From: "Mary&Eric Murphy&Salstrand" <ericandmary-AT-earthlink.net> Subject: RE: Fw: Films by Guy Debord Date: Sat, 6 Apr 2002 8:35:0 -0600 Hugh, Thanks for passing on the information about the status of the films. I admit my first reaction to this was to think "Gee, Wouldn't it be great if they put these on DVD?" (and I currently don't even own a DVD player.) Next I thought: "What would Guy Debord have said about this?" Putting these on DVD - wouldn't that amount to commodifcation of the basest kind? A Situationist scream eaten by the spectacle, that hungry neoliberal monster on steroids who has forever lost his prozac. Yet, if it isn't on DVD, how will the kids ever know? - unless they are art students living in large cities who can attend obscure experimental film festivals? And even if they are seen, how do they escape from being seen as a historical curiosity pieces, relics from days gone by, the cultural equivalent of a derive-by shooting. It is a commonplace now to be told free speech doesn't apply to spaces like malls or corporate offices because these are private spaces. Free speech by definition can only exist in public spaces. But once all the public spaces have become privatized, doesn't that mean free speech is dead? I heard about a group called Yoga Inside that goes around to prisons and reform schools teaching the inmates how to breathe and perform yoga postures. They are currently being sued by Intel Inside for brand name violation of the latter's intellectual property rights. Words are now becoming private property too. What's in a name? At the other end of the rainbow, I have heard about movies that are currently being totally re-vamped by amateurs using computer technology to redub, splice and edit the original films into something completely different from the original, perhaps even making the usual hollywood schlock interesting again. A current case of detournement at work, perhaps, one that testifies to contemporary possibilities even more than the ancient films of ST. GUY DEBORD. I can already hear the sirens of the intellectual property police wailing in the ontological darkness. Perhaps, as Proudhan once observed, property is theft. After the primal crime, there are no repeat performances allowed. We have sold our ancient birthright of DNA to genetic-engineering global corporations for a mess of reality game shows. The spectacle continues even if we do not. eric
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