one hundred years of solitude- more quotes...

“a past whose annihilation, consuming itself from within, ending at every moment but never ending its ending.”


"[Aureliano (II)] saw the epigraph of the parchments perfectly paced in the order of man’s time and space: The first of the line is tied to a tree and the last is being eaten by the ants. . . . Melquíades had not put events in the order of a man’s conventional time, but had concentrated a century of daily episodes in such a way that they coexisted in one instant."


"[Aureliano (II)] had already understood that he would never leave that room, for it was foreseen that the city of mirrors (or mirages) would be wiped out by the wind and exiled from the memory of men at the precise moment when Aureliano Babilonia would finish deciphering the parchments, and that everything written on them was unrepeatable since time immemorial and forever more, because races condemned to one hundred years of solitude did not have a second opportunity on earth."

AUSTERLITZ - quote on time...

TIME, SAID AUSTERLITZ IN THE OBSERVATION ROOM IN GREENWICH, WAS BY FAR THE MOST ARTIFICIAL OF ALL OUR INVENTIONS, AND IN BEING BOUND TO THE PLANET TURNING ON ITS OWN AXIS WAS NO LESS ARBITRARY THAN WOULD BE, SAY, A CALCULATION BASED ON THE GROWTH OF TREES OR THE DURATION REQUIRED FOR A PIECE OF LIMESTONE TO DISINTEGRATE, QUITE APART FROM THE FACT THAT THE SOLAR DAY WHICH WE TAKE AS OUR GUIDELINE DOES NOT PROVIDE ANY PRECISE MEASUREMENT, SO THAT IN ORDER TO RECON TIME WE HAVE TO DEVISE AN IMAGINARY, AVERAGE SUN WHICH HAS AN INVARIABLE SPEED OF MOVEMENT AND DOES NOT INCLINE TOWARDS THE EQUATOR IN ITS ORBIT. IF NEWTON THOUGHT, SAID AUSTERLITZ, POINTING THROUGH THE WINDOW AND DOWN THE CURVE OF THE WATER AROUND THE ISLE OF DOGS GLISTENING IN THE LAST OF DAY- LIGHT, IF NEWTON REALLY THOUGHT THAT TIME WAS A RIVER LIKE THAMES, THAN WHERE IS ITS SOURCE AND INTO WHAT SEA IT FINALLY FLOW? EVERY RIVER, AS WE KNOW, SO WHERE, SEEN IN THOSE TERMS, WHERE ARE THE BANKS OF TIME? WHAT WOULD BE THIS RIVER’S QUALITIES, QUALITIES PERHAPS CORESPONDING TO THOSE OF WATER, WHICH IS FLIUD, RATHER HEAVY, AND TRANSCULENT? IN WHAT WAY DO OBJECTS IMMERSED IN TIME DIFFER FROM THOSE LEFTUNTOUCHED BY IT? WHY DO WE SHOW THE HOURS OF LIGHT AND DARKNESS IN THE SAME CYCLE? WHY DOES TIME STAND ETERNALLY STILL AND MOTIONLESS IN ONE PLACE, AND RUSH HEADLONG BY IN ANOTHER? COULD WE NOT CLAIM, SAID AUSTERLITZ, THAT TIME ITSELF, HAS BEEN NON-CONCURRENT OVER THE CENTURIES AND THE MILLENNIA? IT IS NOT SO LONG AGO, AFTER ALL, THAT IT BEGAN SPREADING OUT OVER EVERTHING. AND IS NOT HUMAN LIFE IN MANY PARTS OF THE EARTH GOVERNED TO THIS DAY LESS BY THE TIME EHAN BT THE WEATHER, AND THUS BY AN UNQUANTIFIABLE DIMENSION WHICH DISREGARDS LINEAR REGULARITY, DOES NOT PROGRESS CONSTANTLY FORWARD BUT MOVES IN EDDIES, IS MARKED BY EPISODES OF CONGESTION AND IRRUPTION, RECURS IN EVER-CHANGING FORM, AND EVOLVES IN NO ONE KNOWS WHAT DIRECTION?


W.G. SEBALD, AUSTERLITZ, TRANS. A. BELL (LONDON: PENGUIN, 2001), PP. 141F.

Onomatopoeia- work in progress, notes and ideas...

Onomatopoeia- work in progress.

