DOCSLIB.ORG

To Download the PDF File

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
To Download the PDF File Aesthetics of Terror: Reflections on Post-9/11 Literature and Visual Culture by John Christopher Vanderwees A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in English Language and Literature Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2014 John Christopher Vanderwees Vanderwees ii Abstract This dissertation project investigates cultural responses to visual representations of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. I examine the aesthetics, contexts, movements, and politics of post-9/11 visual culture across a range of media with a primary focus on photography and fiction. Recent scholarly articles and book length surveys on post-9/11 culture overwhelmingly charge popular literary and visual texts with participating in the reproduction of hegemonic norms and supporting a regressive climate of anti-feminism, hyper-masculinity, and reactionary politics. I contend that many scholars have actually foreclosed alternative interpretations and the production of new knowledge regarding post-9/11 literature and visual culture in the pursuit to reveal dominant ideologies at work. This project unfolds in three main sections, each of which develops “reparative readings” of visual and literary texts in an attempt to redeem valuable political, ethical, and affective aspects of post-9/11 visual culture that scholars have previously discounted or overlooked. The first section outlines post-9/11 victory culture and American exceptionalism through corporate media suppression of Richard Drew’s photograph, “The Falling Man.” I examine how dominant national narratives repress Drew’s photograph in an analysis of New York nostalgia and the cultural resurgence of tightrope walker Philippe Petit. Following Judith Butler’s more recent work, I argue that images of falling bodies might be redeemed, citing Jonathan Safran Foer’s employment of images in his fiction as an example, through an ethics of vulnerability. The second section examines William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition as a narrative that runs contrary to academic perceptions that figure post-9/11 fiction as narcissistically preoccupied with national trauma. Drawing from Jodi Dean, I argue that Vanderwees iii Gibson’s portrayal of “the footage,” a series of viral online images, reflects a harsh critique of online technologies and formulates terrorism as symptomatic of American imperialism and processes of globalization. The final section examines the Bush Administration’s use of Joel Meyerowitz’s Ground Zero photographs as part of an international foreign policy tour to gain support for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Drawing from Jill Bennett’s extension of Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy of the event, I work beyond critiques that have only posited these photographs as propaganda, exploring the uncanny and ethical dimensions of Meyerowitz’s work, which has since been published as Aftermath. Vanderwees iv Acknowledgements I would like to express sincere gratitude to Dr. Priscilla Walton for her enthusiastic supervision of this project, her suggestions for improvement, and her encouragement during the writing and editing process. I am also particularly grateful for the support of Dr. Brian Johnson and Dr. Franny Nudelman who constantly provided me with patient guidance and constructive feedback. I thank Dr. Christopher Dornan and Dr. Michael Butter for their insightful comments, questions, and suggestions during my dissertation defense. I also thank Dr. Grant Williams and Dr. Barbara Leckie for all of their professional advice and administrative support. I am also indebted to Dr. Adam Barrows, Dr. Sarah Brouliette, Dr. Michael Dorland, and Dr. Stuart Murray for employing me as a research assistant on numerous projects. I owe special thanks to Dr. Rachel Warburton, Dr. Scott Pound, Dr. Lori Chambers, Dr. Bill Heath, Dr. Douglas Ivison, and Dr. Batia Stolar who continue to provide me with advice and inspiration. I am especially thankful for Danielle Letang and Anthony Pedace’s unwavering support, generosity, and willingness to discuss research topics with me. I am also grateful to John Suschkov and Lindsay Sommerauer who always provide me with a welcome escape from writing and research. I extend additional thanks to Kasey Douglas whose knowledge of photography and photographers never ceases to amaze me. I am exceptionally grateful to Larry and Mary Ann Hillsburg who have provided support and encouragement in so many ways. I also could not have completed this project without the help of my family, especially Joe, Laura, and John Vanderwees. I dedicate this work to Andrew Connolly and Heather Hillsburg who tirelessly discussed aspects of this research with me and who I owe more than I can return. Vanderwees v This project was also made possible through the financial support of the Social Science and Humanities Research Council and the Ontario Graduate Scholarship. Vanderwees vi Table of Contents ii Abstract iv Acknowledgements 1 Introduction Victory Culture and Photographs of Falling Bodies after 9/11 20 Introduction 26 Censorship, Victory Culture, and Exceptionalism in the Immediate Aftermath 43 Photographs of Falling Bodies and the Experience of Abjection 54 A Tightrope at the Twin Towers: James Marsh’s Man on Wire 68 Ethics and the Photography of Atrocity or Why Should We Look? 78 Falling and Flipbooks: The Ethics of Vulnerability and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Globalization, Communicative Capitalism, and William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition 91 Introduction 100 Globalization, Terrorism, and the Cultural Brandscape 120 Technology, Conspiracy Theories, and Communicative Capitalism 136 Online Technology and the Misrepresentation of Political Possibilities Photography of Ground Zero: Aesthetics and the Event in Joel Meyerowitz’s Aftermath 145 Introduction 151 Joel Meyerowitz and Aestheticizing the Ruins of Atrocity 163 Ground Zero Ruins: Aesthetics, Affect, and the Event 180 Haunting the Frame: Ruins of Destruction and Traces of the Virtual Vanderwees vii Conclusion 191 A Note on AMC’s Mad Men and Falling Bodies 198 Works Cited Vanderwees 1 Introduction It is the World Trade Center you came to see up close….From here you can see the Gothic detailing of the towers’ closely massed, aluminum- faced columns, stretching upward to what seem impossible heights. Even the towers surrounding these twins seem paltry by comparison….There is no denying the power of their mass and sleekness. But how much more clearly you could see the city, with its layers of accumulated history, if only those two vast and imposing structures weren’t here. The trick, then, is to make the World Trade Center disappear. (Darton 4) During the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, amateur and professional photographers gathered on the streets and rooftops of New York City in order to make images of the visual spectacle as it unfolded before them. “Manhattan seemed alive with cameras,” writes David Friend, and “[a]mid the horror, New Yorkers by the tens of thousands had committed millions of moments to film and video” (ix-x). Media images of the World Trade Center’s collapse were played and replayed incessantly on television, printed and reprinted in newspapers and magazines, shared and distributed on the Internet. Jonathan Flatley writes that the Twin Towers “offered a perfectly condensed and extremely visible site for a disaster that capitalized on the iconic reproducibility and, often horrible attraction of spectacle” (4). It is now perhaps a relatively obvious point to note that the terrorists more than likely planned the attacks with the significance of this visual spectacle in mind. Scholars partially attribute the massive production and Vanderwees 2 circulation of the terrorist attacks in visual media to the convergence of digital cameras, 24-hour newsgathering services, and the beginnings of Web 2.0 technology. These recent media developments enabled nearly instantaneous transmission of images and video footage of the terrorist attacks to audiences across the globe. Despite the iconicity of video footage capturing the collapse of the World Trade Center, photographs continue to play an important role in defining the collective memory and history of the terrorist attacks. “It is striking,” writes Marita Sturken, “that still photographs seem to have played a dominant role in the response to 9/11, far more than the television images. Unlike the television images which defined the media spectacle, the photograph seems to aid in mediating and negotiating a sense of loss” (186). Photography initially became a suspect activity at Ground Zero. Official signage instructed people to put their cameras away as part of Mayor Giuliani’s ban on unauthorized photography, and a certain moral discourse emerged around making pictures as an inappropriate response to the tragedy. A number of posters appeared near Ground Zero reprimanding amateur photographers for participating in dark tourism: “All Of You Taking Pictures: I wonder if you really see what is here or if you’re so concerned with getting that perfect shot that you’ve forgotten this is a tragedy site, not a tourist attraction” (qtd. in Kirshenblatt-Gimblett 14). Despite official and unofficial attempts to discourage photography, many New Yorkers and people from around the world made trips to Ground Zero, stood to look beyond the crowd barriers and police check points, and made Vanderwees 3 pictures of the site in the weeks and months after the attacks.1
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Flying Man and Falling Man: Remembering and Forgetting 9/11 Graley Herren Xavier University - Cincinnati
    Xavier University Exhibit Faculty Scholarship English 2014 Flying Man and Falling Man: Remembering and Forgetting 9/11 Graley Herren Xavier University - Cincinnati Follow this and additional works at: http://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/english_faculty Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Recommended Citation Herren, Graley, "Flying Man and Falling Man: Remembering and Forgetting 9/11" (2014). Faculty Scholarship. Paper 3. http://www.exhibit.xavier.edu/english_faculty/3 This Book Chapter/Essay is brought to you for free and open access by the English at Exhibit. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Scholarship by an authorized administrator of Exhibit. For more information, please contact exhibit@xavier.edu. 9 Flying Man and Falling Man Remembering and Forgetting 9 /11 Graley Herren More than a decade after the September 11 attacks, Ame~cans continue struggling to assimilate what happened on that day. This chapter consi­ ders how key icons, performances, and spectacles have intersected with narrative reconstructions to mediate collective memories of 9/11, within New York City, throughout the United States, and around the globe. In Cloning Tenvr: The War of Images, 9/11 to the Present, W. J. T. Mitchell starts from this sound historiographical premise: "Every history is really two histories. There is the history of what actually happened, and there is the history of the perception of what happened. The first kind of history focuses on the facts and figures; the second concentrates on the images and words that define the framework within which those facts and figures make sense" (xi). What follows is an examination of that second kind of history: the perceptual frameworks for making sense of 9/11, frameworks forged by New Yorkers at Ground Zero, Americans removed from the attacks, and cultural creators and commentators from abroad.
    [Show full text]
  • Man on Wire Discussion Guide
    www.influencefilmclub.com Man on Wire Discussion Guide Director: James Marsh Year: 2008 Time: 94 min You might know this director from: Project Nim (2011) Shadow Dancer (2012) The King (2005) FILM SUMMARY MAN ON WIRE is the story of French tightrope walker Philippe Petit who, on August 7, 1974, broke into the newly constructed Twin Towers of Manhattan. After months of painstaking preparations, he managed to enter the buildings during the night and string a wire between the two towers. For the next 45 minutes, Philippe Petit walked, danced, kneeled, and laid down on the wire - an expeirence he had dreamt of ever since he read about the Twin Towers six years before. Using contemporary interviews, archival footage, and Philippe’s own creations, this film tells the story of Philippe’s previous walks between towers such as the Notre Dame and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Viewers learn about his passions, his friendships, and how he accomplished his Twin Towers walk, from getting the wire into the towers and hiding from guards to mounting the wire and taking the first step. The result is a story of daring, beauty, dedication to the point of insanity, loyalty and heartbreak, and the firm belief that nothing is impossible. Discussion Guide Man on Wire 1 www.influencefilmclub.com FILM THEMES On the surface, MAN ON WIRE may appear to be about one man’s determination to achieve his dream, but the story reveals a lot about human nature, from friendship and loyalty to dreaming beyond the norm “I must be a and achieving the impossible.
    [Show full text]
  • Fall 17 Lecture Series Final
    Fall 2017 Senior Citizen Lectures: Perspectives on American Politics & Policies Profs. Athena Devlin & Emily Horowitz, Co-Directors Tuesdays @ 11:10am in Room 3213 (unless noted) St. Francis College (180 Remsen St. in Brooklyn) // Reception to Follow Sept. 12: Chase Madar - The Criminalization of Everyday Life Chase Madar is a civil rights attorney and author of The Passion of Bradley Manning: The Story Behind the Wikileaks Whistleblower (Verso). Madar will talk about how we're using criminal law, police, and prisons to deal with nearly ALL of our problems, and why this is counterproductive. @ChMadar Sept. 19: Adam H. Johnson - Media Bias and Inaccuracy Adam H. Johnson writes for Fair Media Watch, the Nation, Alternet, and the Los Angeles Times (“How the media smears black victims”). He co-hosts Citations Needed, a weekly podcast about the intersection of media, PR, and power, with Nima Shirazi. @AdamJohnsonNYC Sept. 26: Catherine Carpenter - The Unconstitutionality of Sex Offense Laws Professor Catherine Carpenter (Southwestern Law School) is a nationally renowned criminal law scholar in the area of sex crimes and sex offender registration laws. Her scholarship has been cited by numerous courts and used as a guide by attorneys. She is also one of the foremost authorities on law school curricula and accreditation. Among her important law review articles is “Against Juvenile Sex Offender Registration.” Oct. 3: Debbie Nathan - Politics on the U.S.-Mexican Border Debbie Nathan has been a journalist, editor, and translator for almost three decades. She specializes in writing about immigration, the U.S.-Mexico border, sexual politics, and sex panics, particularly in relation to women and children.
