"Man and Machine"

This video is an illustration of my idea of greatness. And it reflects, to me, the importance of the adjective "united".

Who still consider this word?
"United" Kingdom.
European "Union".
Is there anything "united" still about them? About us?

Union, nonetheless, is our core nature, as living beings. We are nothing without each other, humans, nature, animals, oxygen, astral bodies... We are all related. Existing together. United.

But only humans are, everyday, forgetting it, destroying things, and creating chaos.

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We live in difficult times. And growing up in the 1980s, 70s, 60s, most of us were badly prepared for this, experiencing, here in Europe I mean, peaceful times.

Of course, it was an illusion, the so-called "Cold War". Now, since 1991, we have been experiencing new wars, but different wars, remote wars, where most casualties are touched in far-away lands. Beautiful lands, sister lands, but that in the West, in dominant former empires, we chose to only use and destroy.

What is left of "Man" in our humanity? Especially now that firms have built up enough robots and machines to replace ourselves? What is still human in Humans?

This is what artists are asking and exploring more than ever.

This is where we are. And why I'm sharing this short video.

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United Visual Artists reflect on human and artificial intelligence in a project inspired by Alan Turing.

Illuminating: Man and Machine

Illuminating: Man and Machine

Alan Turing is the inspiration for a study of human and artificial intelligence by art and design group United Visual Artists

In the third and final episode of our Illuminating series, a trilogy of films showcasing a range of innovative installations by London-based art and design group UVA, co-founder Matt Clark explores the grey area between the natural and the technological.  

“Matt Clark explores the grey area between the natural and the technological”

With a focus on UVA's permanent light installation, Message From the Unseen World—a memorial to pioneering British codebreaker and computer scientist Alan Turing, set under a bridge in London—this episode ultimately explores the deeper enigma of being human.

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Published on 23 Mar 2017

Read more on NOWNESS - http://bit.ly/2o8EKZr

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'I Am Not Your Negro' in Bristol, from April 5

Very happy to announce that Raoul Peck will present his marvelous film in Bristol, my city, my love.

Preview: I Am Not Your Negro + Director Q&A

Wed 5 April 18:00

Director: Raoul Peck

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, James Baldwin, Harry Belafonte 93 mins, 2017

We are delighted to announce we will be welcoming director Raoul Peck to Watershed for Q&A following a preview screening on Wed 5 April, 18:00 in advance of us screening the film from Fri 7 April for at least one week.

In addition to this, as part of Bristol Festival of Ideas, on Sat 27 May Come the Revolution will be hosting a special one-off screening of the film (at 13:00) followed by a discussion event (15:15) hosted by Dr Edson Burton. 


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In 1979, James Baldwin wrote a letter to his literary agent describing his next project, Remember This House. The book was to be a revolutionary, personal account of the lives and successive assassinations of three of his close friends – Medgar Evers, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr.

At the time of Baldwin’s death in 1987, he left behind only thirty completed pages of his manuscript, which is narrated here by Samuel L Jackson.

Now, in his incendiary new documentary, master filmmaker Raoul Peck envisions the book James Baldwin never finished. The result is a radical, up-to-the-minute examination of race in America, using Baldwin’s original words and flood of rich archival material. I Am Not Your Negro is a journey into black history that connects the past of the Civil Rights movement to the present of #BlackLivesMatter. It is a film that questions black representation in Hollywood and beyond. And, ultimately, by confronting the deeper connections between the lives and assassination of these three leaders, Baldwin and Peck have produced a work that challenges the very definition of what America stands for.

Presented by Come The Revolution in partnership with Bristol Festival of Ideas.

To book: https://uk.patronbase.com/_Watershed/Seats/NumSeats?prod_id=11QA&perf_id=1&section_id=M&action=&seat_type_id=STAN


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All the events around the film:

Wed 5 April Preview with Director Q&A

Fri 7 April screening for at least one week

Sat 27 May Festival of Ideas screening 13:00 / Discussion 15:15

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Festival of Ideas May 2017

Come The Revolution Presents: I am Not your Negro 18 (CTBA)

Sat 27 May 13:00

Director: Raoul Peck

Cast: Samuel L. Jackson, James Baldwin, Dick Cavett 93 mins, 2016, France | USA

Failures and tragedies

I don't understand why we let this happen... 

