#Tristes Tropiques

[fizzy0bloom]

Version 2.2 "TRISTES TROPIQUES" edits because there's no way they made them all white there

sorry for the ass quality

[hemiiarts12345]

Imagine after the mission in Vienna, Marcus and Hofmann get to the hq safely and the foundation gave them a week off and they have mother daughter bonding in the beach (read the first word again)

I think Hofmann would like fishing, Idk she gave off that vibe, just resting on a sunny day waiting for them fish

God I miss Hofmann

[captn1999]

Reverse: 1999 2.2 poster “Tristes Tropiques”

Auto translated caption:

A collaboration across the ocean,

A gamble with an uncertain outcome.

When the sun shines down through the deep green canopy,

Did you know that——

Which beam of light is the "exit"?

The 2024 Box Tour Special Preview Program of "Meet in 1999" will be broadcast at 20:00 on September 6. The 2.2 version "Melancholy Tropics" PV and more exciting content will be broadcast for the first time in the program, so stay tuned.

[kyogreblue21]

Zmeyevich's "Beaten by the Heat"

Reverse just revealed swimsuit garments as 2.2's new sets of garments... so I put my big guy, Zmeyevich, in one!

Zmei can't handle the heat at all usually, and he doesn't know how to swim either unfortunately, so usually just hides away under an umbrella at the beach :( at least he has ice cream to vent his woes into…

[feralmen]

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Speculation on certain someone, future answers about them in 2.2 and beyond

Major 1.9 spoilers and beyond, speculation on a character and what answers we may get from them.

CN spoilers ahead

We can confirm by 2.2 Urd, Martha and Bessmert are the same person: the "friend from afar" and the "blind lady", and it is clear we may be seeing her more in the 2.0 storyline and possibly getting answers to whether or not she is Vertin's mother, or at the very least related to her (since this bit isn't confirmed outright I would throw this possibility here just in case).

1.9 really had throw us a curve ball in having Martha appear there, looking exactly like Besmert from 1.6 and showing Martha being erased by the Storm of 1914; only for someone who sounds and looks like her to appear in Brazil and to have seemingly found Vertin unconscious on the floor.

I want to speculate why is she here, why help Vertin in the first place? As mentioned in a previous she seems to be posing as a medic or doctor in Sao Paulo after learning about her whereabouts from Barbara. Either the medical equipment she is wearing (Im writing this because I cannot spell) is just to treat Vertin since she literally and likely was found as the only person alive surrounded by dead Zeno officers as we know unlike Vertin she takes on a more observant no intereference role than Vertin's more on hands approach. Bessmert seemingly only takes direct action of push comes to shove, as seen in the 1.6 story. Why now?

So far we know Bessmert has personally visited the Pei City, London in the 1960s and Rayashki before the arrival of Windsong. Going back to the 1.1 story the "blind lady" asks about a newspaper that discusses the Rimet Cup, and we know the events of 1.1 happen very close to the events of the Prologue, it is unclear if Bessmert is following Vertin's actions and movements from a distance.

In some game emails are addressed by "friend from afar" and as far as Ive seen usually talk about the event stories.

Why Brazil? Likely our answers may lie partially in Tristes Tropiques the Travel Writing by Levi-Straus, potentially Bessmert is once again observing and recording the stories of people she encounters, much like Notes of Shori and Rayashki. I hope this patch might explore Bessmert more as a character and especially if we can finally see her and Vertin interact (unless you count Martha). Not only are we getting Zeno more fleshed out but potentially UTTU as well with the introduction of Barbara. While this patch may focus on Anjo Nala and Lopera specifically, I think in terms of arcs and the fact that we are likely gonna be in Brazil for a bit Bessmert may be the overarching focus.

I also think with the upcoming 2.0 story, if the 1.0 story was focused on us finding a way to save people from the Storm then 2.0 may focus on finding out the truth of Vertin's mom.