The initial idea of presenting multiple projection of the “sounds” has evolved slightly…I looked at the material I managed to record and it wasn’t satisfying. Presentation of memorized sounds doesn’t emphasize the issues I would like to raise. I will try to extend the time of the performance itself.
I wanted to combine the video with the book of Gabriel Garcia Marquez “One Hundred Years of Solitude”. The issues I want to raise overlap with the book perfectly… The question is how to link all the subjects and elements in ability to present a gently flowing experience.
The calendars, which are included to all mobile phones and computer systems, can “go back” one hundred years in fifteen minutes. I want to combine my sound memorizing performance with the video of the mobile phone scrolling “back in time”. Starting from the date of the exhibition evening, and finishing exactly one hundred years before… Now, the book has to be linked as well. I was considering the huge print of Buendias family tree hanging next to the screen, however still have to experiment with all the elements coexisting next to each other…I’m not sure if including so obvious elements like family tree, doesn’t push the boundaries too much. It’s like stretching the subject to its extreme instead of experiencing it as a gentle flow…

One Hundred Years of Solitude- some quotes about/from the book

Mark Frisch, Duquesne University;

"Two types of time govern One Hundred Years of Solitude: the historical time with its births and deaths, beginnings and endings, and its stress on memory; and the mythical time of creation with its emphasis on the frozen moment in which past, present, and future coalesce. Ultimately, the latter predominates (Vargas Llosa 547). The opening line of the work sets the pattern for time throughout: "Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice" (1). Present time lies between the moment when he will face the firing squad and the moment when he first discovered ice. The future, the present, and the past are contained within the same instant. The narration here and in other parts of the novel then moves back to the past and flows toward that future moment. These concentric circles emphasize reality as myth, legend, fiction, and history."

some quotes from the book;

…the history of the family was a machine with unavoidable repetitions, a turning wheel that would have gone on spilling into eternity were it not for the progressive and irremediable wearing of the axle."

Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, General Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.

They felt that they had been the victims of some new and showy gypsy business and they decided not to return to the movies, considering that they already had too many troubles of their own to weep over the acted-out misfortunes of imaginary beings.

At that time Macondo was a village of twenty adobe houses, built on the bank of a river of clear water that ran along a bed of polished stones, which were white and enormous, like prehistoric eggs. The world was so recent that many things lacked names, and in order to indicate them it was necessary to point.

ONOMATOPOEIA - within the present future equals past

ONOMATOPEYA
ONOMATOPOEIA
ONOMATOPEIA
ONOMATOPEJA


This is a piece, on which I’ve been recently working. It’s rather a paper version at the moment, than a completed video piece. The video is going to be a probably a multiple screen projection, with about twelve screens. My basic idea was to record close ups of the face, so it would be possible to analyze the way the mussels work in ability to produce the facial expression. However it wouldn’t say anything else except how the face “language” works.
It isn’t satisfying.

Since making the clapping video I’ve become interested in this gestalt language, which is recognizable everywhere in the world, as a non-verbal opportunity to communicate. It hasn’t really changed. It’s like a constant within time, and I kind of love this sentence itself because of its paradoxical appearance. “Panta rhei” as Heraclitus spoke it, doesn’t work with the clapping for example and possibly with some other human made signs, or sounds.

As a material for my video piece I used all kind of human made sounds, the ones, which we make, when being amazed- ‘wow”, when we understanding- “aaaahhhh”, when we agreeing- “mhm”, and so one. What I find interesting is the fact that even without them being words, they do communicate, also the way they last unchanged.

The question is how am I going to make them work in the context of time. In the more general understanding of time, they represent the constant; I would say that within the present, future equals past. The sound last unchanged.

How does the gesture repeat itself in terms of memory? In general we memorize the sound, as it’s always pronounced more less the same, however within the constant repetition it looses its impact. It’s like within Bresson movies, where acting is repeated to the point when it becomes completely mechanical. And these are the mechanics within the human gestures, which interest me. Because of repeating the sound it completely looses it’s impact even if memorized so well.

spaces within spaces

this is an accidental video, which I took with my mobile,a quick thought of distortion of the space only by looking at it in a slightly different angle...

