tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59584849971107972832024-02-02T11:24:43.642-05:00postinterestingjunk mail.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.comBlogger120125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-46271618155178281932011-08-31T00:28:00.002-04:002011-08-31T00:28:21.075-04:00The diasporaI'm in the slow process of moving this page to a prettier Wordpress blog, which you can now visit <a href="http://postinteresting.wordpress.com/">here</a>. I say slow because it feels like moving house: there is oddly something comforting and familiar with the ability to dump thoughts into one place that looks familiar, much like an actual physical space would be. I suppose that is another metaphor we have to "home" in the digital world. Unlike a physical space that can be upgraded, formatted virtual worlds don't allow much room for painting the walls or swapping out the bathtub.<br />
I recently met a graduate student whose dissertation was on death in digital realms. (Not to be morbid, I'm just moving locations.) He was investigating what happens to our virtual presence when our physical self expires. In the process of moving this history to a new location, I wonder what the narrative is that we leave behind with all of the information that we hoard over the years (our saved emails, the iterations of papers and writing, the digital photos of meaningful people and meaningless events). Sorting through it now by moving backwards on these pages feels both as if these events are past and that they are happening now. There is no wear and tear on a blog post, only a dated style or use of code to make it. Time collapses here.<br />
I sometimes wonder how important it is to keep this going, especially in light of the networking capabilities of other social networks like Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter. Yet I enjoy writing, and since I'm not a corporation, am not as concerned with the quantifiable results of this beyond it being a semi-public platform for some of my less focused thoughts. I hope, for those reading or following this site, you'll continue to visit me at my new home.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-40311273406694048522011-05-01T20:37:00.002-04:002011-05-01T20:39:35.986-04:00Aflockalypse<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/XH-groCeKbE?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
<div>One thing that never fails to instill a sense of awe in me is the morphing shape of a flock of flying birds. Apparently, birds have a 360 Degree field of vision, so while flying together, they can see the entire group and move accordingly. Beyond that, the formations are just beautiful.</div>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-65775707998533746192011-04-23T23:51:00.001-04:002011-04-24T12:27:54.565-04:00Working in the data mine<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLbKng3PQTLu9_ezSNhidkPKtjPEYsxwBi33mjci8hDMC5VNI4DJwL9ZoCOnoJokMymllRbt6B0JM0wH4HNrpIwB2DsyYlo65Y77ndhpXIaIrHTTxDfp2XWzxTosKdUPtW69_6apg3LY/s1600/mining50.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left:1em; margin-right:1em"><img border="0" height="319" width="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlLbKng3PQTLu9_ezSNhidkPKtjPEYsxwBi33mjci8hDMC5VNI4DJwL9ZoCOnoJokMymllRbt6B0JM0wH4HNrpIwB2DsyYlo65Y77ndhpXIaIrHTTxDfp2XWzxTosKdUPtW69_6apg3LY/s400/mining50.jpg" /></a></div>I've been a longtime fan of Bookforum's blog, <a href="http://www.bookforum.com/blog/">Omnivore</a>, an odd amalgamation of the day or week's news stories, blog posts, articles and scholarly writing on what is sometimes a very clear topic and sometimes a very large umbrella that some things are not exactly standing under it. It's like looking at Pitchfork's web content or visiting a Sephora: truly experiencing the hypertextual idea of drift. <br />
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The post I saw today was on <a href="http://www.bookforum.com/blog/7610">doubt</a>, either aptly named for the Good Friday/Passover season, or personally resonant as I look for a summer job. Links go to writing ranging from the "Narrative Immunity" of Footballers to sexual assault charges, to Godard's Cinema of Doubt. Some great content in this mish-mash; I was particularly liking the post from M/C Journal for an article called <a href="http://journal.media-culture.org.au/index.php/mcjournal/article/viewArticle/349">"Pragmatist Doubt, Dogmatism and Bullshit"</a> on the necessity of doubt in navigating our experiences.<br />
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Doubt is an interesting idea. It is a liminal state between truth and fiction, a way of dealing pragmatically with a perceived notion, a truth. It has also become a priori in how we navigate the world, in particular digital ones. As content is supplied by armchair philosophers and not those trained in traditions, we are both accepting of information as being somewhat factual, yet wholly skeptical of it as fully-researched fact. The "truth" is subjective, its facets as myriad as those writing it. It is somehow in doubt, in thinking and questioning to make sure what we're fed logically makes sense, that we sift through for what the truth is. Maybe this is the positive legacy of the information age: that increased doubt tests the mind to seek paths to truths.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-27342182397426533642011-04-19T23:34:00.000-04:002011-04-19T23:34:52.080-04:00Idle hands<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFmgUQ-vNoGcsSM1fZju8dGry0FrMZxfXG0x5pRudkWQg6HuNRoR-crqcZ-qE0a0mK7lNg2UqQCxrp40QNNAq2tjsmp5KT-401J7uyXc8y6TPLE3JDmlulLHxX0w4qmeMwxXLndncCqo/s1600/busy_drawing+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRFmgUQ-vNoGcsSM1fZju8dGry0FrMZxfXG0x5pRudkWQg6HuNRoR-crqcZ-qE0a0mK7lNg2UqQCxrp40QNNAq2tjsmp5KT-401J7uyXc8y6TPLE3JDmlulLHxX0w4qmeMwxXLndncCqo/s400/busy_drawing+copy.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><br />
