Cybersex - "How AOL Instant Messenger Shaped the Sexuality of a Generation" [Article]

Reading this article, it was the first time I heard about AOL Instant messaging and this term “Cybersex”. Thus, it was a new, intriguing and slightly hilarious read. I found the whole psychology behind why people found Cybersex so alluring very fascinating, as the idea of a safe, private space to explore what you truly desire is a very attractive temptation, one which no one would avoid. Yet, as I read it, I chuckle at the notion that if you took away the horniness of Cybersex, it was basically a place where people pretended to have sex with one another, writing down phrases and sentences that, out of context, would render a person laughing in a fit of tears.

The dangers of Cybersex was also highlighted and acknowledged, where just like any other social media platform, the risk of giving away too much personal information and exposing yourself to potentially dodgy strangers online were ever present.

Reference:

https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/vdxj4x/how-aol-instant-messenger-shaped-the-sexuality-of-a-generation-1210 [Accessed: 20 Feb 2018]

Image from:

http://viralnourish.com/aol-instant-messenger-is-shutting-down-after-20-years/ [Accessed: 12 Mar 2018]

Cybersex - "My Trip to a Dollhouse (sexual)" [Article]

"we have customers who want round dolls, pregnant dolls, men's dolls and even men's body builder dolls ..."

• As said earlier, this line from the article shows how though we are aware that we are indulging in a fantasy, we still do it, putting on Virtual Reality [VR] helmets in order to make the experience feel more realistic.

"I am an entrepreneur passionate about new technologies,"

“There is a system to warm the holes"

• In this sense, it truly is amazing how through our sexual desires, we ca still achieve some amazing things. In a way, this article somewhat shows how pleasure is an important part of humankind, as the more we develop, we want to develop and improve ways of seeing pleasure as well. Hence the sex dolls.
• However, though pleasure can be seen as a primal—and perhaps even necessarily vital—part of what makes us human, we are also social creatures, so by making sex dolls, are we not taking away a part of ourselves in pursuit of the other? To me, this could ultimately throw us off balance and become disadvantageous or dangerous, as indulging in one thing too much is never healthy, both physically and mentally.

Having researched slightly into both Cybersex and sex dolls, I feel that I can see more visual possibilities with the cybersex subject, as I think with the relation to technology and web-chats, I can see more ways of integrating imagery and text with the exploration into the subject of Cybersex.

Reference:

https://www.vice.com/fr/article/9kz3q8/ma-viree-dans-une-maison-de-poupees-sexuelles [Accessed: 20 Feb 2018]

The Transhumanist Future of Sex

Once again, this article looks at how our technological advances—in this case, products such as robotic exoskeletons and wi-fi vibrators—that can help stimulate our sexual experiences. In a way, it’s showing us how from the internet that brought sex more readily and available to us via pornography and cybersex, we are now taking the next step to further stimulate this advancement.

The writer, Zoltan Istvan, gives us examples of these advancements, saying how with the exoskeletons that can help make us better runners, climbers and help obese and elderly people stand and walk, they are also sure to aid us in performing sexual positions that we, on our own, might not be able to achieve. Thus heightening our experience with our partner. Other than that, he also acknowledges how Virtual reality (VR) will also be a place where sex can thrive, stating in the article:

“Look for virtual sex and foreplay to become commonplace, where partners are linked into brain wave headsets and virtual reality goggles.”

While I do agree that the technology is amazing, a part of me does raise a puzzled eyebrow at our turn to virtual reality. True, in a way it is safer and there, perhaps for some people that sort of space is less intimidating than in relation life. However, by fully indulging in this, I feel that we will become lost to our delusions and confuse our reality with our fantasies. Perhaps with the exoskeletons, there will still be a sense of physicality and therefore reality.

But in terms of the virtual reality,  find that while I understand why people will go for it, I do not think I can support it as to me, that would be us just indulging into our escapisms which, in the long run, might do more harm than good as we forget how to properly interact in a physically social environment that does not provide the anonymous mask that a virtual reality might be able to offer.

