Pulp-horror, archaic science fiction and the darker aspects of folklore share a preoccupation with exhumation of or confrontation with ancient super-weapons categorised as Inorganic Demons or xenolithic artifacts. These relics or artifacts are generally depicted in the shape of objects made of inorganic materials (stone, metal, bones, souls, ashes, etc.). Autonomous, sentient and independent of human will, their existence is characterised by their forsaken status, their immemorial slumber and their provocatively exquisite forms. […] Inorganic demons are parasitic by nature, they […] generate their effects out of the human host, whether as an individual, an ethnicity, a society or an entire civilisation.
— REZA NEGARESTANI, Cyclonopedia: Complicity with Anonymous Materials
Category: Uncategorized
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Discard Studies
Social studies of waste, pollution & externalities
Discard Studies 2.0
Discard Studies has been operating since 2007, mainly under the stewardship of one or two people. In the spirit of reflecting on what we, as editors, writers, and researchers in discard studies are including or not including in our posts, we’re looking to expand what the blog covers. We’re interested in posts on the waste the flows from virtual systems, collecting and discarding in archives and museums (including issues of repatriation and colonialism), heritage and building waste, noise (701) and light (713) pollution, but also in wider systems that order waste and wasting, such as the state, economies, legal orders, gender constructs, white supremacy, and models of resurgence, revival, and liberation. All have their discards.
If you think you have knowledge that can add to these conversations on Discard Studies,we’d love to hear a pitch from you.
778 – Discworld (1995 video game)
Discworld is a 1995 point-and-click adventure game developed by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions for MS-DOS, Macintosh, and the Sony PlayStation. A Sega Saturn version was released the following year. The game stars Rincewind the Wizard (voiced by Eric Idle) and is set on Terry Pratchett‘s Discworld. The plot is based roughly around the events in the book Guards! Guards!, but also borrows elements from other Discworld novels. It involves Rincewind attempting to stop a dragon terrorising the inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork.
The game was developed because the designer Gregg Barnett wanted a large adventure for CD-based systems. A licence was difficult to obtain; Pratchett was reluctant to grant one as he wanted a Discworld game to be developed by a company with a reputation and who cared about the property. An original story was created due to Barnett having difficulty basing games on one book. Discworld was praised for its humour, voice-acting and graphics, though some criticised its gameplay and difficult puzzles. Discworld was followed by a sequel, Discworld II: Missing Presumed…!?, in 1996. (wiki)
Ankh-Morpork
Ankh-Morpork lies on the River Ankh (the most polluted waterway on the Discworld and reputedly solid enough to walk on), where the fertile loam of the Sto Plains (similar to Western Europe) meets the Circle Sea (the Discworld’s version of the Mediterranean). This, naturally, puts it in an excellent trading position. Lying approximately equidistant from the cold Hub and tropical Rim, Ankh-Morpork is in the Discworld’s equivalent of the temperate zone. The name “Ankh-Morpork” refers to both the city itself, a walled city about five miles (8 km) across, and the surrounding suburbs and farms of its fiefdom. The central city divides more or less into the more affluent Ankh and the poorer Morpork which includes the slum-like “Shades”, which are separated by the River Ankh. Ankh-Morpork is built on black loam, broadly, but is mostly built on itself; pragmatic citizens simply built on top of the existing buildings when the sediment grew too high as the river flooded, rather than excavate them out. There are many unknown basements, including an entire “cave network” below Ankh-Morpork made up of old streets and abandoned sewers (it has been continuously stated that anyone with a pickaxe and a good sense of direction could reach anywhere in Ankh-Morpork by knocking walls down in a straight line, though in Thud! it is added that they would also need to breathe mud). Recently, the underground regions have been extended by the city’s dwarf population to get around unimpeded. It has recently been made municipal property. Ankh-Morpork is also the city with the most dwarfs on the whole disc outside of Überwald, largely considered the dwarfen homeland, with over 50,000 dwarfs living there. (wiki)
Terry Pratchett – Back in Black BBC Documentary 2017 (youtube)
777 – Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey (1991)
timespace coordinates: 2691 – 1991 San Dimas, California
Bill & Ted’s Bogus Journey is a 1991 American science fiction comedy film, and the directing debut of Pete Hewitt. It is the second film in the Bill & Ted franchise, and a sequel to Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989). Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter and George Carlin reprise their roles.
