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sans-filtre: politics of the absurd

politics theater of the absurd…

proceeding. into histories. as present/future seem not to supply a place to occupy.

Our acquiescence to the thorough mediation of the world as sensed through our technological devices produces deep strains in the viability of the hegemonic (or democratic!) State. Requisite to civil society is the face-to-face encounter with the Other, where human reason and compassion, and, yes, empathy, are central to ‘knowing’ that Other. (Christian doctrine, anyone?) The level of technological mediation applied to what once was face-to-face encounter has stripped it of the potentials of relation that empathy provides. This loss unravels a crucial thread in the social fabric.

The further reliance on (media)ted feeds for information about the world reduces our ability to make accurate and propitious judgements about what to do next. The fact that these information feeds are now largely reduced to theater, and worse yet, simple life/time -consuming spectacle places us (as a class of self-determining individuals) at profound risk of external control. (That is, when we ‘pay’ attention to them, consume them!) The sensory sophistication of these feeds has the demonstrated capacity to re-form even personally-acquired memory. What are we left with?

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  • place: Prescott, Arizona

Everybody’s lost at once

Leafing through Shambala Sun at my Buddhist doctor’s office, there’s George, yet again, in a >long interview article exploring his Buddhist pathway. Brought to mind one of his very early stories, “A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room” — the way the fullness of reality appears as a chaotic whirl of disconnected events-as-objects that are moving without rule:

Here is a wonderful metaphor I sometimes use with my students. Imagine you’re on a cruise ship in heavy seas. You’re the only person who’s stable, and everybody else is moving around in a crazy way. You decide to have mercy on them, and that’s pretty good, right?

But I think a better model is to imagine you’re on a cruise ship, and the surface is made of ice, and you’re carrying six trays, and you’re wearing roller skates, and you’re drunk. And so is everybody else.

So nobody’s the boss and the situation is unstable. There’s no fixed point. When I think of life that way, it sums up the proper level of mercy and tolerance. We really don’t know what’s going on, so our feeling of sympathy or empathy is related to our mutual lostness. Everybody’s lost at once.

I would definitely agree. It brings a bit of a shiver, but also relief tinged with an iota of suspicion that this might be a conspiracy foisted on those-who-know-little by those-who-know-too-much. And, really, it’s not just everybody, it’s everything! The cosmos operates the same across all scales and places, with only the anisotropic distribution of energized matter (dark and Light!) creating difference. This would suggest that there are “knowings” that, if rooted in understanding this, would act as Archimedes opined: “Πα βω και χαριστιωνι ταν γαν κινησω πασαν.” / “Give me a place to stand and with a lever I will move the whole world.”

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  • place: Margaretville, New York

give me your time

Give me your time, give me your space, your eyes, your ears: this is the mantra of the Self. I give you my time, I give you my space: this is the mantra of the Self, the self released from the bonds of egoism. I give you my self.

Watching tears well up and begin to fall. Where do they come from? And what will become of them? Feeling tears well up and fall. It’s a bit of a puzzle, the neurons that resonate between two (or more) bodies. There are the shared events of social adhesion: nationalistic synergies, mass tragedies, and the spectacles of sensual attraction. These are not the true resonances of the soul. Souls play together in the strangest of circumstances.

And networks proceed at the speed of life. Something I’ve been saying for years.

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  • place: Cornwall, Pennsylvania

long dialogues: alexithymia: interhemispheric transfer deficit

Conversations range through histories, futures, thoughts, and dreams. Nothing like spending time with old friends: with my oldest friend this week. Junior High, seventh grade, we shared all seven class periods each day, 40+ years ago. How histories recede: resonant memories tend to be supplanted; revivifying them in active recollection makes them last a bit longer, fills them out from another perspective, another memory system. Until our outward form sinks into the background (dis)order of the cosmos. There, the memories persist as slowly devolving trajectories of activated, materialized energy.

Gary’s evolution and sustained presence inspires so many of the people who are around him including myself. What to think about this? Do we ever really evolve, or do the changes we experience along the way in life impose merely small surficial modifications of our root character? And of this root character, what may be said? Is it the outcome of a chain of incarnations, is it an alignment of planets, the arrangement of molecular spirals? Inspiration from Day One? Predetermined be-ing? Can we change ourselves?

This particular trip takes the form of yet another pilgrimage, a soft confrontation of what the word ’empathy’ is in lived praxis among the network of friends. Finding empathy’s place, there is no pre-existing internal road-map. Its locus is within sight, reach, and touch, but it cannot be accessed directly except through thoroughly unpretentious and purely expressed action (not merely words). Embodied, in motion, moving towards. Up to this point, there are only fleeting instances where empathy as a defined characteristic is questioned. Having it, not having it seem to be questions that do not touch its real nature.