On that note theres a bunch of questions for Vertin's mom:

Why were they separated?

Why was she on a hospital bed being strained?

Why does the Foundation deny her existence?

Does she possess Storm Immunity like Vertin? If so is it inherited or part of their arcane skill as we do not know the full capacity of Vertin's arcanum?

Did she know Constantine? Do they have history?

If Bessmert is Vertin's mom, why not seek her out directly? Does she want Vertin to see something with her own eyes?

What happened at the very first Storm? Was she potentially directly involved?

[kvetchlandia]

Uncredited Photographer     Anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss Doing Field Work in Brazil     1936

“Enthusiastic partisans of the idea of progress are in danger of failing to recognize — because they set so little store by them — the immense riches accumulated by the human race on either side of the narrow furrow on which they keep their eyes fixed; by underrating the achievements of the past, they devalue all those which still remain to be accomplished.” Claude Lévi-Strauss, “Tristes Tropiques” 1955

[transgenderer]

As for Victor Serge, I was intimidated by his status as a former companion of Lenin, at the same time as I had the greatest difficulty in identifying him with his physical presence, which was rather like that of a prim and elderly spinster. The clean-shaven, delicate-featured face, the clear voice accompanied by a stilted and wary manner, had an almost asexual quality, which I was later to find among Buddhist monks along the Burmese frontier, and which is very far removed from the virile and superabundant vitality commonly associated in France with what are called subversive activities. The explanation is that cultural types which occur in very similar forms in every society, because they are constructed around very simple polarities, are used to fulfil different social functions in different communities. Serge’s type had been able to realize itself in a revolutionary career in Russia, but elsewhere it might have played some other part. No doubt relationships between any two societies would be made easier if, through the use of some kind of grid, it were possible to establish a pattern of equivalences between the ways in which each society uses analogous human types to perform different social functions. Instead of simply arranging meetings on a professional basis, doctors with doctors, teachers with teachers and industrialists with industrialists, we might perhaps be led to see that there are more subtle correspondences between individuals and the parts they play.

-Triste Tropiques, Claude Levi-Strauss

[claudehenrion]

La France : c'était une terre, un langage, et une culture

Une des toutes premières choses (presque plus stupides que les autres, si c'est possible !) qu'a cru utile de faire Macron à peine élu (en 2017, à Lyon), a été de proclamer que la culture française n'existait pas... C'est gros ? En fait, son raisonnement est simple à suivre, à défaut d'être intelligent : ''Je suis leur chef et je suis gravement inculte... DONC (noblesse oblige), ils sont obligatoirement encore plus incultes que moi, et DONC il n'y a pas de culture française, j'en suis la preuve indiscutable, CQFD'' ! Il avait même cru malin de préciser : ''il y a une culture en France mais elle est diverse” … ce qui est encore plus odieux, plus humiliant, plus vexant... et plus mensonger. 

Claude Lévy-Strauss dans Tristes Tropiques (Ed. Plon, 1955), insistait sur l'idée que "chaque culture se développe grâce à ses échanges avec d’autres cultures. Mais il faut, ajoutait-il, que chacune y mette une certaine résistance, sinon, très vite, elle n’aurait plus rien à échanger''. Il est de toute première importance que nous réfléchissions à cette mise en garde : à un moment de notre histoire où les cuistres s'étonnent que nous prétendions avoir ''des souches'' et des racines profondes, que reste-t-il de spécifiquement français ? Que subsiste-t-il de la France ''éternelle'' ? Qu’est-ce que l’esprit français ? Qui sont les français, comment se définissent-ils (hors de ces faux français-sur-le-papier dont parlent nos croque-morts rouges), et comment vivent-ils ? Quelles sont leurs valeurs ? Quel est le poids résilient (du latin resilire = résister) de la langue française, en France et dans le monde ?

