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Karl Andersson

Anthropologist

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LaKeith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson in Selma (2014)

White history week

November 22, 2020 by Karl Leave a Comment

LaKeith Stanfield as Jimmie Lee Jackson in Selma (2014)

I made myself a little film festival this week, as one must do in the month of November. It became centered around the civil rights movement.

Gimme Shelter (1970)

Our lecturer in Editing forum had recommended the Rolling Stones tour documentary Gimme Shelter because of how it focuses on another person than the obvious one, namely the drummer Charlie Watts instead of Mick Jagger. Well, it doesn’t really, but I get her point. The film came to be about a stabbing that occurred during an free concert that was improvised at the Altamont racing track in California. We actually get to see the stabbing, or at least the first stab.

Throughout the film I had the uncanny feeling of just knowing how it would turn out despite knowing no details, namely that the stabbing would have a race aspect. And it did. A white Hells Angel “guard” – since the organisers had hired Hells Angels as guards in return for beer – stabbed a black teenager to death: Meredith Hunter. I found this article about the boy:

  • Dennis Yusko (Medium): The short life and tragic death of Meredith Hunter

Yusko quotes Saul Austerlitz who wrote a book about the incident:

The story of Altamont was, as so many American stories were, about the fundamental trauma of race. A black man had gone somewhere white men did not want him to be, and had never come home.

Saul Austerlitz: Just a Shot Away: Peace, Love, and Tragedy with the Rolling Stones at Altamont

This had me watch lot 63, grave C, a short film from 2006 by Sam Green, in which he visits Meredith Hunter’s grave, which does not even have a headstone. Watch it here:

I Am Not Your Negro (2016)

Triggered by Gimme Shelter, I finally watched Raoul Peck’s 2016 documentary I Am Not Your Negro about James Baldwin on Netflix. I didn’t know much about Baldwin, despite having read Giovanni’s Room in my twenties (without knowing he was black). The film is about three friends of Baldwin who had been killed: Medgar Evers, Malcolm X, and Marthin Luther King. I didn’t know much about the first two. (Monday.)

Malcolm X (1992)

So this made me watch Spike Lee’s Malcolm X from 1992, which I think was extremely well done, combining historical events with current ones in a way that became very powerful. I didn’t know anything about Malcolm X, but the film had been on my list for quite a while. It’s three and a half hours long. Denzel Washington as Malcolm X is beyond brilliant, dazzling! (Tuesday.)

Who Killed Malcolm X? (2020)

The natural follow up was the Netflix mini-series Who Killed Malcolm X? from 2020, which confirms the authorities’ involvement in his assassination. Very interesting, but in my opinion not necessary to drag out into six 43 minute episodes. Spike Lee’s 3.5 hours were justified (yes, every single minute!), Netflix’s 4.3 hours were not – should have been half that time. But I guess this is the way Netflix does things. (Wednesday and Thursday.)

Selma (2014)

After the films on Malcolm X, I decided to switch to Martin Luther King and the feature film Selma from 2014, about the protests in Selma, Alabama, 1965. It started off a bit amateurish (yes, I’m looking at you, high resolution explosion in slow motion and flying body parts of little children) but it grew to the film that actually moved me the most, or maybe it’s just because I watched it yesterday. I was not convinced by the main actor David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King. Sure, he had his moments, but whereas Denzel Washington was Malcolm X, David Oyelowo acted Martin Luther King. (Saturday.)

Selma is done by Ava DuVernay, whose 2019 mini-series When They See Us I watched in June 2019.

LaKeith Stanfield

A name I take with me from the events in Selma is Jimmie Lee Jackson, the 27-year-old unarmed deacon who was killed by the police. Jackson was portrayed by LaKeith Stanfield (see featured image of the two of them). I didn’t even remember him as the main actor in Sorry to Bother You (2018, watched in October 2019), but he made an impression as a side character in Get Out (2017, watched in April 2019). And right after Selma, he turns up as Snoop Dogg in:

Straight Outta Compton (2015)

So this was the finale of my White History Week film festival: Straight Outta Compton from 2015 is a more contemporary take on the same violence and segregation that was the more direct focus of the other movies. A more indirect and distorted version, as reflected in gang violence and gangsta rap? But at the same time with the very direct presence of classical police violence. (Saturday.)

White history

Why “white history” instead of “black history”?

Because the race problem in America is a white problem. I think Malcolm X, Martin Luther King, Spike Lee, Ava DuVernay and NWA would have preferred to just live a good life in peace and quiet. To be seen as equals. But they were not. (The line that keeps surfacing days after I watched Malcolm X is “I am a man!”, yelled by Malcolm’s father as their house was burned down by whites.) Their activism and artistic expressions were the logical results of being seen as subhuman. It was whites who insisted (insist) on the existence of blacks as a category, maybe as a way to understand themselves as another (and better) category – the mirror-image of a black-and-white binary. Meanwhile, the rest of the world pays the price for their insecurity and public self-therapy. In other words, blacks were invented by whites, and race issues are therefore related to whiteness rather than blackness.

