Urine day (pp. 153–154)
who’s keenly interested in video- and film-cartridge production, and pulls his weight as part of the E.T.A. community recording assigned sections of matches and drills and processional stroke-filming sessions for later playback and analysis by Schtitt and his staff—is filming the congregated line and social interactions and vending operation of the urine-day lobby, using his strap-attached head-mounted camera and thoracic police-lock and foot-treadle, apparently getting footage for one of the short strange Himself-influenced conceptual cartridges the administration lets him occupy his time making and futzing around with down in the late founder’s editing and f/x facilities off the main sub-Comm.-Ad. tunnel […] at their request he’ll modulate and scramble the vendors’ and customers’ faces into undulating systems of flesh-colored squares, by means of his late father’s reconfigururing matte-panel in the editing room, since facial scrambling will heighten whatever weird conceptual effect Mario’s usually after anyway, though also because Mario’s notoriously fond of undulating flesh-colored squares and will jump at any opportunity to edit them in over people’s faces.
Context
The theme's fullest working picture of Mario-as-filmmaker inside the JOI plant: the assigned stroke-filming (015's function restated in the institutional voice), the head-mounted Bolex rig built onto his body (strap, thoracic police-lock, foot-treadle), and Himself's actual editing and f/x facilities under Comm.-Ad. still running as family infrastructure — "the late founder's" rooms with the son inside them making "Himself-influenced" cartridges. And the matte-panel detail makes Mario the book's one unfeared camera: the urine vendors don't flinch because his father's editing equipment will scramble their faces into flesh-colored squares — surveillance apparatus turned anti-surveillance by temperament. ("reconfigururing" as written — suspect for "reconfiguring.")