CONTENTS

 
   about
   MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS
   movies: AESTHETICS
   movies: NEWS & REVIEWS
   movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS
   random art notes
   random how-tos
   research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
   research: MOTION GRAPHICS
   research: VISUAL MUSIC
   theory: CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS
   theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM
   theory: GLITCH & POSTDIGITAL
   theory: working notes

 

PORTFOLIO

 
Glitch Theory: Art and Semiotics by Michael Betancourt
Movies by Michael Betancourt

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SEARCH ARCHIVES

archives begin in 1996

  

'Dreams That Money Can Buy' Book

story © Michael Betancourt | published May 1, 2014 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES

Hans Richter's 1947 film Dreams That Money Can Buy (available for download here) was accompanied by a 24 page soft cover book with a collage on the cover by Max Ernst, and illustrated throughout with photographs from the color film. This book is relatively expensive to own, but is a very valuable source of information on the film, including materials on/by all of Richter's collaborators.

download a pdf here






 
Pablo Ferro's Title Sequence for Bullitt (1968)

story © Michael Betancourt | published April 30, 2014 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



research: MOTION GRAPHICS

My article on the titles to Bullitt is now out on Bright Lights Film Journal.






 
The Security Apparatus

story © Michael Betancourt | published April 24, 2014 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM

Linkages between agnotology, hyperreality, and surveillance converge in the security apparatus: a paradigm of observation and control whose function is both immaterially productive (it enables the autonomous semiotic generation of value) and restrictive (it enables the mobilization of physical/immaterial force to defend this immaterial production). These productive-restrictive activities are distinct, yet mutually reinforcingthey form a dynamic cycle masked by the aura of the digitals stripping of physicality from conscious consideration. Without this distanciation of the physical, the productive-restrictive cycles would become apparent through their necessarily disenfranchising actions as human agency is usurped by automated processes and autonomous oversight. The security apparatus appears as an impartial, disinterested alternative to the variable contingency of human agency: its uniformly applied mechanical responses create an illusion of objectivity. This mechanical response is a crystalized ideology, an inflexible restriction iterated by the all-or-nothing logic of digital protocols that are incapable of ambiguity, plurality or contingency apparent in the right to read implemented as Digital Rights Management (DRM)either you have authorization or you do not. This authorization implicitly demands a continuous monitoring and maintenance where its authoritarian machinic surveillance, whether as immaterial production or socio-political control, serves to reify the security apparatus in the implementation of digital technology itself. DRM is the most visible prominence of this implicit, ubiquetous system that directly impacts the human readable form of digital objects, but this most apparent example is precisely an isolated surfacing of larger, dominant systems for control and observation that lie within the database that enables immaterial production.




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Films from the Attic, Richmond, VA - March 20

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 17, 2014 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS

Studio Two Three Film & Video Series: Films from the Attic on March 20th, 7:30pm will be screening my movie Remixed Message.




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Shortcutz Berlin - March 5

story © Michael Betancourt | published March 2, 2014 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  Print



movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS

My movie The Kodak Moment will screen in a show of Highlights from DLX.

The show takes place this Wednesday, March 5th

Shortcutz Berlin
Lagari, Pfluegerstr 19/corner Nansenstr.
Next to U8-Schoenleinstr!