meeting points and disconnects: the cultural nuances of emotional expression.

At the fodder factory, a great little restaurant in cao chang di – We have set up here for downloads of the camera footage. While here, Matt is sampling a mirin type of dressing that he wan’ts to know more about for the dinner tomorrow night. He will mix it with cucumber and seseme. The dressing is very morish.

We have set up to shoot at the barber with the little dogs. They have the chinese soap opera blaring – and the dogs are running around like mad eating old bones. The light is a bit dark. We have tried to match it up to the same viewpoint that we had in Turkey. We set up the camera on old dog bowls. The camera I have, a Nikon D7000 shoots for up to 12 minutes at a time – so its a constant run back and forth to keep the camera running. Mid download of footage another lady came in for a hair cut – so I missed the start. Then a big coal truck started unloading tonnes of coal out the front of the shop – so the sound will be a mess anyway. Pablo is at the back of the restaurant, surrounded by staff while he is playing. They all have the phones out taking photos of him. I wonder what will happen when he gets back to australia – and the constant attention will diminish.

The hair dresser speaks no english, so we put viki, from Platform China on the phone to translate what we wanted. Viki then road over on her bike to have a chat with them. Viki has been a great help – she is from Taiwan, moved to Beijing with her boyfriend, Lee, a few months ago.

The internet has gone down at Platform China. Viki is starting to stress, as the other residents from Norway, Per and Tuuna, are getting annoyed as well.

I don’t think Viki can come to the dinner tomorrow night, so Jamie from platform china is coming instead – had a quick chat to julia as well. I think I might get some more white cotton, and also another chip for my camera.

We are starting to map out a few dates – Matt got in contact with a friend from Port Douglas who lives in Shanghai – so we may head down there. I think I will need more time in Chongqing than I think. It seems to take a while to get things organised here, so need to cater for it.

Well, four hours later, shoot is done at first hairdresser. It looks great. They shifted the seat from the middle, so not great = but while that was happening a women was in a contraption getting her hair permed in the corner, so by accident, it still looks good.

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ON Wednesday Matt is cooking a dinner for eight/nine people at Laurens Tans’ studio. I will document the event.

Julia, My number is 13522864391. Can we talk tonight/today.

Premise>
As the guests eat, three to four seamstresses sew the emotional connections of the table. By the end of the night, it will be difficult to eat I imagine.
The work will be a type of intervention, that aims to elicit more intimate, vulnerable and personal communication, highlighting our interconnectedness.
The documentation will be a mix of wide shots, and close ups, stills and video and audio. I will have a tripod, sound mic and camera. At the end of the night, I will take all the sewn clothing – so people need to make sure they have a jacket or something warm to go home in.
All people involved, guests, people sewing, people helping will be credited, on all documentation.

Guests>
Geoff Raby (Australian Ambassador, whose term finishes last June- he’s remaining in Beijing as entrepreneur)
Shirley (an unusually tall and effervescent Chinese woman-girl, his companion)
Doug Lewis (who you’ve met, a Canadian curator/artist / teacher who’s been in Beijing for 5 years) and his wife
Jean Klimack ( artist / teacher )
Wangling (in finance, she came to the BBQ with her husband, the wine merchant (but he’s not available) neighbours here at 318)
Wu Junyong (artist, neighbours here at 318) TBC
no response yet from Gordon Laurin (who ran the Where Where space) – I had invited him earlier.

Potential Menu – depending on produce. Matt will meet Laurens at 9.30 am on Wednesday.

Chilled sweet corn soup, baby crab, shellfish oil

(Chinese teacups x 8)

Tomato Ceviche – (the stitching starts here)

(Small side plate x 8)

Grilled fish, eggplant, buttermilk dressing

(Will find fish in market on Wednesday)

(Large dinner plates x 8)

Cucumber and Sesame

(Reuse tomato ceviche plates)

Char grilled lamb, green bean, olive, pine nut and mint vinagrette

(Reuse fish plates)

fruit and grilled stone bread

(Large platter)

Equipment>
I will bring all equipment needed for the shoot. I will need a dedicated place in the office to put my laptop to download footage and for recharge.
Seamstresses>
Julia, from Platform China and two friends will be the seamstresses. They will wear black.I have needles and white cotton. I will find some more.

Information for Seamstresses>
One person starts stitching at first – I want there demeanor to be quite serous – objectively tracking the emotional connections – for example, each time someone talks to another guest – the seamstresses should mark this with a stitch between them. I want them to be very careful! (make sure they don’t stab anyone with a needle). By the third course, all people will be stitching quite fast. It would be good not to look at the camera, and not to address the guests.
Only guests top, outer layers are to be sewn together. (jacket or outer shirt).

