super positive rocket scientists

The Democratic Republilc of Congo's very own new space program! They basically say: "every good idea started with a small strange dream, its important to experiment"...nice guys! :D

abandoned places links

http://www.dirjournal.com/info/abandoned-places-in-the-world/

just what was needed...

http://einestages.spiegel.de/external/ShowTopicAlbumBackground/a5485/l4/l0/F.html#featuredEntry

artikel!

Skalptänze im Wilden Osten

Eingesperrt im sozialistischen Osten, träumten sie vom Wilden Westen: In der DDR verkleideten sich Hunderte Bürger als Indianer. Ihre Stämme hießen "FDJ Kulturgruppe für Indianistik Hiawatha" oder "IG Mandan-Indianer". Doch ob beim Tomahawk werfen oder Bisontanz - die Stasi campte immer mit. Von David Klaubert

with parallel google translation:

Skalptänze in the Wild East

Eingesperrt im sozialistischen Osten, träumten sie vom Wilden Westen: In der DDR verkleideten sich Hunderte Bürger als Indianer. Imprisoned in the socialist East, they dreamed of the Wild West: In the GDR, hundreds of people dressed up as Indians. Ihre Stämme hießen "FDJ Kulturgruppe für Indianistik Hiawatha" oder "IG Mandan-Indianer". Their tribes were called "FDJ cultural group for indianist Hiawatha" or "IG Mandan Indians." Doch ob beim Tomahawk werfen oder Bisontanz - die Stasi campte immer mit. Von David Klaubert But whether the tomahawk throw or bison dance - the Stasi ever camped with. By David Klaubert

go west animation

London’s Andersen M studio put this together for the NZ Book Council.

sound work by Céleste Boursier-Mougenot

Trained as a musician and composer, French artist Céleste Boursier-Mougenot creates works by drawing on the rhythms of daily life to produce sound in unexpected ways. His installation for The Curve will take the form of a walk-though aviary for a flock of zebra finches, furnished with electric guitars and other instruments and objects. As the birds go about their routine activities, perching on or feeding from the various pieces of equipment, they create a captivating, live soundscape.
(from: Barbican website , show coming up 27 February 2010 - 23 May 2010)

Tsika's Dolls

I just put this amazing work back online... check out the whole lineup here:
http://frontierlab.org/dolls/

This is a series of works I documented for my friend Tsika.
I hope I can visit her again one day.

Tsika receives messages from friends who life off on the planet Earth. They tell her incredible stories and instruct her to create the characters from the stories into a form that can be seen on Earth, so from these tales she makes dolls. Luckily in her town there is a local furniture factory who likes to donate their scraps, and so she has a ready supply of materials.

Her other worldly friends have also shared information with her in the past that has served to solve a Chicago kidnapping case and save a young boy and now the Chigago police still call her sometimes for advice. She's never travelled to America.

I got to visit Tsika a few times in 2006 with my dear friend Neda who gracefully translated hours of tales about each of the dolls.

I hope I can go back and visit soon and maybe with some better cameras this time.

moe-joe cell

oh yeah! I almost forgot to make a link to my friend Moshe Daniel's mindblowing fuel-less energy cell... I don't really believe it... except I actually did see it working...

we shared a Dorkbot

http://www.moe-joe-cell.com/


and don't forget to check out Moshe's other 'cosmic' solutions....

counting machines?

Sinclair Wrist Calculator, wearable! (thx r.)


HUMAN RELATIONS CALCULATOR (wtf?!) translation help please chinese friends...

la soucoupe et le perroquet

dispersion, anatomy, carnivals,

this week I got into reading some articles from the Leonardo Almanac series on dispersive Anatomies:

http://www.leonardo.info/LEA/DispersiveAnatomies/DispersiveAnatomies.html

I read:
Sandy Baldwin, "Introduction: the Anatomy of Dispersion"
Andy Clark, "Dispersed Selves"
Alphonso Lingis, "The Inner Cauldron; the Upward Array"

and will read:
Tom Zummer, "A Cartography of Interstices: Some Annotations Toward the Mapping of Biological-Technological Embodiment"

also, I have been finding great texts on the Monoskop log... currently holding:
- Beller, Jonathan - The Cinematic Mode of Production
- Cubitt, Sean - EcoMedia
- Kirschenbaum Matthew G. - Mechanisms: New Media and the Foresic Imaging
- Zielinski, Siegfried - Audiovisions: Cinema and Television as Entr'acts in History

I'll make some posts about how the reading goes...

frontier maquette

field, distance, can't see what lies ahead
horse walking forwards
making maquette, tiny wheelsmaking maquette, tiny camera wagonmaking maquette, tiny camera, on a tiny hot water bottle, for stability, vibration avoidance

making maquette, long wagon, weight is in the back and stability is made by just pulling from the front

Rudy posing for the horsefake scenery setup
fake final image!!!

studying

I'm a student again now.
I just started to study in the MFA program in Media Art and Desing at the Bauhaus University in Weimar, Germany.

