Links 001 - Borderline 'pataphysics

Exploits and Opinions through a land of bookmarks


Second part of pataphysical links, this time with sites centered around pataphysics.

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001-03. Borderline 'pataphysics.

Patalinks

First of all I'd like to thank fellow Maybe Logic Academician Bogusmagus for his contribution on 'pataphysics on his website Personal Maybe

A site with many links for R. A. Wilson-related sites and more and more patalinks! There I found reference to a few of the websites below



Ubuland shows a psychogeographical map of pataphysical organisations on the net. It's Italian, many links from the post about Colleges and Institutes on this blog come from here.

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The best

Institute of Pataphysical studies

Now here's a beautiful Australian site with true undertones of the Science.

A musical study of Julio Cortazar's Hopscotch, organisation of almost discordian street performances (with fish), dada theatre shows (also with fish), a musical - "Asylum seekers Jesus, Buddha and Mouhammed flee religious persecution upon their mythical winged bike." (with fish again), a contraption to see and feel the dreams of a chicken… Their recent performance is called 'Ubu Republica'. 'Pataphysics is very much alive and well in Australia!

Patamania



Includes a blog, poetry, journalistic pieces and flashy photogalleries. Publishes an online magazine called 'The Pataphysical Dart-Face'. Which seems nice.




Le pataphysicien net

Which means 'the clean 'pataphysician'. In french. Includes an Oulipian exercise based on the human genome, a comparison between the '@'-sign (called 'arobase' in french) and the gidouille and many links.


Fatrazie

The mother of all site pataphysical. In French, very large collection of oulipian exercises, an accurate overview of the functioning of the college, biographies of many pataphysicians, a collection of transformed Mona Lisas, a lot of links… Excellent.




Les Harengères

15 pages about herrings. One of them about the herring in Finnegans Wake. Seems originated in the Netherlands, but written in French. Worth a look.


The Journal Of Pataphysical Reviews

Three issues. A Publication of the Society of Pataphysics.

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Something completely different

I'll only mention these because of the word in their URL.

Pataphysics magazine

Not a lot to do with our subject, I guess the word sounded 'cool' or something. They seem to publish an arty-farty paper magazine with intellectual mumbo-jumbo. Or maybe not.

From the site: "Colliding science, ecology, architecture, publishing & social space, PATAPHYSICS contains interviews, photography, theory, art projects, fiction & questionnaires. Each issue has a particular theme: the Holiday Resort issue, an extended 'travel brochure' for a hypothetical resort; the Pirate issue, an intervention with copyright & piracy; the Tile issue, a collection of responses from artists, writers & theorists to an international questionnaire on autobiography and their current projects; the Psychomilitary issue, a fragmentary meditation on the psychological dimension of the defended citadel. Within these themes, differing printing processes combine high- & low-tech."

Pataphysics Research Laboratory

I my opinion nothing to do with our subject either. Just a fancy site with a fancy name. It seems a collection of 8 blogs where the most extended posting reaches two lines in telegramstyle. Some of those for people whose vocabulary consists mainly of a few substantives; I suppose (hope) these are chat transcripts. I did find a few good links though.

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Virtual colleges

Faculté Uqacienne de 'Pataphysique

This site from Quebec hasn't been updated since 2001. Nice study of Ionesco's "The bald soprano' and a little study of the apostrophe before the word pataphysique…

Collège de Pataphysique Nautienne

These self-appointed optimates made up a virtual college on the website of the virtual french-speaking republic of Nautia. Good collection of texts in French.

Université de Napierville

Another virtual college. Reminds me of the Annals of Improbable Research, studying extreme subjects like the influence of continetal drift on the transportation costs, on the influence of the reading direction of book titles on the side on cervical damage, proof that King Tut was a lady etc.

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Texts

Pataphysics - A Religion In The Making

An excellent situationist text by Asger Jorn linking the recent success of epi-meta-ta-fusica with the gnostic game. " Although the Americans have now claimed the honour of presenting Pataphysics to the world, they didn't dare mention the word religion in their journal. Nevertheless, the enormous success Pataphysics enjoyed last year among the New World intelligentsia has inaugurated an epoch in which the essentially religious nature of this phenomena will be carefully analysed. You'd have to have a cold to miss the stink its causing!"


Pataphysics of Year 2000

A seminal text by Satrape Jean Baudrillard."if we want immediate satisfaction (jouissance) from an event, if we want to live it in the moment as if we were already there, it is because we no longer have any trust in the meaning or purpose of the event. One can spot the same denial in apparently opposite attitudes - in the historicization, in the archiving, in the memorizing of everything related to our past as well as those appertaining to every other culture."