Une langue définit une Nation autant qu’elle en est le reflet, mais elle est très loin de n’être que cela : au-delà d'un langage, le français est toute une histoire, une culture, un système de pensée et de valeurs, des modes de vie, des caractéristiques individuelles et collectives (Cf. André Siegfried, L’ Ame des peuples, Hachette, 1950.), et la détermination de nombreuses caractéristiques dans pratiquement tous les domaines de la vie. Contrairement à ce que racontent aujourd'hui nos cuistres patentés, une langue n’est pas qu’un vecteur de communication entre les hommes, elle est également porteuse d’une vision du monde, et cette vision s’étend bien au-delà de situations locales voire nationales, puisque ce vaste ensemble de ''langue / nation / culture / parler'' que l’on appelle "la Francophonie" aurait dû être le véritable véhicule de façons convergentes de partager émotions, souvenirs, sensations, fraternité, ambitions, et même rêves.

J’ai encore en mémoire les jolies phrases des  "pères fondateurs" de cet émouvant espoir universel autour du français, cette langue de la culture, disait Léopold Sédar Senghor, en union avec Habib Bourguiba, Hamani Diori, le "petit Prince" Norodom Sihanouk et Félix Houphouët-Boigny, en un temps où des leaders de grande dimension savaient offrir un espoir au monde et à leurs peuples... Sédar Senghor avait ajouté, dans son discours inaugural : "La création d’une communauté de langue française [...] exprime le besoin de notre époque, où l’homme, menacé par le progrès scientifique dont il est l’auteur, veut construire un nouvel humanisme qui soit en même temps à sa propre mesure et à celle du cosmos". Il reste tout de même de cette belle ambition quelque 250 millions de "locuteurs" français dans le monde.... dont certains ont l'air bien partis pour parler russe ou chinois d'ici... pas très longtemps.

Le monde, alors, paraissait infiniment plus amical, harmonieux, courtois, civilisé ! Que ce temps me paraît lointain, au moment où j’écris ces lignes ! Est-ce mon âge qui me le fait regretter si fort, ou n’était-il pas, tout simplement, plus aimable aux hommes ? ''Le progrès'', avez-vous dit ? Mais où le voyez-vous, grands dieux, à part la médecine (et encore : tempérée par le honteux –pour elle-- épisode ''covid'' où ses membres se sont couverts de ridicule) ? La vérité force à dire que la France, en ce temps-là, était et représentait encore quelque chose dans le monde. Vaincue en apparence en 1940, elle avait réussi à redresser la tête et –c'est la principale différence avec les tristes jours que nous vivons-- elle s'était forgé un avenir autre que la seule perspective actuelle d'une inter-minable descente vers des enfers dont personne ne se risque –par terreur du résultat-- à évaluer la profondeur.

Pour que le tableau soit complet, il faut ajouter que le monde, alors, était dirigé par de véritables ''grands hommes'' de la politique –pas de petits boutiquiers incapables de voir au delà du bout de leur rue. Et la France, parmi ces géants (qui, comparés aux nabots actuels, paraissent encore plus immenses), tenait son rang. A côté d'un De Gaulle, d'un Pompidou, d'un Couve de Murville (qu'on peut aimer ou pas : je parle ici de leur stature et de leur envergure d'hommes d'Etat)... que pèsent un Macron, un Attal, un Séjourné (non, ne riez pas : ce serait cruel !) ? Quel rapport peut-il y avoir entre un Ministère de la Culture avec Malraux et un autre avec l'arriviste Rachida Dati (pour qui je voterai pourtant, pour la Mairie de Paris : ''N'importe quoi, mais pas Hidalgo''!) ?

Regardons le triste spectacle que nous offre notre lamentable personnel politique à qui il faut 3 semaines pour nommer des ''n'importe qui'' à des ministères dans lesquels on peut prétendre sans se trmper qu'il ou elle ne fera rien de bon, rien d'utile, rien qui aille dans le bon sens... et rien du tout, d'ailleurs ! Notre école effondrée a-t-elle, alors, une seule chance, même toute petite, de promouvoir un moyen de communication entre les hommes… ce qu'elle a été pendant tant de siècles, sous cet ''Ancien régime'' qu'on nous a appris à détester... alors qu'il n'avait rien ou très peu à voir avec les mensonges du discours officiel devenu ''ambiant'' : le français était ''lingua franca'', en ce temps-là !

