Lost Xplorers

158 - The Mind of the Photograph

Are aesthetics a kind of philosophy? What is the most important photo of all time?

Kris’s birthday celebration, shoutout to Jay Springett, starting the day off right, The Miracle Morning, Gus encounters a passed-out junkie, Pat Murphy’s Points of Departure, (JDO incorrectly states that Tea with the Black Dragon won the 1984 PKD award; it was actually The Anubis Gates; TWTBD was the runner-up), Thomas Merton, Gary Snyder’s The Real Work, calamities that lead to epiphany, (the book JDO is trying to remember is Honest to God by John Robinson), Ralph Eugene Meatyard, every photograph is a self-portrait, D.H. Lawrence’s paintings, the Slim Jims’ Music for Tall Men Only, inclusive vs. inviting, forced limitation, “deny the veil, enjoy the view,” the Devouring Television, media creating reality, worshipping a Felix the Cat doll, the introduction of widescreen, the irreality of VHS, the return of the Third Man, what is contained in a photograph?, the most important photo of all time, repetition of imagery, the first-world sinister hug, shot-up jukeboxes in quicksand, MK Ultra Imaginative Challenge, the whim of nature, getting down in the baked beans and cream corn, pornographic thought experiment, James Dickey, the magic of guilt, and a Ben Affleck and Matt Damon dream.

157 - Ghosts in Machines Working Ghostly Machines to Not Work At All

“Emblematic congruence” refers to how well a person represents the culture from which they grow. This leads to some interesting questions: is your culture strong enough to weight you with this cargo?

What creates squalor in a neighborhood? Can architecture be embellished and still squalid?

On this episode, we talk:

UFOs when the sun goes down, 4am wake-up time, informal meditation, not waking up in the machine, optimized sleep patterns, keeping the phone away from sleep, ratios of confidence to confusion, humans as emblems of their cultures, instilling cultural artefacts, embracing the earth spirit to release the archetype, immigrants with strong sense of culture, individualist ad campaigns, becoming wolf vs. becoming furry, affecting attitudes becoming real, category mistakes, the decomposing world, is architecture ever reality?, the shanty towns of Seoul, flourish vs. artifice, the American noosphere, the hunger for subjectivity, sexual teasing, the reason why people flip out, eavesdropping at sportsbars, the show Hannibal, the Osborne Effect, the perception of loudness, never stop experimenting, cool smoothies, and stepping on a rubber band barefoot.

For the dream segment this time, we’re listening to Kris’s awesome musical piece “Minotaur.”

156 - Deus Absconditus

On this episode, Kris and I develop ideas as to how to break down prepositional distance, and how to frame an approach to writing and life. What does the term “structural” even mean? What is structure?

Art exhibit retrospective, coming home, spaceship homes, how much money it would take to get Kris to live in Seattle, running away from home, returning to family, moving all the time, Aphex Twin’s head, creating a Shire, Rumble Strip, sex in a gas station, simple language, love and fear, The Implicate Order, holographic universe, what if Einstein had to go viral?, the Philip K Dick Awards, getting people off their phones, bad texters, QR code shenanigans, grifters, finding a job you love, artists as craftsmen, everything smells like onion rings, odd aquariums, the strange informing power of Structure, form and content, patterns of education, The Silence of the Lambs, structural racism,  simulation theory, feeding someone a snake, having great ideas, and an inverse treasure hunt.

155 - Phantom Realities (Soul or Simulation?)

Kris and I begin this conversation by talking about the simulation of photography, the predictive nature of it, and move into a talk about appreciation for sentence- or paragraph-level writing, and how to perhaps sell that love to lure readers in.

We talk:

Seattle masks, Eternal Jing, the connection between Zanesville and Altered Carbon, double binds, Bateson’s Pyramid, melody smother, goodbye courage, how to have a more decisive mind, the fear of saying something bold, the vampire/zombie hybrid, totemic dreams, the strangely predictive nature of photography, Project Origin, cybernetics, creating simulations of the self, tribal mindsets toward photography, prepositional distance, the ego looking for something to protect, asemic writing, things are built to see what they become, rebellion against the outline, the enjoyment of language, LitRPG, the comfort with the shen, how to write if you don’t want to be a cookie-cutter formulist, cryptotransgression, thinking like an animal, taking environment into account when discussing mental illness, is “reverse engineering tautological?”, the hands of many strange angels, the hunter-killer search for knowledge, a whole fish inside him, cleaning house, and a dream car losing traction with the road.

154 - The Eyes of Seattle

On this episode, Kris and David talk about the out of control homeless problem in America.

