Immersed in ever changing expereinces!

three screen presentations

Waterfalls!

KOSHER! Technology, Interaction and Experience

Down loading Kosher recipes onto my spoon

This was a beautiful projection (x 3) of small critters that flocked to form words

The Jewish Museum – What I Went to Berlin to Experience

The Stairs to the Permenent Exhibition

An "Axes" Meet at the cross roads and decide where to go

Alone Inside the memorial

Walking The Radical Jewish East End

After getting to bed at 3.30 am I was up on a 8 am train heading back to London to catch up with a guided walk around East London by David Rosenberg. The topic

David Rosenberg: The Radical Jewish East End

This tour brings to life the people and places from the period of the 1870s through to the First World War and 1930’s when the East End was transformed by a mass immigration of pauperised Jews from Eastern Europe. Making links with the experience of Huguenots, Irish and Bangladeshi immigrants to the East End, this walks highlights the individuals and movements that undertook to change their personal circumstances and the wider world.

Also enjoyed these films

Jerusalem Moments

Seven young directors, Palestinians and Israelis, present short documentary films that reflect the complexity of life in Jerusalem in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The directors offer unique personal and political perspectives regarding life in Jerusalem-between east and west.

Saturday 24 & Sunday 25 / Library 13:00-14:00

Also attended this talk – which was very informative – its really great to see what people are doing. I though that Lotties  work was great!

City As Stage: Art, Narrative & Play

A cross-disciplinary panel on how art, narrative, and play changes the interaction between people and their cities. How do recent advances in art practice and technology change the way we tell stories in the urban landscape? Speakers include Dan Hon (Media technologist) and Lottie Child (Artist).

Sunday 25 / Small Hall 13:30-14:30

This is Not a Gateway – The Morning after the White night!

Image : This is Not a Gateway

Image : This is Not a Gateway

This Is Not A Gateway {TINAG} was founded to address FOUR URGENT CONCERNS:

• The need for accessible arenas for emerging practioners across Europe, who work in and on cities AND for those outside of established circuits. There is complete inaccessibility to existing conferences and regeneration events. At the same time, there is an increasing amount of interesting and critical work being produced by people who do not have the platforms in which to share them. TINAG was established to address this gap.

• The need for the development of new forms of urban citizenship. Cities are going to be home for the majority of us, right across the globe (it is estimated that 60% of the global population will live in urban areas by 2030). A great deal more agency is needed for people who will inherit these future metropolises. TINAG is dedicated to fostering active participation in cities.

• The desire for interdisciplinary and cross-cultural exchange. In a climate of increasing professionalism and specialisation, there is limited opportunity to learn and collaborate across fields and cultures. TINAG rigorously advances the possibility for mutually beneficial outcomes and learning.

• The need to gather, to eat, to drink together, in a self-organised, informal and fruitful context. The most productive aspect of conferences and symposiums are often the informal and secondary elements. TINAG puts this at the forefront of all its activities, advancing innovative and enjoyable forms of engagement.

White Night

Didnt see much of the White Night as I was filming the talks at Phoenix. It was a long night! The talks were interesting but difficult to hear at times and I dont hold out much hope for the quality of the film footage. There was a great atmosphere there on the night and its a shame not to have been able to get the atmosphere and the talks down in to a short film!

 

I think its definately an idea for next year!!

Pottery at Heskeths

As part of Unravelled I was invited to a session of pot throwing at Heskeths in Lewes. Having never done anything like that and currently having a love affair witrh using my hands to get dirty I thought I would jump at the opporyunity.  I sat on the 9.40pm slow train  to London covered in glorious mud. Had a really good laugh, its a really funny zone that you go into. I explained my pot belly ideas to Olly who said that they could be done so I signed up for a 6 week course…

Yes ! the other way round

LOVED LOVED LOVED Sophie Calle at Whitechappel Gallery!!

