6th of July, Enschede
Again in Enschede…ending at the place where we started with the project.
Last week we had last presentations, and during one, hot, long afternoon in the project room, Julio sat down beside me and told me: “I translated your Braille text from the wall in Delft.” You did? Really? I asked very surprised…because:
During the empty days I was writing some text and at one moment I had an idea to make a ‘room of touch’ something based on the sense of touch…I did not really had an idea what I could do…but I started to translate some sentences from the diary into braille, I also asked Jimini to send me some text if she couls, because she has a friend working at the library for blind people in Amsterdam…I chose some text, and started to ‘write’ with the drill on the wall in the small room without windows…
First I wanted to use just prepared text, but Veri convinced me to translate my text…letter by letter, letter by letter…I lent a drill from Rolina, and I lent an extension cable from the unknown neighbor…I was writing for a few days…
When I finished, I had two plans- for the presentation on the 7th of June. 1. to invite blind people from Delft, or from our neighborhood, to experience the work, because I believe that art is not something so acceptable for them because of their limited vision…2. and other idea was to invite a few people into the room, close the door, explain them to use their fingers to touch a text, and I could read the written text from one corner in the room…
And what happened with that? At the end I was not satisfied, it did not make sense for me any more…it did not have a meaning…I had in my head-empty space, silence, spun, forks, knifes, objects, all these kinds of people with their donations, and at that moment for me this project had more meaning…so I just left the braille text in the room, I took a few photos and presented it with Veri on the 7th of June in our collaborative work ‘Donations Delft’…
So when Julio, a few days ago, told me that he translated a text, at that moment I was satisfied knowing why I was writing that text…The text obtained meaning just as objects around us…We made something, we give to the other, we take from another one; a never-ending circle.
6th of June
Utrecht
At the beginning I planned to work with repetitive every day gestures, and to point out the little things one hardly notices in time and space.
At 15th of May I arrived in to the empty flat 603 in Delft, and adapted my performative body and my every day body to the potential of this emptiness. I change my previous plan- but not completely because daily routine still existed, just formed in other context.
Two of us started to live in this apartment:
“At the beginning we have an empty space without objects, after two weeks, with gratitude to our neighbors and their donations, we had all the necessary basic things for living. The last day during our presentation, in front of our building, we exhibited just the objects without their function. (as objects)
20 May, 2009
Delft
We are in Delft, and it is ok, but we are still searching for basic things because the apartment is completely empty, which is sometimes annoying for me, but on the other side I understand that like human processes (moving, bringing objects, and then leaving) we need to use these moments for work. (please see more of the email exchange on the blog Finally at Delft)
It is so interesting to see how we found solutions for some things (what to eat? no fridge, no heating..)so plenty of fresh food, but yesterday we made eggs and to improvise heating we used candles and some aluminum cans…it works..mmm so tasty. Then we made a table from an old door, and chairs from lot of zipped carton boxes. It’s crazy…but as I said at some moment I have to switch myself into the reality (if one exists here) and to think about my thesis. Beside all other things we are limited without Internet, so the place where we are not paying a lot of people are waiting in line, so you have to be very fast, then in the library you have to pay for everything and you cannot use a stick. Finally we found an Internet café but with limitation of 1h…if you drink something you can be there 1h…and now I am writing an emails at “home” and just sending them from the Internet café, haha… it took few days, but we found the best solution for that.
Later to a friend
19, May 2009
Serbia
Cao Maco,
Sad sam procitao tvoj mail I video slike I jako sam besan zbog toga.
Ukoliko su ti uslovi za zivot u Delftu losi odmah nadji pristojan I odgovarajuc smestaj. To je jos kirija za 2-3 meseca I ja cu se potruditi da ti toliko pomognem.
Dakle, pronadji nesto pristojno I javi mi koliko te to kosta.
Ljubim te
Velibor
Ciao Maco,
I read your email now, and saw the photos… Why you don’t find a new comfortable flat? You will stay there two or three months more, I can help you if it is necessary, so find something and call me then.
Kisses,
Velibor
May 18, 2009
Delft
Just wanted to inform you quickly that we don’t have Internet in the apartment, and that we are checking emails at the tourist info, because it is free, but still people are waiting so we have to be fast.
The library also has Internet but it is not for free.
For me the hardest thing is negotiating with myself, I want to stay and I want to give up, at the moment I am finishing thesis, and it is not possible without a chair, table and Internet…still I hate to give up, and we are making carton chairs…
Hope the donations will be useful.
Hear from you
Marina
April 16, 2009
Enschede
I tried to make one day exercise and it was hard, stupid and successful, often I loose the piece of paper where I am writing what I am doing, or forgetting to write what I did, but I succeeded to practice until the end of the day.
March 3, 2009
Enschede
Dear all,
I am sending you a plan/table of the work, please navigate through document in the down horizontal line (sheets) where you can see -DAY1st, DAY 2nd, DAY 3rd…28th, 29th, 30th…
Days are with the repetition but that repetition has a variation so it is important to read ALL 30 days, and to feel boredom of the repetition.
ALL DAY LONG
(Exercise with controlled intuition, imagination, senses, and reflexion
in every day compulsive action)
Can senses be repressed by lack of trust in our own body? Is intuition less used because of the habits, and compulsive actions-everyday rituals?
Working as a performing artist, my interest is directed in to the world of the body, every aspect of the body: how is developing, how it is going wrong, and how it is used in the ceremony and rituals, (every day rituals of the individual person to communal rituals).
Positioning a body for a few hours in the performance, my perception becomes more sensitive, my senses more directed. One of the more interesting things for me was observing a sense of the touch (‘observing’ – reading, thinking from the personal experiences, talking with few blind people). Sense of touch is one of the more important senses and it cannot be just ‘turned on, turned off’ like other senses in the human body. In the research, my aim was to make work that will include the senses of touch of the observer, and make him/her an active participant of the work. One example was part of my presentation where I turned off the light, and invited people for the beginning of the presentation. My expectations were different from the one which occurred. Lots of people used a mobile phone and photo camera to find their place in the room. We trust the camera more than our own fingers. Is that true?
Further research is going in the direction of the obsessive compulsive disorders (OCD), where it is explained that people have problems with information processing in their brains. Compulsive behavior tasks are: touching objects a certain number of times before leaving a room, specific counting system, counting a steps, doing repetitive actions, washing hands at regular intervals through the day, etc.
In the project “Negotiation equity” my plan is not to make a work, my plan is to live a work for xx days. Changing a place of living makes many people feel insecure, and they often find a source of their security repeating daily actions in the way they think is best. Observing how some people repeat the same actions at the same time every day, influenced me to find myself doing some actions, until they don’t become compulsive. Returning to the beginning of my text with the example of the presentation in dark -when people use technical instruments like prosthetic body and extensions of their own body- they lose trust in their own senses and in security with “extensions”. My intention will be to use compulsive actions in living situations to test feeling security after moving into a new environment.
The plan of the work I attached excel document is my schedule of every day actions, presented in repetition with variation. Every day is based on the same activities, but with small differences in the sense of human needs. It is considered like an experimental exercise of destructions: repressed-intuition, senses, imagination.
Please be patient to read each day separately because they are not the same and it is important to read ALL because ONLY than you will have a feeling of the repetition and boredom (which is an important element because of life’s daily overwhelming sensory with information, images, sounds).
Documentation of the work will be in the form of writing (diary), and the planned presentation will be an interview.
April, 16th 2009
TomiC Marina