a jaunt in chilly weather down the hill to Esslingen, a self-proclaimed Middle Ages town, turns out to be quite nice, with a bracing hike to the Dicke Turm. a third round of Elizabeth's Thanksgiving fare is called for! Jeff drops me at the airport in the early evening for the flight back north to Hamburg.



car-plane-bus-taxi to a very empty Düppelstraße 15. I race around the house getting ready for the de Hoeksteen broadcast which ends up going so late that I finally sign off before my interview. maybe the year-end broadcast in December will be better anyway. the half-dead PowerBook is really causing me some stress especially in situations like this -- with the backLight on the LCD broken, I can only use the machine with an external monitor hooked up to it. I begin to survey what's available on ebay. to replace the exact machine will be at least USD 600, but I will get a later model, as the 1.25 Ghz model seems to have a collective history of glitches (bad latch, this is the second LCD for the machine, and not to forget the dastardly motherboard breakdown in 2005. better to get a 1.67 Ghz model which will run a bit more expensive -- the prices are averaging around USD 800 for those. on the selling side, to have one of these models retain such a high resale value when three or four years old shows at least the perceived quality which they have over a comparable PC model. but the instability just dogs my steps these days. iPod toasted, laptop fried, miniDV cam trashed. as an electronic low point.

love those German skyLight-windows. the best engineered window around, and sleeping under one, under the stars and rain, is very fine.

jump to Stuttgart the day before yesterday on the train to visit a few days with Jeff, Elizabeth and their only remaining stay-at-home son, Ian, a high-school student -- sort-of cousins from pre-historic Boston and Park Street Church days. Jeff is Aunt Edie's sister's son.



Elizabeth puts together a sumptuous Turkey Day dinner, and Ian's best friend from Vienna, Oskar flies in for the feast.

now about them bingo-wings...

a stroll up the road to Mary's house is a Sunday morning treat. the garden is amazing, full of art and energized objects and natural configurations. along with the largest single-terminated quartz crystal that I have ever seen -- about 90 cm high, and easily 1.5 meters around. electric! tea with dried apples and fresh walnuts to breakfast on. in a conversation that ranges from Max Ernst, Ray Johnson, hormones, human systems, and energies. nice.

day ends with a tearfully hot Tikka Masala at Ganesha

Jim re-releases his provocative and humorous work online along with some new Magic Squares on the disco pie site.

make a Lightning trip to Mechernich to see Peter & Kersten & the kids. on the way through Köln, a race over to the Dom Cathedral between trains to see the controversial Gerhard Richter piece 4900 farbe as the southern transept window. not bad, though I have a loathing for Richter as a painter. this based on an experience back in 1992 maybe, up visiting Chuck and Tina in Copenhagen, we went out to the Louisiana Museum where there was a huge Richter exhibition. feeling blasé about institutionalized art already, wandering through the museum we entered a huge room with 6 gigantic canvases and hundreds of incandescent Lights. the effect was so numbing and overwhelming the rest of the day was shot, and I have avoided museum mega-shows ever since. the energy force of patronized spectacular art is to overwhelm, not to inspire.

I was a co-curator again this year for the annual netarts.org 2007 awards. it was a tough year for finding fresh takes under our call for works

Embodied Praxis - Real Life 2.0

For those of us who use the net, watch TV or SMS friends, we find that we tend to spend a lot of our time peering into one screen or another during our waking hours. Changing images float in front of our eyes as the disruptive sounds and jingles of our prosthetic devices keep us under the spell of the network. Texts flow into focus for as long as we need to retain them, and just as effortlessly gush out again through our fingertips into the ether.

Embodied Praxis - Real Life 2.0 draws on these telematic interactions and examines how art and artists take up these strands and weave them into daily life. However, the projects showcased will not dwell on the ways in which these digital traces are drawn from our lived lives rather they will manifest how our real lives are constructed around these embedded threads; and how their telematic substance is injected into the praxis of daily life.

The projects selected (will) track those nomadic flows as they are propelled across borders and through different languages; producing scenarios - political, commercial and cultural - that net those fluctuating moments in new and distinct cultural spaces. Although we recognize that these specific moments - such as sending/receiving an SMS or a real time interaction in Second Life are primarily transitory in their essence and serve more to de-localize us in non-spaces (Aug) than locate us in embodied space - we also acknowledge the ways in which these concrete threads actively constitute the social self and, by association, serve to construct the complex fabric of Real Life.

and I wasn't consistently online to be able to focus as well as I should have, but even still there were some nice projects to be seen, and the honorable-mention list is very interesting.

