made to break

i once did a performance in which i convinced people to destroy some ‘work’ i was ‘presenting’ to them.  imagine a crit but the student being critiqued breaks down in tears and passes around her various crappy creations begging her classmates to crush them.  i pressured my peers to rip to shreds hand drawn animation stills i had spent hours and hours creating (i really can’t draw).  i even got a few people to smash some little sculptures of birds that i had made (i really can’t sculpt).  i had made the animation for a class, but i loved it.  i was quite proud of the drawings and grew very attached to them over the many months they took me to make.  the birds i had crafted from some easy bake clay the night before.  watching the kids in my class destroy everything was really fun.  one girl cried and left the room, and some people refused to participate- but a few of them had a ball!  really let loose…   at the start of the next lecture, our professor told them that they had all been a part of the ‘artwork’ that i now needed to present for crit.  the girl who had left told me that i had manipulated and brutalized her then dropped the class.  most people seemed surprised but unenthused.  one girl asked what ‘performance art’ was.  another girl became my new best friend. that was the first and last time i realized an idea just as i’d hoped to …

anyway, i’ve been thinking of how precious all our installations have been and how fragile.  i’ve been thinking of all the times we have had to ‘fix’ or ‘secure’ or ‘reinforce’ … those activities are not nearly as fun as breaking!  i poked around on the internet, looking at artworks and performances and products that defy or invite breaking.  i often break stuff so stuff that’s made to be broken could be quite convenient for me…

i think this thing is a bit over-designed (and over-priced!) but i like the idea behind it, the fact that it comes with its own pick axe, and that it reminds me of our planetarium projector.maybe we could be more open to breaking this time.  we don’t have to require it or pressure people to do it but we could keep it in mind as a (not-necessarily-negative) possibility.  i mean, we use broken things all the time.  and the things we make break.  maybe i’m just lazy and tired of fixing (not that i’ve done even half the fixing!) … maybe i just want a new way to break or a new way to make the break a part of the process … and not a part we have to deny, disguise, cover up or correct.

Busy Bees Use Flower Petals For Nest Wallpaper

in thinking about beauty and/in reuse, this article by Kathleen Masterson via npr:

When we think of bee nests, we often think of a giant hive, buzzing with social activity, worker bees and honey. But scientists recently discovered a rare, solitary type of bee that makes tiny nests by plastering together flower petals.

Seeping Through

Ritual planting makes use of leaking pipes.
Coloring keying makes use of empty space.

Video: RECLAMATION

Score:
Drew Denny: Water Loops
Morgan Gee: Viola, Saw, Bird, Loops
Jimi Cabeza de Vaca: Accordion, Banjo
Travis Farwell: Guitar

Composed, Mixed & Produced by Morgan Gee
Mastered by Isaac Takeuchi

on group work

in prepping for terrarium…

A space odyssey of the mind

By Jon Kelly
BBC News Magazine
Six would-be astronauts will this week begin a 520-day mock space voyage to simulate a mission to Mars. How will they cope with the huge psychological pressures?

Deep in outer space, millions of miles from civilisation, they say no-one can hear you scream.

The same may not be true of a warehouse in Moscow’s suburbs. But here an audacious experiment is about to try to replicate the cramped, claustrophobic conditions of a voyage across the Solar System.

From 3 June, the Mars 500 project will send a “crew” of six on a simulated 520-day round trip to the Red Planet and back.

The cosmonauts – three Russians, a Chinese, a Frenchman and an Italian – will live and work as interplanetary travellers, spending eight hours a day working on maintenance and scientific experiments, eight hours at leisure and eight hours sleeping.

Organisers at the European Space Agency and Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems hope that the project will offer an insight into how such a mission would function. But above all, the most significant assessment they will make will be how it affects the subjects psychologically.

Any communication between the crew and mission control will be subject to 20-minute delay to simulate the time it would take for signals to reach Earth. Sending a message home and receiving a reply will take two days. Meanwhile, cameras will monitor them 24 hours a day.

With no access to telephones, internet or natural light, breathing only recycled air and showering once every 10 days, the men are certain to have both their individual mental states and group dynamics tested to the limits in the 550 cubic m simulator.

PREPARING FOR TAKE-OFF
Dr Pete Hodkinson, secretary of the UK Space Biomedicine Association: The ultimate aim is to prepare for and support a successful mission to Mars, which will return with the whole crew in good, stable psychological and emotional health.

Looking to analogous situations, the isolation environments of Antarctic research bases and submariners suggest the top two psychiatric diagnoses are anxiety reactions and depression.

