#focussing of light using a magnifying glass

[biology-geology-beaches-india]

The Science Research Diaries of S. Sunkavally, p 573.

[customopti]

Lens are basically magnified glasses with flat

Lens are basically magnified glasses with flat, curved sides. Because of the magnifier power, lenses are widely used in many magnifying instruments and telescopes. They're also used in mobile cameras for capturing the image rays. Lenses in the camera don't have as strong of a pull as binoculars, so they're more likely to get a good shot even in bad lighting.

The focal length of a lens is also important to consider. The focal length tells you about the distance at which the image is focused on. Common focal lengths are 20mm, although they're not always recommended. A telephoto lens has a very short focal length. custom optics

The optical aberration rating is another thing you need to consider. The optical aberration is the difference between an image formed by a single point of light and a complete, whole picture. It can be significant, so the less the aberration, the better. The other factor you need to think about is the type of lens and/or camera you're using. Some modern lenses use a significant amount of technology that is beyond the scope of this article.

One important characteristic to be aware of is the curvature of a lens. This is simply the angle of a lens at which it bends light. For instance, a lens that has a high degree of curvature will cause light to bend around the lens and focus on a particular area. On the other hand, a lens with a low degree of curvature will cause light to refract and come in multiple angles. precision optics

Most large prime lenses have a convex lens design. A convex lens has two concave mirrors along with one convex board that acts as the focus. The board typically is not perfectly round, although it may be near perfect. Because of this, light rays pass through the entire lens at once (concave) while other light rays are reflected around the edges and inside the lens (convex). Because of the different focal lengths needed for the pictures you are taking, most prime lenses have a relatively small circumference.

As you increase the focal length of your lens, the smaller the circumference becomes. The opposite is true when you decrease the focal length of your lens. You can see why smaller lenses tend to be more expensive because they require more energy to focus. Lenses with larger centres of gravity and smaller convex lenses tend to be cheaper because they require less energy to focus.

In photography terms, the optical properties of the lens are referred to as the optical properties of the focussing objective. The objective refers to whatever is in focus. It could be your subject, the sky or the structure in front of you. To get an image to be sharp, the principle of refraction needs to be correct.

The correction of the principle of refraction is achieved by the usage of a graduated range of optical centre settings on the lens. As the focal length of the lens increases, the optical centre of the lens increases as well. When you are using manual focus devices, you move the object whilst keeping the optical centre the same. This ensures that you are not introducing any movement into the image plane. You just change the position of the object without moving the lens. Mechanical cameras use mechanical elements such as gears and levers to achieve the same effect. custom optics manufacturer

Optical lenses can be classified according to the level of magnification they allow and the field of vision they offer. Low magnification lenses allow less image formed at a distance and high magnification lenses allow more image formed at a distance. Telephoto lenses allow for greater magnification than fixed lenses but limit the distance at which images can be focussed. Fixed lenses provide greater magnification at a longer distance than telephoto lenses.

A good lens must provide images that are sharp in the centre of the lens, but have a soft fading out towards the edges of the image when the focal point is at the far end of the lens. The images that are sharp in the centre, but fade out towards the edges will appear blurred from a wide angle. The images that are sharp in the middle but lose sharpness as they approach the focus point will appear sharper when the lens is at its longest dimensions.

The three different focal lengths are the normal telephoto lenses which are wide angle, short focal lengths and long focal lengths. Short focal lengths are generally thought to be the ideal distance for taking close up images, but they often lack the image formation ability of the long focal length lenses. Longer focal lengths produce images with less distortion at the edges of the lens. Medium and long focal lengths are suitable for use when you want to take a image that appears to be taken at different distances. For example, if you wanted to take an image of a flower that was at the edge of a pond, a medium focal length lens would be your best option. However, if you wanted to create an image of a tree at the edge of a mountain, then a long lens would give you the best results.

