migrating
Mon 31.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
last day of the month. skipping this forum mostly because of the extent of other writing that is happening in the moment. floods of text-framed energies, directed along one path or another.
virtuality limits the potential for changing ones point of view. watching a screen is, literally, a sustained process of maintaining a static point of view. this is in extreme juxtaposition to the process of primary observation of the world as moving through it.
days are spent writing about amplification and other phenomena that arise from the unequal distribution of energy and matter in the cosmos.
Friday evening I participate in the migrating realities conference that Mindaugas has initiated. there will be many familiar faces there. nice. so, a brief presentation:
Window Weather: A Nomad's View of Reality
The history of the human use of glass, the chemical compound silicon dioxide (SiO2), prescribes a novel point of view on the nature of virtuality, and consequently, the nature of reality. This presentation will sketch a history of that attenuation on individual realities and offer some views on the techno-social system that we are migrating through.
later in that same evening, I have to remotely present for the conference panel in Savannah, and immediately after that, a live 30 minute visual-sonic set at the opening night of migrating realities. going to be a stressful day, to be sure.
virtuality limits the potential for changing ones point of view. watching a screen is, literally, a sustained process of maintaining a static point of view. this is in extreme juxtaposition to the process of primary observation of the world as moving through it.
days are spent writing about amplification and other phenomena that arise from the unequal distribution of energy and matter in the cosmos.
Friday evening I participate in the migrating realities conference that Mindaugas has initiated. there will be many familiar faces there. nice. so, a brief presentation:
Window Weather: A Nomad's View of Reality
The history of the human use of glass, the chemical compound silicon dioxide (SiO2), prescribes a novel point of view on the nature of virtuality, and consequently, the nature of reality. This presentation will sketch a history of that attenuation on individual realities and offer some views on the techno-social system that we are migrating through.
later in that same evening, I have to remotely present for the conference panel in Savannah, and immediately after that, a live 30 minute visual-sonic set at the opening night of migrating realities. going to be a stressful day, to be sure.
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Art and Teaching Philosophy
Sat 29.Mar.2008
Art, at its social core, is the trace of an engaged pathway. A pathway that conducts the circulation and exchange of creative human energies as they are attenuated by a vast range of mediative (materialized) carriers. The artist is that person who opens and offers the Self in a directed seeking: to engage in a dialogue of human energies with an Other. Finding a proper pathway for those energies: transmitting: simultaneously receiving the expressions of the Other, this is the moving act of creativity. Creativity is the charged flow of energies between and through the Self and the Other over relative spaces and times.
These two proto-definitions are the basis of my art and teaching praxis.
These two proto-definitions are the basis of my art and teaching praxis.
Creative activities at the confluence of art and communication (science and technology) have an increasingly important role in cultural and social dynamics. The territory mapped by these activities, especially their impact on evolving social structures and networked systems, is an area of rich possibility and chaotic flows. As an artist, it is my interest to occupy the dynamic field of that intersection and, while exploring its fundamental characteristics, develop a deeper awareness of the process of human connection, exchange, and be-ing. Presence, as it may be variously manifest through mediation, is my primary "material," and "genuine dialogue," as Martin Buber expressed it, is my primary method. My research often explores the spontaneous unscripted abilities of the self to concentrate and focus energies and establish dialectic connection across more than just material gaps. In a space of indeterminate momentary outcomes, creativity finds a fundamental source.
The formation of material artifacts is for me an inspired activity and a specifically directed flow of energy in support of creative activities. However, I subscribe to a post-materialist worldview which transcends the mechanistic and cartesian linkages between object and subject and instead looks at the energy content and configuration of a 'work.' One current area of exploration of this energy is the creation and constellation of ordered systems -- archives or dataspaces -- which I subsequently employ as sources in performative events and situations. These situations sometime incorporate artifacts, sometime rely solely on the momentary ambient environmental conditions, sometime cull the ordered space of archive; they all seek to establish a flow of the spontaneous and improbable. While I regard the material art-making process an important aspect of being -- an aspect that allows for significant concentrations of personal energy and expression -- I do like to approach it as an open-ended element of a wider practice where there is no defined ending point and change is the guiding principle.
TEACHING
As an artist, I am committed to the dynamics of the learning environment as a critical and important facet of my work. Teaching is a special case of the more general open situations referred to previously. I seek to create vital learning spaces -- conceptual and physical zones where the exercise of free expression and spontaneous dialogue takes place -- an environment that is both practical and experimental, realistic and fantastic, personally relevant and socially sensitized. I frequently build on my own explorations as an artist -- using my personal creative experience as a referent and bringing my current creative energies and directions directly into the learning process. Personal rapport, dialogue, and humane contact are important factors in my conduct as an arts educator.