It's like divorcing your brothers and sisters, but you cannot quit your family... Even if you fight, disgree, feel you've invested more and got too little in return, you'll always need them and have them. 

We are just here, together. 

And there are so many bigger problems to face! Real tragedies of war and misery we also provoked. 

Can someone tell why? Crazy, crazy world...

Brexit is a failure and a tragedy, says EC chief Juncker

In The Guardian this morning: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/mar/24/brexit-a-failure-and-a-tragedy-says-ec-chief-jean-claude-juncker?CMP=share_btn_fb

Press Association

Friday 24 March 2017 07.35 GMT

European commission president confirms Britain will get a bill for leaving, but said this did not represent a ‘punishment’

Brexit is “a failure and a tragedy”, the president of the European commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, has said.

The EU’s most senior civil servant promised that Brussels would approach the negotiation of Britain’s withdrawal in a “friendly” and fair way, but warned that European institutions were not “naive” about the process.

He confirmed that the UK would be presented with a bill for leaving, but insisted this did not represent a punishment, but merely the settling of commitments made by the UK.

He did not put a figure on the bill, which reports suggest could amount to as much as €60bn (£52bn), to cover liabilities for projects that the UK previously agreed to help fund, as well as pensions for EU officials who served during the period of its membership.

Speaking to the BBC, Juncker said: “It will be a bill reflecting former commitments by the British government and by the British parliament. There will be no sanctions, no punishment, nothing of that kind.”

Theresa May is due formally to notify Brussels of Britain’s intention to leave the EU in a letter to the European council on 29 March – four days after the EU’s 60th anniversary celebrations in Rome on Saturday. The letter will set in train a two-year process of negotiation leading to the reduction of the EU from 28 to 27 members in March 2019.

Asked how he felt about Brexit, Juncker said: “It is a failure and a tragedy. I will be sad, as I was sad when the vote in the referendum took place in Britain. For me, it is a tragedy.

“I am anything but in a hostile mood when it comes to Britain. We will negotiate in a friendly way, a fair way, and we are not naive.”

Juncker made clear he places high priority on protecting the status of the 3 million EU nationals resident in the UK and the 1 million Britons living on the continent. “I am strongly committed to preserving the rights of Europeans living in Britain and British people living on the European continent,” he said. “This is not about bargaining. This is about respecting human dignity.”

"A Prayer For England"

I sing prayers for my favoured country. As it is wounded.

England, i'm sending you love and light.

Massive Attack - 'A Prayer for England'

(featuring Sinéad O'Connor)

But England, I'm praying for you not only because four lives were taken on your streets yesterday. I'm praying for you because I love you and you are at a crossroad.

Do your people realise that they are not leaving our Union, the European Union, marred with flaws for sure but still trying to remain ... united. You are also waving goodbye to your own Union. The United Kingdom. It is now a game of the rich versus the poor, England versus Scotland...

And with no Unions, what can remain of our nations? Because alone, we are never creating greatness. We can always divide and divide some more, until we all remain alone on our own remote island... But does it lead anywhere?

We are all connected. We are all one on the same planet Earth. But nowadays, every minute is challenging this truth a little more. It is sometimes hard to cope with the forces of separation.

Remember your past, England, and remember that we cannot hurt others with hurting ourselves.

Like London, I hope you'll remain united and peaceful and loving.
But if I love your people, I'm worried about your government, your allies further west, your future alone, in the sea of cold.

If we cannot erase the result of June 2016's referendum, we may start to think of our future together in new ways. Because whether Mrs Theresa May wants it or not, we, in Europe, will always be there, around you, like we have been for centuries... Neighbours, strangers, just like refugees and people in pain, just do not disappear when you are passing decrees closing borders or banning the unwanted.

We are still here. So we'll have to still be here together.

See you soon, my England.

London attacked again...

London has been attacked again this Wednesday.

Two incidents: a policeman stabbed at the House of Parliament in the British capital, while on Westminster Bridge, a car crashed, injuring several people...