Going back to analog for a bit....some explorations of drawn letters and code.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-11317022484078080772011-04-10T19:32:00.001-04:002011-04-10T19:34:41.821-04:00Modern Laputa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdZ-LT3IlczVB2jJneqqymhb0wB9lr-mY-0rC7cX0nO9rgUaRmxTmfszLbSOnSx0r95vUAOdLKNPSzHQmDaYIhUrIRWPCt8X_GJoQNN5yGdjQGfmalA0i9kqe1TrHVFjbEpPlQVo04eQ/s1600/vierl-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPdZ-LT3IlczVB2jJneqqymhb0wB9lr-mY-0rC7cX0nO9rgUaRmxTmfszLbSOnSx0r95vUAOdLKNPSzHQmDaYIhUrIRWPCt8X_GJoQNN5yGdjQGfmalA0i9kqe1TrHVFjbEpPlQVo04eQ/s400/vierl-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Amikejo was the world's first and only state built on the Esperantist ideals, established in an odd wedge-shaped territory bordering Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. From <a href="http://bigthink.com/ideas/21090">the Big Think</a> website: "In 1906, Moly and Gustave Roy, a French professor – both keen Esperantists – decide to establish an Esperanto state in Neutral Moresnet. Esperanto being an artificial language developed some decades before by L.L. Zamenhof, a Polish doctor. This language, devoid of nationalistic connotations, was supposed to transcend the linguistic divides crippling Europe." The region was annexed to Belgium through the Treaty of Versailles at the war's end.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-6069362289137540702011-04-06T22:08:00.000-04:002011-04-06T22:08:14.617-04:00Love is the future<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihH4CRdyvSNDW18T-3U9_EyQ6uO8eC_ltq9QLhPX1mlSPo6HoiX_8Vd5R_V7gtN-1BVkju5hmJV_qQ20Fg-d1Xmu8f_fKB70_druVZJyWRmVhKdjrMi2oBAw_zGMRxF96PcgVuTv4qh3M/s1600/12694074_b5bec0087b_z.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihH4CRdyvSNDW18T-3U9_EyQ6uO8eC_ltq9QLhPX1mlSPo6HoiX_8Vd5R_V7gtN-1BVkju5hmJV_qQ20Fg-d1Xmu8f_fKB70_druVZJyWRmVhKdjrMi2oBAw_zGMRxF96PcgVuTv4qh3M/s400/12694074_b5bec0087b_z.jpg" width="387" /></a></div>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-69862724235289928852011-03-30T09:54:00.000-04:002011-03-30T09:54:06.551-04:00I am sitting in a room...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifC05pxvbaniHBH9ew9WspkA6sdFYeOwQg-5j7dZxTq3kzWiIuJD1vNmk9-S_aw09M2jHwg-o1Ts7AV_vcoHebWxMaPQU2Ay5lF1ZlbrOHIyGag0mMZbaRREvd7FtbNDt4TNmBzOA8tJA/s1600/3696519131_5de1d3b542_b.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifC05pxvbaniHBH9ew9WspkA6sdFYeOwQg-5j7dZxTq3kzWiIuJD1vNmk9-S_aw09M2jHwg-o1Ts7AV_vcoHebWxMaPQU2Ay5lF1ZlbrOHIyGag0mMZbaRREvd7FtbNDt4TNmBzOA8tJA/s400/3696519131_5de1d3b542_b.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
A fascinating post over on <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/house-music.html">BLDGBLOG</a> on the company Airborne Sound's <a href="http://jubal.westnet.com/hyperdiscordia/library_of_babel.html">Borgesian library</a> of royalty-free, everyday sound effects "for everyday scenarios like dishwashers, <a href="http://www.airbornesound.com/collections/jet-set-sound-pack-02-urban-traffic-sound-effects.html" target="_blank">traffic noise</a>, <a href="http://www.airbornesound.com/office.html" target="_blank">office ambiance</a>, overhead helicopters, vacuum cleaners, elevator shafts, <a href="http://www.airbornesound.com/ambience/construction.html" target="_blank">construction sites</a>, and more." Because of the astounding specificity of the catalog ("Small metal military tin, empty, <a href="http://www.airbornesound.com/household/small-metal-military-tin-empty-closing-concisely-sound-effect.html" target="_blank">closing concisely</a>," for instance, versus "Small metal military tin, empty, <a href="http://www.airbornesound.com/household/small-metal-military-tin-empty-closing-quickly-and-smartly-sound-effect.html" target="_blank">closing quickly and smartly</a>,"), he imagines the possibilities for constructing a synthetic sonic environment á lá cut-and-paste culture. This could act as a spatio-acoustic form of therapy for those suffering from depression or loss, through creating a sensory spectre of the mundane.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-87034168473756935612011-03-27T16:26:00.001-04:002011-03-27T23:10:39.249-04:00Reconstructing desire<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqamR67IXuiA3Kym3yi4RkM2lrB9_OPZoMo2FhFKKV0m1qDnMc-tnWsfvUA6WVF3_H75WpBLofQBvRsY8ziWEyxu-tdVUShumAaJVd7IT4BwcEfiuHtEQdkqqqi5MXxsC2cVc4o2-Cum4/s1600/hott_4_discourse+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqamR67IXuiA3Kym3yi4RkM2lrB9_OPZoMo2FhFKKV0m1qDnMc-tnWsfvUA6WVF3_H75WpBLofQBvRsY8ziWEyxu-tdVUShumAaJVd7IT4BwcEfiuHtEQdkqqqi5MXxsC2cVc4o2-Cum4/s400/hott_4_discourse+copy.jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br />
