Sunday, December 30, 2012

Slavoj Žižek on Ecology as a Religion

As provoking and radical as ever: Slovene philosopher and cultural critic Slavoj Žižek on Ecology in an excerpt from the pop-philosophical documentary Examined Life (2008). Following the movie's subtitle "philosophy is in the streets", Žižek's agitation takes place in the midst of a North American dump.

Highlights:

There is no nature: Nature is not a balanced totality which then we humans disturb - nature is a big series of unimaginable catastrophes [and] we profit from that. (3:45)

...

Ecology will slowly turn into the new opium of the masses [...] Ecology is more and more taking over this role of a conservative ideology. (5:11)

...

We need more alienation from our life world [...] we should become more artificial. (8:57)

...

To recreate--if not build--an aesthetic dimension in things like this, in trash itself - that's the true love of the world.
Because what is love? Love is not idealization. Every true lover knows that: If you really love a woman or a man, that you don't idealize him or her.
Love means that you accept a person with all its failures, stupidities, ugly points and nonetheless the person is absolute for you, everything that makes life worth living [...] You see perfection in imperfection itself - and that's how we should learn to love the world. True ecologists love all this [points to the pile of trash].
(9:37)

Monday, November 05, 2012

Criolo live in Berlin 2012 (via Ley)

Kleber Gomes a/k/a Criolo, rapper and soul singer from São Paulo has lots of great tracks but Subirusdoistiozin is certainly a highlight. Check out the video and, if you're in the area, his live gig on November 17, 2012, in Berlin (at Gretchen in Kreuzberg).

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

German Beer Worldwide

Hilarious historic ad for German beer traveling around the world (via Ley): Germany - Rio de Janeiro - New York City - Paris

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Streets of Berlin Speak Up

"Berlin spricht... für sich". Extremely well-done audio-visual rap remix streetart narrative Berlin tribute by East Cross Projects who already produced a similar videos over the past months and years.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Meta-mixtape: A Mix of Mixes on the Net

Here's a meta-mixtape: a compilation of my recommended music mixes on the internet:
  • unfortunately only infrequently but guaranteed quality: ichi.one's Homecookin' mixes (NB: just released great mix #65 'Insomnia')
  • a huge selection of diverse mixes with daily updates and good search options: samurai.fm
  • hopefully with a higher release frequency during winter: Dirk Rumpff's Berlin-based Offtrack radio show.
  • weekly classic now on BBC Radio 6 Music: Gilles Peterson - T.S.F.K.A.W.W. ("the show formerly known as Worldwide") show
  • the traditional Soulsearching show by Michael Ruetten out of Frankfurt which appears about monthly and has been going on for years, almost decades.
  • for an almost weekly dose of house and elecronica: compost black label sessions
  • for less regularly released mixes by individuals and to round off the meta-mixtape: Dom Duchamp's great Adtrax series, covering a wide range of music styles, and Jazzanova's Alex Barck putting some of his diverse sets on Soundcloud.

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Germany for Brazilians and Brazil for Germans

Looking at the great German-Brazilian exchange of comic artists which is beautifully documented on the Osmose blog of the organizing Goethe-Institut reveals that Germany through the eyes of a Brazilian comic artist means Bikes and Brazil in the perception of a German comic artist means Fruits.

All three Brazilian artists in Germany, Amaral in Hamburg, Paula Mastroberti in Berlin and João Montanaro in Munich chose Germans on bikes as a Leitmotif (for example, here, here and here) . Conversely, all three German artists in Brazil, Aisha Franz in Salvador, Birgit Weyhe in São Paulo and Mawil in Porto Alegre repeatedly get inspired by the fresh fruits of Brazil (for example here, here and here).

Friday, October 12, 2012

Kandel's Principles of Neural Science Fifth Edition

Boris just made me realize that - finally, finally, finally - Eric Kandel's bible of the neurosciences, the fifth edition of "Principles of Neural Science" will be published, soon.

After 8 years of the publication date counter and several grumpy posts I can put my mind and brain and soul at ease and "relax, eat, drink, be merry." (Lucas 12:19)

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Mawil Goes Brazil

Wonderful comic artist Mawil recently left Berlin and is currently traveling Brazil. After some time in the north-east he seems to have a month-long residency at the Goethe Institut in Porto Alegre at the moment before attending for example the comic fair Gibicon in Curitiba at the end of the month.