Latest news from the BBC:

•                A policeman has been stabbed and his attacker shot by officers at the House of Parliament

•               Police are treating it as a "terrorist incident"

•               The attacker is reported to have mowed down several pedestrians as he drove a grey Hyundai car across Westminster Bridge before crashing it into railings

•               He is then reported to have run through the gates of the Palace of Westminster and stabbed the officer

•                Eyewitnesses said he was shot by police as he approached a second officer clutching his knife

•               House of Commons and Lords in lockdown - as is nearby St Thomas's hospital

•               Public urged to avoid the area and Westminster Underground station is closed

•               Prime Minister Theresa May was seen being ushered into a silver Jaguar in the grounds of the Palace of Westminster as what sounded like gunfire rang out at around 14:45 GMT

Inventing the Future...

Discovering this book:

Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work

by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams
Verso Books

A major new manifesto for the end of capitalism

Neoliberalism isn’t working. Austerity is forcing millions into poverty and many more into precarious work, while the left remains trapped in stagnant political practices that offer no respite.

Inventing the Future is a bold new manifesto for life after capitalism. Against the confused understanding of our high-tech world by both the right and the left, this book claims that the emancipatory and future-oriented possibilities of our society can be reclaimed. Instead of running from a complex future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams demand a postcapitalist economy capable of advancing standards, liberating humanity from work and developing technologies that expand our freedoms.

This new edition includes a new chapter where Srnicek and Williams respond to their various critics.

Reviews

• “A conceptual launch pad for a new socialist imagination.”
  – Mike Davis, author of Planet of Slums
• “A powerful book: it not only shows us how the postcapitalist world of rapidly improving technology could make us free, but it also shows us how we can organise to get there. This is a must-read.”
  – Paul Mason, author of Postcapitalism: A Guide to Our Future
• “Neoliberalism and austerity seem to reign supreme – the idea of a society not run for profit seems impossible. Or does it? The fascinating Inventing the Future: Postcapitalism and a World Without Work by Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams argues for a radical transformation of society.”
  – Owen Jones, New Statesman books of the year 2015
• “In Inventing the Future, Nick Srnicek and Alex Williams take on the two key questions of the left, if I can characterise them broadly: why are we so bad at saying stuff, and do we have anything to say? Their diagnoses of the shortcomings of what they call ‘folk politics,’ are perceptive, clear, brutal, but respectful. Their prescription for the future can seem vertiginously sudden—you’ll need to either get on board with a basic citizen’s income, or form a better refutation than ‘it sounds expensive,’ and fast. But critically, they identify our urgent task: to own modernity.”
  – Zoe Williams, Guardian
• “Inventing the Future is exactly what we need right now. With immense patience and care, it sets out a clear and compelling vision of a postcapitalist society. Equally importantly, it lays out a plausible programme which can take us from 24/7 capitalist immiseration to a world free of work.”
  – Mark Fisher, author of Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative?
  
  
  
  

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Link to the publisher: https://www.versobooks.com/books/2315-inventing-the-future

Away From England

 Sad, sad days, politically.

As Mrs Theresa May has announced the date of the official UK demand to leave the European Union, Wednesday March 29, who's looking at the past eight decades wondering how we just got there?

What about peace on our continent? What about our future in these times of multiplied dangers and irrational decisions?

What about wondering what would be best for British citizens? What about the history of Scotland and the future of the Scots? Will they really be safer on their own, far away, isolated in Northern Europe? When would they even be able to leave the United Kingdom and when to enter the EU? I can't believe no one in Westminster is worried about ending so miserably 400 years of common history!

Sad days for England.

Yet, I miss my other country. I miss it very much.

It's springtime. The weather is a bit grey in Paris, and when it's grey, I always feel I'd rather be on the other side of the channel. I miss my friends, I miss the language, the culture, I miss my people there.

In Brussels, too many officials are reacting as if the break-up was of no importance at all, as if the other 27 European countries were going to be fin on their own. As if the past hundred years had not happen... The UK is our greatest ally. The European Union has no meaning for me if our main goals are not peace and less poverty for all. If the richest get separate ways, if the past wounds of terrible wars cannot make us feel closer, then it's completely pointless.