    [Show full text]
  • West Allis Players Capture Spirit of Neil Simon's
    16 • Milwaukee County Post • October 9, 2015 THIS 6TH & ENTERTAINMENT SATURDAY HOWARD AT THE OPEN 1PM-5PM West Allis Players capture spirit of THIS WEEK AT THE GARDEN DISTRICT FARMERS’ MARKET What’s Fresh This Week Neil Simon’s ‘Barefoot in the Park’ Time to can the applesauce! The veggies are still plentiful from beets, beans, Brussels Cast adeptly At a glance sprouts, cabbage, carrots, chard, cucum- bers, garlic, kale, kohlrabi, pattypan, pota- captures trials “Barefoot in the Park” The curtain goes up at 7:30 p.m. Friday and toes, peppers, tomatillos, kohlrabi, onions, of newlyweds Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday at West Allis Central squash, watermelons and more! We’re also Auditorium.Visit www.westallisplayers.org. joined this week by Clock Shadow By JULIE MCHALE Creamery, Custom Grown Greenhouse, Post Theater Critic is adjusting to her new single status, and Elsen Orchard, Golden Eggroll, Log Cabin Corie is trying to encourage her to take a Orchard, Magpie’s Gourmet Dog Treats, WEST ALLIS — It is no surprise that few risks and create a new life for herself. Soap of the Earth, and amazing flowers. Neil Simon’s 1963 play “Barefoot in the Two other characters arrive upon the Follow us on Facebook for updates Park” continues its popularity. Simon’s scene — a telephone repairman and a longest-running Broadway show still slightly eccentric, interfering moocher Our Sponsors Help Make the amuses us because of its recognizable situ- named Velasco, the neighbor who lives in Market Possible ations, its accessible characters and its the attic above the Bratters.
    [Show full text]
  • Don Delillo and 9/11: a Question of Response
    University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English English, Department of 5-2010 Don DeLillo and 9/11: A Question of Response Michael Jamieson University of Nebraska at Lincoln Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss Part of the English Language and Literature Commons Jamieson, Michael, "Don DeLillo and 9/11: A Question of Response" (2010). Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English. 28. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/englishdiss/28 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the English, Department of at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research: Department of English by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. DON DELILLO AND 9/11: A QUESTION OF RESPONSE by Michael A. Jamieson A THESIS Presented to the Faculty of The Graduate College at the University of Nebraska In Partial Fulfillment of Requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Major: English Under the Supervision of Professor Marco Abel Lincoln, Nebraska May, 2010 DON DELILLO AND 9/11: A QUESTION OF RESPONSE Michael Jamieson, M.A. University of Nebraska, 2010 Advisor: Marco Abel In the wake of the attacks of September 11th, many artists struggled with how to respond to the horror. In literature, Don DeLillo was one of the first authors to pose a significant, fictionalized investigation of the day. In this thesis, Michael Jamieson argues that DeLillo’s post-9/11 work constitutes a new form of response to the tragedy.
    [Show full text]
  • Art, Memory, and Historical Reclamation in Colum Mccann's Let the Great World Spin
    This is a repository copy of "Anticipating the Fall": Art, Memory, and Historical Reclamation in Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/90682/ Version: Accepted Version Book Section: Carroll, HEM orcid.org/0000-0003-1177-8566 (2016) "Anticipating the Fall": Art, Memory, and Historical Reclamation in Colum McCann's Let the Great World Spin. In: Morley, C, (ed.) 9/11 Topics in Contemporary North American Literature. Bloomsbury Academic . ISBN 9781472569684 This is an Accepted Manuscript of a book chapter published by Bloomsbury Academic in 9/11: Topics in Contemporary North American Literature on 25 August 2016, available online: https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/911-9781472569684/ Reuse Unless indicated otherwise, fulltext items are protected by copyright with all rights reserved. The copyright exception in section 29 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 allows the making of a single copy solely for the purpose of non-commercial research or private study within the limits of fair dealing. The publisher or other rights-holder may allow further reproduction and re-use of this version - refer to the White Rose Research Online record for this item. Where records identify the publisher as the copyright holder, users can verify any specific terms of use on the publisher’s website. Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing eprints@whiterose.ac.uk including the URL of the record and the
    [Show full text]
  • 11 July 2006 Mumbai Train Bombings
    11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings July 2006 Mumbai train bombings One of the bomb-damaged coaches Location Mumbai, India Target(s) Mumbai Suburban Railway Date 11 July 2006 18:24 – 18:35 (UTC+5.5) Attack Type Bombings Fatalities 209 Injuries 714 Perpetrator(s) Terrorist outfits—Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI), Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT; These are alleged perperators as legal proceedings have not yet taken place.) Map showing the 'Western line' and blast locations. The 11 July 2006 Mumbai train bombings were a series of seven bomb blasts that took place over a period of 11 minutes on the Suburban Railway in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and India's financial capital. 209 people lost their lives and over 700 were injured in the attacks. Details The bombs were placed on trains plying on the western line of the suburban ("local") train network, which forms the backbone of the city's transport network. The first blast reportedly took place at 18:24 IST (12:54 UTC), and the explosions continued for approximately eleven minutes, until 18:35, during the after-work rush hour. All the bombs had been placed in the first-class "general" compartments (some compartments are reserved for women, called "ladies" compartments) of several trains running from Churchgate, the city-centre end of the western railway line, to the western suburbs of the city. They exploded at or in the near vicinity of the suburban railway stations of Matunga Road, Mahim, Bandra, Khar Road, Jogeshwari, Bhayandar and Borivali.