Tant d'années plus tard, nous n'avons plus rien à proposer, si ce n'est quelques très mauvaises idées sur des sujets sans le moindre intérêt réel qui ne sont là que pour détourner tous les regards des vrais problèmes que posent le monde, le mouvement et le progrès. La haine, la jalousie, l'envie, les petits calculs mesquins, et un désir de vengeance sont seuls savamment entretenus par des leaders sans leadership et indignes, comme autant de ''non-réponses'' à tous les défis qui frappent violemment à notre porte... pendant que eux discutent de sexualité pervertie, de ''genre'' suicidaire, de l'égalité de ce qui ne saurait l'être juste parce que ce n'est pas à cette aune que le problème se mesure.

L'Empire byzantin, avait-on coutume de dire au temps où les écoliers et les lycéens savaient ce que recouvraient ces mots, serait mort de se disputer sur le sexe des anges. C'est évidement un bobard de plus, mais notre formidable civilisation, la plus prometteuse que l'Homme ait jamais su construire, a décidé de se suicider en se disputant sur le sexe des démons. On voit tout de suite le progrès... Et pendant que le monde entre dans une violence que le XX ème siècle avait, hélas, trop connue trop longtemps... que se passe-t-il en France ?

La sinistre option Bayrou enfin levée (Ouf ! On a eu chaud ! Imaginez qu'il ait accepté un poste !), il ne reste plus qu’une voie ouverte pour Attal : décevoir ! Après avoir organisé un suspense (?) de 4 semaines perdues autour du déplorable ''casting'' gouvernemental, il a donc nommé ou, pire, re-nommé une quinzaine d’inconnus et d'ex-ministres ex-sortis par la petite porte (cf Nicole Belloubet, exfiltrée du Ministère de la Justice en 2020, et infiltrée à l’Education quatre ans plus tard, pour le malheur de tous), le tout dans l’indifférence totale des citoyens écoeurés.

Seul résultat tangible de cette triste séquence : l'usure prématurée du ''le plus jeune etc..'' (NDLR - le coup du ''le plus jeune'', on nous l'a fait (n+1) fois, depuis Giscard... On l'a toujours regretté et payé très cher). Mais le ''baromètre'' Huff-Post est formel : en un mois, Gabriel Attal a perdu 6 points de popularité, soit 3 fois plus que ses 2 devanciers dans le même temps. Ça doit être ça, le ''réarmement'' promis par Macron ! Et pendant ce temps, Poutine se marre, sur tous les écrans de télévision du monde. Mais peut-on le lui reprocher ?

H-Cl.

[holdoncallfailed]

2 , 15 , 23 :)

2. 3 movies you have rewatched many times

a hard day's night (i have probably seen this movie at least two dozen times in my life)

velvet goldmine

trainspotting

15. 3 quotes that have a special place in your life

"[S]omething can be true although and because it is neither beautiful nor sacred, nor good." — max weber (trans. rodney livingstone), science as a vocation

"I was an I, an opera of feeling with a very small audience." — hilton als, tristes tropiques

"What I wanted, although at the time I didn’t understand what the thing was because no one ever tells you anything until you already know it, was everything. Or as much as I could get with what I had to work with. I wanted, mainly, a certain kind of song." — eve babitz, eve's hollywood. + bonus other babitz excerpt that i am so madly madly in love with but is too long to paste here lol

23. 3 songs you listen to while cleaning

i usually listen to podcasts while i'm cleaning cos it's kinda the only opportunity i get to do so! my favs are

criminal

scam goddess

punch up the jam (RIP)

