Timothy Im

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on the atlas — 32

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“You let people smell the roses. You let people go on the ride. If you’re doing a flying shot or a shot underwater in a beautiful coral reef, you hold the shot a little bit longer. I want people to really get in there and feel like they’re there, on a journey with these characters.” Letting audiences pause to savor the journey: It’s something big movies could stand to do more often.
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' - The Atlantic
But since 2009 they’ve become practically the sole pillar of the American film industry, the financial life raft that multiplexes cling to in order to sell tickets and fight the rise of at-home streaming.
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' - The Atlantic
Compare it with most contemporary blockbusters, and the difference is striking. Any recent advances in CGI have been undercut by the intense schedules franchise movies must adhere to, which has led to visual-effects artists voicing complaints about their workload and fans noticing the increased shoddiness of the final results. Many Marvel and DC movies have flat and lifeless action sequences set in parking lots or airplane hangars—the furthest thing from the mystical Day-Glo wonders of Pandora.
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' - The Atlantic
and each one featured advances in visual effects that made them a must-see experience on the big screen.
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' - The Atlantic
“The studio felt that the film should be shorter and that there was too much flying around on the ikran,” he told The New York Times, referring to one of Avatar’s many exotic alien beasts. “I just drew a line in the sand and said, ‘You know what? I made Titanic. This building that we’re meeting in right now, this new half-billion-dollar complex on your lot? Titanic paid for that, so I get to do this.”
Hollywood Learned All the Wrong Lessons From 'Avatar' - The Atlantic
oppositional continuity might ultimately help “situate humans and their technological world within a broader cosmic reality.”
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
Western philosophical and political thought employs technologies of extraction that threaten to chase down and destroy the natural environment. For Heidegger, it was cybernetics research in the mid-20th century that represented this threat most powerfully. For Hui, sinofuturist fantasies and the Promethean ambitions of value extraction have concocted new forms of these colonizing impulses.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
which is fundamentally poetic and noninstrumental.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
This dynamic contains opposition, much like tragic thinking in the West, but it ultimately emphasizes continuity and harmony over discontinuity and historical rupture.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
Described by media artist Lawrence Lek as a “science fiction that already exists,” sinofuturism seeks to replace the universalism previously ascribed to Western culture with China’s own brand of hegemonic power.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
Perhaps the greatest strength of Art and Cosmotechnics lies in Hui’s insistence that we can no longer ignore the rapidly transforming relations between East and West when considering philosophical approaches to technology.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
suggests a mode of noninstrumental relation between human activity and the natural world that runs counter to prevailing narratives about technology.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
Cybernetics, the postwar scientific research on technical systems, was outperforming philosophy in this traditional role. Influencing everything from art and sociology to computation and neurobiology, this ambitious new discourse envisioned the relationship between a system and its environment as a series of feedback loops determined by communicative exchange.
Technology After Hegemony: On Yuk Hui’s “Art and Cosmotechnics”
On this basis we can start to displace a globalism of surveillance and suspicion with an internationalism of friendship and reciprocity.
An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon "Statement of Principles" – The European Conservative
In its list of ideals—“patriotism and courage, honor and loyalty, religion and wisdom, congregation and family, man and woman, the sabbath and the sacred, and reason and justice”—no mention was made of friendship, compassion, or love.
An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon "Statement of Principles" – The European Conservative
“the liberal imperialism of the last generation, which sought to gain power, influence, and wealth by dominating other nations and trying to remake them in its own image,” cites as its only vision of nationhood the American liberal constitutional model with its the separation of powers and “limited state.”
An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon "Statement of Principles" – The European Conservative
The dissolution of national cultures was anticipated by the wiping out of local cultures, and the centralisation of power away from both local governments and civil society—notably churches, guilds, and other associations. It is nation-states as they are presently understood that have facilitated the ever-greater expansion of global capitalism and the unmediated technology that now threatens our social, civic, and spiritual lives.
An Open Letter Responding to the NatCon "Statement of Principles" – The European Conservative
Interregnum was the term used in ancient Rome to refer to the moment of legal and political in-betweenness that followed the death of the sovereign and preceded the enthronement of his successor. The declaration of interregnum was accompanied by the proclamation of justitium, for it was not only sovereignty but also legality that was suspended. Gramsci brilliantly played with these terms, extending them as he grappled with the generalized crisis of authority in his own time. Old hegemonies were crumbling. The ruling order had lost its capacity to lead through consent. The masses had drifted aw…
Time of Monsters | Society for Cultural Anthropology
structural analysis: economy of explanation; unity of solution; and ability to reconstruct the whole from a fragment, as well as later stages from previous ones.
