The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Animated

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Lesia Khomenko Self-portrait (2013)
‘Absolute painter Lesia Khomenko in her work “Self-portrait” of the year 2013 presents painting process by means of animation. The work has several levels of interpretation: life observation, Lesia’s sleep imitation game with her daughter, eye contact with the viewer, self-portrait as a classic form of art and in the end destruction of material object – the painting, which served as a screen for seven minute animated video.’

 

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Böhler & Orendt THE CARRION CHEER, A FAUNISTIC TRAGEDY (2018)
‘The spirits of extinct animals are emboldened through technological means to sing a song of forgiveness to humans, the ultimate cause of their demise. Animations are illuminated & projected onto screens of mist.’

 

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Lorna Mills Ethereal Imperial 1-6 (2018)
‘Lorna Mills is a Canadian net.art and new media artist who is known for her digital animations, videos, and GIFs. Mills has done work in other mediums such as installations. Her work explores how “the notion of public decency is anachronistic” Her use of GIFs are gathered through the dark net which includes 4chan, pornfails, and Russian domains. She currently lives and works in Toronto, Canada.’

 

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Charlie White Sabrina (2013)
‘Created in 2013, Sabrina is one of five music videos created for Music For Sleeping Children, the experimental pop music collaboration of artist Charlie White and Mercury-nominated electronic musician Bryan Hollon of Neon Neon. Working in tandem, White and Hollon transformed White’s immersive interviews with American teen girls into carefully articulated narrative dance tracks. Each track of Music for Sleeping Children captures the voice and spirit of a different American teen girl, from the privileged and popular sixteen-year-old “Georgia” musing on the importance of being pretty and liked, to the sultry and complicated fifteen-year-old “Isabelle” recalling her melancholy crushes of freshman year, to the neurotic and impatient sixteen-year-old “Sabrina” planning her life down to the last detail while fearing failure at every turn.’

Watch it here

 

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Bill Domonkos Dying is Fun (2011)
‘In search of the sublime, Mr. Fireman spends most of his time conducting radical experiments of self-obliteration, an ecstatic process in which he puts himself into a hypnotic trance, mentally deleting parts of his body. Inspired by Vladimir Nabokov’s “The Original of Laura”, his incomplete final novel. Evoking a sense of time and nostalgia, the film uses archive film footage which is manipulated, reconstructed and combined with newly created digital animation, special effects and sound, provoking new ideas and experiences.’

 

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Laura Heit Hypothetical Stars (2015)
‘A hand-drawn animated installation, Hypothetical Stars employs the artist’s marks as interventions into 16mm footage taken from the NASA Apollo 12 mission. Being the mission after the first moon landing, it was notable for being the first to bring a color TV camera. And for the fact that, upon landing, the camera was pointed at the sun and inadvertently destroyed, immediately terminating the television broadcast. Hypothetical Stars uses thrown shadows from tabletop dioramas and reflected and refracted animated projections to create a universe of hypothetical stars, moons, and planets.’

 

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Universal Everything Emergence (2018)
Emergence is a VR open-world art experience, visualising patterns of human behaviour and exploring the individual and the collective. It immerses the player in a crowd of thousands, against a changing canvas that is at varying points wondrous and intimidating, realistic and fantastical.

‘You control one solitary, glowing avatar amongst a mass of autonomous strangers, each of whose movements react to your own. As your pace and directions influence others as both individuals and as a whole, you essentially become the choreographer of the crowd.

‘The crowd’s movements are programmed to simulate intelligent behaviours (including avoidance, following and mimicry), reflecting the seemingly endless ways that humans act in group settings. Viewed from above, these movements create mesmerising patterns against the landscape. A shaft of light beckons you – each time you reach the light, this landscape shifts, along with its soundtrack, gravity, atmosphere and mode of movement.

Emergence doesn’t dictate a goal. There’s no fixed succession of tasks that lead you to ‘completing’ the game. The experience instead is a powerful challenge to the player’s perception. Are you a leader inspiring a devoted following, or a defenceless figure overwhelmed by the encroaching horde? Emergence compels you to adjust to each transformation in your surrounding environment – all the while bringing you face to face with the primal desire to maintain your individual identity while being part of a crowd.’

 

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Tala Madani Various (2015)
‘Tala Madani’s animations, deadpan and brushy scenes of fictive ritual usually centered around groups of men, create a grotesquerie populated by dichotomies. Figures simultaneously innocent and nefarious, furtive and self-aware, or comical and violent float through a hazy pastel palette that seems to shine light through the vulgar comforts of bonding. Obliquely referencing Madani’s Iranian-American nationality, her work skirts formal and political lines to expose the slithery nature of creating an image.’


Hospital (2015)


Wrong House (2015)

 

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Okkult Motion Pictures Various (2017-2020)
‘Each GIF/video delivers a different message and is based on footage excerpted from vintage/out of copyright/public domain videos.’

 

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Dariia Kuzmych Acceptance (2014)
‘In the project by Daria Kuzmych ‘Acceptance’, the instruments of study of motion are simultaneously а video installation, а text and a drawing on a wall. The subject matter is the own walk of the artist, marked by a consequence of an automobile crash – lame right leg. The aim is to accept herself completely through the aestheticization of the defect. And this means to accept the way, predestined to you from birth, wherever it may lead. Even if you have to limp it, not just walk. Because acceptance is gratitude. I am leaving my cane for the whole time of exposition in Detenpyla gallery and all this time I will walk without it, thus continuing my experiment on myself in an attempt to eliminate my defect.”‘

 

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Birgitta Hosea Out There in the Dark (2013)
‘Artist and animator possessed by the spirit of Gloria Swanson’s performance in Sunset Boulevard (1950).’

 

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Tsang Kin-Wah The Fifth Seal – HE Shall Deliver You Up To Be Afflicted And Killed As HE Was (2011)
‘Chinese contemporary artist Tsang Kin-Wah is working on an ongoing project called ‘the seven seals’. the series of seven digital video installations uses texts and computer technology to project Tsang’s thoughts on various issues of the day.’

 

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Myriam Thyes HEROIC VIRILITY (2019)
‘Myriam Thyes is a new media artist from Switzerland and Luxembourg, living in Dusseldorf, Germany, and in Zurich, Switzerland.’

 

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Carla Gannis Selfies (2016)
‘My selfie series began one year ago as a search, turning my gaze upon myself (and my electronic devices) to see what I might find there. I felt vulnerable at first, speaking more directly through my own voice, and using myself as a character in the digital narratives that seem to be my most natural form of expression.’

 

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Ina Conradi Quantonium (2016)
‘Animation and Programming Mark Chavez, Music Tate Chavez. An audio reactive interpretive work that explores the idea of ‘an element which does not exist when not observed’’

 

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Wang Sishun Truth (2014)
‘For this exhibition, Wang Sishun drove from Beijing to MadeIn Gallery in Shanghai. The scenery on the road became his canvas, he released his « flame » as a creature, destroying and creating new landscapes, natural and social.’

 

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Chiara Passa Still Life (2019-2020)
‘“Still life” analyses the processes of the nature by investigating the relation with it and what is represented in art nowadays as still life. The VR artwork puts in question what is really dead in nature and what is still alive in history of art, by speculating on landscapes, paintings and objects, and so creating through the virtual reality an object-oriented space formed by a vibrant still-life environment designed all around the spectators. I designed each piece to behave and transform beyond its own functionality, according also to the Object Oriented Ontology philosophy.’

 

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Yves Netzhammer Adressen unmöglicher Orte (2012)
‘Netzhammer’s animations make uncomfortable watching. They are populated by expressionless androgynous figures that encounter animals, objects, each other and occasionally grisly fates. Characters alternate between determining agents and collateral damage. They travel in through mutating environments, where gravity and mass are meaningless. Even the surface of their bodies is not sacrosanct as hands are shown delving inside torsos. The animations appear to possess a cold and emotionless surface, punctuated by painful events: an image of paper cutting a tongue can make one wince.’

 

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Sun Xun IMG 3661 (2015)
‘Sun Xun’s works often highlight the absurd incongruities between authorised histories and personal recollections, and are particularly concerned with how history can be manipulated, interrogating the differences between official narratives presented by public agencies, politicians and the media — and more marginalised accounts that stem from ordinary people’s experiences.’

 

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Zack Dougherty Untitled (2009)
‘The Portland-based digital artist takes a simple sculpture and turns it into eternally repeating images, transforming pristine busts into psychedelic moving pictures. These switch so rapidly that eye and brain need some time to grasp the lightning evolution of the picture.’

 

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Mark Leckey GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction (2010)
GreenScreenRefrigeratorAction shows a shiny black Samsung smart fridge pondering its existence and mingling with like objects. In a scientifically-charged description that concerns its inner workings, the fridge’s anguished, robotic first person voiceover renders audible its inner life and its potential dreams. As we create increasingly smarter objects, Mark Leckey predicts a world in which things become sentient, start communicating, and alter our environment into new digital ecosystems.’

