Oswego County NY

emotional librarians/ cataloguing mayhem

In a paper called, "Has cataloguing become too simple? Why it matters for
cataloguers, catalogues and clients," Paul Staincliffe gives an emotional read on the state of cataloguing for library purposes, and in doing so brings up some interesting questions about the shifting position of library and librarian in our access obsessed digi world as well as our instinctual/habitual gathering, digitizing, and organizing of information.

Cataloguing, as an art or science is not specific in its reason for existing. Information Science was once at odds; split between the arts and sciences, then confirmed to be science, and now appropriated as a mode of art making and is engineered to suit the www ready population. Now the question lies more in whether cataloguing (especially for library purposes) should split itself between following pre existing rules or move towards creating complete access to the widest population it can reach. The conflict between rules and access is in that if there is total access, the chaotic structure of the web would upset the principals that empower the rules, which are: 1. we all follow the same rules 2. the rules are interpreted the same way, and 3. we understand the catalogue exists in a global environment. The split has already taken place and from my perspective, access has been favored in the public library system of Brooklyn and NYPL. The idea of library/librarian has shifted to supply the library "client" with what they need by mimicking the tools we are able to use.

We catalogue things because they exist and we are compulsed to organize things in order to understand them. The desire to digitize all information is widespread and all encompassing. Even when we have the literal object in our hands, there is something valuable to us in scanning it with i-sight and showing it to our online community, or maintaining our own library catalogue online (http://www.librarything.com/). I definitely feel this compulsion. More versions is better. But to what end are we collecting information on our hard drives and on our ftp sites? All the endless projects to network information on and offline, to catalogue endless resources is all mysterious labor with incalculable cost with no clear far reaching purpose.
An analogy that was used in the paper was that the idea of "catalogue" (analog of course) was to be built like a wall, adding one brick at a time, all surfaces coming together in relation to all the others to form a solid whole. With the amount of sources and information available, it seems that our wall would be growing with gaps that anticipate all the other information that will be missed initially.

ownership and access. they hate eachother.

vienna, a coloring book.

"Delete! - Delettering the Public Space"
Happened: Jun 6, 2005

Delete! � Delettering the Public Space is a huge public installation that takes place on Neubaugasse in Vienna�s 7th District from June 6 � 20. During this two-week period, all signage will be covered by yellow foils and plastic. All signage (barring those needed for safety), company logos, advertising, symbols and pictograms will be obscured in order to focus on various aspects to this art project organized by Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf. Will the Viennese be lost in time and space without the media-driven bearings they have come to expect?

This is ultra exciting to look at given my upcoming project where I want to help a city block to find its authentic self using Ayurvedic concepts of classification and systems of care.

china beat me/ mystic city planning

China takes DIY approach to mountain greenery

Associated Press
Wednesday February 14, 2007
Guardian Unlimited


The green-painted mountainside in Fumin county, south-west China. Photograph: China Daily/Reuters


Villagers in south-western China are scratching their heads over the local government's decision to paint a barren mountainside green, it was reported today.

Workers who began spraying the Laoshou mountain last August told nearby residents they were doing so on the orders of the area authorities, but had not been told why.

Some villagers believed Fumin county officials were attempting to change the area's feng shui - the ancient Chinese belief of harmonising the physical environment for maximum health and financial benefit.

I'm a lightning rod for jesus.

Last week I accidentally went to the UN, which was a strange but slightly thrilling experience. For one thing, this sign is hand painted or colored in. However, there was an exhibition of Holocaust survivors' work inside the lobby of the UN but all the work on display were low quality digital print. From very far away they passed as paintings and prints and were framed very nicely, but up close they were pixelated. The meditation room is mysterious and otherworldly. A 'mysterious mural' by painter Bo Beskow is behind a huge slab of stone.