[didanawisgi]

During World War II, Adolf Hitler hatched a plan to build a weaponised satellite that he could use to attack his enemies from Earth's orbit.  The mile-wide 'Sonnengewehr', or sun-gun, would have been armed with a giant mirror to burn entire cities to ashes or boil part of an ocean.  The mirror would have fried targets by focussing heat rays from the sun onto the Earth's surface.  Like a magnifying glass, at certain angles a mirror's reflection can focus separate light waves, causing them to add up or 'superpose'.  Together the rays then create a light wave of far greater intensity than its parts, meaning more heat energy is generated.  The Nazis faced many obstacles to building their super weapon...

from WHAT WAS HITLER'S 'SUN GUN' AND COULD IT HAVE WORKED? by Dailymail.com

[carachristie]

“body” project proposal

A place in between the symbolic and the imaginary - the real, that is where the trauma lies. - Representation of Trauma in Contemporary Arts by Dumith Kulasekara

https://www.athensjournals.gr/humanities/2017-4-1-3-Kulasekara.pdf

Concept

The concept of “body” is to explore the effects of trauma, pain and vulnerability to the human form. Often times we believe trauma is merely physical abuse, but I wish to make a connection between the physical body and the psyche. 

Specifically, I’ll be looking at how one's own psyche can inflict damage to the body, rather than representing physically inflicted pain/toxic relationships.

There will be senses of disturbance and heaviness, which by the end should turn into something passing and light; moments of clarity and moments of chaos. The work will have sections that represent the body (rotoscope), and sections that represent the psyche (physical film manipulation), which will combine together to showcase their inherent relationship to trauma and pain. Below is an example of how I will transition from digital film into manipulated film.  

Stylistic approach: Majority of the work will be in black and white in heavy contrast and shadows. Important sections will have pops of colour from the various forms of manipulation to film. Actions like ‘burning the plastic’ or scratching in chaotic lines will create the effects of a damaged psyche.

The act of making and completing this film will become my therapeutic release, transforming something I find painful into something beautiful and calming.  

Soundtrack

Inspired by the song ‘Body’ by Julia Jacklin, which relays a story of a woman who is in the process of regaining control back of her life and body from an unhealthy relationship. Towards the end however, all she feels is defeat; 

“Well, I guess it’s just my life And it’s just my body”

Im yet to decide the soundtrack, but it will be without lyrics (don’t want to distract from the meaning of the film), and will showcase a similar style of harmonic delicacy and haunting vulnerability. 

Method/technique, and why

Using the adventurous practices of both Jennifer West and Alberto Burri I will manipulate film using unique and collaborative materials, not just paint. 

Additive

Using black eyeliner on film, hair, saliva, food colouring, then smearing it give give desired effect. Walking barefoot across film with dye on feet. Will also experiment how to create drip effects onto clear film or projecting them onto the form. Play around with safe burning of plastic.

Rotoscoping

Placing petals onto a large glass pane (magnifying) and moving them frame by frame. Then using a strong flashlight, project each frame onto a female form that stands behind the object. Will also experiment drawing on clear film and projecting that onto the form. 

Will take some trial and error, but I want to create shadows and tension. There is a softness and simplicity, but also a haunting characteristic of pain.

I want to use these techniques and manipulate them in unconventional ways as to fully connect to the work. If i’m creating chaos, I want to be experiencing chaos. If i’m creating destruction, I want the action of it to be destructive, like burning plastic. If i’m focussing on human form, I want to use parts of the form in the work like fingers, hair, saliva. I want it to go beyond merely the output of an idea, but have every action come from an organic emotion.

References

Alberto Burri: “Combustion, Destruction and Beauty”

It’s confronting with its sheer brutality and physical properties. And yet, there is something completely human and organic about it. To me, it feels like a melodic approach to chaos. 

The use of “dirty materials” incorporated unorthodox mediums to create abstract works.

His practice involved the juxtaposition of an organic action on artificial material, namely plastic. In this sense, Burri pushes what one can do with natural materials and moves into the realm of experimentation while still being able to represent intended themes. 

Part of this is, no doubt, the Greek idea of "catharsis"; the element of purging oneself of duress and being able to see more clearly through, or after, the act of distress and destruction. 

At first glance, it appears that these works of burned plastic imply destruction, and come across as aggressive; conveying the feeling of having been produced by an uncontrolled force. However, what appears to have been produced uncontrollably has actually been subject to meticulous, concentrated work. The action/process of creating the effect, becomes the effect. 

His works often draw allusions to the human body; in this case, there is the reminiscence of burns on human skin.

