Running more than a bit late on the journal entries from my father — just too damn busy for that part of the picture to be processed right now. They will resume when I have the time. I am shifting into travel mode as of today as preparations for movement are beginning to impinge. Packing the small amount of stuff that will stay in the truck over in Grand Junction, and packing the suitcase/daypack for the movement across Finland, Estonia, Germany, and Netherlands for a couple months. Things start to fall in place with visits to folks which is nice. Many raucous good times line up. uh-oh.
Energetics and Informatics – Day 10 – eNZed
The ADA Symposium officially starts up, fueled by some excellent, tasty grub for breaks and for lunch. (sorry, no comprehensive notes here… no time at the time and no memory ex post facto.)
Julian and I do an impromptu dialogue on Energetics and Informatics in the stead of Graham Harwood’s keynote about his work Coal Fired Computer, as he’s quite ill right now and couldn’t Skype in. As Julian and I have been talking so much in the last week, it is a natural extension of that dialogue.
(17:24, stereo audio, 40.6 mb)
The day is full, ending with Doug Kahn’s talk, dinner, and a video screening. Packing things up and taking them back to the house, and I crash.
Can’t remember which evening Julian fell down his stairs after getting the girls to bed, dislocating his toe, and requiring Sophie to drive him to the hospital to have it reset. Ouch!
the girls
drop by EJ’s to get a group pix, but Bridget isn’t around, but after a round of some very fine Tequila with EJ, hanging on the back patio, I get Nora and Eliott to find a spot (Nora took the lead on this task, heading right up the tree in the back yard. Not surprising in Light of the memory of her shimmying up the 12-foot steel supports in the kitchen like a little monkey when she was, like, six years old.) Eliott is packing for six weeks of summer camp near Estes Park starting tomorrow, lucky!
leaving and heading south
Leaving when done with breakfast and cleaning and packing. A couple rituals yet — gathering some sage and some yellow Weber sandstone powder. A beautiful sojourn. The place is so rich, so un-circumscribable, no matter how many dances of words one would make around it. Best is the ability to press into the body the power of be-ing and the power of life. And Light. And the gravity of the earth. Fundamentals to the heart. The drift of cloud and shift of wider weather patterns, leaving Light on upturned face, changing all the time.
Maybe put out a call next spring to have others join. Then again, maybe not…
more “leaving and heading south”
Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus
the Center
Day starts in a noisy campground, packing up, rolling out, the ritual stop at the Center of the Universe where there are further changes—someone has brought in a larger iron tank for the artesian well and an even larger one sits next to it. Someone has changed the flow of water such that the artesian well is now saturating the surrounding ground, salinating a wide area of the surface soil. The weeds are cut close to the ground. The two large wooden posts that I used to sight through the windows are lying on the ground. Change. I expect that someday soon the Center will be destroyed. What then? As with all documentation, that which is documented passes away. On to the Sand Dunes Swimming Pool (aka, the Hooper Pool) to get cleaned up before returning to civilization. It’s way too hot to do any laps, that and along with a couple school buses full of elementary school kids. End up having a long conversation with an elderly Latina woman baby-sitting her grand kids, a local to The Valley. I catch a group photo of a group of students from La Jara Elementary School.
On down to the low-lands, Golden. The big event, the main reason I schedule the trip for this time-period, Holly’s high school graduation (and Party!) approaches. I arrive at the house late in the afternoon to find Natalie and Cassie making brownies for the party. They promptly head off to a sleep-over, leaving me to watch the oven. Holly gets home, and then Sally, and Rick. Montse comes by as well. Much work to be done prepping food. Another trip to Costco accentuates the challenge. Then the task of making two large salads. It’s a team effort late into the night, and I’ve never quartered or halved so many cherry tomatoes before.
small awards
well, time to write some thing or another. here. in February before heading out on the road (again). to another location. elsewhere. waiting. packing. unpacking, repacking, waiting. writing. the Migrating Realities book got the top design award for all books published in Lithuania in 2008. Knygos meno konkursas Vilnius: Competition in Book Arts Vilnius. the design crew, Joseph Miceli and Lina Ozerkina of alfa 60 were very professional and organized and it was a [pleasure working with them. kudos! (Joe is third from left, Lina, far right). the first review came out at the same time (in Lithuanian; English coming soon). we’ll be putting up copies for sale on Amazon and at select book stores around Europe. after a bit we’ll then make a free pdf available for downloading. if you would like a copy, please let me know…
the review, by the way, included this passage in Lithuanian:
more “small awards”
first road-trip – day 1
Cleared base and office by 5 PM! Had to buy a new rack and carrier to get 4 clips, since the packers took the others.
