/neighbours can handle it, so I went over there and hung out in the back yard.