A video creation I found on youtube sets a lecture by Alan Watts upon a background of ambient music, along with a visual image of Watts.  There are many uploaded videos of Watts on youtube.  What interests me about this one is the visual image - Watts has been (crudely) animated.  The video's description states: "Alan Watts, master philosopher brought to life with modern technology."

After I got over the creepiness of the video, I began to wonder what Alan Watts would think of being resurrected through technology.  I'm not very familiar with his philosophy, but I do know he has explored the idea of the past and history to some extent - the whole notion that "the tail does not wag the dog," or that the past does not need to determine our future.  Yet, we watch videos and listen to audio clips made in the past... on the one hand they are past events, preserved.  On the other hand, when played by us in our own time, they take on a quality of being present, or they are present events.

This video contains the lecture given by Watts, but I feel its new form (a youtube video) changes it in a way that makes it possible for it to be seen as something else. What that something is, I am not sure.  Kitschy laughs?  A creative expression of Watts' philosophy?

I'm interested to see what others think about it.

Here is the link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tgqWzM7ckTk

-s-