ob[li]f(e)ious: it's about time: July 2009

01 July 2009

Suggestions and Themes for Transmission

***ViDEo"tApE" People Talking; Up-LoAd He(A)re!<-->;)***

Here's a brief list of suggested themes I've come up with. Use them as you see fit, maybe as connectors to one or more of the infinite possibilities they inspire. Please take a few minutes to comment at the end of this post with your own suggestions. Let's move forward together in the creative process!

Keep in mind, it is not necessary, nor is it advisable, to attempt to answer all the subtopics associated with any particular topic you may choose to address. These ideas may be further explored through a creative exchange, where there is no mandated form. I am not particularly set on the magazine being limited to include only ("academic") "papers," since such an exclusion would seem to limit the scope of its perspectives. Therefore, freedom of expression in form and content is encouraged.

* Where is abbreviation taking us? Trace the history and origins of the abbreviation trend, using examples in language, in collective thought, in business, etc., and weigh its value against sacrifices made. For instance, it seems that with one technological advancement after another, the mechanization movement has meant making our culture move faster (e.g., a progression from the Industrial Revolution to the present reveals sudden changes transitioning a culture, one may argue, from a slow-paced age emphasizing quality over quantity into a fast-paced age emphasizing quantity over quality, a culture that promotes ease of use over hard work, introducing in rapid succession the railroad, the telephone, the automobile, the airplane, the freeway, the television, the computer, e-mail and internet, the text message, the i-phone app), as it seeks immediate gratification. Advertising in the past hundred years also reflects the rapid progression in the collective psyche: from the lengthy text ad that was once common to the minimalist pop image of today. What have been the psychological effects on the individual caught in this wave? What are the pros and cons of this trend? Is it indefinitely sustainable? Is this trend facilitating a movement into a new paradigm?

* Examine the ideas of "political correctness" and "tolerance." Do these social pressures establish whatever their assumed agenda is? Are they responsible for reinforcing old prejudices?

* Pick a popular expression, word or ad campaign and examine its viability. It may be old or new, as long as it's still in popular use: for example, one may argue that the overwhelming popularity of anti-drug campaigns and breast cancer awareness campaigns, while benefiting their specific target audiences according to their respective agendas, overlook and promote ignorance of other epidemics, such as heart disease, which is the number one killer of women, and alcohol, which causes more health problems, arguably, than marijuana.

* What kind of information has priority in the dominant (Western) culture? What kind of information has priority in other cultures? Compare and contrast. For example, examine the top news stories from different sources, from American media and elsewhere. One may find it useful to inform one's argument by examining concepts such as media conglomeration, imperialism, and marginalization.

More than observing what we perceive to be ingrained social problems, the purpose of ob(li)fious is to discuss and suggest alternatives for creatively re-envisioning our world.

Each issue of the magazine we publish may explore a certain theme, representing a diversity of critical perspectives.

LIFE

"Life," by Decio Pignari, conveys, perhaps, my favorite idea: compression and combustion (as creation), expressing concepts such as oneness and compression, while achieving simultaneously an image of evolution. Like the title of this zine, "Life" seems to operate intuitively as an asemic poem, being the thing itself that it wants to express. It conveys even more when, appropriately as a cinepoem, it is played as film reel in which the fundamental principles, the phonemes (the linguistic or fundamental one-syllable human sounds which are known as letters in written form) join together in a procession, to form one unit (word), and conveys many ideas in that central condensed byte of information. As theorists and authors such as C.G. Jung, James Joyce, and Joseph Campbell have indicated, definitely influenced by Biblical and other mythical imagery, a word, as a symbol, is the thing itself. Within its form is its concentrated essence, which it may at any time choose to leak out, thereby manifesting itself in the material world.

A Guiding Principle

Accurate information begins with a question, rather than a statement.

We can say this because a statement reinforces an existing belief and the only way beyond it is to look at it differently, from another perspective, which is why we question.

From the question comes a hypothesis as we gather information and appreciation for what we're studying. The goal is maximum appreciation, maximum analysis and maximum willingness to adjust our view in light of what is discovered in that awareness.

Further, through dialog--discussing and analyzing ideas in a nonconfrontational way, presented with trusted others--we work at seeing things from other perspectives that we could not have considered ourselves before due to the limits of subjectivity.

For instance, a paper topic may resemble the following.

paper topic:

violence in media: mass effect on society (all age groups): desensitization? intention? who's behind it?

First of all, if such a question is to be proposed as a topic to explore by the group in consideration for publication, I would suggest that the question must first be asked, "Is this a question worth exploring?" This is not to say we instantly should dismiss any proposed topic; to the contrary, appropriate consideration should be taken to determine factors such as whether the topic agrees with the intentions of the publication, and whether the available evidence on the subject could generate a thesis which would agree with the publication's theme and general purpose.

After these considerations have been made, the group would discuss the above sample topic. In this scenario, one must be careful with the question, "desensitization," since it is one that appears to be leading one to a conclusion, promoting bias. However, if one is willing to accept an alternate conclusion, and keep the process of discovery open-ended until adequate information is received that properly evaluates both or more possibilities, the question can be reasonably answered. Perhaps "desensitization" could be rethought and replaced with a word that would answer this question without promoting bias. Answering a question is the intention of this group; answering questions from a precept, bias, or any other motive than to discover the essential thing itself, will not yield the results we intend to grasp. I am, so far, encouraging the observance of a subject-object continuum, where all viewpoints are valid, though objective information may be separated from subjective experience and exposed as artificial and problematic.

The Ax Handle Story

". . .by living with them on a daily basis, I was continually struck by their profound practicality. They did not talk of doing things; they did them. One day I was walking in the forest with a man named Rafael. I mentioned that I needed a new handle for my ax. He stopped in his tracks, saying, 'ah yes,' and used his machete to cut a little hardwood tree a few steps off the path. Then he carved an impeccable handle that was to last longer than the ax itself. He spent about twenty minutes doing the bulk of the work right there in the forest and an additional twenty minutes at home doing the adjustments. Perfect work, carried out by eye alone. Up until then, I had always thought that ax handles came from hardware stores."-Jeremy Narby, The Cosmic Serpent: DNA and the Origins of Knowledge