[Atompunk] Atompunk Digest, Vol 1, Issue 2

[PLANETART]

jeetje wat een input, heeft een punt over punk!
wel goeeie ideeen zeg om uit te werken ook, zo'n stuk zou je mee kunnen 
geven aan een HVA of beter Rietveld  klas of zo om mee aan de slag te 
gaan,  hebben we het vanavond graag f over...

hoe reageer je nu naar zo'n man toe, visa reply gaat dat naar hem of 
iedereen , jij bent moderator, kun je mij uitleggen hoe dat gaat?


Adam Rothstein schreef:
> A few hastily drawn up thoughts quickly evolved into a personal 
> manifesto of sorts... Sorry for monopolizing bandwidth, but I guess I 
> just can't shake all that philosophy I crammed into my brain at one 
> time.  Would love to hear any thoughts, disputations, angry slurs and 
> insinuations.
>
> thoughts about "____-punk"...
>
> I've noticed that many styles and sub-cultures that either adopt, or 
> are adopted into the surname, "___-Punk", might be better served by 
> the word "Chic".  Naturally, most sub-cultures have a certain 
> aesthetic to them: a style of dress, a slang, defining characteristics 
> or popular models.  But being a sub-culture doesn't necessarily 
> deserve the punk-attribute, at least in my opinion.
>
> Punk, as its own sub-culture (and the first to embrace the term) was 
> originally derided as being 'music for animals, street-thugs, 
> maladjusted malcontents, and others whom society would rather just 
> went away.' (my own definition).  And for the most part, they were.  
> Of course, now anyone can like punk-rock music, and punk clothing, 
> hairstyles, art, etc.  Now there is a punk-chic; but, at first it was 
> 'punk' because it was low, because it was unfavorable, and because it 
> turned much of its animosity towards those with whom it contrasted.  
> It was a loud-screaming, hard-drinking, chord-nashing kick in the 
> crotch to the rest of music, and was glad to be so.  Certainly it was 
> not the first counter-culture, but I think it's fair to call it the 
> archetype of the modern counter-culture.
>
> Now, my own interests may bias me and easily reveal an even bigger 
> orientation towards counter-cultures in general, but in looking at 
> incarnations of ____-punk, I can see various angles on both the chic, 
> purely cultural variety, and the punk, counter-cultural type.  
> Cyber-punk, while having a gritty, exposed-wire, 
> hyperbureaucratic-pollution look, also has cyborg and hacking as major 
> themes--which are certainly hands-on counter-culture.  Steam-punk, as 
> well, may be shrouded in brass trim, colored glass, and darkwoods (not 
> to mention having a fondness for the hiss of boilers and dressy 
> vests), but I think it also represents an alternate-view of history--a 
> rejection of internal combustion, certain aspects of the scientific 
> method, and modern economics--exploring some of science's so-called 
> "dead ends" to see if they really are dead (or perhaps to see if they 
> can be zombified to will-lessly serve their new masters), in leiu of 
> blinding heading down the superhighway of "progress".  Because they 
> have become cultures, and not just themes for a single story-line, 
> these ____-punks have developed cultural 'lives of their own', the 
> creativity of their proponents blossoming forth with fashions, musics, 
> technical vocabularies, and projects that willingly stray from the 
> ideological line.  However, this doesn't mask what I believe is the 
> important fact: the chic is truly developed, and wonderfully so, when 
> there is a radical departure from a stated ideal of contemporary 
> culture.  This ___-punk can blast off, split the atom, and take 
> flight; it can release a cataclysmic/cathartic amount of creative 
> energy, which, of course, may be quickly turned back around through 
> the ___-punk/industrial complex to feed the consumer-oriented masses 
> and/or the state ideology (do you see where I'm going with this?)
>
> Atomic Dreams...
>
> The post-war period was a major re-alligning, re-imagination of the 
> world throughout almost all boundaries and systems.  Similar, in this 
> way to the Industrial Revolution (steam-punk) and the Digital 
> Revolution (cyber-punk).  I think that the major elements of the 
> atomic era's onset belie a deeper change occuring in the world; a push 
> to put modernism not just in the imperial, parlimentary, and 
> industrial centers and houses, but into every country and every home.  
> It was the rise of not only mass-production, but mass-marketing; the 
> beginning of not simply weapons of destruction but of 
> mass-destruction; the birth of ideology and dreams not only for 
> individuals or of vanguards, but the State Ideology, and the National 
> Dream. 
>
> But hand in hand with the push to bring the advances of culture to the 
> masses came mass-terror.  1945 may have seen the defeat of fascism, 
> but it was also about the time that micro-fascism ended its 
> adolescence, emancipated itself from the household of its mother 
> (nation) and its father (the leader) and sought to make a name for 
> itself.  Do you neighbors have a better auto than you?  Are your 
> sheets white enough?  Do we have more/faster planes than them?  Who 
> will conquer space?  Who will conquer the moon?  Are /you/ with us?  
> Are /your/ neighbors/parents/teachers/newspapers/film directors/car 
> manufacturers  with us?  The age of the pressing, polemical, personal, 
> rhetorical question was at hand, because the horrible answer was now 
> so near in the future.
>
> The "we" ended with WWII, now it was time for "I", or more so, "you".  
> What will /you/ do to halt the advance of the answer to the question?  
> What will you invent?  What will you work on?  What will you buy?  
> What complex/corporation will you join, and further the goals of?  
> What organizations have you been, are you currently, and will you be a 
> member of in the near future?  What will happen next, and what will 
> you do when it does?  The world split down the middle, and each atom 
> was alligned within one of its hemispheres.  Within these spheres all 
> the other molocules could be now broken down, analyzed, and 
