Author, screenwriter, and filmmaker JF Martel and I discuss weirdness, the surreal quality of experience, art arising from the primordial or from the imaginal realm, why society attempts to bury the weird or chaotic beneath normality and conventionality, Stranger Things, Twin Peaks, Jaws, the daimonic, dreams, and the ways that art can disrupt and awaken, in a conversation that centers around his book, Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice, which is about the nature and power of art.

JF hails from Ottawa, Ontario, and his screen work includes French and English-language documentary series and features focused on culture and the arts. J.F.'s writings on art, culture and philosophy have appeared in Reality Sandwich, Metapsychosis, The Finch, Disinfo, and other online magazines. He is the co-host of the Weird Studies podcast along with Phil Ford.

Cover art/logo design by Jeff Wolfe

Theme music: A1 Rogue by Poddington Bear

*Notes*JF’s Work:

http://www.reclaimingart.com

Reclaiming Art in the Age of Artifice: A Treatise, Critique, and Call to Action - https://www.amazon.com/Reclaiming-Art-Age-Artifice-Manifesto/dp/1583945784

Reclaiming Art trailer: https://vimeo.com/118553863

Reality is Analog: Philosophizing with Stranger Things - https://www.metapsychosis.com/reality-is-analog-philosophizing-with-stranger-things-part-one/

How Symbols Matter - http://thefinch.net/2016/03/10/jf-martel-how-symbols-matter/

Consciousness in the Aesthetic Imagination - https://www.metapsychosis.com/consciousness-in-the-aesthetic-imagination/

Cicada (2013) - Short Film - https://vimeo.com/59824769

Sources mentioned:

Phil Ford’s piece on Weird Studies - https://dialmformusicology.com/category/weird-studies/

“On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetic Art” by C.G. Jung

-Decadents and Catholicism by Ellis Hanson

-Quentin Meillassoux

-Arcade Fire, “We Used to Wait” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_nTjn1yJp0w