I've been working with some teenagers from the local estate, interviewing older members of the community and making a small film. The guys are also rappers and have created a song based on the interviews. I am then making this into a video. I was humbled by the way they had interpreted the stories of the older folk, folk who are operating from such a distant moral and value system. Yet Reepa and C4 {their working non deplumes} took in these stories, processed them and sent them back out again in a very dynamic and connected stream of lyrics.
Last night I was watching for the 'nth' time the first 'Ghost in the Shell' film from Masamune Shirow. A state of the art Japanese animation from 1995 {still looking good even in todays cgi climate}. One of the key characters Kusanagi has a cyborg body but has her original organic brain. The worlds of humans, cyborgs and the electric ether of cyberspace are merging and a new consciousness is being created. Kusangi says "the only thing that makes me feel human is the way that I'm treated"
Relationship - relating - not reacting but relating. Most of how we engage with each other seems to be about reacting to someone, rather than relating to the person. I do it, I try and catch myself and adjust my engagement with the people I meet, it takes an effort to do this. It does not seem to be instinctive. I wish that it were. The more I spend time interviewing people, the more I get to see just how thin and fragile these shells are that we have to contain our souls or sprits or ghosts. Our reactions are designed to be immediate, a self preservation, kill or be killed, dump or get dumped, hurt or get hurt.
Leonard Cohen asks over and over Who, Who, Who shall I say is calling. I take this as his invitation to the stranger to introduce them-self. I shan't presume to know you, to judge you, to fear or love you, please take your time and tell who you are...we may find we have much in common.
Enjoy Len singing in an unbelievable subsonic register...and here are a few more philosophical moments from Ghost in the Shell...
0 comments:
Post a Comment