in the indifference of winter the remains arrest mercilessly intact

let the wind waft the drifts to bury without a trace

expire

your relentless pitchforking perforates the gentle life detached

proceed

"There's certain really basic things. What I strive for is a combination of engaging people narratively. People will go to pretty unusual places with you. People will leave their own world view or expand their world view or go down roads they might not normally choose to. They might normally say "you couldn't get me down that if you dragged me." But if you invite people skillfully and honestly into a story and engage their sympathies and their interest you can get them to take some incredible journeys."

"The problem is getting the privacy within your own head because once you[base ']ve exploded something and gone public you have all the voices and the noise of the world follow you into your office and it takes longer to turn that all down, to make it go away and find that private place where the imagination lives."(University of Saskatchewan The Sheaf | Ann-Marie and me scroll down | Jeremy Warren)

:: note :: . . . first encountered as an actor and then as a playwright of the brilliant and witty Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) . . . a theater student who just kept on writing . . . but the real motive for linking lies in the interview memory and the writing in a school newspaper . . . remembering my first attempt as a journalist . . . a high school self styled revolutionary . . . the sixities . . . a dingy, dark hovel of a cafe house in the Farnum Block . . . experimental theater from Chicago performing a Sam Shepherd piece . . . they had never been interviewed & I had never interviewed . . . ended up in the school newspaper . . . the writing was forgotton . . . the theater never lost its hold . . . a petty journalist student who never quit acting . . .

. . . decades ago . . . having resided in Vienna . . . many friends spent a few days visiting during their "european/world travels" . . . few took up the recommendation to visit the Sigmund Frued Museum . . . it was, to my foreign & highly subjective bias, Vienna distilled into its very essence . . . every visit the gaze directed deeper back into a memory of experience . . .

"The day after the conference ended I decided to visit the Freud Museum at 19 Berggasse (Mountain Lane), which for those of you who know Vienna, is off the Ringstrasse in the ninth district, approximately two blocks behind the Sigmund Freud Memorial Park. Although this was my second time in Vienna, this was my first visit to the Freud Museum, coinciding, fortuitously, I should say, with my birthday on December 11. I initially had some difficulty finding the museum, but after asking a shopkeeper I learned that the location of Berggasse was "recht und recht" which turned out to be a mere block away. I knew that I was close to the Museum when I spied a sign on the other side of the street reading, somewhat predictably, "Sigmund Freud Cafe.""(Windows, Mirrors, Doors: The Surveillance Paradox and the Death of Space By Bruce Barber)(via the best lot in town wood s lot)

. . . tonight in the city i have resided in for decades now . . . it breathes cold & the essence of living here is distilled into the silence of the winter air . . . went for a midnight walk . . . there is a rawness at the center of things which sensitizes the heart to the fragility of the pulse known as mortality . . .

(University Webcam | Fog. Temp.: -42 C Humidity: 72% WindChill: -55 Wind: SW13 km/h )

. . . Bergasse & 25th St. West reflect the inside & the outside of survival spaces . . . windows completely frosted over, scratched mirrors and the fog of infinity . . . the unexpected universe . . . the dark, solitary wanderings we all take require layers and layers in the quest to keep warm . . . we seek place . . . inhabit the territory . . . just forget even one memory . . . just remember even one . . .

:: note :: . . . if ever there was an image to capture the dark side of wood s lot . . . (Robert Koch Gallery | Simen Johan | Breeding Ground )

now

Arts Research Center Annual Conference : When Is Art Research? . . . to "create a deeper appreciation within the academic community of art-making as a vital form of research that both interprets and re-imagines our world." . . . focusing on what research means to practicing artists. Some questions . . . What constitutes research for the artist and what typical roles does it play in the finished product? . . . What is the focus of the participating artists' inquiries/experiments/explorations?. . . more (via a place to work nothing fancy)

" . . . Walter Benjamin's last definition of the aura of a work of art - art is that which returns our gaze. Merleau-Ponty uses the term chiasm to describe this space of intersection, a crossing over of two physiological structures."

