[...]ild hunters
="lsts lst1">•restless ="trms">travels of the dead at night
="lsts lst1">•tales of the Furious Horde (a super ="trms">natural band that was not o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginally as="trms">sociated with witch="trms">craft)
="lsts lst1">•twisted chaos of the deep forest
Canon Episcopi regarding the power of demonic illusion to deceive women into ="trms">imagining that they could ="trms">travel great distances at night, often in the company of the goddess Diana
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> conjoining of witch image to demonological discourse ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- an ="trms">="trms">empirically verifiable invention in the late medieval period and the Renaissance='lgc'>]

='strcls'>*the oscillating value of the non-="trms">fictive='strcls'>* (of its discrete artifacts)

hybrid human–="trms">animal creatures with each “="trms">natural” ="trms">species being traceable within the complete appearance of the demonic creature


(coming into contemporary performance art ='lgc'>='lgc'>-->) figures from antiquity='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Saturn ='at'>@="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Alex,Alert,Aleph,Alessi">Ale
="lsts lst1">•Circe ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Bryana (changing men into ="trms">beasts, games of chance, gambling, tricks, slight of hand, illusion, hybrid ="trms">animal–human forms of the demons dancing around the “grandmother” with surprisingly young and beautiful appearance ='lgc'>--melancholy='lgc'>='lgc'>--> general sense of sexual and ="trms">societal disorder swirling around a placid, passive female protagonist) ='lgc'>+ ="trms">="trms">empirical strain of the discourse of the witch
="lsts lst1">•Sabbat ='at'>@="frds scrmbld">Jassem
="lsts lst1">•
='lgc'>='lgc'>-->

pact of the witch
obsessed state of the hysteric
="trms">interplay of face and tableau

="large lg2" stl="font-size:111%"> (Warburg's assertion that) donning a mask constitutes an active attempt “to wrest something magical from ="trms">nature through the transformation of the person”
='lgc'>[putting on a mask ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> transformation of the person ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> obtaining omething magical from ="trms">nature='lgc'>]

Christensen formally constructing “the witch” through a cinematic iteration of metoposcopic ="trms">naturalism
(metoposcopy='lgc'>: a form of divination in which the diviner predicts personality, character, and destiny, based on the pattern of lines on the subject's forehead.)

(="ppl">Avital) ="trms">scientific imperative (the ="trms">demand in the 19th century for an ="trms">epistemological re="trms">liable inquiry in the ="trms">nature of things) ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- fascination for the freak and the occult ='lgc'><='lgc'>-- on the way to ="trms">technology


(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ ="ppl">Meyers > Philippe Alain-Michaud on Warburg) “in Mnemosyne, photographic reproduction is not merely illustrative but a general plastic medium to which all figures are reduced before being arranged in the space of a panel. In this way, the viewer participates in two successive transformations of the o="trms"nttrm="righ,rigo,riga,rigi,trig,rign">riginal ="trms">material='lgc'>: ="trms">different types of objects (paintings, reliefs, drawings, architecture, living beings) ='strcls'>*are unified through photography='strcls'>* before being arranged on the panel stretched with black cloth. The panel is in turn ='strcls'>*rephotographed in order to create a unique image='strcls'>*, which will be inserted into a series intended to take the form of a ="trms">book. The atlas, then, does not limit itself to describing the migrations of images through the ="trms">history of re="trms">presentation='lgc'>: it reproduces them. In this sense, it is based on a cinematic mode of thought, one that, by using figures, aims at not ="trms">articulating meaning but at producing effects.”


="large lg1" stl="font-size:134%"> transgressive approach to the archive='lgc'>:
="lsts lst1">•Gerhard Richter's Atlas, 2006
="lsts lst1">•Jean-Luc ="frds scrmbld"nttrm="Godard">Godard's ="trms">Histoire(s) du cinema, 1988
="lsts lst1">•Christensen's ="nms">Häxan
="lsts lst1">•Warburg’ Mnemosyne (="trms">presentation of a series of visual cliches and stereotypes, fragments which were most likely al="trms"nttrm="already,spread">ready familiar to the viewer ='lgc'>~ ="trms">figurative givens ='lgc'>==> ="trms">="trms">empirical evidence ='lgc'>+ media to conjure with)
="lsts lst1">•="ppl">Bataille's journal ‘Documents’ 1929–30 ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> seizes cliched objects and then ="trms">systematically empties them out in the course of its own expressions. ="ppl">Bataille and his contributors sought to defamiliarize the cliches, disturbing the placidly deceptive surface of the mundane in their fragmentary, juxtaposing ="trms">methods of critique and ="trms">presentation ='lgc'>=/= Warburg ='lgc'>+ Christensen collecting mythological, ="trms">figurative givens seemingly quite distant from the “really” real
='lgc'>}='lgc'>='lgc'>--> unsettling distances between myth and the everyday
="prgrph">-weave together episodic fragments in order to draw parallels (across domains of sense that cut across time) and cor="trms">respondences across ="trms">situations and characters
="prgrph">-="nms">Häxan deploys the ="trms">techniques as="trms">sociated with Warburg's Mnemosyne and ="ppl">Bataille's Documents for purposes of ="trms">affectively emphasizing the dark, chaotic forces that ="trms"nttrm="failure,blur,plur,lurk,tallur,slur">lurk under the smooth surface of the everyday
(="nms">Häxan's episodic structure ='lgc'>==>)
="lsts lst1">•characters seemingly out of a dead ="trms">past to live again
="lsts lst1">•draw the ="trms">phenomenology of the hysteric
="lsts lst1">•draw the work's own contemporary time to the surface


promiscuous='lgc'>: neither wholly artistic nor ="trms">scientific ='lgc'>=/=='qstn'>? hybrid artistic and ="trms">scientific

