Writes Cokes: "This work consists of an excerpt from Slavoj Zizek's text Welcome to the Desert of the Real set to two music tracks by The Notwist. In Zizek's prescient discussion of the potential meanings and consequences of 09.11.2001 (written five days after the events) we find him questioning common responses to the tragedy. He reads the destruction as both an unacceptable act and as an opportunity for greater critical reflection, responsibility, and change in historical U.S. economic and political policies in relation to the world outside its borders. However, this opportunity has been clearly refused and repudiated so far by the current U.S. government. The text crawls from right to left. It is graphically simple and relatively easy to read."
Concept/Form: Tony Cokes. Image Animation/Edit: Scott Pagano. Text: Slavoj Zizek. 9/16/01 excerpt from "Welcome to the Desert of the Real!" Source: http://www.the globalsite.ac.uk/times/109zizek.html. Music: The Notwist -"This Room," "One with the Freaks." Funded in part by Brown University Faculty Research Initiative Grant and Research Funds for the Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences.