Paul O'Connor's Blog, page 8

AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs

AI emotion-detection software tested on Uyghurs:

Flagging this story in my research notes. Seems an interesting connection between the anthropology of affect, quantifying emotion and also issues of surveillance. 

Skateboarding and Religion (and Music) with Paul O’Connor

Skateboarding and Religion (and Music) with Paul O’Connor:

I was invited to talk about my book Skateboarding and Religion, reflect on death, and choose some favourite songs for the podcast A Tranquil Passage. The podcast is created and hosted by Michael Brooke who is the mastermind behind the book Concrete Wave, and magazine of the same title.  Michael has been skateboarding since 1975 and remains a passionate advocate for all things skateboarding. Amidst listening to some favourite tracks we talk about how skateboarding comes to be signified and ritualised in death and funerary rites, and a whole host of skateboarding rituals.

A 20 Year Love Story of a Metal BenchI’ve written plenty about...

A 20 Year Love Story of a Metal Bench

I’ve written plenty about sacred places in skateboarding and how they become places of pilgrimage for skateboarders. This short video from Quartersnacks on AVE’s nearly 20 year relationship with a curved green bench takes these dynamics in a new direction. It provides a remarkable reflection on how skateboarders connect with objects in urban space and end up making them their own. Here the bench is less of a sacred spot and much more of a magical item. It corresponds with people and place, serendipity and synchronicity.

"Three taps, three times. This is part of professional skateboarder Andrew Reynolds’ ritual when..."

“Three taps, three times. This is part of professional skateboarder Andrew Reynolds’ ritual when trying to offset his anxiety before he performs a trick. He refers to this as ‘the madness…The madness might be best understood as a superstition, a tactic of edgework to assert some control over the chaos of attempting to jump a four-foot- high and 16-foot-wide set of stairs on a precariously wheeled wooden board. But in some ways rituals are superstitions, they must be performed at certain times and follow specific procedures in order for them to be valid. Rites are performed to allay our anxieties about specific life events both big and small.”

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 Ritualised Play, Skateboarding and Religion (2020, p.179)

I share this passage from my book in response to a thread unfolding on the SLAP message board right now. It is all about the curious superstitions that skateboarders have when they skate particular spots. A quick read of them points to some rather ritualised behaviour. It is far from the first thread on SLAP to deal with skateboarding superstitions, there are actually quite a few (here, and here, and here) . This one grew out of a thread about anxieties in wearing red while skateboarding.

Partly this is superficial fun, but it is also curious to learn fo the range of superstitions that people attach to their skateboarding. These acts correspond to a type of significance many would not necessarily attribute to skateboarding. What they do highlight is that skateboarding is a type of serious play, and that play might simply be one of the most important things that we, as humans, do. More on this from my chapter…

The skateboard is like a divine object thatcan connect an individual to conceptions of existence greater than themselves. Borden develops this from the work of Henri Lefebvre (2008,p. 118), who claims that ‘toys and games are former magical objects andrituals.’ … In our final exploration of play we come tounderstand how skateboarders see themselves as having access to a special, magical realm of life. In performing ritual some skateboarders consider themselves enlightened, different from the blinkered ‘muggles’ignorant of their toy, the true essence of the city, the nearness of freedomand fraternity, and of course the enduring rewards of play.

To close off this short post I include The Vice video in which Andrew Reynolds talks about his ‘Madness’ the superstitious-OCD like-ritual that permeates his skateboarding.

"to those who have substituted authoritarian science for authoritarian religion, individual thought..."

“to those who have substituted authoritarian science for authoritarian religion, individual thought is worthless unless it is the symbol for a reality which can be seen, tasted, felt or thought about by everyone else. Such men adhere to a dogma as rigidly as men of fanatical religiosity. They reject the world of the personal, the happy world of open, playful, or aspiring thought”

- Loren Eiseley, The Night Country (1971, p139)

In celebration of what would have been Jeff Grosso’s 53rd...

In celebration of what would have been Jeff Grosso’s 53rd birthday, Vans released a special posthumous Loveletters video, ‘Grosso Forever’. This one focussed exclusively on Jeff and was made up of a whole range of his clips and musings on life and skateboarding. It once again underlines his established role as the self-deprecating voice of skateboard folklore. Touchingly his son provides the intro and outro to the video.

Across social media his birthday has been celebrated with various posts. In essence, Jeff lives on. I share this gif from the video as it strikes at the heart of one my research interests in ageing skateboarders. In stark contrast to those who critique the middle aged skateboarder, there is no pretence here. Older skaters know of their fading ability and lack of cool.

Jeff kindly helped out with my research on skateboarding and religion and gave generous time discussing his own position. Little did he know how he himself would come to be another skateboarder made saint in the eyes of the culture.

Now go skate.

‘Fishing is a form of meditation’ – it’s always been my escapeInteresting and rather common...

‘Fishing is a form of meditation’ – it’s always been my escape

Interesting and rather common connection between fishing and meditation. From a broader stance this is analogous to other sports and leisure activities being connected to spiritual and religious identification. In an age where religion has lost validity for many, these more individualised choices in recreation and spiritual identification are increasingly common.

"Matter is congealed Mind"

“Matter is congealed Mind”

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The Flip, Jeffrey J. Kripal (2020), pg 80

The Witch

The Witch:

My book review of Brandon Grafius’s exploration of Robert Eggers cult folk horror film The Witch (2015) for the Journal of Religion and Film.

"All statements about others are paired with the observer’s experience."

“All statements about others are paired with the observer’s experience.”

- Time and the Other: How Anthropology Makes Its Object, Johannes Fabian