Filed Under: Culture, Film Tagged With: whiteness

Tim Ingold: Lines: A Brief History (Routledge)

Lines: A Brief History by Tim Ingold

October 19, 2020 by Karl Leave a Comment

Tim Ingold: Lines: A Brief History (Routledge)

I like Tim Ingold a lot. I loved Anthropology: Why it matters, and used three of his works for my master’s thesis. I discovered him through his text about “the church” that we read for Space and Place, and which kept surfacing in my mind. So I was very happy to be gifted Lines: A Brief History from S.

Like Ingold, I am very fascinated by lines. In fact, if the book was not so academical, I think it should have been titled I love lines, which would have covered both Ingold’s subjective approach and his passion. But sure, it’s also a history of them, the lines.

Lines was not what I had expected. It was more philosophical musings on lines than the sensorial aspect that I remember from Making, and which would have had more relevance for my own research.

Funnily enough, I found the first chapter, which is only tangentially related to lines, the most interesting. According to Ingold, singing and talking were earlier in history not seen as separate entities, as they are today in the modern West. Ingold’s interest is thereby to trace the line that separates them, and find out how it emerged.

To me, this quest reminded a lot of the theory of “the gap” in Tom Boellstorff’s research on virtual worlds, and of Deleuze’s “division”. Maybe this gap or division is so central in so many theories because we as humans are so attached to a binary way of thinking? This in itself is interesting.

A reader called Marc wrote on Goodreads:

What also always bothers me in the work of anthropologists is the antagonism they at all costs want to prove between Western modernity and traditional cultures, with usually a very negative undertone regarding modernity. Also Ingold follows that line a bit; at times I even had the impression that I was reading a downright anti-modernist manifesto.

I also found myself wanting to ask Ingold if he was suggesting we become the “wayfarers” that he seems to hail (but who are extinct today), rather than the “navigators” who use lines as pure transport links between connections. The book itself and my reading it are perfect examples of this so criticised modernity, aren’t they? (Come to think of it, Ingold’s style, in all his texts, are definitely leaning towards the “wayfarer” – maybe that is by design.)

Ingold writes on the last page:

If the straight line was an icon of modernity, then the fragmented line seems to be emerging as an equally powerful icon of postmodernity.

P. 172

I think this is spot on, and shows how well the line analogy works for capturing our society. (Because in a way, that’s what this is all about.) The fragmented line made me think of Azuma Hiroki’s analysis in Otaku: Japan’s Database Animals, which I read in Bahir Dar two years ago and which opened my eyes to what postmodernity (rather than postmodernism) really is. I would love to read a follow-up book on the postmodern line, since this book is focused on the pre-modern and modern ones.

Filed Under: Books Tagged With: lines, Tim Ingold

Week 41: 5-11 October 2020

October 11, 2020 by Leave a Comment

This is the end!

On Friday I submitted the thesis officially, after having had it printed and bound at a copy shop, and after having prepared three USB sticks with the film. Sending it off felt fantastic. I am hereby done with this master’s programme, which has been my main focus for the past two years, and the reason why I started this “study diary”.

Although the thesis will now be graded and I will receive a diploma in January 2021 or so, I think I can now say:

I am an anthropologist!

Damn, that felt good!

I’ll end the study diary now. These weekly posts have been a way for me to document my way through this programme, but also to push me to read things, and to keep track of what I’ve read. I’m happy I kept up with it every week until the end, although we hardly had any classes or readings in the last semester (or even year).

But just because the programme ends, my research does not, of course. I’m very invested in my research subject and plan to write much, much more about it, just not here (and as I write this, “here” means on Gapnotes.com, but I often move around my content to other domains so who knows where this text is being read now).

Thank you for reading!

Art

  • Christophe Berhault at Panek (remarkable!)

Anime

  • 2011: Bakuman, S1 E4-6 (rewatching with S)
  • 2009: Tokyo Magnitude 8.0. E1.

TV

  • MDR/Boxen live: Krasniqi entthront Bösel mit krachendem Knockout (this happened to be on after Bakuman and we enjoyed it!)

Filed Under: Study diary

Week 40: 28 September – 4 October 2020

October 4, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Got my first “Selected” on Filmfreeway! For an ethnographic film festival of course. It seems “selected” doesn’t necessarily mean that I made it to the final selection though, but even so I was delighted! Otherwise the “not selected” keep coming in.

On Tuesday we had the last Editing Forum, which is always such a fun and interesting class that I learn a lot from. Coffee with O.