Jennifer West: “Flashlight Filmstrip Projections”

http://www.jweststudio.com/FLASHLIGHT%20PROJECTION%20WORKS#304

Jennifer West is an american artist known for manipulating film strips. She embraces a collaborative and referential approach to her films, using bodily fluids, drugs, cosmetics, foodstuffs, dilution in different chemical compounds, and kinetic acts such as skateboarding to create gestural handmade works on 35- and 70mm film.

I enjoy how West uses these unique methods and showcases them in interactive ways. 

This particular exhibition left lingering senses of frustration as a lot of the work became warped by shadows and movement from others. I however enjoy the temporary nature of this, and wish to emulate the effect of shapes moving and warping by light and movement. 

The way that the body positions their light effects the projection of the image. It changes and moves according to different colours, shapes, and distances. 

Schedule

Between 11th - 31st October, experiment projecting through a magnifying glass pane (purchase if need be). Manipulate film strips; scratching, painting with eyeliner, sticking hair down, walking barefoot across film with dye, other bodily fluids. 

Between 1st Nov - 7 Nov, experiment and create effects with burning plastic or clear leader, digitise film

Between 8 Nov - 27 Nov, film raw elements of the human form (playing around with lighting, makeup and depth), edit, submit

[theatreworksstkilda]

Tech-Time Thursday: Spotlight on the set and costume design for Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody

Madeline Nibali is the set and costume designer for Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts.

Having never received her Hogwarts owl, Madeline decided to make magic her own way. From wardrobe to stage, Madeline has always sewn....and knitted, crocheted, papier mâchèd, beaded, painted, built, or learnt whatever other skills were required to realise her visions. Throughout her studies in Fine Arts at VCA, she became increasingly engaged with the practice of creating worlds, characters, scenarios, and other elements of visual storytelling. She creates coherent visual evidence within a theatrical context for the audience to uncover.

Sure that her calling was to design and create set and costume, Madeline is currently completing her Master's in Design for Live Performance at the Victorian College of the Arts so she can truly become a Master of Disguise! Past credits include: costume design assistant Mad Forest (VCA 2019), Prague Quadrennial (2019), Hotel Bonegilla (La Mama 2018), Lear (Melbourne University Shakespeare Company 2017) and much much more!

Madeline’s process with Salty Theatre and Voldemort 

From my first talks with Salty Theatre it was clear that this was to be something special and unique. We all wanted something different from the typical school uniforms of the Hogwarts world most people know. It was my privilege and challenge to cook up a cauldron using an ingredients list of whimsical notions provided to me and boil it down to a coherent concoction of creativity and comedy.

I was to create a world that is steampunk, 1940s English College...but a bit sexy and (of course) magical. No biggie. Normally a director would ask for one or two of these themes, but with such a fantabulous musical and visionary Sarahlouise Younger in charge, it required something bigger and better that exceeded the ordinary! 

I avoided deriving too much inspiration from the Harry Potter franchise and focussed on how teenagers rebel against societal norms. I researched muggle styles from the 1940s that would be recognised loosely as uniforms (military motorcycle drivers, nurses, librarians, press agents, and sailors) and then hit them with all the style and flare of a teenager bursting to show off their emerging personalities. I question anyone who claims to have never committed a uniform infringement in their school days. 

Like teenagers seeking guidance and a place to belong, many of the characters in Voldemort and the Teenage Hogwarts Musical Parody absorb the characteristics of their chosen house, and so I reflected this through costuming: Myrtle is a Ravenclaw and therefore is always investigating and experimenting (in more ways than one), so she has glasses, goggles, magnifying glasses...whatever will help her discover, observe and eventually understand those around her! The house values were a major source of inspiration- it is an aspect consistently respected across books, films, parodies and plays alike.

The mascot of the badger is surrounded with baked goods as is their preoccupation in this interpretation of the House. Kind, fluffy, and sweet, the honey badger is the perfect patronus for our Hufflepuff characters...and its sneakiness comes into play too... “Hufflepuffs value kindness”... “also we value snacks.”

The set had logistical restrictions: it had to be stored and packed away quickly, therefore had to be minimal, and without a workshop it had to be constructed by me in my backyard (and fit in my little car)! I called on my experience in painting to make the banners, my furniture restoration tools to adapt a desk and chairs for Dumbledore, and rather eclectic personal collections to be adapted into various props.