[zappak]

Andrew Pekler [Khao Sok Extension]

Release date: February 1, 2023 Catalog no. zappak-003

https://zappak.bandcamp.com/album/khao-sok-extension

[Tracklist]

1. Khao Sok Extension [DVD: 60:00 / CD: 54:46]

Excerpt: https://soundcloud.com/zappak/zappak-003-excerpt

DVD: Video footage and field recordings captured in and around Khao Sok National Park, Thailand, January 2016. Processed, edited and mixed in Berlin, September 2018. Running time 60:00

CD: Field recordings captured in and around Khao Sok National Park, Thailand, January 2016. Processed, edited and mixed in Berlin, September 2018 / October 2022. Running time: 54:46

-----

In 2016, Berlin-based artist Andrew Pekler travelled to Thailand and visited Khao Sok National Park where he gathered field recordings and recorded video footage of the park's flora and fauna. Some of excerpts of this material was used in the compositions and live presentation of Pekler's album “Tristes Tropiques”, released on the Faitiche label in 2016. Two years later, Pekler further processed, edited and mixed the materials to create the one-hour long audio-visual piece “Khao Sok Extension”. A monochrome landscape of branches, leaves, flowers, grass, vines and bamboo shifts slowly through multiple exposures and inversions of color tones. The speed and tone are as if wandering through a forest under the influence of psychedelic substances. The natural sounds of insects, bird calls, wind and water are processed and layered in ways that evoke electronic textures, sequences and effects. However, no instruments were employed in the production, Pekler's field recordings from Khao Sok are the only sounds used. The visuals and audio blur perceptual boundaries between the "natural" and "artificial" while evoking an ambience that is both immersive and deeply uncanny.

[Note] In the video, a 30 minutes long audio version of “Khao Sok Extension” is repeated once. The audio on the CD is a newly-mixed 54 minutes long version.

2016年、ベルリンを拠点とするAndrew Peklerはタイのカオ・ソック(Khao Sok)国立公園へおもむき、環境音の収集と園内の動植物の映像の撮影をおこなった。そのいくらかは2016年にFaiticheよりリリースされた作品[Tristes Tropiques]の制作やライブ・プレゼンテーションにおいて使用された。その2年後、Peklerはさらなるプロセシング、編集、そしてミキシングをおこない、1時間におよぶオーディオ・ビジュアル作品「Khao Sok Extension」は作り上げられた。 木の枝や葉、花、草、ツル、そして竹によるモノクロームな風景は、多重露光や色調の反転をさせながら緩やかに変化していき、そのスピードやトーンはサイケデリックな物質の影響下で森をさまよっているかのよう。昆虫、鳥の鳴き声、風や水などによる自然の音は、電子的なテクスチャーやシーケンス、エフェクトを連想させる方法でプロセシングやレイヤー化されているが、制作において楽器類は一切使用されておらず、園内でフィールドレコーディングされた素材のみで構成されている。没入感のある不気味なアンビエンスを呼び起こしながら、映像と音は自然のものと人工的なものの知覚的な境界線を曖昧にしていく。

[注記] 映像では30分のオーディオ・バージョンが繰り返されており、CDには新規にミックスされた54分のバージョンが収録されています。

-----

Andrew Pekler

Andrew Pekler was born in 1973 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. His family immigrated to the United States in 1980. He has resided in Germany since 1995. Andrew Pekler works with techniques of digital sampling and analog synthesis to recontextualize found sounds and archival musical materials. Since 2002 he has released solo and collaborative musical works for labels includung Kranky, Faitiche, Shelter Press, Staubgold and Senufo Editions. Pekler has also produced a number of video and installation works – always in combination with sound. Together with cultural anthropologist Kiwi Stefanie Menrath he developed Phantom Islands – A Sonic Atlas, an interactive online map that charts the sounds and histories of a number of islands that were once found on nautical maps but have since disappeared. In addition to his studio productions, Andrew Pekler has composed music for theater, dance, and film and played numerous concerts in Europe, North and South America, Asia and Australia. andrewpekler.bandcamp.com