Preparations therefore need to include capacity to diagnose and manage these conditions as well as considering other rarer, but potentially more dangerous, psychiatric conditions such as an acute psychiatric episode.

Through appropriate selection, training and in-flight support it is likely the majority of crew members in both Mars 500 and any real mission will cope with the array of psychological challenges they face without any undue effects on themselves, other crew or the mission.

The scenario is one that already has deep resonance in popular culture. Stanley Kubrik’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris, Duncan Jones’s 2009 award-winning sci-fi film Moon and, of course, A Space Oddity, the breakthrough single by Jones’s father David Bowie, all use the device of space travel to explore themes of alienation and loneliness.

But if art offers an ominous foretelling of the experiment, the scientists running it are confident that real life will be different.

Patrik Sundblad, head of life science at the Esa’s European Space Research and Technology Centre, says each of the crew members have been subject to careful vetting to ensure that all are both psychologically robust and sufficiently motivated enough to cope with their mission.

He also believes that the information it will generate will be of crucial importance not just to any future Mars voyage, but to the broader understanding of human psychology.

“The real value of this project is that we can obtain data that would be very difficult to obtain any other way,” he says. “We can monitor them 24/7 – that’s very difficult to do in any other setting.

“We can learn a lot about group dynamics and work out how to counteract any changes if they are not positive.”

Few would doubt that the conditions will put the crew under enormous pressure – not least given that one of the Russians, Alexei Sitev, 38, was married only four weeks before beginning the mock voyage.

And while Esa insisted that team spirit remained high during an earlier, 105-day simulation, the length of the mission means that the cosmonauts will be metaphorically flying into uncharted territory.

Prof Paddy O’Donnell, a social psychologist at Glasgow University, is intrigued by the experiment, having studied earlier research into the effects on individual and group psychology of space travel.

He says the most significant point may come around six to eight months into the mission when, studies of submariners and Antarctic research teams have suggested, any tensions are most likely to begin to flare.

The biggest dangers, he says, are boredom; crew members forging emotional bonds, positive and negative, which undermine their professionalism; and, worst of all, the group sub-dividing into social cliques.

The way to get round all this this, he says, is clear leadership, explicit divisions of labour and very strict routines.

“Routines and habits are very calming,” he adds. “You don’t have to think all that much.”

Prof O’Donnell acknowledges that separation from loved ones will be a huge psychological challenge for the cosmonauts.

But he believes two factors will count in their favour. One is that the crew members are scientists, who “tend to be relatively introverted and low on neuroticism – these are practical people and you’d expect them to work together”.

Another is that they know they are on camera. “When you’re visible, you’re more likely to follow the rules,” he adds.

What the six will not experience, however, is the impact of weightlessness or, indeed, the terror and euphoria that comes with real-life space travel.

“ The danger is that because you know you’re really in a hanger in Moscow, you start thinking: ‘I can’t be bothered’ ”
Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock Space scientist

“Astronauts usually experience a great deal of stress on take-off,” he says. “But after a few days – once they’ve gone round the Moon, as it were – they report an enhanced sense of individual well-being and morale.

“They also tend to report a transcendental experience that comes from being in space and looking down on the planet – obviously, this experiment can’t allow for that.”

What is more, the fact that the mission is simulated is likely to have an effect of its own.

Dr Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a space scientist with the satellite manufacturer EADS Astrium and a strong advocate of a manned mission to Mars, believes that the experiment will be extremely valuable – but expects that the main difference between a real and simulated voyage will be the difficulty for the crew in maintaining motivation.

“I think the main challenge for them will be trying to maintain motivation for a long period of time,” she says.

“It’s far less likely this would be a problem if you really were going to Mars. But the danger is that because you know you’re really in a hanger in Moscow, you start thinking: ‘I can’t be bothered’.”

Nonetheless, the crew members will know that, if a mission to the Red Planet ever does take place, they will have played a significant part in it.

And that alone may be enough to get them through all 520 days.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8711216.stm

Published: 2010/06/01 09:32:40 GMT

© BBC MMX

beg, borrow, or steal… or dumpster dive?

I can’t bring my keyboard to the Netherlands cause it’ll cost too much.  We can’t bring wood or glass or soil or plants or microphones or speakers or drills or saws or screws or nails either.  Where will we find what we need?  Here in Los Angeles, there’s lots of trash for us to dig through – our own and other peoples’, too.  I ripped up my broken flashlight for its generator, and Jack drilled through pennies to make washers for Planetarium’s projector.  Kyoung called USC’s custodial department to find plastic bottles for Aquarium.  We mined bits of wood from the super shop’s scrap pile and bummed plastic gears and wire off friends.  We were able to beg or borrow most of what we needed, though we occasionally did have to buy.  I rode a bike through honking Hollywood traffic once when the projector broke right before an Environmentaland event only to realize I didn’t have my wallet when I got to Home Depot.  So I stole a handful of washers and screws… which actually seemed more appropriate than buying them.  Maybe I’m just trying to make myself feel better.  Sorry, y’all.