Le Polidor

A historical text by satrape Noël Arnaud about the beginnings of the Collège in this french brasserie-restaurant. According to Stefan Themerson James Joyce used to visit regularly.



History of the Pataphysical Calendar

Read a bit more here about this universal calendar.

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Pataphysical publishers

The Collège de 'Pataphysique publishes a thick french magazine every three of four months next to a big collection of beautifully printed books. From the beginning a lot of attention was given to the lay-out, paper and printing process because one of the first optimates was a printer. Sadly they publish in very small quantities so most is sold out. You can have an idea of the content of their publications on 'Le coin du scientifictif' (in French).

The main publisher in English is called Atlas Press. Check their Arkhives and Anti-Classics for Dada & surreal-like writings, the most important being the jaw-dropping 'Encyclopædia Acephalica' by Bataille. They also list 'Malpertuis' by Jean Ray next to ecclectic artists and oulipian writers. And of course they host the London Institute of 'Pataphysics on their site.

Former Dalkey Archive Press 'Center for Book culture' specializes in all thing Flann O'Brian, but lists a lot of fiction from all over the world related to 'pataphysics.

Exact Change (Classics of experimental literature) lists writers mainly from the turn of the 19th - 20th century. Jarry, Roussel, Chirico, but also Themerson, Cage and Schwitters.

Lost numbers

They showed an episode from the first season of Lost here last night, the bit where the character Hurley gets confronted to the strange series of numbers that emanate from a transmitter on the island, numbers that let him win the lotery but at the same time cursed him into getting all kinds of freak accidents and bad coincidences. The presence of both the RAW number 23 and the DNA number 42 made me wonder what the kaballistic gematria would tell.
I came up with the following:


Which brings the following flow of thoughts to me:
Behind the door, through the fence
The father awaits your willing to pass through
Through both ruin and majesty
Realize what is needed and seize it
Through suffering for the sins ascend in the Brotherhood and hear
The terrific sound of a lion roaring.

BTW, I find it ironic that the answer to life, the universe and everything could mean 'god' to a dogmatic rabbi, especially since Douglas Adams was an even dogmatic atheist!
On the side the symbol for Yah scared the shit out of me when I was a kid in catholic school. I seemed to recognize a face in it, neither good nor evil but very concerned and looking at the side as if something very bad was coming at us. Sort of a demiurgic Killroy pointing to something important from behind the wall of comprehension.

Joseph Campbell and the three temptations in Bardo

In "The power of Myth" audiobook, Bill Moyers inteviews Joseph Campbell.
One fragment seemed very significant to me since it literally links to an important series of lessons in Kabbalah.

1. The personal Apocalyps.
One of the main lessons I got in my Kaballah lessons dealt with fear and death, or fear of death. The concept of world-wide Apocalypse as described in the book of Revelations can come in handy to try to visualize the idea of individualized fears if you consider a personal apocalypse.
My teacher meant by this expression the moment of passage from one plane of existance to another, either during lifetime or after decease. He saw a difference between the act of "deceasing" which describes the soul leaving the body and rigor mortis setting in, and the act of "dying", or as mentioned in the bible, "dying on the cross", which describes the necessary qualities for consciousness to reach out above the earthly plane. Which could happen during lifetime for a very few (the adepts: christ, buddha etc.). The essential qualities to obtain this consciousness upheaval are threefold:
- First you have accept to leave your costume - which means your physical body, the costume you're wearing on the stage of life. Well we're all going to, so it may as well be a choice we make. Trouble is both pleasure and pain chain us to our physical body (Malkuth). My teacher considered that ghosts are souls who don't want to realize their physical self is gone and have to dwell around waiting for reincarnation (or the insight that they have left the stage).
- Secondly you need to let go your ego (Yesod). This seems the most frightening part of "dying": you need to realize (= make real) that absolutely everything you thought you were, the idea you have of yourself, every quality, shortcoming, aspect of your character was just that: a character you played on the stage. A role. Which you once learned, performed, and now the curtain's down you have to leave forever. You are not who you think you are. My teacher used to show strange slides during his lessons and the slide accompanying this aspect of death was the scary, absolutely terrified face a woman screaming (I guess something from a Romero or Argento movie). Unchaining the dragon seems the most frightening experience in - or out of - a lifetime. It also points at accepting to become part of a greater entity (I'm not speaking of the Elohim on this relatively low level on Jacob's ladder), to dissolve the individual.
- Finally the most difficult bit is rather vague: you need to be prepared; both in the meaning as "to be drilled" in order to cope with it when it comes AND be able to accept it in all humility. In this most difficult aspect, the main bit is not wanting to ascend in the first place! Kinda like "tickle her without making her laugh", you need to be fully aware of the structure of the sefirotic tree and the possibilities but if you are driven by desire, especially the desire to ascend, your ego's again in control and not your heart (Tifereth). If you do ascend it will be because the necessity arises at that moment for you to do so, not because you will. BTW I don't see a contradiction with Crowley's teachings, I think his idea of 'Will' transcends the idea of individual will (but MIFOS, I dunno enough about Al to evaluate). By accepting this state of things, if and when consciousness arises it will automatically take its surroundings with it. True enlightment supposedly has an influence on the whole material world, which slowly climbs up the ladder as well. "And in doing that you save the world!" (Joseph Campbell about releasing the dragon).
The ultimate goal according to my teacher is this (I guess only kabbalists can get it so I'll whisper it): to bring back the last and lowest stone back to Ayin Sof.
I can go as far as I want into these concepts, but I choose to accept them as useful (dynamic) metaphors rather than literal (passive) beliefs.