The printed material in my mailbox just got even more Freudian.....who says that theory, history and philosophy aren't sexy?Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-33800989170092847872011-03-23T22:46:00.000-04:002011-03-23T22:46:55.529-04:00The pure being ball thing<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/IgeGd6IzPtA?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-74313515561543342492011-03-22T19:54:00.003-04:002011-03-23T00:47:11.596-04:00PhonurgiaNice mix from Fujiya & Miyagi's website, which I'm using as an aural accompaniment to the drafting of some letterforms... <br />
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<object height="81" width="100%"> <param name="movie" value="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8836888"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed allowscriptaccess="always" height="81" src="http://player.soundcloud.com/player.swf?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F8836888" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="100%"></embed> </object> <span><a href="http://soundcloud.com/fujiya/i-hear-voices-vol-2">I hear voices vol.2</a> by <a href="http://soundcloud.com/fujiya">Fujiya&Miyagi</a></span>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-3588494304721808132011-03-22T10:42:00.000-04:002011-03-22T10:42:29.864-04:00An ark kit puncture<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih59a7y1B7wXetrephrUp0Ttt1WB6Tk1pgbPm69qB_xrOQc81ejCISe9fhEx-nocD7chBTCV1SeNgWtD-vdIuG08776LEJ8S_btiv6o3KswRQA7coaoO9qF2txe29QB2BN5LKKFft2PBU/s1600/220px-Truth_window_02_Pengo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEih59a7y1B7wXetrephrUp0Ttt1WB6Tk1pgbPm69qB_xrOQc81ejCISe9fhEx-nocD7chBTCV1SeNgWtD-vdIuG08776LEJ8S_btiv6o3KswRQA7coaoO9qF2txe29QB2BN5LKKFft2PBU/s400/220px-Truth_window_02_Pengo.jpg" width="277" /></a></div><br />
There is an interesting post on <a href="http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2011/03/truth-windows.html">BLDGBLOG about an architectural detail called a truth window,</a> which reveals the construction of the interior of the walls, mostly of straw bale homes. There, the author considers the philosophical implications of the revelation of networked structures á lá the film "The Matrix" and the revelation of the living body in animal research.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9j9Aaao5DlFZxyA1RTX512YZllpa_HZLcoGIvGqshv4tw_wVCVU7nJmBPDRH4UXfz-Ej6uA3VgfgMpKdlFC3u4em4C3cHZW4GMenFXBUdkpaHKTx6D8kRjqoPreINn6A1V_vNQU1GJVw/s1600/smyth6-4-4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9j9Aaao5DlFZxyA1RTX512YZllpa_HZLcoGIvGqshv4tw_wVCVU7nJmBPDRH4UXfz-Ej6uA3VgfgMpKdlFC3u4em4C3cHZW4GMenFXBUdkpaHKTx6D8kRjqoPreINn6A1V_vNQU1GJVw/s400/smyth6-4-4.jpg" width="271" /></a></div><br />
I expected a truth window to come from a macabre tradition from the Victorian era, but could not find (in a brief Google search) anything relating to that kind of history. I was, however, reminded of intersections in built space that reveal the space outside the walls and the intermediary materiality of the building itself (like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gordon_Matta-Clark">Gordon Matta-Clark's "Conical Intersect"</a> from 1975, pictured above.) There is the use of space when we are in it, and the idea of walls protecting us from the elements but also from the public. I guess if we actually considered how thin or fragile that materiality is, versus the psychological belief of its solidity in creating a demarcation, it would be really surprising. Like thinking about how thin a t-shirt is, but that it prevents a more complicated social interaction.<br />
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Matta-Clark's piece revealed a structure and created a conduit between interior and exterior that compressed history and time: the 17th century buildings to the contemporary street scene, and ultimately the Pompidou Centre. This idea of tying together history visually by opening up space can also be seen in <a href="http://www.dezeen.com/2011/03/02/the-orange-cube-by-jakob-macfarlane/">the Orange Cube, a structure Jakob + Macfarlane Architects </a>(pictured below.)<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxfdwHygJdM5edDKpoeZ8ahzdLuKmDSLO-bFDBdu8yekpqTBuNkTmCT-vS7dRollG3D6TfDpZ4pXXwbzrsJasSUYD5K6-iXRPnJti4snB_K0r2IInJr0JFLeSfbEt8gXRhxa3fX49Zdw/s1600/dzn_The-Orange-Cube-by-Jakob-and-Macfarlane-43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSxfdwHygJdM5edDKpoeZ8ahzdLuKmDSLO-bFDBdu8yekpqTBuNkTmCT-vS7dRollG3D6TfDpZ4pXXwbzrsJasSUYD5K6-iXRPnJti4snB_K0r2IInJr0JFLeSfbEt8gXRhxa3fX49Zdw/s400/dzn_The-Orange-Cube-by-Jakob-and-Macfarlane-43.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
The goal of the project was to "reinvest the docks of Lyon on the river side and its industrial patrimony...These docks, initially made of warehouses (la Sucrière, les Douanes, les Salins, la Capitainerie), cranes, functional elements bound to the river and its flow, mutate into a territory of experimentation in order to create a new landscape that is articulated towards the river and the surrounding hills." The void at the center allows, as with "Conical Intersect," a experience of spacial geometry based on the position of the viewer. As with the truth window, what is revealed alters not so much our physical being in the space, but our awareness of that being in relation to its materiality, geography and history. There is the limitations or allowances of what we can physically navigate in a built space for sure; here there is also the implications of how what we see relates to a knowledge of where we are and how we interact with our location.