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For the fourth session we’ll have a screening of Ro.Go.Pa.G. from 1963 , which consists of four short films, each written and directed by one of four film directors – Roberto Rossellini, Jean-LucGodard, PierPaolo Pasolini and Ugo Gregoretti.

RoGoPaG: Let’s Have a Brainwash is the film that recounts the joyous beginning of the end of the world. As the opening title puts it: ‘The four stories limit themselves to recounting the things that in this era condition man, and the stimuli that slowly transform him into a weak and defenceless being.’

From the mechanisms of production and consumption in which man is immersed up to his neck, this man must accept the rhythm and the imperious logic of the mechanical society that pervades and dominates him. Man is the protagonist of the story narrated in this film made up of four stories. The prototype of the protagonist of this film could be, as described by a top sales theorist speaking within the film itself: “… the Italian who gained from the economic miracle, who in just a few years doubled his income and overcame the psychological need to save.”

Rosselini’s ‘Chastity’ (‘Illibatezza’) deals with an attractive air hostess Ana Maria who receives the unwelcome attentions of a middle aged American. A psychiatrist advises her fiancee to instruct her to behave more promiscuously, since the maniac is attracted by her chastity. Godard’s ‘New World’ (‘Il Nuovo Mondo’) illustrates a post-apocalypse world the same as the pre-apocalyptic one but for an enigmatic change in attitude in most people. He feels that a new world without logic and freedom may be arising. In Pasolini’s ‘Curd Cheese’ (‘La Ricotta’), a lavish film about the Crucifixion of Christ is being made in a poor area. The impoverished people subject themselves to various indignities in the name of movie making in order to win a little food, which in turn leads to the death of Stacci a central character. The last segment is Gregoretti’s ‘Free Range Chicken’ (‘Il Pollo Ruspante’) in which a family of the materialist culture inadvertently illustrate the cynical, metallic voiced doctrine of a top sales theorist.

Advanced reading: an essay from Frederic Jameson’s 2005 book, ‘Archaeologies of the Future’. (to follow shortly)

“In an age of globalization characterized by the dizzying technologies of the First World, and the social disintegration of the Third, is the concept of utopia still meaningful? Archaeologies of the Future, Jameson’s most substantial work since Postmodernism, Or, the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism, investigates the development of this form since Thomas More, and interrogates the functions of Utopian thinking in a post-Communist age. The relationship between utopia and science fiction is explored through the representations of otherness … alien life and alien worlds … and a study of the works of Philip K. Dick, Ursula LeGuin, William Gibson, Brian Aldiss, Kim Stanley Robinson and more. Jameson’s essential essays, including The Desire Called Utopia, conclude with an examination of the opposing positions on utopia and an assessment of its political value today.” – Verso Books

Workshop Date: 12th February 2011
Organisers: Jesse Jones Fiona Marron

This workshop included a screening of Lizzie Borden’s film “Born in Flames” with performative reading session in the dance space.

This session was intended to explore feminism in relation to science fiction. Lizzie Borden’s film is an iconic piece of feminist cinema but is not very well
known in Ireland at all despite the fact that Irish film maker Pat Murphy plays one of the lead characters.

Fiona and myself introduced the film from the background research we had prepared in the IFI on the film. I concentrated on Lizzie Bordan herself and the history of Feminist cinema, while Fiona looked at Pat Murphy and how her film making was influenced by her time spent in new York in the early 1980’s, In particular ‘Maeve” and “Ann Devlin”.

We watched the film together and had a brief discussion following the film on the issues raised. We then broke off and moved up to the dance space where we had laid out the performative reading session. We had prepared twenty photocopies from JK Gibson Graham’s “The End of Capitalism (As we knew it)”and placed them each on a red chair in front of the mirror in the dance space.

We had previously orgainised for two people in the group to take minutes on the mirror with Lipstick. This session was very interesting and the photographic documentation turned out quite nice also. It was agreed that performance would be an important part of what we would like to produce for the final event.

Workshop 1
Date 8th of January 2011

The initial workshop was a chance for the collaborating artists to meet for the first time and to find out more about the collaborative research project. In preparation for this I had met with the artist Fiona Marron to jointly prepare the workshop.  Fiona marron is an emerging artist, who’s practice often looks at financial intuitions and contexts. I had specifically asked Fiona to be an key collaborating artist on the project

For this workshop Fiona and I had prepared a close reading of Swift’s Modest proposal. The reading was a location reading set in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Twenty of the invited participants came along. Myself and Fiona had met previously in the week to prepare the workshop. We began with an introduction for st Patrick’s Cathedral to give some context to Swift and the location of St Patrick’s.  Fiona then introduced the text and began reading. Each person in the group then read out a paragraph in turn from the text.

At a certain point within the text, the actor David Heap, in costume interrupted our reading session and performed an excerpt from his one man play, “The passion of Jonathan Swift”, which included the modest proposal and a run on the bankers from 1720.

Following this performance we thanked Jonathon swift and proceeded to discuss the texts both read an recited in relation to ideas of economics, the 1720’s currency crisis and early capitalist philosophy.

We concluded the session with tea and coffee and some food in Jonathan Swift’s public house in Francis st.

There is a strong interest in the text and a collaborative research process. I also introduced the project and described the type of collaboration I was intending.

One of the successes of the workshop was definitely the interruption by the actor. This gave an element of surprise to the event and a performativity also to the reading. I have decided to incorporate this performativity in the next workshop which is planed for the 29th of January.

This is a screening of the film “Aelita” here in Rua Red with a live soundtrack  performed by an electronic ensemble called, “Boys of Summer”.