="trms">traverse steep slope between ="trms">past and future in the form of an event ='lgc'>=/= plot


inability to automatically ="trms">categorize ="nms">Häxan (or any work of art) ='lgc'><== ='strcls'>***formal strategy rooted in an ="trms">epistemic virtue='strcls'>***


='strcls'>***(in later Middle Ages) practices such as persecuting witch="trms">craft to meditating on Christ='lgc'> = ="trms">techniques (of ="trms">sorting operation) to draw distinctions among visual ="trms">phenomena, ="trms">differentiating, say, physical objects from fantasies, dreams, and diabolical or artful deceptions
='lgc'><='lgc'>--artist='lgc'>-- image-makers specialized in manipulating one thing (their ="trms">materials) in order that a viewer should see something else ='lgc'>~ ='strcls'>*to make something invisible visible='strcls'>* ='lgc'>[='lgc'><='lgc'>-- this is always ideological, and is very common in art='lgc'>]
(='at'>#testing) the objective knowl="trms"nttrm="knowledge,Knowledge">edge possessed by the uncanny (in witch's pathological ="trms">language of diabolic proofs) ='lgc'>==> witch must be experienced in her own milieu, a satanic biome, her state in ="trms">nature

="display:block;white-space:nowrap;margin-bottom:-1em;overflow:hidden;">...................................

typical in 17th century='lgc'>: tacit ="trms">mutuality of word ='and'>& image
="prgrph">-artists habitually gave their paintings titles, mottoes, tags and quotations, and their works abound in ="trms">literary allusions
="prgrph">-explicit ="trms">interleaving of the ="trms">verbal and visual


cat feces and dove hearts boiled in the moonlight

stereotype of a debased and corrupted priest
object of the customer's ="trms">affections


Protestant discourse against the Catholic Church in the 16th century ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> artists of the period extended the ="trms">instrumentalization of slander through the production of proto-pornographic images of bishops, priests, and the pope engaged in myriad obs="trms">cene acts ='lgc'>--depicting='lgc'>='lgc'>--> the emotional states and desires of the clergy

magical salves (considered particularly powerful and troubling by demonologists)

="nms">Häxan self-="trms">positioning as a ="trms">scientific investigation ='lgc'>+ constantly pull back from the dramatic outcomes of what ="nms">Häxan depicts

="nms">Häxan's de="trms">monstration of the power of the witch ='lgc'>=/= ="trms">paranoid delusions of witch- crazed villagers


widely held set of beliefs regarding the “="trms">nature” or “essence” of women
Christina Larner's assertion that witch trials were gender-related (but not by de="trms">finition gender-="trms">specific)
='lgc'>--="ppl">Baxstrom='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*women often came under suspicion of being witches because they were understood to be particularly susceptible to lust, avarice, and jealousy by their very ="trms">nature ='lgc'>[='lgc'>~ 16th century='lgc'>: ='strcls'>**women “="trms">naturally” susceptible to witch="trms">craft='strcls'>*** ='lgc'>+ women were presumed to possess elements of the ="trms">nature more than men='lgc'>] ='lgc'>=/= Federici's understanding of witch-hunt as straight-forward instance of misogyny='strcls'>*
='lgc'>--Roper='lgc'>='lgc'>--> ='strcls'>*one cannot approach witch="trms">craft or possession from a vantage point in the ="trms">present without granting some legitimate status to the ways in which the Devil and witches were not only asserted to be real but were experienced as such='strcls'>*


(debates over) politics and evil
satan's malefic ="trms">presence (in Dreyer's Leaves)
='strcls'>*a ="trms">density of parallelisms='strcls'>*
Dreyer figures Satan as a problem of the ="trms">present
“Bolsheviks violently engaged in revolutionary struggle='lgc'> = manifestation of a transcendental demonic power”

="trms">question of theodicy ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> God's seeming absence from the ="trms">world

sleep-walking ='lgc'>='lgc'>--> enticing a nude female ="trms">somnambu="trms"nttrm="listen,alist,ilist,llist,olist,ylist,ulist">list out of her home into the forest, where she eventually kneels before a demon who embraces her

="large lg3" stl="font-size:111%"> proving sexual ="trms">relations with the devil ='lgc'>==> ="trms">="trms">empirical evidence for satan's existence

(="ppl">Benjamin > Christensen's art sets out) to conquer meaning


...so it is no stretch to sug="trms">gest that...

="large lg4" stl="font-size:110%"> subject and subtext



dreamtime of the 16h century
dreamtime of the witch


="large lg5" stl="font-size:148%"> ="lsts lst1">•Durer, Baldung, Cranach, artists at the dawn of the Reformation sought to re="trms">present the void as a figure
="lsts lst1">•strategies by which Expressionist painting sought to externalize states of mind

(="ppl">Baxstrom ='lgc'>+ Meye[...]