Ate dinner at Field Ration Mess and after getting a spare tire and packing the roof carrier, we left at 1755. Had some rain and stopped at Moose Creek, got to bed at 10 PM.
Mileage at start - 37819 -- stop - 37879 -- 60
people to see, to talk with
busy evening — Carmin emails me (phone out), from Eindhoven. a few emails back and forth, and she comes into AmDam where we meet after I drop by the Rietveld to see Matjaz earlier in the afternoon. Carmin and I catch up on the decade since we last crossed paths in the Boston Airport. once. all this time, and we’ve been connected remotely. weird. but great to see her. we sit in a cafe for a couple hours before meeting Rob for a Thai dinner and some serious conversation. then on to the cafe with the best evening Light in Amsterdam to eventually meet Geert. then get Carmin to the Metro and head back to Nieuwmarkt to finish packing. a short conversation with Mustafa before crashing. away tomorrow early.
sensing the streets
meet Wolfgang at the Pergamon and on to an exhibition at the Mitte Museum am Festungensgraben that some of his students participated on. Sensing the streets.
Farben, Töne, Gerüche – viele Sinneseindrücke, Stimmungen und Empfindungen werden beim Gang durch eine Strasse ausgelöst. Um diese sinnliche Wahrnehmung städtischer Räume geht es in der Ausstellung “Sensing the Street. Eine Strasse in Berlin”. Sie ist Ergebnis eines gemeinsamen Forschungs- und Ausstellungsprojekts des Instituts für Europäische Ethnologie an der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin sowie dem UNI.K –UdK. Studio für Klangkunst und Klangforschung und dem Institut für Kunst im Kontext an der Universität der Künste Berlin. Am Beispiel von drei repräsentativ ausgewählten Strassen – Acker-, Adalbert- und Karl-Marx-Strasse – wird der Strassenraum multisensorisch, d.h. visuell, auditiv, olfaktorisch und taktil erfahrbar gemacht.
(00:19:07, stereo audio, 36.7 mb)
I meet and talk to Friederike, one of the students involved at some length, mainly encouraging her with the project — they have, indeed, made a very nice manifestation of research. and this is only the first of three absolutely different exhibitions in different venues entirely in the next two weeks. I would wish to be around for the other two. it was an opening, so that it was crowded and hot, but we got there earlier than the crowds and got to check out the especially provocative audio and video works.
Art is the image of a human being, This means that when a person is confronted with art, then they are in fact confronted with their own self, and so open their own eyes. And so it is the creative person who is addressed, their creativity, their freedom, their autonomy. And this is only possible using the concept of art, however, this concept must be made more comprehensive. You cannot and should not deal with this concept traditionally and say: that is what artists do, and that is what engineers do?. but you can get beyond the concept. And the only escape route is a more comprehensive concept of art that is anthropological and that is taken seriously: that everyone is an artists, and that every person has a creative core. — Joseph Beuys
Wolfgang and I continue our conversation a bit later at a cafe (after I meet Barbara, an old friend of Volker’s!), then I race back over to the Pergamon for a longer walk-through, then it’s back home to get some packing done. Roman is there and asks for some help editing a copy of the manifesto that he and Alexei are working on for Transmediale. then I crash for the early wake-up.
after moving
uff, just when displacement seemed banished from thinking and imagination, here in Kiel to help strip all things from one apartment and install them in a house down the street. all in about 24 hours. not counting the packing up process which I missed while in Bremen. the actual move from the fourth-floor walk-up to the 1920’s mansion down the street in the affluent Düsternbrook neighborhood takes four hours. a crew of seven or eight college students and their boss, Leander (a multi-talented guy!), making the transition relatively painless.
for Steffi & Zorak, maybe a different story. beautiful new house, but much finishing work to be done, a flat on the second floor to be vacated in mid-November, a kitchen to be installed at the beginning of the next month, a cellar undergoing major repairs. and boxes. and boxes. and boxes. not to mention a sumptuous garden-intensive yard, garden house, garage, and all the accoutrements that a house brings. Fritz is the first to settle in. when all the world is new at one-year-old, a new house is merely another new-ness in days full of impressive living at the fore-front of be-ing.
lunch of goulash at Thomas’ place across the street. the street lined with early 20th century mansions. it has the vibe of the Glen Ridge neighborhood where Stefan and Ellen live. strange to get this similarity across this wide geo-social distance. although the BauMarkt and the Home Depot are also identical. the latter the same-ness of globalization. the former, the same-ness of local community.