His brilliant impressions and beautiful sketches can be found at http://blog.goethe.de/osmose/.

--- Update 13.10.12: The Osmose Blog is bigger than I thought and it includes sketches from 3 Brazilian comic artists in Germany and 3 German ones in Brazil. Hence, Mawil might not have visited Salvador (yet) and the drawing I uploaded was by Aisha Franz.

Sunday, October 07, 2012

German Zweideutigkeit of "Macht"

A linguistic gem of the German language is that the word "MACHT" not only means "power" but is also the plural imperative of "machen" (translated as "to do, to make, to create")...

(Picture from a Poetry Jam in Hannover)

Sunday, September 23, 2012

RSA Animate: Dan Ariely - The Truth About Dishonesty

There is a beautiful new RSA Animate clip by behavioral economist Dan Ariely on "the circumstances under which someone would lie and what effect deception has on society at large".

It includes some references to the great Irish 90's sitcom Father Ted, starring the late Dermot Morgan who would've turned 60 this year.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Europa / Europe

Vielleicht ist dies das Europäische daran, dieses unerlöste, nach allen Richtungen ausgreifende Denken, das weder bei den materialistischen Passionen der Neuen Welt noch bei der Spiritualität des Ostens zur Ruhe kommen wird.

(Eberhard Falcke in "Die Zeit" No. 32/12)

Maybe this is the European aspect of it, this unredeemed thinking which reaches out in all directions and which will neither find peace in the materialistic passions of the New World nor in the spirituality of the East.

(my own translation)

Sunday, August 19, 2012

Bem Bahia: BembaTrio - Melô do vatapá

The official clip for Melô do Vatapá by BembaTrio from Salvador, Bahia, Brazil (via Ley).

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Paul Auster on Affordances and Horizons

Stories happen only to those who are able to tell them, someone once said. In the same way, perhaps, experiences present themselves only to those who are able to have them.

Paul Auster in The Locked Room, the third part of his New York Trilogy.

Friday, June 29, 2012

More (Neuro-)Phenomenology Resources

The International Association for Phenomenology and the Cognitive Sciences has a vast collection of web-based resources and references around the topics of (neuro-)phenomenology and cognitive science.

Furthermore, scientist Leslie Marsh runs a blog named manwithoutqualities, where he also treats neurophenomenology-related topics like the extended mind, with a series of posts about Francisco Varela, including the following video with excerpts from Franz Reichle's 2005 documentary "Monte Grande" about Varela's life.

Sunday, June 17, 2012

A Cartoon Epistemology for Neuroscientists (via Merlin)

"A Cartoon Epistemology" for neuroscientists in three parts (by ophtalmological cognitive scientist Steve Lehar, 2003), including a selection of follow-up discussions (e.g., a summary of the one with David Chalmers)

--

Addendum: Lehan's ideas overlap with Thomas Metzinger's phenomenal self-model and the phenomenal model of the intentionality relation (succinctly described in this 2004 paper The Subjectivity of Subjective Experience: A Representationalist Analysis of the First-Person Perspective) and the seminal approach of sensorimotor contingencies as put forward in 2000 by Alva Noë and Kevin O'Regan (who also prefers hand-drawn manikins to illustrate his theories).

Monday, May 28, 2012

Phenomenology and Neurophenomenology Resources Online

For the eleventh anniversary of Francisco Varela's untimely death, I compiled a couple of online resources about phenomenology and neurophenomenology (to be continued).

Audio and Video:

Blogs:
Texts:

Friday, March 09, 2012

Kandel's Reconciliation? "Age of Insight" to appear

I have to admit that 650 pages about "The Quest to Understand the Unconscious in Art, Mind, and Brain, from Vienna 1900 to the Present" is quite a good excuse for the constantly postponed publication of "Principles of Neural Science - Ed. 5".
Eric Kandel's "Age of Insight" to appear soon.

Sunday, January 08, 2012

Stanley Kubrick Animated Gifs



A sequence of subtle and creepy animated gifs from Stanley Kubrick movies, very unusual in times of quick and flashy digital everyday life (via brainpickings).

Monday, January 02, 2012

#400: Tempo, tempo, tempo, tempo (via Ley)

Fittingly to the beginning of a new year and as blog post number 400:
Caetano Veloso's Oração ao tempo (lyrics here)



and the version by Rita Ribeiro