Mental Shit. It’s no secret that our perception is mostly stimulated by images. Images are defining everybody’s memory, which ultimately shapes our collective memory.

Recently, we were wondering about how the flood of images that occurred with the implementation of the superficial nervous systems a.k.a. the “Netz” define our collective subconscious memory. Where do all the images go that are uploaded by millions - is there any pattern of recognition, any form of archiving? Well, the NSA comes to mind, but surely they won’t spit it out for you on request. Together with the flood of imagery also comes the loss of authenticity - so please say goodbye to the realness factor. It’s funny that “realness” was an American invention in the first place. Calling up an image in our minds can be a voluntary act, so it can be characterized as being under various degrees of conscious control.

According to psychologist and cognitive scientist Steven Pinker, our experiences of the world are represented in our minds as mental images. These mental images can then be associated and compared with others, and can be used to synthesize completely new images. In this view, mental images allow us to form useful theories of how the world works - even “hijacked” images of 9-11 do the job - by formulating likely sequences of mental images in our heads without having to directly experience that outcome. Whether other creatures have this capability is debatable.

To get to the point here, images are all we have – and have to lose. The oldest images we know are cave murals, followed by Egyptian papyrus, and, not much later really, they’ve already been sent to outer space on a golden disc (with a recent update by Trevor Paglen’s satellite mounted disc).

To keep it terrestrial, you should keep this issue of Lodown in a box, and when the lights go out and the data-world is shaken by an electromagnetic storm – which can happen anytime –, these printed images are not only safe and sound, but real. Keep that in your head for now.

If I can’t get a mental image from a song, 

I won’t sing it. - Namie Amuro 

Yours truly,

lodown

This fine issue of print features:

Pieter Ceizer  - The Mother We Share - Patrick Mohr - Sneakertree - Man Yau - Foster Huntington - Kevin Lyons - Robert Cuellar - Ulrike Serowy - Phantom Whistle - Allen Ying - Jussi Oksanen - The Panoramic Series - Phil Evans - Bernard Testemale - Nassim Guammaz - Film Essentials - Eddie Otchere - Audictive Bunch - Kwes - High Water  - The Acid - Discodeine - Khruang Bin - Milosh - Harold Diaz - Gustav Troger - Simon Stålenhag - Nik Nowak - Vermibus - Bernard Moosbauer - Andrew Jeffrey Wright - Hey Sporty! - Bold Type - Nothingness - Abuse