Design Seminar 2

last semester one of my projects brought me to a very strange place … The Harvard Coop … in response to reading Pablo Neruda’s poem ‘Ode to Things’ i visited perhaps the very epicenter of deep academic thought + all things high + flighty + found myself walking the aisles of The Harvard Coop, wanderwatching for all things Neruda, no knowing exactly what the end-resulting confrontation would be in this land of scarlet intellectuality, in this place of the newly regentrified + corporatized faux-avante

not knowing exactly what i would do, but also knowing that i did not enjoy the poem { i actually found it quite trite + predictable to be totally honest with you … what else would he say about ‘things’ in his ode? seriously … how else would the formula turn out? give the people what they want i guess … nothing too, too challenging } … confronting a tome of biography + a well-stocked shelf of his poetics + deciding that this end result, this rather mass marketed approach to object might even distastefully represent the sorts of things Neruda pontificated upon in his piece, the very handmade + loving items described in his poem + here was the exact opposite … a machine-crafted artifact of his writings … a rather coldly assembled + manufactured number of perhaps millions made to churn some cashflow through the pearly gates of all good + Harvardness, the very biggest business machine in academic capital bullsh!t

so i threw it away

i walked the aisles w/ Neruda in my gripse + literally threw book after book after book into the trash receptacles provided by this special white-label brand of a Barnes + Noble that replaced what was once an independent + truly university-affiliated establishment … this act was not a true theft of Nerudaness … no, no … this was a different kind of act … for certain, if the fine booksellers of Barnes + Noble, Harvard did not find these disposed editions in trashcans around the store there would be no trace in the system of their sale + the established auto-ordering mechanisms would not know to order another copy of the biography or the collected poems of + so on, etcetera … Neruda’s presence, the ability to purchase Neruda at this particular location would diminish by a book title or 2 … certainly not an attack or a substantial statement at all against the man + his works … but for some reason i felt compelled to react this way to his ‘Ode to Things’

a month or 2 following this event, this performative + visual response to Neruda’s ‘Ode to Things’ i bumped across an interesting passage from the book ‘What is Surrealism?’ … the section was about Surrealism as an international movement … in the few paragraphs devoted to Surrealism in South America came the following :

The Chilean comrades conducted an exuberant agitation, achieving among other things the disruption of an official homage to the pseudo-poet Pablo Neruda. This was the notorious Stalinist to whom Gomez-Correa referrred when, several years later he advised young poets: ‘Keep yourselves pure, free from all commitment, free from all contaminations. Search for the unknown, penetrate mystery. Run away from contests, literary prizes, leprosy and Neruda.’

i was a bit startled to find this direct evidence of anti-Nerudian sentiment expressed from the first wave of Surrealists International, although, i guess, i shouldn’t be … my instincts drove me to auto-disposal of something so syrupy, sentimental, formulaic + manufactured … he is apparently beloved by millions … marketed to the masses as this gentle, poetic soul … i’m sure that Oprah would have him on the show

but i think in some cosmological way i channeled from the spirit of the original Surrealists … a target to them, to ride against, to show through aggression yet another aspect of the Surrealist aesthetic … the Surrealist anti-aesthetic … no need to pull the blanket over the eyes, my friends … we’ll strip the bed bare + show you exactly what you’ve been avoiding the last few months … the world is a scary place + its time we all just admitted the truth + ripped away all pretense … that bleeding ball of flesh in the corner, the one riddled with scars, dripping phlegm + puss + excrement … the cries of pain, the deep need for assistance from the utterly helpless left to fend for themselves under incredibly impossible circumstances, that’s the poetry our systems hand down to us … congratulations oh grand civilization, we repeat the horrors of history over + over + over + over + over + over again … ‘Ode to Things’ my ass

so, i think it only fair now to say that anyone + everything is unfair + potential target to this continuation of the Surrealist International Movement brought forward + now futuristically embedded in our mediaSphere, in our thinking of the perils + polite happy successes of our technological progress, of our continued evolution from man to cyborgic symbiosis of whatever future being we slowly push ourselves to become … The Singularity is Near … yes, yes, this is certain … our fate is something far more surreal than the wonderfully rendered Ernst machines … little did we know that the tools we devise not only shape our behavior but they actually mold the very futureShape of our biological beings … we quite literally become our technology … we become our things