But back to the future – Apparently, there isn’t much of a trash problem in the Netherlands!  Apparently, people use what they buy and that which is thrown away is quickly and efficiently dealt with by some mystical magical European infrastructure unlike our sluggish, corrupt, and wasteful waste services here at home.  So what are we to do?

How do we beg or borrow from total strangers?  Certainly we shouldn’t steal (not that we ever should have.. eek).  What good is dumpster diving in a land of empty dumpsters? Or, at least, dumpsters not overflowing with materials thrown out by unimaginative Americans always hungry for The New.  I hope I am overestimating The Dutch!

But, just to be on the safe side, I’m going to try to make some friends to borrow from–  Utilizing ye grand ol Internet, I’m just gonna ask everybody in the Netherlands to be my friend.  I’m going to post on craigslist, facebook, community message boards, local publications’ websites, artist blogs, school blogs, and anything else I can find: Reclamation!  Coming to a town near you.  Ideally, some folks will be interested in (or at least intrigued by) our project, will lend a hammer or an amp, will come out to the opening or an event, will ask us questions about why we’ve come from so far away to do something so… well, to do whatever it is that we end up doing and will tell us what they think about it.  At the very least, I’m hoping to find a keyboard – or a guitar or a toy drum or a fuckin triangle – because I will rip my face off if I can’t play music for two months.

“reterrarium” or “how to use rabbits to represent scale”

note: just to give a lay of the land to anyone who’s reading and our future selves when we forget what all of this is: we’re revisiting the logistics of terrarium.  designs, aims, etc.  taking the initial proposal and reassessing from lessons learned over the last year, evolution, devolution, etc.  each of us took the initial proposal and did what we wanted–fantastical, practical, conceptual, theoretical, literal, physical, liminal, subliminal, criminal, half-baked, fully-baked, dough-like–and sent each other notes and sketches.  with the hopes of seeing where everyone’s minds are at, where we coincide, where we don’t, and where we go from here.  drew and jack have posted their ideas in previous posts.  here’re some of my scribbles and (in)articulations…

* design for smaller, individual terrariums
- smaller terrariums representing the individual
modular terrariums, made from materials that are easy to find, anyone can make, and are constructed in using the least material possible, and therefore efficient in maximizing material. planks of wood are harder to come by, as well as transport. lengths of wood (2x4s, strips, dowels) are easier to come by, easier to transport. glass/plexi hard to come by, plastic bottles are easier to come by. at the same time, as learned from aquarium and warned by hmk, there’s a pretty tight infrastructure in place for plastic bottle recycling, and in bulk, actually pretty hard to come by. on other hand, plastic bags are easy to come by (and can make rope), and are also easy to transport. so both lengths of wood and plastic bags could possibly be prepped before going to hoorn, thereby saving lots of time scavenging everything everything.

so… use these lengths of wood to build basic frames. terrariums are triangular, modular and shallow. use plastic bags to create the base of terrariums — waterproof, and if fused and stretched + basic frame underneath, can offer a pretty solid base for even heavy items. also, no need for sealant.

in terms of using 3d space, terrariums can be cut to different heights, also angled.  also, don’t have to raise terrariums also; legs not necessary.  though lots of possibilities can come with playing with height. stacking terrariums for example?

* design for triptych
- triptych representing the cluster/group
made up of smaller terrariums; don’t know if this has to be a “triptych” or adhere to specific number 3. i imagine it more as representative of the possibilities when people work together, for better or worse. so putting together a cluster of smaller terrariums, perhaps they are distinguished in being larger in size. maybe we configure it, and the whole thing is very orderly and serves as a pretty obvious altar. or, it is configured and so overloaded with vegetation that it starts taking over itself, cannibalizing the wood and structure, and by the end of the exhibit, the “manmade” elements have more or less fallen, and it’s transformed into a monster of vegetation. us letting nature do its thing, start taking over.