But there had to be some spark to evoke a magical state of mind. That's where the sky came in: it will be a beautiful draping of felt with fairy lights, glitter and splashes of colour to form galaxies. This is something that has to be seen and installed in the space so the only way to see it is to come see the show! 

Seriously...I have two kilos of glitter I intend to use on that sky.

[astrofireworks]

Sometimes you don't fall in love with someone at first sight. Sometimes it happens over a period of weeks, months, years; sometimes it happens over and over again.

Alternatively: Vivi Swore She Wouldn't Write Angst Anymore but Here She Is, After Watching Hyunsik’s Swimming MV, Full of Regrets (ok there isn’t any angst in this first part thank god it was too long so i chopped it i swear)

Eunwoo's parents making month-long annual trips every school holiday to Eunwoo's mum's hometown by the sea 

Baby!Eunwoo gurgling and laughing when wet by sea spray 

One year old Eunwoo holding a smol crab in his hands, eyes wide in awe

Two year old Eunwoo making smol footprints with his dad in the sand 

Three year old Eunwoo stacking rocks and happily talking to himself 

Four year old Eunwoo sticking his feet in the sea and squealing loudly for his mum to pick him up because it's cold, mama it's cold 

Five year old Eunwoo holding his brother's hand and clutching a fish and beaming at the camera 

And it's on this sixth trip that Eunwoo's mum winds a silver chain around Eunwoo's neck and brings him to a neighbourhood jewellery store 

It isn't so much of a jewellery store as a trinket shop that happens to carve sea glass beads

Eunwoo’s mum gets a new one every year and only swaps it out when she heads back to her hometown, almost like a renewal of sorts, as if telling the sea and the sky that she'll keep them in her heart and she promises, promises, promises that she'll come back the next year 

And even if Eunwoo and his brother don't grow up with their feet in saltwater and sea breeze in their hair, she wants them to have at least something that reminds them of her own home 

So every year she intends to bring Eunwoo and his brother to the store to let them pick out colours they like and swap out the previous year's charm for a new one

And so Eunwoo is five when he stumbles into the shop for the first time 

He's entranced by tinkly windchimes and odd-shaped mirrors, hands wandering over soft cushions and old silver boxes, surrounded musty wood-lacquer smell and a stronger, overriding smell of the sea 

Eunwoo stopping by a quaint little mirror 

Eunwoo blinking because this doesn't seem like a mirror 

Those aren't his eyes and that isn't his hair 

And when he reaches out a hand his not-reflection blinks and moves out of the way 

Eunwoo blinks

Eunwoo: "you're not a reflection" 

Not-Reflection, blinking back: 

Eunwoo, stretching his finger 

Not-Reflection squeaking and scuttling off 

Eunwoo, jumping back slightly and scrambling to find his mum 

And he sees Not-Reflection sat down on a glass counter, small chubby arms wrapped around a woman's neck and head tilted so he can monitor Eunwoo out the corner of his eye 

Eunwoo raising a hand to say hi 

Not-Reflection ducking his head and burying his nose in the woman's shoulder 

Eunwoo's mum cooing: "awww he's shy, isn't he? Eunwoo was like that last year too" 

And suddenly the two women are talking like old friends, gesturing and using Big Words and stuff until the woman lets Not-Reflection down to the floor

The woman: "Go make friends, Binnie!" 

Cue Binnie peeking out from behind the glass counter, big eyes blinking at Eunwoo 

Eunwoo doesn't know what to do????? 

Eunwoo: "Binnie? Hi?" 

Binnie peeking at Eunwoo: 

He raises a hand in greeting like his teacher taught him and Binnie immediately ducks back behind the counter 

Eunwoo pouting until he notices Binnie poking his head out again 

Rinse and repeat until Eunwoo notices Binnie starting to giggle each time he pokes his head out 

Oh

They're playing hide & seek 

Eunwoo grinning because he's good at this!! 

Except his mum is calling for him and asking him to choose a bead 

Bin pouting because does this mean he can't play with his new friend anymore?

Eunwoo's mum setting his brother down on the glass counter and letting him point at random beads and babble 

Bin's mum lowering a tray of beads to the floor so Eunwoo and Bin can kneel over it and pick

Eunwoo carefully scrutinising the beads before settling on a cloudy white one 

Bin beaming and shaking out a thin black corn from under Binnie's shirt because look !!! 

The same!!!! 

Binnie & Eunwoo can match!!!! 