The program is 4 semesters and the courses I'm currently following in this first semester include:

Project Module: Follow the Green Rabbit
Professors: Ursula Damm, Sebastian Hundertmark, Bernd Hopfengärtner
Summary:
Link: http://web.uni-weimar.de/medien/umgebungen/index.php5/WS09:Follow_The_Green_Rabbit#Beschreibung
Project I'm working on in this course: Noise Structures

Project Module: Electric Friends
Professor: Jan Sieber
Summary: Coming back from the Arduino to basic knowledge in electronics - this physical computing course gets your hands on your electrons! Using old and new construction sets for electronic experiments we want to learn more about: Electronics, Microelectronics, Prorgramming, Construction sets and modular systems, Electronic Sensors, Prototyping of interactive electronic systems
Link: http://cineon01.medien.uni-weimar.de/elektrowiki
Project I'm working on in this course: Cowboy Counter (some kind of manual counter, using arduino)

Project Module: Space is the Place
Professor: Max Neupert
Summary: Space and its two dimensional projection sky will be our inspiration for this class. Contemporary Artists like Tom Sachs, Olaf Nicolai, Thomas Ruff, Ingo Günther, Olafur Eliasson, Ilya & Emilia Kabakov, Roman Signer, Rebecca Horn, William Kentridge, Nam June Paik and many others refer to space in their artworks. We will watch satellites, calculate orbits, program controls, define positions, interpret constellations, read horoscopes, understand art, discuss theories and visit an observatory to look through a telescope.
Link: http://web.uni-weimar.de/medien/umgebungen/index.php5/WS09:Space_Is_The_Place
Project I'm working on in this course: Dreams (video)

COWBOYS vs BAD GUYS vs HORSES

this is what I'm planning to make:

While watching a western film, the user hits buttons representing each character each time it enters the frame.

the counts are recorded and at the end of the film, when the END button is pressed, a small printout is produced, naming the 'winning' character. The printer will print 3 words : COWBOY, BAD GUY and HORSE. (surprise)

the unit will include:
a wooden box, 3 counter buttons, 1 end button, an incorporated printing mechanism and mechanics for print feedout, it will be battery powered.

SO... I need to write some Arduino code for counting and recording the counts, output for this info, triggering the mechanics and choose solenoids or tiny servo motors and think about how to "print".

Jamie said... "but why?"
Obviously, this will create really useful statistics and a 'game' for while you're watching a film... What's important anyways? Being alive or being the hero at the end of the movie or looking hot in more shots than all the other actors?

noise structures 1 : pristina

❶ noise structure: pristina
(the project I'm working on in my course Follow the Green Rabbit)

at this stage I will just go and make a long recording (number of days) and later decide on the translation/presentation format.

✖ Briefly, the context...
In Kosova, the electricity and water systems are not currently sufficient to service the entire country 24 hours a day. Following a number of visits to Pristina, a surprisingly modern place, with excellent coffee shops, fine dining, a few radio and television stations, large office building and nightclubs, I remarked a continuous cycle of noise in the city. The electricity and water is generally functioning on a cycle of '2 hours on, 1 hour off' during the day and at night, the power and water are mostly turned off. This cycle is the "best and intended" scenario, but most days the power and water cuts are inconsistent and longer.

In every bathroom you find buckets and large jugs of water, ready for flushing when the water is turned off. Every cigarette lighter sold has the double function of being a flashlight. Many coffeeshops have gas generators on the street in front of them, ready to turn on every 2 hours so that the business can run without interruption.

Approximately half of the city's buildings house the offices of a huge number of International organizations. Everywhere you look, you see signs for aid organizations, diplomacy services and social programs. The population of Pristina is approximately 500,000 people, a relatively small city. The city is quite quiet since its primary source of employment consists of jobs related to the diplomatic re-building of the Kosovar state (office jobs) and there are few open or green spaces in the city center. Most gathering happens in cafes.