More clapping to come…

Clapping within the clapping, or maybe individual group clapping or authentic duplicates…it all applies to another video piece, which is a continuation of “the clapping exercise with the use of capital letters and the lion king as a background”.
The piece itself is paradoxical in a way. The clapping is almost never performed on its own. It’s mainly placed in the context of the group experience. The repetitiveness of the gesture, in the physical and historical context allows me to extend the process of repetition in the way where the gesture is repeated within the gesture. After performing it once and recording it, I recreated the exercise few more times and recorded every single performance.

Another idea of using the clapping is developed in another piece in which the actual physical clapping was performed once only. After making the first video I simply reproduced it by recording it from the TV screening. Than I produced another video, which was based on the piece recorded from TV. And so it goes. All together I made 12 pieces, where the only one was actually performed. The rest of them are records of records.

More clapping videos to come…

manifesto- temporarily final version...

ESTO-MAN-IF-MAN-ESTO-IF-ESTO-IF-MAN

(man-if-esto)

(if-man-esto)

(esto-man-if)

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CLAPPING EXERCISE-VIDEO

There is no other way of showing approval than clapping. It is one of those universal signs, which must have evolved somewhere in the past and last for all those ages, the notes about clapping can be found in the Bible, for example. It also finds its function in music as a simplest method of keeping the rhythm correct.
What interests me about it is the repetitiveness and the fact it’s one of those gestures, which can be recognized everywhere in the world.
I combined it with the “lion king”, an invented by the people term, and capital letters, which are generally used to emphasize the meaning.

And here it is…a joke really…

(esto-man-if)

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(if-man-esto)

To Agnieszka and myself.
I’ll be truly and honestly supporting her till the point I won’t be able to breath any louder

(man-if-esto)

One eye open while the other open as well, both function in perfect harmony as the rest of the body almost reflects itself, within the symmetrical order. I will not concentrate on anything else till the time I feel like it.

Structure of the structure and selection of the selection, I did considered it in the past I might consider it back in the future, tomorrow for example.

Saussure and Barthes, I could rethink it back again.

I might change subject completely. Might not.

I shall go and have my coffee and cigarette than and start progressing towards the future or reconsider present, or actually link these two together if I feel like it.

You do whatever you like, I might get involved, however don’t have to. Depends how good the coffee will be.

representation of my practice by the single word - artist text

la jetee

reports on clapping

here is the link to some reports on clapping...
reports on clapping

behaviour of the letters on the page...

CLAPPING EXERCISE WITH THE USE OF CAPITAL LETTERS
cLAPPING eXERCISE wITH tHE uSE oF cAPITAL lETTERS
clapping exercise with the use of CAPITAL LETTERS
clapping exercise with the use of capital leters
CLAPPING EXERCISE WITH THE USE OF capital letters

Representation of the word and functionality.

Everything is perfectly structured. The text, which I’m writting at this very moment is structured as well. Every single word has a function. It's function is to represent the idea.
Functionality is the most often physically utilized word ever.

The selection of an accidental word 2.

SELECTION

A selection of an accidental word.

The above sentence is a paradox. The “accidental word” reefers to randomness, whereas the word “selection” brings into thought something what is precisely chosen.

“To select” means, to choose precisely, also “selection” means one or few out of a number of things. It can be one out of two, one out of ten, one out of a thousand, one out of endless number of subjects. To select can mean ten out of ten, two out of a hundred, five out of a million.

It is a paradox, to think about selecting two out of one. How can we select something what isn’t there? We can select non existing subject, but then the process of selection becomes the process of creation. The selection becomes invention and that is the way the idea arises.

If the selection doesn’t apply to any of the matters we allowed to choose from, it becomes creation. Although the creation is a selection as well, but a selection on a different level. It still applies to something what we already know, which means that, the idea is made out of the selected things within our consciousness anyway.

Therefore a non selection is a selection of already selected elements.

And this is my selection of writing nonsense, something out of nothing, nothing out of something. The vicious circle created out of one word actually…

It didn't happen really, yet it did

It didn’t happen yet it did.

It could have happened twenty-one years ago, or maybe twenty, or nineteen, or twenty-two years ago. It happened in Poland, in the country where I used to live, every Sunday about the same time

It happened on the footpath, which led from the gate to the building, which some people, who consider themselves as Roman Catholics, call the church. It happened on the footpath, which was surrounded by long masts, placed in equal distances from each other. One row on the right side and one on the left side, together forming a boundary, symmetrical and hermetic.