(this Public Address | Reciprocal Vision)

:: note :: . . . we have an immense responsibility to conduct research . . . where better than in a university environment . . . too often the "establishment" requires a professional "schooling" . . . programmed results towards a marketable product . . . gaze . . .

THE YEAR OF THE FAKE This was the year when fakeness ruled: fake rationales for war, a fake President dressed as a fake soldier declaring a fake end to combat and then holding up a fake turkey. An action movie star became governor and the government started making its own action movies, casting real soldiers like Jessica Lynch as fake combat heroes and dressing up embedded journalists as fake soldiers. > by Naomi Klein | rabble

"Among the beliefs that he and I shared was a conviction that making public the intimately personal is a revolutionary act in an atomized society where many feel compelled to play so close to the chest that they can't read their own cards. Being emotionally naked before strangers extends to them a permission for self-revelation they badly need if they are to loosen the shackles of their own quiet desperations. It is a blow against the pursuit of loneliness."(BarlowFriendz | Hecklers at a Funeral)

:: note :: . . . let others speak till the courage is mustered . . .

"On the domestic rate stamp, Monkey is shown in confrontation with the Jade Emperor, whose throne he has tried to usurp. According to the tale, Monkey was king of an Earthly land, but was determined to join the immortals in heaven. He mastered some supernatural tricks, such as shape-changing and cloud-leaping, before arriving in heaven, where he was made the Jade Emperor's stable-keeper. When he discovered this post was a dubious honour, he destroyed the royal banquet in a rage, eating all the immortal peaches, one of which he still clutches in the stamp image. He then battled the Emperor's soldiers to a draw, and we see him on the stamp in his moment of defiance, declaring himself ruler of the universe. Shortly afterwards, he is chastened by Buddha, who pins him under a mountain for 500 years."(Canada Post)

year of the monkey(via Parking lot)

ARTitIS

an angel
went through
the stage
once, twice, many times

a crisis
breeds
manifesto
slowly

for everything that dies, dies forever

ageing artitis
just to the right of the eye
without treatment
blindness

for everything imagined dust

"#4. Value the work of your hands and body. This physical body is the meeting place of worlds. Spiritual, social, political, emotional, intellectual worlds are all interpreted through this physical body. When we work with our hands and body to create art or simply to project an idea from within, we imprint the product with a sweat signature, the glisten and odor which only the physical body can produce. These are the by-products of the meeting of worlds through the physical body. It is visible evidence of the work and effort to move from conception to production. Our bodies are both art elements and tools that communicate intuitively."

"#5. Work slowly. This follows quickly after the last lesson about the physical body. It takes lots of time to work by hand, but this time input is a distinctive trade mark. The old world crafts people made things. We think they are valuable not because of their content but because of the time signature of the work. Their bodies were not more capable than ours to join wood or carve stone or create paintings or make dances; in fact, it is possible that the physical body is more capable today than it was hundreds of years ago. But a possible advantage the old world did have was a different concept of time. Perhaps they were more at ease with the passage of time. It was acceptable for them to take years to finish a work of art. We would advise you to look for long periods of time at your project. Maybe put it away, forget about it, bring it back years later finish it after you have become a different person."(goat island | writing | Letter to a Young Practitioner)

:: note :: . . . always rushed when working with others . . . never enough time . . . our lives are filled with the busy mundane . . . training to stop time . . .

"'Dialogue,' says philosopher Martin Buber, 'is a conversation between adults the outcome of which is unknown.' True dialogue requires valuing the other's needs equally with our own, not less and not more. This entails a few steps. First, internally, dialogue requires translating our judgments into our own feelings and needs[~]which give rise to our judgments. Then, when speaking, dialogue requires expressing those feelings and needs openly. After expression, sometimes even before, dialogue requires a willingness to listen with empathy. Such listening makes it possible to absorb the difficult messages we hear in a way that maintains the humanness of the other, does not challenge without threat to the needs we identify in us. This is what Buber refers to more than any aspect of the dialogue; it is this willingness which enables us to go beyond predictable outcomes and encounter the unknown-ness of the other person."("no enemies, no demands" by miki kashtan)

:: note :: . . . encounters of the unknown-ness of the other . . .