Time>
We will meet at 6pm at Laurens Tan Studio. What would viki, julia, etc like to eat? Shall julia, viki, etc eat then or before they arrive? Matt won’t be able to cook for every one – so let me know if we need to get some takeaway food or something.
We will be briefing the guests around 6.30 – 6.45pm, then starting dinner at 7pm. Matt will be starting with soup. We will then start the stitching on the second course, around 7.15 pm. We imagine it would end around 8.15 or so.

Pablo>

Linda, Feabes sister will look after Pablo if he needs it.

Serving Food
can Viki help matt serve the food and clear dishes?

Directions> for Laurens Tan’s Studio. See attachment.

Restaurants in Beijing

http://www.ingridhora.com/ongoing

We met Ingrid Hora, an Italian Artist living in Berlin who is doing a residency in Cao Chang di .

she sent through a list of great restaurants in Beijing. She has a small opening on the 22nd that would be great to check out.

Here are some recommendations (if you click on the link you get further description and the address):Noodle Loft (面酷) (They make great noodles at the counter in front of your eyes)Noodle Bar (Beijing noodles, small and simple but hip) VERY NICE no MSG…Han Na Shan Korean a chain, several locations but one of them is very close by. Baoyuan Jiaozi Wu (宝源饺子屋) (great dumpling place close to Kempinski)Haidilao Hot Pot (海底捞火锅) or Ding Ding Xiang (both hot pot restaurants, haven’t tried the former but seems to be good) Da Dong Roast Peking Duck. try as well the modern experimental cusine some aaaaaamazing dishes there

‘In & Out’ on Sanlitun Bei xiao jie in Beijing.
try the saute egg with jasmine flower, the cold spicy chicken, which is not so spicy but very tasty and light…lime and mint, very Thai) and try the mini zucchini flowers , the beef-wraps served in bamboo, in any case i would stick to the small dishes which truly are amazing and so differnt in taste and so fresh.no funny oil. Yunnan is at the border to thailand, vietnam and Burma….and is very differnt the rest of food we tried in china.
i would not dive so much in the heavy meat dishes as you have to try all the starters and vegetables. but do take the soup! we had one with pork and broad-beans but i think the chicken one looks amazing too.
i cant find the chinese address but maybe someone at Platform can translate? its in the embassy area. we go there by bike. its next to an Italian place called assaggi I think.
its a bit more expensive but worth it. I think you eat for 200 RMB including Pablo
enjoy!

Ingrid

btw: we will have a small informal event on 22 October. Invite and exact address will follow. “

organising Dinner Event Wednesday night.

Julia, who also works at Platform china emailed me. Julia and Viki suggest we use some art students to the seamstresses on Wednesday night.

need exact times for meeting – I think 6.30.what to wear – blackwho – three women?map – how to get there. source Lauren’s map.
Suggestion – dinner starts at 7pm – they shoudl arrive to six. The soup is first course – no stitching till the second course. They will then be asked to track the conversations through the stitching. The event will last one hour or so.
Julia wants to take us through CAFA’s exhibition – http://en.artron.net/news/news.php?newid=169149,

I have cotton. need to get all memory sticks cleared, all equipment powered up. Matt will be meeting laurens to shop at 9.30 am tomorrow.

Catch up

Australian Embassy>
I recieved an email from Amanda Barry, the Cultural Relations Officer at the Australian Embassy Beijing. We hope to meet next Tuesday for lunch. Its interesting that the former Australian Embassador seems to be a guest at our dinner event on Wednesday?. Shall be interesting.

Asialink:

I also recieved an email from Lesley Alway, Director Asialink Arts who mentions she may be coming to Beijing between the 4th and 7th of November with an NGV delegation. Asialink http://www.asialink.unimelb.edu.au/

are supporting my residency in China. I did my first Asialink residency in Thailand in 2003.

I suggested we meet up in CaoChangdi for dinner.

“Each year the Asialink Residency program sends 40 Australian writers, performers, artists and arts managers to live and work throughout Asia. The grant of up to $12,000 goes towards travel, living and project expenses, and affords recipients the opportunity for in-depth research, stimulating cultural exchanges, international collaboration and uninterrupted time for creativity”. It would be great to meet up with Lesley.

got an email from Bruce Gremo – an artist we met at a sound event at Platform China. http://suddensite.net. Bruce and Jennifer have a little girl that Pablo fell in love with. Would be nice to catch up. He mentioned an event he has coming up at the Art Academy. We should get them over for Pablos fourth birthday. Maybe Sunday?