Eunwoo's mum laughing 

Eunwoo leaving his mum to discuss with Bin's mum how she wants the number 6 carved on the bead since it's Eunwoo's sixth year visiting in favour of poking Bin's cheek 

Very squish, Eunwoo approves 

Bin looks mildly offended before prodding Eunwoo's too 

Eunwoo, giggling a little before offering a slightly garbled: "my name's Eunwoo!!" 

Bin, with his finger still buried in Eunwoo's cheek: "Eu Noo?" 

Do you remember when Bin used to tag his 달콩 photos with 으누 instead of 은우 I'm so weak

Eunwoo, gently dislodging said finger: "Eunwoo!" 

And as his mother's taught him to greet new friends, Bin reaches up to Eunwoo on his tippy toes and presses a sticky kiss to Eunwoo's cheek 

Eunwoo blinking 

Eunwoo breaking out into a smile 

And this is how Bin ends up stuck to Eunwoo's side the rest of Eunwoo's visit 

Down to the wooden-plank pier? 

Bin's trailing behind Eunwoo, talking Eunwoo's ear off about how that one time he saw a bird as huge as a monster fly down and scoop chips from his dad's open hand 

At the candy store? 

Bin pointing out different candies he really likes and Eunwoo using his extra height to scoop more of them to shove in a bag 

In Bin's mum's shop? 

Eunwoo's reading aloud to an increasingly sleepy Bin until Bin's cheeks squish against Eunwoo's shoulder and Eunwoo dozes off too 

In Eunwoo's grandpa's garden?

 Eunwoo's pointing out different plants and giving them random names like "the Terminator" and "Butt" and Bin’s laughing like it's the funniest thing he's heard in ages 

Eating snacks? 

Eunwoo's counting the number of marshmallows Bin can stuff in his cheeks without them bursting and Bin's giggling because Eunwoo looks so focussed 

Both of them yelling in dismay when all this gooey, pink marshmallowey gunk starts spewing from Bin's mouth as a result of him giggling 

The month winding up way too soon and all of a sudden Eunwoo's mum's packing up Eunwoo's stuff into luggage bags 

And when the day comes for Eunwoo to leave their mums promise to stay in touch and Bin's looking at Eunwoo like he doesn't understand the concept of a year 

Bin: "How long's that?" 

Eunwoo, thoughtfully: "Long." 

Bin, suddenly fiercely hugging this boy with bright eyes and beautiful smile who ran his fingers over boxes and sauntered into Bin's life 

Eunwoo being slightly stunned but smiling and hugging him back because he’ll miss his friend 

But it’s okay!! He’ll see him in a year and that’s really all that matters

Except they don’t really know how long a year is

Bin, two days after Eunwoo left for the city: “Ma, when’s Eunwoo coming back?”

Bin, three days after Eunwoo left: “Is a year up yet?”

Bin, four days after Eunwoo left, picking at his fingernails and refusing to look up: “Why isn’t Eunwoo coming back?”

Bin’s mum answer’s always: “Eunwoo’s coming back in a year, baby” but Bin never knows how much that is 

Bin, rolling on the ground: “Is a year up yet?”

Bin, face squished against the glass counter as his little feet kick the air: “Has it been a year yet?”

Bin, rubbing the pale white stone around his neck: “It’s been a week and Eunwoo isn’t back yet, when’s he coming back?”

Until one day Bin’s mum hands him a calendar and a marker and tells him to cross off the days and once he makes it through an entire calendar, he’ll see Eunwoo again 

And of course Bin starts on it right away 

He crosses off every single box every single day for a month 

And then promptly loses his marker and forgets all about it 

Because Eunwoo or not, life as a four year old goes on and Bin has things to see and places to explore 

Until a year rolls around and Bin’s curled up on the sofa in his family shop tinkering around with some wind chimes 

And a boy with a white sea glass bead on a silver chain barrels into the shop, yelling: “BIN!!” 

And just like this, Bin and Eunwoo fall back into place, side by side, hand-in-hand, running around and falling asleep and eating and yelling and playing hide and seek and doing dumb things

Bin: “I dare you to eat sand.”