With the goal of defining fundamental conditions for personal and social evolution, my workshops are based in critical and dynamic dialogue over a wide variety of issues and concepts. I am against drawing arbitrary divisions between various concepts, cultures, disciplines, creative sources, and mediums of expression, but rather focus on weaving different ideological, conceptual, and especially personal energies into creative juxtaposition. The synergy of disparate trans-disciplinary energies and ideas through active communication and creative collaboration is a necessary element of inspired and relevant learning. Two specific roles that I take on is that of facilitator -- to encourage open-ness -- and information-source -- to pass on to participants significant threads that I receive from my own substantial international network of collaborative connections working across the spectrum of art and technology.
I teach my students to accept and trust their own sensory experience in the world. In this process, they gain an inexhaustible energy source and free up their creative possibilities. I accomplish this by facilitating a trusting environment and stimulating connected collaboration. At any point in the dialogue between myself and the student, I would seek to engage at a level that is beyond institutionalized formality. My significant experience in second-language and cross-cultural situations provides my teaching activities with a certain independence from ideology-based systems and protocols. This makes the learning more transparent, participative, flexible, and spontaneous.
Any emphasis on language-based (and thus abstracted) theory needs to be balanced by intimate, practical, and principled exploration of the (materialized) actions of creativity to establish a lived practice. A student needs to be able to construct a finite methodology for approaching a new medium or idea -- how to test the limits of a medium, how to stimulate experimentation without stifling spontaneous creation, how to build up discipline, concentration, and attention when working, and how to see critically and creatively while in vital interaction with the noumenal world and, finally, how to package their own human energies within carriers most appropriate to their expressive needs. Ways of working may and should be informed by theoretical understandings, historical precedent, critical viewpoints, but, most importantly, the establishment of this centered life-practice. It is extremely important that the student experience and identify specific life-long sources of energy where they might root their creative impulses. The creative oscillation between word and action must always be linked; and both, considered and used in concert, become an inexhaustible energy source and basis of a powerful practice.
As the writings of Paolo Friere discuss in detail, the teacher-student relationship should be characterized by a dynamic and balanced dialectic. Teaching is a truly human activity. Teacher and student are both the educators and the educated -- learning is sharing. The measure of a successful learning experience may be drawn from how the shared wisdom comes into being in the life-practice of both the student and the teacher.
Outside the classroom, I am always interested in working with other artists and educators in creating new learning situations both on- and off-line, especially those that explore the rich textures of inter-disciplinary awareness. Being supportive of and supported by the academic community is crucial to the survival and growth of diversity. I am interested in dialogue and active consideration of the principle issues of higher education and am especially interested in the creation of projects and programs with international participation.
The past 20 years of teaching and working as an artist in 20 countries has given me a great deal of insight into cross-cultural education and the flexibility it demands. This experience leads me to understand cross-(cultural, social, disciplinary, media, ideological, and linguistic) boundaries not as hindrances but as stimulations to a deepening of vision and understanding. There are great personal and social rewards in cross-border dialogues that foster open and sustained contact. In closing, I can say that my teaching and my art practice is not simply an avocation, but a broad and inclusive expression of my own personal creative energies.
John Hopkins, Berlin, Germany, March 2008
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tea
Mon 24.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
gusts and streamers of corn snow bounce past the windowsill, bringing the imagined shivering anticipation of heading out to shop for groceries. finally finished with the tin of Turkish Tomurcuk Earl Grey tea. it was good, but a disappointment compared to the long-leaf Ceylonese also available at the Turkish supermarket around the corner from Mindaugas' place. I bought the tin because is was smaller than the huge kilo boxes of long-leaf. can't decide now whether to pick up a small quantity of finer tea, or what. last month I picked up a stainless steel tea brewer that holds probably three or four regular cups of water. I've been brewing a full container each morning for the pre-noon writing session, drinking by the sip the whole time practically, tea with whole milk. necessary practice just to keep hands warm. otherwise I have to wear half-gloves -- the relative lack of finger motion (am I not writing enough?) chills the hands. so, it is an integral part of the writing process that seems to be hapapening here. whether or not it is successful, I cannot say until I spin the text out into the wider spaces of network. that's about to happen as I am working on the conclusions while refining the precursor parts of the overall text.
and in the time I write this, blue sky arrives. squall weather like in Iceland. ripping through. and vanishing without a trace.
I head out for a trip to the grocery. it is cold, but the trip down is with the wind, and I travel between squalls. I'm in a quandary over which tea to get now. bags are three times the cost of bulk, but they have only large 250 gram bags of bulk, so the total price is steep. and also, since I again focus on Earl Grey, though I wouldn't mind a custom mix with some Lapsang Souchong or Russian, the bergamot in the Earl Grey is very volatile, so a large bag will lose its flavor unless it is used quickly. hmmm. but the price point drives me these days on as tight a budget that I am. so, big bag of Earl Grey. so it goes. looking forward to the first cup after the end of the Turkish stuff.
yesterday, a touristic walk around the Reichstag and Tiergarten area with M-H. clearly a major holiday, most shops closed except for cafes. and hundreds of people out walking despite the chilly weather. the line was too long to go up into the dome, so we wandered down to the HKW to take in Song Dong's installation, then back to the Holocaust Memorial via the Brandenberg Gate (past the guy dressed in full buckskins and a faux-Sioux war bonnet playing some kind of generic indigenous flute music with a back-up sound system and generator. just too wierd for me. the Euro-obsession with an imagined and imaginary cowboy-and-indian culture in the mythological West of Hollywood is mostly over the top and with no connection to reality.
I find myself frequently (at least in mind) making the comparison between Washington, D.C., and Berlin. as Imperial centers (in different phases of dominance).
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aglio e olio (twice)
Sat 22.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Marie-Hélène asked me for the recipe for the garlic pasta that I made for dinner a couple nights ago for her, Jodi, Mika, and Peggy. simple and basic, I learned the dish in a little restaurant on Isola Ischia, off of Naples, Italy, that I was visiting 20 years ago now. Ingredients -- spaghettini (500 gm), lots of fresh garlic, good olive oil (extra virgin, cold pressed), some herbs (can include oregano, parsley, thyme, basil), pepper (in the form of anything from powder to fresh cracked corns to flaked dried red peppers to Tabasco sauce), and, for an integral variation which I very often implement, a few eggs and some milk. Shredded Pecorino Romano cheese is the best topping with a stronger flavor than Parmesano.
over all, the recipe can be varied substantially -- it developed on the nomadic trail with highly variable access to ingredients.
I start out with chopping the garlic quite finely or pressing it, this goes into an iron pan with a 5-inch circle (when at room temperature) of the olive oil heated to medium heat. more oil is better than less -- you can always soak up the extra in pieces with fresh bread. simultaneously, bring to boiling a large pot with plenty of water, a bit of salt, a splash of oil, and some of those herbs. the idea is to have the Lightly browned garlic done at the same time as the pasta. before the garlic is done, you can add a few drops of Tabasco or some of the other pepper varieties, more or less depending on your taste. I use a fork to evenly distribute the garlic in the hot oil so that it cooks evenly. don't over-cook the garlic -- dark brown bits will be bitter. monitor the heat and don't underestimate the capacity of the oil to keep cooking after the burner is turned completely off. drain the pasta when done, return to the cooking pot. take the hot toasted garlic and oil and pour it quickly over the pasta. toss well, the garlic pieces will tend to not mix too well, but this isn't such a problem, they have already released their magic into the oil! best served hot with the Romano, some fresh bread, a big green salad, a good Côtes du Rhône red, and good friends (remember, everyone will definitely be wafting an eau de garlic when done!). variations can include crumbled bacon, mushrooms sautéd separately, chopped vegetables, string beans, anything's possible!
if, by small chance there is anything left over in the pot, let it sit overnight. the next morning, let a few eggs warm up to room temp, whip them shortly with a bit of milk, pour over the remaining pasta and cook covered until the eggs set. excellent with spicy black beans, refritos, hash browns, fried veggies, or, what else? the original dish can be made in the morning, and the eggs added and cooked an hour before serving to make it a quiche, again, cooked covered, with a good layer of shredded Romano on the top.
sorry, I don't have any photos of suggested serving styles for this dish which I have cooked many, many times. the most important factors are -- good garlic-loving company, fresh ingredients (though fresh pasta absorbs too much of the oil!), a good bottle of red. Bon Appétit! and send pix if you try it!
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Frane the Virtual
Fri 21.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Frane the virtual mori gloss
And barm in glory midas tock
Notter fen inbyro pressed
When quinsly Durham bilag lock
Full ennil bhutol durm intact
And japock frocks were kileray
Best green was in a tirade sterm
And murmer played the rudge all day
Then pult oh fromot liport yearned
Was thus the burlap empty cup
Lorn in excess pressed doily mange
Whilst fedro billing looked her up
Bright jiring elements were brash
Pre Raphaelite and over brushed
Through endless graze born phananthrope
In bobbing excess weedy rushed
No more the intent grim and foil
No more bereft than pindle bake
No more the dorey gimble oil
No more the stilted ingress flake
And so to hermane fillet brought
By verbose insight truly lost
Are brackish kalick wishing wrought
For sixpence and a far thing crossed
All lava braut in basket taal
Sought diamonds in the chilling moss
But finding nothing water raal
Was frane the virtual mori gloss
-- Rod Summers/VEC, Isleworth, 29 January 2008
And barm in glory midas tock
Notter fen inbyro pressed
When quinsly Durham bilag lock
Full ennil bhutol durm intact
And japock frocks were kileray
Best green was in a tirade sterm
And murmer played the rudge all day
Then pult oh fromot liport yearned
Was thus the burlap empty cup
Lorn in excess pressed doily mange
Whilst fedro billing looked her up
Bright jiring elements were brash
Pre Raphaelite and over brushed
Through endless graze born phananthrope
In bobbing excess weedy rushed
No more the intent grim and foil
No more bereft than pindle bake
No more the dorey gimble oil
No more the stilted ingress flake
And so to hermane fillet brought
By verbose insight truly lost
Are brackish kalick wishing wrought
For sixpence and a far thing crossed
All lava braut in basket taal
Sought diamonds in the chilling moss
But finding nothing water raal
Was frane the virtual mori gloss
-- Rod Summers/VEC, Isleworth, 29 January 2008
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Weizenbaum
Wed 19.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
just back from the Jüdisches Gemeindezentrum and the memorial service for Joseph Weizenbaum. Frieder was one of the speakers and had told me a couple days ago about the service and he would try to see if I could attend. then I read in a Dallas newspaper that is was open to the public. so an hour before it was scheduled to start I decided it would be something not to miss. made it in good time -- not by bicycle, though. what to say. more than half of the service was in German; his ex-wife (of 46 years), and his youngest daughter Naomi spoke in English and there were a couple letters read by his son-in-law from colleagues in the US -- Joel Moses of MIT mentioned the presenting of the Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility Norbert Wiener Award for Professional and Social Responsibility with a tribute by Terry Winograd. I'll get an audio remix up at some point.
Q: Do you think that the computer is creating a technical elite, reinforcing old power structures, or remaking American society?
A: I think the computer has from the beginning been a fundamentally conservative force. It has made possible the saving of institutions pretty much as they were, which otherwise might have had to be changed. For example, banking. Superficially, it looks as if banking has been revolutionized by the computer. But only very superficially. Consider that, say 20, 25 years ago, the banks were faced with the fact that the population was growing at a very rapid rate, many more checks would be written than before, and so on. Their response was to bring in the computer. By the way, I helped design the first computer banking system in the United States, for the Bank of America 25 years ago.
Now if it had not been for the computer, if the computer had not been invented, what would the banks have had to do? They might have had to decentralize, or they might have had to regionalize in some way. In other words, it might have been necessary to introduce a social invention, as opposed to the technical invention.
What the coming of the computer did, "just in time," was to make it unnecessary to create social inventions, to change the system in any way. So in that sense, the computer has acted as fundamentally a conservative force, a force which kept power or even solidified power where is already existed. -- Joseph Weizenbaum
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soupe populaire
Tue 18.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Marie-Hélène gets into town from Toulouse and Montreal so we decide to meet at tmp.deluxe for the soupe populaire. I cycled down, a good 45 minute ride, and was waiting outside on PotsdamerStrasse to meet her, she called asking for directions from the U-bahn and my phone died. then it started snowing. I cycled down to the station but didn't see her, dang. so, went back to tmp.deluxe and waited, talked to Sencer a bit, then went back out front to wait. what about life before the mobile? okay, she arrives, cool. good soup! we hang out there for awhile, then head over to see Mathieu's exhibition Kompetenz im Laborbereich over at Alte Stadtklause. far-reaching conversation stitches time into a long chain, we shut the place down. and a cold ride downwind across town back home.
and thoughts of politic enter into the day at some point. random collision with thought.
The more the worldwide [capitalist] axiomatic installs high industry and highly industrialised agriculture at the periphery [of the world economy], provisionally reserving for the centre so-called post-industrial activities (automation, electronics, information technologies, the conquest of space, overarmament, etc.), the more it installs peripheral zones of underdevelopment inside the centre, internal Third Worlds, internal Souths. Masses of the population are abandoned to erratic work (subcontracting, temporary work, or work in the underground economy), and their official subsistence is assured only by State allocations and wages subject to interruption. ... In enslavement and the central dominance of constant capital
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re-asia
Sun 16.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
head to the HKW for another opening, this time an Asian exhibition, Re-Imagining Asia. happen to run into Stephen, and will get together with him later in the month to catch up on things. aside from the numerous online events I've jumped into when he was at V2, I haven't seen him f2f since Tornio in 1999 or so when he and Nina came through with a collection of Canadian experimental films that they screened to an unsuspecting audience at the Polytech. they were on their way further north researching their Aurora project. will have to ask him about what happened to that.
the most intriguing work there not simply how it dominated the entire space, but for the work it was, especially reflecting the previous evening at Alnatura. the work, Wu jin qi young, translated as Waste Not, by artist Song Dong, is a collaboration with his mother:
On 28 February 2008, the Chinese artist Song Dong, from the People's Republic of China, started erecting his room-filling installation 'Waste Not' in the Foyer of the House of World Cultures. It is his parents' house, which fell victim to urban planning in China and is now being reconstructed together with its entire inventory in the Foyer.
