Smeared States – The Podcasts
Enter a dangerous yet alluring world
Smeared States was held at MAMA between 14 June and 11 August 2019. In reaction to this exhibition Kari Robertson and Lila Athanasiadou (programme maker of Smeared States) produced a two part podcast.
Together with Kari and Lila you delve deeper into the concept of mimicry and its relation to the construction ánd corruption of identities. Enter their dangerous yet alluring world, filled with mythological, literary, scientific and musical references.
Passion’s Parasite (part 1) is a thrilling ride through seducing landscapes. Encounter enticing spiders. Experience Zeus’s deceitful trickery. Eavesdrop on the Sirens’ captivating deadly lyrical call. Get lost in the beguiling words of poets. Listen to fan-fiction with a death drive.
How to Disappear (part 2) fixates on the psychological and pathological aspects of mimicry. Explore disturbances in perception of space, psychological disorders, religious effacement, identity theft, the amnesiac repetition of pop music, BDSM and the disorienting effect of big shopping malls.
Excerpts from the following sources were used. Wherever possible, we linked to the original work.
The header image is a detail of Hieronymus Bosch – The Triptych of Temptation of St. Anthony (1501), which is part of the collection of Museu del Prado in Madrid.
Passion’s Parasite
00.30: Youtube video uploaded by igorbuenocorrea – Bjork Talking About Her TV (1998).
03.11: Plato – The Republic: Book X (360 B.C.) and Beyonce – Drunk in Love (2013).
05.04: Roy Wagner – Coyote Anthropology (2010).
06.10: Ovid – Metamorphosis: The Contest of Arachne and Athena (1 A.D.).
09.15: BBC & David Attenborough – Life in the Undergrowth: The Bolas Spider (2005).
11.42: Paul Kelly – Gobbling Demonstration (2012).
13.53: Truth Hurts feat. Rakim – Addictive (2002).
14.37: This Mortal Coil – Song of The Sirens (1983).
16.23 + 19.07: Margaret Atwood – Siren Song (1974).
17.29: RAI & Franco Rossi – L’ODYSSEE (1968).
19.33: Sevdaliza – Sirens of The Caspian (2014).
21.11: Karen Cecil – What Love Is (2004). Fan fiction of The Talented Mr. Ripley, 1999.
23.10: Paramount, Miramax & Anthony Minhella – The Talented mr. Ripley (1999).
25.48: Leonard Cohen – I’m Your Man (1988).
26.45: BBC & David Attenborough – Enter the Mantis (2001).
27.40: Nelly Furtado – Maneater (2006).
28.10: Mark Fisher – Ghosts of My Life: Writings on Depression, Hauntology and Lost Futures (2014).
29.04: Franco ‘Bifo’ Berardi – The Obsession of the (Vanishing) Body (2005). No online source.
30.09: Busta Rhymes & Mariah Carey – I Know What You Want (2002).
How to Disappear
01.20: Michel Foucault – The Order of Things (1966).
03.45: Michael Taussig – Mimesis and Alterity (1993) read by Santiago Pinyol. This section features music from the album Music of the Tukano and Cuna Peoples of Colombia (1987).
05.20: Self Luminous Society – The Name Blessing Game, a performance held on November 21st 2019 in the context of Bernice Nauta’s exhibition Hello Echo at 1646 in The Hague.
09.45: Simone Weil – Gravity and Grace (2002) read by Erika Roux.
12.05: Marguerite Porete – The Mirror of Simple Souls: Divination 12 Chapter 3 (14th century) mixed with music from La Reverdie – Historia Sancti Eadmvndi (1996).
13.30: Rihanna – S&M (2010)
16.00: Nicholas Bott, Corey Keller, Malathy Kuppuswamy, David Spelber and Joshua Zeier – Cotard Delusion in the Context of Schizophrenia: A Case Report and Review of the Literature (2016).
17.30: Missy Elliot & Tweet – Oops (oh my)(2002).
19.15: Doug Richmond – How To Disappear Completely and Never Be Found (1985) read by Maggie McWilliams.
21.15: Radiohead – How to Disappear (2000).
25.00: Gustave Flaubert – The temptation of St Anthony (1874) with music by Justin Timberlake – Cry me a river (2002) slowed down 800%.
28.00: Mazzy Star – Fade Into you (1994).
29.55: Kathy Acker & McKenzie Wark – I am Very Into you (2015) mixed with Tamia – So Into you (1998).
32.40: Thomas Lorenz & Harun Farocki – The Creators of Shopping Worlds (2001).
33.50: gender mutiny – Preliminary Notes on Modes of Reproduction (2006) in the journal Pink & Black Attack #6.
34.40: SOPHIE – Faceshopping (2018).
37.00: Sandy Stone – The Empire Strikes Back – A Posttranssexual Manifesto (1992) in the journal Camera Obscura, read by Flora Wolpert Checknoff.
38.00: Talking Heads – The Big Country (1978).
40.05: Isabella Rossellini – GREEN PORNO: Anglerfish (2014).
41.20: Paul Preciado – The Contrasexual Manifesto (2011) in Total Art Journal, read by Carmen José. Mixed with King Missile – Detachable Penis (1992).
42.30: Macy Gray – B.O.B (2015).
43.50: Avital Ronell – The Telephone Book (1989) mixed with Wolfgang von Kempelen‘s “Speaking Machine”.
46.50: BBC & David Attenborough – The Life of Birds (1998).
49.30: Ilya Prigogine & Isabelle Stengers – Order out of chaos (2017).
51.10: Quartz – The “millennial whoop” is taking over pop music (2016).
