want it to stop : for a break at least



I am in a sea of emails and collecting files for the exhibition in Pancevo, which is all programmed now and I am very happy about. But right now its the fun part of compiling everyone's texts and the final budget. All day in a pretty cafe, sitting on the computer, like a nerd. At least Christoph visited me for a while here and we laughed so much we even cried.

And now it's time to go meet Angela and Gerhald for another SAUNA PARTY! I forgot my camera again... and its to steamy in there anyways. This one isn't in a nightclub though.

Program for the exhibition:
- Angela Dorrer (Germany)
- Ivana Jovanovic (Serbia)
- Zosen (Argentina/Spain)
- EVOL [Roc Jimenez de Cineros] (Spain)
- Aleksandra Mir (Poland)
- AGF (Germany)
- Robert del Tredici (Canada)
- KUDA.org (Serbia)
- Veljko Onjin (Serbia)
- Istvan Kantor (Canada/Hungary)
- Gjorgje Jovanovik (Macedonia)
- Lucas Abela (Australia)

more details soon. after sauna

le bo tichat


photo par Edith Bories, in Sofia, August 2008

zombies








Yesterday I participated in the Monochrom Zombie Flash Mob in the center of Vienna.
We were around 20 people with pretty extreme makeup.

People kept asking in the street "what is this protest about? Are you political? Are you fighting against fur coats?"

I guess any gathering of a group of people is assumed to be political these days. Though its pretty hard to be politically engaged and active about it when YOU'RE DEAD! For once, a whole day dedicated just to fun! I have tons of photos, here are just a few of them...



also more photos by Maxi Ratzkowski:


and info in German from the Monochrom site : http://www.monochrom.at/viennese-zombie-brood/

old photo!!!


I frequently get asked how I first came to Bulgaria.
It was because I heard about this event in 2005, Netuser3 Conference hosted by Interspace Media Art Center, on Ostrov Bulshevik, a small island in Bulgaria. During thta event I met many great people that I am still in contact with. One was a co-organizer Ales Zemene, now living in Prague and another is Michael Ashauer, a digital artist living in Vienna. I ran into Ashe recently and he said he still had this photo of me on the island. I just received it now.
What more could a girl want... camping... the sea... wireless internet...

trance tattoo


apparently these tattoos protect and they can also put people in trances...

presentation at dorkbot

Simon Law took this photo of me talking at Dorkbot in Montreal and weweje found it online recently.
hm... nothing esle to say about that actually...

Exploding People

See the main article on the Byford Dolphin Diving bell accident

While a large reduction in atmospheric pressure on a human usually only causes decompression sickness, there is one case of a sudden massive pressure drop causing a human to explode. In 1983, four divers were in a decompression chamber aboard the Byford Dolphin oil rig. The chamber explosively decompressed from 9 atm to 1 atm following the improper opening of a pressure clamp. The sudden decompression killed all four divers, with the diver nearest the open clamp literally exploding. The rapid expansion of dissolved gases in his body caused the ejection of his internal organs, with one part of his body found 10 m above the chamber.

Human corpses can explode from natural causes. One famous example is that of William the Conqueror. King William I of England was very heavy-set, and at age 60 he was injured when his horse jostled, walking on a hot coal left after burning a town during a siege. William's intestines were ruptured, and he suffered a slow, painful death from peritonitis. It was at the end of a hot summer, there was no refrigeration, and the funeral had to wait until nobles and luminaries had traveled to the church for the funeral. And so his body swelled beyond the size of the coffin that had been made. According to the Oxford Illustrated History of Britain:

On 9 September 1087, William I died. His body was carried to his great church of St. Stephen at Caen. Towards the end of his life he had grown very fat, and when the attendants tried to force the body into the stone sarcophagus, it burst, filling the church with a foul smell. It was an unfortunate ending to the career of an unusually fortunate and competent king.[9]

A slightly more detailed account from Panati (1999) includes:

From postmortem decay the abscess had turgidly putrefied, bloating the corpse and expanding its girth. A group of bishops applied pressure on the king's abdomen to force the body downward (in the coffin) but it moved only inches; the lid still would not shut. Again they pushed, and the abdominal wall, already under intense internal pressure, burst. Pus and putrefaction drenched the king's death garb and seeped throughout the coffin. The stench so overpowered chapel mourners that, hands to noses, many raced for the doors.[10]

thx agf :P

NOMADS :: GOT IT






yyyyyeeeessss!!! i finally mananged after like 2 years of searching to download my favorite movie!!!
Nomads, 1986

Till now, it was never available for download, and now its taken almost 3 weeks to get the full file.
YAAAAAAAYYYYY
I will watch it tomorrow (my b-day)
:)

SAUNA.08




in Brut (a Vienna bar), for the last 3 weeks there have been SAUNA art parties.

the first week featured art by women, the second, art made by mixed groups and the third, last night was art by men.

Throughout the events a REAL SAUNA was installed in the night club! YES REALLY.

So each week were some artsy sound performances, AV performances (Franziska and Nik were great on mixed night) and some weirdo bands.

So I am picky about music and last night I went with Angela and Marius and met Nik there... but then I wasn't so into the music and was thinking of leaving until... I remembered THE SAUNA.

Yes this really is a real sauna inside of a big night club. It was made of a wood structure covered in kind of clear plastic with a sauna oven inside.

So Angela, Marius, I and some other people got undressed and got in the sauna. And it was so nice wew stayed in there for hours. It wasn't smoky and we were shielded from the outside party and goofy music by the warm ridiculousness of the sauna.

