Haikus: Cinema Machine

HAIKUS: CINEMA MACHINE
Stanford University, Spring 2007

By Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

These haikus were written while auditing "Film Studies 152: Cinema Machine" taught by Professors Scott Bukatman & Pavle Levi at Stanford University, Spring Semester, April 4-June 6, 2007. Both instructors were present in the classroom lecturing and showing film clips, bouncing ideas off each other. Together with class participation, it created a dynamic atmosphere of insightful learning on how the cinema art is like a machine influencing our body and mind every day. Professor Levi's talk on desiring machines that never stop flowing led me to ponder on Patanjali's Yoga Sutra on stopping the mental flow of thoughts thus ceasing desires. Professor Bukatman's talk on the beautiful & sublime made me go back to Longinus and Kant, to reflect more deeply on these matters. The screening of Ernie Gehr's Serene Velocity linked me to Lao Tzu and Plato's Cave Allegory. The screening of Michael Snow's La Région Centrale reminded me of I Ching's Hexagram #43 of Breakthrough with lake above & sky below as well as Plato's Soul's Eye outweighing 10,000 eyes. This course has broadening my mental horizon to enlightenment. I thank Professors Bukatman and Levi for inspiring these haikus. (Underlined words are not for emphasis but to web links.)

Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud 152: Cinema-Machine Cummings Art 2, Stanford University Zoom and Bored cartoon— Coyote's traps always fail to catch Road Runner.	Wednesday, April 4, 2007, 3:30 pm Profs. Scott Bukatman & Pavle Levi FilmStud 152: Cinema-Machine Road Runner always escapes, so Coyote keeps on with inventions.
Monday, April 9, 2007, 3:30 pm Scott Bukatman's FilmStud 152 lecture Cinema-Machine: "Shape of Energy", AR2 The silent era of Chaplin gives way to sound era of Cagney.	Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 7:30 pm Anneberg Auditorium, Stanford University Fernand Léger, "Ballet Mécanique" (1924) Maddening motion— modernity machines move, wheels and pistons dance!
Tuesday, April 10, 2007, 9:00 pm Anneberg Auditorium, Stanford University Eisenstein, "Old and New" (1929) The bride is the cow— She's shaking as the bull comes with splashing oceans.	Wednesday, April 11, 2007, 3:00 pm Pavle Levi's FilmStud 152 lecture quoting Dziga Vertov (1923) I am kino-eye. I'm a mechanical eye, a machine that sees.
Monday, April 16, 2007, 3:00 pm Pavle Levi's FilmStud 152 lecture on Libidinal Machines in cinema & life Desiring machines of libido energy never stops flowing.	Monday, April 16, 2007, 4:00 pm Pondering Levi's "desiring machines can't stop" & solution from Patanjali's "Yoga Sutra" I.2: Patanjali says: "Yoga is the stopping of mental flow of thoughts."
Tuesday, April 17, 2007, 10:30 pm Cubberley Auditorium, Stanford University Pondering on Fritz Lang, "Metropolis" (1927) Ego runs our lives while the real Self is asleep— When will we wake up?	Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 2:40 pm FilmStud 152 Cinema-Machine, Levi screens Man Ray, "Return to Reason" (1923) A jumble of nails, UFO lights fly, coils spin, and nude torso turns.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007, 3:20 pm FilmStud 152: Scott Bukatman screens Star Gate sequence in 2001: A Space Odyssey We're in a tunnel of kaleidoscopic lights— pure visual delight!	Saturday, April 21, 2007, 5:15 am Reading Marshall McLuhan & Quentin Fiore, "The Medium is the Massage" (1967) Today's medium— electric technology— reshaping our lives.