Many of the international offices housed in the larger buildings and many of their employees, live in certain parts of the city and have built-in generators and cisterns so that their power and water services are never interrupted. Smaller organizations, local businesses and private homes, especially those of local people either rely on small gas generators or simply live without services during the outages. When visiting my local friends, we frequently had to enter the house in the dark, move around with a flashlight and use a bucket of water to flush the toilet. Because of these conditions at home, we spent a lot of time in cafes who run their generators during the outages.

✖ Somewhat rhythmically...
Every 2 hours the electricity and water is cut off. The city momentarily falls dark and quiet as ventilation, music and machinery is shut down. A few seconds later, the common sounds of the city are overtaken progressively as hundreds of gas generators start up. For an hour, the whole city rumbles and those sitting at cafe terraces must yell to each other to be heard over the sounds of the engines. Pedestrians on the sidewalk must step around cables and the scent of burning petrol is everywhere. After about an hour the power returns and, also progressively, the generators shut down. In this moment one can find a second of great silence.

✖ So what I'm doing...
The whole sound scape of the city is changed cyclically. This is an investigation of soundscape as a direct translation of social conditions. The conditions established by the basic functionings (and malfunctionings) of the city infrastructure translate into clearly measurable sonic vacillations. A high quality, long duration recording (planned, 7 days) will be produced and a further work will be prepared from this material.
(thanks to David Drury for helping me be a bit more articulate here...)

✖ roughTIME TABLE
- November 16-December 1 : researching and testing equipment for city scape sound and video recording, designing outcome
- December 2-December 8th : arranging equipment for travel to Kosova
- December 28-January 10th : travel to Pristina to record sound cycles as well as interviews with local people on their relationship to the power situation
- January 12-Feb 1st : process recordings, design presentation/installation

✖ QUESTIONS ON APPROACH

- Using an ecological research and synthesizing approach to observing and presenting how processes/individuals/conditions are interrelated.
- What is the significance of electricity and water services for people living in this context?
- What meaning can be found in such patterns in daily life?
- What connections can be made from such life patterns?
- What other patterns can be observed?
- What is the difference between automated and manual pattern recording/ recognition?

- Moving towards generating sound from video (image/movement/colour recognition), with focused research on what patterns have relevance and making relevant combinations between the sound and images. Looking at how these images and sounds can function together/separately. [abstraction+noise]
- What is the significance and effect of this noise cycle?
- What is the effect of noise occurrence in general?
- What is the difference between intentionally generated patterns and 'accidentally' occurring pattern? (aside from the question of 'ir'regularity)

- How to make relationships between the patterns (and timing) for playback and presentation? (ie. cycle in Pristina of sound changes is very long, how could this be translated?)
- Looking for 'natural/patterns', using these patterns to generate further artwork
- How can the 'collection/presentation' of such an (irregular) pattern be useful as a metaphor for other processes/histories? (looking -> emotional/personal histories)

- How 'regular' are daily patterns? What is the meaning of regularity?
- Is it possible to derive an algorithm from this cycle?
- What is the relationship between time and such patterns?


✖ QUESTIONS FOR THE GROUP (others in the course, or you?)

- What can be the final outcome of this pattern collection? [composition based on the rhythm, composition from this sound, other visualization of this pattern data]
- How will presenting this as simply audio work alongside other noise pattern recordings
- How does this project relate to previous 'long compositions' and soundscape works? (such as Cage's silent performance)

- How to put together the images of the place (street, generators, condition of the city) along with the sound recordings? What does this mean in terms of contextualization? Since the city looks very extreme (mixture of fancy cafes and post-apocalyptic style broken buildings), what message with a visual image convey and what message is desirable?

- How does this work relate to recent works on the topic of "putting the viewer into a foreign context"? Would a live soundscape feed be desirable, beneficial to the project?
- Suggestions for technical tools?
- How important is "reality"?
- Should the sound be recorded with actual sound equipment (looking for the most real representation possible) or record it as data, using another tool and collecting numbers? (probably both, or record as sound first and then can translate to data later, as desired)

- What is the relationship between time and such irregular cycles? How would one record this and make this relation? How much static would need to be collected in order to make a summary/algorhythm out of it (something that could be used to generate further creative works?)
- Suggestions for readings about pattern? Pattern recognition?


