Tracks from the Crypt

Abstract: David Bowie's 2015 'Blackstar' has been understood by critics and fans alike to have a certain valedictory status. For them, perhaps for us, it is a 39-minute and 13-second farewell. A long goodbye. My angle is different. By situating the Bowie/Renck collaboration on "Lazarus" in the context of a meditation on the question once posed by Georg Stanitzek, "Was ist Kommunikation?" I consider the CD and the video as experiments in re-configuration. More specifically, by thinking about the distinctly cinematic iteration of the question of communication (citing here Captain's "what we have here is … failure to communicate" from 'Cool Hand Luke') I propose that mediated communication embodies the Ich/Es modality of dialogue disparaged by Martin Buber. What this invites us to consider is whether "Lazarus" in particular isn’t the generation of an audiovisual tombeau from which or out of which communication strains are to be heard. Is it "saying" farewell? Is it "saying" anything? By drawing

Object Details

• Location: Deutsche Nationalbibliothek Frankfurt am Main
• ISBN: 9783957960030
• Extent: Online-Ressource, 48 S.
• Language: Englisch
• Notes: Veröffentlichungsversion ; begutachtet (peer reviewed)

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Öffentliche Darbietungen, Film, Rundfunk

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Lüneburg
• (who): meson press
• (when): 2019
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (where): Mannheim
• (who): SSOAR - Social Science Open Access Repository
• (when): 2019
• Creator: Mowitt, John

Further information

• DOI: 10.14619/0030
• URN: urn:nbn:de:101:1-2020082808110142805562
• Rights: Open Access; Open Access; Der Zugriff auf das Objekt ist unbeschränkt möglich.
• Last update: 14.08.2025, 11:00 AM CEST