Monday, April 23, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud 152: Scott Bukatman screens Winsor McKay, "Gertie the Dinosaur" (1914) 10,000 drawings of ertie the Dinosaur— cartoon in motion!	Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 7:20 pm FilmStud 152, Stanford Annenberg Auditorium G. W. Bitzer, "New York City Subway" (1905) Under the city, the subway trains takes me from one place to the next.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 8:30 FilmStud 152, Annenberg Auditorium Buster Keaton, "The General" (1927) They won't enlist him— but luck comes his way to make him a war hero.	Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 9:00 pm FilmStud 152, Annenberg Auditorium Ernie Gehr, "Serene Velocity" (1970) It's just a hallway— The Great Square has no corners. The Tao has no name.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007, 9:00 pm FilmStud 152, Annenberg Auditorium Ernie Gehr, "Serene Velocity" (1970) Homage to the Square! Deep in the inner sanctum— the Hall of Records.	Monday, April 30, 2007, 12:48 pm Showers & El Camino, Mountain View Pondering on cirrus clouds in the sky Who painted all this? White brushstrokes in the blue sky— Where's the artist's brush?
Monday, April 30, 2007, 2:30 pm When Bukatman reveals "Serene Velocity" was shot in one night, with daybreak seen in window, I share a Platonic epiphany with the class. Square becomes circle! Plato's cave allegory— from earth to the Sun!	Monday, April 30, 2007, 3:40 pm FilmStud 152: Reflecting on Pavle Levi's lecture on Michel Foucault's biopolitics and Wilhelm Reich's "character-armor" The Ego-I forms as we grow older— why not the Cosmic-Eye too?
Tuesday, May 1, 2007, 7:15 pm FilmStud152 Screening, Annenberg Auditorium Van Beuren, In a Cartoon Studio (1931) Farm animals cheer— sketches coming to life in cartoon studio.	Tuesday, May 1, 2007, 8:00 pm FilmStud152 Screening, Annenberg Auditorium Leni Riefenstahl, Triumph of the Will (1935) Entire Germany mesmerized by Hitler or in China by Mao.
Tuesday, May 1, 2007, 9:00 pm FilmStud152 Screening, Annenberg Auditorium Jack Smith, Flaming Creatures (1963) Orgies in frenzy to scratchy violin tunes— this is Hell of Bosch.	Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 2:20 pm FilmStud152 Cinema-Machine: Scott Bukatman screens Maria Montez in "Cobra Woman" (1944) She's Amazon Queen, dances around king cobra, then zaps her subjects!
Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 2:50 pm FilmStud152 Cinema-Machine: Pavle Levi lectures on Jaques-Dalcroze's eurhythmics Cinema montage— physical movements follow musical rhythms.	Wednesday, May 2, 2007, 3:40 pm Conversation with Pavle Levi about Plato after his talk on Bataille's "Story of the Eye" From horizontal to vertical, man's head linked to his home— the stars.
Monday, May 7, 2007, 2:15 pm FilmStud152 Cinema-Machine: Scott Bukatman screens Fred Astaire in "Top Hat" (1935) He's a dynamo!— tapping and gunning away— Top Hat now Top Gun.	Monday, May 7, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi screens Mifune in Kurosawa's "Throne of Blood" (1957) Arrows come flying in staccato rhythm like machine gun bullets!
Sunday, May 6, 2007, 5:00 pm Stanford Green Library, Reading Byron's "Fragment from the 'Monk of Athos'" and reflecting on the stopping of desire This man of action subdued his wild desires for bliss in solitude.	Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 10:30 am Home reading Paul Brunton's "Wisdom of the Overself" (1943) that thoughts are like machine gun bullets Thoughts from our mind are like steady bullets coming from a machine gun!
Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 8:30 pm FilmStud152 Screening, Annenberg Auditorium Stanley Kubrick, Dr. Strangelove (1964) Nuclear explosions— huge mushroom clouds ending with song "We'll Meet Again".	Tuesday, May 8, 2007, 10:10 pm FilmStud152 Screening, Annenberg Auditorium Byron Haskin, War of the Worlds (1953) Martian's goose-neck crafts zapped all, but earth's tiniest bacteria killed them off.
Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 2:25 pm FilmStud152 Cinema-Machine: Pavle Levi screens Kirk Douglas in "Spartacus" (1960) Spartacus taking gladiator's training to be killing machines.	Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 3:00 pm Pavle Levi talks of living in Jugoslavia during NATO bombing of Serbia (1999) Watched NATO bombing Serbs on TV— like Melies spaceship hitting moon.
Monday, May 14, 2007, 11:15 am Answering friend who phones and asks: "Why do we desire?" What sets off desires? It's attachments, attachments— Need for more and more!	Monday, May 14, 2007, 11:20 am Phone conversation with friend on the subject of desire. What do you desire? "You want enlightenment but I want peace of mind."
Monday, May 14, 2007, 12:30 pm Stanford Shuttle Bus, Galvez Street Pondering on ending of desire. Can we stop desires? Buddha says yes! Be mindful— Practice Eight-Fold Path.	Monday, May 14, 2007, 2:00 pm Stanford Cummings Bldg, Selecting free 8x10 color prints giveaways. Saint Bernard, Jerome, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint John of Patmos.
Monday, May 14, 2007, 2:45 pm FilmStud152: Scott Butkatman screens When Worlds Collide trailer (1951) & quotes Susan Sontag's "Imagination of Disaster" (1965) Sci-fi films portray asthetics of destruction with entertainment.	Monday, May 14, 2007, 3:15 pm Pavle Levi describes his experience of 9/11 watching planes crashing into World Trade Center from his NYC hotel. Couldn't believe what I saw in real life. Had to confirm it on TV!
Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 8:40 pm FilmStud152 Screening, David Cronenberg, Videodrome (1983) Prof. O'Blivion quote: "Television's real and reality is less than television."	Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 8:40 pm Annenberg Auditorium, David Cronenberg, Videodrome (1983), Max Renn quote: "Death to Videodrome! I'm the Video Word made Flesh. Long live the New Flesh!"
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 5:00 am Read McLuhan's "Understanding Media", Ch. 7 quoting Heisenberg who cites sage Chuang Tzu Those who use machines lose their simplicity and becomes machine-like.	Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 11:32 am KDFC 102.1 FM: Domenico Zipoli Elevazione (1715) (album) Ascension music composed by Jesuit priest while in Paraguay.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 12:40 pm Riding Bus #522 from Showers to California & Stanford C-Line Shuttle Bus to campus. Pondering on the ending of desire. The whole world running after desires but Buddha's happy having none.	Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 2:00 pm Stanford Art Library, Cummings Bldg, Reading Raymond Williams, "Television" (1974) and J. G. Ballard, Crash (1973) "car as sexual image". I have no TV or drive a car— satisfied without these machines.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 2:30 pm FilmStud152: Scott Butkatman quotes Marshall McLuhan, Jean Baudrillard, William Burroughs, Guy Debord TV no longer in the box but is now out intertwined with life.	Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 3:30 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi screens Hideo Nakata's Ringu (1998) and discusses bio-politics of real & virtual Human and machine merging together in life Who's infecting whom?
Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 8:30 pm Free Ukranian film, Cummings Art Bldg AR4 Olesandr Dovzhenko, Arsenal (1928) Where are the machines? There are no machines, nor sons, husbands, nor fathers.	Wednesday, May 16, 2007, 9:30 pm Green Library, Stanford University Refused to take free boxes of Art Prints When things are given free, we desire more and more— thus the birth of greed.
Sunday, May 20, 2007, 9:00 pm Cubberley Auditorium, Stanford University Guillermo del Toro, "Pan's Labyrinth" (2006) She made the right choice— not to sacrifice others to become godlike.	Monday, May 21, 2007, 2:00 pm Stanford Art Library, Cummings Building Reading Sigmund Freud's "The Uncanny") (1919) The uncanny is unhomely— arouses dread and unknown horror.
