I don't think you need to fear letting some of the carnival music drift up
and in through the windows to mingle with the more rigorous rhythms being
set down up there. Some of us down here on the pony rides have even
deactivated our Lacan filters and found our ears didn't hurt as much as we
thought they would.
Up until the time of his murder I thought I was living a normal
Versace-free life. When the news reports started flowing in through my TV
-- and on the Internet -- I was surprised at how familiar I was with him
and the particulars of his business and life. That is, I suppose, the
reason he spent millions of dollars on advertising and promotion. Though I
never bought his products, never thought about buying them, and don't think
I know anyone who does, I was still in the room as very minor member of the
rhythm section. There is a sort of "Versace Space" where I wander around
the edges by knowing his name (and how to pronounce it) and noticing his
ads. Most of the world's population (my mother, for instance and most of
China) I would guess doesn't.
It was if I'd entered a mosque and instinctively knew how to pray to Allah
while still considering myself Catholic.
Maybe it was the heat in New York last week but the shattering of that
space and the subsequent eruption of a new media-fueled "Cunanan Space"
brought to mind N. Katherine Hayles' earlier discussion of Paul
Connerton's linkage of embodiment with memory. My knowledge of Versace was
a habit I wasn't aware of until the media rhythm (with a disco beat) used
to perpetuate that habit in me (like smoking) was radically altered. That
rhythm of fashion creates the illusion of endless creativity and innovation
through repetition. The same could be said for art.
The new rhythm will probably be short-lived and the old one will either
start up again, disappear or, most likely, mutate. However, new memes seem
to be developing in the "Cunanan Space" that may live on independently --
such as the personification of AIDS as a seriel killer that attacks gay
men. The news media has wanted that particular meme for a long, long time
and they now have an alembic rhythm to grow it in like a Tamagotchi.
Robbin Murphy
murph@artnetweb.com
<i> i o l a </i> http://artnetweb.com/iola/