The Structural Study of Myth
"That day . . . everything was possible. . . . Future became present . . . that is, no more time, a glimpse of eternity."
The Structural Study of Myth
When the historian refers to the French Revolution, it is always as a sequence of past happenings, a non-reversible series of events the remote consequences of which may still be felt at present. But to the French politician, as well as to his followers, the French Revolution is both a sequence belonging to the past — as to the historian — and a timeless pattern which can be detected in the contemporary French social structure and which provides a clue for its interpretation, a lead from which to infer future developments.
The Structural Study of Myth
This can be made clear through a comparison between myth and what appears to have largely replaced it in modem societies, namely, politics.
The Structural Study of Myth
But what gives the myth an operational value is that the specific pattern described is timeless; it explains the present and the past as well as the future.
The Structural Study of Myth
On the one hand, they did notice that in a given language certain sequences of sounds were associated with definite meanings, and they earnestly aimed at discovering a reason for the linkage between those sounds and that meaning. Their attempt, however, was thwarted from the very beginning by the fact that the same sounds were equally present in other languages although the meaning they conveyed was entirely different. The contradiction was surmounted only by the discovery that it is the combination of sounds, not the sounds themselves, which provides the significant data.
The Structural Study of Myth
“Ultimately, we want to rewrite Wikipedia in memes, shitposts, animation and video,” Libov said.
Antimatter brings shitposting to the classroom | TechCrunch
Silly as it may sound, Libov is onto something. With a five-person team and a bit of venture funding, Antimatter is building the most memey educational technology company on the market with a simple premise: to make a good meme about a subject, you need to know what you’re talking about.
Antimatter brings shitposting to the classroom | TechCrunch
The cooperation has helped bring in high-profile tenants like the University of Milan, which is scheduled to complete a new science campus with space for 18,000 students and 1,000 lecturers and researchers in 2025.
Milan Aims to Turn Abandoned Fairgrounds Into Tech Hub - Bloomberg
Six years after Milan’s World Expo closed its doors to visitors, the sprawling fairgrounds that were once a target of protesters are finally set for a makeover. Italy’s financial center is taking cues from Silicon Valley to transform an area more than twice the size of the Vatican into a sustainable, post-pandemic technology center. The 4.5 billion-euro ($5.1 billion) redevelopment of one of Europe’s biggest vacant lots includes research labs, a startup accelerator and a science campus.
Milan Aims to Turn Abandoned Fairgrounds Into Tech Hub - Bloomberg
The proposal never made it beyond a Senate labor and commerce committee. At one hearing Mr. Chen attended, some lawmakers on that committee expressed concern that even bigger car companies would want to bypass local dealerships if Rivian got a pass. “It worries me that this kind of exception will lead down a road where Ford…will be coming before us next year asking for the right to sell Fords directly to us and get rid of dealerships altogether,” said Sen. Steve Conway, a Democratic member of the committee.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
His approach as a lobbyist, he said, was to be the wonky attorney who offered up lots of evidence while also arguing for free-market principles. The case he made to local lawmakers was that dealerships shouldn’t be able to dictate how consumers purchase vehicles, and that making things easier for EV makers wouldn’t hurt the dealers.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
The rise of Tesla, which was founded in 2003, offered a new threat. It was able to open its first store in the Los Angeles area because it had never before used franchise dealerships, a state loophole that wasn’t available to more established companies such as Ford or General Motors Co. Tesla didn’t respond to a request for additional comment.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
As these dealerships proliferated, they acquired clout in their communities and state capitals by sponsoring everything from local baseball games to fundraisers while also making donations to local politicians.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
Those transportation expenses, however, act as a drag on the company’s earnings. Executives at Rivian say they need more company-owned stores across the country to lower costs and boost deliveries at the same time.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
The state-by-state confrontation over how and where vehicles are sold pits a son of Taiwanese immigrants who prefers to wear cowboy boots against some of the most successful and wealthiest homegrown business owners across the country.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
In Georgia, a similar bill he backed didn’t make it to the floor of the state legislature despite Rivian’s pledge to build a $5 billion factory in that state. Another potential piece of legislation in Connecticut also died this year.