high
attenuated transitions, on the same route taken two months previous almost to the day. across the Central Valley, and the ascent of the Sierras. not too crowded for a Saturday around peak season. so much drier than two months ago. most creeks in Yosemite are dry washes. fill the 10 gallon bladder with water from the high-pressure spigot at the east end of the Tioga grade. fill the water bottles and the 2.5 gallon tank as well. and drink a good fill. cold, damn good water. courtesy the Donner Electric Company. there are two spigots, another man is filling a large bladder in the back of his SUV. when I’m done, a pickup pulls up, the guy mouthing “get outta the way!” to me as I get into the cab of my truck. contorting my mouth into a variety of shapes, without using any particular language or vocabulary, I then smile and slowly pull away, waving. on down the road, south on 395 past Mono Lake, being passed by cars moving at excess of 80 mph most of the time. going backwards whilst going forward. one sedan passes. I vaguely notice the occupants. fifteen minutes later a tableau reveals itself. several cars parked on either side of the road, and that same sedan flipped over in the median, a group of people milling around. the D200 records several shots as I pass, transcendent. to Bishop. from Bishop one heads a bit south then east into the White Mountains on a very steep and twisted paved road which ends up in the Deep Springs Valley passing the mythological Deep Springs College. about half-way to the College is the turn-off into the Bristlecone Pine Wilderness area. a 40-mile trek on a bad dirt road. to the locked gate. tooling along, following the principle that wash-board surfaces are best negotiated as such a speed where the tires only have contact with the wave peaks, not the troughs, you get a smooth ride. while filed at the back of mind, another maxim taught/learned during the School of Mines summer field camp — “driving on a dirt road is like driving on ball bearings.” suddenly that mushy feeling with handling. hmmm. slow down. damn. a flat. the fourth this summer. good thing yesterday I had replaced the previous spare which had a 3-inch slash from an unknown source. the current flat tire has a similar gash. changing it as fast as possible, damnation, get covered with the fine pale beige dust. twiLight somewhere shortly off, and another 25 miles to go before getting to the locked-gate/trailhead. I had to think hard whether to continue without a spare or turn around and get back to paved life. with a uncertain heart, I went ahead, trundling along at no more than 5 mph. well, at least it gives a nice view of the passing scenery. consequently, I didn’t get to the gate until well after sunset. there were a couple other cars. there was a hard breeze blowing though with the air around 4% relative humidity, it didn’t feel as cold as it actually was, but it was plunging fast. the daily fluctuation can easily be 40 degrees F (30 C). ground cloth (a heavy black plastic sheet), three back-packing sleeping pads, the wool poncho from Colombia, bivouac sack, down sleeping bag, sheet sack, pillow, down vest, and fleece jacket. after a quick dinner of re-heated pasta from the night before, I crawl in, leaving a small slit to watch the stars through. only just warm enough. over-tired from the drive and the altitude, stunned awake by the stellar intensity, hardly sleep, catching a few scattered Perseids. I’ve not seen stars like this in years. this particular location, aside from the modest amount of air pollution from the rest of California to the west, is as dark as can be found in the lower 48 states. that and being up at high altitude. the stars were not positioned as in a dome of sky. rather, they appeared without perspective, nor were they simply pasted, flat on a black background. they appeared full and with depth and an obvious shading of dark matter obscuring the center of the Milky Way. enough overall Light to see easily. I had the feeling of plunging forward into them, clearly manifest as a space, a cosmos that I was floating into, chill wind flushing any illusions of being on a planet. flying despite the gravity of the chunk of rock pressing against my back.
Digitally Yours
rising too early again, out to Turku with a few hard-cores to tour the exhibition Digitally Yours that Andy Best had curated. not enough sleep. even our tireless Pixelache host, Juha, was unable to roll out of bed in time for the train, so it ended up there were only five of us who actually made the trip, but it was well worth it.
begin to get a migraine after seeing the show at the Ars Nova museum — most of the artists were there, so we were able to interact with them directly. I recorded several of the talks, so, hope to get that online shortly. great also to have a bit of time to spend with Mukul and Manu with their deLightful boy.
Digitally Yours examines the relationship between technology and humanity. The exhibition maps out how everyday life and art have changed over the period when digital technologies have become commonplace. The artists in the exhibition all use digital technologies but their relationship to it is critical. They consider the relationship between man and machine, the dreams and promises, the realities and threats. The works in the exhibition ponder the fundamental questions of humanity in this globalized information networked world, while building on a new type of collaboration between the artist and the viewer.
