the OBSCENE machine: Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Preparing for STO | aka Michael Buchmiller

Opposite, a cover in honor this week's "reading"--the CD boxed set by the Satanic Puppeteer Orchestra (aka, Michael Buchmiller and the Robot)...

It is a striking project--one part "text," one part album, and one part performance, as we will see Wednesday when the Robot and the Mad Professor invade our classroom.

How to prepare? Think of the boxed-set of CDs as you would any other music your ears consume--but then, think of the project as a kind of "statement," an intervention, an indictment: does it have a goal? a target? Is it a weapon? More pop cultural detritus... or something more.

I look forward to our discussion tomorrow--in a way, it is the culminating apex of our bizarre, semester-long experiment.

For those of you 'confused' by Buchmiller's "art," think of him as a techno Edward Gorey, an aural/musical Tim Burton, a 21st Century Edgar Allan Poe, with a sense of humor....

One other analogue for Buchmiller's twisted psyche? Jared Hess, of Napoleon Dynamite fame; click below for more....

History of the Obscene Machine Cyberhive...

The Obscene Machine is an ever-evolving "ARTkive" chronicling cultural studies advancements in something I call the "ersatz human"--broadly understood, it is a series of links to stories that document the history of human self-fashioning, from ancient "primitive" totems and fetiches, to contemporary digital avatars and dolls.

In other times, this blog has served as a community exchange vehicle for my students at San Diego State University. In Fall 2011, The Obscene Machine was a cultural studies seminar at San Diego State University entitled TECHNOSEXUALITIES--the course is led by head cyborg Professor William A. Nericcio. Previously, it was the host cyberHIVE for a Spring 2011 undergraduate English 220 seminar: Robotic, Erotic, Electric: Televisual Nightmares, Seductive Hallucinations, and Naked Pscyhes in Literature, Film, Art, and the Web.

Know, also, that this blog had earlier incarnations and aspirations: The Obscene Machine began its life as an online supplement both to English 493, a literature and film undergraduate class at San Diego State University, and English 725, an Ethnic American cultural studies graduate seminar--both were directed in the Spring of 2007 by the aforementioned Dr. Nericcio and the posts associated with those two classes remain online here as an ersatz gallery and a living memorial.

These mirrored courses, both experimental, fuse an interrogation of Ethnic American critical theory with a more general probing of "fictional humans"--hence the term "Ethnic Mannequins" as a subtitle for the graduate seminar and its coincident obsessions with cyborgs, novels, stereotypes, and film. Both courses may be interpreted as supplements, if not revisions, to Tex[t]-Mex (UT Press, 2007) book and precursors to Eyegiene.

The Robot Running this Site...

William Anthony Nericcio is the Director of MALAS, the Master of Arts in Liberal Arts and Sciences at San Diego State University. When not shepherding brilliant graduate student devotees of cultural studies, Nericcio also hangs his hat as a Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Chicana/o Studies, and serves on the faculty of the Center for Latin American Studies. Utterly more than is necessary to know can be found in his perplexing, image-laced online autobiography and a complete digital index of his web-based shenanigans is located here. Lastly, can also see a graphic design portfolio by Guillermo Nericcio García, his, er, 'cousin,' at memogr@phics designcasa.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Robotic, Erotic, Electric! Michael Buchmiller Performance Art | SPO @ SDSU Spring 2011

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Preparing for STO | aka Michael Buchmiller