animation, movies

901 – Mowgli (2018)

timespace coordinates: 1850s British Raj

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle (also known and stylized on screen simply as Mowgli) is a 2018 fantasy adventure film directed by Andy Serkis based on stories collected in All the Mowgli Stories by Rudyard Kipling. The film stars Rohan ChandMatthew Rhys, and Freida Pinto, along with voice and motion capture performances from Christian BaleCate BlanchettBenedict CumberbatchNaomie Harris, and Serkis. (wiki)

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‘Mowgli’: A wildly impressive — and very dark — version of ‘The Jungle Book’

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documentary

871 – Attenborough and the Empire of the Ants (2017 Documentary)

On one side of the Jura Mountains there are ants colonies at war and the other home to a huge empire of ants, believed to be one of the largest animal societies in the world, where over a billion ants from rival colonies live in peace.

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books, Uncategorized

0848 – New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future by James Bridle (2018 book)

As the world around us increases in technological complexity, our understanding of it diminishes. Underlying this trend is a single idea: the belief that our existence is understandable through computation, and more data is enough to help us build a better world.
In reality, we are lost in a sea of information, increasingly divided by fundamentalism, simplistic narratives, conspiracy theories, and post-factual politics. Meanwhile, those in power use our lack of understanding to further their own interests. Despite the apparent accessibility of information, we’re living in a new Dark Age.

new dark age

From rogue financial systems to shopping algorithms, from artificial intelligence to state secrecy, we no longer understand how our world is governed or presented to us. The media is filled with unverifiable speculation, much of it generated by anonymous software, while companies dominate their employees through surveillance and the threat of automation.
In his brilliant new work, leading artist and writer James Bridle surveys the history of art, technology, and information systems, and reveals the dark clouds that gather over our dreams of the digital sublime. (VERSO)

James Bridle on New Dark Age: Technology and the End of the Future



man always makes it clear to himself: “You are using things which have the intention of not being penetrable.” 1180

documentary

0837 – Crips and Bloods: Made in America (2008 documentary)

timespace coordinates: 1950’s – 2000’s South Central Los Angeles

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Crips and Bloods: Made in America is a documentary by Stacy Peralta that examines the rise of the Crips and Bloods, prominent gangs in America. The documentary focuses on the external factors that caused African-American youth to turn to gangs and questions the political and law enforcement response to the rise of gang culture. (read more: wiki) / imdb

movies

0827 – Alpha (2018)

timespace coordinates:  Upper Paleolithic Europe, 20,000 years in the past

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Alpha is a 2018 American historical adventure film directed by Albert Hughes and written by Daniele Sebastian Wiedenhaupt, from a story by Hughes. The film stars Kodi Smit-McPhee as a young hunter who befriends an injured wolf during the last ice age, with Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson as his father. The wolf is played by Chuck, a five-year-old Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. (wiki)

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The archaeological record shows the first undisputed dog remains buried beside humans 14,700 years ago, with disputed remains occurring 36,000 years ago.


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documentary, quotes

0825 – The Forgotten Space (2010)

timespace coordinates: 2000’s Netherlands / United States / Belgium / China / Spain

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The Forgotten Space (Allan Sekula & Noël Burch, 2010) follows container cargo aboard ships, barges, trains and trucks, listening to workers, engineers, planners, politicians, and those marginalized by the global transport system. We visit displaced farmers and villagers in Holland and Belgium, underpaid truck drivers in Los Angeles, seafarers aboard mega-ships shuttling between Asia and Europe, and factory workers in China, whose low wages are the fragile key to the whole puzzle. And in Bilbao, we discover the most sophisticated expression of the belief that the maritime economy, and the sea itself, is somehow obsolete.

A range of materials is used: descriptive documentary, interviews, archive stills and footage, clips from old movies. The result is an essayistic, visual documentary about one of the most important processes that affects us today. The Forgotten Space is based on Sekula’s Fish Story, seeking to understand and describe the contemporary maritime world in relation to the complex symbolic legacy of the sea.


The sea is forgotten until disaster strikes. But perhaps the biggest seagoing disaster is the global supply chain, which – maybe in a more fundamental way than financial speculation – leads the world economy to the abyss. (http://www.theforgottenspace.net/)


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