I'd like to propose a screening series of horror films specifically addressing political themes. The political interpretations of most horror films fall within a rubric of social politics, i.e. gender, identity, and normative investigations. I'm interested in identifying and screening horror films that address a notion of politics as the distribution of power in a society. A draft of a list is below, and suggestions are welcome.
Totalitarianism, McCarthyism, Conformity, and the Red Scare: Invasion of the Body Snatchers
The Horror of War: Jacob’s Ladder
The Corporation: Alien
Consumerism: Night of the Living Dead
Woman as vessel for evil: Rosemary’s Baby
Domesticity as Institution: Blue Velvet
Controlling Technology: Videodrome
Other possibilities: Salo, Pan’s Labyrinth, Homecoming
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Describe plausible short term models of global climate change and the impact on human society.
Discuss possible methods to prepare, and what locations on Earth might be optimal for long term survival.
We would discuss the contents and history of the Book of Enoch.
The Book of Enoch is a collection of five books. Popular in biblical antiquity and referenced in the New Testament, it was thought to be written around 200BC.
Although not included in the Old Testament Bible, it was included as part of the Ethiopean Christian Biblical Cannon and was "discovered" in the late 1800's be an English scholar.
Enoch is described in the Bible as the Seventh son of Adam and the great-grandfather of Noah. Enoch is the only person, in the Bible, besides Elijah and Jesus, to have ascended into heaven [on a cloud]. In Antiquity, much learning and knowledge of the Mystical Arts was believed to have originated with Enoch.
There is some identification of Enoch with the legendary seventh king of Sumeria, who had similar attributes and his great grandson who was the tenth king of Sumeria and survived the deluge in an Ark.
We would sit around a circle and play percussion istruments.
We could have a brief introduction, where each person describes their story of why they drum and what they like to play.
We could have a brief "history" of the practice of druming and introduce a few basic patterns
We could talk about the practice and ethics of drumming and drum circle "etiquette"
And then we could just drum and relax and have a fun time for a couple hours.
People would be free to attend class to watch, or dance, or participate in some other creative way also.
it was fun talking about circuit construction and seeing the projects that other people are working on.
Notes:
1) You should charge more than $5. $10 would be a reasonable price.
2) The room was very cold, because it was unheated.
Maybe a coin operated space heater would be a good class project?
Have the money collected pay for the increased power cost and "processing fees."
In the summer you could have a coin operated fan, or coin operated air conditioner.
3) Hope to attend again as schedule permits.
Thanks,
Bill
Hey all - Alexis told me to post this class schedule for the Durham Workers World branch's series of classes: Peoples Power, Revolution, & Socialism
Here ya go:
PEOPLE POWER, REVOLUTION, AND SOCIALISM: A series of monthly classes hosted by the Durham branch of Workers World Party
Great class and stimulating discussion!
This may not be met which much enthusiasm (perhaps even with scoffs) but I would love a class on time travel--how it's been portrayed in popular culture, the possibility of it from a physics standpoint (what would it take to actually travel in time and what vessel would such travel require, hot tub, tardis or otherwise?), and a general discussion of why humans are so fascinated by the notion.
Based on researches of Postcolonial Theory and Critical Whiteness Studies the seminar deals with mechanisms and consequences of European colonialism and imperialism.
German (mass-) media contributes extensively to the White German’s sense of self and the other by transporting images. Thus social power relations are discursively constructed and reproduced.
Postcolonial approaches observe significantly not only identification processes of groups and individuals of former colonialized societies but challenge the own self-concept and self-image of colonialized societies.
After all colonial-racist patterns of thinking and acting are not established and forced overnight and form the sense of the self and of the other over a long term. In Germany a self-critical and comprehensive debate is emerging only hesitantly and started mainly in academic circles since the 1990ies.
If anyone is still interested in participating in this class please let me know so I can schedule it for the month of February. Kindly let me know so we can all start practicing and learning and get better at this monster called sketching.
Dark Nights of the Universe
et nox sicut dies illuminabitur
April 26–29, 7pm
155 Freeman St, Brooklyn
A four-night theoretical exploration of mysticism in dialogue with Du noir univers, a short text by François Laruelle.
Night I: Eugene Thacker – Remote: The Forgetting of the World
Night II: Daniel Colucciello Barber - Whylessness: The Universe is Deaf and Blind
Clodagh Emoe, Mystical Anarchism. Screening and discussion.
Night III: Nicola Masciandaro – Secret: No Light Has Ever Seen the Black Universe
Night IV: Alexander Galloway – Rocket: Present at Every Point of the Remote