Watch it here

 

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John Gerrard Various (2011-13)
‘In Infinite Freedom Exercise (near Abadan, Iran), a virtual camera circles the dusty seaside landscape in southern Iran, recording a figure dressed in non-nationalized army fatigues. This actor performatively mimics the prescribed gestures of mortar release in an evolving sequence. Burning Oil Fields joined the work in 2013 and represents these fires.’


Infinite Freedom Exercise (near Abadan, Iran) (2011)


Burning Oil Fields (near Abadan, Iran) (2013)

 

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Stas Orlovski Wildflower (2013)
‘Animated projection over charcoal, ink, transfer and collage on the wall.’

 

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James Kerr Various (2019-2020)
‘bonjour. Ce sont des collages en GIFs, principalement des peintures de la renaissance. merci!’

 

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Allison Schulnik & Scott Walker Mound (2011)
Film by Allison Schulnik. Cinematography by Helder K. Sun. “It’s Raining Today” written by Noel Scott Engel.

 

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Cory Arcangel I Shot Andy Warhol (2002)
I Shot Andy Warhol probably isn’t meant as video art, per se. Presumably it works best as an installation consisting of the actual reprogrammed cartridge running in a real NES console on a television; then you could actually play it. You could pick up the ZapperTM shoot Warhol, the Pope and Colonel Sanders yourself.’

 

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Younes Rahmoun Various (2008-15)
‘Younès Rahmoun typically begins an artwork by collecting numbers, shapes, and objects from his surroundings. He then uses repetitive, familiar gestures to manipulate these elements and give form to everyday, ephemeral, or barely visible activities, such as praying, rolling dough, and breathing. His religious beliefs and his identification as a practicing Muslim also inform his work. He repeatedly employs numbers that are significant in Islam, such as seven and ninety-nine, and chooses to orient his installations in the direction of Mecca. His artistic practice cannot be reduced to, or fully explained by, his religious beliefs and their attendant symbolism. His longstanding interests in Buddhism, meditation, and Sufism are equally visible, as are the basic shapes and materials of everyday life: cones, cylinders, grids, and spheres and light, brick, jute, and earth.’


Zahra (2008)


Zaytouna (2015)

 

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Francesco Vezzoli The Return of Bruce Nauman’s Bouncing Balls (2006)
‘In The Return of Bruce Nauman’s Bouncing Balls, Vezzoli abandons the conceptual coldness of the original work to present a slick video based on the canons of pornographic filmography starring Brad Rock and his the infamous American gay-porn testicles.’

Watch it here

 

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Stan Vanderbeek Science Friction (1959)
‘This film uses stop motion animation of still photographs to convey images of politics and science in the nuclear era. Everyday items and people are projected upwards – many in the form of rockets – followed by iconic structures, such as the Empire State Building, the US Capitol, the Washington Monument, the Eiffel Tower and the Kremlim, being rocketed skyward as visual representations of that race into space.’ — Ray Cathode

 

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Benjamin Forster Various (2010-12)
A Written Perspective: Using a custom text detection algorithm, footage from around the Joondalup Shopping City has been processed. Everything that is not determined a word is erased. This custom algorithm does not look for known letters, but rather in an attempt to avoid anglocentrism checks for properties common to the written word across all cultures. Inscribed (Ko Aye Aung): Inscribed (Ko Aye Aung) is an explicit analogy of the process of degradation and loss that has been occurred by Ko Aye Aung. I do not know Ko Aye Aung. If it was not for Amnesty I would not even know his story. All knowledge of him was provided to me as a simple digital profile. Dot pointed and only nine hundred and eighty two words accompanied by a small portrait. His is a story that is singularly unique, however at the same time multiple and all too common. His is a story we never truly know, we never hear about, we are all distant from. Computer Watching Television: The result of a simple computer vision system watching television.’


A Written Perspective (2012)


Inscribed (Ko Aye Aung) (2011)


Computer Watching Television (2010)

 

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William Kentridge More Sweetly Play the Dance (2015)
Eight-channel HD video (color, sound, 15 minutes), megaphones.

 

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Eddo Stern Crusade (2002)
Crusade – a mechanical windmill desktop spins on its axis looping a posse of medieval avengers and a MIDI sample of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”.’

