Channel 4’s Seduction School was peripherally interesting but the programme incurs in the same mistakes as any other TV programme on seduction.

The presenters, who obviously are very conversant with seduction techniques, are trendy, beautiful and confident whereas the poor guinea pigs have traumas, physical issues and little or no experience. The aim of the programme was to get the latter in the position of the former, to convert them into seducers through teaching them general techniques (Kino¹, SOI²…).

They approach seduction from a subject’s point of view, how can s/he overcome their fears and whatever usually goes wrong, in order to obtain a “close” (whether phone, instant date, kiss). Instead of overcoming, Fran?ßois Roustang’s excellent analysis of Casanova’s memoirs talk about challenge, reversibility (through magic) and losing oneself. A seducer is a strategist, someone who schemes, who reads situations and has an array of responses to them. Seducers, from Valmont to Don Juan, are usually chamaleonic. I just couldn’t see Casanova, going to Marton and Nanette and thinking how to slip in the word “sexy” into a conversation.

I understand that this may not really be the best or quickest way of teaching someone, on national television, how to get a partner. To be fair to the teachers³, they did get results in 2 of the 3 cases: the fat guy got a phone number, the tall guy, a kiss. But they seemed to be more diven by the competition between each other than by their objects of desire.

Now, whereas I think the aims and intentions of the programme are very virtuous (afterall, they are part of a series called “Shape the Nation”), I don’t think that what they intend to do is seduction. My problem with it is the same I found when I went to see Boucher’s exhibition at the Wallace Museum. Although entitled Seductive Visions, I didn’t feel seduced, not could see Boucher having been seduced. Perhaps representations of seduction had been attempted. But that’s just he best way of making it just go away…

To seduce is difficult. And for one to become a seducer, a few conditions have to be met. Seduction is not necessarily a positive in the first place! But… ah, yes… the word itself seduces, helps to entice, to allure viewers and visitors. That is the trick of Seduction School: we are seduced by the idea. Once we have given up our time to learn about it, we realise we have been led astray and we will not get anything in return.

1. Touching the person you are talking to [back]
2. Statement of intention, telling someone you want something more that friendship [back]
3. Johnny Saviour and Wayne Elise [back]

From Apple Insider
Apple: iPods built to last 4 years

Apple’s iPod turns five years old this October.

If Julio asked me to title his latest collage, I would call this one “Solipsism, or the view that the self is the only thing known to exist”. I like it. Especially since, like often happens with one’s images, I did not instantly recognise myself. Obviously I was not there ‚Äìthis is what these images are about, after all‚Äì but I did doubt it, for a negligeable split second. Have you ever wondered if you are here or there when in front of a mirror?

Julio Arriaga. Txitxarros en la butxaca: Las fotos de la inauguracion

If any of you are in Barcelona, please visit his very postmodern studio (xtudio) / gallery. Details here.

Watch the trailer:The death of Salvador Dali, written and directed by Delaney Bishop.

Also, this wonderful website. What has this project got to do with seduction?

Popular Titles (Displaying 2 Results)

1. “All My Children” (1970)
   aka “All My Children: The Summer of Seduction” - USA (promotional title)
2. The Last Seduction (1994)

Other Results

Titles (Exact Matches) (Displaying 6 Results)

1. Du z?©ro des ar?®nes (1996)
   aka “Seduction” - (English title)
2. Seducci??n, La (1980)
   aka “Seduction” - USA
3. Erotikon (1920)
   aka “Seduction”
4. Erotikon (1929)
   aka “Seduction” - (English title)
5. Eghraa (1958)
   aka “Seduction” - (English title)
6. Seduzione, La (1973)
   aka “Seduction”

Titles (Partial Matches) (Displaying 85 Results)

1. Grande s?©duction, La (2003)
2. The Seduction of Joe Tynan (1979)
3. Mim?? metallurgico ferito nell’onore (1972)
   aka “The Seduction of Mimi”
4. Tempted (2001)
   aka “S?©duction fatale” - France
5. The Seduction (1982)
6. Blind Date (1984)
   aka “Deadly Seduction”
7. Sixty Years of Seduction (1981) (TV)
8. Poison Ivy: The New Seduction (1997) (V)
9. Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) (TV)
10. For My Daughter’s Honor (1996) (TV)
    aka “Indecent Seduction”
11. School for Seduction (2004)
12. Une femme fid?®le (1976)
    aka “Game of Seduction”
13. The Learning Curve (2001)
    aka “Dangerous Seduction” - Australia (video title)
14. The Babysitter’s Seduction (1996) (TV)
15. Women & Men 2: In Love There Are No Rules (1991) (TV)
    aka “The Art of Seduction” - UK (DVD box title)
16. The Last Seduction II (1999)
17. Art (d?©licat) de la s?©duction, L’ (2001)
18. Against Their Will: Women in Prison (1994) (TV)
    aka “Caged Seduction: The Shocking True Story” - UK (video title)
19. Vampire Seduction (1998)
    aka “Vampire’s Seduction” - USA (closing credits title)
20. Verf?ºhrung: Die grausame Frau (1985)
    aka “Seduction: The Cruel Woman” - USA
21. Virtual Seduction (1995) (TV)
22. Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction (1983) (TV)
23. Vows of Deception (1996) (TV)
    aka “Deadly Seduction”
24. Web of Seduction (1999)
25. Matlock: The Fatal Seduction (1993) (TV)
26. Mistress of Seduction (1998)
27. Justine: Seduction of Innocence (1996)
    aka “Seduction of Innocence” - USA (video title)
28. <
    a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110854/?fr=c2l0ZT1kZnxteD0yMHxsbT01MDB8dHQ9b258ZmI9dXxwbj0wfHE9c2VkdWN0aW9ufGh0bWw9MXxubT1vbg__;fc=36;ft=95;fm=1">Point of Seduction: Body Chemistry III (1994) (V)
    aka “Body Chemistry 3: Point of Seduction” - USA (video box title)
29. Seduction in a Small Town (1997) (TV)
30. The Seduction of Maxine (2000) (TV)
31. Sex Files: Portrait of the Soul (1999)
    aka “Sex Files: Soul Seduction”
32. Student Seduction (2003) (TV)
33. Anatomy of a Seduction (1979) (TV)
34. The Kennedys: Power, Seduction and Hollywood (1998) (TV)
35. Chasse ?† l’homme, La (1964)
    aka “The Gentle Art of Seduction” - UK
36. Dead Students Society (1998) (V)
    aka “Poetic Seduction: The Dead Students Society” - USA (closing credits title)
37. Dolce pelle di Angela (1987)
    aka “The Seduction of Angela”
38. Nemuri Kyoshiro 4: Joyoken (1964)
    aka “Sleepy Eyes of Death: Sword of Seduction”
39. Seduction: Three Tales from the ‘Inner Sanctum’ (1992) (TV)
40. Seaside Seduction (2001)
41. Sin Sisters (2003) (V)
    aka “Seduction Cinema’s Sisters” - USA (working title)
42. Midnight Confessions (1995)
    aka “Voices of Seduction” - UK (video title)
43. Julia, Du bist zauberhaft (1962)
    aka “The Seduction of Julia”
44. Subliminal Seduction (1996) (TV)
    aka “Roger Corman Presents ‘Subliminal Seduction’”
45. Target of Seduction (1995)
    aka “Mistress of Seduction 2″ - UK (video title)
46. Fraile, El (1990)
    aka “Seduction of a Priest” - UK (video title)
47. Formulas for Seduction: The Cinema of Atom Egoyan (1999)
48. A Seduction in Travis County (1991) (TV)
49. The Seduction of Gina (1984) (TV)
50. Seduction of Innocence (1995)
51. Intimo (1988)
    aka “Midnight Seduction”
52. N?•gon att ?§lska (1969)
    aka “The Seduction of Inga” - UK
53. The Seduction of Miss Leona (1980) (TV)
54. “When Love Kills: The Seduction of John Hearn” (1993) (mini)
55. Lethal Seduction (1997)
56. Erotic Witch Project 2: Book of Seduction (2000) (V)
57. The Seduction of Misty Mundae (2004) (V)
58. Seduction of Patrick (1979)
59. Seduction of the Innocent (1961)
60. Seduction Story (1995)
61. Op?©ration s?©duction (1975)
62. “Op?©ration s?©duction aux Cara?Øbes” (2002)
    aka “Op?©ration s?©duction: les parents s’en m?™lent!” - France (third season title)
    aka “Op?©ration s?©duction” - France (short title)
63. Sexual Impulse (1997)
    aka “Sirens of Seduction” - USA (video title)
64. Short Seduction 4 (2000) (V)
65. Pan Qiaoyun qing tiao dan Xiu (1956)
    aka “Pan Qiaoyun’s Seduction of Shi Xiu” - Hong Kong (English title)
66. Briganti italiani, I (1961)
    aka “Seduction of the South” - UK
67. Crimson Nights: Vampire’s Seduction 2 (2000) (V)
68. Death Velley Seduction (1998)
69. Tang bo hu yu qiu xiang (1956)
    aka “The Ingenious Seduction” - Hong Kong (English title)
70. The Scarlet Seduction (1997)
71. The Feds: Seduction (1993) (TV)
72. The First Rule of Seduction (2003)
73. Two People, Analysis of a Seduction (1991)
74. Gef?§hrliche Lust - Ein Mann in Versuchung (1998) (TV)
    aka “Scent of Seduction” - Germany (promotional title)
75. Gioco di seduzione (1990)
    aka “Game of Seduction”
76. Seduction of a Cyborg (1994)
77. Verf?ºhrung am Meer (1963)
    aka “Seduction by the Sea”
78. Seduction of Cyber Jane (2001) (V)
79. Girl Seduction (2003) (V)
80. Hilfe, mich liebt eine Jungfrau (1970)
    aka “How to Play the Seduction Game” - USA
81. Iena, La (1997)
    aka “Fatal Seduction”
82. The Seduction of Mary Day (1996)
83. Judo Seduction (2002) (V)
84. Mishaps of Seduction and Conquest (1984) (V)
85. Yuhokui saem (1994)
    aka “Fountain of Seduction” - (English title)