Reference:

Article:

Istvan, Z. (2014) The Transhumanist Future of Sex [online]. Available at: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/ypwn4k/the-transhumanist-future-of-sex [Accessed: 25 Feb 2018]

Image:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NullSpace_VR_Mk_2.jpg [Accessed: 15 Mar 2018]

Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers 

• Wabi-Sabi is the celebration of things imperfect and impermanent, an embrace of the natural, unrefined, rustic and melancholy.
• The original meaning of “Wabi” is “The misery and loneliness of living in nature, away from human consolation” and for “Sabi”, it is “Chill, lean or withered”.
• Around the 14th Century, their meanings took on a more positive aesthetic value, where the meaning of “Wabi” became “the exquisite bittersweet melancholy of being on one’s own” and “Sabi” became “the ancient pattern of a pot or a crack beautifully mended”, hence showcasing a positive impermanence and noble signs of time.

History:

Pre-Rikyu: The initial inspiration for wabi-sabi comes from ideas about simplicity, naturalness and the acceptance of reality found in Taoism and Chinese Zen Buddhism. The wabi-sabi state of mind and sense of materiality both derive from the atmosphere of desolation and melancholy and the expression of minimalism in the 9th and 10th-century Chinese monochromatic ink painting.

However, by the late 16th-century, these separate elements of wabi-sabi had coalesced into an identifiably Japanese culture and taste, quickly permeating into almost every aspect of sophisticated culture and taste; reaching its most comprehensive realisation within the context of the tea-ceremony.

As a result, wabi-sabi meanings had changed and become more secular and glorified, where the original meaning of ‘wabi’ and ‘sabi’ meant ‘the misery and loneliness of living in nature, away from human consolation’ and ‘chill, lean or withered’, the new meanings were ‘the exquisite bittersweet melancholy of being on one’s own’ and ‘the marks of ageing and wear’ that showcased a positive impermanence and the noble signs of time; ‘sabi’ had become ‘the ancient pattern of a pot or a crack beautifully mended’.

Around this time, in secular society, tea had become an elite pastime indulged in because of the prestige associated with ownership of elegant foreign-made tea-related objects. Therefore, Murata Shuko (a.k.a Murata Junko), a wabi-sabi tea-master and zen monk from Nara (1423-1502), used intentionally understated, locally produced utensils wherever possible in tea ceremonies in opposition to this secular fashion. This was the beginning of the wabi-sabi aesthetic in tea.

Rikyu: About 100 years after Shuko’s innovation, Sen no Rikyu (1522 - 1591) brought wabi-sabi to its apotheosis. Rikyu was in the service of the brilliant and eccentric Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a war Lord, along with nine other tea masters. He and them helped Hideoshi by procuring and appraising tea-related objects and by interpreting the complex protocol of tea utensils used in formal occasions.

In tea, there was considerate experimentation with objects, architectural space and the ritual itself. Using the cultural influx in the late 16th century, Rikyu secured his most enduring aesthetic triumph: unequivocally place crude, anonymous, indigenous Japanese and Korean folk craft—things wabi-sabi—on the same aesthetic level, or even higher than, slick, perfect, Chinese treasures.

Unfortunately, Hideyoshi, who grew up from peasant origins, did not take it well. He saw Rikyu’s turn toward the simple, modest, and natural values as a mockery or slight toward him. This created a rift in Rikyu’s and Hideyoshi’s relationship and with Rikyu’s growing acclaim, political indiscretion and tea utensils profiteering, Hideyoshi’s jealousy finally drove him to order Rikyu to commit Hara-Kiri at the age of 70.

Post-Rikyu: Approximately 100 years after Rikyu’s death, the “art” of tea was changed/repositioned into the “way’ of tea (chodo), ostensibly a form of religious and “spiritual” training. During this transformation, wabi-sabi was reduced, simplified and packaged into a definitive set of rules and sayings. Wabi-sabi was well on its way to becoming its opposite: slick, polished and gorgeous.

On the plus side, the institutionalized tea schools heir to their history can be said to be living museums that maintain the consistency of traditional forms, where the repetition holds the essence of tradition. Also, if not for the tea schools (it can be said) wabi-sabi—what’s left of it—would wane even further than it has in the face of Japan’s frenzied western-style modernisation. Also, the institutionalised tea practices still hold value as a meditative existence; the nonthinking repetition of mechanical forms allowing one to concentrate simply on being without distraction of having to make decisions, artistic or otherwise.

Nevertheless, wabi-sabi is not as it once was even though things that sound like wabi-sabi, the current words and the stylised forms, are still trotted out. As a long delayed reaction to the absence of genuine wabi-sabi, a few progressive members of the tea orthodoxy have recently enlisted the aid of contemporary artists and designers in an attempt to reinvigorate the wabi-sabi connection. The philosophical basis of this “new” wabi-sabi is a Rikyu reformulation of an old zen maxim, “First [tea] meeting, Last [tea] meeting”, meaning that you must pay maximum attention to everything happening at this very moment: be here now whether this particular moral-spiritual tangent will prove fruitful in guiding tea into more wabi-sabi like directions remains to be seen.