> re-synthesized.  Each individual atom was split off, and recombined 
> into nuclear families of the precise chemical composition that would 
> create the necessary reaction.  And where was the reaction heading?  
> Perhaps eventually to sustainable power sources of the future, but 
> first: chain reaction, meltdown, and thermonuclear explosion.  Perhaps 
> /you /shouldn't drive so fast, but then again, /we /have to get there 
> before /they /do.  What element do /you /want to be?
>
> Today's Atom-punk of the future...
>
> So what is atom-punk then?  Is it merely a facination with the 
> lifestyle of the times: a retro-chic with a new monicker?  I think it 
> should be more than that.  Like any epoch, our current times have 
> heavy echoes of the past.  How are we to react?  How do we punk the 
> modern times?
>
> The Atomic Age is first and foremost, in my opinion, remembered as a 
> time of extremes.  No gentle Aristotelians ever quietly sipped their 
> watery drinks in the corners of the bunkers of NORAD, in Madison 
> Avenue board rooms, or while measuring their lawn lengths, or trading 
> on the black market, pausing from quietly listening to dispense a few 
> words of sage mediating advice.  After that, it was the rise of the 
> individual en masse: the boy scout, the modern worker, the scientist, 
> the corporate business-man, and the middle-class nuclear family.  It 
> was also the beginning of the mass to the individual: consumer 
> culture, advertising, personal loyalty, and citizenship.  And lastly 
> but not least: it was the age of the awesome apocalypse.  Eschatology 
> was nothing new, but these were end-times without redemption, where 
> destruction was mutually assured to prevent the Others from destroying 
> our heaven on earth, as they surely would.
>
> The way that I take this the way I take many horrible features of the 
> present-day world: with a slug of booze and a shot of irony.  Ironic 
> appropriation of the atomic archetypes seems necessary, if not totally 
> going-without-saying.  What else is a rational human being supposed to 
> do when confronted with the cute little "Duck and Cover" turtle? What 
> can we do except laugh hysterically?
>
> But I think we can do more than that.  Irony is a cheap thrill these 
> days, in a world with so much horror.  There is something to the 
> midset of the Atomic Age that is still useful, if not wonderful, I 
> think.  Perhaps its a general attitude of excitement for the future, a 
> love for new, radically different design.  Perhaps it was the 
> directness of that question to the "you", that personal element that 
> was so quickly lost in the annonymity of mass-communication.  Or 
> perhaps it was the combination of fear and anticipation that still 
> soaked through the laughter when even today, we unconsciously mime the 
> "duck and cover" spasticity while ironically watching Billy and Susie 
> diving to that linoleum floor.  The world can still end at any 
> minute.  Haven't we all wanted to build a bomb shelter in our 
> backyard, if not for the awesomely tacky lamps and ready-to-eat meals, 
> than just for the solice and womb-like, concrete comfort?  Shall we 
> finally stop worrying and love the atomization of our lives?   Maybe 
> by mimicking a culture we have since seen fall away, we can help the 
> current world's problems fall away to other things, new things with 
> new problems, if not a perfect future. 
>
> And not just by mimicking, either.  By innovating!  Ever-forward, of 
> course!  What is the new atom, waiting to be cracked?  Is it the byte? 
> The stem cell?  The hydrogen ion?  What web apps are my neighbors 
> using?  What design of auto will best express the fact that we are 
> living in a new age?  How do we prevent /them/ from destroying our 
> world?  Who do /you/ know who is stepping on the feet of progress?  
> How can get the kids to listen to good music, and not this awful rock 
> 'n roll?   What slogans can best express to the masses that WE are NOW 
> living IN THE FUTURE! What are /you/ going to do to help?  Let's 
> proliferate, industrialize and punk those Reds/Capitalists before they 
> punk us! 
>
>
> Some atom-punk ideas:
>
> Battery-powered everything (and better batteries)
> Developing and posting escape routes/plans
> New concept models of common-place, time-worn devices
> Logos for things that don't yet exist
> Drills and training for mundane, possibly cataclysmic eventualities 
> (i.e. web searches, car-breakdowns, lost items)
> Investigative questions for un-suspecting suspects
> Slogans.  Lot's of slogans.
> The "new billboard".  I'm not sure what it is yet; but it is NOT the 
> web banner.  I'm thinking more along the lines of quasi-illegally 
> affixed stickers.
> The new, post-gender nuclear family
> Sunday Dinners
> Standards that thwart old standards (i.e. mass-produced, identical 
> "Welcome" signs that replace picket fences, manners that violate old 
> manners)
> Why isn't life more like a rocket?
> Gadgets that require simpler (more home-built, less environmentally 
> impacting) circuits rather that integrated
> Concrete: good for the family, good for the nation, good for you
> Personal Foreign Policy
> Bureaucracy with a purpose: living better through forms: 
> inter-departmentally!
> Family TV Hour: once a day, for one hour only, only programs not aired 
> in the past fifteen years
> Light-switches: we still have the same freakin' light switches?
> The Diner is the Luxury Restaurant of our Age
> What does your suit say about You?
> NotBomb-Shelters (i.e. Commercial Shelters, Car Shelters, 
> Computer-Virus/Malware Shelters)
> The ____ Gap: we must be falling behind in something.  What is it, and 
> how can we quickly produce to fill this gap?
> Home Economics
> Post-Union Workers (not Postal Union Workers) but speaking of that
> The US Mails
> One-Time Offers
>
> ...and more after this!
>
>
> Duck and Cover,
> Adam (not-Atom) Rothstein
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Atompunk mailing list
> Atompunk at antenna.nl
> http://www14.antenna.nl/mailman/listinfo/atompunk
>