Wu jin qi young describes the philosophy of life of an entire generation of ordinary people in China who have grown up with the experience of war, expulsion, starvation and constant shortages of goods. Song Dong's mother belongs to this generation. And one can imagine all the things that have accumulated in her house over the decades. When his father died in 2002 and his mother was filled by despair as a result, Song Dong tells us: "Art was my last hope. And by helping me with my art, my mother was gradually able to shake off her sorrows." The two of them worked together on the concept for "Waste Not." This not only helped his mother to work through her problems, but also to emancipate herself from a household that was growing out of control. The result is both impressive and depressing, with the seemingly countless toys, items of clothing, buttons, ballpoint pens, cupboards, remnants of materials, bags, pots, tubs, toothpaste tubes, etc. are lined up alongside one another like stock. In the Song Dong's hands, the entire construction becomes an artifact; he creates multilayer archives full of obsolete Chinese products and manifestations of past living conditions.
we are suspended in a sea of stuff. certainly the Confucian pathway would show some relief, eh? imagine a similar house in the US, that generation is almost gone in the US, the ones who grew up in the Great Depression. but perhaps another will come down the long road of history along which we spend a little time.
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Alnatura
Thu 13.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Karsten invites me along with some friends of his to the opening reception of the nearby Alnatura bio (organic) grocery store. very designed, very, very, very designed for the German sensibility of cleanliness and order. just look at the shelves. one of the managers was racing around taking snaps of every meter of stocked shelves as an example of how they should always look. or so. we had some Prosecco and a nice catered dinner. nobody we knew won any of the lottery prizes. Puh - eine Niete! und Pech im Spiel - Glück in der Liebe, puu, I don't buy it!
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huh?
Tue 11.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
down to the Märchenbrunnen on a nice sunny afternoon to meditate on the back of me eyelids. still wish I had all the photos that I took in Berlin in 1988 and 1993. the changes are profound. the Germans have managed to make things look good. but what's behind it? hard to tell, being the outsider. strikes happen, but aside from grafitti and broken bottles on the street, there is little to suggest deeper social problems. for the outsider it can be difficult to read cultural signs. bullet holes are still there, though, and chaos is a scalar creeping into everything that humans bring into the world.
Berlin is clearly a cosmopolitan city, though, with many foreigners seemingly integrated into the foot traffic in most neighborhoods that I move through. but what is most remarkable, just when I think I am entering a blighted neighborhood, there are signs everywhere that everything is being reconstructed. some nice old brick warehouses (formerly the city slaughterhouses are the only buildings in the area that are fenced off and in bad repair. surely there are others, but the construction and renewal seems to ongoing. not sure what this has to do with Byron, but, reminds me of some dreamy be-ing elsewhere, elsewhen...
They slept on the abyss without a surge ---
The waves were dead; the tides were in their grave,
The moon, their mistress, had expired before;
The winds were wither'd in the stagnant air,
And the clouds perish'd; Darkness had no need
Of air from them --- She was the Universe.
-- Lord Byron
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Driven
Mon 10.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Marc sends this along, the first product of his and Ruth's residency at the Banff Center.
Driven- a dilemma of coexistence
by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow
http://diwologue.net/driven/
Two people attempt to resolve a recurring argument. Their conversation is transcribed into 2 frames in a single browser. Lag starts to interfere with the flow of statements and responses.
'Driven' can be viewed in most Internet browsers and requires no plugins. It can be accessed in two ways. Either by individuals with personal computers, who can click through the work at their own pace, or projected with sound in public spaces where it has its own tempo.
The first page may take a while to load. Please turn up your volume.
This is the first in a planned series of artworks for DIWOlogue by Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow. During March 2008 Marc Garrett and Ruth Catlow are researching tools and creating collaborative artworks and online events as part of the Liminal Screens Residency Program with the support of the BNMI at the Banff Center.
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a pic from Loki
Sun 09.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
moving through the lonely darkness of nothing, approaching the event horizon, Light bends and throws the shape-shifted carrier of one handed broken hewer of brain's goblet by ~lokialex
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sound constructions
Sun 09.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
just out of the second evening of soundconstructs with Udo, Rinus, Jodi, Derek, Kim (remotely), and some other interesting folks. nice vibe.