Tanya Zuzak/Patrick Traer : Arc A Response

Walking down the stairs to the Mendel Art Gallery basement a series of mirrored pieces immediately caught my eye. Thin wire designs evoked the sense of whirling wind over the surface of the mirrors. Eight square mirrors, approximately 50 cm X 50 cm, placed in a tight, regularly, repetitive pattern allowed the the round, soft contoured volume of the space defined by the wires to breathe. The ends of the wire amazingly pierced the mirror or were glued with a clean precision. The wire shone brightly under the lights becoming almost a silver thread, delicate and light in visual weight. more . . .

Arno Schmidt's 90th

Zettels Traum

"Schmidt's merger of various disciplines through poetic representation must be seen within the larger context of his encyclopedic project labeled "Großn Dichtungn" (ZT 1047), which seeks to reconstruct and weld together knowledge buried in memory. The textual voyage into various disciplines, literary texts, or political events, as well as the bringing forth of historical and philosophical junctures, reinforces Schmidt's goal "[a]lles, was je schrieb, in Liebe und Haß, als immerfort mitlebend zu behandeln" (BA II:2:142). As a polyglot historian in search of a storage room of information and who defines himself through his "sündhafte Belesenheit" (ZT 269), Schmidt valorizes the dictum expressed by Schweighäuser in Die Schule der Atheisten, "man kànn gar nich [hungarian umlaut]mit WissnsStoff überladn-- sein" (SdA 191)."(Watching TV with Arno Schmidt | Volker Langbehn ©)

:: note :: . . . so it was that many years past AMOK (Arbeitsgruppe fur Motorische Kommunication) lay at Schmidt's Traum . . . the textual voyage transformed into an associative pilgrimage . . .

"draw a straight line on a map of your home town. start from point a, and go to the point b. don't consider the elements which are in your way (barriers, walls, wire fences, trees, houses, buildings) as obstacles. hug them: climb, get over, jump: let your imagination flow: you're now doing parkour."(urbanfreeflow | ART IN MOTION)

"One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive [literally: "drifting"], a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances. Dérives involve playful-constructive behavior and awareness of psychogeographical effects . . ."(Theory of the Dérive by Guy-Ernest Debord)

(via context) :: note :: . . . a new cultural context indeed . . . went this way once in the forests of Keats Island . . . even tried it in Vancouver many years ago . . . the physical breakdown that comes with age demands more imagination . . . the educated dérive imagination parkour . . . non . . . sense . . . able . . .

"Hall's passion for masked theatre stems from a belief in the potency of the mask which allows the actor to experience emotions "much more animalic and enormous than you can easily express with a naked face. If you scream with a naked face, the response of an audience is to recoil, but if you tell them about a scream through a mask, it's the Munch painting, isn't it? Silent and frozen and absolutely horrifying. It has a form like a mask." The process of "getting a mask to speak and cry", however, is complex and long. "You can see when the mask ceases to be a barrier and actually expresses the body," explains Hall. You can't, however, short-circuit the time needed for the mask to grow up, he explains, therefore mask work and text work have to be done independently until a point is reached when the actors know the form and the rhythm of Ranjit Bolt's version of Oedipus as well as the steps of a dance. "Then they can make it their own and act it.""(Behind the ironic mask)

"When we were rehearsing The Oresteia, I discovered that if you had a dozen people in the same mask and one person said a line, you didn't know who'd said it. If all dozen people acted the line, it appeared that they'd all said it. I thought, "That's something", and that's what I built that work and this work on. Plus the fact that the Greek Chorus is like a shoal of fish or flock of birds - where one goes they all go. The problem about the Chorus is if you split it up into separate individuals, you have one person saying one thing, then another contradicting them. It's like saying "I feel terribly ill at the moment, but actually I feel quite well." The oscillations inside ourselves, which are completely contradictory - that's where the Greek Chorus lies; it's the subconscious."(National Theatre | Platform Papers Peter Hall | The Oedipus Plays Peter Hall talks to Peter Stothard)

:: note :: . . . chorus & mask . . . ever since Baccha have been struggling with the unease . . . talking in unison creates a dehumanizing sense . . . the meaning of the spoken word, the ambiguity, the context, the sense . . . we are obliged to the meaning as well as all else . . . the bourgeois actor is the death of theater . . . the program towards a bourgeois theater is deadly . . .

