The Clockwork Penguin

Daniel Binns is a media theorist and filmmaker tinkering with the weird edges of technology, storytelling, and screen culture. He is the author of Material Media-Making in the Digital Age and currently writes about posthuman poetics, glitchy machines, and speculative media worlds.

Author: dan

  • 7 February 2010

    Thoughts from the elder Moleskine:

    ‘When I was a child, I thought as a child acted as a child, spoke as a child… but when I became a man, I turned my back on childish things.’ [1 Corinthians 13:11]

    The church expects that every person should grow up. Why? There is no harm, no danger, no inherent negative effect in striving to hold on to childish notions, to innocence, to a wonder at the world, to a genuine and pure interest in others. If everyone held to these, maybe the world would be a better place.

  • A Thursday

    She’s laughing at an in-joke with herself about everyone on board;
    She’s engrossed in her book;
    He has his headphones in, openly staring at each commuter in turn;
    All the other men are suited, reading their papers or fumbling with technology that was crafted much later than their fingers stopped working;
    There is an amicably animated conversation in French – naturally the phrase “I’m entering the City Loop, I’ll call you back” needs no translation for eavesdroppers.

    [originally put here, photo by me, original here]

  • Topical verbiage

    Keep left. Photo by me.
    Keep left. Photo by me.

    ditch /

    rearrange /

    apply /

    reprioritise

  • My weekend, in film

    As you will have gathered on Friday, I put together a rather formidable schedule of film viewing. This was partly due to the need to do a bit of catch-up, but also because after watching Snowpiercer and Drive the previous week, I was just in the mood to get some serious movie-watching done.

    I was – well – well, look, I didn’t make it through all seven films. Lastnight, after half an hour or so of Christophe Honoré’s La Belle Personne, I hit critical mass and needed to switch off. This is no reflection on poor M. Honoré: his film looks stunning, and I’ll certainly return to it in the coming days.

    Of those I did watch, I enjoyed The American most of all. Rather than re-hash my thoughts all over again, though, here they are, re-posted from my Letterboxd profile. (more…)

  • This weekend’s planned viewing

    An ambitious list, but here goes…

    1. The American (2010), d. Anton Corbijn, the last hour or so.
    2. Don Jon (2013), d. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the last 40 minutes or so.
    3. Chasing Ice (2012), d. Jeff Orlowski.
    4. Suspiria (1977), d. Dario Argento.
    5. The Great Beauty (2013), d. Paolo Sorrentino.
    6. The Zero Theorem (2013), d. Terry Gilliam.
    7. The Beautiful Person (2008), d. Christophe Honoré.

    Wish me luck. Keep track of my progress (and probably thoughts) here.