In this article, you can read the editorial from our latest newsletter written by Eidolon-editor Endre Cserna, which was sent out on October 3rd, 2024. We publish our monthly editor's letters, in which we reflect on recent events, approximately two weeks after the newsletter is out.
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Hello readers,
For a quick throwback to Eidolon director Róza Tekla Szilágyi’s editorial note from last month about Buzz Aldrin’s first photographs from space —which you can read here—, I’d like to share a passage from Plato’s Phaedo, where Socrates describes how the Earth looks from above:
Buzz Aldrin: The US flag floating over the Earth on the gleaming Agena, 11-15 November 1966
© NASA/Dorotheum/Victor Martin-Malburet Collection
„But the things in that world above would be seen to be even more superior to those in this world of ours. If I may tell a story, Simmias, about the things on the earth that is below the heaven, and what they are like, it is well worth hearing.”
“By all means, Socrates,” said Simmias; “we should be glad to hear this story.”
“Well then, my friend,” said he, “to begin with, the earth when seen from above is said to look like those balls that are covered with twelve pieces of leather; it is divided into patches of various colors, of which the colors which we see here may be regarded as samples, such as painters use. But there the whole earth is of such colors, and they are much brighter and purer than ours; for one part is purple of wonderful beauty, and one is golden, and one is white, whiter than chalk or snow, and the earth is made up of the other colors likewise, and they are more in number and more beautiful than those which we see here.”
It’s more than remarkable how the ancient Greek mind—particularly of Plato’s Socrates, who lived circa between 470 and 399 BC—had been to so closely anticipate the visuality that was captured many centuries later by the first photographers in outer space. Surprisingly, Plato holds a central place in our thinking here at Eidolon. His theory of the three types of images—eidos, eikon, and eidolon—is fundamental to the theoretical framework on which we base our professional practice. However, we will explore this subject in more detail in another one of our upcoming articles.
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Still from Pulse (2001)
As we find ourselves deep into autumn—the spooky season—I’d like to recommend a Japanese-American horror film that centres around the Internet, infinite loops of images, and monitors. Asian horror, particularly Japanese, frequently handles technology as a mysterious and unsettling new force, often intertwining it with the supernatural and the unknown. While Hideo Nakata's Ringu with its deadly VHS tape and the avant-garde cyberpunk anime series Serial Experiments Lain, both released in 1998, are the most well-known examples of this genre, a lesser-known gem, Pulse (2001), directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, might be the most blood-curdling representation of the horrors brought about by new technological advancements, communication networks, and ancient script-like codes. These themes are frequently discussed in our Journal and during our Club events—though in far less frightening ways.
Kind regards,
Endre Cserna
You can find all previous editor's letters at this link.