I think of the people over there in Britain, in Northern Ireland, who's future is uncertain, who won't be able to travel so easily in our continent, to come and work here, to come and enrich us. It's a sad time for all of us.

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I'll come to England soon, I think. Just like I came a few days after the referendum. Because my whole youth and my whole life has been growing under the umbrella of British culture, it was always the mirror horizon, the nearest foreign land, the closest and the further away.

We will have to find a new way to live together. To stand together still.

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London, Shoreditch, picture by myself, different directions...

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The Road Not Taken 

BY ROBERT FROST

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

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Devotions upon Emergent Occasions

No man is an island,
Entire of itself,
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main.
If a clod be washed away by the sea,
Europe is the less.
As well as if a promontory were.
As well as if a manor of thy friend's
Or of thine own were:
Any man's death diminishes me,
Because I am involved in mankind,
And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;
It tolls for thee. 

John Donne

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Just a song to finish...

Massive Attack - 'Live With Me' 

(Alternative Version)

Anxiety Rap

 Very deep and interesting.

I met with one of the founders of Flee Production in London last year.
I am really admiring their work!

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Anxiety Rap (2017) is a short documentary that follows East London's most distinct alternative Hip-Hop duo as they wrestle with the hardships of being young and dealing with everyday social anxiety.

Their anxiety has brought them together, the music they make reflects the complex and stunning creative world they have constructed through their endearing friendship.

By Flee Production.


'anxiety rap' (2017) - short documentary | #IamKnighthood

Details:

Published on 24 Feb 2017

Anxiety Rap is a short documentary that follows East London's most distinct alternative Hip-Hop duo as they wrestle with the hardships of being young and dealing with everyday social anxiety.

Their anxiety has brought them together, the music they make reflects the complex and stunning creative world they have constructed through their endearing friendship.

VIEWER DISCRETION ADVISED: STRONG LANGUAGE & VIOLENT IMAGERY THROUGHOUT.

A https://www.flee.life production. Listen to Knighthood's music https://soundcloud.com/knighthoodsociety.

#AnxietyRap #IAMKNIGHTHOOD | JOIN THE CONVERSATION

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Here is the first film I saw produced by FLEE

Anthony Anaxagorou ft Karim Kamar | How The Sky Finds Us [Poetry Sessions] (Live): SBTV

Details:

Published on 20 Aug 2016

The poem is taken from Anthony Anaxagorou's current anthology Heterogeneous with piano composition from Karim Kamar. The piece deals with the unlawful killings of black citizens by the civil authorities in both the U.S and the U.K. while also highlighting the protracted refugee crisis along with the increase in racism and xenophobia.

To download the poem as an MP3 click here https://aakk.bandcamp.com/track/how-t...

Please note that 100% of the proceeds raised from downloads will go towards aiding refugees currently situated in Calais.

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Jupiter & Okwess x Robert « 3D » Del Naja

Un petit mot sur mon musicien kinois préféré, Jupiter, et sur mon génie préféré...
J'ai donné une interview à Bastien Stisi pour parler de la pochette de Kin Sonic, album du premier, dont l'oeuvre a été réalisé par le second. Entretien publié sur le site Néoprisme.

Plus de détails :

Jupiter & Okwess x Robert « 3D » Del Naja – Kin Sonic

By 

Bastien Stisi

. Published on 7 mars 2017

C’est en 2007 que le bristolien Robert Del Naja, que l’on identifie largement mieux sous le pseudonyme de 3D – éminemment membre de Massive Attack, et plasticien / graffeur / graphiste responsable de la plupart des artworks du groupe – rencontre pour la première fois le Congolais Jupiter Bonkodji (qui a toutefois passé une partie de sa jeunesse à Berlin-Est, aux côtés d’un père diplomate), dont le travail avait été mis en lumière quelques mois plus tôt par le documentaire Jupiter’s Dance, focalisé sur la remuante nouvelle scène musicale de Kinshasa, dont il est l’une des figures les plus emblématiques.

