Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
What will we call history in the future? The evidences? The Tale?
"Memory, and yet deeper than memory: the memory of the trans-personal, the memory of time itself: it used to be called "history", but what will we call it in the future? The Accounts? The Lore? The Evidences? The Tale? Who knows. I for one won't be calling it "history". I want to fit our awareness of becomming into a bigger set of understandings than the mere idea of warring factions winning and losing battles with one another, then inventing a History to justify it." -PD
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Social Practitioner:
Between an orchestra
And an audience
In a hall
The conductor responds to two populations at once, and a physical space. Her first responsibility is to the orchestra. The relationship between the conductor and the orchestra will be referred to as relationship 1, characterized by a performance, collaboration, interdependence, and a task.
Similarly and differently:
The duty of the Social Practitioner
The common social practitioner carefully selects an audience who is different than the common ticket buyers, and this audience will be active within her new project. We will refer to this active audience as the orchestra. Though the social practitioner has invited the orchestra to perform, she is not going to entertain them, pay them, or control them. She invites the orchestra to define the project.
It seems ridiculous that a social practitioner would work with an orchestra. For this reason we will refer to her as a conductor—so be it. The relationship between the conductor and her selected group of participants is based on a common goal—the project.
We will call the public unveiling of the project the concert. In this model, the orchestra will be active and attentive in a situation where they are chosen for the quality of sound they produce and its relevance to the conductor’s song. The conductor often creates a structure for participation in or around a rehearsal schedule.
The production of a conductor often begins with research based on personal interest or longing. Based on her quest, she will propose a program to an Institution or a Venue. She may or may not have been invited to submit said proposal. In the proposal she defines the basic structure of the work— for the sake of this extended metaphor, she describes a series of songs performed by an orchestra over the duration of a weekend to Carnegie Hall. In her proposal, she informs the committee that her research has led her to these songs because of their rich and obscure history, for example, and because it originated in the town next to that of her great-great-great-grandfather. Her submission does not include the complex process of finding her orchestra, designing and negotiating how they will play their instruments, or that she does not actually know exactly how the piece will sound.
As she holds auditions for the orchestra, she performs her chosen self, whether it is her ‘genuine’ self or another character. This self shifts with every project. The way a conductor models herself from the audition to concert sets the tone for the collaboration, representing the type of action, interdependence, rigor and comedy that the musicians will take on. Perhaps she wears a tuxedo to auditions.
The conductor unifies performers, sets the tempo, executes clear preparations and beats, and listens critically in order to shape the sound of the ensemble. In rehearsal, she listens closely to the qualities naturally present in the sound of the musicians, always referencing her original research for guidance. She is attempting to invent a system for the people playing their instruments to create a sound that is entirely theirs, and simultaneously to honor the song and its context (which was written for different people, with different instruments). In the process of listening to the orchestra, the conductor develops an intimate understanding of the musicians, and she forms the arrangement of the song around their sound. A long series of rehearsals leading to a concert builds a complex relationship between the conductor and the musicians, and at best, interdependence happens. This relationship is represented by the staged re-enactment at the concert.
On stage the conductor represents leadership and continuity, as it has been cultivated in rehearsal. The orchestra knows what to do when they are on stage. During the final performance, which we have been referencing as the concert, she gives visual cues to support and elevate feelings and sounds already familiar to the performers. If the conductor wasn’t there for the performance, the concert could go on. Why is she still there?
The language of the conductor in concert is typically created with body movements, specifically the waving of hands and wands. One hand often keeps tempo while the other might indicate pitch or punctuation. Communication is non-verbal during a performance—this is a melodramatic performance of absolute leadership, but do not be fooled! She is not mute! In rehearsal frequent interruptions by the conductor allow for verbal interactions. The face is also an important source of instruction—eyebrow manipulation and the force of the eye, as well as jaw action, indicate spirit and intensity. This language might offer cues for speed, tempo, or intensity. It is cultivated as a temporary dialect that is buried in a piece, specific to the song or the group of musicians.
The conductor’s instructions and actions are most affective when they are consistent and clear, and when that happens, a form for the relationship between conductor and musician can be built, trusted, and manipulated. Good rapport is essential, so that the orchestra members feel comfortable and confident in their abilities to provide meaningful contributions to the collective sound. The orchestra performs as one, but individual musicians must be able to experience the music and play autonomously, so that they can practice at home.
The relationship of the conductor to her live audience will be called relationship 2.
The audience sees the back of the conductor. The conductor does not perform to the audience directly, though her ticket sales and appreciation from her public will win her success and money. She speaks indirectly-- through the orchestra.
