Hexen 2039 : new military-occult technologies for psychological warfare: a Rosalind Brodsky research programme

“Owing to factors such as shifts in the balance of power…..and new models of warfare, the twenty-first century is increasingly becoming a period of uncertainty.

Our programme involves the testing and analysis of existing occult-based research in connection with military histories, in order to develop accurate neurological-based technologies for the new British military-occult industries.”

a tour de force of paranoid futurism: except of course that this is way, way more than paranoia, it is a study of the political and social geographies of a number of people, buildings and ideologies, and the associations between them. Rosalind Brodsky is a ‘fictionalised’ alter-ego of the artist Suzanne Treister, who investigates the links between military psy-ops, the occult, and media technologies. You might see this as science fiction, but as someone once said, science fiction is theory on fast forward.

This investigation is rendered through pencil drawings, alpha-numerical analysis of German and English texts via the Jewish mystical method of Gematria, remote viwing drawings utilising Dr John Dee’s scrying crystal from the science museum, London (John Dee was the ‘Queen’s Intelligencier’ to Elizabeth I and a close associate of the founder of the British Secret Service, Sir Francis Walsingham).
There are also a number of drawings relating the links between the individuals, locations and events and histories collated by the Hexen project, and the book contains a number of photographs of key locations analysed within the project, for example of the current broadcasting tower at Brocken, Germany, which adds a kind of emotional gravity to the book, as if to confirm that its not all at phantasy. Anyway, I liked the effects of the contrasts between the pencil images and photographs. There is also an in-depth essay by Richard Grayson, which outlines in greater depth some of the connections and examines Treister’s practise in detail.

You might still doubt the vision of this project, but if you go to Kode_9’s blog you will see a brief documentation of the advancing technology of audio warfare। There is also ample wider evidence, for example Jon Ronson’s book ‘The Men Who Stare At Goats’ (Picador, 2004) or the use of sound in torture at Abu Graib prison Iraq, or that some psychiatrists are quite happy to pass electric currents through people’s brains, or that IBM technology was instrumental in the Holocaust. Triesters’ book is chilling, compelling phantasy.

http://www.hexen2039.net/

http://www.ensemble.va.com.au/Grayson/texts/Hexen2039.html

Realising The Impossible: Art Against Authority ::: Josh Macphee and Erik Reuland (Editor’s) ::: AK Press

This is a rich and interesting, and at times humourous guide to the political philosophy of Anarchism, as rendered by artists. The book contains many chapters, covering the stencil art of Argentina, Political Satire and Modernist art, political art activities in Denmark, puppetry protest communications technology in Latin American grassroots politics and ‘queer’ art, to give you a flavour.

There are also several chapters on individual illustrators within the movement, one of which I particularly liked is on Clifford Harper. He talks about his “natural dislike of authoritarian socialists” and becoming converted to Anarchism in 1963 via “four six form girls all dressed in black and wearing anti-bomb badges”. He doesn’t like artists, who are “”hopelessly fucking with the state – fame, greed, wealth, prestige” and feels that in the last twenty five years, “most anarchists displayed an astoundingly philistine attitude to creative work”. He thinks that this is because

“Some anarchists are into control. Creativity does it’s thing. No matter how you try to direct it, it always suprises. I never know how a drawing will turn out. The drawing always, to a degree, draws itself; it pushes to where it wants to go. It’s kind of…anarchist. Some anarchists fear losing control, of going to places they’re not prepared for. It requires an open mind and a flexible approach. Some anarchists fear creativity contaminates the struggle. I think they think revolution is male, and creativity female, if the (male) revolution’s exposed to creativity (female) it won’t have a dick anymore. It won’t be able to overthrow the state, because you need a dick to do that. Revolution is a dick thing. Anyway you did ask.”

Cendre ::: Christian Fennesz / Ryuichi Sakamoto ::: Touch

Beautiful mournful shimmering abstract sound painting courtesy of Christian Fennesz ( electric guitar, electronics) and Ryuichi Sakamoto (piano). Recorded respectively in New York and Venice between 2004 and 2006, Fennesz and Sakamoto worked in geographic isolation from each other until meeting up for the final mixdown in NYC in February 2006.

My first thoughts were that it might have been better for the two collaborators to have worked together in the sense of being in the same room. I cannot base this on anything solid. Further thoughts were that there is a lot of space in these compositions, and that the geographic distances and the time frame might have helped the creative process, due to a delayed, fragmented kind of intimacy that could facilitate something more considered. This may be mere expiant verbiage, but it’s something about how they carefully fit together and around each other, like different elements in a visual composition, that provokes this thinking. I’m not saying that they couldn’t have managed to do this in the same room – how would I know anyway – but that I was just struck by the manner of the collaboration.

The music itself is delicate, sublime, Fennesz’s guitar ricocheting around softly, touching my mind in an abstract, soothing yet focussed way. Reminiscent of the way Robert Hampson’s sonic alchemy works, or Brian Eno and Robert Fripp on ‘Evening Star’, though with more electronic treatments: an enquiry to Christians’ agent, Danilo Pellegrinelli, revealed that Christian uses guitars and a patch written in max/ msp, called "lloopp" which was designed by friend Claus Fillip: it’s quite well documented if you search for it in google.

It’s impressive how the respective aesthetic palettes combine together, complimenting each other without compromise, and it’s a real move on from his nonetheless brilliant ‘Venice’, particularly in terms of the spaciousness of the music: ‘Venice’ was closer in proximity and has a different production aesthetic. I keep thinking of abstract painting, like Victor Passmore, or Rothko. Maybe Rothko with little white lines dribbled playfully through some of his colour blocks. Talking of art, the sleeve art is handled beautifully by John Wozencroft. The cover is a landscape photograph, of an auburn sky beneath which is a winter treeline, parting slightly in the centre to reveal a small silhouette of a house: different forms combining to one image.

Nb: see also: http://www.digicult.it/En/2007/FenneszAtlas.asp

and http://www.semtexinc.com/interviews/interview.php?ID=32