Then come the questions: Is it possible to attain an empathetic state where none existed before? If not, what becomes? Is life for some a desert of hollow resonance, disconnected from any Other? I don’t know, I don’t know, (pushing through gray curtains of neural absence). Into the Light, or, at least, looking for the Light.

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  • place: Boulder, Colorado

screening: Jeanne Liotta

Make a pilgrimage to Longmont to the Firehouse Arts Center to catch an evening screening of work by a CU Film Studies faculty-member Jeanne Liotta. I had met her the evening before at another university-sponsored cultural event. Alex had mentioned there was a reception/opening in the Rare Books Room of the Library, and, as a professional nomadic cultural participant (and observer), I thought I’d check it out. Turns out it was the effort of a Humanities class that had curated a small show of works from the collection of artist’s books that Lucy Lippard had given to the University. Strangely enough two of the pieces in the exhibition are from old friend/networker node, Paul Rutkovsky (aka. floridada). I talked to some of the student curators about Paul, Lucy, and about networking. I was lucky to have been doing my MFA at CU-Boulder when Lucy was in residence and received some of her teachings. Age brings the role of information carrier, holder of historical perspective and knowing, story-teller. No corner on wisdom, but at least some stories are related. I query the kids about what their thinking is about the use of photocopy machines as art tools. This is a very novel idea for them (given they only know the digital type of photocopy machines at most, not the old analog devices). Paper output is novel in itself. I don’t have much documentation online of some of the prior (ancien-régime!) photocopy-based projects I’ve run: just The Xerox Book that included mp3 files of the accompanying collaborative audio cassette mix, unfortunately there are no scans of the 300 actual pages … some day I’ll get to that corner of the archive & revive it in the digital zone.

At any rate, Jeanne’s work dances around cosmology, astronomy, and very much the syntax of the various filmic media she plays with — from Second Life pieces to found footage, analog and digital to Ray-o-gram-printed 35mm film stock. The sonic accompaniments well synergize with the visuals. I missed not seeing some of the analog film pieces in their original form (vs digital reproductions), as most of the pieces are (at least in part) deeply about what mediation they are conveyed upon. (Not that that aspect is meant to completely frame them materialistically: it’s only one order of correlation.) There are plenty of other resonant aspects and sources: the eclipse, the sky, the procession of stellar energies, the transposition of Light from various enigmatic sources onto halating film substrates: she always maintains an alchemical and, consequently, an experimental edge through her attention to immediate and spontaneous situation. This sensitivity is combined with an aware curiosity of phenomenon: yielding Light works that are simultaneously playful and yet connected to/suffused with an insistent and sometimes overwhelming gravity. Escaping the gravitational field of be-ing requires an empathy for the intense sadness that pervades our current times: this potential is achieved on occasion and reminded me of the intent of Bruce Elder’s magnum opus “The Book of All the Dead” and the constant struggle against the gravity of it all, in search of Light. It goes ever back to Simone Weil’s “Two forces rule the universe: light and gravity.”

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empathy (smoke and mirrors)

John Vallee, 54, lives near the trestle that spans the Crane Creek and was watching TV when he heard a loud screech. He went outside and first thought he saw a blanket tangled under a rail car. Then he realized it was a person.

“It’s going to be hard for me to get to sleep,” Mr. Vallee told Florida Today. “I can’t get it out of my mind.” — AP

The energized impression and apprehension of be-ing leaves us with resonant formations in embodied memory. And it is resonance that best circumscribes (models) the phenomena of the propagation of empathy from the Other to the Self. Although there is no hard evidence in humans, the concept of mirror neurons would seem to support the idea of resonance. Caught a lecture at UM with Deb on “Empathy in Normal Adult Development and Neurological Disease” with Bob Levenson from UCB which got me thinking of the actual mechanism that allows for the transmission of the energies of expression across Cartesian space from the Self to the Other. The obvious model would be the transmission of band-limited radiative (visual, auditory, touch, etc) energy which then is apprehended by the neural system, a system which is sensitive to ‘matched’ or similar experiences that have already impinged and impressed themselves on the body system. This impression process changes the body system from one energy configuration to another. And any life system will have fundamental resonant pathways — these would be necessary determinants of basic learned experience — whatever the particular and precise mechanism is (mirror neurons being perhaps a primary model), the idea of resonance seems to be key. Resonance would depend on some accounting of sameness and difference as per prior embodied experience and the persistence of impressions (which themselves are configurations of energized neuronal structures: memory) among other factors. There would have to be a means for rapid energy pattern-matching across a huge volume of semi-fixed memory structures in the brain — it would be impossible to check all possible prior impressions with all live incoming impressions, so there would have to be some kind of disgressionary or limiting function to the process in the form of step or directional filters…