Monday, May 21, 2007, 2:30 pm FilmStud152: Scott Butkatman quotes Marshall McLuhan & J.G. Ballard's "Crash" Man is sex organ of the machine. Car is the body's extension.	Monday, May 21, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi screens George A. Romero's Dawn of the Dead (1978) Zombies romp around the shopping mall like people who are the undead.
Monday, May 21, 2007, 3:30 pm FilmStud152: Scott Butkatman reads his paper "Sublime and Uncanny in Films" and cites Metropolis, King Kong, Frankenstein Gigantic King Kong is sublime while miniscule android's uncanny.	Monday, May 21, 2007, 4:30 pm Philippines Conference Room, Encina Hall, 3rd fl. Prof. Ryuichi Abe, "Ryokan in the Spring 1916" Soma Gyofu (1883-1950) quits Waseda University Success as scholar. Failure at home. Can he find balance in both?
Monday, May 21, 2007, 6:00 pm Pondering on Prof. Ryuichi Abe's talk on Ryokan playing the Fool The Tarot Card's Fool is Zero— To become wise, one must be empty.	Tuesday, May 22, 2007, 7:45 pm FilmStud 152 Screening: Cubberley Auditorium Michael Powell "Tales of Hoffman" (1951) Puppets come to life— Moira Shearer's dancing makes this film a delight.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007, 8:00 pm FilmStud 152 Screening: Brothers Quay "Street of Crocodiles" (1951) The nether world where puppets walk like zombies, screws unscrew by themselves.	Tuesday, May 22, 2007, 9:20 pm FilmStud 152 Screening: John Lasseter "Toy Story" (1995) Woody the Cowboy, Buzz Lightyear the Space Ranger— Toys coming to life.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 2:30 pm FilmStud152: Scott Butkatman discusses Heinrich von Kleist's "On the Marionette Theater" (1810) Puppets not weighed down by gravity. Like God, they're in a state of grace.	Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi screens John Carpenter's They Live (1988) Aliens have taken over. With special glasses you can detect them.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007, 3:30 pm FilmStud152: Scott & Pavle discuss Heinrich von Kleist's "On the Marionette Theater" (1810) A woman is an empty vessel where men pour their desires into.	Thursday, May 24, 2007, 1:00 pm Phone conversation on Timothy Walker's "Defence of Mechanical Philosophy (1831) attacking Carlyle's "The Mechanical Age" (1829) Machines improve lives. A waste land can be transformed into a garden.
Sunday, May 27, 2007, 4:00 pm Green Library, Stanford University Reading "Machines & Mechanization" Man and machine fuse— Brave New World is here and we humans are asleep!	Sunday, May 27, 2007, 8:00 pm Green Library, Stanford University Reading "The Sublime in Cinema" Kant says Mont Blanc is sublime— so is cinema shown on a white screen!
Monday, May 28, 2007, 12:12 am Waiting for Bus at Stanford Oval & looking at Moon with fuzzy halo. What is beautiful? Birth and sunrise. What's sublime? Death, night, and deep space.	Monday, May 28, 2007, 12:30 am Palo Alto Cal-Train Depot Pondering on the Beautiful & Sublime The hummingbird is beautiful. A humpback whale's singing is sublime!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 3:45 pm Stanford Art Library, Cummings Building Reading Laura Mulvey's "Death 24x A Second" "The Index and the Uncanny" (2006) Photographers are stopping the flow of time. They're the agents of death.	Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 8:00 pm FilmStud 152 Screening: Cubberley Auditorium Michael Snow (photo) "La Région Centrale" (1971) The camera's eye scans the mountain ground and zooms up high to the blue sky!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 10:00 pm FilmStud 152: Cubberley Auditorium Michael Snow (photo) "La Région Centrale" (1971) No Michael Snow or winter's snow in the film. Why? Ego would spoil it.	Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 10:00 pm Michael Snow (photo) "La Région Centrale" (1971) With remembrance to Hui-Neng The earth is spinning. The sky is spinning— No. it's your mind that's spinning!
Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 10:00 pm FilmStud 152: Cubberley Auditorium Michael Snow (photo) "La Région Centrale" (1971) Rocks of Earth, Air of Sky, Water of Lake. Where's Fire? At the end— the Sun!	Tuesday, May 29, 2007, 10:00 pm Michael Snow (photo) "La Région Centrale" (1971) Recalling Plato's "Philebus" 16d The camera's eye shows us the four elements— from many to the One!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 10:35 am KDFC 102.1 FM: Johann Pachelbel, Canon in D major (1680) (Listen) Eyes closed, mind open— I soar to the highest skies to drink in the Light.	Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 12:30 pm Michael Snow, "La Région Centrale" (1971) Hexagram #43 of "I Ching": Breakthrough Lake above, blue sky below: image of Breakthrough— Water is now crown!
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 2:45 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi on Michael Snow, "La Région Centrale" (1971) Machinic vision is omniscient & objective viewing without us.	Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi on P. Adams Sitney, characteristics of Structural Film Flicker, fixed framing, looping, optical printing— structural filming.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 3:30 pm FilmStud152: Pavle Levi screens Hollis Frampton's Special Effects (1972) (Notes) A Black rectangle surrounded by white beads with whistling of birds.	Wednesday, May 30, 2007, 3:33 pm FilmStud152: Scott Bukatman compares miniscule to uncanny & gigantic to sublime Street of Crocodiles is uncanny, but sublime is Région Centrale.
Thursday, May 31, 2007, 12:45 pm Home in Mountain View pondering on the equation for happiness. Happiness equals desires fulfilled divided by all your desires.	Thursday, May 31, 2007, 1:00 pm Home in Mountain View pondering on the nature of happiness. As your desires go to zero, your happiness becomes infinite.
Thursday, May 31, 2007, 11:55 am Reading Ramana Maharshi's Talks (1968) comparing cinema screen to the Self. Film screen is like Pure Self which is behind waking, dream and deep sleep states.	Thursday, May 31, 2007, 8:30 pm Pondering on Michael Snow's camera in "La Région Centrale" (1971) Snow's camera eye paints sublime land- and skyscapes like Cézanne and Monet.
Friday, June 1, 2007, 3:15 pm Looking at Prof. Bukatman's office door— Calvin & Hobbes comic strip discussing high and low art. Painting is sublime— high art. Comic strip's vapid and hack work— low art.	Friday, June 1, 2007, 3:30 pm Talk with Prof. Pavle Levi in his office on writing paper for "Cinema-Machine" He suggests reading Jean-Louis Baudry Can yoga stop our desires? Can cinema show us our transcendence?
Sunday, June 3, 2007, 4:30 pm Green Library, Stanford University Reading Longinus "On the Sublime" (c. 300 A.D.) Chapter VII: Effects of Sublimity of the Soul Our soul's uplifted by the true sublime when we hear what's really great.	Sunday, June 3, 2007, 9:00 pm Green Library, Stanford University Reading Longinus "On the Sublime" Chapter XXII: Hyperbata (c. 300 A.D.) Art is perfect when it seems to be nature which has art within her.
Monday, June 4, 2007, 5:00 am Reading Plato's "Republic" VII, 527e on the Soul's Eye which outweighs 10,000 eyes and realizing Michael Snow's "Région Centrale" film ran for 3 hours or 10800 seconds. Each second an eye, more than 10,000 of them— Our Eye of the Real!	Monday, June 4, 2007, 11:58 am Ortega Avenue, Mountain View, Following a monarch butterfly flying with me to my Bus #22 stop on my way to Stanford University Butterfly leads me to El Camino Reál— flying reel to real.
