Thursday, December 13, 2007

Science of Sleep: What Dreams May Come?




Whether it’s visual poetry, creative linguistic exchanges, or cross-cultural communications, The Science of Sleep or as the French release has it, La Science des Rêves, is a unique film.

Its premise is about an existential space where dreams and imagination encounter reality.

While the film seems to concern itself primarily with francophone Bohemia, it might just be a universally appealing film. And the linguistic transitions from English to French to Spanish, coupled with a soporific soundtrack are simply gripping.

Charlotte Gainsbourg, the daughter of the legendary musician Serge Gainsbourg, plays the role of Stéphanie. I have trouble imagining anybody else in this role. And Gael García Bernal portrays Stéphane Miroux. Bernal simply owns the screen from the very beginning of the film.

Here are some quotations from the film:

-'P. S. R. Parallel Synchronized Randomness. An interesting brain rarity and our subject for today. Two people walk in opposite directions at the same time and then they make the same decision at the same time. Then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it, and then they correct it. Basically, in a mathematical world these two little guys will stay looped for the end of time. The brain is the most complex thing in the universe and it's right behind the nose. [plays drums] Fascinating!'

-'Distraction is an obstruction for the construction.'

quotes per wikipedia
graph per apple

Beppe Grillo, the Italian Stand-up Comic, Says: Basta, Already!


I am interested in Italy on account of my personal history and as a result I follow the socio-cultural developments in the country with some measure of regularity. The following NY Times article attracted my attention today. It's on the politically and socially aware Italian comic Beppe Grillo.

From the article:

'“Basta! Basta! Basta!” Beppe Grillo, a 59-year-old comic and blogger with swooping gray hair, howled in an interview. The word means “enough,” and he repeated it to make his point to Italy’s political class clear. In recent months, Mr. Grillo has become the defining personification of Italy’s foul mood. On Sept. 8, he gave that mood a loud voice when he called for a day of
rage, to scream across Piazza Maggiore in Bologna an obscenity politely translated as “Take a hike!”'

The Accounting-trained stand-up comic whose critical 'reading' of Italian politics can be traced decades ago and is well-known to Italians and many Europeans, is actively involved with social reform. Grillo is one of the best-known Italian bloggers and he has managed to evoke much interest among the young in Italy. He is encouraging young people to run for public office in an effort to engender good political reform. A lover of the internet, he is employing cyber space tools actively and his blog receives much daily traffic. Grillo himself is not interested in running for political office. His sole mission seems to be one of informing the masses about the political nature of things and why they need to be proactively involved with their government and the goings-on in the Palazzo Montecitorio, i.e., the Italian parliament.

I suppose in the case of Grillo, we see an artist who considers art, in this case his stand-up routine, as functional to a specific socio-political mission.

Eco-Friendly Clothing and Cost


Eric Wilson's article "A World Consumed by Guilt" has an interesting premise. It problematizes green clothing and how it is marketed. He observes:

Some clothes, like Loomstate’s $295 organic cotton jeans — sold unwashed
and not color-fast, to save energy — require unusual care. A pair of
2(x)ist soy underwear, $24 at Macy’s, include a warning that
imperfections are to be expected. “These characteristics should not be
considered flaws in the fabric,” the packaging says, “but rather as an
intrinsic quality contributing to the uniqueness of the garment.”

Some designs marketed as environment-friendly might include only a
fraction of organic cotton, or a tag made of recycled paper. And some
so-called green fashion may be downright silly, like the Goyard canvas
shopping tote shown in the Barneys “Have a Green Holiday” catalog: the
bag is $1,065, plus $310 for painted monogramming of a triangular
recycle symbol in gold. The canvas, the catalog says, is “100%
recyclable.”

Being environmentally conscious is crucially important and such awareness should extent to all facets of life. Fashion should not be any different, naturally. It is, after all, a multi-billion dollar business, hence it begs for attention. So, I applaud the designers' individual desires to make visible efforts to be green. This is all about acquiring the right behaviors of consumption, right?

However, would we be more environmentally conscious if we consumed less? I admit, I do enjoy my new Ben Sherman items and I am always [secretly] looking forward to what the next new line will look like. However, teaching myself how to hold my desire for unneeded new things in check is, de facto, more beneficial to me and the environment.

Using what we already own till it's time to update is a more environmentally conscious move. Minimalism, I believe, informs environmental awareness. Of course, designers have to think of their profit margins and by choosing to provide green clothing they are providing alternative options for those who have the resources to only acquire $285 organic cotton jeans and $1,065 'green' bags.

But the rub would lie in the following, I would reckon, and that is: how can the average shopper be adequately reached and informed about issues of consumerism and their overall immediate purchasing effect, or 'carbon footprint' on the environment?

graph per nyt

Textile Conformity and Dress Camaraderie


The following paragraph comes from Virginia Postrel's "The Substance of Style."


'Today’s aesthetic imperative overturns the simplistic dichotomy
between "rebellion" and "conformity," or "individual" and "mass": The result is selective conformity, an implicit or explicit drive for finer and finer gradations and the looks that identify them. Rather than choose between standing out and fitting in, we conform in some ways and diverge in others, choosing (consciously or unconsciously) a mix of meaning and pleasure, of group affiliation and individual taste. Friends develop what zoologist and author Desmond Morris calls "costume echo," adopting similar conventions of dress and carriage. Morris first identified the phenomenon when he "noticed two women walking down the street who dressed so similarly, they could have been in uniform.'

Clothing serves as a marker of individuality and conformity. The sign of the collective oozes a powerful aesthetic but somehow I think that much more verbal attention needs to be placed on what the subtext of "textile conformity" - as I have termed it - consists of. As Postrel observes, we do confirm openly in some ways while diverging in others. The question I raise is: What is it that we derive out of voluntary dress conformity or lack thereof?