There have been some interesting reactions:

"The U.N. Meditation Room (right) is built in the shape of a truncated pyramid. In the center is an altar made out of magnetite, the largest natural piece of magnetite ever mined. For meditation purposes it is probably the most ideal spot on the planet, since the magnetite altar has its foundation straight down, built into the bedrock of the land below; tapping into the energies of the earth itself. The mysterious mural also helps the worshippers tune into esoteric energies, and helps facilitate a state of altered consciousness."
or
Two weeks ago, I was in the United Nations while on my seventh trip to New York City. I stood in the meditation room, which contains Satan's altar. I went into this room to do spiritual warfare and bind devils through the blood of Jesus Christ. The room was designed by the late Secretary General of the UN, Dag Hammerjskold, who said that the black stone monolith or block is "every man's god." The room is 18 feet wide at the entrance, which in numerology is 3 sixes. The room is also 33 feet long and tapers inward to form a truncated pyramid. There is an abstract mural on the front wall, which is full of witchcraft symbols, and in the middle of the room, is a black stone block, which weighs exactly 6.5 tons or 13,000 pounds. The black stone block has a certain kind of magnetism about it, and when I walked into the room with my praying wife, I could sense the intense presence of an evil force beyond description. This is where the world leaders and Illuminati masterminds go to meditate, which is why it is open to the public only in the mornings. Once the sun moves from antemeridiem to post meridiem only the adept in witchcraft are allowed into that room, for that is witchcraft doctrine regarding meditation. As the sun gives way to waning light and the female power of the moon goddess, the meditation room at the UN becomes off-limits to what they call the "profane."

Anyway,

Sara and Ari visited over the weekend, here they are at Salmagundi, the art club on 5th ave where I met Lisa Yuskavage and awkwardly invited her to the Project 1981 show on Friday.



Ken Resseger had an art show, here he is with his work.



All I can listen to is "I'm a lightning rod for jesus" by Calvin Johnson, but sometimes also the Clash or the begging and bragging (fundraising) on WNYC. Otherwise, people have been eating because it is that season. See above. See Jenny eat. See Joe eat. Eat, kids. Eat.

Moscow? Berlin?

Nope, Brighton Beach. Does the picture above mean the cursive 'i love you' tagger still exists? this is a fresh one, this bus stop was not labeled last week. maybe the writer moved to the south of brooklyn after graduating from pratt with an mfa in 'creative writing'.

g train afterparty

After leaving the Project 1981 opening in Queens, we were forced to rely on the G train for transportation home. Introducing, the gang. A gang.

a little funny

Project 1981 opening night for "It isn't funny anymore"

her game

this is the game i have been making, i think it is done now. you can make things or ruin them and slowly travel along the path of the river. if you make it across the board, then you have to figure out what to do- because then my job is done. you can be the mobile sky scraper, the sailboat, or the exploded.

the difference between a pond and a puddle

puddle. definition of waterbody here. adopt-a-waterbody (utah) here. Puddles are often considered a source of recreation by children, who consider jumping in puddles to be an "up-side" to rain.


Not just a puddle, not quite a pond.

A puddle is a spontaneous water body determined by a surface and a water source. It is mobile and adaptable. By preserving a puddle it becomes a contained man made ground water resource, or a pond. A pond can be traversed by boats and can show its awareness of the night sky that floats above. A pond is an institutionalized puddle with restricted water flow. A puddle moves freely in all directions, unchanneled.

In Ayurveda, the doshic analysis of personality/body type places a person as a combination of universal elements of water, ether, air, earth, and fire. If you are a Kapha dosha, or combination of water and earth, to be successful the earth is in there to provide a natural structure for the water. A happy kapha supposedly will create their own natural structure to keep themselves from flowing in all directions. Channeling energy requires a substantial ability to create and maintain direction so not to seep into too many cracks at once.
A pond seems more dignified, and the puddle more pathetic. But, I like the underdogness of the puddle. Humility in a body of water is always good.

pumping out kitties

this cat is coco and she is about to squirt out some babies real quick like. we can safely blame the guy waiting outside our gate below.

back in the basement

cold as hell but less murky than i expected. cafe bustello comes to my rescue.
the first image is the pond/puddle and the billboard/sailboat is my first attempt at making a sky to float on the water. the rocks in the last picture are paper mache discarded brooklyn telephone books, which there are ever so many of. they make lovely rocks or spitballs or whatever you need them to be. anyway, things are back to normal. i haven't spent more than 25 minutes of waking life at home for a few weeks. i am also pretty excited about a book of public school bldg photos i have been unconsciously building. i got new photo paper and found a lame binder. perfect.