On Wednesday we saw the Hannah Arendt exhibition at Deutsches Historisches Museum, which was really interesting and well done. We also checked out Von Luther zu Twitter: Medien und politische Öffentlichkeit in the basement.

While browsing the reformation room and learning about Luther, I got an email from my supervisor, who approved the new version of my written thesis. This was such a relief. He told me to submit it, so now I’m just proofreading it and giving it a nice layout – the job I love!

We continued to dinner at A&C’s place – our first home dinner since isolation.

In Japanese, I’m now one third through Japanese Core 6000. Took 116 days, so I guess I have 232 days to go, which is 7.7 months, so let’s say half a year. I think I should speed it up a bit. I started reading 俺のペットは聖女さま, my first book (or light novel) in Japanese, and I immediately realised that I learn in a totally different and I would say better way than with Anki, which feels more mechanical.

I communicated with an academic contact regarding a certain opportunity. She advised me about funding and language proficiency, so I registered for both JLPT N2 and IELTS.

On Saturday we invited F&E for dinner at our place.

Tonight we watched Wallay, a pretty decent coming-of-age story. Earlier in the week we watched the classic Himmel über Berlin, or Wings of Desire. Not what I had expected.

Anime

  • 2017: Made in Abyss, E5 (raw).
  • 2019: Boku no Hero Academia S4, E16–23.

Films

  • Himmel über Berlin (Wim Wenders, Germany, 1987)
  • Wallay (Berni Goldblat, France/Burkina Faso, 2017)

Filed Under: Study diary

Week 39: 21-27 September 2020

September 27, 2020 by Leave a Comment

Turbulent week.

Tuesday: Last swim of the year at Strandbad Plötzensee.

Friday: Submitted a new version of my essay to my supervisor.

In the weekend I enjoyed working on a new homepage.

I finished Tim Ingold’s book on anthropology, which was simply amazing in the way it did away with the many ridiculous conceptions that inform anthropology to this day. An absolute must-read and a book to come back to. This is how I want my anthropology to be!

Austin Kleon’s book was a fast read, I think it’s been a couple of weeks since I read it. And I loved it!

I find Robin DiAngelo to be mostly intellectual talk and not so much substance – so far.

Chris Gore is fun.

Anime

  • 2017: Made in Abyss, E4 (raw, Netflix)
  • 2019: Boku no Hero Academia S4, E9–15

TV

  • High Score, E4 (Netflix)

Books

  • Tim Ingold (2018): Anthropology: Why It Matters.
  • Austin Kleon (2014): Show Your Work!

Book chapters

  • Robin DiAngelo (2018): White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism
    • 2: Racism and White Supremacy
  • Chris Gore (2009): Chris Gore’s Ultimate Film Festival Survival Guide, 4th edition
    • Section 1: Getting into Film Festivals
    • Section 2: Build Buzz: Secrets of Indie Movie Marketing
    • Section 3: Forming a Festival Strategy

Filed Under: Study diary

Week 38: 14-20 September 2020

September 20, 2020 by Leave a Comment

A lovely week. We biked to Krumme Lanke to swim on Wednesday, and joined my classmates for beers in Gleisdreieckpark on our way back. I realised how much I had missed them!

My supervisor responded with detailed comments on my thesis, which I’m now reworking. I’m a bit taken by his commitment to my research. I feel that I’m in very good hands, and I see clearly how he betters my thesis. He has suggested some interesting future collaboration.

He also recommended me to check out a job opportunity, a paid PhD programme. As much as I wanted to apply, I realised in the end that the subject was too far away from my research interests. After all, you only do one PhD (if you’re not Patrick Galbraith), and if you’re going to spend several years doing it, the subject better be a perfect fit.

I might have found this fit elsewhere. I emailed a prospective supervisor early in the week and got a positive reply on Thursday. We have since corresponded regarding requirements, funding, etc.

No matter what happens, I must say that it’s such a lovely feeling to be at the end of something and to be totally open for future opportunities!

Got another “not selected” on Filmfreeway. I guess my kind of “ethnographic” film is not a fit for regular film festivals, despite they’re “independent” and I applied to the student category on this last one.

Got a bit caught up in the “MIA drama” in the Japanese learning community.

Anime

  • Some episodes of Made in Abyss (2017) on Netflix

Video

  • High Score, E1–3 (Netflix)
  • Larry David: Curb Your Enthusiasm (series pilot, 1999)
  • Ricky Gervais Meets… Larry David (2006)
  • Crunchyroll: Adapting ANIME Logos Into English (Rent-A-Girlfriend, Seton Academy, Quintessential Quintuplets)

Filed Under: Study diary

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Unreal Boys - a film about shotacon

Unreal Boys is my graduation film. It’s a documentary about three young men in Tokyo who are into the Japanese manga genre shotacon. Read more.

Tiling short film

Tiling is a short film that I made as part of a semester paper. Read more and watch it here.

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