MachineMachine /stream - tagged with madmen https://machinemachine.net/stream/feed en-us http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss LifePress therourke@gmail.com <![CDATA[Madmen Bittorrent Edition]]> http://vimeo.com/20465929

Video comprising one episode of Madmen incompletely downloaded from the internet via bittorrent. The video has been linearly edited, no digital effects were used and all jump cuts and repeats are in the corrupted file. The video captures an episode of the popular TV show in the act of being shared by thousands of users on bittorent. The video simultaneously acts as a visualisation of bittorrent traffic and the practice of filesharing and is an aesthetically beautiful by product of the bittorrent process as the pieces of the original file are rearranged and reconfigured into a new transitory in-between state. It also avoids infringing the copyright of Madmen as it is incomplete. Best watched fullscreen.

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Sat, 14 Apr 2012 18:01:40 -0700 http://vimeo.com/20465929
<![CDATA[Adam Curtis on 'Mad Men']]> http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/08/madison_avenue.html

The widespread fascination with the Mad Men series is far more than just simple nostalgia. It is about how we feel about ourselves and our society today. In Mad Men we watch a group of people who live in a prosperous society that offers happiness and order like never before in history and yet are full of anxiety and unease. They feel there is something more, something beyond. And they feel stuck. I think we are fascinated because we have a lurking feeling that we are living in a very similar time. A time that, despite all the great forces of history whirling around in the world outside, somehow feels stuck. And above all has no real vision of the future. And as we watch the group of characters from 50 years ago, we get reassurance because we know that they are on the edge of a vast change that will transform their world and lead them out of their stifling technocratic order and back into the giant onrush of history.

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Tue, 31 Aug 2010 15:55:00 -0700 http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/adamcurtis/2010/08/madison_avenue.html