Late in the evening I drag out my father’s smaller telescope (a four-inch reflector) and set it up on the built-in pedestal on the small round flagstone patio to the south of the house. It has a tracking motor in it, and actually is quite a good device. Marvelous to look at Jupiter and Saturn, and simply cruise along the Milky Way. When they moved here 13 years ago, the Light pollution was practically non-existent, compared to now where even the small town of Prescott has thousands of bright street Lights. Although it is beyond the near horizon, there is a substantial glow. My father chose to live here primarily for the clear night skies for optimal viewing. Progress impinges on dreams. He doesn’t do too much observing anyway, as he is too busy maintaining the house and trying to finish his larger 14-inch computer-driven telescope. The means obscure the goal? At any rate, I enjoy scanning the heavens, and I highly recommend the activity — if you ever have the chance to use a telescope, do so. To see the rings of Saturn crisp and clear. The planet hanging like a cut-out mobile with its moons. Jupiter massive, striped, accompanied by many moons, the four major ones can be seen as planets in their own right, disks lit by the Sun and the reflected glory of their huge partner… I got another good swimming workout in today. Two more days of it before hitting the road again. I like getting into half-way decent shape before jumping back out in to the world. Wish I had my mountain bike with me here — there are so many place to ride, and I have hardly done any hiking. Mediated by speed! More mediation. Telescopes. All this material intervention! It is everywhere!
outer loop
Full moon shines across the valley. Dogs bark on the next ranch. The drive from my parents place over to here is a roll, nice. The road passes through scrub oak trees, piñon pine, sage brush, passing over-grazed fields and a couple mesas, not to mention skirting the mass of Granite Mountain where there are still wisps of smoke rising from the fires, although they have mostly burned out. The skies are always a jumble of thunderheads, cirrus clouds, and changing Light. I swim at the YMCA pool in town this afternoon. Not too satisfactory, the water is not clear, and the pool is an odd length, like 33 yards? However, it is nice to move in the water and I do need the exercise. I am moving through a haze.
portrait, Mary and Lillian, and the women’s marathon
I spend most of the day working around my parents house. That’s pretty much what I do when I stay there. Keeping up on the place. Aunt Mary is visiting and she and Mom go to church, Dad was sleeping in. Storms circle the valley for much of the evening and night. I take a chair into the middle of the yard to sit for sunset, watching the moon rise over the mountains to the east. The women’s marathon winner is taking her final lap, Fatima Rova from Ethiopia, the first African woman to win the marathon. I remember back in 1984, when I was living in Santa Monica, during the ’84 Olympics, the first women’s marathon was run, and it passed just a couple blocks from my house. Jason, my nephew who was then nine years old, and I went down to watch these incredible athletes pass by, some of them running barefoot.
storms
Well. A huge thunderstorm circled the area this afternoon and evening. Starting off in the north toward Flagstaff, then heading south and east before coming back to the north and west, now it is off to the west behind Granite Mountain. Janet (my sister) picked me up on her way home (to Chino Valley) for dinner. The electricity at my folks place had been out from about 1715 until she stopped by at 1745. When we got to her place the power was out and apparently had been for some time. Funny how quiet a house gets when there is no electricity. Stunning Arizona sunset which included the three-quarter moon, a number of small thunder storms with Lightning, blue sky, a rainbow, some rain, and off in the distance, smoke curling up from the ridge north of Granite Mountain where there has been a small forest fire burning for the past two days. As it got darker, the big storm began to close in from the south with huge branching trees of Lightning illuminating the whole area and smashing down to the ground with a vengeance. It is always nice to visit with my sister (and her husband, Jim). We are in regular email contact through all my travels. But email, well, it lacks a lot of depth in realness somehow.