 

 

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p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, My pleasure, B-man. Hooray! I’ll be soundtracked by you as soon my time in this trench is kaput. Everyone, Listen up, literally. Mr. _Black_Acrylic has a gift for each and every one of us. I.e., ‘The new episode of Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson – Play Therapy is online here at Tak Tent Radio, bringing you Acid House, Post Punk, Italo and more besides.’ Do sonically enhance your weekend thusly. ** Ferdinand, Hi. It’s true that authorship requires good parenting skills. And def. patience. Well, unless you’re one of those rare types whose creativity can hurl itself through your fingertips intact. I’m not. I haven’t read a Dutch novel in ages. When I lived there, I downed a bunch of them. I’ll try to find that one. When what I’m writing is not wholly mine, I can use deadlines. And nudges along the way. Usually. ** G, Hey! Cool, it’s a singular book. A novel for fiction writers. I can’t imagine what it’s like to read if you’re not writer or, I guess, very interested in the form’s possibilities. Trust me, no one is more impatient re: ‘I Wished’s’ very long waiting time than me. Ack. Anything in store for the weekend that makes you buzz? xoxoxo ** David Ehrenstein, Of course I am in utter agreement with you. ** JM, Oh, cool. Thank you! I’ll go order what I ordered unsuccessfully successfully, I hope, as soon as this post leaves the launch pad. Insane, or, wait, INSANE? Typically? Bear hug that a safe distance. ** Steve Erickson, We can go to movie theatres here too. For the moment, at least. Although I haven’t yet, strangely. Maybe that’ll be my today. I’m not surprised in the slightest to hear that about Packard. I’m FB friends with this gay poet Gavin Dillard who I’ve known peripherally forever, and about three weeks ago he suddenly transformed into a ranting, raving anti-masker conspiracy theorist. Totally weird, like he’s having a psychotic episode or something. Right now I’m still startled and fascinated by his non-stop craziness, but unfriending him is in the very immediate future. Everyone, Mr. Erickson has reviewed the Chilean docu-fiction film THE MOLE AGENT here. ** Bill, Hi. ‘This Is Not a Novel’ is pretty singular and not hugely akin to his other books. Sort of like Queneau’s ‘Exercises in Style’ but less fanciful. I’m really due a trip to that great manga/graphic novel store … I’m forgetting its name … in the Bastille — did you hit it when you were here? — and I’ll look for the Yoshiharu Tsuge when I get there, maybe even today. Thanks! There’s a new Meitei? I like that project a lot too. Cool. I’ll check the track to begin with. Clear skies and happy times to you this weekend, bud. ** Right. The blog has a tall pile of very cool animated things for you to peruse this weekend, and I hope you will. See you on Monday.

10 Comments

  1. Ferdinand

    Oh sorry, that Dutch novel to be released in U.S on Wolfpress is “De avond is ongemak” not “de nag”. I have three novels in Dutch to read but Iike my own home language (afrikaans which is derived from dutch) I do feel a disconnect to the language, it has ofcoarse the way of turning almost every word unnecessarily into a diminutive, everything is a little thing even when its not, it has this tendancy to be cutsey and “pleasant” so yeah it is not the same reading in Dutch although reading Rules of attraction in Dutch didnt hinder me.. the novels I have in Dutch to read are The heart is deceitful, V Despentes Apacolypse baby and American psycho and also the Bell jar. Well I defnitley need to get back to working on my rusty dutch (I hopelessly mix Afrikaans with Dutch on a daily basis with my Flemish partner who never corrected me ever) but will be listening to De avond is ongemak in english.

  2. Ferdinand

    Im curious what its like buying english books in Paris. Are they hard to come by? Does the majority of books you see and them being in French feel like candies you can never eat? Is there a good selection of english stuff in stores or do you order online? Last time we were in Brussels we went to go look at the plaque just off the Grand Markt that marks the building that had been the hotel where in Verlain shot Rimbaud. Didnt know about it untill I looked closer at a typical tourist walking route..

  3. JM

    Hope the purchase went well for you. This is a curious curation!! Animation casts such a wide web.

    J

  4. David Ehrenstein

    I’ve noticed that about Gavin Dillard too. He was a fabulous gay porn star back in the day. I’ve been chatting with him a lot quite amiably on Facebook until he took this sudden turn. Something must have happened to him. (Sigh)

    Nice Anime today

  5. Bill

    Hey Dennis, Tala Madani’s Wrong House is a boisterous way to start the weekend, haha.

    I actually haven’t been in Paris in a few years. I’m pretty sure the graphic novel shop was not there when I last visited. When this madness is past etc etc.