Eunwoo:

Bin:

Eunwoo:

Bin: “no actually you’re right don’t do it”

Eunwoo picking a pale blue sea glass bead and Bin picking an exact same one and both of them staring curiously as Bin’s mum snaps a magnifying glass on and starts carving a small 7 on Eunwoo’s bead’s smooth surface

Eunwoo smoothly sliding Bin’s bead onto his black cord and looping it around his neck and tucking it into his shirt 

Bin’s chubby fingers sliding Eunwoo’s piece on Eunwoo’s chain and Bin beaming with pride when he hands it back to Eunwoo 

And this time, when Bin sees Eunwoo off, he presses a small glass vial, half-filled with sand and topped with seawater (prepared by Bin’s mum under Very Careful Supervision by Binnie himself), so “when you go back to city life you’ll still think of me!”

Eunwoo throwing his arms around Bin and laughing because look!!! his friend made a thing!!!!!!!

And there it stays, on Eunwoo’s windowsill in the city 

Eunwoo looking up from where he’s playing on the floor when sunlight streams through his window and the seawater makes the light dance 

Eunwoo lying on the ground and squinting at the shadows and rainbows the bottle casts

Eunwoo adjusting him position on the ground and watching sunlight filter through the bottle on his windowsill right onto his hands 

Eunwoo watching the water ripple sometimes when a door bangs somewhere in their apartment and pretending it’s the same way his best friend’s eyes sparkle when he’s talking about something he loves

Eunwoo sometimes pulling the bottle from his windowsill and feeling its soft, small weight in his palm

Eunwoo pretending that here, this is it, this is an adequate replacement for him holding his best friend’s hand, going around with sand beneath their feet and salt in their hair and cheeks flushed red from laughing

Eunwoo smiling because yeah, he just got back from holiday but suddenly he’s really looking forward to the trip next year again

see i told you there wasn’t any angst (yet)

[republicstandard]

Art Kultur:  On Being & Meaninglessness

Ash Sharp Editor

Despite living in what we are told is a post-modern, culturally enriched world, one needs only to tilt the head to hear Nero fiddling as Rome burns.

Idealists among us harkened for the hippy ideals. Generation X saw a facade for what it was. The hippies sold out and transmuted genuine optimism into a marketing scheme; ironically the same fate befell Gen X- the market will commodify. There's a great line in 1990's Pump Up The Volume (featuring a very young Christian Slater and Samantha Mathis.) Slater plays Happy Harry Hard-on, an-already-burned-out teenage pirate radio station host languishing in a literal cultural desert Arizona, kicking back at not just the system he hates but his own generation's inability to work out anything better.

You see, there's nothing to do anymore. Everything decent's been done. All the great themes have been used up. Turned into theme parks. So I don't really find it exactly cheerful to be living in the middle of a totally, like, exhausted decade where there's nothing to look forward to and no one to look up to. - Happy Harry Hard-On

While being beautifully meta -a commercial movie about a GenX identity that was already in the process of being turned into a fashion chain in every department store- the message rings true. The movie ends with a victory of sorts, Harry is arrested but only after disseminating the truth- that the airwaves belong to everyone.. That communication of ideas, free speech and putting your blood, tears and sexual fluids into your art actually matters. His unwilling and anonymous leadership of the youth of Arizona in a search for meaning led to the truth of leadership- that the power resides in the individual to create. Through creation we become free. Through freedom of creation in art, we liberate culture. Through freeing culture we become leaders, and thereby the populace at large is also freed. This is the role of art, and why artless societies die on their knees.

In the intervening three decades since Pump Up The Volume, the influence of Neo-Marxism in art has only grown the stronger. Perhaps we can give thanks to the internet-era for that. The Critical Theory disseminated by Neo-Marxists in universities and the 'Cathedral' is spread through criticism of art, which thus enslaves culture. We have become a self-conscious and critical culture, defining transgression against Political Correctness as imperfection. We experience all reality as imperfect, though unlike in past eras where imperfection is the window through which beauty can enter -a warp in the stained glass which refracts sunlight just so- we now see imperfection as a bloody stain on our society. Homogeny is the new beauty, not difference or uniqueness of character or thought. Even difference is homogeneity.

The demand from Neo-Marxist culture warriors is to recognize the spectrum of genders, biological sexes, the kaleidoscope of races in the claim that this is the freedom we were searching for all along. It is a lie. Applying critical theory to our societies has had the effect of stripping meaning from our culture, reducing identity to arbitrary characteristics and elevating these aspects over which we have limited control to the exalted zenith of art, culture- and even science.