"Aristotle defined the parts of drama in a significant order. He specified: PLOT, CHARACTER, LANGUAGE, THOUGHT, THE VISUAL, MUSIC. Plot is first. Well is it plot? It is the vexed word MUTHOS: vexed because it is one of those portmanteau Greek words which means a multitude of things - story, narrative, myth, theme, comunication of an emotionally charged representation of men acting or being acted upon and experiencing as a consequence success or defeat."

"Characters enact plot and communicate it. And they do so by the use of dramatic language (words, thought, visuals, music). These means of expression are what I define as form. But since the beginning and end of theatre is the plot, the form functions primarily as narrative."(Peter Hall. Exposed by the Mask. 15)

:: note :: . . . hmmm . . . those damned Greeks . . . still each moment the question "What's the story?" and "What do you see?" accompany most Play . . . still more the story embraces communication of myth&transformation . . .

Parisa Sheer Mohammadi (b.f.a. exhibition) | SACRED | Gordon Snelgrove Gallery - Current

:: note :: . . . sometimes just look close to home . . .

""Escapism" has a somewhat negative meaning in our society and perhaps in all societies. It suggests an inability to face facts[~]the real world. . ."

". . .Significantly, only humans have culture. By culture I mean not just certain acquired habits, the manufacture and use of certain tools, but a whole world of thought and belief, habits and customs, skills and artifacts. Culture is more closely linked to the human tendency not to face facts, our ability to escape by one means or another, than we are accustomed to believe. Indeed, I should like to add another definition of what it is to be human to the many that already exist: A human being is an animal who is congenitally indisposed to accept reality as it is. Humans not only submit and adapt, as all animals do; they transform in accordance with a preconceived plan. That is, before transforming, they do something extraordinary, namely, "see" what is not there. Seeing what is not there lies at the foundation of all human culture."(Escapism by Yi-Fu Tuan | excerpt from EARTH | Nature and Culture )

(via wood s lot)

"Journeys are the midwives of thought. Few places are more conducive to internal conversations than moving planes, ships, or trains. There is an almost quaint correlation between what is before our eyes and the thoughts we are able to have in our heads: large thoughts at time requiring large views, and new thoughts, new places. Introspective reflections that might otherwise be liable to stall are helped along by the flow of the landscape. The mind may be reluctant to think properly when thinking is all it is supposed to so; the task can be as paralyzing as having to tell a joke or mimic an accent on demand. Thinking improves when parts of the mind are given other tasks -- charged with listening to music, for example, or following a line of trees. The music or the view distracts for a time that nervous, censorious, practical part of the mind which is inclined to shut down when it notices something difficult emerging in consciousness, and which runs scared of memories, longings and introspective or original ideas, preferring instead the administrative and the impersonal."(Alain de Botton. The Art of Travel (2002))

(via Vagabonding)

more . . .

:: note :: . . . giving the active imagination outer tasks . . . to see or notice . . . rendering is then the process of re-creating that which is before from a position of loose observation to where we acquire a deep understanding of the constituent parts and hence secure more memories . . . incarnate . . . appropriation apologies to Botton . . .

" The ongoing objective of this paratheatrical medium is to discover individual movements and group rituals for triggering miraculous interactions. They are miraculous whenever they invoke (by sound & word) or evoke (by feeling & motion) strong spiritual and visceral resonances that [~] with enough commitment [~] erupt in spontaneous gestures, movements, patterns of motion, sounds, vocal creations, characterizations, and stories to be shared with others. One way of looking at the miraculous is through the prism of a certain kind of double vision. Imagine an overlay of vertical and horizontal sources, or planes of existence; vertical and horizontal. Picture vertical as the invisible sources of energy innate to soul, ancestral karma, dreambody, archetypes, planetary consciousness. Horizontal sources and energies refer to visible manifestations of our interactions with others, society, political realities, and the out-there world at large. Vertical is up, down and within; horizontal, out there around and across. This is no hard, fast rule but my attempt at framing a certain outlook of double vision."(Principles, Techniques & Philosophy Of a Ritual Technology for Self-initiation by Antero Alli)

:: note :: . . . ritual & theater . . . what is that wish to create theater . . . what is that need to connect to ritual . . . the collision of vertical&horizontal . . .