✖ LINKS

complex systems for linking processes and visualising data : abstractions
- Chitty Chitty Bang Bang breakfast machine
- Pythagora Switch (chain reactions)
- John Kessler (NYC sculptor)

translating spaces
You Are Not Here – A tour of Gaza through the Streets of Tel-Aviv, By Mushon Zer Avi

Soundshelters - Artist: Samir Ayyad [Gaza], an interactive multi-channel sound space that connects people in Linz and in Gaza. The “real sound” in Linz was overlaid by sound travelling from Gaza to Linz and vice versa.

Space is the Place

I'm taking a project course with Max Neupert called "Space is the Place". He's been introducing a lot of satellite based works and to contrast that, some other worldly takes on outer space, such as the Sun Ra movie that gives the title to the course... psychedellic as hell!

I'm not so into getting obsessed with the big technologies being used for outer space exploration, but I did take a course in Montreal a few years ago about geology on the planets and the most striking thing I can remember is that the professor kept teching us things and then at the end of the lesson he would always say "but all this is only speculative, we really don't know all that much about space and we base our theories on uncertain things"...

Following this lead, I started to think about how space is often something that lives inside our imaginations, how there is a great idea about space, but I'm not really sure where we got this idea.

One common thing I hear is people saying "the whole situation was SO weird, it was like being in outer space!"

Obviously, none of us really know what its like to be in space, but sometimes when we can't orient ourselves, we relate to outer space.

On a kind of side note, I checked out Alice Micelli's artwork taking place in the disaster area of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown (contaminated "exclusion" zone). I started watching some documentaries on the disaster and noted 2 things:

1. the burnt, cleared and radiated areas look like a kind of 'desert', not unlike many gravel pits, mines, dumps and forest fire areas, kind of like a moon landscape

2. in the documentary, people frequently mentioned that they felt like they were 'on another planet/ in outerspace'... it seems like when their bodies felt disoriented because of the appearance of the place, the heavy radiated air that tasted like metal, the heat from the reactor burning and the strange quiet, nothing was familiar and there was a common tendency to feel very far away from the known planet

Link to Alice Miceli's research and artwork about the Chernobyl Disaster

you can find the Dicsovery Channel documentary and much other info...

AND SO... I decided not to obsess about disaster for the moment, but to rather take a shot at another aspect of location/outerspace relation... that of frontier... the distance ahead of one and what one might go towards.

I have started to work on the screenplay for a kind of metaphoric video image... it will move but does not really have any progression, so I see it more as a single image.

keywords: space, frontier, dreams, dispersion, forward, ahead, distance, pathway, vibration, waves, western, cowboy, horse, self, psychedelia, utopia, horizon, beyond

Moving forwards towards towards a frontier.

I will produce a machine for self video recording and then film a short video metaphor.

The image will include a horse walking alone into the distance. In the image, a large rope, visibly attached to the camera point will lead towards the horse, as he is pulling the camera, filming himself.

I will construct a specialized cart for holding and stabilising the camera and a harness for attaching this cart to a horse. The horse will be instructed to walk in a straight line along a road in the countryside. The cart will be made of wood, well oiled.

The music for the video will be an adaptation of Grace Slick's 1980 solo song Dreams. The voice part of the original song will be written into a score for cello and recorded especially for this video.



STAGES

Stage 1

* designing the camera cart
* training the horse
* testing video equipment and lighting(outdoor conditions)
* looking for a shooting location (stright country road)

Stage 2

* writing the score for the music (musician)
* playing and recording the music

Stage 3

* testing the cart for speed and stability, modifying
* recording the video, editing
* presentation

So maybe it will be called : Dreams : in the direction of the frontier

some links:
Dispersion Relation, wikipedia
Frontier, wikipedia

reading:
text I read recently from the Leonardo Electronic Almanac special edition on Dispersive Anatomies:
Sandy Baldwin, "Introduction: the Anatomy of Dispersion"[pdf]

after

after this project I am moving to Kuwait to get a job in the Pierre Marcolini boutique