Grand Prize: Feral Trade by Kate Rich
http://www.feraltrade.org/

Again, a complex year for net art, looking at the divergent and still diverging fields of creative production within global networks. This year's criteria of "Embodied Praxis" was complicated by the arrival of the much-hyped Second Life on the main-stream media stage. But material and very human networking trumped the attenuated virtuality of SL. Making a functional parody of globalized capitalism, Feral Trade seeks to stimulate a direct distribution network that follows the connections of existing social networks. It takes advantage of the un-mediated plurality of human networks and personal connections and constructs a direct affront to the anonymous standardization of global trade. It opens a small crack in the facade of globalization where autonomous collective be-ing can be activated. As a classic example of a TAZ (Temporary Autonomous Zone), I hope it takes hold to become a permanent presence that de-powers the dominant and monolithic capitalist structure. At the very least, it points out the deep lack in that structure, and this is a critical starting point for evolutionary changes in human relation.

an honorable mention went to Isabelle Jenniches for The Call

This project emerges out of the long-term network practice of artist Isabelle Jenniches who has in the past worked in a wide variety of creative net-based activities. The particular piece, "The Call" is one of several process-oriented projects she has initiated that depend on the availability of generic user-controlled Internet web-cams. The works are constructed over a long period of time -- time spent watching the selected scenario, remotely -- life-time spent observing the world. Thousands of images are made during a methodological process of deep-looking through this mediated network eye. The extended seeing and repetitive digital stitching operations on the thousands of gathered images acts to frame a meditative daily routine. The cumulative practice approaches the classical Zen expression -- "there is no web-cam, there is no PhotoShop, there is only the Void" -- and it arises through the post-Cartesian possibilities of a commonly accessible network interface. Formally recalling David Hockney's early Polaroid SX-70 time-space collage work, "The Call" is an intimate and intense personal vision of a scope rarely manifest in the click-through eye-candy world of the net.

conversations with Volker and others range across vast spaces of cultural, spiritual, personal, and social thought and practice. as per usual. great!

I've been checking brainstorms more than usual lately, jumping into discussions with Howard, Bryan, Andee and many others on the topic of academia, education, learning, teaching, students, and what a struggle it is to be involved with this sector of the techno-social system.

sotto voce: In the 1:1 dialogs it's usually a volunteer student, but, of course, a volunteer is never really a volunteer unless the power relation in the classroom is fully devolved into a truly distributed system. Which is never the case until the class is completely over and grades are posted -- then the teacher can come into a more human-to-human relationship with the student in our traditional system. This is one reason I have maintained an autonomous nomadic status as educator. I can more easily set up a (more) balanced relationship with the students as I have no particular position in the local institutional hierarchy. Of course, there is the more difficult issue of my status as the teacher (which has to be devolved) ... but I do devolve that as much as they and my own personality would allow ... it is always a sliding scale, and I'd like to go further than I allow myself ... in this, the fear of the unknown is a significant resistive force among the students and in myself. Ideally, a class could consist of going around the group manifesting all possible dialog relationships between everyone, not just between the teacher and student -- more accurately, there is no need of the teacher in this scenario anyway. In this situation, all are teachers and students both. In any case, this is a radical pathway which is a direct threat to business-as-normal educators/institutions because it makes them directly redundant, or, at most, facilitators. These techniques are not specifically limited to f2f either -- I will sometimes mandate a text-based 2-hour 'dialog' or phone call or other more heavily mediated type of connection to explore 'virtuality' and the attenuative affects of technological intervention. Sometimes when I am lecturing, I do so with my back to the students.

over to Arweiler, an old town at the edges of the Eifel region west of Köln, for a visit with Volker's old friends, Rolf Habel, Norbert Weise, and Angie. at an un-occupied modern office building with a single large empty floor, these folks have made something of a cultural scene, doing workshops with kids and having art events. so we go over and have a fun improvisational sonic performance session. I screen some videos, something I almost never do. in this case, they are 320x240 web versions which is even more exotic, but, what the hell?

up at 0430, out the door at 0440, on the s-bahn by 0458, at the airport at 0550, on the plane at 0645, into Köln-Bonn at 0800, through Köln-Deutz at 0845, arrive at the Academy by 0900.

breakfast with Zil and a quick tour of the Academy -- haven't been here for years since visiting Nils Roeller back in 1997 to see what the progress was on the Flusser archive among other things.

Zil and I share ideas on teaching, art, creative active, facilitation, corporate be-ing, the desert, and so on. a very nice meeting with the unknown Other. as Miga and Hubertus are developing a collaborative project with Zil, I do hope to jump in with some seminars on collaborative creativity. we'll see.

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.



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.

yet another partido de aniversário -- Angelita, a friend of Fernanda's, turns three-oh -- a Latina evening. and drinking Fonte Imperial Cachaça that Fernanda imports, whuff! meeting some other ISNM students who are moving on to other things -- get some other perspectives on the school and (perhaps) why it dies now. good conversation, and a pleasant wander home at a reasonable hour (for Berlin).

