Art Is an Alien Technology: Live at the Supernormal Festival

With his 2010 film Cave of Forgotten Dreams, the German filmmaker Werner Herzog peeled away the veneer of familiarity on the Chauvet cave paintings, restoring them to their original eldritch sparkle. In this conversation, Phil and JF discuss a cinematic jewel that was wrought under tremendous pressure – and is all the more dazzling for it. The episode was recorded live at the Supernormal Festival in Oxfordshire, England, where your hosts were also subjected to unexpected pressure as the band Plastics started their set at the same time as the talk! Though we feel the musical accompaniment adds depth to the dialogue, listeners who find it distracting can skip to the end of the Plastics' set around 41:30. All listeners are urged to visit the band's Bandcamp page (https://plasticsrockers.bandcamp.com/releases) to sample some choice hardcore.
Weird Studies thanks Strange Attractor Press (http://strangeattractor.co.uk), the Supernormal Festival (https://www.supernormalfestival.co.uk), and Plastics (https://plasticsrockers.bandcamp.com/releases). JF Martel gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts (https://canadacouncil.ca/) in making this live recording possible.
Header image via Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rhinocéros_grotte_Chauvet.jpg).
Listen to volume 1 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-1) and volume 2 (https://pierre-yvesmartel.bandcamp.com/album/weird-studies-music-from-the-podcast-vol-2) of the Weird Studies soundtrack by Pierre-Yves Martel (https://www.pymartel.com)
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SHOW NOTES
Werner Herzog, “The Minnesota Declaration” (https://designmanifestos.org/werner-herzog-the-minnesota-declaration/)
Tom Waits, “Step Right Up”
Herman Melville, Moby Dick (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780198853695)
Weird Studies, Episode 76 on “Hellier” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/67)
Stanley Kubrick (dir.), 2001: A Space Odyssey (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/)
Paul Bahn, Images of the Ice Age (https://bookshop.org/a/18799/9780199686001)
Weird Studies, Episode 101 on “In Praise of Shadows (https://www.weirdstudies.com/101)
Weird Studies, Episode 129 on “The Fall of the House of Usher” (https://www.weirdstudies.com/129)
Matthew Barney, The Cremaster Films (https://www.guggenheim.org/exhibition/matthew-barney-the-cremaster-cycle)
Stanley Kubrick, The Shining (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081505/)