"Berlin's correct and bold writing was occupied with a large, complex, truth. Modernity's pluralism cannot be flattened by reason. Hence reason must live suspended between incommensurable values and the quest for common human standards, all the while enfolded with unreason. In such circumstances, there is no alternative but to develop practical reason grounded in an uncertain but inescapable pluralism. Berlin thus taught that the threatening waters and currents located in the zone where reason meets unreason cannot be calmed, only navigated. Both as philosophy and as politics, these issues elude definitive solution or resolution. This powerful and compelling instruction is at the center of the edification he offered. It also is the main source of his melancholy."(Social Research | Isaiah Berlin's Modernity. | Ira Katznelson)

:: note :: . . . navigation of treacherous waters . . . setting one's heart boldly on the currents in a zone of imaginative landscape where meetings occur . . . alive in suspension . . . develop a compelling practice . . .

"Within this performative evolution memory is always held in suspense, stored in some unique place, perhaps in the manner de Kooning sees the history of art as "separate from all history, but connected." How such memory attaches to states of being will be in the phenomenal sphere of art where perception connects to the physical body--a new type of being that is opened as a horizon to include all distance, both without and within. Such a recognition describes the aim of theater which Grotowski poses like the intervention of Thomas who must overcome doubt by touching the essence of the intangible: "These investigations will be like a finger stuck in the wound of the spectator, who will see himself reflected in the mirror of the actor's actions.""(MEMORIES OF BEING: ORLAN'S THEATER OF THE SELF | David Moos)

Stories of Shifting Truth

Invisible Worlds: Stories for Days of the Dead Metamorphoses: Daniel Morden and Hugh Lupton

"After masterful performances of The Iliad and The Odyssey across Britain, Europe and America, we are delighted to welcome the London Premiere of their latest collaboration. Ovid's powerful tales of transformation have had a huge influence on the shaping of our culture, and even today still have the power, by turns, to charm and alarm."(Barbican Theatre | talks & workshops)

:: note :: . . . ahh such delight in titles . . . the cover entices . . . between the covers . . . IS THERE A CRISIS IN TRUTH?

". . .2004 is the year of ecstatic strife," . . . "Drink plenty of water.""(NYTimes | Rock Review | Enjoying the Moment, Patti Smith Celebrates Time's Passage By KELEFA SANNEH )

"The real debate about the difference between British and American training always comes back to the "inside out" or "outside in" debate; that is, do you train actors in diction, voice, deportment, dance, etc., and let them craft a role based on these external skills, or do you ask them to transform themselves through a use of consciousness, sense, and memory, a la Strasberg's interpretation of Stanislavski? . . . Certainly in the twentieth century it was traditional for American acting mentors either to hold up English training as the paradigm of a disciplined, skill-oriented approach, or to vilify it as mechanically exacting but essentially soulless. The second opinion was probably the more generally accepted one for most of the century, but that has changed somewhat as American performance forms have become less naturalistic."(Allworth Press | Interview with Nicole Potter)

:: note :: . . . something for the theater student . . . especially those trapped within monolithic acting departments dedicated to a preserving some sort of deadly theater . . .