* designs a floorplan for the installation
- smaller terrariums are arranged along the city map of hoorn; each terrarium more or less representing a house/building (aka individual) and triptych representing a communal space (aka hmk)
- triptych set where hmk would be on the map

* materials for the installation — where from and what?
- scrap wood, plastic bags, plastic bottles — materials that are readily accessible and in bulk
- indigenous plants that are also hardy and easy to come by — moss, grass, ivy, ferns, whatever’s growing in the area at the time. plants that are easy to grow and can be transported/replanted if need be — weeds, essentially
- additional non-organic materials to add to the visual mix?

* idea of what to do with the terrariums at the end of the installation
give to people who want them. if no one wants them, plant the rest, break down and recycle materials. loved this aspect of aquarium–that all the materials for the aqueduct/pipes were so easy to break down and recycle, that it was literally zero-waste.    bottles recycled; plastic bag rope recycled; steel returned to scrap yard.  also that i know at any time, if/whenever i want to, because the materials are accessible (except the stell, i suppose; but any stick/bar would do), the construction simple, it can be recreated easily and in that way still “exists.”  with both aquarium and planetarium that these are more the beginnings rather than the ending of possibilities; that we’ve constructed objects and spaces that any layman can construct, can take basic designs and material and build upon them.  like legos.  that this is larger than us.  because, well, it is.  (same can be more or less said with planetarium, paper if we’d actually recycled the paper or used the fire to some purpose, though not with the frame which was a recycled pvc frame from another installation)

notes on concept/questions
- individual terrariums and “triptych”/cluster as representation of human individual/society — akin to religious architecture (churches, temples, gudwaras) which reflect the structure of the universe and humanity’s role within it…
- continuing idea of “parts of a whole” running through other installations
- terrarium as a representation of what it would be like if natural environment was central to thought/behavior.
- terrarium installation as incubator/nursery for plants but also ideas; reclamation space as a germinating space, literally and metaphorically
- made of materials easy, accessible, modular — anyone can make, and uses materials efficiently (meaning, not so much waste). this doesn’t necessarily mean we end up using our time the most efficiently–an interesting thing to consider. this idea of “efficiency” and time.
- meditating on what happens when you domesticate wilderness…
- non-interference/minimal interference as action — in conceiving of an installation that attempts to maximize materials and as representation, to essentially bring the nature available in hoorn inside to hmk, addressing some questions about modes of thought related to “action” — social, environmental, otherwise. since reclamation’s inception, there’s been a lot of questioning regarding utility. what’s the purpose/point/function in making a planetarium out of thousands of sheets of office paper or an aqueduct that doesn’t work so well to water a garden that’s getting too much water from a very rainy february? but i wonder, why the fixation on utility? just because we are working with tangible problems, does that mean art has to be equally tangible in its utility? is it not enough to try to make something beautiful by using readily-available materials and incubating/growing what’s already there? if it is not enough, why does there have to be more? i also wonder if this mode of thinking–in equating utility, repurposing, in tinkering as intervention and addressing environmental and social issues, is actually systemic to the problem. the best thing to do to revitalize an ecosystem is to just let it be–chernobyl is a perfect example of this. in the case of some endangered species, there’s the breeding, incubating, reintroduction into the wild programs, etc. which also seek minimal interference, though there is obviously interference in this instance. if the whole planet’s at risk, flora/forests, etc. then even the least exotic of species are in danger–what if this is our version of these programs? maybe this a contradiction of thought? we (humans) are incredibly resourceful, coming up with a myriad ways to use anything and everything — but it’s both a blessing and a curse. it allows us to look at things in so many ways and rethink things (the hammer that isn’t the hammer), but it can also make us greedy (look at all the ways we can use oil — let’s rape the world of oil!). not sure if i’m being clear here; actually, very aware that i’m probably not. but also aware that continuing will just make things longer, not clearer. so stopping here for now.

some kind of answers

1. How will we procure our materials?

a) a scavenger hunt in Hoorn/Amsterdam/elsewhere along the way (maybe in white suits, hey?)

b) a community exchange: a day/few days to invite the community into the space to learn about our project and trade, donate, or loan us plants and materials to foster

c) head shops?