cleaned out my computer keyboard for the first time in 5 years

3333355544444555555555527777740000000000000000001111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111111-0.11111122222663.1..2222222222225111111111114+11111.11111144555553333333333333135333333333333*66666311444444444444444444111111111111111111111111111333*****6336666666666663** ttttttttttttttttttttttttttvvvvvvvvvvvthhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh7fbfffftfttfbggvt3ggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggggfffvv f vvvvvvf vvvvv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvbvvvvvvvbvb v gvvvf ghhhhs sssg gb f s g bbffbbb f vvv bffbv vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvvcccc d v xvxxvvvvvvfffffxffrrrrxxxrxffxdddx cccccccccccccc cccccccc vvccc zx cccccccccc vcceeeerrr333333333334srrrrr4d43sssssssssssssssssssss41ss333322222222222222222222s111111111111111111111111133rrr222222222244444444444444444eeeeeeeeeeedsd rrresrrrrrrrrrrrerrerrrrreesdwwwswwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwnn nnnnnnnnnnnnnbjnnnmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm,,m,,,mmmmu,,mjjjjjjjjmkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkklk,mkkkkkkkkkkkmmmmmmmkk,iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiikkkkkkkiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii vvvb 11111119993666666616.
-----------3---------*********.....++..-...-.-.-3..333****66***.4444444444444444444444444444444444vv444444444444444488ttt777777777bb qbbbbbbb555 bbbbbbbv b b v vvb vbvbbbbvvvvv bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb bvvv vvvvvvbbvvvvv vv vbv v vbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbv v vvvvvvvvvvvvvvvv vvvvvvvvv v vv v v tbv vvvbv . vvvvvvvv bbbvv/pp/..p.pp;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;';; vvvvvvxddddddddddddddxxxxxxxxxxxxxhrhhhrtxxxxxxx555eeeeeeeeexdddddddddddddddddddxxxxxx ddxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdddxxdddddxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxdxd dxd 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

not writing alot

i'm managing a big project at OKNO, Brussels, and planning the upcoming tiny noise and simply don't have a lot of extra time to type (even more than I am already typing) It's not like I'm less emotional or anything :P

http://www.okno.be
http://tinynoise.tk

Putting this together .... FULL INFO

thursday / 15 october 2009 / concert night (20h) @ KunstWerk, Cologne
saturday / 17 october 2009 / 22 hour noise camp (14h-12h) @ Bollwerk107, Moers
Think of it as a kind of "noise science fair" and camp. Thanks to the generous support of our collaborators we can bring you this amazing program:
- Lucas Abela, a.k.a. Justice Yeldham (australia)
- Diana Combo a.k.a. EOSIN (portugal)
- Derek Holzer / TONEWHEELS (usa/germany)
- FrlLinientreu (germany)
- RYBn (france)
- Saal5 (germany)
- RaumZeitPiraten (germany)
- Tina Tonagel (germany)
- Robert Kondorosi (germany)

R.I.P. Boyan Radanov/Rapresent

"Rapresent" , documentary about Bojan Rapresent from ivana todorovic on Vimeo.

Ivana Todorovic made this documentary about Boyan last year.

homesteading

ok so its always the joke in Europe that you can go over to Canada and grab a piece of land and live off it.

Well its not bullshit... you really can, at least you could in 1998. I don't know about now but I bet its worth a try. I was in Whistler again recently for my brother's wedding and I went back to look for our old place and I actually found it!

my dear friend Julie and I adopted this cabin in Whistler, fixed it up a bit and lived in it for a good many months until it got way too wintery. I must note that it rains ALOT in Whistler in the fall. We had rubber rain suits and huge boots, super sexy.

The thing is that at least this kind of homesteading may not be as romantic as you hope for! Check out the delux toilet! all I can recommend is that you get a whole bunch of large dogs to keep your toes warm at night and keep the bears and skunks away. (yes there really were bears and skunks and squirrels and raccoons around, we have those in Canada).

ah... the good old days...



I don't have any photos from back then because, yes that was before everyone had digital cameras... its too bad, because we were so young and even cuter than the dogs.

ta caniche

I guess a family member's wedding is as good a time as any to let people decorate you.

Hanging Garden

this is from an installation in NYC, plants hanging in an architectural frame (sorry, don't have a credit).

I think it could be so nice to build up this kind of garden in many places, its a great solution if you don't have a lot of room on the ground or any yard or balcony at all.

I'm looking for info about urban gardening.
Ian from the Bricolabs list sent this beautiful example to me:

Agnes Deans - Wheatfield – A Confrontation, 1982. She planted and harvested two
acres of wheat in Battery Park landfill, Manhattan

http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/gallery/2009/jun/18/radical-nature-exhibition-barbican?picture=349064137

IRAN - another blog

The New York Times is hosting a blog as well with some civilian footage from Iran.

http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/

And here is a time-line of the breakdown since the election:
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2009/06/25/world/middleeast/20090625-iranelection-timeline.html

IRAN - real news vs no news

I have been hearing about the censorship of the media in Iran. I'm not much of a news follower, but I checked it out following geting a link to a really shocking blog by a woman from Tehran and I am completely stunned... in the real media... there is NO NEWS... really nothing. I mean they are just printing some trivial stories about the Venice bienniale and some fossils that were found in Spain. The only actually news is being sent out by bloggers and these people are at great personal risk of being arrested and killed.