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-30406704948000728402011-03-13T00:39:00.002-05:002011-03-15T23:20:41.386-04:00Erasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKKjciuM6p7jF_WxcU7_XJfh8Et6KhxKeWPCz_ak3s-wdWLrnVQ1g9-EVwM2w0kDxGS-MyzHdG1I_yV9GHi4DD-3HLhuLh0EWQKCYhXL-OWz0UVLhYAAjYvhfHSjgL_mHqrERhUXQgcE/s1600/erasure+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixKKjciuM6p7jF_WxcU7_XJfh8Et6KhxKeWPCz_ak3s-wdWLrnVQ1g9-EVwM2w0kDxGS-MyzHdG1I_yV9GHi4DD-3HLhuLh0EWQKCYhXL-OWz0UVLhYAAjYvhfHSjgL_mHqrERhUXQgcE/s400/erasure+copy.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>Poor erasers, who have been with me for so long. You hold so may false starts, so many drawings that didn't happen; so many paths almost taken and marks that seemed all wrong at the time , then removed. And now you are so full of these that you are dirty and can't hold anymore.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-83653966898644460692011-03-11T16:40:00.003-05:002011-03-22T10:46:45.004-04:00There's chess, and there's a game of chess...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/hnHv7NGWb0k?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Parody wrests the concepts and problems inherent in language use to ring truest...or, "...frillions of legitimate new ideas, so that I can say the following sentence and be utterly sure that no one has ever said it before in the history of human communication: "Hold the newsreader's nose squarely, waiter, or friendly milk will come to mand to my trousers." Perfectly ordinary words, yet never before put in that precise order...yet we all of us spend all of our days saying to each other the same things time after weary time: "I love you, don't go in there, get out, you have no right to say that, stop it, that hurt, help, marjorie is dead..."Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-30270108916468017322011-03-06T09:19:00.002-05:002011-03-09T14:32:55.310-05:00School of the flower<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/mtO8SoFpPPg?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
Diedrich Diedrichsen has a great article in the catalog for <a href="http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?tid=10074&ttype=2"><i>A Minimal Future?: Art as Object 1958-1968</i></a>, on the divergent paths minimalist music took through the classical and psychedelic camps in the 1960s. Reading it made me want to revisit this revisit <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Chasny">Ben Chasny's</a> more contemporary work in the same vein.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-39036979651321914512011-03-03T23:08:00.000-05:002011-03-03T23:08:10.525-05:00Waiting for Beckett<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxlh9SdDZ1w3Z-M_Cg8Q2NiiXtGRLd4n48NBIG9hRv1THO59zpyc5g29wd8FRN1orM2OYY7iJ22W0Y3Q2iEHQqnW8KrgT8PAuOw0_XlwWAYW7Jj2HIFFauUcsW7r5Fa60SW5aQOI7Eua0/s1600/MacGowran_Beckett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="307" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxlh9SdDZ1w3Z-M_Cg8Q2NiiXtGRLd4n48NBIG9hRv1THO59zpyc5g29wd8FRN1orM2OYY7iJ22W0Y3Q2iEHQqnW8KrgT8PAuOw0_XlwWAYW7Jj2HIFFauUcsW7r5Fa60SW5aQOI7Eua0/s400/MacGowran_Beckett.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br />
"The expression that there is nothing to express, nothing with which to express, nothing from which to express, no power to express, no desire to express, together with the obligation to express."<br />
~ Sam Beckett on the nature of contemporary art in <i>Three Dialogues </i><br />
<br />
The blog "A Piece of Monologue" has the entire feature length documentary <a href="http://www.waitingforbeckett.com/">"Waiting for Beckett" </a>posted to their site <a href="http://www.apieceofmonologue.com/2011/02/waiting-for-samuel-beckett-documentary.html">here.</a>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-45878962343062344432011-03-03T18:30:00.008-05:002011-03-05T12:35:52.798-05:00A chaos of feelings<style type="text/css">
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<i><span class="body">"Poetry remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art." ~</span></i>Jorge-Luis Borges<br />
<br />
<span class="body">I've just discovered the work of Arthur Pétronio, an Italian avant-gardist from the early 20th century who strove to find that liminal space where poetry and music, voice and instrument, meet. </span><br />
<br />
<div class="indented">"He shared in the World War I era avant-garde fascination with sound poetry, visual poetry and the music of ambient sounds, and under the influence of Wassily Kandinsky and Henri Le Fauconnier developed in 1919 a verbophonic theory for incorporating vowel sounds as elements of a musical score. He also founded several magazines that investigated connections among the arts, including La Revue de Feu, and Créer. Throughout the 1920s, Créer served as an important forum for a diverse group that included Le Corbusier, Jean Cocteau, Pablo Picasso, E.L.T. Mesens, and others interested in the fusion of word, image, and sound into the creation of a total language." </div><br />