Animaatiokone Industries (FI); Laura Beloff (FI) & Erich Berger (AT); Elina Mitrunen (FI); Chris Burden (US); Anita Fontaine (AU/US); Phil Coy (UK); Ed Burton (UK) & Zachary Lieberman (US); Juha Huuskonen (FI) & Tuomo Tammenpää (FI); Manu Luksch (AT/UK) Christian Nold (UK); Stanza (UK); Soda (UK); Markus Renvall (FI); Åsa Ståhl (SE) & Kristina Lindström (SE); Pia Tikka (FI)
on the way back, I get off before Helsinki to have dinner with David and Maria at their new place in the countryside. unfortunately, my head it really done in by then, so, I’m hardly good company. David drives me to Linnunlaulu where I finish packing. the migraine dissipates somewhat and I am able to go to the closing party for an hour to say goodbye to folks. then off to crash for another even earlier rise and 26 hours of travel torture.
welcome to Finland
a routine jump from Hamburg to Vantaa airport, in from there on the Finnair bussi and Nathalie meets me on the corner in front of the building where the Kiasma flat is — Museokatu 23, in downtown, shows me around to the flat A 11, and we talk about the situation so far. her organization of the practical matters is impeccable. then after a few minutes unpacking and settling in, I head over to the Lasipalatsi Cafe where I find Sophea and Andrew hanging out. then it’s off to the avanto sauna on Suomenlinna. it’s men’s night — as is customary in public saunas in Finland, split genders — and we meet Juha at the ferry terminal. there is little ice around, a few spans of rotten left-overs around the sheltered parts of the island. avanto is the deLightful Finnish habit of chopping — or, in contemporary times, chain-sawing — a hole in the winter ice so that one can take winter-tired body and jump into the water for a
leisurely paddle. tonight it’s a good 25 meters between the sauna building and the avanto dock — across gravel. that’s enough for me. I take the pictures instead of going in.
onwards
short morning with Rod. then off and about in the Light rain. just make the train by a minute despite leaving with plenty of time because of the bus driver shutting the bus down after a couple stops. reason? at the second stop about 40 high school kids get on, packing the bus, a couple stops later, while trying to sardine people onto the bus, he wants them to transfer to the bus behind him. they refuse, so he turns the bus off. and waits. interesting scene.
on to Amsterdam. to de Waag. some serious aerobics up to the third floor reception, am handed a phone and keys, then back over to the flat which sits on the south side of the Nieuwmarkt.
nice place. a single cold beer in the fridge. but the wifi from Waag does not quite cut across to the flat. sort of, but not quite. so I am offline for the weekend perhaps. though Sher says that the network should be accessible at the restaurant in the ground floor of de Waag. I’ll be checking that out tomorrow, for sure. and on for a dinner with Geert and Linda, Calin Dan, and Emile Zile.
The whole problem is one of abandoning a style of critical thought that is the very essence of our theoretical culture, but that in some sense comes under the head of a prior history and life; of carrying out, just as we have carried out a deterministic analysis of a deterministic society, an indeterministic analysis of an indeterministic society, a society that is fractal, random, exponential, one of critical mass and extreme phenomena, wholly dominated by relations of uncertainty. — Jean Baudrillard
clickety-clack
Long day yesterday starts with packing up, more conversations around breakfast, and then on to UCSC to meet with Margret, chair of the Digital Arts / New Media program. Good sushi for lunch. That and a couple of fine muffins that Isabelle packed for the ride south, alright! Arrived in Santa Barbara after a longish drive down the 101 — slowly getting acclimated to the car culture, though with some guilt feelings about carbon footprints and all. No time to do the legendary Route 1. Met August at UCSB in a dark parking lot and were in good time for a presentation by Takuro Mizuta Lippit, one of the Artistic Directors at STEIM. Cool to be reminded of the vitality of euro-culture while far-away here in SoCal.
arts birthday comes up in a few hours…
Packing list: world tour period
To do in Prescott:
move furniture to Al’s; re-pack stuff at Al’s; pack a summer box (in car); pack camping gear (in car); pack bike (in car); pack electronics for road-trips; maps of the West(!); write lecture notes & pick URL’s;
To do before:
buy: camera case
PACKING LIST:
CLOTHES:
black leather jacket
2x long underwear
fleece pullover
half-gloves
full leather gloves
hat
Mines baseball cap (lost in Australia)
Uni-Bremen baseball cap
1x black jeans
2x jeans
7x sox
8x underwear
5x tee-shirts
5x long-sleeved shirts
work-out shorts, underwear
black $$ belt, earrings, power ring?
