July 2009
10 posts
La semiotica chavista
Just got back from Venezuela where Hugo Chavez seems to have an absolute hold on power. There’s an excellent Frontline documentary called the CHhavez Show which shows his personal and charismatic style, haranguing his ministers on camera and then breaking into impromptu song, such as declaring love for a reform bill he wanted ratified in Congress. He does seem a little unhinged and to run...
Horrible Spurs Kit
Why can’t Spurs get anything right?!?! Not content with the dog shit brown shirts of last season they now have the temerity to come up with this monstrosity - streaks of piss across the chest - fantastic lads, really inspiring! Really looking forward to our season opener against Liverpool. Whose idea was it to come up with a yellow V across the chest. What possessed a graphic designer to...
Gilbert & George
Went to Gilbert and George this weekend. Work left me bewildered but I thought that the way they used irony worked quite well. The Union Jack was of course the centre piece of the work. It is certainly ripe for parody and pastiche as it only seems to come out at the Olympics or the last night of the Proms. Even patriots think it is overly brash and a symbol of the Act of Union is itself...
JG Ballard's Crash - Prescience
Finally read Ballard’s Crash which is an amazing book and prescient on so many levels. If Ballard had grown up in the 90s he would’ve been a drum & bass fiend. These areas are: 1. pornography of violence, 2. pornography of design trumping soulful function, 3. pornography of gender and 4. pornography of celebrity. 1. This novel is an allegory on pornography, not just the pornography of...
Cyber Semiotics
A challenging read in a 400 page dense tome of closely explicated theory but nevertheless very worthwhile as it is more or less state of the art in terms of interdisciplinary semiotics. Soren Brier shows the relevance of semiotics through the Peircean lens to life, the universe and everything - and no, the answer unfortunately is not as simple as 42! This book’s thesis is the semiotic answer...