I can’t get you out of my mind…

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  • place: Millers Point, NSW, Australia

health care

got to weigh in on health care. so sick(!) of the toxic blather going on within the US, although it might just be that it is a spent nation-state, in the throes of becoming less relevant in the world. clearly it is becoming less functional internally which eventually (already) will have an effect on external relations. morally it is tearing itself apart by those who, strangely call themselves Christian but who seem to have zero compassion and limitless zeal for defending against the stranger and killing preemptively when that stranger seems strange. period. I have some understanding of the fear of governmental authority. the media in the US has certainly inculcated so many other nation-states with the blight of the dictator and illustrated that to the US citizens, a situation that reinforces some traditional/historical fear of the government. fine. more “health care”

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  • place: Columbia, Missouri

tools to thrive

spend the afternoon at a meeting with a group of about 15 enthusiastic Mizzou students who are interested in fundamental issues around sustainability and social activism. the meeting (Open Sustainability Network Mid-Missouri, under the title Tools to Thrive. hosted by Richard Schulte, one of the founders of the Mid-Missouri group (which is connected to the umbrella Open Sustainability Network). OSN-MM is also the initiator of the Columbia Missouri Exchange Circle. Lonny Grafman, the featured presenter, is a lecturer at Humboldt State University and is the founder of Appropedia Foundation, the self-proclaimed sustainability wiki which provides a public platform for information on sustainable community practices along with pertinent knowledge-sets for implementation. Lonny is also the Executive Editor of International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering (IJSLE). He introduced some of his work in the form of a presentation Democracy Unlimited Humboldt County Rainwater: A Case Study in Open Source Community Action for Sustainability which explored community activism in deployment of sustainable (in this case, domestic rainwater gathering) systems. words: creation of human networks … the search for a deliverable … starts with a sonic ambient exploration a rainstorm … examples of rainwater sequestering … Bechtel in Bolivia … anthropocentric impurities … a lesson in rainwater catchments: free … local infrastructures generate independence / autonomy. Too many details at first. without the principles of appropriate technology use — public perception, policy situation, know-how, resources, initiative, currency in Humboldt … hemp paper, soy inks … Temporary Autonomous Zone break-out groups: creation and organization of more and better public art; bike-powered something; CSPAN (Columbia Sustainability Policy Action Network); local economy (in general); moving from thought to action; facilitating dialogue; sustainable creative activism; expanding the sustainability community; empathy and interconnectedness; rooftop gardens where possible on campus; community networking club celebrations, gardening; organizing / participating in one implementation workshop for a physically appropriate technology setup; less plastic use, healthy local food, teaching sustainability to children … sorry no more detailed notes, I had to leave right after the break-out sessions to meet Nick and Deb to look at houses. I cycle across downtown from campus to the Walgreens where I lock the bike and go in to buy a snack. when I come out I wander across the parking lot looking for Deb’s car. a chubby white woman gets out of a sedan and asks me if I need a ride. she says she normally doesn’t do that, but I looked like I wasn’t a killer and that she’d be happy to help me out. I say no, no thanks, I’m just waiting for friends to pick me up. mid-western courtesy? I’m wearing a black leather biker’s jacket, black jeans, black half-gloves and a baseball cap from Germany, and dark brown sunglasses. who’s she kidding? she must have been one of those mild-mannered mid-western serial killers. just then Deb pulls up. saved! Nick stayed with the kids, so we drive into the countryside to some small towns looking at houses. the area is really depressed, many empty storefronts on Main Street. and this area is relatively affluent compared to much of the rest of the state. it would be very interesting to travel through these areas and document what is happening. sustainability? indeed. things are not sustained here. help is needed.

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  • place: Berlin, Germany

dkfrf review

Rinus makes some nice notes on the Amurikan evening at das kleine field recording festival last week in Kreuzberg.