Shoes: boots, running shoes, birkenstocks or sandles (or Merrells)
swim suit, goggles
Braun toothbrush, 2x new brushes, toothpaste, deoderant, nail stuff (clippers, scissors, files), floss, hairbrush, skin cream, shampoo, conditioner, razors, shaving cream, 3x earplugs, 1x water bottle,
WORKSHOPS: California: Lectures; Pixelache: Lecture/Panel/Workshop ; UNSW: Workshop; Bremen: Workshop
EQUIPMENT: US telephone (charger, batteries), Euro handy (charger, batteries), PowerBook, carry case & strap, power supply, (new battery?), crook Light, alt plug, small mouse, earphones 2x, neo6 & neo5 &neo 7 hard drive (with BU’s and material plus), power supply, alt plug, firewire cable, 2x plug adapters – Europe, Australia, etc, iPod, Nikon? Sony DV? — miniDV tapes 5x; microphone; batteries; remote; tripod; cabling: s-video, dv-vga adapter, mini-plug-to-RCA adaptersx2, CD case — OSX reinstall; 5x DVD’s; 3x CD’s; compressed backup of critical info w/ programs & serial #’s; performance vids & audio; copies of PAL DVD’s
PAPERWORK: Nordea credit card, Euros, Passport, reading mtl?, art membership cards, deposit slips, glasses prescription, extra frames, sunglasses, computer glasses, Visa Debit card,
MISC: Opinel,
GIFTS: Joanna, Frieder, Christian, Juha, Brad
TO PACK FOR NANCY’S: extra HD, keyboard,
CAMPING GEAR: sleeping bags, pillows, pads, liners, cooking boxes, cooler, car electronics, maps (from Cal Auto Club?? & from Al’s)
portrait, Sandy, Kathy, Maureen, Jake, and Lon in Yeager Canyon
Sandy, Kathy, Maureen, Jake, and Lon — hiking partners on a nice 6+ mile loop around Yeager Canyon in the Prescott National Forest.
on the way home there’s an ambulance heading out Williamson Valley Road when we come up Pioneer Parkway to the light. heading north out Williamson Valley to mile 5 there are some cars pulled over, the LifeLine ambulance crew unpacking the stretcher. not apparent quite what is going on but as we drive by a large heavy-set Latino guy drops from standing to squatting next to the crumpled front drivers fender, sobbing. so it goes.
long high day
floating through a high country day. mountain bike ride after breakfast. up to the trail head into the West Elk Wilderness. back out, Sage keeping pace even on the downhills. pack up and make the circle around the north rim of the Black Canyon, and down through Delta. saw a gal parked having a picnic. single bike on the rear rack, like me. wondered about how one crosses paths. make a stop at the Ute Indian Museum.
it’s far from present Ute lands, and most of Colorado was once populated by one or another bands of Utes who are now reduced to three small reservations in Colorado and Utah. another dreadful history of crimes against humanity. are we really better than that now?
seek wisdom, not knowledge. knowledge is of the past, wisdom is of the future.
to go on a vision quest is to go into the presence of the Great Mystery.
the soul will have no rainbow if the eye has no tear.
another stop at the Gunnison National Forest main office to check out any information they might have, as well as inquiring about jobs. looks like everything is through the JobsUSA website. one path to travel. have to look into that again when online next. Ridgeway seems interesting again, with some commercial buildings for sale. question is, what to do in these small towns to survive? could computer consulting work? construction is no longer an option with the L5 disk acting up, could be major trouble in the near future. website construction? teaching high school? vocational tech? uff. re-forming trajectories seems at the same time daunting and full of possibility. how can it be problematic when so many others are employed? and so many have managed to gather so much capital in this country. but the path between scraping poor-ness and abundant wealth seems so … arbitrary. there is no clear specifications except for self-confidence.
end the day almost at tree line, up Bailey Creek, off Lizard Head Pass in the San Juan National Forest. the luxury of dispersed camping (finding places up 4×4 roads that are not developed, but make excellent camp sites) is appreciated. no cost, only fuel to get there, and that expense suggested that instead of an immediate return to Prescott, that I take several days and enjoy being back in Colorado and check out several new places. in Curecanti Creek, I saw only one car in two days, and up this rugged route, doubt I’ll see anyone until I head out and down and south west tomorrow. feeling a little guilty being out of phone range, but have no messages except one from Gary, so, figure all is well in the greater telecom world. make a short video of sunset on a nearby peak. and in the process of reviewing the tape after finishing it, I discover that all the footage that I shot of Kevin’s memorial in NYC in March had that effing bad audio. really disgusting — Bill, Stefan, Martha, Rosemary, and others talking about their memories of Kevin. the glitch seems due to bad mike contacts, or a dirty record head. it pops up randomly, and has affected some other critical footage previously. and the pondering on the idea of getting a 3-ccd hd prosumer cam comes back up and/or a Nikon prosumer digital still camera. what else to do with capital? shopping is a dumb way to make a cash flow (negatively). better to keep the investments growing and multiplying. and purchase only items that can definitely be positive cash generators.