In Relationship 2, the conductor deceives the audience. They accept an illusion: that this performance is a live collaboration between the orchestra and the conductor. Along with this concession, the audience also accepts that they do not understand the nature of the relationship between the conductor and the orchestra or the narrative behind the piece that they are witnessing. There is no trace of, nor an opportunity to question what the interpersonal conflicts or struggles were that led to this public presentation of the piece. There is willingness among the audience to misunderstand, or not understand, and then to witness the results of a possibly long-term collaboration.
To the orchestra, the concert performance acts mainly as evidence and evaluation of the work accomplished rehearsals; but to the audience, the performance is the only thing. As we have previously discussed, the function of the on-stage relationship between the conductor and the orchestra is to make the performance of conducting-- specifically, the management of the group on stage-- look dramatic and vital when, in actuality, the orchestrated performers already know very well what to do. The conductor is making the rhythm of the music and the sounds visible for all to see, though she must look as if she is primarily performing this dance for the orchestra, who are playing along with the facade that they are fully dependent upon the arm-waving cues to inform the spirit and pace of the piece. Thus, the conductor’s body faces the orchestra, while her back is to the audience. The audience needs this. Their evaluation of the choreography of the rhetorical instructions to the orchestra is based on the quality of the sound produced. They understand the symbolic presence on stage of the conductor. They are happy to see her back as she reenacts her work.
With her back to the audience, the conductor turns her face away from those that buy the tickets. Her work on stage is to signify her real work, which is finished now. She is not valued for her personality, her stage presence, her choreography. The sounds produced through her labors are not about her. She did not write the music that is being played. The conductor did not create a sound by rubbing things together, blowing or plucking anything. Is she a musician, is she an organizer, is she a performer, or is she just a figurehead?
Her relationship with the space will be called relationship 3.
The space where the orchestra is seen is always a place, sometimes even an entity, with specific expectations and requirements, a relationship to a funding source that might necessitate a bureaucracy as well as an architectural form. The form affects the performance and experience of the orchestra with specific aesthetic and sound qualities.
As described in relationship 1, the process of developing an orchestral project began for the conductor when she sent a proposal, possibly unsolicited, to an Institution or Venue that she has been following, in this case Carnegie Hall. Based on their mission statement it seemed they might support projects like hers. She was seeking fiscal support and a place to rehearse, perform. She was also seeking a publicity campaign, managed by the marketing department, funded by the Institution, with access to the large mailing list.
The conductor knows that the space affects the meaning of the performance. The qualities of the physical space, as well as its history, attract a specific type of audience.
Our conductor must transform out of her role as orchestra leader when she interacts with the Institution or Venue. She must perform the role of a responsible, organized, and accomplished professional. In this character, she must clearly explain her project (playing a few songs from the town next to her great-great-great-grandpa’s village) in a way that the administration will appreciate and understand as practical, organized, and relevant to their mission statement.
The negotiation between the creative processes within the orchestra and the bureaucratic rigidity of an Institution trains the conductor as a diplomat. The self-promotion, communication, inspiration, collaboration, and relationships that develop all the while with her back to her audience is a performance of many selves and for many audiences. The social practitioner who is the conductor, who was accidentally trained as a diplomat, is moving through borders that define function, class, attitude, and intention. She is always being something. She is probably always running a little late.
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Legal forms
"But if you recognize that nature too has rights, and (if you provide) legal forms to protect and preserve those rights, then you can achieve balance."
I don't know.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Why Wikileaks is an art project by V.Vale
Monday, April 4, 2011
My work
If I just keep prying things, this whole thing might fall apart. Or else nothing will happen, again. No one saw me prying. I was hiding because I knew other people who really know the hows and whys of prying would just laugh at me and my last of strategy for bringing the whole thing down. So while I am prying, I am covering up my work with my forearm, ever so subtly, just in case an expert comes by and shows me a better way. That would be the worst. Because then they would save me from all this prying, which was supposed to take all my energy for the next long while, which is so much better than finishing this prying, bringing the whole thing down, and being left with nothing to do, and a false sense of accomplishment. I want to feel the process of discovery within the bringing of this shit to its knees, but the truth is that I know that other people are already working on it and doing a great job. And they really enjoy the work. They’ve invited all their friends to help them, and they are drinking coronas while they chip away—they are celebrating because they have almost finished. I hope they don’t see me, because my progress is so slow, and I would be so embarrassed that I thought I would do all this work myself. I just got here with this screwdriver and I started wedging it into shit, and I assumed that I would finish, somehow, though I hadn’t visualized the way that that would happen. Maybe I don’t know what it is to finish prying things off, but it’s probably not going to make that big of a difference either way. I just wanted something to keep myself busy with, with a sense of progress and great benefits until I am done working.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
What is it. It is imagined, it is not anything.
na·tion
[ney-shuh
n] 
Show IPA Tuesday, March 15, 2011
My belly was my sun-dial
The gods confound the man who first found out
How to distinguish hours! Confound him, too,
Who in this place set up a sun-dial,
To cut and hack my days so wretchedly
Into small portions. When I was a boy,
My belly was my sun-dial; one more sure,
Truer, and more exact than any of them.