The film’s original working title was Bill & Ted Go to Hell and the film’s soundtrack featured the song “Go to Hell” by Megadeth, which Dave Mustaine wrote for the film. Despite mixed reviews from film critics, like its predecessor, the film has since gained a cult following thanks in large part to its spoof of Ingmar Bergman‘s 1950s classic film The Seventh Seal.
As was particularly common at the time, the soundtrack album focuses on the rock music heard throughout the film. An album of the full orchestral score by David Newman would not become available until 2007. The song Bill and Ted play for the battle of the bands is “Final Guitar Solo” by Steve Vai, which he wrote to help blend into “God Gave Rock ‘N’ Roll to You II” by Kiss, although they appear similar in appearance to Dusty Hill and Billy Gibbons from ZZ Top. There’s also a reference to the lyrics from “Every Rose Has Its Thorn” by Poison.
Sequel
In 2010, Reeves indicated that Matheson and Solomon were working on a script for a third film, confirming in April 2011 that a draft was complete.Winter said in March 2012 that he and Reeves both like the finished script, which revisits the two characters after the changes of the past twenty years. Despite the script being finished and satisfied by both parties, no specific filming dates have been named. In April 2016, Winter said that he hoped the film would begin production in 2017. Reeves gave an update on the film in February 2017 and said a story has been written for the third film. “Basically, they’re supposed to write a song to save the world and they haven’t done that. The pressure of having to save the world, their marriages are falling apart, their kids are kind of mad at them, and then someone comes from the future and tells them if they don’t write the song it’s not just the world, it’s the universe. So they have to save the universe because time is breaking apart.” On May 8, 2018, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that a third film, Bill & Ted: Face the Music, was officially in pre-production with Dean Parisot directing. No release date has been announced yet. (wiki)
0776 – Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989)
timespace coordinates: 2688 >1988 San Dimas, California > Austria in 1805 > 1879 the Old West > 410 BC ancient Greece > 14th century medieval England > 1901 Vienna Austria > Kassel, Germany, 1810 > Orleans, France, 1429 > Outer Mongolia 1209 >The White House, 1863
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure is a 1989 American science fiction comedy film directed by Stephen Herek and written by Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon. It stars Alex Winter, Keanu Reeves, and George Carlin. The plot follows slackers Bill (Winter) and Ted (Reeves), who travel through time to assemble historical figures for their high school history presentation.
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure received generally positive reviews and was commercially successful. It is now considered a cult classic.
DC Comics produced a tie-in comic following the plot of the first movie timed to coincide with that film’s release on home video. The sequel was adapted by DC’s competitor Marvel Comics, published to coincide with the second film’s release in theaters. Its popularity led to the ongoing Marvel series Bill & Ted’s Excellent Comic Book by Evan Dorkin, which lasted for 12 issues.
There were also Game Boy, NES and Atari Lynx games released, which were very loosely based on the film’s plot. A PC title and nearly identical Amiga and Commodore 64 port were made in 1991 by Off the Wall Productions and IntraCorp, Inc. under contract by Capstone Software and followed the original film very closely. (wiki)
775 – Hunt For The Skinwalker (2018 documentary)
timespace coordinates: 1990’s > 2010’s west Uintah County bordering the Ute Indian Reservation
Branded “the Area 51 of the paranormal”, the Skinwalker Ranch in Utah is thoroughly investigated both by the Pentagon and CIA. Strange lights and animal mutilations, among other various unexplained phenomena, are known to take place at the mysterious ranch.
imdb / the skin-walker of Navajo
TimeSpace Warps 