Based on a text by William Burroughs in Nova Express: “It was first suggested that we take our own image and examine how it could be made more portable. We found that simple binary coding systems were enough to contain the entire image however they required a large amount of storage space until it was found that the binary information could be written at the molecular level, and our entire image could be contained within a grain of sand. However, it was found that these information molecules were not dead matter but exhibited a capacity for life which is found elsewhere in the form of virus.” If you are interested in screening this work, please contact to: OVNI Archives: llop [a] desorg.org Hamacaonline: info [a] hamacaonline.net

collection Petites Planètes. ‘Jihad’ is a fundamental Arab concept. In these times of conflict and violence, we only hear the mass media version – the extreme meaning of the term, which has strayed from its original sense – while its deeper meaning is ignored. Jihad can be translated as effort, commitment, and struggle in the broad sense. It is a concept and an experience with two different levels, one subordinate to the other. On one hand there is the ‘small jihad’ which has to do with effort, with the communal struggle to attain a society that is fairer and more aware of the mystery of reality (Al-Haqq) and of life (Al Hayy), which are two of the names of Allah. And the other is the ‘great jihad’, which is considered more important, and which determines whether the success, failure, or digression of the small jihad. This great struggle is the inner quest, the effort to cleanse everything inside us that distances mankind from the real... everything that favours a world made up of separate, selfish entities, a world that is closed, appropriable, and doomed to conflict. One of the most beautiful and profoundly meaningful practices of the great jihad is the ritual ceremony of ‘dhikr’ (zikr), an Arabic word that means memory... and in this context refers specifically to the memory of Allah... a personal reencounter - within a collective ceremony - with the mystery of the Real... in other words, with that which is cannot be defined, represented, or appropriated... that which is beyond physical or rational measure. According to this tradition, only one organ is capable of accommodating such an immensity: the human heart. Sufism struggles to remain within the heart of Islam. And in suffering Chechnya, Sufism is the most widespread form of Islam. Vincent Moon and Bulat Khalylov recorded a beautiful, immersive form of the experience of this dhikr ceremony.

Advice on how to gain independence and control in the face of the difficulties implicit in human relationships. We live in a busy world and isolation seems to be the only way to escape the buzz of lists, inspirational catchphrases and reminders to upgrade — now! The peace of ignoring the phone may be bliss, but what about when we get what we ask for, and are forgotten altogether? The author mulls over the bittersweet reality of escaping. A video about wanting to be alone and being lonely — a meditation on the cult of individuality and independence in our anxious urban world. Created in 1998, but now feels even more relevant during these current pandemic times.

“Language is a specific formalisation of expression that is assigned the role of transmitting orders to society.” “At school, language is placed in the mouth of the child, just as a pick is placed in the hands of a labourer. The teacher does not bring the children together to teach them the alphabet, but to teach them a system of orders. And when she asks a child what the sum of 2 + 2 equals she is not asking for information, she is giving an order.”

Video letters from Beirut to the World. July 21, 2006. Calling outside Lebanon, the bombings in 2006.