The cultural experience can thus only be viewed through this heinous lens of identity. The art is not art without knowing who made it. Identical art produced by different people is now either an authentic expression of identity or disgusting appropriation. The canvas- our society at large- is a sprawlig collaborative performance. It is the attempt at the art which is important, that which speaks of our shared identity. The stains of a million paintings, musical endeavors, sculptures. Taken as a whole experience, this is the essence of our cultural reality- messy, not to everyone's taste and all the richer for it.

To the Neo-Marxists the stain is now our culture, that we fuss at and scrub at, blurring the edges with the obsession of Lady Macbeth. Out! Out damn spot of culture! The featureless canvas on which the stain exists is the only desired result, though it may be finely crafted and look impressive from a distance when examined close is only so many identical interwoven threads. Homogenous, uninteresting. The canvas is not the artwork itself. One must stain the canvas with paint to create art. When we step back from the painting, the art is revealed to us, and through our reaction to it- ourselves.

When stains on the fabric become evident, the lens of Cultural Marxism focusses solely on them with reductive glee. The art is lost as we magnify only the fact that the canvas has been marked. The pop culture television of just twenty years ago is now as abhorrent as a black and white minstrel show. We are accelerating through the years, revising history and speeding headlong into the imperfect and meaningless present. By categorizing history as problematic, the fabric of culture is resewn into a Teflon coated straight-jacket. Nothing is able to exist for the sake of art alone. Not even mass-market light comedy-dramas are safe. Controversial or thought-provoking art must now be accompanied by the 'Haha, fellow progressives, I am making this art to mess with the staid old establishment. I'm woke. I'm on your side.' Never mind that the establishment that is bucked against is little more than a meme. The imagined conservative monolith of religious leaders burning art to the applause of government lies far in the rearview mirror. Imagine, that post-modernism sneers at a paper tiger, imagining that the historical war for civil liberties never ended and the opponents of equality are in control today. This in itself is a hall of mirrors perversion of reality. This narrative, woven by hundreds of thousands of words in progressive blogs, billions of dollar worth of Hollywood movies, hours of cable news and thousands of left-wing academics in schools and universities reflects a distorted image. In this mirror, held up to show you how evil you are because of the art you once consumed, we are all monsters.

Authenticity is the worst crime in this mirror-culture. Authenticity falls foul of social justice orthodoxy because it is the essence of freedom from ideological control. To authentically create art, one must examine oneself and the surroundings and use the self -the spark of consciousness that is the soul of all men- as the lens through which art is made. It should be obvious to you that the Neo-Marxist framework cannot allow you to make your own lens. Your lens must match theirs, you must see things their way- or you are a heretic. This is how I say that the kaleidoscope of diversity is just a lens, a singularly focussed lens which demands culture is only observed in the way this lens allows. Many so-called artists comply with this lens, pandering to the new hierarchy. Fake directors, fake actors, fake news, faking it for the never-resting lens of critical theorists, forcing the smile onto a waxwork effigy of true art in the hope that they will not be denounced as problematic. If you dance to the tune well enough, it is possible an occasional misstep will be ignored. When you stand on the dancefloor giving the finger to the DJ, the bouncers respond immediately.

Shoving our own culture into the incinerator because ideology dictates that the unintended subtexts are more important that the intended message is the method by which control is exerted by hyper-sensitive wingnuts and moonbats. Ideology outweighs comedy, suffocates satire and leaves artistic license bleeding on the street on Kristallnacht.

They say I'm disturbed. Well, of course, I'm disturbed. I mean, we're all disturbed. And if we're not, why not? Doesn't this blend of blindness and blandness want to make you do something crazy? Then why not do something crazy? It makes a helluva lot more sense than blowing your fucking brains out... -Happy Harry Hard-on

Innocuous mass-market television shows from 1995 are being pulled apart for making jokes at the expense of contemporary is a cough, the visible symptom of the disease that is consuming our culture. This tuberculosis runs far deeper than the critique of Friends. The fabric itself is being re-sewn so that such transgressive art as a light comedy about 6 white people in America is now impossible to make. Diversity -the polite way of framing anti-white racism- is a tool for remanufacturing culture.

