CONTENTS

 
   about
   MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS
   movies: AESTHETICS
   movies: NEWS & REVIEWS
   movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS
   random art notes
   random how-tos
   research: AVANT-GARDE MOVIES
   research: MOTION GRAPHICS
   research: VISUAL MUSIC
   theory: CRITICAL OBSERVATIONS
   theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM
   theory: GLITCH & POSTDIGITAL
   theory: working notes

 

PORTFOLIO

 

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Glitch Theory: Art and Semiotics by Michael Betancourt
Movies by Michael Betancourt

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SEARCH ARCHIVES

archives begin in 1996

  

Avant-to-Live Show at Contraband Cinema, Atlanta GA

story © Michael Betancourt | published November 1, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  View Printable Version



movies: SHOWS & SCREENINGS

Saturday, November 19: Avant To Live!

Robbie Land + Michael Betancourt + Sylvia Schedelbauer +
Christopher Childs + Anna Spence + Takuro Masuda

Saturday November 19th 8pm at Beep Beep Gallery

I am planning to be at this show. The description is exciting: Camera-less works, glitch animation, 16mm film lit by fireflies, static datamoshing, archival collage, excel animation, and hand-painted films made by leading fine-art filmmakers working within the region and the globe.




read more (77 words)



 
conjunction (2011)

story © Michael Betancourt | published November 1, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  View Printable Version



movies: NEWS & REVIEWS

This movie is a diptych (2 panel) piece that I just finished. It was made using glitches as the basic source material. It's in HD, but this sample combines the two separate elements into a single movie.






 
Autonomous Individuality vs. Social Organization

story © Michael Betancourt | published October 28, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  View Printable Version



theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM

The idea that the government is an unmitigated evil has its origins in American society with the concept of the state of nature. Proposed by Henry David Thoreau, the ideological claims of this view of human nature reveal themselves as an idealized, pastoralone where society is responsible for everything that is wrong with culture, where individuals are seen as self-contained, self-sufficient and fully autonomous, corrupted only when they need to work together. It is a fantasy of independence, one where the very real social and cultural supports that make the cabin in the woods possible are systematically denied. To see the sociopathic tendencies of this ideology fully realized, one needs look no farther than Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber.




read more (442 words)



 
Immaterial Labor on Social Networks

story © Michael Betancourt | published October 23, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  View Printable Version



theory: DIGITAL CAPITALISM

The creation of social networks challenges traditional conceptions of intellectual property and this change makes clear how the rights assigned to the ownership of information come into question with the development of digital technology. That social networks violate privacy and survive through using their members information to sell ads is nothing new; the creation of free services enabling anyone with access to them to become an author signals a move away from the productive action of humans and towards the automated surveillance of data collection, collation and retrieval, and this transformation reflects a fundamental shift in our conception of both identity and authorshipwith implications for the idea of intellectual property as well.




read more (1077 words)



 
Russia Today - Episode 199, the Keiser Report, "Live and Let Fail"

story © Michael Betancourt | published October 20, 2011 | permalink | TwitThis Digg Facebook StumbleUpon  |  View Printable Version



MICHAEL BETANCOURT NEWS



Max Keiser interviews me in the second half of the show, and we discuss the current #OWS movement and the role of agnotology in causing the current crisis and protest.

Go see Episode 199:

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, talk about the European penny drops as more banks need more bailouts while the public debt clock ticks up to $40 trillion. In the second half of the show, Max Keiser interviews Michael Betancourt about the threat that Occupy Wall Street presents to our modern form of capitalism that relies on ignorance and passivity in the population in order to operate schemes of fraud and bubbles.