【Reviews】

Vital Weekly: https://zappak.tumblr.com/post/710540828859334656

Avant Music News: https://zappak.tumblr.com/post/712663788614221824

The Bandcamp Daily https://zappak.tumblr.com/post/713220636752969729

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Discussing lore and story predictions for 2.2 CN story "Tristes Tropiques"

(Major spoilers for 1.9 and beyond)

There will be images below, if you are here before the 1.9 livestream DO NOT READ this, major spoilers here.

(Disclaimer: I am neither Brazilian or have read Tristes Tropiques. This is only a discussion from purely a lore basis and as the first mainline chapter of the 2.0 story)

Alright.

(I already talked about Bessmert/Martha in a previous post so Im not mentioning here, also image limit)

What the hell is happening here? Either this is early on in the story or near the very end/ climax of the version story. From 2.0 story the previous owner of the robot toy was Eternity, then the Preacher released Kimberely/ Anjo Nala against Joe, and by the end of that patch supposedly the robot was in the hands of a Manus Footsoldier.

(From this point Im refering to Kimberely as Anjo Nala, the first maybe an Alias? Im not sure which is which)

In 2.1 Anjo Nala was working with Ms Grace (appeared at the end of 2.0) and reported to her at the end of the event story, Im assuming that the robot was in her possession at that point.

But here? This guy works like a Zeno officer, Igor mentions the Zeno branch here or at least a part of it muntinied and killed their commanding officer, the final bit of the PV shows dead Zeno officers and seems to be a continuation of the first bit of the PV. How he got the robot is beyond me, Igor theorised the mutiny included Manus so maybe thats how he got it?

As for Vertin, really how did she end up alone completely? Wheres Lilya and Sotheby? Also noticing the willingness to show onscreen violence and blood, before this was implied in text and now we are seeing it. Mind you first chapter of the patch and immediately Vertin gets strangled nearly to death. Im guessing where we se her fall unconscious is the moment Anjo Nala snaps and attacks the Officer.

(Side note: since she is playable and ofc that means joins the suitcase, we know Vertin does have the tendency for physical affection like holding hands or patting the heads of some of the suitcase residents. But here? Potential trauma and Anjo Nala having a different line for the head and hands touching? Vertin being outright uncomfortable with it? Just conjecture.)

Time for Manus.

Oh wow we finally see Arcana being literally vaporised. I think the PV confirms that everyone truly believes she is dead EXCEPT Druvis in the inter-chapter of 1.9, so I don't think she is dead but instead as created a matryrdom out of herself to manipluate characters like Sophia and the Apostles Brotherhood.

Speaking of them, Igor refers to them as a notorious gang in Sao Paulo, likely not actually affiliated with Manus but choosing to align with their goals and eventually joining them (the name Order of Enlightenment maybe just refers to the Manus worshippers in the US maybe?). This is probably gonna be a big point for Lilya's character, potentially placing her at a tension point over Zeno's ethics or even a crosswords between Zeno and Vertin.

The name Moldir is the only one we haven't met yet, either this is the guy who looks to be leading the Apostles Brotherhood or

This person hugging Lopera (or the same person, lighting is different here)

What is noticeable is that everyone (idk Mr Duncan and White Rum) are members of Zeno) Lopera literally leading a firing squad here. Also it says here arcanists and humans showing the both of them, either Lopera or this person is human? I have a feeling they are the doomed people this time around.

This came before the last image, forgot the order but its Lopera and Anjo Nala interacting here. Maybe they have met? Where this happens I don't know, also if this place was hit by a Storm (some people were saying 1950s?) then maybe since we know Anjo Nala was stored in the robot for some time in the Foundation then Eternity, maybe its like Marcus and Heinrich and this is Anjo Nala's era, or this is Rayashki again and shes returned to the same place at a different point in time?