It happened before actual mass started. An accident, connected with one of the masts -specifically, the last one on the right side of the footpath. The mast was constructed from one vertical pillar and two cross-bars. The lower cross-bar was fixed at the height of the eyes of a five-year-old child, or maybe a three-year- old, or maybe six.

An accident happened when a four year-old child, or maybe a five year-old, was walking with its mother to the building called the church and had to turn right, just next to the mast, in order to access the building.

In the child’s way, in that very moment, when it had to turn right, there happened to be some kind of obstacle on the path. It might have been a huge rock or maybe just an uneven pavement. But, as a consequence the child stumbled and almost in slow motion, fell on the lower cross-bar of the mast. The accident wouldn’t have been dangerous had it not been for the fact, that at each end of the cross-bar was a metal hook, so as the child fell down on it, the hook cut through the only place not protected by the skull, which was the temple, causing serious damage to the brain and the child’s death.

It didn’t happen really, yet it did.

The selection of an accidental word.

The selection of an accidental word.

Struggling with the choice of the alternative subject for my five thousand words essay, something occurred my mind. What about picking up an accidental word, any kind of word, which somehow would be chosen randomly and writing an essay about it?
If the selection happened in my mind only, I doubt it would be truly accidental selection. Even when attempting to do that, mind throws a million thoughts, which in their own way seem to be logic not accidental. It is funny how focused the mind constantly is. At the very moment, when the idea of random thought appeared it became impossible to actually process it in the mind only. Was it possible than before the idea appeared? It’s the same as asking if any thoughts and ideas are random and the answer is no. Therefore the random selection in the mind only can not ever happen.
The selection can be made by introducing the system, which somehow would be connected to the physical action. The number of possible systems is endless. How to pick on the right system than? Isn’t even the way of choosing the system somehow influenced by the actual content of the mind, therefore by the knowledge and experience? The answer is no, because it depends on how precise the system is.
The perfect system must include the list of all existing words. However another problem appears. The system would be probably more precise if the list of all existing words would be made in all existing languages.

"Apollo and Marsyas"

and here it is, my another favourite poem by Zbigniew Herbert....


Apollo and Marsyas

The real duel of Apollo
with Marsyas
(absolute ear
versus immense range)
takes place in the evening
when as we already know
the judges
have awarded victory to the god

bound tight to a tree
meticulously stripped of his skin
Marsyas
howls
before the howl reaches his tall ears
he reposes in the shadow of that howl

shaken by a shudder of disgust
Apollo is cleaning his instrument

only seemingly
is the voice of Marsyas
monotonous
and composed of a single vowel
A

in reality
Marsyas relates
the inexhaustible wealth
of his body

bald mountains of liver
white ravines of aliment
rustling forests of lung
sweet hillocks of muscle
joints bile blood and shudders
the wintry wind of bone
over the salt of memory
shaken by a shudder of disgust
Apollo is cleaning his instrument

now to the chorus
is joined the backbone of Marsyas
in principle the same A
only deeper with the addition of rust

this is already beyond the endurance
of the god with nerves of artificial fibre

along a gravel path
hedged with box
the victor departs
wondering
whether out of Marsyas' howling
there will not some day arise
a new kind
of art—let us say—concrete

suddenly
at his feet
falls a petrified nightingale

he looks back
and sees
that the hair of the tree to which Marsyas was fastened
is white

completely

found space

The space, which I found is very tight. It’s even hard to call it a space. It almost doesn’t physically exist. It divides things in two. To be more specific it is a boundary between two other different spaces. Possible that even more than two. Depends how we approach the subject. It defines the line between what’s physical and what doesn’t materially exist. It is the space, which divides what is already substantially structured, from something what might become a form. The space, which I found is really tight. It’s difficult to say if it’s a space really, in fact it’s only this almost non existing distance between the eye and the eyelid.

going back in time- professional context presentation

this presentation was made by my colleagues and I in the last year for the professional context group project.. what i like about it, is the fact that it's a copy of a copy.. and we've never seen the original piece.. so here it begins, the myth making process..

bruce nauman

in the name of love...

walking photos

here are some photos which i took while performing walking exercise
text which i published on critical practice blog isn't its final version but its more less the way its going to look.
and here is the link;

http://criticalpractice3.blogspot.com/2007/10/walking-text-interactions.html

and few more photos..