new targets up for consideration for the cyberSurreal Internationale

• continued pursuit of Neruda … break him, bend him, push him down … no mercy, no love for Neruda
• where Surrealism split into factions of Communism + Fascism … cyberSurrealism is also a revolutionary movement, but one perhaps more akin to Anarchy or to more personal + individualistic pursuit … more honest than Democracy, cyberSurrealism takes Capitalism to a new heightened level + blends elements of Darwinism with Rand … let’s just stop pretending its ‘for the people, by the people’ … that ended long, long ago, right? … we are back to the animalState now … survival of the fittest + nothing more or less than that … we’ve been living with this set of systems for long enough now, so let’s encapsulate what the real new state of the state is + ride against the vast artificiality, the sentimentality of freedom + justice … all a joke, all a disappointment
• any means to disprove Euclidian Geometry + the divine spirituality behind numbers + the KKK of Mathematics means another small victory for cyberSurrealism … show me one person that uses ROI in daily conversation that is innovative or revolutionary in any way + i’ll sell you some valuable new social web property near the shore of sanity that will benefit us all + change the way we think of existence, the way we relate to the human condition … most math, being based on assumptions, depends on theoretical implications so inextricably bound to a pure state of physicality that it can only all end in further assumptions + progress that all whittles down to one tiny, nearly imperceptible weakness in the system
• all things financiatic + corporate need to be questioned … any tax loopholes that benefit company over individual need to be ratified + corrected as soon as possible to once again bring power back to the individual, back to the average citizen … brand new economies must be created that revolve around something other than printed monies of established governments … wherever possible individuals must figure out individual means that reside outside of big banking + the large corporation to live + thrive + support each other + survive beyond the fall of the latest world empiric attempts
• the hallucinations of mass media, television, movies, internet + other official blue mediatypes need to also be emancipated + given over to the individual … user-generated capabilities expand + grow + allow for new forms of previous cultural artifacts to be developed … these new artifacts need not be Mac-approved or brought to us by Google … go, create, multiply … whatever, however, whenever, make these future artifacts through the disposable technologies that are available to you … seek out dishonest IT professionals to get you the latest means of digital creation + drain the elephantine repositories of bastion uncreativity to drive to the new epoch of freedom + chaos … ‘by any means necessary’ may be too kind a sentiment for the oppressors have had their thumbs upon us for far too long, for far too wide … delve + dive + reach out, left, right, up, down + sideways to find each + every new area of extension, each new augmentation … our collective mind expands exponentially + needs to expand faster + further + thinner than ever before … the means to push through all existing limitations are there … think evil … get it done … just do it … we need this immediate era to move through to the next before it is all too late

take these ideas seriously or not … it is up to you … these are my automatic writings at this moment … at this juncture of thought, research, reading + play … forgive me if these thoughts aggress … if the demand, if the command is to take arms … i do not believe my ideas to simply be those of just art + poetry … of some furtherance of an aesthetic only … this is revolution … but not in that bullsh!t corporate way we return to revolution in slogans + taglines every 5 years, no, no … this is a new lifestyle for those with guts … for those that want to build the future from small electronic components in their garages, basements, kitchens + foyers … on the subway, commuter rail, in the elevator at work or school … we each have a responsibility to contribute to this future … this is more about democratic action than our current implementation of democracy seems to command … stand up, defend design, defend your future as a contributing citizen of the world … think beyond boundaries, think beyond the stultifying end-results of your cultural upbringings + act now … create … build … participate

participate or die

Tags: action, Arts, cyberSureal, democracy, Human, Literature, neruda, Pablo Neruda, poetry, revolution, South America, Surrealism, Technology

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 13th, 2010 at 11:10 am and is filed under Student Forum, Susi, Thesis Proposal. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.