No wonder that we in the West have become a nihilistic people. With no faith and a dwindling supply of art that reaches the mass market all that remains is what the Hare Krishna call 'sense-addiction.' Self-gratification. Stripping life of context and meaning leaves us with an artless world. Another Star Wars movie, Iron Man, a remake, a tawdry fanfiction of a terrible vampire novel. Movies that challenge the mind must ensure to avoid any topics of cultural importance. Cultural critique is not for the artist. It is for the activist.

He who controls the present controls the past. Control the past to control the present and shape the future. The tainted past is racist, anti-gay, transphobic. To enjoy things made in the past is problematic, there is only the ever-present and culturally bereft now. The historical mistakes of thought, transgressive art that speaks to the human experience can never come again.

Neo-Marxists are born from the recognition that Marxism cannot control society through top-down authoritarian rule. In the year preceding the release of Pump Up The Volume, the fall of the Berlin Wall heralded the death blow of economic Marxism. Culture is the replacement for the means of production.

The aim today is to gestate an authoritarianism that begins from the bottom-up. This makes perfect sense from a Marxist perspective, after all, there is the school of thought that demands a permanent revolution. The workers seize the means, the workers become the political class, the political class is overthrown. While the USSR simply murdered people who did not think in the authorized manner, the Neo-Marxist revolution will produce people who are incapable of wrongthink. The art will burn. The transgressive past is so abhorrent that to enjoy it will be impossible. This might sound an outlandish claim today, but I say- wait another decade and see. Legislation is already shaped to fit the demands of these revolutionaries in most leading Western countries. At the governmental level, Western nations are incapable of seeing the wider game in which they are played as pawns.

When a society is both meaningless and incapable of producing art to challenge the concept of being -to provide a framework with which to define ourselves on an individual level- the society is on borrowed time. History teaches us so. The revolutionary, transcendental nature of art provides both a critique of society and a release valve for the destructive nature of mankind. Living together is hard. Identity is a quandary. All men feel the urge to destroy. Our art and culture allow for this revolution of the self without leading to the destruction of the society at large, as the free soul of mankind looks for meaning. Art allows us to understand the bonds between us, the differences between people. By showing the worst parts of ourselves, we become tolerant of others. What happens when we are not allowed to show the goodness within ourselves because in the process we are revealed to be ideologically imperfect? Only art which ignores human nature itself will be permittable. So long as you have a rainbow nation of humans in the cast and an authentic subplot about whether your black stormtrooper and your Latino star pilot are homosexuals, you're an artist. What was the plot again? Whose story is this, anyway?

It's a sideshow, a carnival game of near-infinite, ever-changing and diminishing hoops through which art must pass, ending with the eye of the needle- the arbitrary characteristics of the identity of the artist himself. Here we stand, with the subversion of morality and art in a dying civilization perpetuated by a self-loathing people seeking self-aggrandizement and virtue. No less Catholic for their payment of indulgences and the perverse, atheistic exultation of Islam.

You can buy your way into a Heaven that is Godless, pay alms to undeserving beggars or wash away your sins against social justice. The worthless self-indulgence of a society stood on four pillars that are now worm-eaten and teetering. Instead of repairing the foundations, it is better to replace them. The Neo-Marxist exhibits doublethink in his denouncement of Western culture in that he will claim that it is worthless while reassuring us that unlimited migration will change it not a jot. If that were true, then why advocate for the end of borders? The pillars of Greek philosophy, Roman law, Christian theology, and modern science will be replaced by the Pillars of Islam, and to the Neo-Marxist this is a fine thing indeed.

The Neo-Marxists believe that Islam will be a more compatible system than capitalism. Whether they believe that a power share is possible or that the incoming theocracy will treat them as special pets, I am unsure. What I can see is that our need for brave and challenging art is greater now more than ever before in history.

Everybody knows, but nobody does anything about it.

Being part of this civilization means to be curators of it. As Edmund Burke knew in the 18th Century, we are not a singular moment in time. We are part of a lineage of life itself and more specifically a lineage of culture. Whenever this lineage is overthrown, chaos follows. The conservation of culture, society, and land is the philosophical heart of conservatism- though there are few conservatives left these days that are worthy of the name.

...when bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall, one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle. -E. Burke

If our civilization means anything at all it begins with the reaffirmation of our culture. Make more art. Start today.

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