Pétronio drew from a varied set of experts in order to synthesize this utopian intersection of sound/image/text, using a research practice that seems to have investigated the integration of similarities and differences in each practice. Among Petronio's most admired verbophonic works are <i>Tellurgie </i>(1964) and <i>Cosmosmose</i> (1968) (which you can hear on <a href="http://www.ubu.com/sound/petronio.html">ubuweb's page for him.</a>)Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-90042150764501676162011-03-01T23:17:00.003-05:002011-03-05T20:26:54.865-05:00Electric speech<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18Gp5y3HRpjfLkTIw1IqKoINhQPeoiHe4E_sdOsxl9agAnfTx00a6GQry6WU45eQUITBEx8UlV3Hah_B872dyZXL1uZD8TE_ygrbkP91hRIemTP258H77858-Co_0zbJJIzGmmb9IFW8/s1600/RiversCelinex500.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh18Gp5y3HRpjfLkTIw1IqKoINhQPeoiHe4E_sdOsxl9agAnfTx00a6GQry6WU45eQUITBEx8UlV3Hah_B872dyZXL1uZD8TE_ygrbkP91hRIemTP258H77858-Co_0zbJJIzGmmb9IFW8/s400/RiversCelinex500.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
"...woven entirely with citations, references, echos, cultural languages (what language is not?), antecedent and contemporary, which cut across and through in a vast stereophony..."<br />
~Roland Barthes, <i>Image/Music/Text</i><br />
<br />
I've been revisiting typography (partly out of my own never-realised study of it in grad school and partly out of teaching it to one enthusiastic student) by reading <a href="http://www.thinkingwithtype.com/"><i>Thinking with Type</i></a>, a lovely book that examines the history of; critical thinking about; and proper usage of typography and text. I should apologize now to those who are already typophiles; my interest in language has been more in its sonic representation, its cultural use and its linguistic characteristics. <br />
<br />
There is an unrecognized poetry in the design of words and the organization of text. Handwriting originally extended from the physical form of the human body, a direct act of the physical form that referenced it. With mechanization, typography earned the freedom to explore visually the relationships of spaces, silences, pauses and breaths in spoken language. Poetry has usually been allowed the freedom to play outside the box of MLA guidelines, and has rightfully considered the relationship between the language we use and the body that utters it. Designers and typographers have, in the meantime, worked to visually represent the richness of representation of words.<br />
<br />
Our initial experience with language is as a utility. We speak or write to communicate our needs, to share our thoughts, to express our emotions. All of these communications are necessary for us to survive as a socially interdependent species. Yet over time, we see that this communication is more than utility. The creative or unorthodox arrangement of one (or more) typefaces, styles, sizes, <i>et al,</i> guide the reader (or should I say "user of words") in a way that is subtle yet represents the secondary reading, the connotation of this set of words. This visual is not a primary as, say, an artwork; it nevertheless informs and steers the meaning of the content for the reader. Ultimately, language is never simply utilitarian. To understand the meaning, we often speak of context and intonation. Silence or absence of language leaves a space loaded with as much meaning as an intimate conversation. I recently saw <a href="http://hellbox.org/archives/001566.html">this post</a> on how the Kindle, by default, justifies the type of a book to fit the screen, obliterating any of the visual alignment usually made to make the page appear even (as well as eliminating "typographic agoraphobia" in the reader.)<br />
<br />
The experience of the thoughtful arrangement and <i>design</i> of type is ambient and does not demand our attention at first glance. Like other ambient experiences (the soundscape of a city, the movement through a building), this visual presentation of what we say connotes more about beliefs and values than we initially, consciously perceive.<br />
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<i>(The vertical ribbons of white space are called "rivers." Image above is from Céline's <u>Death on the Installment Plan</u>, which would not read with any of the same verbal hesitation without this intentional visual cue.)</i>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-88815996587993917842011-02-24T16:03:00.000-05:002011-02-24T16:03:15.804-05:00Maximalist antidote<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://ullam.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/pic_iwantitall1_1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="http://ullam.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/pic_iwantitall1_1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
Marian Bantjes on<a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/marian_bantjes_intricate_beauty_by_design.html"> her use of patterns and the baroque in a codified world. </a><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.sfmoma.org/images/artwork/large/99.558.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="393" src="http://www.sfmoma.org/images/artwork/large/99.558.jpg" width="400" /></a></div> <br />
John Maeda on <a href="http://vimeo.com/4966959">simplicity and complexity</a>.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-85553182347978978432011-02-23T10:23:00.002-05:002011-02-23T10:29:51.486-05:00Minimalist syn-drone<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/YEATdpIJn3I?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><br />