31. The hacker class has an ambivalent relationship to education. The hacker class desires knowledge, not education. The hacker comes into being though the pure liberty of knowledge in and of itself. The hack expresses knowledge in its virtuality, by producing new abstractions that do not necessarily fit the disciplinary regime of managing and commodifying education. . Hacker knowledge implies, in its practice, a politics of free information, free learning, the gift of the result to a network of peers. Hacker knowledge also implies an ethics of knowledge subject to the claims of public interest and free from subordination to commodity production. This puts the hacker into an antagonistic relationship to the struggle of the capitalist class to make education an induction into wage slavery. -- Ken Wark
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Kelvin's dream
Sat 08.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
A transformation whose only final result is to convert heat, extracted from a source at constant temperature, into work, is impossible. (...) I believe the tendency in the material world is for motion to become diffused, and that as a whole the reverse of concentration is gradually going on. I believe that no physical action can ever restore the heat emitted from the sun, and that this source is not inexhaustible; also that the motions of the earth and other planets are losing vis viva which is converted into heat; and that although some vis viva may be restored for instance to the earthby heat received from the sun, or by other means, that the loss cannot be precisely compensated and I think it probable that it is under compensated. -- Lord Kelvin
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migrating reality
Fri 07.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Miga asked if I would participate in these two projects, in the first as redacteur, in the second as a presenter and as a performance artist. should be interesting. especially as it is occurring at the same time as the conference in Savannah. of necessity, I will appear in Savannah virtually, and in person here in Berlin. that's the easiest option!
we meet down at the Galerie der Künste to scope out the situation
Migrating is reality. Reality is migrating.
The "Migrating Reality Project" organized between 04-05 April 2008 at the Galerie der Künste in Berlin is a live platform to discuss the mixing and remixing of art forms and digital data flows within the context of the current worldwide reality of migration.
From 01 March in cooperation with the online 'zine balsas.cc for media and technology we are initiating a focused look at the migration between reality, media, technologies, art, spaces, disciplines, politics, and networks. Migration interests us in cultural and technological aspects as well as in aspects of the movement of different objects and subjects. Balsas.cc has been publishing online in Lithuanian and English from Vilnius, Lithuania since 2005. Every fourth month it announces a new topic and as of now "Migrating Reality" is open for your interpretation.
We invite the submission of texts, sounds, and visuals (photo, video, etc) which will help us to delve deeper into the subject during the Berlin project. Balsas.cc is stimulating interest in the generation and publishing of ideas online -- the most important of which will be published in the printed catalog at the end of 2008. We are looking for not only pure texts but also in migrating formats, interdisciplinary discussions, interviews, and the meetings of artists and theoreticians. Please submit texts in English, German, and Lithuanian to balsas@vilma.cc. The rolling submission and publication period is from 01 March to 01 June.
Editorial Board: Vytautas Michelkevicius, Mindaugas Gapsevicius, Zilvinas Lilas and John Hopkins
Migrating Reality
The conference and exhibition Migrating Reality is organised by >top - Verein zur Förderung kultureller Praxis e.V. in Berlin and KHM - Kunsthochschule für Medien in Köln. It is also generously supported by the Embassy of Lithuania in Germany within the framework of the German-Baltic Year 2008.
The event focuses on the Baltic nation of Lithuania. In the last fifteen years, more than ten percent of Lithuania's population has emigrated, among them numerous individuals engaged in the cultural sector. Others, while still living in Lithuania, are deeply engaged with the subject of migration. Selected individuals from both these groups will present their work at the conference and exhibition.
Migrating Reality deals specifically with the realities of migration and migrating realities that are independent of global structural changes and economic or cultural processes and are opening unique opportunities for creative exchange.
Electronic and digital cultures generate completely new forms of migration. In the creative arts, new phenomena related to migration and the synergies of disparate systems are emerging. Artistic products evolve from traditional forms to hybrid digital forms. Analogue products are being digitized; data spaces are trans-located from one data storage system to another; existing sounds, images, and texts are re-mixed and fused into new datasets.
The emergent processes of migration generate temporary autonomous zones where socio-political actions occur without the interference of formal control mechanisms. These zones and enclaves appear in physical space as well as in virtual space. By integrating these into available structures and temporarily interconnecting them, new trajectories and ideas are created.
Migration is reality and reality is migrating. This dialectic, appearing as a banal topic in everyday politico-economic debate, includes unarticulated issues which, by their fragmented nature have to be dealt with through creative multidisciplinary means. Only occasionally do components of the migrating global situation surface in the mass media, within individual mediums of expression, or in exhibitions as documentation and artwork. This is likely because dealing with the realities of migration in an explicitly European context means accepting the potential for conflict.
This trans-cultural German-Lithuanian event will take on the risk in highlighting certain fragments of the discourse. Participants will be invited to piece together aspects of this inexorable global mobility on the one hand and of retrograde power relations on the other.
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strike continues
Thu 06.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
she's got fond memories of sitting in public transportation and being so focused on playing a computer game, thumbs twitching faster than orgasm throbs, she misses her stop. but is so engrossed she can't take the time to swear. or to notice my phone camera in her face. too bad, only a memory, Jackie, with the strike in the third day, and the S-bahn joining in. really don't see the affect, but I'm definitely not out there with working folks so much. except yesterday I did find the closest Bio shop to get organic goods. not that I can really afford them, but I do insist on organic grains, rice, nuts and other primary goods which are my staples. regular dairy products here are generally of pretty good quality. Karsten is taking me to the opening of another organic place next Wednesday, and will show me where the local farmers market is twice a week. by the time I know what is necessary, I'll be gone.