Reference:

Koren, L. (1994) Wabi-Sabi: For Artists, Designers, Poets & Philosophers. Pages: 21–23, 31–36. California: Imperfect Publishing.

Alia Zapparove

Days/Light (2014); Being in A Room (2015-16)

• A London-based photographer who has studied both philosophy and photography. She makes books and instillations that comprises of both pictures and text.
• Her works seem to delve into the insignificant and unnoticed nothingness that takes place within our lives, and I like that about her works, as she touches on things truly unseen or ignored. I find that inspiring about her, as she is unafraid to look into a direction most either do not notice or do not want to look at, and presents it to us in non-aggressive or antagonistic ways, allowing us to ease into these photographs and not become overwhelmed or negatively affected by it.
• Her works are quiet and silent, embodying a sense that compel us to contemplate and evoke discussion. They speak for themselves and for nothing at all.
• I think her photographs in her series ‘Days / Light’ (and her work in general) do relate and have a sense of wabi-sabi in them, as they seek to document a transience of time passing via the moving light within an unmoving room, showing us the impermanence that still happens within a seemingly permanent environment and that to me does hold an essence of something wabi-sabi.

Reference:

• Material Light. (2015) Alia Zapparova & Mia Ćuk [online]. Available at: http://www.materiallight.net/alia-zapparova-mia-cuk-2/ [Accessed: 4 Feb 2018]
• Zapparova, A. (no date) Days/Light [online]. Available at: http://www.aliazapparova.com/dayslight/ [Accessed: 4 Feb 2018]

Miho Kajioka

Works from her series And, where did the peacocks go? (2015)

In Miho Kajioka's work, the concept of Wabi-Sabi is very prominently laced and imbedded within. When looking at her images, a sense of time passing is felt within us, as the faded colours and sepia tone of her photographs compliment and evoke that. By taking the reflections of cherry blossoms and people across the waters surface, the ripples seems to be a metaphorical display on the elusive nature of our lives, filled with so many conditions out of our control. This thus allows us to reflect on and realise just how much we try and tightly control our lives, becoming fully aware of the meticulousness and rigidness of it. 

Her compositions are very minimal, featuring empty spaces for our mind's eye to stare at and get lost in. These empty spaces are important to her images, and a very integral part of what makes her photographs, as by accepting and embracing the incompleteness of her works, allowing them to look empty, does she fully evoke the concept of Wabi-Sabi in each image. Via her photographs, Miho Kajioka upholds the beliefs that Wabi-Sabi is making peace with the impermanent, imperfect and incomplete.

Reference:

Kajioka, M. (no date) Miho Kajioka. Available at: http://mihokajioka.com/and_where_did.html [Accessed: 25 Mar 2018]

The Photographers' Gallery. (2018) miho kajioka: unfinished spaces. Available at: https://thephotographersgallery.org.uk/whats-on/exhibitions/miho-kajioka-unfinished-spaces [Accessed: 25 Mar 2018]

The School of Life

History of Ideas: Wabi-Sabi

In this video, the School of Life defines Wabi-Sabi as "a respect for what is passing, fragile, slightly broken and modest". I believe that this video provides useful keywords for me to use to further define the concept of Wabi-Sabi and this in turn, can help me try and give them a visual representation. 

Listening to this video, I managed to take away that Wabi-Sabi is 'making peace' with our imperfection and a unification of the man-made and the natural; artifice and random chance, in perfect beauty and wisdom. Thus showing the balance that we can achieve if we allow it to happen.

Words and phrases like 'beautiful desolation' or 'the eternal through a fleeting moment' all hold a sense of Wab-Sabi; an acceptance of the the ned of something while still having full enjoyment of that something while it hasn't passed yet. 

Eastern Philosophy: Sen no Rikyū

Here the School of Life goes more in-depth into the concept and meaning of Sen no Rikyū's ideas of Wabi-Sabi in relation to the Japanese tea ceremony, such as talking about the reasoning behind the placement of the teahouse or the size of the door.

Placement of teahouse:

The teahouse was to be a mere 2 meter² of area and tucked away in secluded gardens. This way, a barrier could be created between the materialistic and participants could then focus on the nature surrounding them.

