Tag: media

by jad

The Really-Real

Another cultural anxiety that Apple’s ‘Severance’ cashes in on is the impermanence of self; are we who we think we are? Will we always be that way? What makes me “me”, anyhow? Is an “innie” a real person or are they merely the really-real person out there ‘under the influence’? Which experience gets to have agency? Which actor is ultimately accountable? In the background of all these questions is the fundamental paradox of individuality: inviolable and sacrosanct, yet conditioned, if not determined. “Individual” literally means that which cannot be divided, and yet, we all know that our human experience contains … Continue reading “The Really-Real” →

by jad

The Severance Metaphor

I don’t watch many television series for one of the reasons that make Apple’s ‘Severance’ so resonant with a lot of us; hidden somewhere deep within its serpentine plot is a secret truth we’ve known for a long time—knowing less, feeling less, experiencing less is a great comfort. This truth is heretical to the thrill-seeking extroverts among us, but I suspect that, deep down, they too feel this way; their fear of missing out or need to measure up just happens to drown it out, and so, the comfort of disconnection finds them cold and confused in the dark night … Continue reading “The Severance Metaphor” →

by jad

Lebanon: Day 4

I’ve been to Saida’s Old City a half-dozen times over the years, but I honestly don’t think I’ve seen the same streets twice. This is Saida’s Qala’a or Sea Castle. The Crusaders built it in 1228 on a small island connected by an 80-meter footpath. The site used to house a temple to Melqart, the Phoenician version of Heracles and what’s known as a “dying-and-rising deity.” A god of resurrection. This is Khan Sacy, a private residence being converted into a hotel with a museum underground revealing the many layers of history found during excavations. This first room is the … Continue reading “Lebanon: Day 4” →

by jad

Lebanon: Day 3

Have you heard of Daheshism? Me neither. Not until Abu Imad mentioned Dr. Dahesh (“Astounder”) in passing the other day. Apparently, a “Daheshist believes that all of creation is spread out over a multidimensional universe divided into three principal realms, each divided into 150 levels.” I don’t know about that, but it does sound a little bit like Lebanon. Layer upon layer upon layer. Destroyed and rebuilt again and again, usually worse than before. And yet it endures. Now that’s truly astounding. I’ve been binging on local news in this week of speedy developments; first, a new president, now a … Continue reading “Lebanon: Day 3” →

by jad

Seattle on Belomo Agat18K

“Pictures… are not just inert objects, but lively, active forms that engage us on a deeply emotional level, often in ways that we do not fully understand or control.” (W.J.T. Mitchell, What Do Pictures Want?) Earlier this month, I walked the whole way down Madison Street from Madison Park to the Waterfront, and then through Pike Place, which is something I wanted to do before I ever heard of the new Rapid Ride Route G that very nearly does the same thing. It seemed like the perfect opportunity to test out the Belomo Agat18K half-frame camera. I’d specifically asked the … Continue reading “Seattle on Belomo Agat18K” →

by jad

Ugliness Machine

Imagine there was a tool or system for doing things that increasingly made your output uglier or less intelligent. The more you used it, and the more that others used it, the crappier everything it was used for becomes. Imagine that. Would you still use it? Like a pen that made your handwriting worse and worse, and in some magical way, made everyone’s handwriting worse and worse too. We would throw that pen in the trash, wouldn’t we? But that’s sort of the deal with the social media tools we’re using today. Do we really want to keep making spastic … Continue reading “Ugliness Machine” →

by jad

Media Zap

In the 90s, it was trendy in media studies to think very deeply about the phenomenology of “zapping” between channels. You might recall that this was the era when the last of the single-station nations gave way to satellite television. Some predicted “a state of confusion and cultural shock” as the public lost its metronome. Others saw it “as characteristically postmodern in breaking up linearity, or subversively anti-capitalist.” I remember reading these texts about a decade later and finding them hilarious; how could what we did with our remotes have caused so much alarm? And yet, that’s the image I … Continue reading “Media Zap” →

by jad

Media & the Opiate of Despair

It’s about that time in the news cycle when the amphetamine of outrage begins to fade into the opiate of despair. And I say “news cycle” not to diminish events, but to relay them more accurately; because that is where you and I and virtually everyone who may ever stumble on these words resides: in the cycle of news consumption, a position we sometimes forget in our proverbial cave of projections, believing ourselves to be in the actual thick of things. We are in something, that’s for sure, just not in that. I’m thinking about Günther Anders, the Jewish philosopher … Continue reading “Media & the Opiate of Despair” →

by jad

Search Engine Optimism

I saw a reel this morning that detailed some moves at Meta to push people away from hashtags and towards “SEO” as THE way to get people to see their posts. I don’t know how this person got their information and I don’t care, but they did claim some level of insider knowledge that piqued my interest. But what motivated me to write these words was a reply they gave to a comment about wanting old instagram back; they said, and this is almost word for word because it’s seared into my brain: “it never will! the best thing to … Continue reading “Search Engine Optimism” →

by jad

LOOK/SEE

There’s an ethics to looking that takes on sharp relief when one begins writing with light. Photography is the craft of capturing emanations from “out there,” and so, with a camera to look through, the predatory urge to survey and ensnare becomes a very real possibility. But to look is not necessarily to see, and there’s an ethics to that moment as well. Viktor Shklovsky writes: “this thing we call art exists in order to restore the sensation of life, in order to make us feel things, in order to make a stone stony. The goal of art is to … Continue reading “LOOK/SEE” →