Southern Gothic / Derek Larson.

Format:

• Video

Contributor:

• Babich, Babette E., 1956-
• Larson, Derek.
• Truax, Eileen.
• Florida, Richard L.

Series:

• Trés Mall.
• Trés Mall ; Episode 04

Subjects (All):

• Gentrification.
• Generation Z.
• Violence--Social aspects.
• Violence.

Genre:

• Video recordings.
• Motion pictures.

Physical Description:

online resource (1 video file (32 min, 18 sec.)) : sound, color.

Place of Publication:

New York : DIS.ART 2019.

System Details:

video file

Summary:

Imagine William Faulkner had access to lysergic acid diethylamide and lived in an abandoned mall. "In the fourth episode of Très Mall, "Southern Gothic," psychological, economic, technological, mediatic, and ethical concerns converge into a dissociative web, unsettling the integrity of the subjectivities of people, cartoon characters, non-human animals, objects, and devices. Très Mall's-that is, the mall's-bespectacled welcome sign welcomes us with a discourse on gentrification, given by urban theorist Richard Florida, who talks of the twisted theory of benign neglect, letting New York crumble so it became cheap and rebuildable for the wealthier. This didn't happen, or not entirely, but now, we are so familiar with the idea of "gentrifiers" and the role that creative people looking for cheap places have in changing neighborhoods that Jon is nodding off. In this twisted version of "A Christmas Carol", after dozing off, Jon finds himself visited by an animated (in the many senses of that word) version of Nietzche's The Birth of Tragedy voiced by philosopher Babette Babich. The book/Babich tries to get at the core of Jon's dreams, but not so much evasive as unfocused, Jon can't seem to answer her questions and asks his own instead: what happens in the minds of an animal? Do they know the violence they are capable of? Do they have a true sense of morality? Do we?" --DIS.ART