Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 00:13:26 +1000 (EST) From: "Glen Fuller" <g.fuller-AT-uws.edu.au> Subject: Massumi talk today... Hi list, I attended a relatively short presentation by Brian Massumi today entitled 'Fear (the spectrum said)'. The 'spectrum' the title is referring to are the colours of the 'terror alert indicator' (or whatever it is actually called) that the US governments dept of homeland security has introduced. Half of his talk was explicating what happens in that 'half a second' between an event and the realisation of the experience of the event. He used fear as an example. (I thought he could've used the 0.4 of a second minimum 'reaction time' drag racers get when the christmas tree turns green, but to suggest that would've opened myself to the possibility of a lynching;) Why I found it interesting is that he articulated something very similar to what I earlier suggested about Moore's film. Massumi's basic argument is that beginning with Reagan politics in the US became a process of the affective moulation of various publics. The 'threat indicator' is just the most recent tool to accomplish this goal. It allows for the immediate modulation of the affective state of a nation. He was clear to point out that just because it is possible to modulate the affective state of the nation, the response to this can never be totally anticipated ('not puppets on strings'). As almost a throwaway comment he suggested that Moore's film also works on this level, but in a resistant manner. He read a lot of the talk and I am assuming he is trying out new stuff on willing audiences, so I am looking forward to reading it is published. Cheerio, Glen. -- PhD Candidate, Centre for Cultural Research University of Western Sydney
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