M.A.R.K. 13

One of my favorite films, of all time, regardless of genre and content, is a little beauty we call Hardware. The film was directed by Richard Stanley way back in 1989, and tells the story of a robot and a handful of humans. The robot tries to kill the humans, and vice versa. It sounds familiar, but this is not Terminator. While I love Terminator (the first one, and none of the sequels) Hardware is darker, dirtier, more violent, more aesthetically filmed and twice as arty. Not to mention filled with goth and industrial subculture references.

The film is based on, or atleast inspired by, a short story printed in the british comic book 2000 AD. The story titled Shok! is a spin off from Judge Dredd and concerns a combat robot that runs amock in an urban appartment. This particular robot is a souvenir from a combat between Dredd (with allies) and a large group of combat robots from World War III featured in the storyline the Cursed Earth. Dredd won of course. Like many other stories in 2000 AD. this one is very sketchy and focuses more on morbid humor, with a touch of social critique, than on artistic skills.

The film opens up with a full close up of a womans face, and flashing lights, before we see a bleak desert landscape, filmen with red filter, and even more bleak music by Simon Boswell. A lone figure, clad in post apocalyptic cowboy gear and gasmask uncovers the remains of a robot under the sand. This character, the Zone Tripper, is incidentally played by Carl McCoy from Fields of the Nephilim, one of that bands Richard Stanley had worked with during his carreer making music videos. The Zone Tripper brings the robot parts back to civilization, and sells them to a soldier named Mo. Mo in turn gives them as a christmas present to his girlfriend, the artist Jill (whose face opened the film). She uses the robots head (now painted to resemble an american flag) as the center piece in one of her artworks, and unwittingly allows it to rebuild itself. The rest of the film is mainly artsy mayhem and slaughter with a great deal of hinduistic and christian subtext. Specifically the name of the robot (M.A.R.K. 13) and images of the hindu goddess Kali, whose visage incidentally is reminiscent of the robot itself.

It sounds simple, but in fact the story is suprisingly complex. Especially considering the low budget it was made on, and the rather limited technical possibilities at the time. It's expertly filmed, and the set dressing is impressive. The television screen plays a significant role in the film, displaying scenes of torture, executions and so forth (the footage was supplied by Genesis P-Orridge by the way.) Everything is very ugly, and all the machines look broken down and used. The dressing and design really creates a world you don't want to live in. But one of the elements that really makes the film what it is, is the music. Ministry, Iggy Pop, Public Image Limited, Mötorhead, a piece by Rossini and Boswells aforementioned fantastic score. The way Boswell manages to utilize synthesizer, strings and steel guitar is truly unique. It's violent, cynical and very gritty.

Sadly the film was unavailable for quite a few years and it's only recently been released on DVD. It was worth the waith though. The DVD release also includes the original comic and a few extra scenes. Not to mention the audio commentary.

The film ends on a very pessimistic note. Jill manages to kill the robot, but Mo is killed, along with several other characters. In the very end we find out that mass production of the killer robot is about to be implemented. The robot was just a prototype, and production was halted because of problems with insulation system. However, the radio announces, problems have been sorted out. However, the fact that the robot is unable to tell the difference between enemies and friends seems less interesting. No Flesh Shall be Spared, indeed.

One interesting detail from the film that I have to mention, because it sets it apart from other cyberpunkish apocalypses is the way the robot is killed. In Terminator the robot is stopped by smashing it with a gigantic compacter. Technology to defeat technology. In this film Jill kills the robot by showering it with water, and then beating it to smitherines with a wooden baseball bat. She defeats the machine using very basic, primitive tools - and indeed nature itself. Cool huh?

All in all, it's a magnificent film, and if you haven't seen it yet it's about time. Open your eyes and your ears, and allow the film to seep into every corner of your mind.

Seizing the means of Perception

I just finished watching a documentary about rave, and rave culture. Pretty much of it was mediocre, and served only to trigger my nostalgia about the early nineties, but there bits of it that were very interesting. Mostly those bits containing Genesis P-Orridge. The film is called Better Living Through Circuitry, and you should be able to dig it up somewhere, download and watch.

One of the things GPO said, was that while the punk movement had been about seizing the means of production, techno was about the means of perception as well. It was a really good way of drawing out the essence of, atleast part of, the techno movement as I had known. It also got me thinking of something Pascal from Resistance D said in an interview (atleast my mind remembers it this way, but I could be wrong). He claimed that techno was about taking all those sounds you hear around you every day, such as the hum of the refrigerator, the cars, street lights and what have you, taking control of them and using them to cope with reality. Sampling enables someone to appropriate a part of reality one is usually a passive recipient of, and turn it into creativity. A truly reality altering practise.

When I read this, so many years ago back in 1993, in fact just before christmas, it really got me thinking. I had discovered techno not long before, and I didn't understand just why the crude electronic sounds and thudding beats made me feel alive in a way current pop music (including the pre-digested grunge and metal) could. But this statement was as good an explanation as any. I clearly felt frustrated by the way school and society wanted me to be passive and live my life the way they expected, and I often said that techno makes me feel good, because society wants me to be a machine. But in fact techno was making me feel like the opposite of a machine.

And this is what GPO is talking about. Music as a magickal means of controling your reality and environment. He is ofcourse not just inspired by deconstructionist thinking on this subject, but also by Aleister Crowley himself. GPO and TOPY/TOPI is all about magick, as we know, and seeing reality as in a flux. By altering the way you see reality and respond to reality you gain power over it on some level. In the film he also states that taking over various corporate logos and placing them in a different context "emasculates their power over you", and this statement could be carried over to anything mostly, as I see it.

The music industry is out to control you. Not in the brain washing way, but in the "buy our records, listen to them passively, buy more records" (or files as it's starting to be). The record industry doesn't like it when you start making your own shit and giving it away for free, because it takes away their power over you. The goverment is out to control you too, and they're more than happy to share that control with the record companies. The key element is that you remain passive, go to work, generate economic growth and consume. If people stop doing that reality would collapse. Reality meaning our current mode of capitalist, statist, collectivist, hive society. By grabbing the means of perception for your own pleasure, and sharing in with your friends you create a new reality, and one that suits you more than the one you are being fed.

Unfortunately most people are not very conscious when they create music. They see instruments as instruments, and tracks as tracks, and records as a product. The fail to see music as magick. And all music is magick, whether you are aware of it or not. Music, not just techno, but all music, is an emotional highway of subconscious communication. What you put out in your music, you put into someone (most of all yourself).

As I was into techno, and the whole DIY spirit that came with it, many years ago, I am now also painfully aware of how the superficial trade marks of that movement has become fashion and mass culture (passive). More than anything this so called new rave fashion has highlighted this change. It's quite strange to me, cos I see the smiley t-shirts, and I think "yeah, fucking acid house man" and these kids just wear them cos everyone else is wearing them. Getting old is painful. :)

But there's hope. What techno was about back then is now bigger than ever. People have the means of production so firmly in their hands, and the next step is for them to realize that they hold reality between their fingers. Don't just recieve, transmit! And it's actually happening, with blogs, mp3, p2p, vsti, podcasts, webradio, webtv and so forth and so forth. It's not just for people who get an erection from TB-303 bleeps anymore (or the hippies, punks and beatniks before them).

Get conscious, get powerfull. I guess that's the bottom line.