When you live in the shadow of insanity,the appearance of another mind that thinks and talks as yours does is something close to a blessed event. -- Robert Pirsig
is Berlin full of crazy people? nah, irritated, maybe annoyed, but not crazy.
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dark matter
Wed 05.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
if the world vs human population system is not sustainable, it will collapse. the BVG is on strike as of 0300 this morning. at least until 14 March! thank gawd I have that bike.
uh, okay, the Regime of Amplification text takes shape. though there are doubts about the many internal inconsistencies in the model. working every morning until either noon or 1300 on it alone. (well, also working on an informal narrative text on organizing data spaces) but first thing every morning, writing for several hours, then researching things that come up in the writing, then slowly branching out into checking emails and other inputs. am heavily invested in brainstorms these days, after participating Lightly for seven years, I jump all the way in for the time being. that's been inspiring.
here's a nice abstract from Physical Review, vol. 61, Issue 7-8, pp. 489-503, April 1942 -- from the scientist Fritz Zwicky -- this is from a paper that suggested the existence of what is now recognized as Dark Matter.
The following considerations represent an attempt to analyze those effects which govern the large scale distribution of matter in the universe. It is proposed to discuss the problems of: (a) the frequency of occurrence of clusters of nebulae which contain different numbers of nebulae, (b) the relative numbers of nebulae in dependence of their intrinsic luminosity and mass, and (c) the frequency distribution of various types of stars in dependence of their mass and intrinsic luminosity. It is found observationally that clusters of nebulae become the more frequent the fewer nebulae they contain. On the other hand the data so far available indicate that the luminosity function for nebulae exhibits a frequency maximum at the absolute magnitude M0 = (-14.2). Reasons are advanced which suggest that this result which was obtained from the purely observational approach to the problem of the general distribution of matter cannot be final. The theoretical analysis of the frequency distribution of various types of stars is largely complicated because of the interference of effects due to light pressure and the generation of energy through subatomic processes and cannot at the present be carried through. The analogous problems for the nebulae and the clusters of nebulae, however, lend themselves to a simple qualitative analysis which, starting from the assumption of a stationary universe, makes use of the principle of the conservation of energy, the virial theorem and the application of statistical considerations to distributions of the Boltzmann and the Smoluchowski types. The results obtained are in good agreement with the observed distribution of the clusters of nebulae. In addition an understanding is arrived at of the important fact that the velocities of field nebulae on the average are only about half as large as those of cluster nebulae. The theoretical considerations given, however, are in complete contradiction with the luminosity function now generally adopted for the nebulae inasmuch as the existence of a large number of intrinsically faint nebulae representing more than half of all of the matter in the visible universe is predicted which to date must have been overlooked. On the basis of this prediction various criteria are developed to facilitate the discovery of intrinsically faint stellar systems and a systematic search for such systems utilizing the 18-inch Schmidt telescope on Palomar Mountain is described. On the basis of the results achieved so far it is shown that the new distribution function of nebulae in the so-called local group of nebulae deviates markedly in the direction of the theoretical expectations from the luminosity function derived by previous observers. Practical methods are discussed, the application of which should make possible the construction of a more representative distribution function for nebulae over a large range of luminosities. In the final section some of the known observational facts are briefly reviewed which favor the assumption of a stationary rather than an expanding universe.
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sound constructions
Tue 04.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Jodi sends an announcement about one of her curatorial efforts, Sound Constructions, in collaboration with Program: Initiative for Art and Architectural Collaborations. it'll be good to see this crew all together!
Sound surrounds us, moves through us and affects our perception and experience to place and space in more ways than we usually imagine. The sound of knowledge being produced in scientific labs, the sound created by the ears themselves, the vibrations of the city playing a new kind of music, wavelengths of the wall coming from the front line in Sarajevo, the secret voice of bridges transmitted across the globe, the sound of radio waves in the ether, sound as intervention back into the street, and creating an imaginary city with sound, all come together in a fascinating weekend forum.
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ICE
Mon 03.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
from Rod -- he thinks it's a good idea. me too, seems to be, at least (please note that this article has nothing to do with InterCity Express (ICE) trains here in Germany):
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.
If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign
The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE.'
For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!
Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today!
Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest.
ICE will speak for you when you are not able to!
We all carry our mobile phones with names & numbers stored in its memory but nobody, other than ourselves, knows which of these numbers belong to our closest family or friends.