Rinus is one of those intelligent and grounded souls who facilitate events that are the polar opposite of pretentious. informal, humane, and best, they include a collection of found artists. artists who are connected by their desire to connect with others in an open way. my impression of the evening of performances was largely the comfort with which it proceeded. for example, I had not intended doing a visual set, thinking conservatively it was about field recording. but when Brandon got the video-projector set up, I thought, yeah, why not. so I started the evening with a slowly-building barrage. guilty, sure, of a phat mix. Rinus noted that it divided the crowd — it’s that polarizing influence that I seem to have. hmmm. it’s partly the software, got to explore how to slow it down for a more meditative mix. density. (going back to the thoughts about levity and density a few weeks ago). Brandon’s set was a perfect counterpoint to mine with the levity and Light of his life.
more “dkfrf review”

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  • place: Prescott, Arizona

Pass Christian

(photo of Mariah by Cheryl Gerber for NPR)
when listening to an NPR report last Monday covering the one-year anniversary of Katrina, I heard a short interview with a woman by the name of Mariah Furze. could it be the Mariah Furze? recalling a recent conversation with another high school friend Meredith where she was saying that Mariah was living in Pass Christian, Mississippi, and was one of the many who had lost everything in the hurricane. we all attended high school together in Gaithersburg, Maryland, way back in the deep dark past. I found a number online and gave a call, and there was Mariah at the other end! still a jolt to be able to leap across such spaces and times in an instant. couldn’t really place her accent, but it’s been a long time since I been to that corner of the US. (back in the days of working on an offshore oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the Mississippi delta.)

at any rate, it was great to hear the basics of her story first-hand. she also pointed me to further information on the town, starting with the extensive web documentation put up by Dan Ellis — recovery, and the pre-Katrina town site. see for yourself the massive scale of destruction and the lack of progress in rebuilding as a result of un-responsive local, state, and national bureaucracies. indeed, following all the media hype and excitement over the “next big thing” to report on, it is hard to really comprehend the experiences of folks living on the coast there. except to say that empathy is necessary, and “you had to be there.” volunteers are still very much needed and warmly welcomed to Pass Christian. numbers have dropped sharply in the recent month (mostly because of the August heat and back-to-school), but the town is still in heavy and hard times. Mariah is the head of the Volunteer Taskforce with headquarters in The Grey Hut in town along with Amy Hardee, a volunteer from North Carolina, and others. Mariah is helping to lead the fight against the bureaucracies and to help folks get their lives back together, including her own by heading to the state capital to meet with the governor next week to literally lay it on the table. more power to you Mariah! they can be reached at 228.452.7270 if you can volunteer or perhaps have donations to help folks out. stay tuned for updates on the situation.

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  • place: Prescott, Arizona

distributed empathy

living on the back. no longer an upright animal. except part-time. and no driving for another couple months. perspectives are limited. constant aching. phone calls with empathetic Others, emphasizes the distance of distributed being, how help is only visceral. hmmmm.

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  • place: Helsinki, Finland

how to exhale?

Run out of words to express, to exhale what is in me head. Time passed into histories and time again, but no words form that reflect the interior dia/monologues. Only noise. The only measure over time has been to listen to the Other to see if there is something understandable. I have seen many messages expelled from inside Others, messages that I recognize [empathy?], and can find rooted presence in my own being. But where is MY voice? Not talking about effect, affect on the immediate environment, but more the reverberations, resonances. If I believe my own statements: that all things are inter-connected, then there is no doubt of affect, but what is the measure of it and in what way is it manifest in the Other. To look for it in the Other — via that whole pattern of how one looks at the Other — is built up from childhood, how one reflects on the being of the Other. Patterns of reaction, response, actual ways of seeing, viewpoints, impressed into psyche until they become the reified structure of the ego. Living life by the ego. Hmmmm.

Impinging signals are too quickly attenuated by these learned (imposed) filtering mechanisms. Filtering (as a model of the perceived limit for action) seems to be a direct function of what psychologists (and Buddhists) call the Ego. How to avoid, deactivate, or otherwise re-route sensual information around that system? Let it flow! (If systems analysis even offers a potential model for approaching the situation). But this is the primary problem. Finding the language, the system for attacking/dealing with incoming and outgoing energies in a way that follows the nature of the energies themselves.

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  • place: Tornio, Finland

days days days

only one day, days later there is nothing to tell to relate only to flush to excrete to deliver to produce to make to create no telling: telling is this other process that I can’t remember about because I am forgetting about people the Other and not exercising that which is a projection a placement a possibility of being the Other at least to have sympathy and empathy. losing faith losing faith in the lack of success and sparkling wit and creative brilliance and humane living. why is this a problem, why not? Looking out at the world and seeing is enough a portal a sluice pouring liquid Light into the soul but the garish social lights the small the scrape of things dear god forming on the lips and vanity that brings the clouds to press close to the ground attraction of mass and Light like Simone Weil talked about gravity and Light being the ruling forces of the universe that soak all with a roar hum and rush susseration again back to blood in the ears where is the self in all this? whirr blush hrrrrummmmm click shoulders crunching silently to collect the neck muscles in a tight knot basket carry the head away to cyber land with glass fibers to make a web hammock sleep baby sleep.