whatever the end result, work is the next necessary step to confront. that and the June 18th Month of Sundays performance. finishing up with the house, packing things in a way that maintains some viability to several pathways of action. but meanwhile, watch the sky and the land.
the island
back on the island, after many years. Hildur and Simmi come by and pick Loki and I up late in the evening to catch the 2330 ferry from Árskógsandur. they bought the house of the old Czech priest who died some years back to use as a summer retreat. ever since the fish-packing plant closed down in 1999, the regular population of the island has been slowly replaced by now about 40% of the houses as part-time inhabitants.
the first person settling in the fjord from the 800’s was Helgi The Lean who sent Steinólfur The Short to build the farm called Sythstibaer on the island. Many famous characters lived at Sythstibaer including Thorvaldur The Ancient, Narfi Thrándarson, and Jörundur The Shark-catcher. in the mid-19th century, Norwegians used the island as a based for salt-herring production, later taken over by Swedes at the beginning of the 20th century. this activity is the reason for the existence of the present village. there are still small fishing boats operating from the island, along with cod and mussel farming and the national animal quarantine center which provide present livelihoods for the 200 inhabitants.
Loki and I take a walk around town, checking out the new playground (which makes innovative use of old fishing nets), the new breakwater, and the old hut where we spent several summer holidays in. we took a quick look at Alda’s house, next door, to see that it is not in good repair, and the little hot-house rose garden that she was so proud of, is slowly dying.
fires?
folks begin to migrate in their separate directions after the final main evening last night (which was interrupted by a fire alarm right when VideoHomeTraining was about to start their set at 0030. I was pretty tired by that time, because the fire alarm in the art academy building where I have a penthouse flat went off last night at 0300 with a huge clanging bell right outside my bedroom door for 20 minutes. so I missed the big finale with xploding plastik, oh well. today is spent packing, and having some final meetings for future reference.
It is less a question of the artist interpreting the world than of allowing existing or hypothetical biological processes, mathematical structures, social or collective dynamics to speak directly. In this sense art no longer involves the composition of a ‘message’ but the creation of a mechanism. A new type of artist appears, one who no longer relates the course of historical events. This new artist is an architect of the space of events, an engineer of worlds for billions of future histories, a sculptor of the virtual. — Pierre Lévy
Overgaden done
Start the day packing up and cleaning the gallery space with Björn and Tanja. Almost like moving house — all the old carpets to Björn’s cellar storage by taxi. And end it with a full plate of dahl and rice at the Tibetan place with Rolf and Björn.
overgaden
hoboy, knew it would be a long one. up early to say goodbye to Stefan on his way into work, breakfast, Ellen away with Victor to the dentist. final packing. another breakfast with Kevin after the early boiled Irish oatmeal. lunch with Ellen and Kevin at a hippy joint in Montclair. Ellen graciously volunteers to do the 20 minutes drive to the airport instead of me making several transfers over almost two hours, slogging. nothing new at Newark since January. the 1750 flight with SAS to Copenhagen. hardly any sleep, and suddenly it’s 0730 and we are landing. Björn meets me at the cafe outside the baggage claim, and we’re off to the festival site — the Overgaden Art Center.
admiralty
with the throbbing, aching jaw continuing for now two weeks, faugh, ibuprophen the only aid: nomadism seems ill-advised. security, stability, normality, insurance, and a steady income. retirement, pension, a house, a car. a zip code ’til death. head to Berlin tomorrow with Wolfgang. go directly into the workshop upon arrival, so.
a nice long walk last night to the harbor with Zorak und Steffi, full moon rising, wandering back by the old homes of Admirals of the Baltic Fleet.
today spent in organizing bags again, easier when not flying, so fragility and contents not such a factor. email from Janet, the roof collapse at de Gaulle in Paris is somehow affecting my connecting flight, have to check that out. warm sunshine outside.
last night
the last night on the island. darkness drifting after some late afternoon storms, with hail even. time. to go. gathering things into the usual one suitcase, one travel bag, one day-pack. realizing that I might never be back here, because other things might happen. anything can happen, anytime. on the phone around Scandinavia (taking maximum advantage of the telecom possibilities). so many items to consider, with workshops popping up in Norway, Lithuania, Denmark, and Iceland during just a short period in the fall. keeps the blood moving and the mind alert. always that way. coming three things at once.