The accoustics round the table were difficult so I slipped off to have a look round the gallery and what a wonder it was! Sophie Calles work is genius, I absolutely loved the many expression of the dumping email she received from her bastard boyfriend… the detail really resonated with me… that need to express and understand something in a million different ways before it can be absorbed… oh bliss is an art gallery with beautiful things!

Actually the “In My Yard” bit was equally fabulous…  shame the book shops so bloody small!

Image SOPHIE CALLE: WHITECHAPPEL GALLERY 2009

Met up with Olivier from Dork Camp who was round the table!

17 October 2009
Lotos collective presents: Everyman, an Enquiry. The Whitechapel Discussion GroupWhitechapel gallery

Lotos held a discussion group as part of the Nature of the Beast installation, as well as the launch of the Everyman Project.

“Together we will convene as a council in order to investigate and define the role of the Everyman across disciplines, cultures and time. Our dialogue will serve as a creative catalyst towards future workshops and the realisation of the Everyman Project. By sharing our individual perspectives we hope to discover the universalities of our historical generation.”

http://www.lotoscollective.org.uk
http://www.whitechapelgallery.org

The Gorgons Table

“Men have persistently sought to pin down women to say what she should and shouldn’t be.”  A woman’s identity was traditionally wrapped up within the male gaze, she presented herself for the gaze of others, putting on a face, a persona, defining and selling her self.  Today we are becoming more aware that identity and gender identity is a surface performance, a mythical fiction  – “one yet to be properly exploded”.

So what of the internet dating sites where these surface gender identities are ritualistically played out –where “personality and identity” is produced, gender packaged and paraded for consumption. It is within these new social network  sites that  men  now define and perform their identity for a target market – where women window shop for men.

The identity of the self as a gendered personality is not usually a written text but a conditioned performance, however on online dating sites each  ‘performer’ is now required to  look at them selves and script  into words and images this performance.  Thus the internet provides a new type of social construction – the creation of self -scripted and performed identity  – participants are required to look at themselves ; to value; and to respond once they have seen and valued  – to present  accordingly.  Women are long used to responding to the demands of the male gaze, but what when the male gaze is turned on its self?  What do men see and value in men and how do they respond to what they find?  Self authorship encourages both fantasy and fiction as a tool to produce an identity and for men, this identity is consistent with what they perceive or imagine  women  might want. Women must become gifted at deconstructing what they read and see.

So she scans, weighs up and decodes the text and rejects man after man. Alone, with a self provided full belly, laying in crumpled pyjamas on the sofa on a Friday night and inundated by thousands of men offering them selves up –  the dismissive glance of the critical female in pursuit of a male emerges.. amGorgons gaze…

In opposition to the longer sexually charged male gaze, has the internet created the optimum site for a new female once over type glance?  Or has the cold critical scanning female glance always been there, but hidden underneath a mask of performed gender identity – shrouded within conditioned social role play that demands unconditional love, nurturing, passivity, non aggression, compassion and kindness?

Taking on the role of Medusa, the gorgon allows us to explore this role, to be publicly cruel and monstrous , to scoff and laugh at the  cornucopia of presenting maleness with out any indictment on our own ‘good nature.’

Laying at the gorgons table liberates us.

The performed role of Medusa is then ironic, it is a subversive comment of the  projected misogynistic and mythical role  of the female as a powerful & cruel monster whose  gaze turns men to stone . In a 1986 article for Women of Power magazine called “Ancient Gorgons: A Face for Contemporary Women’s Rage,” Emily Erwin Culpepper wrote that

“The Amazon Gorgon face is female fury personified. The Gorgon/Medusa image has been rapidly adopted by large numbers of feminists who recognize her as one face of our own rage.”

Using participatory role play,  performance and humour to explore issues of surface identity, power and emerging gender roles relating to feminism and female rage – the choice of a Gorgon metaphor  is crucial – those who sit at the Gorgons table literally  see men through her eyes.

FEATURES:
17 very different men are toyed with – each man emitting his own narrative – play them one at a time or all together!