    [Show full text]
  • 3.1 Anti-Colonial Terrorism: the Algerian Struggle
    1 EMMANOUIL ARETOULAKIS National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece Terrorism and Literariness: The terrorist event in the 20th and 21st centuries 2 Terrorism and Literariness: The terrorist event in the 20th and 21st centuries Author Emmanouil Aretoulakis NATIONAL AND KAPODISTRIAN UNIVERSITY OF ATHENS, GREECE Critical Reader William Schultz Editor Anastasia Tsiadimou ISBN: 978-960-603-462-6 Copyright © ΣΔΑΒ, 2015 Το παρόν έργο αδειοδοηείηαι σπό ηοσς όροσς ηης άδειας Creative Commons. Αναθορά Γημιοσργού - Μη Δμπορική Χρήζη - Παρόμοια Γιανομή 3.0. Για να δείηε ένα ανηίγραθο ηης άδειας ασηής επιζκεθηείηε ηον ιζηόηοπο https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/gr/ HELLENIC ACADEMIC LIBRARIES Δθνικό Μεηζόβιο Πολσηετνείο Ζρώων Πολσηετνείοσ 9, 15780 Εωγράθοσ www.kallipos.gr 3 Front cover picture Baricades set up during the Algerian War of Independence. January 1960. Street of Algier. Photo by Michel Marcheux, CC-BY-SA-2.5,wikipedia http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image 4 Table of Contents Abbreviation List ........................................................................................................... 7 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................................... 8 The end of History, the Clash of Civilizations and the question of the Real: Historico-Political Peregrinations ............................................................................ 12 Revolutionary Art, Theory, and Literature as Violence ........................................... 18 Notes........................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Music After 9/11
    Miranda Revue pluridisciplinaire du monde anglophone / Multidisciplinary peer-reviewed journal on the English- speaking world 20 | 2020 Staging American Nights Rebuilding and re-embodying: music after 9/11 Bénédicte Bresquignan Electronic version URL: http://journals.openedition.org/miranda/26579 DOI: 10.4000/miranda.26579 ISSN: 2108-6559 Publisher Université Toulouse - Jean Jaurès Electronic reference Bénédicte Bresquignan, “Rebuilding and re-embodying: music after 9/11”, Miranda [Online], 20 | 2020, Online since 20 April 2020, connection on 16 February 2021. URL: http://journals.openedition.org/ miranda/26579 ; DOI: https://doi.org/10.4000/miranda.26579 This text was automatically generated on 16 February 2021. Miranda is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. Rebuilding and re-embodying: music after 9/11 1 Rebuilding and re-embodying: music after 9/11 Bénédicte Bresquignan Sandra Boer, [Untitled], 2001, from "Here Is New York: A Democracy of Photographs" in "Remembering 9/11" at the International Center of Photography 1 Even before it was standing, the World Trade Center had acquired a lifelike quality, and this quality could not be separated from music. In the Sonic Memorial Project1–initiated by independent producers The Kitchen Sisters–, a sound collage of interviews and phone calls made to NPR after 9/11, we can hear Les Robertson, the lead structural engineer on the construction of the Twin Towers. He talks about the way he and his Miranda, 20 | 2020 Rebuilding and re-embodying: music after 9/11 2 team determined how much the buildings could “sway” under the pressure of the wind without it disturbing the people working in offices on the upper floors.
