The Cut Ups (1966) by William S. Burroughs
"The savage deconstruction of the relationship between image and reality. 'Yes, Hello?', 'Look at that picture,' 'Does it seem to be persisting?', 'Good. Thank you'."
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Ferdinand de Saussure: Place of Language in the Facts of Speech
"In order to separate from the whole of speech the part that belongs to language, we must examine the individual act from which the speaking-circuit can be reconstructed. The act requires the presence of at least two persons; that is the minimum number necessary to complete the circuit. Suppose that two people, A and B, are conversing with each other [see figure 1 below].
Suppose that the opening of the circuit is in A's brain, where mental facts (concepts) are associated with representations of the linguistic sounds (sound-images) that are used for their expression. A given concept unlocks a corresponding sound-image in the brain; this purely psychological phenomenon is followed in turn by a physiological process: the brain transmits an impulse corresponding to the image to the organs used in producing sounds. Then the sound waves travel from the mouth of A to the ear of B: a purely physical process. Next, the circuit continues in B, but the order is reversed: from the ear to the brain, the physiological transmission of the sound-image; in the brain, the psychological association of the image with the corresponding concept. If B then speaks, the new act will follow-from his brain to A's-exactly the same course as the first act and pass through the same successive phases, which I shall diagram as follows [see figure 2 below].
The preceding analysis does not purport to be complete. We might also single out the pure acoustical sensation, the identification of that sensation with the latent sound-image, the muscular image of phonation, etc. I have included only the elements thought to be essential, but the drawing brings out at a glance the distinction between the physical (sound waves), physiological (phonation and audition), and psychological parts (word-images and concepts). Indeed, we should not fail to note that the word-image stands apart from the sound itself and that it is just as psychological as the concept which is associated with it. "
(Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, Albert Riedlinger, Wade Baskin, p.11, 12)
Ferdinand de Saussure, Charles Bally, Albert Sechehaye, Albert Riedlinger, Wade Baskin (1966). "Course in General Linguistics", McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York Toronto London.
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Raumpatrouille: Die phantastischen Abenteuer des Raumschiffes Orion
"The adventures of the ORION and her crew were made by german and french tv in 1965/66. It was germans first science fiction series, made in black-and-white, and lasted only 7 episodes. The first airing in late 1966 were a tremendous success, but the producers decide not to make any continuation (another 7 scripts were completed) because of costs and ressources."
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
Superstudio: the radical Italian architectural group
"The collective emerged in 1966 at the moment when the technocratic optimism of the first half of the 1960s was souring. The watershed was the beginning of the Cultural Revolution in China in 1966 when Mao Tse–tung gave Western intellectuals a new cause to believe in after a decade of disillusion since their faith in communism was shattered by Khrushchev's exposure of Stalin's brutalities. Events in China made Western society seem spiritually barren at a time of growing concern about the Vietnam War. In the visual arts, radicals rebelled against the extrovert imagery of Pop Art in favour of the politically engaged work of Fluxus artists like Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik. The rising tide of political frustration culminated in the 1968 student riots in Paris and copycat protests in London, Tokyo and Prague. Women formed fledgeling feminist movements such as the Women's Liberation Front in the US and Mouvement de Libération des Femmes in France. Decades of oppression against gay men and women erupted in a pitched battle in New York, when the police tried to close the Stonewall, a gay bar in the West Village and a politicised gay rights movement exploded.
Superstudio's response was to develop its 'Anti–Design' projects: themes from which were echoed in the work of other radical architects and designers, notably the members of Archizoom, a fellow Florentine group consisting of Andrea Branzi, Gilberto Corretti, Paolo Deganello, Dario and Lucia Bartolini and Massimo Morozzi. Both groups were founded in 1966 and their first important project was to express their theories about the crisis of modernism in the Superarchitecture exhibition in Pistoia, Italy. A year later, they refined the ideas aired in Superarchitecture in a joint follow–up show in Modena."
(Design Museum)
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
The NFSA Life In Australia Series
Fig.1 James Jeffrey (1966). "Life In Australia: Adelaide": 20.25 Minutes. Made by The Commonwealth Film Unit / Department of Immigration 1966. Directed by James Jeffrey. A picture of life in the South Australian capital of Adelaide in the mid 1960s, social, commercial and recreational.
Fig.2 "Life In Australia: Brisbane", Fig.3 "Guide To Canberra", Fig.4 "Darwin – Doorway To Australia", Fig.5 "Life In Australia: Hobart", Fig.6 "Life In Australia: Melbourne", Fig.7 "Life In Australia: Perth", Fig.8 "Life In Australia: Sydney".
CONTRIBUTOR
Simon PerkinsSHARE
