Blog entries to write:
Conversation with David Constantine yesterday about Brecht's 'Kriegsfibel' and relationship of poetry to photographic images of war – transcribe recording of conversation and select parts for blog.
Impromptu discussion today at Fabrica with students from Greenwich University.
On speechlessness.
Reading of Islam & the West – conversation between Derrida and Mustapha Chérif – when I've read more of it.
Rancière on translation and communication.
Replace Branson image with something – anything – else. – done
I am in a North London library. Mum is sitting on a sofa in the children's area. I think she's nodding off. We've just had lunch together in a cafe. She's 81, though, for some reason, I keep thinking she's 82. Her eyesight is poor as she suffers from age-related macular degeneration and she is becoming increasingly unable to look after herself. I come and see her when I can but the job of looking after her falls mainly to my sister who lives near to her.
I noticed this morning having spent yesterday evening and last night in my old family home that something strange had happened to time and space and that I felt as if I had been there forever and that my life in Brighton felt like a million miles away.
I'd better not keep her waiting too long but it's nice and warm in here, much warmer than at her house where there seems to be something wrong with the heating.
It's political. Me being here. Her sitting over there. Me trying to take care of her but failing mostly. The job is much larger than I can manage, short of giving up my life and living with her. Maybe that's what I ought to do? You only have one mum after all. But I know I can't – or rather won't.
I miss her. She used to be such a lively spirit. So vivacious. Now she sits mainly motionless and seems rather tuned out a lot of the time, cocooned in her dulled senses. But she's still there.
I feel sad but keep cheerful because that's the least I can do.
What this has got to do with Hirschhorn I really don't know. Except that if he is really trying to reach for the human in us all, as Julian Stallabrass said during his talk about him, then that is what I am trying to do too.
In her. And in myself.
Having spent the past week bemoaning the fact that I have had no internet access at home for the past week (due to technical problems with my ISP) and so have had my late nightly blogging habit interrupted I now feel that I have turned a corner.
I have now realised that I am a nomad blogger.
I am having to write and blog posts here and there wherever I can. Ah, such freedom! Such liberation from the domestic realm!
Not as easy to download, crop, optimise and post images but it needn't stop me writing and I can catch up with images at the weekend.
So, if you're reading this, Richard Branson, please do keep trying to fix the problem but be assured that my outlook is looking somewhat brighter.
White Night debate continued
Imagining a world without war.
For those who wanted to take part, a lie-down collaborative imagining came next. I led this, inviting people to lie down, close their eyes and to start imagining a world without war. I asked people to speak out loud any aspect of this new world that came to mind and to resist the urge to destroy any part of the picture that was constructed as a result.
The world that came about temporarily for those fifteen or so minutes was green, lush, filled with chocolate, had no locked doors, was relaxing and had a university where people of any age could come and use the facilities to accomplish ideas they had without having to pass any exams or prove their competence. The people who lived there felt no need to be led by anyone else.
Congratulations to everyone for their contributions to the White Night debate ‘Make Love Not War!’. This event was a great success. Devised and planned jointly by students of the Critical Fine Art Practice course at the University of Brighton and the Visual Culture Society of Sussex University with myself, it took place in the University of Brighton gallery at Grand Parade in Brighton in amongst the images of Iraq and Vietnam that make up the exhibition ‘Iraq through the lens of Vietnam’ one of the Brighton Photo Biennial exhibitions that make up the War of Images, Images of War biennial curated by Julian Stallabrass. White Night is a new event in Brighton that celebrates putting the clocks back by many venues staying open until the early hours, with all sorts of things happening.
The premise of the debate was to test the proposition ‘Make Love Not War’ and I was billed to chair the event. From the start I had wanted to give the event to students to lead in order for them to experience facilitating a public discussion of politics within the Institution that is a university. I was interested in what form their political energies take and how they get to be exercised currently.
Esther started proceedings by leading a hand-holding activity which ended with half the group outside the gallery on the street and the other half inside the gallery and the two rows of us facing each other through the glass. I found this strangely moving. We were like two factions or like two different species examining each other. And the holding of hands created an instant connection and awareness of our interdependence as people.
The second part of the event had people talking to people they hadn’t met before about issues relating to war and peace prompted by keywords chosen by Luska and presented by Lucy. Everyone was talking at once, animatedly, in pairs. This was followed by a viewing of videos made by Thomas Blatchford, aka The Thomas Ferguson Band, consisting of excerpts of interviews, imagery and film relating to questions around war, aesthetics and ethics. A debate rounded off the evening with Thomas taking a lead in prompting the discussion and opinions getting quite heated at one point, which made the event exciting and the issues come alive.
Nothing was settled, no resolution was forthcoming, no motions were passed. Instead various arena were opened up as possible spaces for debate and the smorgasbord of activities kept the event lively and stimulating.
