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- Lucy Beeler and Stacy James Eyles like this.
- Karin Hofko OOh, the art fair. I would love to see this! Instead I will pay the busdriver today to drive me to town K'rd. I could see a good solo performance of you being both the poor u-bahn traveler and the kontrolleur it's an internal struggle to stick to the rules but not being oppressed bu them. Yes I remember that it was a notional idea. Send you some love Alexa!
- Alexa Wilson Ah Krd.. my home. Actually I feel more home here for now, but hey I'm not so poor this time! Always internal struggle though, the journey... colourful. I am thinking a lot about systems atm. Reading Bataille & Foucault ;) Haha! I find the kontroller system strange, why not just have barriers with tickets you need to put in like in paris and london? Honesty system doesn't work i don't think.. not in this day and age. So they pay these people 7.80 ph to catch foreigners cheating the system. I love to see how the homeless, beggars and the buskers work the trains... there is this fertile space for them in the honesty system.
- Karin Hofko public transport, education and internet should be free for EVERYBODY! Systems ;-) This word alone reminds of Germany and somehow triggers nostalgia, bizzar. When setting up and analyzing systems I like to think about decision making processes of the mind. .... hm maybe you could do something socially good in the U trains (reading tarot cards) and could once caught argue that you don't think you need to pay the ticket price as you are giving back what you can best to society .....the documentation of it could be the work. As in you relinquish to get payed for your service but in return you don't see how you have to spend money on tickets. Ooh and if you are interested in structure why don't you write a socio-political guide for a better living ?????? Create a commune for a set period and invite people to join the commune, could become the NEW AGE big brother :))))
- Alexa Wilson Nice! I also like Daniela's suggestion of dancing people's complaints for them for 1 euro.
- Alexa Wilson People complain a lot here. Its a melting pot of angry, sad desperate people and privileged dissatisfied people, (plus the happy tourists) i guess this is world wide but seems very concentrated here.
Written Element
Here is the research question:
How does the theory of 'psychomagic' present itself in 2 films of Alejandro Jodorowsky?
I will be applying Jodorowksy's own theory of 'psychomagic' to his 2 most known films 'El Topo' and 'The Holy Mountain' from the early 1970s in a close film reading. 'Psychomagic' is a term the filmmaker created himself and "combines art, Eastern philosophies (particularly Zen Buddhism), mysticism and modern psychotherapy to allegedly heal patients with emotional problems, the principle relies on the belief that the unconscious mind takes a symbolic act as fact" (wikipedia definition, under 'Psychomagic (psychotherapy)'. Please note the actual research will be psychomagic as defined by Jodorowsky.
An example of this theory of 'psychomagic' symbolism can be seen in the film 'The Holy Mountain'. Near the film's beginning a group of people within a city square in Mexico in a mythical/realist landscape surround a miniature version of the sacred Mexican (Aztec/Mayan) pyramids. Toads dressed in military and royal costumes are put into the pyramids as if it is a game and then shot with guns by bystanders. The image is bloody and the animals are actually killed for this film, blood is splattered across the pyramids, symbolising the bloodshed and residue of 'sacrifice' from these ancient cultures and of one culture by another ie the colonisation of Mexico by the Spanish. The amount of blood shed caused in Mexico, referencing also the 'western' and 'mexican stand off/shoot out' as spectacle through film and history this performance psychomagic act is very gruesome and traumatic. The replacement of people with toads helps release the unconscious, in a dream-like shamanistic ritual, where the innocence of animals and our projection upon them as harbouring human qualities, is paradoxically healing as an image of centuries of barbaric bloodshed, colonisation, oppression and layer upon layer of violence symbolising a cycle which cannot seem to end. For me it is the most transgressive image in the film, reflecting a culturally specific yet completely universal theme of war, domination, greed and violence in the name of 'sacrifice'. This image is healing in its confrontation, releasing attachment to power and 'civilisation' as a means to peace. Now we see it as a game for our filmic spectatorship, confronting us through a psychomagic release of gratuitous violence inflicted upon animals- symbolic of humans. Here the performance spectacle and 'psychomagic act' is both political and holistically spiritual in meaning, everything is connected and implied, including the spectator and the filmmaker in this image. No one escapes implication in this image, I chose this example as it is easy to read, ever topical and universal across all cultures in the world. Everyone is affected by violence and colonisation.
Bibliography
Jodorowsky, Alejandro, El Topo, Mexico, Peasant Productions, 1970
Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Holy Mountain, Mexico, Allen Klein ABKCO, 1973
Jodorowsky, Alejandro, Psychomagic, The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy, Vermont, Inner Traditions, 2010
Jodorowsky, Alejandro, The Way of the Tarot; Spiritual Teacher in the Cards, Vermont, Destiny Books, 2009
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