When some outsiders tried to peer in we called them "Schweine!"

I think I'd like to make more sauna parties :) Sorry , no photos because we were so stripped it was not the time to carry cameras. I know someone did take video with a very huge camera...maybe I will find it one day.

she graduated!


This is a photo of my dear friends Lea and Lioubo on Lea's graduation day from International Relations at the Sorbonne.

I met Lea and Lioubo a few years ago in Bulgaria while they were working in Sliven. Lea was working for Medecins du Monde running a health clinic in a Roma Community.

Congratulations to Lea! Now we'll have time to start some projects!

rainbow rabbit : being alone


photo by Hannah Whitaker, 2007

I have been thinking about the concept/status of being alone. Whether everyone has a general sense of being alone or not. And I am not talking about not being near to and interacting with other people.

In regards to this I thought about some relationships with people and how they affected my idea of my personal position. I think in fact they have not affected it, but only have in smaller or bigger ways created illusions around it.

i'm just going to write in general terms, maybe a bit boring, but I don't want to start naming names and details and bla bla.

I have one relationship for example that consists of seeing someone, on occasion and in those moments, being close to them, but a sense of being separate and independent is actually always there. I don't see any of this as a bad thing. The relationship is great and stable and somehow the fact that a reality of being alone always stays in sight makes the whole thing very real feeling and solid.

Another recent relationship was different from this. In knowing this person I somehow had a sense of not being alone on the planet, even if it was just for a short time or for a few short moments. But I don't know how to view this, as it now seems maybe like it was just an illusion that was created, covering the bigger reality of being essentially independent and alone.

Its important to note that I don't see "loneliness" or states of "being alone" as negative. People ask me about this a lot since I travel. In some moments its less fun, frustrating or boring to be on my own, but in just as many moments its great. So like most states of being, its pretty balanced overall and just a state, so I can't see it as a bad thing, or an especially good thing.

I drew no conclusions here... I thought maybe I was going to... maybe later.

real update : october

So lots of people, some I meet here in Vienna and everyone I talk to that is far away is asking me : What are you working on in Austria?

Answer: Nothing here.

Well, I haven't been online much, no internet at my house (me offline means I can only be online around once a day rather than all day) so I have not been writing very many updates or very elaborate emails. So here, I will try to make some kind of update until I get bored of typing.

First:
I am working on the RAINBOWS project. There is a great open hackerlab here (Metalab), with wifi and an electronics lab and nice helpful people and some friends (I ran into the lovely Marius Schebella in here one day). I was in Graz and saw lots of PD people (Peter Plessas, Johannes Zmoelnig, Florian Hollerweger, Rene Hoffmuller) and Peter and I went to a great electronics super market. They even had wanter pumps that run on 12V which is more pratical than the pump I have right now, so I might have to go back.

Second:
I am living next to Angela Dorrer. She's my German artist friend and she recently moved here. In her building (we're in the 20 district) there was a tiny apartment so she rented it for guests and I rented it for this month from her. Its a cool place, just like a winnebago! Like a long skinny apartment, actually not so tiny and quite cute, with a great kitchen. Angela lives upstairs and we share a lot of meals and tea.

Third:
I am curating an exhibition for the Pancevo Gallery of Contemporary Art in Serbia. It will take place from the 20th till the 30th of November. I'm researching for that, contacting artists and

Forth:
Socializing. People here are incredibly friendly and always have time to grab a drink and talk. So somehow, miraculously, I am actually managing to both work and socialize. There are tons of art events, museums, weirdo concerts, performances with people shitting on the floor(boring)....
Have been to : The Slobberclub at Electro Gonner, Flex, Brut, God's Entertainment, Fenster C, Rhiz, Werkzeug H ...
Elsa from Lisbon, put me in contact with Franziska and Nik here. They organize the Slobberclub and are starting ShareVienna soon. They are my entertainment coaches.

Fifth:
I am kind of being a student. Marina Grzinic is teaching in the Post-Contemporary Art Practices Department at the Academie of Fine Art and she invited me to attend the class while I am here in Vienna. The first class was a few days ago and went from 2pm till 11pm with pretty intense discussion the whole time. Class is held in a giant old loft that used to be for theatre set building and students sit on old sofas and can smoke and bring their dogs to class. very different from Concordia.

Sixth:
Proof-reading some texts for Dutch researchers and cultural managers.

Need some english proof-reading or some translation from french -> english? I'm your girl.

ok... that was the business update for this location. more emotion later.

you know it

Unicorns


Thanks to Parden Arden for this niceness:
http://mingle2.com/dating/unicorn

Crushed Cayenne

Crushed Cayenne by FOLKE KÖBBERLING / MARTIN KALTWASSER

I am trying to move this car crash from Graz to Serbia next month. Hope it works out. This photo is from its installation in Club Transmediale in Maria am Ostbanhoff in Berlin in Feb, 2008. You could climb into the cars in your drunkedn stupor, acting out fake car crashes with people you don't even know.

(side note : speaking of drinking...my shoulder feels a bit better and I am not drinking for that reason anymore. Though Vienna is quite fun and people always try to treat me to eine grosse bier, I am luckily kind of resistant since I don't like light beers. There is really good soup here and Gulash. )


Its a giant thing though, the size of 2 real cars.
I'm going tomorrow to Graz to meet the artist and see how it needs to be transported.
The gallery in Pancevo is really big, it would be so nice to have a giant art work to fill the space.