Workshop | Dec 28 - 31, 2003 | TexT Development

(Ae Ran: Ash Wednesday by T. S. Eliot. Alison: My Countrymen by Kahlil Gibran)

Day 1: (Ae Ran, Alison, Raymon) / 1 - 4 pm

- brief intro - center stretch, horizontal & vertical contraction-expansion, pyramid & rhythmic running - lying, stomach, box and squat vibrational activation (pause) - sharing word memorization - full support vibration, direction & extremities - support and active positional work - introduction of stick and repetition of stick étude - ending with massage

Day 2: (Ae Ran, Alison, Raymon) / 5 - 8 pm

- check-in - center stretch, rhythmic running, pyramid dance - vibrational activation with point of concentration on lightness/floating & outside source (pause) - text refresh - text exploration - stick etude - repetition of stick étude with connection - wrap up reflection

Day 3: (Ae Ran, Alison, Raymon) / 2 - 5 pm

- check-in - center stretch, sharp impulse cat (3X) - sharp impulse plastique (Alison) with drum - swing impulse plastique (Ae Ran) with drum - vibrational laying onto breath (pause) - text refresh into stick etude with connection

Day 4: (Ae Ran, Alison, Raymon) / 2 - 5 pm

- center stretch, slow cat followed by sharp cat - sharp impulse plastique (Alison) with drum - swing impulse plastique (Ae Ran) with drum - vibrational opening y - aw - n (pause) - rendering text work

"Indeed, ''After Theory'' is a death-haunted book. It urges us to grapple with the basic biological reality that the human body is not culturally constructed, and therefore infinitely malleable, but frail, weak, and ever vulnerable to the predations of global capitalism."

"''Morality,'' ''disinterestedness'': Has Eagleton embraced his inner Matthew Arnold? Not at all, he demurs, pointing out that the concept of disinterestedness - ''for postmodern theory, the last word in delusion'' - is actually pregnant with radical potential. ''Trying to be objective is an arduous, fatiguing business,'' he writes, ''which in the end only the virtuous can attain.'' And if we could miraculously achieve this ever-elusive disinterested state, then - voila! - we would all naturally be socialists."(Boston.com | News | Ideas | The man who praised literary theory to thousands of students now wants them to bury it. By Matthew Price, 12/28/2003)

:: note :: . . . the greatest weakness of this space is linkrot . . . posting tests linkrot . . . have lost lots to virtual space by silly mistakes but also because the space may relegate items to short term memory or lock outs . . . the internet is not free . . . it is a wonderful demandingly frustrating tool . . . use with disinteresedness & morality . . . be a self-critic . . .

Short Memo

The true significance of reading is not to repeat the thoughts of others but to gain thoughtful questions.

The world is not an object for contemplation but a subject for practice.

That the bird struggles desperately writhing to fly is far more respectful then the idle domestic duck.

The human's capacity to adopt is a cradle of happiness but at the same time a grave of challenge.

Endurance is usually the coward's own choice.

From a distance one is afraid and revolves around a conflict but facing directly head-on and wrestling with the conflict fear is forgotten replaced with a creative joy.

Today the artist needs a bold coup d'etat. A clear separation from commercialism.

No matter whether the artist has protective benefactors or demanding sponsors they must not be slaves to consumers and the separation comes as a group and not as individuals.

The arts could clear itself of the ancient accusation of being a tool of pleasure by joining the historical flow of the people's conscience.

- by Shin Yong-bok - transliteration by Ae Ran Jeong (Friday, January 2, 2004)

The New Year's custom in Korea, I am told, is for the younger to bow deep before their elders and wish them blessings & grace. In return the elders pass on riches. It is the first act of the New Year, in the morning before breakfast. The bowing is precise and ritualized.

A powerful mutual recognition.

I take this specific web space to acknowledge my very human & vulnerable 'internet' elder & may your year be filled with a deeper sense of tranquility and a sense of adventure as you move into unnamed vistas ahead. May a sense of joy permeate your actions and spring from the depths of wisdom realized.

Take great strength to care for each other.

"The truth about stories is that's all we are. 'You can't understand without telling a story,' the Anishinabe writer Gerald Vizenor tell us. 'There isn't any center to the world but a story.'"

"Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous."

"So you have to be careful with the stories you tell. And you have to watch out for the stories that you are told."

(Thomas King | The Truth About Stories. | more)

:: note :: . . . elders can be truly frustrating and annoying . . . you may disagree with them and even wish to disown . . . amazing the way things come around . . .