the subversion of soul

anima. âme. alma. soul. - the realization of human consciousness, only because we know it is there. it's the self awareness that defines it.

do inanimate objects have soul? i sincerely believe in the positive. but only when they have painstakingly passed through the hands of someone, or a collective of individuals who has put genuine effort into his/her handiwork out of pure and unadulterated passion for the craft. not because they've been enslaved into doing a mundane set of procedures and tasks that are easily replicable by machines. i'd like to think that's why machines were invented, in the name of "efficiency", because many people have inherently lost their passion for doing what they do. or maybe there was no passion to speak of from the start.

i'm not saying that mass production is a foul concept. it is on the contrary quite a marvelous idea. only mass production could meet our insatiable wants and demands. mass production makes certain that we still live in relative peace because we can now turn once geographically-bound and limited resources into tradable commodities worldwide for practically nothing. people no longer have to go to war. they just sit in a big empty room and talk dollars.

what we are seeing is a trend that is likely to remain irreversible. because a generation has had its ties severed with traditional forms of crafts that are rapidly becoming a part of a distant memory. most of us are destined to remain oblivious to their existence and would never learn to appreciate their ingenuity. this is largely due to the competitive pressures of big corporations that have pushed family run businesses to the brink of extinction. there are resurgences in recent times of efforts to preserve those old world traditions, but those are likely to remain lonely fortifications, manned by aficionados and purists holding on by the skin of their teeth.

believe it or not, in the real world soul can be seen, heard, felt and smelt. you just have to know where to look. and you also have got to look closely enough. like that song once said, "the detail's in the fabric..."

you'll just have to go with me on that.



Anima D'Acciaio Trailer from Cinecycle on Vimeo.


+listening to: details int he fabric feat. james morrison by jason mraz