with the three-month residency behind now, reflections? nope. life passing, life passing, life passing. concern about this makes for time burnt without even the rising smoke of holy incense. only floating in the drift of human development. is the historicity of change merely the gained perspective of time spent in this incarnation? the perception of the increasingly predictable in genesis, but largely chaotic in application, range of human interventions that destroy life rather than nurture it? and the Buddhist who is not attached to all of it.
okay, giving up for now. closing connections, unplugging cables, powering down, packing the last bits and pieces.
packing up
packing. sifting, shuffling, tottering. readying for the next shift of realities. talking to folks in Germany today, beginning to peg things down for the spring. moving in directions that have the open, unknown elements. along with terrains of the soul.
shopping?
the next day. shopping, late wake up, well, 0800, which is relatively late. shopping makes me feel terrible, or maybe it is being in Helsinki, looking at every face in the passing crowd to see: will I recognize it. and if I do, what will she do, what will I do? it’s a hollow way of going, a temporary one.
packing bags, reading old texts, finding that I could not be productive at all in the office, just putzing around, time dribbling along, no stopping the flow. and this evening a party at KuvaTaide Akademie. going to an art students’ party seems something retro. but Sólveig called and invited me, so, to see her I’ll definitely go. something about ports and storms, nah, she’s a very charming gal.
completely behind in email. a hundred more-or-less urgent messages stacked up, and I just don’t have the energy to deal with it. perhaps it’s only the time of year, but it seems that crisis dogs my steps too much of the time. the Lightness in my being drains parallel to time, cutting a groove in the rock of being. weathered. and leaving no thing in its wake, but the groove. danceable? perhaps, but maybe not. shuffle. all is still possible, but it seems so difficult. and I also realize that if I can’t crank up the intensity and tone of this work, it is destined to crash and fall silent very soon. it is bereft of images, no audio, and the texts are listless and flat. I don’t want them to be tawdry, too revealing. so, the form needs shifting as they are definitely too boring. like there needs to be a alter ego interface. the Other Self, the Real Self.
The unfortunate image of a “road” to which the human mind has become accustomed (life as a kind of road) is a stupid illusion; we are not going anywhere, we are sitting at home. The other world surrounds us always and is not at all at the end of some pilgrimage. — Vladimir Nabokov
interstitial observations
breakfast, moving around the town to catch the atmosphere. another breakfast, then meeting the Bologna2000 people, and so on. the meeting will go on. and on. and the energies will cross linguistic boundaries and so on. simultaneous translation. on into the day and then night. finding levels and places of communications. seeing sights (an Apple sticker on the front windscreen of a motorbike, later a World Wildlife Federation sticker on another windscreen). many shops have succumbed to the chain invasion, but not as many as in Scandinavia. There seem to be many more independent product lines. a magnificent cheese shop around the corner from the hotel. I could buy a whole wheel of Parmesano or Romano if I had the possibility to carry it back (to where?). these are the things (even global capitalism cannot crush — the crystalline atomic interstices — but that is not a good metaphoric image from the energized view of the world — interstices cannot be in a continuum of energy — perhaps a model of flow pathways fits better, a sense of small, granular paths where flow takes radical liberty). Maximum packing densities for global capital is being reached, and still there are large interstitial gaps, spaces, based on the limited ionic structures of capital distribution. the larger the molecule chains, the greater the possibility of impurities. so on. cafe9.net, the official name of this pan-European networking project. now that I have been involved in this project for almost 1.5 years, opti-pessimist. imagining that already at least 150000 Euro have been spent on it so far — on culture-sector subsidies. maybe 50% of it going to the various airlines, 25% to hotels, and 25% to food and other meeting costs. meetings and how that goes. the cultural industry sector of the European economic system is probably the most heavily subsidized sector — not in absolute numeric terms, but if one compares the monies that are available in the private/public sector, and the total public expenditures. artists who complain here become objects of derision, or at least quiet scorn — that things don’t get better, anywhere in the world! and yet, people complain.
