Angelicism/Dissolution Seminar
ECOCIDE & INSCRIPTION
LECTURE
Tom Cohen & Avital Ronell
Notes
4/27/24
Notes taken during Prof. Cohen & Prof. Ronell’s
lecture hosted at a West Village apartment on April
27th, 2024. Part of Angelicism’s Dissolution Seminar, a
closed 8-week seminar concerned with “doing
nothing”, the works of Tom Cohen & Angelicism01,
and the climate-change-induced end of the world.
This particular lecture was open to the public.
Earlier in the month on April 12th, Angelicism premiered
the Tom Cohen/Ye/Bianca Cut of Film01 at the Anthology
Film Archive in NYC. From this viewing, my understanding
of the Angelicism thesis is that due to the inevitability of
extinction due to climate change we as a society/species
owe it to ourselves to observe every waking moment as
beautiful and be fortunate that we came as far as we did
(I love you always forever and ever at the end of time
always I love you). I recall most of this being conveyed
in voiceovers along with the imagery of the dot, which was
referenced during the lecture. The visual material of the
film mostly follows one of the several group members who
takes on the metaphorical role of all of us, maybe
specifically those of us on the internet, existing at the end
of the world, if you agree with Angelicism’s thesis at least.
She does things synonymous with the contemporary NYC
young person lifestyle:
videos in the bathroom, hanging out with friends,
HonorCam, etc. When telling other people what Film01
was about, I’d be kind of an asshole about it trying to be
funny; “She smokes cigarette, she uses
phone, she’s sad the world is gonna end, or maybe not it
was hard to tell.” I’m pretty sure there’s a voiceover at the
end that states something along the lines of Film01 only
being able to exist in its current form/iteration, I believe it’s
a statement about how it should be critiqued; as a person
who also makes shit I think that’s a fire thing to say about
your work I’m gonna run that one up for real. If I wanted to
critique it from the perspective of medium, in this case,
film, or rather long-form video content, maybe I’d say
something about the slow pacing or that it wasn’t visually
interesting, but it’s obvious that Film01 isn’t trying to be a
conventional film so these points are irrelevant.
Film01 is good because it’s effective in its intent (making
you think about Angelicism’s thesis), my source is that I
thought about Film01 a lot after I saw it.
I wasn’t part of the seminar nor did I keep up with the
seminar syllabus, so the lecture was my only follow-up to
Film01. From my perspective, it was a thorough
continuation of Film01 and it filled in whatever blanks I had
about Angelicim’s thesis, specifically the “science” part of
it. Prof. Cohen explained the data that warrants the
perspective of inevitable extinction. What struck me was
what was said about tipping points and the windows of
opportunity, that all the effort we’re putting into fixing the
problem now we should’ve been doing 20 years ago, and
we’re past the point of being able to solve these problems
effectively. As Prof. Cohen said, it’s all very funny. This
is how I’ve been trying to feel about our situation since the
seminar.
I’m thankful to everyone involved in making the seminar
happen, and I’m especially thankful for the free drinks at
the end.
Angelicism/Dissolution Seminar
ECOCIDE & INSCRIPTION
LECTURE
Tom Cohen & Avital Ronell
Notes
4/27/24
Notes taken during Prof. Cohen & Prof. Ronell’s
lecture hosted at a West Village apartment on April
27th, 2024. Part of Angelicism’s Dissolution Seminar, a
closed 8-week seminar concerned with “doing
nothing”, the works of Tom Cohen & Angelicism01,
and the climate-change-induced end of the world.
This particular lecture was open to the public.
Earlier in the month on April 12th, Angelicism premiered
the Tom Cohen/Ye/Bianca Cut of Film01 at the Anthology
Film Archive in NYC. From this viewing, my understanding
of the Angelicism thesis is that due to the inevitability of
extinction due to climate change we as a society/species
owe it to ourselves to observe every waking moment as
beautiful and be fortunate that we came as far as we did
(I love you always forever and ever at the end of time
always I love you). I recall most of this being conveyed
in voiceovers along with the imagery of the dot, which was
referenced during the lecture. The visual material of the
film mostly follows one of the several group members who
takes on the metaphorical role of all of us, maybe
specifically those of us on the internet, existing at the end
of the world, if you agree with Angelicism’s thesis at least.
She does things synonymous with the contemporary NYC
young person lifestyle:
videos in the bathroom, hanging out with friends,
HonorCam, etc. When telling other people what Film01
was about, I’d be kind of an asshole about it trying to be
funny; “She smokes cigarette, she uses
phone, she’s sad the world is gonna end, or maybe not it
was hard to tell.” I’m pretty sure there’s a voiceover at the
end that states something along the lines of Film01 only
being able to exist in its current form/iteration, I believe it’s
a statement about how it should be critiqued; as a person
who also makes shit I think that’s a fire thing to say about
your work I’m gonna run that one up for real. If I wanted to
critique it from the perspective of medium, in this case,
film, or rather long-form video content, maybe I’d say
something about the slow pacing or that it wasn’t visually
interesting, but it’s obvious that Film01 isn’t trying to be a
conventional film so these points are irrelevant.
Film01 is good because it’s effective in its intent (making
you think about Angelicism’s thesis), my source is that I
thought about Film01 a lot after I saw it.
I wasn’t part of the seminar nor did I keep up with the
seminar syllabus, so the lecture was my only follow-up to
Film01. From my perspective, it was a thorough
continuation of Film01 and it filled in whatever blanks I had
about Angelicim’s thesis, specifically the “science” part of
it. Prof. Cohen explained the data that warrants the
perspective of inevitable extinction. What struck me was
what was said about tipping points and the windows of
opportunity, that all the effort we’re putting into fixing the
problem now we should’ve been doing 20 years ago, and
we’re past the point of being able to solve these problems
effectively. As Prof. Cohen said, it’s all very funny. This
is how I’ve been trying to feel about our situation since the
seminar.
I’m thankful to everyone involved in making the seminar
happen, and I’m especially thankful for the free drinks at
the end.