Ok Mr Duncan, one of his lines was "old friend" addressing Vertin Im assuming, either this is just a friendly greeting or as in literal we have met before is again speculation.

More importantly he is probably gonna tie to Sotheby's character in this patch and arc, he already reminds me of Mr Karson, what if they are related? Also they look to be doing a handshake of sorts (If he is related to Mr Karson oh no the pain)

Again what is going on with Vertin she seems to be catching Ls everywhere. Why are you in the sea again (river maybe). Maybe this is the first interaction she has with Anjo Nala here, there is a shot of Anjo Nala on a boat, maybe she's rescuing Vertin falling off Red-38 or something.

In terms of plot the focus will be on the Zeno Mutiny in Sao Paulo, the Apostles Brotherhood being associated with the Manus. Maybe that Zeno Officer is similar to Stephen in 2.1 and thinks Vertin is a murderer over Arcana, proceeding to attempt to kill her through Anjo Nala. Maybe Lilya might be forced to choose between Vertin and Zeno? Again conjecture.

[fiorile-arte]

Claudio Spoletini Border a cura di Gabriele Perretta

Dividendosi tra un immaginario da archeologia fantascientifica e 'letteratura della visione', gli angoli di transmondo di Spoletini sono dei piccoli siti di memoria esfoliata, parlano di immagini tessute per ricami di volumi e di ombre, per mappe di città  da scoprire e di luoghi in cui dovremmo calarci stimolandoci al viaggio. La città  di Spoletini non è grafica, pur essendo ispirata al fumetto, non sembra disegnata al tecnigrafo come il bozzetto di un modello da cartone animato, ma rientra nell'atmosfera più classica della pittura, mantiene un tratto più da memoria futura, da reliquia memoriale; non è concepita come un agglomerato, ma in molti casi si tratta di una città  frontale, o meglio frontale perchè pittorica. La città  di Spoletini tende a dare una visione a forma di galassia dei luoghi abitativi, ricordando solo per tracciati curvilinei e sensazioni di rete i punti di collegamento della metropoli. Apparentemente in questa città  non c'è vissuto. Essa tenta di andare al di là  del luogo amato dai pittori, nel lungo periodo in cui la storia dell'arte è stata una materia viva. Qui l'insegnamento di Ambrogio Lorenzetti, quello dell'Allegoria del Buon Governo e dei suoi effetti in città , è ben vivo perchè le immagini delle costruzioni e dei volumi tendono a salire, ad arrampicarsi verso il cielo in maniera orizzontale e verticale, e anche là  dove non spaziano in avanti, si muovono verso l'interno, si addensano in un accenno delle strade e dei pertugi che si allontanano verso la traiettoria dello spazio. In quest'immagine non v'è l'insegnamento dei vedutisti italiani del Settecento, Canaletto, Bellotto o Guardi, perchè nonostante Spoletini utilizzi la fotografia, della fotografia non preferisce l'effetto di profondità  causato dalla camera ottica, ma l'effetto ingrandimento, l'avvicinamento, la focalizzazione del dettaglio iperarticolato, che si nota in alcune inquadrature classiche di Metropolis (1926) di Fritz Lang. Guardando (e immaginando) queste 'città  dipinte', mi risuonano nella testa le parole iniziali di Tristes Tropiques di Claude Lévi-Strauss: 'Detesto i viaggi e gli esploratori'. Ma forse in un senso peggiorativo, come lo intendeva Giorgio Manganelli, il quale prendeva in giro chi era riuscito ad allontanarsi dal viaggio intorno alla propria casa. Diciamo che, se per Lévi-Strauss l'etnologia comincia quando l'esplorazione finisce, per il pittore la città  comincia là  dove il pennello è riuscito ad ultimare l'ultimo lembo della tela. Marc Augé ha scoperto le carte nel 'fascino dello spaesamento e sull'importanza del 'colore locale', lo scrittore viaggiatore vive già  al futuro anteriore: quel che lo attrae nel viaggio è il racconto che potrà  farne più tardi. Racconto che si organizza intorno a qualche immagine emblematica simile alle 'istantanee' dei nostri album fotografici o delle nostre scatole di diapositive.'. E' così che va detto della pittura di Spoletini, visto che il suo lavoro preparatorio parte dalle fotografie, da curatissime istantanee che poi vengono trasferite, trasposte e metamorfizzate in luoghi, in complessi architettonici che costruiscono città  immaginarie. Se è vero che Mallarmé sosteneva che il mondo è fatto per finire in un bel libro, la fotografia per i pittori come Spoletini è attuata per fare un passo indietro, per sedimentare archeo-graficamente la pittura. Gabriele Perretta, marzo 2023