Please take the time to check out both kinds of media, I think its the only way to understand the gravity of the situation and also the effects of this media cencorship. I heard also that it is helpful to these personal bolggers that all of us change the time zone settings of our blogs, facebook, twitter and any other social networking sites to Tehran time, so it will become more difficult for the regime to pick out those bloggers who are actually in Iran. I have changed mine now.

Image from the blog of Seda Naiumad (warning, this is a personal daily account, its really emotional and hard to read as it describes a lot of violence in full detail) To see the site you may have to accept the security certificate. Don't worry, it won't give you a virus or anything.
https://un.poivron.org/~tasche/index.php?page=index

And this is the useless trash they are printing in the official media from Iran. This is an english newspaper. But its useless to look here for any real news.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Index.asp

drupal question

Help! Can someone tell me if its possible, and how to get rid of this doubling in the menu... see the main items drop down a second time before the sub-items in the menu... grrr... no doubles!
ideas? tips? Thanks in advance!

CHAT too

ok I added this completely silly feature to the blog.. see in the bottom right corner?
Well you can talk to me now if I am online at the same time as you....

hehe.. ok I know....gadgets..

R.I.P. Boyan Radanov/Rapresent

KVART magazine in Belgrade was so kind and sensitive to publish a photo of Boyan painting and my letter remembering him. I deeply thank Maja Ciric for sending my communication on to them and also Mia David, the editor. I think Boyan would be touched.

running! - day 4 + 5

Oh, by the way, I did go running 2 days ago, but I got a bit discouraged. While I was running, a goofy loking old man on a bike started to ride beside me, like 2 meters away, at the very same speed. He wasn't even looking at me, but he was really close. For a moment I thought he was just a slow biker and would eventually speed up and pass me, but he just carried on beside and when I slowed down he did as well. Finally I just stopped and said to him that i really just wanted some peace to run. He never even reacted, just kept on going really really slowly, so I turn around and went back the other way.

But now I decided I really can't run in this location on the canal anymore, its really too annoying. This is unfortunate because its the only place around here that I can just run directly from the house without running on busy sidewalks. So now I guess I will have to find a new location and that requires a long walk before or a metro ride. I didn't want it to be this way because it makes it a much longer thing each time and it will be a bit harder to get motivated.

I'll go uptown and try running in the city park today. I'm also looking maybe for a borrowed dog. If I run with a very huge mean looking dog maybe these boring rude gentlemen will leave me alone.

Meet Your Maker!

I collected this first zuchini from the garden and last night Kevin and I made a BBQ and ate way too much... that happens every time we light the BBQ! This is the very first vegetable from the OKNO garden. It was so tasty!

music year

ok while I am on the subject of entertainment... normally I don't like silly joke mail, but my mom sent me this link for the top 20 hits of the year I was born and its actually funny. At first I was freaked out because it seemed so disco, but there are some decent ones actually.

1979. sister sledge, pink floyd, billy joel, chiq, village people(YMCA), michael jackson, the pretenders, amy stewart, kenny rogers!, rod steward, robert john, supertramp, donna summer, DR.Hook, Little River Band, The Knack, Bad Company, Sugar Hill Band, Charlie Daniels. FunnyFunny!
1967 JuKeBoX
1968 JuKeBoX
1969 JuKeBoX
1970 JuKeBoX
1971 JuKeBoX
1972 JuKeBoX
1973 JuKeBoX
1974 JuKeBoX
1975 JuKeBoX
1976 JuKeBoX
1977 JuKeBoX
1978 JuKeBoX
1979 JuKeBoX

Casey's movie list

My friend Casey invariably gives me wonderful movie suggestions.

This week's list:
_ Serial Mom (1994, with long lost Ricki Lake!)
_ There Will Be Blood (2007 with Daniel Day Lewis... total epic)
_ Barry Lyndon (1975, Kubrick)
_ Junebug (2005... gonna watch it now!)

good thing Casey helps me out because DH is off until September! Arg!

Also was suggested Synechdoche, New York... lets see how that goes.

WAR!

OK, so if you know me at least half well, you know I have pigeon tattoos and I really do like pigeons....
That said... THIS IS WAR!!! Some pigeons keep getting into the stairwell here and that's where my kitchen is... so... its really war!

