mbf tod@y

The Italian Ivory Tower: Oldest Professors in Europe

"UNIVERSITA' italiana da svecchiare? Volgendo lo sguardo all'estero, sembra proprio di sì. I professori che insegnano negli atenei del nostro Paese sono i più vecchi d'Europa. L'impietoso panorama anagrafico è stato fornito dallo stesso ministero dell'Università che qualche settimana fa ha aggiornato i numeri relativi al personale docente. Il corpo accademico italiano, nell'ultimo decennio, non è mai stato così anziano come nel 2007. E il confronto internazionale ancora una volta ci colloca in coda alla classifica: siamo i più vecchi d'Europa.  [...] Nel nostro Paese, solo 4 docenti universitari su cento possono vantare meno di 34 anni. La percentuale di giovani schizza letteralmente in su oltralpe (il 21% di under 34 in Francia), Germania (32%) e Finlandia, dove le probabilità di stare "in cattedra" da giovanissimi è alta: 28%. Anche il Regno Unito dà molte chance (il 27% di docenti universitari con meno di 34 anni) ai propri giovani di intraprendere la carriera universitaria" (Salvo Intravaia, La Repubblica)

Read more (in Italian)

From Betamax to Blockbuster

“The invention of the camera,” argues art critic and writer, John Berger, in his seminal text, Ways of Seeing, “changed the way men [sic] saw.” Through this technological innovation, images which were once categorised in the exclusive domain of ‘art’ became widely and simply disseminated. The result, a profound shift in the meanings and values conferred by such images and their genre.. Arguably, the VCR has performed a similar function. Images, albeit moving, which were once confined to one time viewing opportunities when broadcast or on the cinema screen, can now be stored, viewed, and reviewed at leisure. However, while Berger’s interest lies with the image itself, Joshua M Greenberg’s text From Betamax to Blockbuster, is instead concerned with the tool by which images are replayed." (Olly Zanetti, Pop Matters)

A wonderful book indeed.

From Betamax to Blockbuster: Video Stores and the Invention of Movies on Video
by Joshua M. Greenberg
The MIT Press
April 2008, 216 pages, $24.95

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Matteo Garrone's Gomorrah

"Power, money and blood. In a world seemingly far from reality, but well-rooted in our land, these are the "values" with which the inhabitants of the province of Caserta, between Aversa and Casal di Principe, must struggle every day. Almost always you can not choose, almost always six forced to obey the rules of the system, the Camorra, and only the most fortunate can expect to lead a life of "normal". Gomorrah is a journey into the world of business and criminal Camorra opens and closes in the sign of goods, their life cycle. Goods "fresh", just born, that under the most varied forms - pieces of plastic, branded clothes, video games, watches - arriving at the port of Naples and, to be stored and hidden. And the goods now that death, from all over Italy and half of Europe, in the form of chemical waste, morchie toxic sludge, even human skeletons, are improperly "sversate" bells in the countryside, where poison, among others, the same boss who on those lands build their lavish homes and absurd - dacie Russian villas Hollywood, cathedrals of cement and marble precious - not only serve to certify reached a power, but utopias farneticanti testify." (Quiet Earth)

See the trailer here.

This is very powerful.

This is the real Italian cinema: Matteo Garrone, Paolo Sorrentino. A few others.

Related posts

My Next Girlfriend

"Created with lonely people in mind, Drew Burrows' INBED is an "infrared-sensitive" light projected virtual girlfriend. A sexy brunette, she's got about three tricks up her sleeve—and she does all of them from a supine position. Kiss her on the cheek when you slide into bed and she'll bury her face in the pillow. Hmmm, that sounds wrong. She moves into a spoon position if you're on your side, and snuggles up beside you when you're on your back. Cute." (Gizmodo)

Full article available on New York Magazine

L'impresa dell'arte (Naples, Italy 16 May - 30 June 2008)

L'impresa dell'arte - PAN - Palazzo delle Arti Napoli Curated by Julia Draganovic