If we were to be involved in an accident or were taken ill, the people attending us would have our mobile phone but wouldn't know who to call. Yes, there are hundreds of numbers stored but which one is the contact person in case of an emergency? Hence this 'ICE' (In Case of Emergency) Campaign
The concept of 'ICE' is catching on quickly. It is a method of contact during emergency situations. As cell phones are carried by the majority of the population, all you need to do is store the number of a contact person or persons who should be contacted during emergency under the name 'ICE' ( In Case Of Emergency).
The idea was thought up by a paramedic who found that when he went to the scenes of accidents, there were always mobile phones with patients, but they didn't know which number to call. He therefore thought that it would be a good idea if there was a nationally recognized name for this purpose. In an emergency situation, Emergency Service personnel and hospital Staff would be able to quickly contact the right person by simply dialing the number you have stored as 'ICE.'
For more than one contact name simply enter ICE1, ICE2 and ICE3 etc. A great idea that will make a difference!
Let's spread the concept of ICE by storing an ICE number in our mobile phones today!
Please forward this. It won't take too many 'forwards' before everybody will know about this. It really could save your life, or put a loved one's mind at rest.
ICE will speak for you when you are not able to!
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ultraintelligence?
Sun 02.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
Let an ultraintelligent machine be defined as a machine that can far surpass all the intellectual activities of any man however clever. Since the design of machines is one of these intellectual activities, an ultraintelligent machine could design even better machines; there would then unquestionably be an 'intelligence explosion,' and the intelligence of man would be left far behind. Thus the first ultraintelligent machine is the last invention that man need ever make. -- Irving Good
aside from inventing a pretty damn smart off switch.
urban renewal is happening in Berlin. on another circuit walk, this time further to the East, I can stand in one spot and see a dozen construction cranes. they are all working on domestic housing units -- mostly low, three story maximum, like row houses, condos. filling up vacant lots which were once filled with warehouses. most of the red brick warehouses are gone, and the lots are scraped clear, down to the golden beige sand that underlies the whole city. the top few feet are always full of detritus -- porcelain, shattered bricks, glass, and mortar. somewhere I read that in the process of doing random construction in Germany, they also frequently discover WWII munitions accompanied by an occasional detonation and casualties. yikes! I am amazed by the intensity with which the city is still transforming itself.
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the gift of cash
Sat 01.Mar.2008
Berlin, Germany
what could be more banal and even demeaning than receiving a gift of cash?
huh, what are you talking about? sheesh, what's wrong with cash?
okay, that's a gut response as I formulate the core of an essay The Regime of Amplification, exploring the dynamics of social exchange.
this is simply an attempt to frame a fundamental principle -- to point out a perceived weakness in the social system. money, as an abstracted social re-presentation of life-energy, is not the thing itself, it is not life-energy. giving money is the substitution of an abstraction for the thing itself. that thing being life-energy or life-time. life-time, defined by the irreversible plunging arrow of time, is a limited commodity. life-energy is the quantity of time convolved with what it takes to stay alive for that time. it takes energy to maintain life for a certain amount of time. a gift is an infusion of life-energy (in some form!) from the Self to the Other. when the Self pays attention to the Other, the Self spends life-time and consequently, life-energy on the Other. the Self then comprehends certain forms of energy that the Other would, could need in their life. an auspicious gift is the providing of this apprehended needful energy to the Other when it is needed. money enters the picture -- this abstraction of life-energy and attention -- and is substituted for both of those. the Other, receiving money, has to decide how to convert this abstraction back into a source of energy. it is a lonely and life-time-consuming process. it demands of attention and and is void of directed life-energy. it is the converting process that exerts the most seductive appeal. with money one can do anything. can't one? even to saving life-energy and life-time? not sure about that. giving money to fight poverty places the Self in a quandary.
having noted this, it is clear that operating on this principle would place the Self-Other dynamic in a certain place within the social system, whatever the exchange is. but the dependence on the abstracted sets up the least auspicious form of gift. or is it the most auspicious? uff. another hack job as the corrupt idealist, eh?
it's probably better to make enough of the stuff on ones own, then engaged presence can proceed on the basis of ... presence alone, with the proper infusion of life-energy. and subsequently give all ones money away...
only after the last tree has been cut down
only after the last river has been poisoned
only after the last fish has been caught
only then will you find that money cannot be eaten
-- possible Cree prophesy
or
There was an old lady, from the Cree tribe, named Eyes of Fire, who prophesied that one day, because of the white mans' or Yo-ne-gis' greed, there would come a time, when the fish would die in the streams, the birds would fall from the air, the waters would be blackened, and the trees would no longer be, mankind as we would know it would all but cease to exist. There would come a time when the keepers of the legend, stories, culture rituals, and myths, and all the Ancient Tribal Customs would be needed to restore us to health. They would be mankind's key to survival, they were the Warriors of the Rainbow. -- Lelanie Stone
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