I went to a really interesting presentation at CAA a few weeks back by the Association for Critical Race Art History, that included a paper presentation by Charles L. Davis on locating the frameworks of race in architectural style and ornament. (You can watch a similar presentation<a href="http://bucerius.haifa.ac.il/race.html"> here.</a>) The perspective posed was compelling: that style and ornament derive from a cultural history, yet there is no discussion of said history after it is adopted in architecture. It seems like there are many instances in aesthetic practices where formalism reigns at the expense of identifying or discussing the importance of the cultural or vernacular that created that aesthetic. There is definitely a long history of utopian experiments that sought to universalize and eradicate the problems of difference (specifically in primary forms of communication, such as <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_language">language</a>.) Yet most of these experiments fail (otherwise I'd be writing this in Esperanto, I guess.) If they are considered experiments in formalism, they remove the impetus that necessitates language development (perspectives on experience and their subsequent descriptions in order to communicate or perpetuate them.) But what about other modes of production that communicate ideals, such as architecture, art, design and music? These reductive forms, by appealing to a commonality of experience, often talk about their source material, yet are removed from a discussion of the meaningfulness of that cultural history. And minimalism has become something adopted by the market as a means to ignore the problem of difference by clearly exposing the logical, formal elements. As with language, there is a tension between speaking to everyone and speaking to a few; with universalizing an experience and addressing its questions or problems.<br />
<br />
I found very little in an initial search for discussions of race in minimalist avant-garde music, but the work of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julius_Eastman">Julius Eastman</a> (an openly gay, black pianist and composer who was at the music department at the University at Buffalo) was often cited as point of discussion. Eastman's compositions are mostly lost, due to a tragic spiral downward towards the end of his life, but he dedicated his output to an exploration of an organic principle of reduction, where in subsequent sections "the information is taken out at a gradual and logical rate." His music also attempts to examine issues of race and identity through these forms. It's surprising that most of the reviews of his work refrain from any discussions <a href="http://arcanecandy.com/2010/05/26/julius-eastman-unjust-malaise/">of race at all</a>, despite his highly controversial titles. An example of his work is above.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-10630206947198459702011-01-23T23:04:00.001-05:002011-01-23T23:05:00.516-05:00a hole<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskcE0trdrTk9yHiVdLOlUSYXawBZUVvNyGM8gMrtkA60v9N4EZ-6b76_O3NjjKqLr8na7wVECmKVGqHFhGjCEwNaKsbK7bgwEnoR0hDrP9AkFngMXQ9A45dH8jksTSEjUMy_zJfJ1hyk/s1600/4306029771_b2099395e6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgskcE0trdrTk9yHiVdLOlUSYXawBZUVvNyGM8gMrtkA60v9N4EZ-6b76_O3NjjKqLr8na7wVECmKVGqHFhGjCEwNaKsbK7bgwEnoR0hDrP9AkFngMXQ9A45dH8jksTSEjUMy_zJfJ1hyk/s400/4306029771_b2099395e6.jpg" width="290" /></a></div><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;">Where you used to be, there is a hole in the world, which I find myself constantly walking around in the daytime, and falling in at night. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: georgia,bookman old style,palatino linotype,book antiqua,palatino,trebuchet ms,helvetica,garamond,sans-serif,arial,verdana,avante garde,century gothic,comic sans ms,times,times new roman,serif;">—<i>Edna St. Vincent Millay</i></span>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-42131103723132578392010-12-24T21:26:00.000-05:002010-12-24T21:26:34.168-05:00<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNH3Lz9GbjAycDtu-9J47Cy41vCN_DNF1TTUYe3kgfSaJcC2xgT0eiJNLGMCEV3LQW3AmdI6jVcLsQtQgwUrmJLPWTflItcXIM6AixNeeu26IadSmtKBQwexjgfqwl2PybgWrTAc8GtB8/s1600/01.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNH3Lz9GbjAycDtu-9J47Cy41vCN_DNF1TTUYe3kgfSaJcC2xgT0eiJNLGMCEV3LQW3AmdI6jVcLsQtQgwUrmJLPWTflItcXIM6AixNeeu26IadSmtKBQwexjgfqwl2PybgWrTAc8GtB8/s400/01.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><br />
</div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;">"This then, I thought, as I looked round about me, is the representation of history. It requires a falsification of perspective. We, the survivors, see everything from above, see everything at once, and still we do not know how it was."<br />
<i>— W.G. Sebald </i></div>Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-62441823598669306262010-11-18T09:51:00.000-05:002010-11-18T09:51:24.159-05:00Found<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2f5i6nBdfKGVPlDeZl6bR9wmbSwdcTQsRldlrPQzIDg8nKaW0T0vNYYJREnbaB2X3J6WQT5zINUswzw8x7Gpa8Kl1krMIeOnqlfOBsWW5xZGqSmIJeWCccVQN384Qf6_B_XLpH9hbsDk/s1600/image_card.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2f5i6nBdfKGVPlDeZl6bR9wmbSwdcTQsRldlrPQzIDg8nKaW0T0vNYYJREnbaB2X3J6WQT5zINUswzw8x7Gpa8Kl1krMIeOnqlfOBsWW5xZGqSmIJeWCccVQN384Qf6_B_XLpH9hbsDk/s320/image_card.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />
Yesterday, I bought some industrial shelves from a woman who runs a sewing and miscellany shop. She had posted them on Craigslist, which I've loved for the past year because it is affordable and eliminates the more mysterious aspects of a market economy. I've found most of the sellers I've dealt with to be kind and interested in someone using their discarded items that they themselves have no further use for. I suppose that plays off of my own sentimentality: that even things discarded are carefully passed on to another specific user instead of thrown out or anonymously donated. <br />