Here is a sign I made to try to help people remember to close the door always and also I am looking for one of those wooden bead hippy curtains so they don't fly in.

I researched ultrasonic, motion detection and other bird deterrents, but since we want to keep the nice birds and insects comfortable in the garden, I can't really get too vicious. So for now... keep the door closed!

This is a picture snatched from that great book The Pigeon find a Hotdog by Mo Willems. I will eat hotdogs in Montreal soon. Sorry Jeje.

running! - day 3

I'm so into running each day! I went again today and ran a bit longer. I used Helsing's trick lats night and wore sunglasses so I would not be bothered, and I think it worked. Except today I ran a bit later and it seems the public was a bit more feisty... not so cool. Like 10 cars slowed down and told me how hot I was and a few people walking past as well. I just ignore them, and then I feel totally snobby.. but really, I just want to be left alone. Do these guy really expect a reaction? Do they really imagine that I would like to talk to them or even hear what they think. Sorry everyone. I just want to run. Nice ot know you think I am hot though.

But regardless, its amazing this running... immediately since the first time, I suddenly went form feeling kind of depressed and disliking myself to feeling really great. And this is just from 10 minutes a day! I always thought people running seemed so silly hammering themselves into the earth, but now I'm starting to catch on. Also its not painful. My muscles are just a tiny bit sore so far, but no nasty knee pains or anything.

MARTIN GORE Santa Barbara 2002 © ANTON CORBIJN

a wedding!

My brother is getting married in July 18th in Whistler so I'll travel to Canada soon.
I get to be a bridesmaid and wear this dress :D

running! - day 2

I did run again today, for a tiny bit longer than the distance yesterday. When I woke up this morning, I was a little sore, but it was fine when I am running. Now afterward I am a bit more stiff, but I can tell its in the places where my muscles are the weakest. I think I'll try to run tomorrow also. I feel so much better. I can't write about it right now thought.

I watched a movie about time going in different directions and paces for different people... with Brad Pitt! The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. The movie is actually half decent. The characters are all so worried about not sharing their troubles with their loved ones, but somehow they still all manage to care for each other until the end. Maybe its about just flowing along.

R.I.P. Boyan Radanov/Rapresent

I am so sad to hear the news that on June 11th, 2009 in Belgrade, artist Boyan Radanov aka Rapresent passed away at 21 years old.

I was so lucky to meet Boyan in the winter while I was organizing the Tensions+Breaking Points exhibition in Pancevo, Serbia.

Boyan came and created an amazing graffiti piece on the front of Pancevo Gallery of Contemporary Art as part of the exhibition and also inspired me, Branka and Vincent to make a painting as well. He was a kind, smart, modest and funny young man. Boyan's parents passed away when he was a young boy and he lived with his older brother until he also passed away a few years ago. When I met Boyan he was living on the streets of Belgrade because he had had not been granted the rights to take over his brother's former apartment, but even then he remained in a good spirit and carried on taking care of himself. He was working part-time in a youth center telling kids not to get into trouble. It was obvious as soon as you met Boyan that he had seen a lot in his life and grown extremely wise through it. On the day that we painted, a young boy stopped by and was immediately drawn to Boyan's strong and good energy. But life is really tough.

This was a really perfect day for all of us so I want to share these photos of Boyan. If you would like the larger versions of the photos, let me know.

Boyan's sister, the last member of the family is now waiting for her passport to travel from Croatia to attend the funeral that will take place soon in Subotica, Serbia.

It is so unfair how some people are just left on their own. I don't think people can survive alone.


I feel an urge in ending this post to remember another incredible artist friend, Canadian, Avers, Lee Matasi, who also passed on too early. I hope these guys can meet up now in some graffiti paradise, they both deserve it and would have a lot of fun together making things colourful.

running! - day 1

so.... I started to run today!
even though basically everything for me is going really great, I have been feeling kind of terribly crappy for the last couple months, and I finally realised some action needed to be taken.
I haven't found a nice yoga studio in Brussels yet and also I don't really have the money to go to one, so I just decided to try running.

I have so great shoes but unfortunately they are far away in Berlin, but today I found some really new great runners in a second-hand shop for 15e and I bought some nice socks and...... then I took off!

OK well first I asked Steve and Danny anf Frieda for some running tips. They all said to just run for 10 min or so, not longer, do this for a week and then next week I could try 15 or 20 min.