Odd’s bike
critical look at the workshop. the dynamic lost in the busy-ness of the institution (a little piqued that my workshop is not so important to the students) but understanding it is a greater question and not something that results from any particular structuring of the situation. probably the simple lack of structuring — which, in fact, is a cool aspect of this academy. the idea of structure/control and the lack of both those factors is a grinding fight for me. within the act of entering a space I am predestined to experience a strong motivation to modify the material layout. it seems nothing is in the proper alignment. like, what is the proper arrangement of elements? is there a single penultimate constellation of objects in a room? is there a proper use for every object? if so, how do we experience the knowledge of what that use is? are there useless or purposeless objects in the world? what is it about an object that communicates its proper function? seems like too relative a criteria to drive such obsessive rearrangement of THINGS around me. who cares? Odd loans me his cycle. immediately I identify that it needs the bottom-bracket bearings re-packed with grease and tightening — as well, the handlebar headset also needs repacking and tightening. the seat doesn’t go high enough, and so on. (that is the second level of awareness of the gift — purely as object and its inherent functionality). the first level is being psyched that I have wheels! cool, takk, Odd! it brings an immediate feeling of liberation. never was a walker. bipedal transport is boooooooooring. except for climbing mountains where I am a wimpy mountain-biker anyways unlike some of my thrash-out hardcore friends. wheels. groovin’. immediately cycle up to some fort on the hill overlooking much of the city. people are there hanging out in the late afternoon hazy sunshine. green ramparts, a stiff wind brings a smoky haze off the unseen open ocean that lies west over a smallish mountain. on the fjord itself to the north this smoky skin hovers against the hills at the far side. they are only silhouettes.
way from self
zones away from the southwest. meters lower, here on fogbound ocean/land interfaces. so it goes. where blue-shifted Light measures accurate edges and shapes of presence. from massive and broad infrared pressure at high-noon, head flattening, surrounded by prickly pear cactus spine wilderness desiccating skin and eyes — to this place. flights. in between. leaving something behind and arriving somewhere. swimming this morning as fog breaks, the altitude allowing me to do a quick 1000 meters in the luxury of the 50-meter pool, then a meeting at the Kjarval City Art Museum with Thorbjörg about the upcoming ARCUNET meeting in Helsinki that I will attend as an adviser to the Museum. Loki and I play frisbee by the ocean in the afternoon. trying not to realize that I walk away from him again, and trying not to let jealousy affect my perceptions and actions relating to his mother. we walk down the beach for a ways and practice skipping rocks. then back to the house for dinner and packing. a short visit to Valgerdur’s place to see her and Haukur to hear about his adventures of the past year in Japan. Niels is away on a guiding job. Kaisu, who is visiting Iceland from Finland after a five year absence for an art workshop, is there also.
viae pulchrae
merely a walk to the Pentagon.
Via Viri sancti viae pulchrae, et omnes semitae ejus pacificae, quia lignum vitae apprehendit.
The roads that the holy man took were roads of beauty, and his paths were all paths of peace, for he was connected to the tree of life. — Psalm 109: Dixit Dominus
and the flight to Arizona in the afternoon. unpacking bags from the trunk of the car in the mid-night darkness in front of my parents house, Loki says LOOK at THAT STAR, Pabby! and as Doug and I look up to the center of the Milky Way, our eyes are stunned by the second-largest falling star that I have ever seen blasting across the heavens, leaving a trail that persists for some time, the head of the meteorite breaks apart and appears to burn up. Is this an omen?
weight
Slept in and spent the morning repacking things as I had left one bag with David — oh man, more weight! I can’t believe how much I have to carry now! It is beginning to get absurd. Carrying a computer, audio deck, audio tapes, video tapes, slides, camera, film, not to mention various CD’s, Zip disks, floppies, and DAT tapes. If I subtracted all the ART teaching material, I would have maybe five kilos of clothes, a notebook, and some miscellaneous garbage. As it is, though, I must have 50 kilos of burden. David, Francis, and I took a drive over to the college in Canterbury to see a current exhibition of his Canon photocopy collage works, then a quick nip into Canterbury for me to exchange my Deutsch Marks for pounds, and a beer, then to the station … Took the train to Victoria Station and the Tube to Ravenscourt Park to Joanna’s place.
late sleeping
Well, two in the morning was too late for me. I sleep in and move slow the whole day, packing my bags and cleaning things up. Visit with Stefan at his little apartment in Jakobsburg. Head to bed early in preparation for the long day of travel following.
futureshocks
Here we go. And so on. In the west of London, not far from Shepherds Bush and Ravenscourt Park on the District Line Tube. Hanging out with Joanna Buick, a friend from ISEA94 days — we met at the Symposium in Helsinki. She’s presently a tutor at the Slade School of Fine Art which is part of the University College of London as well as a tutor-counselor at the Open University, the largest open learning institution in the UK. She is running a class called “Living with Technology” which encompasses an innovative scheme to familiarize students with the impact of technology on daily life. The class is run using the internet, audio and video tapes and hard copy materials, as well as occasional tutorial sessions for students who live in the area. The Open University has tens of thousands of students studying around the world. Pursuing her own work, Joanna’s been doing developmental work on Virtual Reality systems. more “futureshocks”