[Atompunk] Atompunk Digest, Vol 1, Issue 2

[Viola]

oops, I will translate that message:
My collegue replied on this message:
He deeply complimented you on your ideas and saw possibilities to base an 
assignment for artschools on this article.
And he asked me how a mailinglist works ;)

Viola

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "PLANETART" <planetart at planet.nl>
To: <atompunk at antenna.nl>
Sent: Saturday, December 06, 2008 11:19 AM
Subject: Re: [Atompunk] Atompunk Digest, Vol 1, Issue 2


> 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
>>
>>
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
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