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January 26, 2005

Saber mirar

Saber mirar es un sistema completamente nuevo de agrimensura espiritual. Saber mirar es un modo de inventar. E no existe invención tan pura como aquella que ha creado la mirada anestésica de ojo limpíssimo, ausente de pestañas, del Zeiss: destilado e atento, imposible a la floración rosada de la conjuntivitis.

La fotografia, como pura creación del espíritu (1927), Salvador Dalí

Knowing how to look is a completely new system of spiritual surveying. Knowing how to look is a way of inventing. And there isn’t a purer invention as the one created by the anesthetic glance of the most clean eye, absent of eyelashes, that is the Zeiss: distilled and attentive, impossible to the pink flowering of the conjuntivitis.

Photography, as a pure creation of the spirit (1927), Salvador Dalí

Posted by claudia Permalink

January 25, 2005

V. Mescherin's Ensemble of Electro-Musical Instruments

Why is it that kitsch appeals to me so much? I do have a weird sense of humour at times; maybe that's why I find aesthetic worthlessness amusing?

Thanks to a colleague, I found a store in Lisboa that sells cd's for 1 Euro. Among other weird, unsellable stuff was a two volume set called "Easy USSR". I had a heard a bit of it before (it was one of my colleague's acquisitions) and had found it hilarious. The cover had a nice retro graphic design style... I bought it.

Inside, the leaflet unfolds to show a chronology of V.Mescherin's life and USSR history (I think, since it's in russian). Mescherin, according to the wikipedia, was a Soviet musician who used synthesisers in the 60's, 70's and 80's and "his music could be heard virtually everywhere, in elevators, on television backgrounds; the Soviet government asked him to prepare a version of the Internationale (The former national anthem) for use in a Sputnik satellite in 1959".

Inside, a perfectly bizarre, the kitschest primitive electronic music from the 60's and 70's with terrible titles like "On the kholkoz poultry farm" or "Ethiopian joker's dance". Here's a sample from 1973's "Dancing Dwarves":

More about Mescherin here.

Posted by claudia Permalink | Comments (1)