exile
Up early again. Sunshine. 0930 ferry into town, packed everything last night, so took my backpack over to the Silja terminal and left it there in a locker, then went direct over to Muu to get one more fix of fast digital life for the time being. I meet Tapio at Café Fazer, off the Esplanade. This week he is attending a conference put on by the American Studies Department of the University of Helsinki concerning a critique of media and culture. The prospectus looks, well, typically academic, and it is certain that they have good funding given the number of American … academics … giving papers. We have a long conversation about some of the issues that concern us both. At the moment the boat is slowly pirouetting away from the dock and heading past Suomenlinna to the open Baltic. more “exile”
Venus
Up early after catching the late ferry home. Nights are short, but with this equipment available, I have nothing much else in mind, as you see here with the shortage of entries. I imagine this pace will continue until I reach Iceland, and perhaps beyond … Difficult to see when this merry-go-round will slow in the near future. I am considering coming back to Finland for September and October, but plans could change. I’ll be talking to Tapio during June to see how (if) things develop for me in the US and so on. After another long day in the sound lab, I had a nice ride back to Suomenlinna sitting alone at the back of the ferry, watching the skyline of the city recede under the still-brilliant Venus, who has reigned over the evening sky for the entire winter and spring so far. Along with Venus is a sliver of moon, something like it was last month in Vienna when eating ice cream with Mathias, Sylvia, and Jon. At least now it is clear today, after the morning starting off very cloudy. And as I write, the machine runs out of battery power (I left the plug adapter at the lab), so, good night.
In my new robe this morning — someone else.
Poet grieving over shivering monkeys, what of this child cast out in an autumn wind?
Friends part forever — wild geese lost in the clouds.
— haiku by Basho
teller
Today I spent money, shopping for food until Monday evening when I arrive in Copenhagen. I went to the central market, a garage-sale-heaven, although I didn’t pick up anything except some food, it was fun walking around making some sound fragments. It seems most of the sellers are Eastern European and Turkish, which reinforces my impression that Vienna really is a unique intersection of East and West. Most shops close at noon on Saturday in this good Catholic nation, and almost nothing is open on Sunday, so if you are without food, you are without food! I met Mathias and Sylvia at their place for coffee (on the balcony, no less!). Summer is completely here, the trees behind their block opened perceptibly during the afternoon — during the few hours we spent cleaning and painting the new studio, the leaves on the trees doubled in size. Spring this year in Europe is explosive!
The studio, (named TELLER after a sizeable neon sign over the front), is a former tailors shop across Sebastianplatz from their building, which they secured from the landlord who, in the end, worrying about officialdom, gave it to them rent-free. It is looking good! The weather is fantastic, and we had a quiet dinner of Mathias’ lasagna back on the balcony, accompanied by the thin crescent moon and Venus who still holds brilliant sway in the evening sky.
The works of art which are being created now, in these days and years, emerge from an environment highly polluted by an autistic break in all forms of conversation. Those who should hear each other do not hear each other, those who need to talk the most do not talk, and those who are talking, do not tell the truth. — Ivana Stefanovic
Review of ISEA 94
After a raucous week in Helsinki at the ISEA 1994 conference, returning to Reykjavík, I made these notes:
To write an all-encompassing article about the ever-changing states of cybernetics in art and culture is impossible. Although every digital machine is grounded in the balanced order of Eastern religions through its binary yin-yang core, the one fundamental concept that dominates digital arts today is chaos. Furthermore, chaos and change are themselves only elements of the vast collective rush of information experience that is carrying us on into the virtual spaces of post-industrial info-society.
I recently enjoyed the very chaotic experience of attending the Fifth International Symposium on Electronic Art in Helsinki, co-sponsored by the Inter-Society on Electronic Arts (ISEA) and the Media Lab of the University of Art and Design (UIAH). The five-day conference in late August was attended by around 400 people and covered a wide range of topics, while a parallel array of artistic side-shows provided absolute proof of the far-ranging activity happening in cyberspace arts. more “Review of ISEA 94”
total solar eclipse
![total solar eclipse, 11 July 1991, Mexico [CH]](https://neoscenes.net/blog/wp-content/uploads/1991/07/1000/19910711-01.jpg "total solar eclipse, 11 July 1991, Mexico [CH]")
portraits, Giorgio at afternoon gathering at Lady Jeanne Campbell’s
Drop in on Lady Jeanne Campbell for an afternoon Campari and then a roof-top party overlooking the Spanish Steps along with a full moon: Che bellezza c’è di più romantico?