Door:

The size of the door was made deliberately smaller than normal so that all who walked through had to bend down to enter. This symbolised that upon walking into the hut for the tea ceremony, everyone was now equal in status, no matter if you are a merchant, warlord or peasant. 

If performed properly, a tea ceremony would promote 'Wa' or 'Harmony' that would manifest when the participants rediscover their connection to nature as they sit in a moss covered hut and sipping their tea, hearing the chirping of birds as they drink. They thus feel at one with the non-human sphere. Through this, 'Kei' or 'Respect' will arise and they can all sit in a room and converse without the artifice or pressures from the outside world. If successful, by the end of the tea ceremony, the participants would leave with a sense of 'Jaku' or 'Tranquility' and 'Sei', 'Purity. These were central concepts in Rikyū's gentle and calming philosophy. 

Wabi-Sabi: Impermanent, Imperfect and Incomplete. The satisfaction with simplicity and austerity and the appreciation of the imperfect. 

Eastern Philosophy: Kintsugi

'Kinstugi', which means Golden (Kin) Joinery (Stugi), is an attitude towards ceramics that is derived from Wabi-Sabi. It aims to show that when a porcelain plate or glass bowl breaks, we should not hide the cracks as we repair it, but bring emphasis to it; highlighting them with lacquer and gold. The practice is to show how we should embrace the hardships and imperfection that life brings to us, allowing us to accept and grow through the pain of having been broken by one, two or a few bad days. For by accepting our imperfections and cracks can we become stronger and more beautiful. 

Reference:

The School of Life. (2015) History of Ideas: Wabi-Sabi. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QmHLYhxYVjA [Accessed: 29 Jan 2018]

The School of Life. (2014) Eastern Philosophy: Sen no Rikyū. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZpE-XL0u5yI [Accessed: 28 Apr 2018]

The School of Life. (2016) Eastern Philosphy: Kintsugi. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBUTQkaSSTY [Accessed: 29 Jan 2018]

Nerdwriter1

Much like the School of Life's video on Kintsugi, Nerdwriter1 defines what the Japanese philosophical aesthetic means in addition to how it came to be, where a Shogen broke his favourite teacup and upon the realisation that the repaired teacup what ugly, he prompted the Japanese craftsmen to find a more aesthetic and beautiful way of mending the teacup. 

The video is easy to understand and clearly defines the philosophy and its origins as well as why is it significant in applying it to our lives. As an introduction to Wabi-Sabi, I believe that this is a good place to start. 

Reference:

Nerdwriter1. (2014) Kintsugi: The Art of Embracing Damage. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT55_u8URU0 [Accessed: 2 Feb 2018]

Publication Research

Frida Kahlo

Pages from The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An intimate Self-Portrait

• Combining words, images and sketches, Kahlo uses all kinds of pens and colours to annotate and note down her thoughts. This book shows us just how expressive she was with her creative process. There is something fearless about the way she writes in her diary, sketching ideas down and noting down musings that would otherwise seem somewhat nonsensical to others reading.
• The book feels very authentic, housing thoughts, fears and poetic words  for Kahlo—and only Kahlo alone—to gaze upon; her diary is a poem in itself for herself.
• The doodles, colourings, text, etc. are all so distinctively her, be it political messages or potential ideas and plans she wants to do.

Reference:

Fuentes, C. and Kahlo, F. (1995) The Diary of Frida Kahlo: An intimate Self-Portrait. London: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc.

Publication Research

Derek Jarman

His sketchbooks are filled with:

• Extracts
• Scripts
• Poems
• Papers
• Newspapers
• Stickers/cards
• illustrations
• Photographs
• Plans

• He places everything in a collage of research, potential experiments and development, such as sketching out some atmospheric shots he could potentially put into his film, or location shots he would take of a particular house or landscape. He has a good sense of composition.

• When he writes, he does so boldly, taking up the pages with his big italic words much like how Daidō Moriyama would would print his images across the spread of his books.
• Very authentic documentation of his creative process, as said in a commentary by Toyah Willcox in page 76, “His sketchbooks were part of his conscious thought but they were also part of his unconscious journey. Looking at them you could see how Derek thought and what he needed to exist as an artist.”

Reference:

• Farthing, S.(ed.) and Webb-Ingall, E.(ed.) (2013) Derek Jarman’s Sketchbooks. London: Thames & Hudson.