One word 3: Nomenclator

nomenclator

1. One who calls persons or things by their names.&hand; In Rome, candidates for office were attended each by a nomenclator, who informed the candidate of the names of the persons whom they met and whose votes it was desirable to solicit.

2. One who gives names to things, or who settles and adjusts the nomenclature of any art or science; also, a list or vocabulary of technical names. '

nomenklatura were a small elite group within the Soviet Union and other Eastern Bloc countries who held various key administrative positions in all spheres of those countries' activity: government, industry, agriculture, education, etc., whose positions were granted only with approval by the communist party of each country or region. Virtually all were members of the communist party

Significance:

The ability to ascribe names is power. So much can be done just by putting adjectives to people or places or events. The only thing is make people accept these names.

"Once the rumor that your sister is a whore spreads, pointing out the fact that you actually don't have a sister won't help."

1) Jean Pierre Jeunet

Things I like, Things I Don't Like (1989)

2) Lars von Trier

Manderlay (2005)

3) Hank Willis Thomas

4) Jørgen Leth



5) "Let us trim our hair in accordance with Socialist lifestyle" - article from BBC

"North Korea ...TV series this winter showed hidden-camera style video of "long-haired" men in various locations throughout Pyongyang. ...the programme gave their names and addresses, and challenged the fashion victims directly over their appearance. The series was shot at various public locations - on the street, at a sports stadium, a barbershop, a bus stop, a restaurant, a department store. Some unruly-haired pedestrians or customers captured on camera "meanly ran away", the programme said, while others made excuses about being too busy to get a trim."


The TV holds up this man as exhibiting a correct hair cut. It recommends 1-5cm for back and sides and 5cm for tops of heads. If they've still got any, men over 50 are allowed up to 7cm, to cover baldness. Visits to the barber should be made every 15 days.

6) WF Banes and John Thiele "The American Look (1958)"

A 30 minute film produced by GM.




My father has an MFA in industrial design, he gained it during the early 70's and this film resonates with me. It is strange how majority of people dislike the 1960's design and prefer Victorian houses, old fashioned and traditional looking objects. No matter that contemporary production uses contemporary materials: cast iron, hardwood, plaster walls, ceramic tiles are ridiculously imitated with fiber glass, polymer concrete, dry wall, concrete or vinyl. Maybe it is not because of the design itself but the way it was imposed by companies, therefore, design was no more about aesthetics but corporate power. This film is really captivating in the way it puts labels rather than leaving people judge for themselves.

7) James Coupe "Today, too, I experienced something I hope to understand in a few days." (2010)



The title sounded familiar and yes, it is a line from the Perfect Man film by Leth. In this piece Coupe uses software to match the information of face book users (volunteers) with metadata from youtube. The program generates a narrative from this different data sources which is manifested in split screen video format with text and videos of the participants. I am not particularly impressed by the end result but very intrigued by the idea. Can it work better next time? It is a departure from my interest in process as everything happening here is hidden. I did not see any details on how the software generates the narrative.

The event can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/ihopetounderstand