Of all these examples, the simplest but the most profound is the fact that it takes at least two somethings to create a difference. -- Gregory Bateson

breakfast pönnukökur with Egill and Alva



We define aura as a unique phenomenon at a distance, however close it might be. If, while resting on a summer afternoon, you follow with your eyes a mountain range on the horizon, or a branch which casts its shadow over you, you breathe in the aura of those mountains, of that branch. -- Walter Benjamin

Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart with Mari and Mika



Trümmer sind an sich Zukunft. Weil alles, was ist, vergeht. Es gibt dieses wunderbare Kapitel bei Jesaja, in dem es heißt: Über euren Städten wird Gras wachsen. Dieser Spruch hat mich immer fasziniert, schon als Kind. Diese Poesie, die Tatsache, dass man beides zugleich sieht. Jesaja sieht die Stadt und die anderen Schichten darüber, das Gras und wieder eine Stadt, das Gras und wieder eine Stadt.

Rubble is the future. Because everything that is, passes. There is a wonderful chapter in Isaiah that says: grass will grow over your cities. This sentence has always fascinated me, even as a child. This poetry the fact that you see both things at the same time. Isaiah sees the city and the different layers over it, the grass, and then another city, the grass and then another city again. -- Anselm Kiefer

I head on down to hear Andre Vida jam on saxophone at Wendel with Jodi. it's smoky, cool, hot, beat, and groovin -- check this redux audio out...

dinner at Aapka with Fernanda, Mari, Mika, Miga. good, cheap. afterwards we go to to look at Miga's car which has a dry radiator. hmmm. have to fix that!

computer still screwed up -- the backLight on the flat-screen has a bad connection and starts to short out when I start the machine up. it is an intermittent problem and is accompanied with a nice crackling sound of a bad electrical contact. putting off the eventuality of taking the dang thing apart to check it out. thinking that Volker will have the right tools in Köln next week. fortunately Miga has a spare external monitor which works as a usable substitute. just another stress on the system. it first happened the same day of the SQL disaster. faugh!

Backyard Radio Berlin, an initiative from bootlab @ Tacheles, hosts the Imagine Radio 2.0 semi-annual meeting of micro-FM activists including Tetsuo Kogawa and several others -- over the weekend. discussions around the project moving forests for Transmediale 08 by Shu Lea Cheang. finally cross paths with Jan as well. cool!

catch a Dorit Chrysler gig at The Funny Farm East in the Präter Biergarten with Mari, Mika, and Jodi -- nice to see this configuration of folks around again -- same as in March in Helsinki, and a number of other times in other places. Chrysler's work is a slowly and spacefully generated hybrid of Blondie (Deborah Harry) and deep Lounge, or so. she is seductively innocent in appearance, movement, and voice. the sound system consists of one speaker sitting on the bar at one end of a long, narrow low-ceilinged room, with Dorit at the far end in a small niche with her Theramin and mike. the bar is crowded to the point of being claustrophobic and I thought a couple times what the scenario would be if there was a fire. ugly. the audio recordings are pretty good (to come later), but otherwise the performance was only a curiosity, along with the experience of being in the Funny Farm which is an independent phenomena itself.



more travelog material is in the preparation stages -- including audio mixes that will someday appear here. this becomes a retrospective blog, I simply can't digest all the material and get into a form that is usable on the site without hours and hours of free time. too busy doing things. and in the doing, making some documentary steps outside of the doing more frequently than normal. so, archival accumulation (and drowning).

Zorka, from way back in the Muthesius times and IFKIK, comes by for brunch.



finally meeting the RAUM crew: Karsten, Matze, Jork, and some others. dinner, some openings, and a party at the Humbolt University. hard to imagine being there after walking through that neighborhood before the wall came down -- the party was around the corner from the Pergammon Museum. Berlin. spread out. not so densly populated. 1.5 million people shy of it's pre-WWII population. rents are low, but everybody complains about a lack of jobs, funding, and money in general.



exhibition by Diana Moro -- who says about her paintings: (as we move towards a new world order -- spread your love like a fever) and before that, another opening -- pixel paintings by Enda O'Donoghue at Gallery Hunchentoot, not particularly interesting.



a skewed palette, perhaps with the idea to match interior design colors. galleries and art events fight for an audience not for the reason of lack of audience, but for the plethora of events and openings. too much going on and not enough people to actually be the audience.

and this

sotto voce: A thought voice-spoken into the ear is released only for a moment from embodied presence as the sonic energy passes from the Self to the Other. In the Other it manifests for ever as a changed energy state of be-ing.

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily
Life is but a dream

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the stream
If you see a waterfall
Don't forget to scream

Row, row, row your boat
Gently down the river
If you see a polar bear
Don't forget to shiver

Row, row, row your boat
Gently to the shore
If you see a lion
Don't forget to roar

Row, row, row your boat
Gently in the bath
If you see a spider
Don't forget to laugh

Row, row, row your boat
Gently as can be
'Cause if you're not careful
You'll fall into the sea!

Rock, rock, rock your boat
Gently to and fro
If you do it hard enough
Into the water you go