    [Show full text]
  • The Falling Man by Tom Junod
    The Falling Man By Tom Junod Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day. http://www.esquire.com/features/ESQ0903-SEP_FALLINGMAN Originally appeared in the September 2003 issue of ESQUIRE magazine. In the picture, he departs from this earth like an arrow. Although he has not chosen his fate, he appears to have, in his last instants of life, embraced it. If he were not falling, he might very well be flying. He appears relaxed, hurtling through the air. He appears comfortable in the grip of unimaginable motion. He does not appear intimidated by gravity's divine suction or by what awaits him. His arms are by his side, only slightly outriggered. His left leg is bent at the knee, almost casually. His white shirt, or jacket, or frock, is billowing free of his black pants. His black high-tops are still on his feet. In all the other pictures, the people who did what he did -- who jumped -- appear to be struggling against horrific discrepancies of scale. They are made puny by the backdrop of the towers, which loom like colossi, and then by the event itself. Some of them are shirtless; their shoes fly off as they flail and fall; they look confused, as though trying to swim down the side of a mountain. The man in the picture, by contrast, is perfectly vertical, and so is in accord with the lines of the buildings behind him.
    [Show full text]
  • The Politico-Aesthetics of Groundlessness and Philippe Petit’S High-Wire Walk
    ARTICLES The Politico-Aesthetics of Groundlessness and Philippe Petit’s High-Wire Walk Gwyneth Shanks When I see two oranges, I juggle; when I see two towers, I walk. —Philippe Petit, To Reach the Clouds A figure stands in open air. Centred in the photo, the body seems suspended in the expanse of hazy, blue sky that opens up around their small form. On the right-hand side of the image, one tower of the newly built World Trade Center (WTC) looms. The figure is small in comparison, a smudge of black made insubstantial next to the clean, geometric grid of the tower’s detailed façade. And yet it is the figure that arrests the viewer’s gaze. The ground upon which this person stands is nothing but a thin cable, barely visible in the photograph. The photo, taken the morning of August 7, 1974, is of French high-wire walker Philippe Petit. Captured by Petit’s friend and co-conspirator, Jean-Louis Blondeau, the image reveals a figure caught between ground and sky, between the two towers of the WTC, and between life and death. Suspended between the Twin Towers, balanced on his wire, Petit’s walk celebrates the precarity of groundlessness. Philippe Petit on a cable suspended between the two towers of the newly completed World Trade Center in New York City, August 7, 1974. Film still from the 2008 documentary, Man on Wire, directed by James Marsh. Photo: Jean-Louis Blondeau, 1974. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Gwyneth Shanks is the Interdisiplinary Art Fellow at the Walker Art Center. She holds a PhD in Theater and Performance Studies from University of California, Los Angeles and an MA in Performance Studies from New York University.
    [Show full text]
  • Special Issue 1
    CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter Autumn-2011 1 www.cbrne-terrorism-newsletter.com CBRNE-Terrorism Newsletter Autumn-2011 2 9/11: 'Jumpers' from the World Trade Centre still provoke impassioned debate Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/september-11-attacks/8737671/911-Jumpers-from-the- World-Trade-Centre-still-provoke-impassioned-debate.html The images of those who fell from the Twin Towers in New York on September 11, 2001, still shock us today 10 years after the attacks on America. People look out of the burning north tower of the World Trade Centre Photo: REUTERS From 110 storeys, a distance of over 1,300ft, it was photographs, to be named “Impending Death”, has impossible at first to see what it was that was become an iconic image from that day. It shows falling. One witness said it looked like confetti. around 50 figures leaning out of the broken Perhaps it was debris: in a desperate attempt to windows of the North Tower shortly before it escape as the World Trade Centre towers burned collapsed. around them, workers were hurling chairs or tables News organisations decided not to use footage of through the windows to reach fresh air before they the people falling to their deaths. No one wanted to were rescued. In those early minutes, a rescue talk about the jumpers. Many still refuse to accept operation seemed plausible. that they jumped, rather that they fell or were Then two women on the ground, staring up at the forced out by flames and explosions. However, as gaping hole left in the North Tower by American the years have passed, these images capture Airlines Flight 11, clutched at each other and what, for many, are acts of heroism.
    [Show full text]