16 maggio 2008 - 30 giugno 2008
inaugurazione: 16 maggio ore 19.00

Fino a che punto l’arte può essere “capitale”, diventando specchio dell’andamento economico generale  e termometro delle tendenze in corso? E’ solo uno degli interrogativi sollevati dalla mostra “L’Impresa dell’arte”, la prima del nuovo ciclo tematico  curato da Julia Draganovic e dedicato a “IL BENE COMUNE”, al PAN|Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, dal 16 maggio fino al 30 giugno 2008 e affidati ad artisti come 0100101110101101.org, Guy Ben-Ner, Susanne Bosch, Shu Lea Cheang, Claude Closky, Steven Cohen, Yevgeniy Fiks, Finger, Jean-Baptiste Ganne, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Christian Jankowski, Alessandro Ludovico, UBERMORGEN.COM, Paolo Cirio, Sarah Morris, Danica Phelps, Tadej Pogacar, Roxy in the Box e Santiago.

To what extent can art be considered as “capital”, becoming a mirror of the general economic situation, and a thermometer of current trends? This is just one of the questions that will be raised at “L’impresa dell’arte” (The Enterprise of Art), the first of a new thematic cycle of events curated by Julia Draganovic and dedicated to the “A COMMON ASSET” exhibition, at PAN|Palazzo Delle Arti Napoli, from the 16th of May until the 30th of June 2008.  “The Enterprise of Art” investigates the relationship between art and economy in a period where auctions and contemporary art fairs register new record prices almost every month, leading us to consider the equation of “art enterprise = art market, a principle that is far too often taken for granted. (e-flux)

Link (English)

Gamebits

• YouTube uploads integrated into PS3 games (Ross Miller, joystiq)
• Platinum's Madworld, Infinite Line, Bayonetta: The Transcript  (Gamasutra)
• Mirror's Edge Trailer Analysis (Gametrailers, via RPG)

Films in the Park (SF)

See the full schedule here

Wu Ming 1 at MIT: The full lecture

"Slightly More Than Expected from a Band of Novelists: On How and Why a Group of Writers Called Wu Ming Set to Disrupt Italian (nay, European) Literature and Popular Culture (and then Came to Boston to Brag About It)

Wu Ming 1 is a founding member and representative of the Wu Ming Foundation, a collective of writers from Italy. Most members of the collective were deeply involved in the Luther Blissett Project, an international experiment in culture jamming, radical pranksterism and guerrilla mythology that ran from 1994 to 1999. During that time, a group of LBP activists wrote a controversial novel titled Q, which was published to much acclaim in 1999. In January 2000 the authors of Q founded the Wu Ming Foundation, which takes its name from a Chinese word meaning either "anonymous" or "five names" depending on how the first syllable is pronounced. The name is meant both as a tribute to dissidents ("Wu Ming" is a common byline among Chinese citizens demanding democracy and freedom of speech) and as a refusal of the celebrity-making machine which turns authors into stars" (MIT)

Read (and listen) more

What Goes Around...

The Sims IKEA Stuff

Vero e/o Falso (Milano, via Dolomiti 11, Maggio 20 e 27)

Mockumentary: viaggio nel mondo del falso documentario
a cura di Carlo Prevosti Una passeggiata sul filo del rasoio, a cavallo del sottile confine che separa realtà e finzione, chiedendosi cosa è vero e cosa è falso seguendo un filo conduttore anomalo: il mockumentary. Un genere nuovo, capace di confondere le acque, di mescolare le carte delle regole creando un cortocircuito di stili e di linguaggi cinematografici. Una selezione di film per comprendere come si possa manipolare il linguaggio del documentario per costruire storie di finzione (in)credibili. Un fenomeno globale che coinvolge la cinematografia mondiale, ma che ancora non è emerso rivelandone le reali proporzioni. Quattro titoli, in due serate, che vogliono proporsi come la punta di un iceberg di cui ancora non conosciamo la parte sommersa, ancora tutta da scoprire.

martedì 20 - ore 21.30
Forgotten silver
Peter Jackson, 1995
Operazione luna
William Karel, 2001

martedì 27 - ore 21.30 
I Simpson - dietro la risata (behind the laughter)
Episodio BABF19
Mark Kirkland, 2000
Il cameraman e l'assassino
Remy Belvaux, André Bonzel e Benoit Poelvoorde, 1992

Leggi