2. Transcript of "the Hero's Adventure" part 4

The Buddha figure is like that of the Christ, of course 500 years earlier. You could match those 2 traditions right down the line, even to the characters of their apostles or their monks. Now there's a perfectly good hero deed formula represented here.
And he (Christ, B.) undergoes three temptations: the economic temptation, where the devil says "you look hungry young man, change the stones to bread". Jesus said "Man lives not by bread alone but every word from the mouth of god". Next we have the political temptation. He's taken to the top of a mountain and shown the nations of the world, and (Satan, B.) says "You can come to control all of these if you bow to me". And then, "Well, you're so spiritual, let's go up to the top of Herod's temple and see you cast yourself down, and god will bear you up and you even won't be bruised". So he (Christ, B.) "You shall not tempt the lord". These are the three temptations of Christ in the desert.
The Buddha also goes into the forest, has conferences with the leading gurus of the day and goes past them. He comes to the tree of illumination and goes through three temptations. They're not the same temptations but they are three temptations. And one is that of lust, another that of fear and another is that of duty, doing what you're told.
And then both of these men come back.

3. Conclusions.
Campbell shows very clearly how the three conditions necessary for spiritual ascend according to kabbalah (freedom from body - freedom from ego - acceptance-patience) play a key role in both the christian and buddhistic myth. Both figures function as metaphors for the consciousness ascending from the material world (Assiyah) through the paradise (Yetzirah) on its way to enter the kingdom of heavens (Jeruzalem in Malkuth of Beriah). The also show the correct insights to the three most important conditions for doing so.
In Christ's story, matter and body get symbolized by the desert stones (the lowest in the matter) as well as the bread (points to hunger, bodily functions, survivalist techniques). The ego is shown on top of the mountain, where archangel Satan tries to fool the self to rule over all its qualities (the nations), while actually this would tend to make the ego (Yesod) rule over the self (Tifereth). When asking to die in assurance of rebirth, the self finally needs to realize its time will come when necessary, not according to its own will. The 'death on the cross' by Christ consciousness in the bible is the moment when the time has come, and even and ascended consciousness start to doubt.
Let me point to the kabbalistic appraoch of evil, where true evil only resides in the kelippotic worlds, the lost kingdoms of Edom where what we call 'demons' reside, without any function in this world, in opposition to the personal Gehinnom, the fifth world below Assiyah which we call 'hell' and is an individual state in the consciousness where for some people it's necessary to stay trapped until they manage to climb up the Jacob's ladder again; as for what we call the 'devil' or Satan, the kabbalah mythos considers Samael as the highest ranking archangel (actually a Seraphim), who when Metatron took his place holding the book of fate, received a new mission as the tester, 'falling' down and climbing up all the levels continuously, testing consciousness on its ascend to be sure it's worth to pass through. Again necessity is the key word, not good nor evil.
In Buddha's story, after transcending the leading gurus, passing them by on his ascend, is tested threefold in a way which do seem similar to the above. While lust points obviously to the matter, fear I link to the concept of unchaining the dragon, the epithome of fear, which symbolizes the abandonment of the ego. The realization of duty points to acceptance, waiting patiently for further evolution.
Both metaphors for rised consciousness perform their necessary task, which means returning to the ego and the matter, but free'd from them, and then try to perform awakening and throw hints for others to take a similar path.

