Look at the two great events: [the advent of] nuclear power and revolution. It is utterly pointless to hope for the one or to fear the other since both have already occurred. Everything has been liberated, changed, undermined; what more do you want? It is useless to hope: things are there; born or stillborn,…
We are no longer in a state of growth;we are in a state of excess.We are living in a society of excrescence,meaning that which incessantly develops without being measurableagainst its own objectives.…growing out of control at cross purposes with itself…This process can be compared best with cancerous metastases – *** As long as…
Here are additional images of the final Nitrous Shootout event at “the Grove.” We tilt into fall, the days become short. We know that a season of cold and ice soon will be in store. Nevertheless we have memories, held as if in a keepsake box, moments of delight, — satisfaction upon making a…
Well what was your visit to “the Grove” like? I mean your plans to spend Saturday afternoon at the Great Lakes Dragaway? I was not disappointed. In retrospect I received more than the fee paid for admission. The hours spent walking around the pits, lingering for a few minutes to chat with the Lumbert…
A fall Saturday is overcast. I plan to make my way to the drag strip perhaps for a last hurrah. There’s a chill in the air. Soon time will be past for “test and tune” of race cars, hand-built expressions of the personality of an owner, and that of crew members, who are likely…
The truly beautiful cannot be touched. It demands distance. Faced with the sublime, we stand back in awe. When praying we fold our hands. The sense of touch destroys distance. It knows no astonishment. It demystifies, de-auratizes and renders profane what is touched. The touchscreen sublates the negativity of the other, of the unavailable….
Communicationwith a smartphone is disembodiedand without a gaze.Community has a bodily dimension.Because of its lack of corporeality,digital communication weakens community.The gaze stabilizes community.Digitization makes the other as gaze disappear. The absence of the gaze is partly responsiblefor the loss of empathy in the digital age.When a parent stares at a smartphone, the infant is…
In the age of non-things,there is something almost utopianabout the notion of possession.Possession is characterized byan intimacy and inwardness.For a thing to be a possession, I must havean intense relationship with it.You do not possess an electronic gadget.Because we no longer possess them, consumer goodsquickly end up on the rubbish heap.Possession is something internalized…
Mid September and Fall is approaching. I anticipate a last visit to the drag strip for the Saturday coming up. Drag racing is a quintessential male, warm weather sport. Race cars constructed to achieve maximum acceleration are an icon of a passing era. I confess my love of the adrenaline stimulating sight and sound…
I have never used that word before. It means utterly astonished. Yesterday four of us experienced an architectural tour of Chicago, narrated by Joe, our tour guide, progressing on both the south and the north branches of the Chicago river on the Wendella tour boat toward Lake Michigan. The word describes the wonderment that…
