Tag Archives: ancients
1796
timespace coordinates: The Flying Train, Germany, 1902
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through New York City in 1911
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through Paris, France in late 1890s
timespace coordinates: San Francisco, a Trip down Market Street, April 14, 1906
timespace coordinates: A Trip Through the Streets of Amsterdam, 1922
timespace coordinates: Laborers in Victorian England, 1901
timespace coordinates: Views of Tokyo, Japan, 1913-1915
timespace coordinates: Moscow, Tverskaya Street in 1896
The oldest recorded video, timespace coordinates: “Roundhay Garden Scene”, England,1888
timespace coordinates: 1895 – France, Lyon, place des Cordeliers, – Factory outlet, France, Lyon, Monplaisir, chemin Saint-Victor (today rue du 1er Film) – The Landing of the photography congress in Lyon,
1896 – Launch of a ship, France, – Switzerland, Geneva, National Exhibition, Swiss Village, – Westminster Bridge, Great Britain, London, – France, Lyon: Quai de l’Archevêché, – Panorama of the Grand Canal taken from a boat, Italy, Venice, Grand Canal, – Arrival of a train in Perrache station, France, Lyon, – Broadway, United States, New York,
1897 – Jaffa Gate: east side, Jerusalem 1897 – The pyramids, Egypt, Giza – Panorama of the Golden Horn, Turkey, Istanbul – Camel caravan, Jerusalem, – France, Lyon, place du Pont – Japan, Kyoto, Honshu,
1899 – Biarritz: the beach and the sea, France, Biarritz, – Grande Plage, – Bad weather at the port, Italy,
1900 View from a whaling boat in motion, France, Hyères – Panorama taken from a sedan chair, January 25, 1900, French Indochina (now Vietnam), village of Namo, Annam
1902 Fort-de-France: market, Martinique, Fort-de-France, French Antilles
1791
Machine in the ghost
Can a robot pray? Does an AI have a soul? Advances in automata raise theological debates that will shape the secular world (read on aeon)
“… With some exceptions, this conception of automata and biotechne preceded the actual construction of robots, with legends about artificial life existing centuries before the accomplishments of a Renaissance engineer such as Turriano. Still, automata and artificial intelligence couldn’t help but have certain religious implications, whereby the ‘magical and mechanical often overlap in stories of artificial life that were expressed in mythic language’.
Even while simple mechanical beings were constructed in Ancient Greece (and the Islamic and Chinese worlds as well), legends about artificial life proliferated across cultures and centuries, and inevitably had a theological gloss to them. Kevin LaGrandeur, a professor of technology and culture, has written that ‘modern cybernetics is at least partially the product of a very old archetypal drive that pits human ingenuity against nature via artificial proxies.’ Witness medieval legends about constructed men, such as homunculi or the golem. In such stories, the emergence of an artificial intelligence allows for the exploration of creation more generally, where we can ask how unique the human mind is and in what way our cleverness can act as a surrogate for the divine.”
1763 – Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb (2020 documentary)
Secrets of the Saqqara Tomb is a 2020 British documentary film directed by James Tovell. The film follows a team of Egyptian archeologists that discover a tomb from the 25th century BC in the Saqqara necropolis, just outside of Cairo that had been untouched for 4,400 years. (wiki)
1757 – Psycho Goreman (2020)
PG: Psycho Goreman, or simply Psycho Goreman, is a 2020 Canadian science-fiction horror comedy film written and directed by Steven Kostanski (Astron-6). It stars Nita-Josee Hanna and Owen Myre as a young sister and brother who unwittingly resurrect an ancient extraterrestrial overlord (played by Matthew Ninaber). (wiki)
Having been acquired by RLJE Films and Shudder, Psycho Goreman is scheduled to be released in theaters and on video on demand on January 22, 2021.
1751 – Synchronic (2019)
timespace coordinates: 2019 (+) New Orleans
Synchronic is a 2019 American science fiction horror film directed and produced by Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead and written by Benson. It stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. (wiki)
Two New Orleans paramedics’ lives are ripped apart after they encounter a series of horrific deaths linked to a designer drug with bizarre, otherworldly effects.
1750
The Thing (1982)
timespace coordinates: Antarctica 1982
The Thing is a 1982 American science fiction horror film directed by John Carpenter and written by Bill Lancaster. Based on the 1938 John W. Campbell Jr. novella Who Goes There?, it tells the story of a group of American researchers in Antarctica who encounter the eponymous “Thing”, a parasitic extraterrestrial life-form that assimilates, then imitates other organisms. The group is overcome by paranoia and conflict as they learn that they can no longer trust each other and that any one of them could be the Thing. The film stars Kurt Russell as the team’s helicopter pilot, R.J. MacReady, and features A. Wilford Brimley, T. K. Carter, David Clennon, Keith David, Richard Dysart, Charles Hallahan, Peter Maloney, Richard Masur, Donald Moffat, Joel Polis, and Thomas G. Waites in supporting roles.
The Thing was released in 1982 to very negative reviews. It was described as “instant junk”, “a wretched excess”, and proposed as the most-hated film of all time by film magazine Cinefantastique. Reviews both praised the special effects achievements and criticized their visual repulsiveness, while others found the characterization poorly realised.
The film found an audience when released on home video and television. In the subsequent years it has been reappraised as one of the best science fiction and horror films ever made, and has gained a cult following.
Dark Horse Comics published four comic book sequels starring MacReady, beginning in December 1991 with the two-part The Thing from Another World by Chuck Pfarrer, which is set 24 hours after the film. This was followed by the four-part The Thing from Another World: Climate of Fear in July 1992, the four-part The Thing from Another World: Eternal Vows in December 1993, and The Thing from Another World: Questionable Research. In 1999, Carpenter said that no serious discussions had taken place for a sequel, but he would be interested in basing one on Pfarrer’s adaptation, calling the story a worthy sequel. A 2002 video game of the same name was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 2, and Xbox to generally favorable reviews. The game’s plot follows a team of U.S. soldiers investigating the aftermath of the film’s events.
The Thing (2011)
A prequel film, The Thing, was released in October 2011, directed by Matthijs van Heijningen Jr., written by Eric Heisserer, and starring Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Joel Edgerton, Ulrich Thomsen, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, and Eric Christian Olsen The story follows the events after the Norwegian team discovers the Thing.
In 2020, Universal Studios and Blumhouse Productions announced the development of a remake of Carpenter’s The Thing. The remake was described as incorporating elements of The Thing from Another World and The Thing, as well as the novella Who Goes There?, and its expanded version, Frozen Hell that features several additional chapters.
Although released years apart, and unrelated in terms of plot, characters, crew, or even production studios, Carpenter considers The Thing to be the first installment in his “Apocalypse Trilogy”, a series of films based around cosmic horror, entities unknown to man, that are threats to both human life and the sense of self. The Thing was followed by Prince of Darkness in 1987, and In the Mouth of Madness in 1994. All three films are heavily influenced by Carpenter’s appreciation for the works of Lovecraft. (wiki)
TimeSpace Warps 