This dial told me when twas prper time
To go to dinner, when I had aught to eat.
But now-a-days, why even when I have,
I can't fall-to, unless the sun give leave.
The greater part of its inhabitants,
Shrunk up with hunger, creep along the streets!
Plautus (d. 184 B.C.)
p. 28 of The Discoverers, Daniel Boorstin
Monday, March 14, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Sympathies, an open proposal.
Sympathy is:
1. Sameness of feeling
2. action or response arising from this
3. agreement in qualities, harmony, accord
4. a mutual liking or understanding arising from the sameness of feeling
Sympathies are:
Events where we gather to show our fiercest sympathy. We hold signs without words. The posterboard and the language is replaced by mirrors. We amble, we look, we sympathize.
Don't think Hallmark Card Sympathy, think about how you feel about
Egyptian Revolutionaries, Wisconsin Workers, Planned Parenthood Supporters.
Question the 'form' of 'protest' in your life. How do you deal with the savageness that so many other people experience when you are comfortable, and maybe even happy?
Is it possible to design a new form for our own rebellion?
How. As training, I would like to hold a series of walks for people who are captivated, frightened, worried, and unclear about what to do about so many overwhelming upheavals in the world. With mirrors as our protest signs, we will walk and think about what we are and where. We will look at things, see ourselves where we are, see what others see, and look at eachother. We show or feel sympathy for what we see when we see it, where we are. Meanwhile we think of those who are breaking, or almost broken, revolting against forces as big as nations and tsunamis. For many people who are only surviving recent events, there is no meanwhile to take notice of, meanwhile is a privilege. Let us celebrate the meanwhile, offer sympathy, and focus in on the wonder and the disaster of everywhere we are.
fellow feelings, of like feelings.
1. Sameness of feeling
2. action or response arising from this
3. agreement in qualities, harmony, accord
4. a mutual liking or understanding arising from the sameness of feeling
5. The entering into or ability to enter into another person's mental state, feelings, emotions
6. In physics, a relation or harmony between bodies of such a nature that vibrations in one cause a sympathetic vibration in the other
7. In physiology, a relation between parts of the body of such a nature that a disorder in one induces a disorder in the other
8. A supposed tendency of certain things to unite or act on eachother.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Actual Products Intensify Print Quality
Today I attended an afternoon workshop at SF Camerawork led by Ariel Goldberg, sponsored by Nonsite Collective. This is what happened to me:
This trip was fraught, as it was only a picture in a picture in a picture, and no one knew who would ultimately be looking at the photos, the final images from the outside. Only we know that the print quality gets better when the product is in the image, or rather when there is a product, not just an imagined one or a referenced one, but a real 4 color product. Its either that or it’s a sense of responsibility that will help the image quality improve. Take ownership of this experience and get into the photo’s shoes, try to sympathize with the paper quality or the texture of the vinyl, and have the self discipline to understand how hard it must be to print on such a low thread count. Feel how impossible it must be to exist with so much tooth that even the simplest image gets distorted when it is merges with you.
The distracting part of all this is that from the get go, no matter if there is ever paper or vinyl, there is or was a photographer, or we hope that there was, and they will never experience texture. But what if the camera was just set on automatic, and if it even cleans its own lenses? What if all the cameras now clean their own lenses? If the lens is always clean, and the photos are always taken at the right time, or every time, on a schedule, then is there nothing behind this photo, is it just a trace of the automation? And the self healing, self sufficient, selfless photographer who never has to take a picture, who can’t even properly dirty the lens? If looking at photos is a mechanical process, which seems to be the case, and taking the picture is too, and they clean their own lenses, then what are you doing? If we enjoy the look of taking photos, the ethos, the freedom of association, the inside jokes and the body language, then we would also probably really enjoy the cleaning of the lenses. It’s good to be needed, you know?
I would like to step up to the podium. I would like to propose a camera club, where we all focus on the maintenance of the camera. We turn off the auto clean function and we enjoy the cycle of the dirtying of the lens, and then of course we enjoy the cleaning of the lens, which we do by hand, with two hands and a handkerchief, just like before time. The lens is so transparent when we clean it, and it could be totally self satisfied, but the truth is that you can’t stand to leave it alone. Don’t let it clean itself, because once it is clean, it becomes everything it could ever be, its total potential is maxed out, and then where else does it have to go? There’s nowhere but up to go until you’re at the top, and then you are pure, clean, alone. And it’s just a lens, and that is not the life worth seeing through. This clean lens obsession and maybe eventually the camera needs to consider whether the lens is a healthy part of its body, or if it should be removable. Its amazing what goes into an automatic image of chance, the lens must be so clean, it must almost not be there.