Notes:

Reporting live from a closet, museums and graveyards, different kinds of benches, crow attack, holding onto losses in the past, catfish girlfriends, radical agreement, living cliches, everything wants to be found, learning how to speak extemporaneously, sore necks, giant pimps, the unsexiness of Seattle, salmon everywhere, genuine diversity, tech money, John Mellencamp, perfect optics, fixing homelessness, are cities making people sick?, the conspiracy of disappearing the dead, decriminalizing shoplifting, $90 candy bars, the importance of canning, the focus on consumers, Apocalypse Trucks, modern cars, Vegas fashion, risk aversion, the flavor is settling, cultivating the aura, daoism, commitment to wisdom, what lies beyond problems?, detective inquiry, how to talk to strangers, saving horses from fire, are words saying us?, JDO’s puppet, the importance of dream concrete, and the danger of small talk.

153 - Where Do Thoughts Come From?

 

On this episode, Kris and David debrief each other on Kris’s art show and David’s three-day trip to Las Vegas.

Stick to the end of the show to hear David fall down a rabbit hole over where his thoughts are coming from.

Dad fitness, devouring sound, Radiohead at 800% slower, art as a mode, being too real to live, plague masks, time shamans, the size of Kris’s mind, cosmic vs. astronomical, ferret cage synchronicity, qualia, area unexplored because of ghosts, ACE car rental rant, the Neon Museum, crackhead soap opera, Area 15, chicken ginseng soup, the danger of telling women to calm down, the power of System of a Down, the powerful sense of vacancy of certain people, the Vegas time slip, the three incidents that explain where we are now, the separation between humans and AI, algorithm hoarders, when did we first get the internet?, the nonlocal vs. the algorithmic, silver alerts, digital detoxes, the selfie invents the selfie murder, time flu, operating system updates, judging the thinker by the fans, thinking about thinking, cultural loneliness, being reincarnated as a buffalo, S(  )R, everything wants to be remembered, lost watches, reducing backstory, speaking directly into the mirror, and the Glass Cylinder Game.

152 - Photography is a Relic of the Future

On this episode, we talk about the nature of time, and the repeating nature of certain types of people throughout history.

Other topics discussed:

Taking a handsaw to branches, feeling good after exercise, to-do lists, following through on tasks, Heavy Prowl Area, hot car music, having faith in the essential strangeness of life, objects in the mirror, thought generator, JDO recounts his family tree, Thomas Wolfe’s Of Time and the River, the repeating nature of human types, past lives, the disappearance of peoples, how do human patterns repeat?, pinhole cameras, peculiar geometry, the book of machines, the whirlpool of time, beaver populations, being stewards, the Hawaii 5-0 remake, remakes necessitating the originals, Terence McKenna impression, the third man’s approach to modernity, thought generators, Amish hackers, and how to practically escape modernity.

151 - The Devouring Mirror

Kris and I have an in-depth discussion about run-down American towns.

Notes:

Kris gives a recap of his installation setup, how to run a self-publishing business, where the time goes when you’re parenting, anthills, what you can measure is what you can’t measure, inscape and instress, Gerald Manley Hopkins, Thin, Gently Scorched Metal, leaving a part of yourself behind in hotel rooms, a reason for art outside of communication, the Booty Warrior, David shows Kris a puppet, is poverty a result of degeneration, or a failure to launch?, Tortilla Flat, what causes a town to fall into poverty?, car culture as a sign of middle class prosperity, talking to strangers, the corporatization of American towns, Chat GPT’s solution for poverty, Disney communities, caliente yellow, Kris’s guide to talking to strangers, a new approach to open-air prisons, and long days that go by quickly.

150 - The Breakdown between Metaphor and Origin

This begins our discussion on the introduction of photography, and how it changed the world.

On this episode, we talk:

Our reflections on the Lost Xplorers journey, doing what energizes you, expressions of gratitude, unknown callers, the difficulty of procrastination, beds of nails, never leaving well enough alone, Robert Loewy, one person having a huge effect, iron horses, the beginning of modernity, do photographs steal souls?, Tom Bombadil, self-explaining grammars, not understanding money, the ball bearing problem, the acceleration of the symbolic, things that we watch, thaumaturgy, what was lost with the invention of photography, the instant acceptance of “realism,”  CGI giraffes, prepositional distance, the difference between metaphor and origin, the invention of the word “kodak,” semantic depth, the oddness of depiction, the new donut, keeping a journal of the future, where does sound come from on a VHS?, and metaphors becoming too metaphorical.

149 - Electric Knowing

On this episode, Kris and David close out their architecture series.

We talk:

Making documentaries, three years of Lost Xplorers, almost good at podcasts after 400 episodes, beginner’s mind, areas unexplored due to ants, constructing unknown areas in the mind, defense mechanisms against derangement, a go master vs. a computer, doing everything wrong, practicing thinking together, a sea change of strangeness, rappers who don’t speak, anarchists of mind, thinking hard vs. thinking far, fans running too hot, making peace with hierarchies, suspicion of disorder, houses as machines for living, the children of the machine, the overgrown village, the balkanization of the Atlantic seaboard, the little black pig, technical difficulties, cuckoo clocks, a clear vision for the future of architecture, homelessness as an architectural problem, The Decorated Diagram, A Pattern Language, reading your spouse’s thoughts, accuracy as an antidote to the truth, and the reality of dream beings.