Luckily, the AOI brief deadline has been extended, and it seems – as I have spent most of the week listening to the soundtrack from the 1980s classic anime cartoon Ulysses 31- that the Gods have been less capricious than usual, considering that my boiler has gone, and the electricity refused to work as well – I had to get an electrician to come and check it. The boiler won't be fixed until Wednesday.
I did not kill the giant Cyclops, so I do not understand why the Gods are so angry with me, but Zeus is reknowned for his terrible temper tantrums….. (my son is doing Greek myths at school, that's my excuse!) I do feel like Ulysses much of the time, having been banished to unknown space, to travel among unknown stars… such is the life of a single parent!
Anyway, Greek analogy aside, it's interesting, because I was invited to an artist's talk by Lynsey Seers. I had seen her work in The Collection a while ago, and wondered what it was all about. She made herself into a camera, photographing things in Sir Isaac Newton's garden using her mouth as a pinhole camera…. strange.
But now she has explained her practice, there are elements that mirror my own, even though she goes about it in a very different way. She is influenced by Vilem Flusser, and a brief skim read tells me that he has similar theories to Baudrillard, and in another one of those coincidences that frequently happen to me, he also talks about Ulysses and the meanings of polymechanikos, the Trojan Horse, and theories about materiality and reality. It relates to the precession of the simulacra, which is integral to my work. Baudrillard describes it as a map that covers the entire territory such that it becomes more real than the world itself. A bit like Google Earth…..
So, I have been so distracted by the faulty boiler, faulty electrics and the wrath of Zeus (!) that I didn't make it to the Private View for The Golden Record.
I have submitted some of my work for it here: http://www.flickr.com/groups/goldenrecord/pool/
but if it was selected by John Hegley I'll never know now. At least, I might drop by and go and see the exhibition when I get time… by the great galaxies!
