I have nothing profound to say about procrastination. Indeed. I can only say that I'm under the influence of this drug right now. As I write this blog, I should in fact be writing a 25% essay, alas I choose not to. It is most curious that I am in fact aware -perfectly well- of what I am doing. I am aware of the consequences, as am I aware of the long-term implications on my life. None-the-less, I will persist until I have no option but to focus.
In a film lecture today, we had talks on transgression and european art cinema. It was very eye opening really. The boundaries that we set ourselves are completely understandable, yet completely ludicrous. The taboos that we perpetuate everyday, and the prejudices that we harbour are indeed shameful. Is it only up to the individual then to be transgressive, even if it does mean that he/she becomes a social outcast. We all know that there is no joy in being an outcast. At some point during the outcast scenario, one starts to wonder whether his (or her) ideals are greater than his (or her) happiness. Assuming of course that societal acceptance begets happiness, which in most cases it does not.
Here's a copy of the Transgressive Manifesto, if anyone whoever stumbles here is ever interseted:
In a film lecture today, we had talks on transgression and european art cinema. It was very eye opening really. The boundaries that we set ourselves are completely understandable, yet completely ludicrous. The taboos that we perpetuate everyday, and the prejudices that we harbour are indeed shameful. Is it only up to the individual then to be transgressive, even if it does mean that he/she becomes a social outcast. We all know that there is no joy in being an outcast. At some point during the outcast scenario, one starts to wonder whether his (or her) ideals are greater than his (or her) happiness. Assuming of course that societal acceptance begets happiness, which in most cases it does not.
Here's a copy of the Transgressive Manifesto, if anyone whoever stumbles here is ever interseted:
We who have violated the laws, commands and duties of the avant-garde; i.e. to bore, tranquilize and obfuscate through a fluke process dictated by practical convenience stand guilty as charged. We openly renounce and reject the entrenched academic snobbery which erected a monument to laziness known as structuralism and proceeded to lock out those filmmakers who possesed the vision to see through this charade.
We refuse to take their easy approach to cinematic creativity; an approach which ruined the underground of the sixties when the scourge of the film school took over. Legitimising every mindless manifestation of sloppy movie making undertaken by a generation of misled film students, the dreary media arts centres and geriatic cinema critics have totally ignored the exhilarating accomplishments of those in our rank - such underground invisibles as Zedd, Kern, Turner, Klemann, DeLanda, Eros and Mare, and DirectArt Ltd, a new generation of filmmakers daring to rip out of the stifling straight jackets of film theory in a direct attack on every value system known to man.
We propose that all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again. We propose that a sense of humour is an essential element discarded by the doddering academics and further, that any film which doesn't shock isn't worth looking at. All values must be challenged. Nothing is sacred. Everything must be questioned and reassessed in order to free our minds from the faith of tradition.Intellectual growth demands that risks be taken and changes occur in political, sexual and aesthetic alignments no matter who disapproves. We propose to go beyond all limits set or prescribed by taste, morality or any other traditional value system shackling the minds of men. We pass beyond and go over boundaries of millimeters, screens and projectors to a state of expanded cinema.
We violate the command and law that we bore audiences to death in rituals of circumlocution and propose to break all the taboos of our age by sinning as much as possible. There will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined. None shall emerge unscathed. Since there is no afterlife, the only hell is the hell of praying, obeying laws, and debasing yourself before authority figures, the only heaven is the heaven of sin, being rebellious, having fun, fucking, learning new things and breaking as many rules as you can. This act of courage is known as transgression. We propose transformation through transgression - to convert, transfigure and transmute into a higher plane of existence in order to approach freedom in a world full of unknowing slaves.
---Nick Zedd
We refuse to take their easy approach to cinematic creativity; an approach which ruined the underground of the sixties when the scourge of the film school took over. Legitimising every mindless manifestation of sloppy movie making undertaken by a generation of misled film students, the dreary media arts centres and geriatic cinema critics have totally ignored the exhilarating accomplishments of those in our rank - such underground invisibles as Zedd, Kern, Turner, Klemann, DeLanda, Eros and Mare, and DirectArt Ltd, a new generation of filmmakers daring to rip out of the stifling straight jackets of film theory in a direct attack on every value system known to man.
We propose that all film schools be blown up and all boring films never be made again. We propose that a sense of humour is an essential element discarded by the doddering academics and further, that any film which doesn't shock isn't worth looking at. All values must be challenged. Nothing is sacred. Everything must be questioned and reassessed in order to free our minds from the faith of tradition.Intellectual growth demands that risks be taken and changes occur in political, sexual and aesthetic alignments no matter who disapproves. We propose to go beyond all limits set or prescribed by taste, morality or any other traditional value system shackling the minds of men. We pass beyond and go over boundaries of millimeters, screens and projectors to a state of expanded cinema.
We violate the command and law that we bore audiences to death in rituals of circumlocution and propose to break all the taboos of our age by sinning as much as possible. There will be blood, shame, pain and ecstasy, the likes of which no one has yet imagined. None shall emerge unscathed. Since there is no afterlife, the only hell is the hell of praying, obeying laws, and debasing yourself before authority figures, the only heaven is the heaven of sin, being rebellious, having fun, fucking, learning new things and breaking as many rules as you can. This act of courage is known as transgression. We propose transformation through transgression - to convert, transfigure and transmute into a higher plane of existence in order to approach freedom in a world full of unknowing slaves.
---Nick Zedd
