Elizabeth King

February 5, 2003 5:13 AM

"I am fascinated by stories and myths of the double, the doppelganger, and the alchemist's artificial man: the homunculus. According to certain medieval texts, the Jewish golem can only be brought to life during its maker's state of ecstasy. The word ecstasy means literally 'to be beside oneself'." [last link realplayer]
posted by hama7 (15 comments total)

Why are you fascinated by such matters?
posted by Postroad at 6:58 AM on February 5, 2003

"Imagine a situation so chock-full of play among signifiers that the signified sought to sue for neglect": a review of a book by an Italian scholar (author of a recent prize-winning book on the weasel in antiquity) who is obsessed by doubles, doppelgänger, imagines, etc. The book takes on, among other things, the history & beliefs concerning dolls and shadows in antiquity. (Bettini has done a lot of work in this vein; this was merely the best web content in English I could find.)

Postroad: Why not withhold your generic comments if you won't even take notice of quotation marks around "I"? (Granted, she doesn't give much in the way of reasons beyond her art itself.)
posted by Zurishaddai at 8:03 AM on February 5, 2003

Good stuff hama. I was strangely reminded of a link I saw on boingboing.net yesterday: Waltz for Cranes (9MB Quicktime)
posted by gwint at 8:28 AM on February 5, 2003

I love this exhibit. Mannequins are fascinating and spooky to me, the more so when brought to the next evolution, automata like those carnival gypsies, and more recent still, fembots. That last video clip "to be beside oneself" is great.

Zuroshaddai, that book sounds intriguing - thanks for the tip. I think all this stuff is also related to masks.

And gwint, that Waltz for Cranes is simply delightful!
posted by madamjujujive at 9:12 AM on February 5, 2003

Wow... that last link is really cool... it reminds me of some of the videos that TOOL has done...
posted by darian at 9:23 AM on February 5, 2003

Postroad: Why not withhold your generic comments

postroad saw "jewish" and his faltering a.i. farted up a comment. just be thankful it wasn't political.
posted by donkeyschlong at 9:30 AM on February 5, 2003

I am fascinated by... the homunculus.

Indeed.
posted by homunculus at 9:53 AM on February 5, 2003

I am fascinated by the Jackalope.
posted by badzen at 10:39 AM on February 5, 2003

Very nice, hama7. (By the way, you wouldn't happen to be a Doppelganger of hama6, would you? Or do you have your own mysterious double?)
posted by taz at 11:30 AM on February 5, 2003

This guy should read some Carlos Castaneda.
posted by kablam at 12:58 PM on February 5, 2003

Nobody does it better.
posted by brittney at 3:13 PM on February 5, 2003

The Brothers Quay, and Jan Svankmajer are some other similarly interesting animators.

The Tool animation directors were Adam Jones and the late Fred Stuhr.

Elizabeth King is not primarily an animator, however. The animation in the link above was only a collaborative experiment. She creates three-dimensional handmade miniature self portraits in precise, exacting detail. The double is made to about one-quarter scale, so the hands are about three inches long.
posted by hama7 at 3:53 PM on February 5, 2003

By the way, you wouldn't happen to be a Doppelganger of hama6, would you? Or do you have your own mysterious double?

That's odd, taz, maybe I, actually, am a double (or triple!) created by hama8 and hama6! I feel queasy.

must. complete. animation. of. hamaC-3P0.
posted by hama7 at 3:59 PM on February 5, 2003

Thanks for the great links, Madamjujujive.

And gwint, that Waltz for Cranes is simply delightful!

Couldn't agree more!
posted by hama7 at 7:51 PM on February 5, 2003

Happy to contribute, hama7 - you find some very cool stuff.
plus, I am much in favor of you sharing more of your creative and non-political side ;-)
posted by madamjujujive at 12:25 PM on February 6, 2003