Monday, June 4, 2007, 1:00 pm When I told Prof. Bukatman that Chinese landscape art is sublime, he replied: Chinese landscape art is not sublime because they don't evoke terror.	Monday, June 4, 2007, 1:00 pm FilmStud 152/352: Scott Bukatman screens Steven Spielberg's "Close Encounter" (1977) The spaceship's sublime— flies over Devil's Tower, overshadows all.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 3:30 am Reading Jean-Louis Baudry on transcendence in the cinema & listening to Dr. Eric Pearl on KSFO 560 AM Radio Coast-to-Coast interview. The use of any gift is in transcending it— Ah, the dynamics!	Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 3:55 am KSFO 560 AM: Eric Pearl says the exorcist believes he's dispelling some evil demon that's real. On his reconnective healing: This healing works as it dispels the illusion that we exist!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 5:30 am Reading Jean-Louis Baudry, "Ideological Effects of the Basic Cinematographic Apparatus The projector, screen, darkened hall in cinema is like Plato's Cave.	Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 6:15 am Home in Mtn View: Reading Jean-Louis Baudry, "The Apparatus: Metapsychological Approaches to the Impression of Reality in Cinema Where's the projector and screen when we dream? Whose show is it when we wake?
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 8:00 pm FilmStud 152: Annenberg Auditorium Douglas Trumbull, "Brainstorm" (1983) Michael experiences his wife Karen's feelings When we're aware of other's feelings, we become more compassionate.	Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 8:30 pm Annenberg Auditorium, Douglas Trumbull, "Brainstorm", Screen ratio expands from 1.66:1 to 2.2:1 during virtual reality scenes Roller coaster ride, ocean surfing, hand gliding and mind expanding!
Tuesday, June 5, 2007, 9:00 pm FilmStud 152: Annenberg Auditorium Douglas Trumbull, "Brainstorm" (1983) Michael experiences Lillian's death via headgear Reliving her death via playback gear— he sees spheres of butterfly light!	Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 2:30 pm Annenberg Auditorium, Stanford University FilmStud 152/352: Pavle Levi screens Joseph Ruben's "Dreamscape" (1984) Trained psychics can come into your dreams and scare you to madness and death!
Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 3:00 pm FilmStud 152/352: Cinema-Machine Pavle Levi screens John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" (1987) (photos) Evil's not in us, but Satan's in that flask of green spinning liquid.	Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 3:30 pm FilmStud 152/352: Pavle Levi lectures on the Latham loop which reduced strain and prevented film strips from breaking. This loop extended curvature of space so that film strips would not break.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 5:40 pm Stanford Art Library, Cummings Building Reading Laura Mulvey's "Death 24x A Second" "The Index and the Uncanny" (2006) Camera eye captures "the this-was now here" without the human factor.	Wednesday, June 6, 2007, 10:00 pm Reflecting on Woodville Latham and sons forming Lambda Company with patent for Latham loop & Milton S. Latham, California Governor for 5-days Lived on Latham Street for ten years knowing Lambda but not Latham Loop.
Friday, June 8, 2007, 10:00 pm Green Library, Stanford University Reading Buddha's "Dhammapada" Verse #83 The wise gives up all. The righteous do not desire for sensuous pleasures.	Friday, June 8, 2007, 11:00 pm Reading "Bhagavad Gita" II.55 Krishna speaks on tranquil wisdom When one surrenders all desires, his soul finds joy and peace of mind.
Saturday, June 9, 2007, 4:00 am Reading Lao Tzu, "Tao Te Ching" 37: "The nameless uncarved block Is but freedom from desire" And if I cease to desire and remain still, then all will be at peace.	Saturday, June 9, 2007, 5:00 am Reading "Signs of the Unseen: Discourses of Jalaluddin Rumi" Ch. 31 God asks Bayazid what he wanted. "I want not to want." There is no more agony when you stop wanting.