Monthly Archives: April 2016

April 29, 2016

Even the Robots Are Dead

By DP

It appears that even robots sent into the Dead Zone at Fukishima have a limited life expectancy, in the vicinity of three hours. Seeking more detailed information about longterm biological/genetic effects of the accident on humans and other life forms, we came across a fascinating interview with Koide Hiroaki, a nuclear engineer who for has argued tirelessly for the abolition of all nuclear power plants in Japan, and elsewhere.

The entire interview, which roams widely through the toxic ethical, political and scientific vapors that envelop Fukishima, is worthy of close consideration. Below, we offer a montage of excerpts, with images added by DP: Bogdan Rata’s vivid exploration of possible shapes for future neo-humanoid mutations.

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Leave a comment | tags: Bogdan Rata, fukishima, Koide Hiroaki, nuclear accidents, radiation damage genetic | posted in bearings, DP

April 21, 2016

The Humbling

By DP

Now come our friends at the Dark Mountain Project with a new issue that resonates strongly with one of our main themes here at DP: that humans are not the zenith of biological evolution, and that we are surely not the “inviolable sovereign” of this earth, let alone the universe. We excerpt the excellent editorial introduction below as an invitation to explore the vibrant and deeply human offerings assembled within the volume.

The images are from the hand of Rebecca Clark, whose exquisite drawings are featured in the issue, and whose work we have long admired.

WORLDS WITHOUT END, 2015

OCTOPUS, 2015

Let us search for that thread, and let us weave a future away from the hideous tapestry of unfettered grandiosity, narcissism and delusion.

Leave a comment | tags: dark mountain project, rebecca clark | posted in bearings, DP

April 13, 2016

Nuit Debout

By DP

The state of exception described by Giorgio Agamben requires mass obedience and learned helplessness, such that individual and collective agency dissipates into passive consumption of mindless diversions and junk culture. Yet as the vampiric politics and economics of neoliberalism reach obscene levels of exclusion, incarceration, inequality and greed, increasing numbers of people refuse to accept the precarity imposed by the state, whether in the name of austerity or national security.

In France, this refusal has taken shape (or shapelessness!) beneath the banner of Nuit Debout, or Up All Night.

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Among the assortment of voices assembled recently by the Guardian, our ears were particularly struck by the testimony of a young Belgian student, Elie:

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The powers that be are terrified by the idea of an entire generation simply “opting out” of the neo-lberal paradigm, which was after all intended to represent the end of history. Every minute of autonomy will leave its “mark in the mind”, as Elie so astutely notes. From those mind-marks, her generation may find the beginnings of an alternative future, free from the self-serving permanent emergency of the parasite class.

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Leave a comment | posted in bearings, buoys, DP

April 7, 2016

As Ciphers Drift

By DP

In the midst of our ongoing research into the roots of political degeneracy in both Europe and the US, we stumbled across a 2012 interview with Giorgio Agamben, excerpted below. The images are from Anne Hardy.

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