The shelves are great, a much-needed addition to our cluttered workspace. It was somehow comforting to know that they came from a similar situation: of being filled with fabric, old vintage items, miscellany. The woman who sold them to us showed us a wooden box of cards she had found. She had not seen them in a long time, hidden somewhere on the shelves before their dis-assembly. She was collecting playing cards she found on the street, in the hopes that one day she would have a full deck. It was a curious exercise in ordering the chaotic, and also putting faith in the random. It's beautiful to think that the found cards would not all be the same, that there was an entire deck of mismatched cards laying on streets, waiting for someone to bring them together. Like all curated collections, the order may come from the collector. It is sometimes their role to find the meaning in the accumulation.<br />
After we had loaded up and paid, she said very seriously: "Now remember, take time to set up your shelves and organize. It's very important to do that."Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-57757205864034701932010-08-02T13:16:00.001-04:002010-08-02T13:18:19.495-04:00Magnetism<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZhyFniCPjN4CbrLroI0gRurQCnlUkYR_2TTfVZMnbJ3ULiRqLg0ykYd4gj0X4ConKIa3X55LV8SixOYH1U_qJoJf9MhUimQ_n5OhjlR52BgjS0vAlzm8Ss5j9M9uV-HB8a0KaHwRkaT8/s1600/kircher-iphone.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 334px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZhyFniCPjN4CbrLroI0gRurQCnlUkYR_2TTfVZMnbJ3ULiRqLg0ykYd4gj0X4ConKIa3X55LV8SixOYH1U_qJoJf9MhUimQ_n5OhjlR52BgjS0vAlzm8Ss5j9M9uV-HB8a0KaHwRkaT8/s400/kircher-iphone.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5500862482946413394" /></a><br />"All of nature in its awful vastness and incomprehensible complexity is in the end interrelated - worlds within worlds within worlds: the seen and the unseen - the physical and the immaterial are all connected - each exerting influence on the next - bound, as it were, by chains of analogy - magnetic chains. Every decision, every action mirrors, ripples, reflects and echoes throughout the whole of creation. The world is indeed bound with secret knots." -Valentine WorthEcstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-11333612450855238382010-07-05T14:07:00.004-04:002010-07-05T15:36:45.207-04:00Seeing is believing<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox_SkpQAng7En75jBaj1wzHgDNrLVjs8krTjFjzygJgiFhnE2SMHArL5-mQlNjlw6k8eRT3rDy-1pD_7YRlexO_gIuv6SVIVlhHGxqdfl1LKDkbL3nR_XG6BbqDtSkiBxpzK4ZKPGBM4/s1600/eddy-davinci.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 278px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgox_SkpQAng7En75jBaj1wzHgDNrLVjs8krTjFjzygJgiFhnE2SMHArL5-mQlNjlw6k8eRT3rDy-1pD_7YRlexO_gIuv6SVIVlhHGxqdfl1LKDkbL3nR_XG6BbqDtSkiBxpzK4ZKPGBM4/s400/eddy-davinci.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5490507997405830818" /></a><br />Great <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/12/100712fa_fact_grann">article in the New Yorker today</a> regarding the methodology of those who authenticate the work of old masters. <br /><blockquote>The art historian Bernard Berenson described his talent as a “sixth sense.” “It is very largely a question of accumulated experience upon which your spirit sets unconsciously,” he said. “When I see a picture, in most cases, I recognize it at once as being or not being by the master it is ascribed to; the rest is merely a question of how to fish out the evidence that will make the conviction as plain to others as it is to me.” Berenson recalled that once, upon seeing a fake, he had felt an immediate discomfort in his stomach.</blockquote><br />I was thinking about it as a nice analogue for how I (or other artists, for that matter) make an artwork. Over a period of time, abstract connections that make sense on what seems to be an instinctual level are made into words. It is almost as if the response to a life load of knowledge can materialize rather quickly, but the means to communicate why that makes sense takes longer than the formulation of the idea itself. To make a unique idea that is unique to an individual universal enough to be communicated is an interesting process, a primary function of the clunky tool we call language.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5958484997110797283.post-38870724303902844252010-05-16T10:18:00.001-04:002010-05-16T18:00:45.449-04:00Health, history, horses<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVYZIxbrGo8qv0Pry1mZdAjWyTmJuCFxQ-Fk0zqqEnqOQQfbULToNhZFguSZkyUd_ziysm0pl-02dzR342lexIR37dP0CB_8GnOwhgnN91GZmMVcpJ3RCWGcVfjJy6LgDLEktqnF0770/s1600/card00713_fr.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 252px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVVYZIxbrGo8qv0Pry1mZdAjWyTmJuCFxQ-Fk0zqqEnqOQQfbULToNhZFguSZkyUd_ziysm0pl-02dzR342lexIR37dP0CB_8GnOwhgnN91GZmMVcpJ3RCWGcVfjJy6LgDLEktqnF0770/s400/card00713_fr.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471981848399443154" /></a><br />I'm finding that all this moving around has made me very aware of my experience of cities, particularly how I adapt to them both physically and psychologically. The pace of life here is different, slower than in larger cities I've lived in. (There is something to be said about the reduced stress on the immediate envorins that smaller populations have.) The freedom of time and movement has allowed me to indulge in a kind of regional wanderlust.