The Man From Rivian Who Wants to Change How We Buy Cars - WSJ
At present, Lingang remains largely a ghost town, as those marquee tech names are mostly based on the outskirts of Lingang. The town itself still lacks the types of scientists and engineers that it is trying to attract due to a shortage of basic infrastructure and amenities such as apartments, schools and public transportation.
China Tech Hub Lingang in Shanghai Lured Tesla, Struggles to Attract Others - Bloomberg
Big multinational companies are largely missing from the major investor list amid growing US efforts to curb American investment in Chinese tech.
China Tech Hub Lingang in Shanghai Lured Tesla, Struggles to Attract Others - Bloomberg
300 so-called frontier-industry projects such as chipmaking and electric vehicles, according to state media reports, thanks to low taxes, eased restrictions on cross-border trade and money flows and proximity to the world’s largest container port.
China Tech Hub Lingang in Shanghai Lured Tesla, Struggles to Attract Others - Bloomberg
“We can see the current of deglobalization and the rise of protectionism,” said Aoping Zhang, dean of privately run Zengliang Research Institute in Beijing, about Lingang’s challenges.
China Tech Hub Lingang in Shanghai Lured Tesla, Struggles to Attract Others - Bloomberg
As some surprise was naturally expressed at this wondrous exhibition of animal development, the monster himself gave a grunt expressive of his flattered vanity.
A Pair of Fierce Bulls | Lapham’s Quarterly
Vague pronouncements of 'love' and 'growth mindset', etc.. work in the corporate sphere precisely because they are so vague, not rooted in a real tradition and strike me as yet more examples of shapeshifting 'liquid' modernity.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
The problem with this, is that most schools—being essentially products of this 'machine-minded' phenomenon that Paul has been outlining so carefully over the past few years—is that the school, or institution, tends to either absorb and trivialize attempts to incorporate into it anything resembling a grass-roots community based culture of care, or is actively hostile toward such methods.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
And it jives pretty well with what you're discussing here--the transcendent being co-opted by the worldly institutions. College as the new church, where you don't just learn an academic discipline but also learn to "love" (and are maybe even asked to self-assess spiritual wellness???) Perhaps the culture of higher ed wants to replace religion with itself. I don't want to jump to conclusions, and I imagine the intentions of the people espousing this are good (i.e. they want the best for students), but...there is something sinister behind it, it seems to me.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
Eastern Christianity does focus on askesis and 'death to the world' in a way that the Western traditions don't - though even here there is a long Christian tradition of monasticism and sacrifice. It remains a mystery to me.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
According to Hui, the Western culture/ideology is based on the concept of tragic discontinuity--Oedipus and the rest of humanity struggle against fate--existing in a perpetual state of revolution of one sort or another. In the East, while there is opposition, continuity and harmony are emphasized--there is not the struggle to break free, but the effort to harmonize and become one with.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
it offered a vision of the universe in which God himself would be sacrificed rather than demanding sacrifice, and in which, in Paul's words, God would use the weak to humble the strong.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
Tom Holland makes the fair point that the seed of 'woke' politics can be found in the Sermon on the Mount - which, along with the crucifixion, is far from being a 'power move.' In fact, it is a set of values which permanently and globally challenge what power even is, and how God uses it.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
This is simply not true, however much you repeat it. There is no 'will to power' within Christianity - the founder of the faith teaches precisely the opposite: surrender to God;'s will and service to others. It's explicit and, as I said above, in other parts of the world (India, Africa, the Orthodox countries) Christianity does not manifest this way. The real question is why Western Christianity manifested in such a way that the will to power sometimes (though by no means always) corrupted the faith.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
the West went its own way, and saw its religious soul subsumed by the will to power, which is now consuming the world.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth
Eastern Christianity also developed in close proximity to where the Dharma was taught, lived, and flourished. Heck, it even appropriated the Buddha and his story, changed his name, and made him a saint. Jack often posts concepts (and links) from Eastern Christianity, and when I look into them, I see how close they are to Buddhist concepts/approaches. I have never had this experience with the concepts of Western Christianity, which always seem to be more influenced by Greek thought.
Comments - What Progress Wants - by Paul Kingsnorth