Friday, March 11, 2011
The Language of the Socially Good
The community of the untold story: it takes one individual to advocate on behalf of the artisans and create the mission. To create new formulas to institute a new training strategy of healthiness, a system of health by a team from a team of doctors, scientists, artists and film makers. A 2 prong effort with everyone in the field, creating outreach to create funding.
Why is this so hard? Inspired by health issues the investment of wonder is on the market. Imagine being a family of real environmental nightmare strategy.
First, identify creative leaders of the community where everyone is watching.
The successful transition and what was exciting is you’ve removed the teaching barriers-- we took him to the intrenational market problems strategy. 25 community members transitioned to prohibit development, trading in the field, developing with the other, softer voices for the long term benefit of design training.
In our workshop these drawings, a local production, as well as the safety or luxury of time. It shows the deep connection to place she was inspired by herself. The challenges were being fused with and the strong market funding dried up, challenging for sustainable funding to keep this continuing for the community.
For the innovative on going dynamic as well as models, sociologists, better prepared to tackle the community from the field. If you can’t sustain yourself, you can feel the life, its made by hand from the plan to the land, from the soil to the market, this is coming of age. Preserve these rich traditions, learning how to create new models of reproduceable engagement to a deeper appreciation of stones and connection to culture of community, desiring celebration.
Social Craft Explanation// We are going to Bangalore
Lets now look closely at Social Craft.Social Craft is a framework and a method of valuing and studying the
minutia of every day experiences.
Please take out your magnifying glass. While holding it in your left
hand, stick your right index finger through the center of the glass.
Hold it up to your eye to examine this experience.
Through the use of magnifying glasses we can see what we often only look at...
By observing the experiences that we often take for granted, we stand
to learn more of their truth and essence. If we magnify our daily
routines and use them as sources of physical, mental, emotional, and
social learning, education becomes universally available and equal.
Social Craft honors the syllabus of your life. Your life begins at
home.
When I think of how I do what I do, it all goes back to what I saw and learned from
home. I had to clean underneath the table as well as the top of it, and now, not
coincidentally, I find myself looking underneath everything I do. I find my interests
to be in finding and attending to hidden details, shining them up or deciding to leave
them hidden. I don’t think it is a stretch to say that my love of secret details and my
thoroughness has come to be out of a rigorous weekly Saturday house cleaning.
Home is our first curriculum. It is where we learn many of the
systems for navigating life. We think it is the best place to start
to study and to practice social craft. To formalize the home as a
site of learning, we will study its physical structure, its relation
to the body, and its ritual use. Our class will build and use a house.
Its use as a site of learning will make it a home.
The discussion of ‘ home’ in India is complex, and cannot be parsed
without acknowledging the domestic laborers that cohabit with many families. There is
a movement in Bangalore to unionize private household workers, and from afar
this seems to be a cultural phenomenon that is currently being questioned in
the media and the art world. The domestic labor industry extends to
many homes- not just of the rich, but across most social strata from
lower middle class and above, wherein maids, cooks, and caretakers complete the
concept and experience of Indian family life.
In speaking to friends in India, I have learned that these workers are not considered to
be employees nor family members, but rather are seen as an undefined aspect of the
household.
We are interested in understanding the social aspects of the Indian home and
acknowledging the expertise that accrues in the process of developing and keeping it as
a viable enterprise. Not only witnessing, but taking an objective look at domestic labor-
- valuing it as a formative part of human development and education-- will no doubt have
an impact on how participants see their own relationship to home and home workers.
To begin our exploration of home and work, we will hire 4 local experts, versed in
homemaking. They are a real estate agent, a vedic architect, a matriarch, and a
builder. We will hire and compensate them as adjunct faculty through
Srishti, opening up the question of class and academic status. We hope to see their homes
and seek their assistance in building a house, understanding its maintenance
and practices, and finding the art and education inherent in it. We
are working with srishti to devise a method of payment and contracts
that value them as a professor-- offering them the opportunity to
be professionally validated, and paid in a way that legitimizes their work with us to the
government and the institution of srishti, or not.
We will meet with students daily to build a home, devise home
practices and to explode these as valuable learning experiences and
art practices. The radical nature of inserting the home inside a
school campus, as a physical structure and as a method for learning,
is not only poetic but speaks to the historical
synthesis of education from the home and the family.
This home/school will happen through daily classes, where students and
experts become immersed in the design and building of a physical
structure, which will house the class. The daily maintenance of the
house generates a learning environment that encompasses the classes
collective idea of home. This idea will be informed by active
research and documentation of local housing and domestic politics.
We will invite Bangalore to a weekly series of open house events, where members of the
class will perform their research, exhibiting the functions of the home on campus.
