The term “sousveillance” stems from the contrasting French words sur, meaning “above”, and sous, meaning “below”, i.e. “surveillance” denotes the “eye-in-the-sky” watching from above, whereas “sousveillance” denotes bringing the camera or other means of observation down to human level, either physically (mounting cameras on people rather than on buildings), or hierarchically (ordinary people doing the watching, rather than higher authorities or architectures doing the watching).

You’ve made the right choice.
Believe me, today is a good day for you.
These are tough decisions, I know.
But we intellectuals, and I say “we” because I consider you as such,
must remain lucid to the bitter end.
This life is so full of confusion already,
that there’s no need to add chaos.
Losing money is part of a producer’s job.
I congratulate you.
You had no choice.
And he got what he deserved for having joined
such a frivolous venture so lightheartedly.
Believe me, no need for remorse.
Destroying is better than creating,
when we’re not creating those few, truly necessary things.
But then is there anything so clear and right
that it deserves to live in this world?
For him, the wrong movie is only a financial matter.
But for you, at this point, it could have been the end.
Better to quit and strew the ground with salt,
as the ancients did, to purify the battlefields.
In the end what we really need is-
some hygiene, some cleanliness, disinfection.
We’re smothered by images, words and sounds
that have no right to exist, coming from, and bound for, nothingness.
Of any artist truly worth the name we should ask nothing
except this act of faith: to learn silence.
Do you remember Mallarmé’s homage to the white page?
And Rimbaud, a poet, my friend, not a movie director.
What was his finest poetry?
His refusal to continue writing and his departure for Africa.
If we can’t have everything, true perfection is nothingness.
Forgive me for quoting all the time.
But we critics – do what we can.
Our true mission is -
sweeping away the thousands of miscarriages that everyday -
obscenely – try to come to the light.
And you would actually dare leave behind you a whole film,
like a cripple who leaves behind his crooked footprint.
Such a monstrous presumption to think
that others could benefit from the squalid catalogue of your mistakes!
And how do you benefit from stringing together
the tattered pieces of your life?
Your vague memories, the faces of people
that you were never able to love.

Guido:

What is this sudden happiness that makes me tremble,
gives me strength, life?
Forgive me, sweet creatures.
I hadn’t understood.  I didn’t know.
It’s so natural accepting you, loving you.
And so simple.
Luisa, I feel I’ve been freed.
Everything seems so good, so meaningful.
Everything is so true.
I wish I could explain.
But I don’t know how to.
So. Everything is confused again, as it was before.
But this confusion is – me.
Not as I’d like to be, but as I am.
I’m not afraid anymore of telling the truth,
of the things I dont know, what I’m looking for and haven’t found.
This is the only way I can feel alive and
I can look into your faithful eyes without shame.
Life is a celebration.
Let’s live it together!
This is all I can say Luisa, to you or the others.
Accept me for what I am, if you want me.
It’s the only way we might be able to find each other.

- 8 1/2 IDEATO E DIRETTO DA FEDERICO FELLINI

Sadly they left, telling no one goodbye.
Pressed rat wore red jodhpurs, warthog a striped tie.
Between them, they carried a three-legged sack,
Went straight round the corner and never came back.

Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
The bad captain madman had told them to stop
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rats collection of dog legs and feet.

The bad captain madman had ordered their fate.
He laughed and stomped off with a nautical gate.
The gate turned into a deroga tree
And his pegleg got woodworm and broke into three.

Pressed rat and warthog have closed down their shop.
They didnt want to; twas all they had got.
Selling atonal apples, amplified heat,
And pressed rats collection of dog legs and feet.

- written by Ginger Baker and Mike Taylor

all changes
beginning in time
lost by the meander
forward in hewn subjects

false patterns
grotesque mask
in pleasure, blindness ensues
cloven dance

And I water’d it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears;
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.

And it grew both day and night,
Till it bore an apple bright;
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine,

And into my garden stole
When the night had veil’d the pole:
In the morning glad I see
My foe outstretch’d beneath the tree.

- William Blake 1794

13

http://www.freestateproject.org/files/101-Reasons-to-Move-to-NH.pdf

live free or die….

The underlying concept is that social tensions and certain environments can cause stress, resulting in a feeling of alienation. Gemütlichkeit is an active way of preventing such negative influences by going to places and/or meeting with people that are regarded to be gemütlich. A gemütlich person again is one that takes part in this lifestyle and knows about the tensions he/she is able to cause, and thus tries to avoid these things actively. This way an agreement is established to make an “environmentally cosy” site (Heuriger, garden, cellar, backyard restaurant, living room…) “socially cosy”.

One characteristic of a gemütlich situation is that one could blot out everything else (past, future, other places and absent people) and yet everything would be fine (an eternal “now and here”). Germans describe that as “leaving everything at the doorstep” (though a gemütlich place doesn’t necessarily have to be inside a house).

A similar word, gezelligheid (/ɣəzɛləɣhæɪt/), exists in Dutch. The Dutch gezelligheid however is always attached to a social situation (a gezellige person is somebody who likes to be among people and socializes well), whereas Gemütlichkeit can also be enjoyed alone.

There is also a Danish equivalent (hygge), which basically means the same.

In Russian, the word commonly translated as cosiness, уют [uˈjut], carries almost identical connotations as the German word.

In Czech, ‘pohoda’ means cozy, ease, tranquility and well-being. A group of people may have ‘pohoda’ together.

The Danes do not traditionally consider themselves a “warm” culture or people, and generally consider themselves reserved. However, one of the fundemental aspects of Danish culture is “hygge”, which, although translated as “coziness” has no exact English equivelent. Hygge is a complete absence of anything annoying, irritating, or emotionally overwhelming, and the presence of and pleasure from comforting, gentle, and soothing things. Hygge is often associated with family and friends so close that they are understood as family. Christmas time with loving family indoors with candles lit on a cold raining night is “hygge”, as is grilling a pølse (Danish sausage) on a long summer evening. These are necessary examples which, although they do not precisely define “hygge”, can give an English speaker an idea of a deeply valued traditional concept of Danish culture.