Gilman’s room was of good size but queerly irregular shape; the north wall slanting perceptibly inward from the outer to the inner end, while the low ceiling slanted gently downward in the same direction. Aside from an obvious rat-hole and the signs of other stopped-up ones, there was no access—nor any appearance of a former avenue of access—to the space which must have existed between the slanting wall and the straight outer wall on the house’s north side, though a view from the exterior shewed where a window had been boarded up at a very remote date. The loft above the ceiling—which must have had a slanting floor—was likewise inaccessible. When Gilman climbed up a ladder to the cobwebbed level loft above the rest of the attic he found vestiges of a bygone aperture tightly and heavily covered with ancient planking and secured by the stout wooden pegs common in colonial carpentry. No amount of persuasion, however, could induce the stolid landlord to let him investigate either of these two closed spaces.

As time wore along, his absorption in the irregular wall and ceiling of his room increased; for he began to read into the odd angles a mathematical significance which seemed to offer vague clues regarding their purpose. Old Keziah, he reflected, might have had excellent reasons for living in a room with peculiar angles; for was it not through certain angles that she claimed to have gone outside the boundaries of the world of space we know? His interest gradually veered away from the unplumbed voids beyond the slanting surfaces, since it now appeared that the purpose of those surfaces concerned the side he was already on.

— H.P. Lovecraft: Dreams in the Witch House

At stake will have always been the murderous power of images, murderers of the real, murderers of their own model, as the Byzantine icons could be those of the divine identity. To this murderous power is opposed that of representations as a dialectical power, the visible and intelligible mediation of the Real. All western faith and good faith became engaged in this wager on representation: that a sign could refer to the depth of meaning, that a sign could be exchanged for meaning and that something could guarantee this exchange – God of course. But what if God himself can be simulated, that is to say, can be reduced to the signs that constitute faith? Then the whole system becomes weightless, it is no longer itself anything but a gigantic simulacrum – not unreal, but a simulacrum, that is to say never exchanged for the real  but exchanged for itself, in an uninterrupted circuit without reference or circumference. 

— Jean Baudrillard, Simulation and Simulacra

A sunset: 78%, a landscape: 76%, a little girl playing with a cat: 56%, a woman breast-feeding: 54%, a folk dance: 46%, a weaver at work: 39%, a famous monument: 27%, a first communion: 26%, a snake: 20%, a rope 16%, a metal frame: 15%, cabbages: 12%, a butcher’s stall: 9%… a car accident: 1%

— Pierre Bourdieu, What makes a beautiful photograph? (the numbers in brackets represent the percentage of subjects who considered that these objects could produce a beautiful photograph): From: “The Social Definition Of Photography” in: Photography, A Middle Brow Art

There is something depressing about this Bourdieu-Quote: That beauty is not much more than a set of visual clichés, enforced and perpetuated by systems of power to conserve the (visual) status quo. 

But then there is also a glimmer of hope in that: Once  we accept that beauty is the result of of a social negotiation and not something handed down to us by the gods and reflects who we are as much as who we want to be as a society, this also means we can change what we perceive as beautiful. 

Suddenly, a picture of a woman that does not have an endangering eating disorder can be seen as beautiful, food that is real and actually carries the dirt of the earth it comes  from can be seen as yummy, and the picture of two men kissing, instead of being seen as an abomination, can be seen as an extension of what love can actually mean.

Oscillating wildly between fiercely claiming a position, a decisive point of view and rejecting it, aiming at position-less, becoming a machine of registration. And in between there is this wash-tub full of undeveloped film in the basement of Gary Winogrand’s house like some sort of Schrödinger’s Cat, an experiment that vanishes when realised. 

On March 19th 1984 Winogrand died at the Garson Clinic, Tijuana New Mexico. When Winogrand died the scale of his output was realised. According to Szarkowski, there was discovered, about 2500 rolls of undeveloped film, 6500 rolls developed but not proofed and contact sheets made from about 3000 rolls. Furthermore discovered processing rolls indicate that while in LA alone he developed 8522 rolls of film. The Garry Winogrand Archive established at the  CCP in 1983,  comprises of “over 20,000 fine and work prints, 20,000 contact sheets, 100,000 negatives and 30,500 35 mm colour slides as well as a small group of Polaroid prints and several amateur motion picture films”

https://web.archive.org/web/20120426010017/http://andygreaves.wordpress.com/2010/08/21/gary-winogrand/

All good things gradually disappear

— from an Interview with de Chirico

e Depot began to branch out of Georgia to Florida in 1981 with stores opening in Hollywood and Fort Lauderdale. By 1984, The Home Depot was operating 19 stores with sales of over $256 million. To enter the Dallas market The Home Depot acquired Bowater Home Center from Bowater Inc. on October 31, 1984, for $40 million.[12] The increased expansion of The Home Depot in the mid-1980s created financial difficulties with earnings falling at 42% and debt rising to $200 million. The financial difficulties of The Home Depot also caused the stock price to fall. To curb The Home Depot difficulties it opened only 10 stores in 1986 with a stock offering 2.99 million shares at $17 per share that helped The Home Depot to restructure its debts.[13] The Home Depot store in Markham, Ontario, Canada. In 1989, The Home Depot became the largest home improvement store in the United States surpassing Lowe’s. In the 1990s The Home Depot searched for ways to redefine its marketplace. An installation program for quality home improvement items such as windows or carpets was launched in 1991 called the EXPO with success. A 480-page book Home Improvement 1-2-3 was published in 1995. The Canadian hardware chain Aikenhead’s Hardware was acquired by The Home Depot in 1994 for $150 million with a 75% share. All of the Aikenhead’s Hardware stores were later converted to The Home Depot stores.[14] By 1995, sales reached $10 billion while operating 350 stores. Former General Electric executive Robert Nardelli became CEO and president of The Home Depot in 2000.[15] 2000–2007 San Diego maintenance and repair supplies company Maintenance Warehouse was purchased by The Home Depot in 1997 for $245 million.[16] Maintenance Warehouse was purchased because it was a leading direct-mail marketer of maintenance, repair and operations sup

— from Spam

Sean Hannity, one of the most trusted voices in media, confirmed the rumors are true. Sean Hannity admits based on sources he has in DC, there is undeniable proof agents of the deep state have a horrifying plan in place.

— from Spam

Why is form beautiful?  Because, I think, it helps us confront our worst fear, the suspicion that life may be chaos and that therefore, our suffering is without meaning.

— Robert Adams

The investigation begins with a citation from Macrobius’s Saturnalia to the effect that “four deities preside over the birth of every human being: Daimon, Tyche, Eros, and Ananke (Demon, Chance, Love, and Necessity).” He then turns to a work in which Goethe—an author who, incidentally, spent his life working on a sprawling multi-volume project (Faust)—takes up Macrobius’s list, expanding it to include Elpis (Hope). The five chapters of the work correspond to Goethe’s five figures, with Chance replaced by “Aventure” (Provençal for “adventure”) and Necessity by “Event.” Hence the reader must be familiar with two dead languages—Greek and Provençal—even to scan the table of contents, and the rest of the work shows the same breezy erudition for which Agamben is well known. Yet his fast-paced argumentation keeps the reader from getting bogged down, as every confusing or baffling point is quickly succeeded by a fresh idea or interpretation.”