Del Naja accompagne alors son ami Damon Albarn, venu jouer à Kinshasa pour les besoins de son projet Africa Express, passionnante rencontre entre les cultures occidentales modernes et les cultures d’Afrique subsaharienne. Plus tard, en 2013, il remixera son titre « Congo », émanant de l’album Hotel Univers (le premier album de Jupiter & Okwess) brûlot politique dans lequel Jupiter, selon les mots de Mélissa Chemam, journaliste et auteur du très pointilleux En dehors de la zone de confort (Anne Carrière, 2016) « défend ardemment la culture de son pays, son besoin de démocratisation, de respect des traditions tout en revendiquant le droit à la modernité ».

Alors, au moment de mettre sur pied ce second album, Jupiter repense à 3D – qu’un tourbillon médiatique, finalement bien vain, a voulu récemment fusionner avec la personne de Banksy -. Le camarade Damon Albarn, entre la parution d’un album solo, le come-back de Blur, et la finalisation du grand retour de Gorillaz, avait de son côté déjà eut le temps de poser quelques claviers, sur le morceau « Musonsu ». 3D, lui, ne donnera pas quelques élans inspirés au clavier, mais ce tableau, initialement nommé Double Heart (car effectivement, le personnage possède deux coeurs), qu’il avait peint quelques années auparavant, une oeuvre qui représentait alors un homme à la peau noire et aux yeux dessinés comme un masque émanant d’une ethnie subsaharienne tribale, et dominé par les vols de quatre avions manifestement lancés, dans les airs, à vitesse conséquente.

L’homme noir (figure récurrente chez l’artiste de Bristol, ancien très grand port négrier, jusqu’à l’abolition de l’esclave en Grande-Bretagne en 1807), les avions (empruntés à Basquiat, l’une des influences revendiquées de 3D), le visage désespéré (les sourires sont rares dans le monde visuel de 3D, au moins autant que dans la musique de Massive Attack…) : ce sont les icônes traditionnelles de l’artiste britannique que l’on retrouve ici, et une réalisation quasi prophétique que l’on aurait pu croire directement destiné à celui qui a finalement eu la chance de le récupérer à son profit. Mélissa Chemam, spécialiste, et cela tombe bien, autant de la géopolitique de l’Afrique contemporaine que de la scène artistique de Bristol : 

« Ce tableau, 3D l’a peint en 2014. Je l’avais vu exposé à Londres en mars 2016, galerie Lazarides, notamment aux côtés d’un détournement de Mickey Mousse, en rouge et noir. De manière évidente, c’est la première fois qu’il utilise une référence africaine aussi visible, même si pour illustrer le dernier album de Massive Attack, Heligoland, 3D avait utilisé cette peinture avec un  homme noir et arc-en-ciel gris au-dessus de sa tête, un travail inspiré des Blackface américaines, des pièces de théâtre racistes où l’on singeait l’apparence des Noirs dans les années 1900…Forcément, ce sont des thèmes qui parlaient beaucoup à Jupiter. »

Le son

Avec Damon Albarn, Warren Ellis, et donc 3D, Jupiter Bonkodji, et ses Okwess, poursuit la mission qui est la sienne depuis plus de 30 ans : se faire à la fois le garant de la culture congolaise et de sa diversité – qui ne se résume pas à l’unique rumba – et parvenir à y intégrer le souffle de modernité qui permet aux idées de dialoguer. Politique et philanthrope, de nouveau, l’album d’une idée aussi simple à formuler que complexe à maintenir en éveil : celle de l’espoir de lendemains plus grands.

Jupiter & Okwess (Facebook / Twitter)

Jupiter & Okwess, Kin Sonic, 2017, Zamora Label, 41 min., pochette par Robert « 3D » Del Naja

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Lien vers le site de Néoprisme : http://neoprisme.com/jupiter-okwess-robert-3d-del-naja-kin-sonic/

Happy Spring Day

...Here we are, spring and new beginnings!

Woke up tonight with images on my mind from this beautifully poetical animated film:


The Wind Rises - Official Trailer:

The Wind Rises Official Trailer. 

A look at the life of Jiro Horikoshi, the man who designed Japanese fighter planes during World War II. Written and Directed by Hayao Miyazak


The Wind Rises Movie CLIP - Beautiful Dreams 

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Love in the times of war...


And a beautiful soundtrack as well.


Journey (Dream Of Flight)

Joe Hisaishi - Kaze Tachinu (Theme song)