2. How will the three eco-systems in the triptych be different from one another?

a) (“original” idea) three climate zones represented (jungle, forest, desert)

b) three time periods represented (plants grown in the area during the time the church was built, now, and sometime in between OR this same idea but regarding the space where we met – Southern California, think wetlands, citrus, weeds – which would demonstrate the changes brought on by colonization and urbanization…)

c) three different growing methods – soil terrarium, hydroponic terrarium, air terrarium

d) three types of plants like Aquarium (food, carnivorous, water)

e) compost

-eat with aesthetic consciousness

-one full of eggshells

-one with meat and flesh and hair we find

-one with things that will take thousands of years to decompose

-one with flowers

-one with the stuff we eat thrown-up

3. What will grow in the Window Gardens?  Why?

a) mint in water (super strong plant will grow anywhere)

b) magik mushrooms in soil (good for inside in the dark)

– cover in some dark cloak or spay paint black with leftover cans from graffiti kids.

c) because tea and mushrooms make us feel good

4. How will all these systems be sustained/maintained?

a) ritual waterings ?

b) use grey-water from dish washing

c) ritual sunnings?  I don’t even know what this means!

d) I’ve still got some grow bulbs, florescent tubes and fixtures

5. How is participation/interactivity encouraged? with smiles and a press budget. Is it necessary? always. It is a hindrance?  of course. What happens if no one participates in/interacts with Terrarium?  we get kind of bummed but we’ll get over it.

Do we want people to participate/interact? yes. Why? because we are isolated and far from home in Amsterdam and want to make new friends and learn about the world from them.

Do we want to need them? no, but we want to want them. Why? so that we can grow.

6. What is our schedule of events?  What kinds of workshops/performances/etc do we want to have?

a) RITUAL/MUSIC

b) COMMITTED

c) Reclamation choir

d) Wilderness Boundary

e) terrarium construction / process workshops (but also some time us just building stuff)

f) seed/plant exchange (but also get some suff foraging or at the store)

g) readings? maybe host classes/discussions, telic public school style.

h) teach us? (workshops where we don’t teach!)

i) confessional? yes. (on-going?)

j) lectures? yes.

k) meditation? yoga? cardio-constellate!

l) debate or other forms of fancy fighting?

m) dance party? yes.

n) picnics? yes.

o) naptime? yes.

p) aiding and abetting criminals/allowing runaways a place of respite? yes.

q) naked fashion show? yes.

r) Eternal Telethon or other friend project/event/affair?

s) AA meetings?

t) Reclamation meetings

u) speed dating

v) theater

w) field trips for school kids

x) an outing for the elderly

y) historical society lecture about the history of the space, ensuring our insertion into that history

z) … ??? !!!

aa) Gulf Coast Disaster Lecture and Hot Oil Rub Down

bb) Mushroom and Mint Tea party with boiled grey water

cc) Glass making workshop on the beach

dd) Mudsculpture workshop

ee) Decorate your shit, toilet-seat painting

ff) parade

gg) potlatch

hh) Joseph Beuys artist lecture

ii) mudwrestling

jj) leftover paint pour

kk) one night to be confused

ll) one night to speed up truth

mm) The End

7. Do we have a life outside of the space?  at the beach and maybe in the street, plus we gotta leave to get groceries and condoms and string.

a) get involved with some organizations there: the dump, the food pantry, arts education, homeless shelters. Safe houses, ways churches normally help a community.

b) Could we preach in town?  Go on a mission?  A pilgrimage?  A search for a context?  A search for family– Where are the other ‘earth churches’?  Wait, is that even what we are making?

8. How do we PERFORM Reclamation once Terrarium is constructed? With events and our constant presence: by being there all the time, living there, setting up camp in the gallery.

9. How does our travel inform our project?  Could we each document our pilgrimages?

a) I will go to New Orleans two weeks before the trip and help clean up the gulf coast. I will document the experience and present it in Hoorn

10. Is there any way to start now?

a) contact community organizations

b) blue prints, floor plans

11. What happens when we finish?

a) disseminate the bits into the town?  A giving back?  yes. if we can.

b) we smash them all and throw them into the trash, plants and all?  maybe some.

c) we bury them in the garden? lets bury the altar somewhere.

d) we donate them to the town, to a school or a home?  yes. if we can.

e) we burn them?  maybe over the alter.

f) we abandon them on a corner? only if they’ll cause a scene.

g) we auction them? we could.

h) we give them away to the first person who asks? yes.

i) we host a Good bye ritual, with burning and burying and cloaks and suits and stuff.

Die Liedertafel

Die Lidertafel is a “weblog for singers, composers and poets” that my friend and colleague, Siobhan O’ Leary–a singer, writer, translator, and lover of cheese to boot–pointed me to.    It has poems and sketches and such.  Beyond that, I don’t know what anything means on the site because I don’t know German.  But at the same time, I feel like it’s cosmically linked to Reclamation’s website.  Perhaps this is me being totally naive.  If you know German, maybe you can prove me right or wrong.  Oh Babel…

spray painted window garden

On Science and Religion

“There is a fundamental difference between religion, which is based on authority, and science, which is based in observation and reason. Science will win because it works.”

-Stephen Hawking