I don't think its perfect bodies so much as talking about those things which
don't or can't happen. So we see cooking shows on TV (people can't, won't
or have forgotten how to cook), we see 4 x 4 cars in wilderness (which
wilderness, where), you fill in the rest. I think it is about parody. That
which is thrown at us in a variety of ways is something we consume but
doesn't represent our everyday lives. A kind of Disney experience, or
non-experience, if you wish. We need Dr. Jung, or Dr. Freud to deal with
this kind of stuff.
arthur cordell
----------
From: Brad McCormick, Ed.D.
To: Michael Gurstein
Cc: Futurework (E-mail); CPI UA (E-mail)
Subject: Re: FW: <nettime> my design me
Date: Saturday, November 13, 1999 7:03AM
Michael Gurstein wrote:
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: wade tillett [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
> Sent: Thursday, November 11, 1999 9:46 AM
> To: Nettime
> Subject: <nettime> my design me
>
> http://www.surgery.com/topics/body.html
>
> A computer generated golden metallic female body with unbelievable
> proportions is shown over the faded background of a keyboard. Clickable
> cyan boxes are shown over specific areas of the body with the following
> text:
>
> *Pick the area you would like to improve
[snip]
> a utopic persona based on a conglomeration of
> the best. We can no longer be compared to the naturally occurring body
> because we are no longer reliant on natural means for obtaining
> (maintaining) this body. Now this increased power and ability to change
> our body makes the body we live in a design of our own - choosing not to
> modify our body is just as much a design as modifying our body.
> Abstention is as much design as creation, if we have the ability to
> design. And we have always had the ability to design. We constantly
> design our selves - by eating (or not eating, also what we eat), by
> walking (or not walking), by reproducing (or not reproducing), by our
> actions (or non-actions).
[snip]
Something that "galls me" to no end: Our society
is obsessed with "perfect bodies" -- and I must say
that I find bodily imperfections abhorrent -- but that's
not where the point I wish to make here lies: Our society
is obsessed with perfect bodies, AND EVERYWHERE I GO, WHEN
I TRY TO "JUST SAY NO" TO FATTENING FOOD WHICH IS PROMISCUOUSLY
STUFFED UNDER MY NOSE, PEOPLE ACT LIKE I WAS BEING AT BEST
RUDE AND A "PARTY POOPER", IF NOT CHARACTER DISORDERED, etc.
If our society wants perfect bodies, why don't we start
by mobilizing all restaurants and food stores to push
*only* healthful foods, and to make buying a Cocal-Cola
at least as shady a deal as buying "coke"?
\brad mccormick
--
Prove all things; hold fast that which is good. (1 Thes 5:21)
Brad McCormick, Ed.D. / [EMAIL PROTECTED]
914.238.0788 / 27 Poillon Rd, Chappaqua NY 10514-3403 USA
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