Airflight music

Music is the pathway to the heart
François-Marie Arouet de Voltaire

As I went on, the accents got heavier and heavier, the sounds grew increasingly intense as the consonants sharpened. I quickly realized that if I wanted to stay serious - and I did - my expressive means would not be up to the pomp of the staging... I had just finished Song to the Clouds of Labadas on the music stand to my right and Caravan of Elephants on the left, when I started vigorously flapping my wings and turned to the center. The heavy series of vowels and trailing rhythm of the elephants had just provided a last gradation. But how was I to end? I suddenly realized that my voice, for want of any other alternative, was taking on the ancestral cadence of a sacerdotal lamentation, the wailing style of the hymns that fill Catholic churches in East and West:
zimzim urullala zimzim urullala zimzim zanzibar zimzalla zam
elifantolim brussala bulomen brussala bulomen tromtata
velo da bang band affalo purzamai affalo purzamai lengado tor
gadjama bimbalo glandridi glassala zingtata pimpalo ögrögöööö
viola laxato viola zimbrabim viola uli paluji malooo
Hugo Ball in Cabaret Voltaire

Everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
When it comes, it falls in pieces.
Eating holes and gems unbound.
Birds and hearts and flags and everything.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Money matters. Does mercy matter?
Suddenly, as things are clearer,
See the sights are getting nearer.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Money matters. Does mercy matter?
Suddenly, as things are clearer,
See the sights are getting nearer.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Money matters. Does mercy matter?
Suddenly, as things are clearer,
See the sights are getting nearer.
Everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
I said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
When it comes, it falls in pieces.
Eating holes and gems unbound.
Birds and hearts and flags and bugs.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Said, everything. Devoured.
I learn to hold my, will power.
Spies in the Wire by Cabaret Voltaire (1984)

The Tridoshic Sefirot

The ayurvedic medicine separates three essences through which the living tissues can be influenced. They are called the Tridoshas and consist of three elements: Vata, Pitta and Kapha. The can be more or less associated to the elements earth, fire and air (water).
The idea to separate the world into triads seems intriguing. Most cultures give a more or less dualistic worldview. The Yi King use hexagrams based upon two extremes: Yin an Yang (yet pointing to the origin, the Tao where dualism disappears); the kaballistic tree makes use of two side pillars, one rather active and one rather passive symbolizing the path of consciousness wandering about away from the central path. In kabbalah also the dualism disappears above a certain level of consciousness.



In the sefirotic worldview the right, active path makes use of the following sequence:
Netzach (eternal repetition)
Chesed (compassion)
Chochmah (wisdom)
And the passive path uses the following emanations:
Hod (reflection)
Geburah (justice)
Binah (understanding).
As a mental exercise I would like to think what would happen with 'Sefirot PO Tridoshas'. In other terms, how would the tree look like if tradic instead of dualistic? I suppose for a dogmatic kabbalist this could be the representation of one of the fallen kingdoms of Edom, an kellipotic experiment that didn't work out because the energetic relationship between the emanations couldn't come to balance.



I wonder what aspects of earth, fire and air could be meaningful on the level of realization (reflection / repetition), on the level of formation (justice / compassion) and on the level of creation (understanding / wisdom).
Of course problems arise. Some mirrored paths (like the one through Daath) couldn't be mirrored no more. Numbers change so does the gematria and the meaning of all things. Kabbalah is an extremely fine-tuned mathematical system. Frankly I doubt it would be possible to build an equally working model if changing the premises. Also my knowledge of ayurveda is to say the least very limited!
I'll let this rest and maybe I'll pick up the thread in the future.

Update
Loplop Dadamax sees a similitude with "The Hat makes the Man" by Max Ernst!
Watch your overcoat.

Furnisculpture - 001

I studied interior architecture in the '80s and got hooked to either artists committing themselves to the creation of spaces or volumes that look like or possess atributes of furniture, or furniture designers entering the world of sculpture. I collected a lot of clippings throughout the years. Here a first attempt at providing a visual encyclopedia of furnisculptures and sculptirniture.

Vito Acconci

American Sculptor and Installation Artist, born in 1940.
Vito Acconci from Brooklyn, New York has been a forerunner in performance and installation art since the mid-1960's and has recently been creating award-winning architectural spaces as well.


Collision house, 2001




Mur Island, 2003


Stretched Facade, 1984


Name Calling Chair, 1990


Largo do Glicério Viaduct


Adjustable Wall Bra, 1990-91


Ground Bra, 1991


Mobius Bench


Memphis' Cannon Center, 2004


Making Shelter : House of Used Parts, 1986


Instant House, 1980


Loloma Transit Center

"When you stop to ask yourself a question,
ask nicely."
Vito Acconci

How to immanentize the Eschaton