<br /><br />We recently took a drive to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saratoga_Springs,_New_York">Saratoga Springs</a>, now famous for it's annual horse race. Originally a fort built on the Hudson River, mineral springs thought to have medicinal properties caused settlement to develop around the site. By the 19th century, it was a major destination for those suffering from a diverse list of ailments ("From Lung, Female and Various Chronic Diseases"), who sought relief from the specific mineral properties of about 110 different natural springs. As modern medicine phased out the popularity of hydrotherapy, only <a href="http://travel.nytimes.com/2007/06/30/nyregion/30summer.html">the Roosevelt</a> Spring is now still open for use. The rest of the original site, built in the 1940's for public use, is now a park. <br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhy8s5UdGQB0zzDm1NHiFsZdyQfYUSRPkGK0h4nQbV4R3gM8eWdGtmzWgLZ6J_ydD1yd7sesh6hMAxmaFcy5SqwB0KW-AVphglWu2gXcuTwDAamFL2Sd6dtkG4uurcDqMlTXDxNmMlQQY/s1600/cantina_exterior.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhy8s5UdGQB0zzDm1NHiFsZdyQfYUSRPkGK0h4nQbV4R3gM8eWdGtmzWgLZ6J_ydD1yd7sesh6hMAxmaFcy5SqwB0KW-AVphglWu2gXcuTwDAamFL2Sd6dtkG4uurcDqMlTXDxNmMlQQY/s400/cantina_exterior.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471985578145770594" /></a><br />The comparison of types of "watering holes" was apparent to me on our visit, and I couldn't help but make the relationship between contemporary consumptive practices and a prior generation's pilgrimages for a bath. The 19th c. notion of <a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/17633/17633-h/17633-h.htm#PART_II">traveling to the rural springs for rest</a> from the physical stresses of "the metropolis" involved engaging with a space and a community in an act and environment specific to the physical location and removed from the behavior needed to navigate a city. The park-like setting of the original bathhouses was a space built more for a slow contemplation. In contrast, Saratoga as it is now exhibits a more contemporary list of leisure activities related to consumption: eating, drinking, and shopping at boutique stores. All of these activities were somewhat expensive to engage in, and exhibit a much more quantitative form of leisure, i.e. you can probably calculate your fun quotient by using your receipts. Furthermore, many of the stores are chains or sell a displaced good (Mexican food or Rastafarian gear.) It's as if the space is simulating a unique experience, but really acting as a surface for what is known. As posited by <a href="http://www.eurozine.com/articles/2006-12-15-misik-en.html">Robert Misik</a>, "Public places that are only pseudo-cities, backdrops of the social in which one can indeed be active, but only in a peculiarly passive way."<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiGPG_MSRa7_U-YA6WwVL_7TvNavlItHya7-IoFzQNhKDFuixG56ajydv4gUhQO23_HrKJ3cIZm4EqeSaghpsybGT4N31a_c4QBgC66fir8Dn6UFE1eQi3IOvQm-KLMYqTH9CtH6CTAXs/s1600/highline.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 295px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiGPG_MSRa7_U-YA6WwVL_7TvNavlItHya7-IoFzQNhKDFuixG56ajydv4gUhQO23_HrKJ3cIZm4EqeSaghpsybGT4N31a_c4QBgC66fir8Dn6UFE1eQi3IOvQm-KLMYqTH9CtH6CTAXs/s400/highline.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471986372254006978" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio8uBZXegZQ8NPzrjYYROOjsskxGXdjsYtIfVugmp8G91oKiN-jJ8QfDL3WqZ4mJavEIv8sRm7ltG5bTKla5K5qncmVXly14NhyphenhyphenNa9XLYBbPRitKsFuXrApLa5mFIpvDxUSAThDJXOMgE/s1600/highline17.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio8uBZXegZQ8NPzrjYYROOjsskxGXdjsYtIfVugmp8G91oKiN-jJ8QfDL3WqZ4mJavEIv8sRm7ltG5bTKla5K5qncmVXly14NhyphenhyphenNa9XLYBbPRitKsFuXrApLa5mFIpvDxUSAThDJXOMgE/s400/highline17.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5471987740036624818" /></a><br />What will be the next face of cities? Saratoga has retained it's visual appearance as a city built in the 19th century, yet has had to adapt to the rapid change in use of urban centers as shells for global culture. And now with the connectivity provided by the internet, a physical location for interacting, sharing information and trading goods and services is not necessary. We no longer need to go anywhere. And yet our cities still exist and function. People still move to them, live in them and work in them. If not centers of commerce, then perhaps our communal activities can become truly about communities again. <a href="http://www.thehighline.org/">The High line</a> project in New York, for example, re-imagined the detritus of industry as open space for community interaction. In places like this, we would be entering back in to the "real", where we could experience the phenomena of lived space as dictated by users, not commercial interests. If we are hoping to experience a combination of a density of human interaction and the opportunity for contemplative space and time, it seems a viable solution. I guess as long as people can use a laptop to order their groceries and check their email there, it would work.Ecstacticizehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06384749441374979843noreply@blogger.com0