Names (Partial Matches) (Displaying 2 Results)

1. Sweet Seduction (Miscellaneous Crew, The Gift (1988) (TV))
2. Sonic Seduction (Composer, Overnight Deliveries (1999) (V))

“In one of his books Morelli talks about a Neapolitan who spend years sitting in the doorway of his house looking at a screw on the ground. At night he would pick it up and put it under his mattress. The screw was at first a laugh, a jest, a communal irritation, a neighbourhood council, a mark of civil duties unfulfilled, finally a shrugging of shoulders, peace, the screw was peace, no one could go along the street without looking out of the corner of his eye at the screw and feeling that it was peace. The fellow drop dead of a stroke and the screw disappeared as soon as the neighbours got there. One of them has it; perhaps he takes it out secretly and looks at it, puts it away again and goes off to the factory feeling something that he does not understand, an obscure reproval. He only calms down when he takes out the screw and looks at it, stays looking at it until he hears footsteps and has to put it away quickly. Morelli thought that the screw must have been something else, a god or something like that. Too easy a solution. Perhaps the error was in accepting the fact that the object was a screw simply because it was shaped like a screw. Picasso takes a toy car and turns it into the chin of a baboon. The Neapolitan was most likely an idiot, but he also might have been the inventor of a world. From the screw to an eye, from an eye to a star…”

Cort?°zar, J (1998) Hopscotch. London: Harvill Press

Clearly, the Neapolitan was the victim of seduction. Wondering what type of screw could have such a power, I embarked upon the search of at least one of the qualities that would make me look at and keep a simple screw. DIY shops and designer shops were no good as the screws came in boxes of indistinguishable hundreds. My screw had to be noticeable, if not unique. [note: the screw is already becoming MY screw]. I looked for designers (Alessi, Starck, Kartel, Newson¬Ö) in the hope of them being interested in such a modest object. Corkscrews is the closer they get to it and the cheerfulness of that object slightly defeats the purpose of my quest. I am not looking for a gloomy object, but one that strangely leads the owner astray.

The internet is always a good source for unexpected and inexplicable things. I now know everything about screws, or rather, fasteners and bolts, in all their shapes, heads types, measurements and history but haven¬ít found what I am looking for. I suddenly have a lucky thought and, in the brink of despair I decide to adjectivise the word screw with artistic qualities. I type ‘bright coloured screw’ -always in singular- into Google and what I get is not altogether hopeless. The brightness, the size, the shape of the head and the narrowness of its spiral indentation have something fascinating about them:

I think I would like to buy one of these and further the experiment by furtively looking at it time and time again…