I went out, walked for 10 min along the canal and then at the part where there are no cars I started to run. After 3 min I thought I might not make it, but then I just focused on making my breathing regular and it because actually really pleasant and not hard at all. I just went slowly, but I didn't stop. I ran down the canal and after a while the pathway actually ended, so I turned back, still running. When I got back to my starting place, I started to walk again and it was really odd because actually my legs kept on trying to run on their own! They didn't want to quit. But I was advised to keep it short and regular, so I just walked the rest of the way back, which was nice because I saw some teeny baby ducks in the canal and a very big but low and long boat passed by slowly.

So in total (according to google maps) I ran about 1.8km. I guess I was running 10 or 12 min. I didn't have a timer with me. I will keep doing this each day this week and next week I will have to find a new route because the pathway for this one ends at a fence once I reach the industrial zone. Maybe I can just run the other way down the canal.

This was my route:

View Larger Map

As is the nature of Molenbeek (this area of the city), some kind Moroccan men like to call out compliments as you pass them on the street. One guy wished me good luck in the race, another said Guapa! (ye in Spanish, not sure why) and another said the classic... bonjour gazelle! Which I took as a nice comment when I was running.

I stretched a bit after the run and came inside and made myself a nice coffee. I can't wait to go running again tomorrow.

Look! (me right after running) I am not dead!

Actually just before I went out running, i was online and Freida, who is in Montreal was also about to go running. Because of the small problem of vast distance between us, we could not run together but we did run synchronously, which provided some friendly motivation for both of us!

save my online, dear web curators!

Check out this article in NYT about curating online content. at first glance, it kind of takes the punch out of the position of a curator... or does it? I actually like it!


Bits: Curating the Best of the Web: Video
By By Jenna Wortham
Published: May 15, 2009
On the Web, digital curators can help you sort through the deluge of video clips, news articles and links to unearth gems and obscure artifacts. more

Mapping a Network

In this video, created by Jaromil during the INC Wintercamp, the activity of the DYNE.org mailing list over the years is mapped visually. I think this is a great approach to showing what a network is about, because essentially, it's the pattern of communications that describes its activity and can show its scope.

So look at the bottom right corner (sorry, its small here, you can also go directly to the vimeo page to see it better)... you can see the date scrolling along, showing the mailing list time-line. In some moments there is tons of activity, others less and its clear that from the start, throughout, Jaromil is a central point, though in some moments some others take over activity.

FreeJ documentation from network cultures on Vimeo.

PUMPS @ Proximos Festival in Tenerife - Documentation

Jérôme and I built this interactive installation called pumps in true experimental fashion in just 2 days. We didn't know much about the location, so we just brought with us a bunch of motors and wire and some suction cups. When we arrived we found a cool red foot pump on the roof and decided to work with air to spin the motors. Simone helped us in Santa Cruz to find the other materials needed, balloons, hoses, switches and other small bits. It was great that so many kids showed up because this was a really fun thing for them to play with... pump the foot pump and as the balloon gets bigger, the switch is lifted and turns on the pump! Presto! Noise! The kids are dressed in traditional costumes because it was El Dia de las Canarias. Thanks to Bonnie, Simone, Cezar, Proximos and El Paso!

PUMPS @ Proximos Festival in Tenerife

Jérôme and I are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife with Bonnie and Simone. They kindly invited us to their festival proximos.eu .

We're making an installation called PUMPS, a kind of interactive mechanical and electric sound(ok total noise!) mixer in the El-Pa-So bookshop. Here below are some photos of the first building day and today we're completing the installation. Tonight it will be open to the public and we will make a projection of films by Dominic Gagnon(ca) and Clémentine Lemaître(fr) and there will be performances by some local circuit benders. Find out more info on the proximos.eu website.

Team meeting at the juice shop. (Kyd, Simone, Jérôme)Suction cup sensor holder.

All the gear ready to move down to the bookshop for installation.

One of the new foot pumps.
The first balloon blown up.

We're building trhis project on the spot. Before we came we prepared some small motors and though about what kind of interaction we'd like to have. When we got here we found this great red air pump on Simone's roof and we thought it looked just like the kind of power button you'd like to stomp on. We then decided to stick the motors directly onto the glass, and to have them turn on and off by the visitors. So basically... in order to 'compose' some noise, you should keep pumping the pumps (5) which blow up balloons, which, as they rise touch the small switches and turn the motors on. Simple...silly...and funny for here because these pumps are really typical since everyone has all kinds of beach inflatables.