    By the way, you probably know the work of Collectif Jeune Cinema? This was very nice (Mike Kitchell tip):
    https://letterboxd.com/film/il-ny-a-rien-de-plus-inutile-quun-organe/

    Our air quality was pretty gruesome yesterday morning, but cleared up in the afternoon. Not so great at the moment. Hope we get some friendly winds…

    Bill

  6. _Black_Acrylic

    I really like that Mark Leckey film with the sentient fridge, not seen it before. Suspect that’s his vaguely Scouse-accented voice emanating from the machine. He has his own radio show on NTS and I often enjoy perusing its archives.

  7. G

    I’m savouring this post; it’s so rich. I love everything I’ve explored so far. The opening self-portrait by Lesia Khomenko is spooky in the best way possible. I really love Sabrina (2013) by Charlie White – I also sent it to my teenage niece and nephew. I love the third GIF by James Kerr. Too many good things! Thank you so much for curating and sharing all this amazing art… it must take you hours to make such sophisticated posts.

    I’ve had a lovely weekend, thanks for asking. I sorted out the September episode of Queer Lit for its broadcast on Wednesday. Then my partner and I went on a walk around Alexander Palace and Crouch End and at one point when browsing a second hand bookshop, a copy of Genet’s Funeral Rites fell into my lap. So I’ve been reading that and really enjoying it. We watched Equus (1977, dir. Sidney Lumet) last night; I adored it so much I ordered the book right after. I can’t wait to read the play! Aspects of the film deeply reminded me of your fiction – specifically the George Miles Cycle. Very interested to know your opinion on Equus!

    I hope you found something of interest in the manga store. I’ve always been mesmerised by manga aesthetics but never really got to engage with it on a meaningful level. Do you have a favourite manga that could be my starting point?

    Well, truth be told I don’t understand why we should all wait for such a long time if I Wished is ready… I mean I’m certain it’s worth the wait… it’s just that my impatience isn’t always in harmony with the publishing industry… Are you still considering to republish The Weaklings XL? Sorry, I don’t mean to bother you by asking too many questions.

    I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend! xoxoxo

  8. Misanthrope

    Dennis, You know how you can tell when I’m really busy? It’s when I don’t post here. Fucking work is slammed. Another product that was going all the way up the chain to the Secretary, a result of a recent executive order. Actually, a good thing for a lot of people, but I don’t know how many will take advantage of it. Still…heady stuff.

    Yeah, the whole right side of my body is…fucked up. Compressed nerve in my neck, some sort of shoulder bullshit, nerve damage in right thigh (on the side and which I’ve had for several years), and now that side of my lower back. But I get up and go. Complain a little, yeah, but it ain’t gonna stop me. Thinking about going to a chiropractor. I remember your advice about an osteopath, but there are so few in the area, and the ones that do exists are an hour or more drive away.

    David got fired. Long story, but they started fucking with his pay and status as an employee. Said he didn’t submit his direct deposit info, weren’t going to pay him for all his hours, converted him from an employee to a contractor, and said they needed to “see his work” before they paid him (he’d been there for 3 weeks).

    Kayla’s mom went up there with him after he walked out, and we found out that he’s been going into work an hour to an hour and a half late every day. Told us his schedule was 8 to 1, but it was 7 to 1. He told me he didn’t/can’t get up that early. “I’d have to get up at 6, and that’s way too early. It’s like school, and that’s why I hated school.” Wth? And then was complaining about not getting enough hours. Dude, you had the hours but wouldn’t go on time!

    Anyway, they got the pay sorted out, but the woman fired him because he “got a family member involved.” Obviously, just an excuse because they really wanted him gone because of his egregious tardiness.

    So, that’s that. In the meantime, it looks like the drug dealing has suddenly resumed. A neighbor approached us yesterday about all the traffic coming to David’s window. This neighbor’s son is about to be a cop.

    Also found out he’s doing harder drugs, PCP, acid, pills, etc.

    He says it’s all overblown and everybody’s picking on him. Hmm.

    Ex-girlfriend suddenly showed up in the middle of the night too.

  9. Steve Erickson

    What game was I SHOT ANDY WARHOL based on? DONKEY KONG?

    I hate to say it, but I’m counting the days till David gets arrested again.

    I had a weird double bill last night, Hubert Sauper’s Cuba doc EPICENTRO and the flat Earther doc BEYOND THE CURVE. The latter actually stuck with me more. I sense that espousing Flat Earth conspiracy theories has become a way to make money as an influencer these days, and thus the conspiracists think celebrities in the field are actually clones, CIA agents, etc. Maybe Packard can make a satire about this for his next film!

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