Cage Uncaged

A wonderful article about a wonderfully creative man.
John Cage

Toxic Sludge is Good for You

Democracy-- Lies, Damn Lies and the Public Relations Industry The 2009 documentary Toxic Sludge is Good for You, is based on the book of the same name and is written by two former PR professionals, John Stauber and Sheldon Rampton from the video: "According to some estimates, more than 50% of what we think as news is instigated by the PR industry"

Reimagining the RNC's Backdrop

http://www.animalnewyork.com/2012/reimagining-the-rncs-backdrop/

Theaetetus

This has the bit about how midwifery and being an artist hang together

LINK: Theaetetus 

By Plato 

Written 360 B.C.E 

Translated by Benjamin Jowett

Persons of the Dialogue
SOCRATES
THEODORUS
THEAETETUS
Scene
Euclid and Terpsion meet in front of Euclid's house in Megara; they enter the house, and the dialogue is read to them by a servant.

Century of the Self

Epic documentary about the role of psychoanalysis, marketing, and public relations in the united states. by Adam Curtis linked HERE

from "top documentary films" site:

This series is about how those in power have used Freud’s theories to try and control the dangerous crowd in an age of mass democracy. Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis, changed the perception of the human mind and its workings profoundly.

His influence on the 20th century is widely regarded as massive. The documentary describes the impact of Freud’s theories on the perception of the human mind, and the ways public relations agencies and politicians have used this during the last 100 years for their engineering of consent. Among the main characters are Freud himself and his nephew Edward Bernays, who was the first to use psychological techniques in advertising. He is often seen as the father of the public relations industry.

Freud’s daughter Anna Freud, a pioneer of child psychology, is mentioned in the second part, as well as Wilhelm Reich, one of the main opponents of Freud’s theories. Along these general themes, The Century of the Self asks deeper questions about the roots and methods of modern consumerism, representative democracy and its implications. It also questions the modern way we see ourselves, the attitude to fashion and superficiality.

Happiness Machines. Part one documents the story of the relationship between Sigmund Freud and his American nephew, Edward Bernays who invented Public Relations in the 1920s, being the first person to take Freud’s ideas to manipulate the masses.

The Engineering of Consent. Part two explores how those in power in post-war America used Freud’s ideas about the unconscious mind to try and control the masses. Politicians and planners came to believe Freud’s underlying premise that deep within all human beings were dangerous and irrational desires. MORE

Big (Visualizing weightlifting as poetry in motion)

Watch Visualizing Weightlifting as Poetry in Motion on PBS. See more from Independent Lens.

Kong Lingnan- the loneliness of neon

a video about her work

the last generation meme

We are the last generation that learnt to play in the Streets and the first to play Video Games, see Cartoons in Color and went to amusement Parks. We were the last to record Radio Songs on Cassettes and we are the Pioneers of Walkmans and Chatrooms. ... We learned how to program the VCR before anyone else, play with the Atari and Super Nintendo, and believed the Internet would be a free World, all on a 56k Modem. Travelled in Cars without seatbelts or air-bags & lived without cell phones. Rode the bikes down the Road without brakes. We never had phones but still kept in touch. We did not have Playstations, 99 TV Channels, Flat Screens, Surround Sound, MP3s, iPods, Computers or broadband....

Black Shoals Planetarium

A remarkable media project that interprets the Black Scholes financial formula, a mathematical formula for trading and hedging derivatives, into a real time projection based on stock market activity. Black Shoals

Women and the MFA

This is a short NPR piece about the numbers of women in MFA programs in comparison to the numbers represented by galleries. That seems negative, but maybe women are making other kinds of choices about how to disseminate their work? Or is there subtle discrimination. What do you think? Thanks HD for the tip. Here is the link.