File spoon-archives/lyotard.archive/lyotard_2004/lyotard.0408, message 1


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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