[jdyf333]

acid circuitry by Davivid Rose Via Flickr: watercolor paint on paper (plus FX) A randomly-edited selection of approximately 600 of my pictures may be viewed by clicking on the link below: www.flickr.com/groups/psychedelicart/pool/43237970@N00/ Please click here to read my bizarre "Curriculum Vitae": thewordsofjdyf333.blogspot.com/ And my "profile" page may be viewed by clicking on this link: www.flickr.com/people/jdyf333/ My telephone number is: 510-260-9695 ("'In a central chapter of "Tristes Tropiques", Claude Levi-Strauss studies the intricate body painting of the Caduveo Indians of Brazil: 'Their faces, and sometimes even their whole bodies, were covered with a network of asymmetrical arabesques, alternating with delicate geometrical patterns.'" "In 1969, the anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff wrote a paper on the Tukano Indians of Colombia and their use of...ayahuasca: 'For the anthropologist it is most intriguing that the Indians maintain that everything we would designate as "art" is inspired and based upon the hallucinatory experience.'" ---Daniel Pinchbeck, in his book "Breaking Open the Head---A Psychedelic Journey Into the Heart of Contemporary Shamanism", published by Broadway Books, a division of Random House, Inc. in 2002.) Please note: DEPICTION IS NOT ADVOCACY!!!

[transgenderer]

Then, insidiously, illusion began to lay its snares. I wished I had lived in the days of real journeys, when it was still possible to see the full splendour of a spectacle that had not yet been blighted, polluted and spoilt; I wished I had not trodden that ground as myself, but as Bernier, Tavernier or Manucci did … Once embarked upon, this guessing game can continue indefinitely. When was the best time to see India? At what period would the study of the Brazilian savages have afforded the purest satisfaction, and revealed them in their least adulterated state? Would it have been better to arrive in Rio in the eighteenth century with Bougainville, or in the sixteenth with Léry and Thevet? For every five years I move back in time, I am able to save a custom, gain a ceremony or share in another belief. But I know the texts too well not to realize that, by going back a century, I am at the same time forgoing data and lines of inquiry which would offer intellectual enrichment. And so I am caught within a circle from which there is no escape: the less human societies were able to communicate with each other and therefore to corrupt each other through contact, the less their respective emissaries were able to perceive the wealth and significance of their diversity. In short, I have only two possibilities: either I can be like some traveller of the olden days, who was faced with a stupendous spectacle, all, or almost all, of which eluded him, or worse still, filled him with scorn and disgust; or I can be a modern traveller, chasing after the vestiges of a vanished reality. I lose on both counts, and more seriously than may at first appear, for, while I complain of being able to glimpse no more than the shadow of the past, I may be insensitive to reality as it is taking shape at this very moment, since I have not reached the stage of development at which I would be capable of perceiving it. A few hundred years hence, in this same place, another traveller, as despairing as myself, will mourn the disappearance of what I might have seen, but failed to see. I am subject to a double infirmity: all that I perceive offends me, and I constantly reproach myself for not seeing as much as I should.

Triste Tropiques, Levi-Strauss