I got an email from Peter Kay from Queensland art gallery wanting to meet up to find out more about my work for the Premiers new media art award. Sounds good.

got an email from Marco Gillies from Goldsmiths who has a student interested in working on some projects. Great news. Will make contact next week.

White Night Festival

http://www.whitenightnuitblanche.com/brighton/events/like-shadows-a-celebration-of-shyness/

Got an email from Helen Sloan – the White night event in Brighton will show some recent work.

We hope to exhibit the first two projects of nowness series. They are both in quite a sketchy state.

Present Perfect Continuous – Matt will be in Brighton and I will be in Beijing – maybe we download application onto both of our machines – could do a session of conversations, and maybe match them back to the original conversations post event to see how successful it is – also matt to talk to the people interacting with it in brighton about the experience?

Present Perfect Continuous. A chat program – first show will be in a few weeks in brighton at Pheonix?

‘Liveness involves action in the present, an awareness of now. Speaking in present tense is effective for conveying the immediacy of emotions and sensations. We do not know from the information that is given exactly when the activities started or when they will end. This chat program will disrupt habitual conversation strategies, only allowing users to speak in progressive present tense. Anything written in past tense or future tense gets converted to present tense.

Perculate *in development – second show at Pheonix with white night, first last year at OZCO. It exists as documentation of the first user sessions we did at Nokia Research Center.

Perculate uses eye display technology developed by Nokia Research Center. As a phone call begins, a captured image of the conversants’ eyes is transmitted to each conversant via the eye display technology. The conversants look probingly into each others eyes as they converse.

At brighton – we will just show documentation of the first user session

Went to drinks at Brian Wallace’s apartment on Sunday night. Laurens Tan and Feabe came by with their driver to pick us up – we then met up with doug lewis and Jean Klimack (currenlty exhibiting at Where Where Space). As I am sitting in the front passenger seat, with Pablo on my lap, with no seatbelt, weaving in and out of crazy traffic in unbelievably large highways, while laurens chain smokes cigarettes with the car windows up, I wonder about all the rules we seem to leave behind when we leave our own country.

Brian, who is director of Redgate – has a great apartment on the 19th floor near the Watch Tower, – amazing views over beijing. He has recently purchased the apartment next door as well – so the view now extends to about 270 degrees over monstrous highways and never ending buildings, all the way back to the mountains on a clear night. The city looks like a monster from up there – you can just hear a constant hum. Brian’s apartment is filled with artwork he has collected over the last ten years or so – but he has lived here now for 27 years. We met a lot of Australians who have made Beijing there home. We also met a lot of the redgate artist in residents – the artists seem to keep returning year after year. Was a great night.

Dissapointing news about my work I wanted to do in Shenyang. After a few phonecalls by Viki – tracking down the mall in Shenyang, we came to the conclusion that the store that opened in July 2010 has shut down. The store allowed women to come in and bash apart appliances. After paying 30 RMB, they are given a baseball bat and helmet, and then allowed to bash things apart for a few minutes to vent a bit of anger. I was going to spend a few days up there shooting women bashing things. It shut down a few months ago apparently. No one is surprised by this – shops come and go here quickly. Its ashame, as I had just found a shenyang based translator.

On the otherhand, we spend time on Sunday searching for Barber shops. Matt and I started shooting Barber shops when we were in Turkey, and we hope to continue here. We have found two willing barber shops. These shoots will start today.

I need to start marking out time – Its all going too fast, and I think I will need more time in Chonqing.

We had a huge day yesterday – we ventured over to the Summer Palace – palatial gardens and temples over the other side of the city. A log bus ride and two subway changes later – we arrived. We thought monday may be a nice quiet time to go – but it was filled to the brim with chinese tourists. I am not sure when you may find this sites quiet – maybe in the dead heart of winter. The crowds are a bit overwhelming, and Matt starts to get frustrated and a bit antsy. We staid a couple of hours and we all had icecream, looking over the lake. However, pablo was causing a traffic jam of people as lots of people were stopping to photograph him. He doesn’t really understand all of the attention.

We then stopped back in 798 to buy batteries for my new mic, string and needles for our event on Wedensday night. We founds Jenny Lou’s – a supermarket that sells western food just off 798 – and stocked up on coffee and also weetbix for pablo. Nearly 8 AUD for weetbix – but pablo loves it for breakfast. We bought some cheese and bread for pablo so we could make toasted cheese sandwiches. Western food here is really expensive, and a huge luxury, but sometimes essential. We tried going with out coffee, but it just didn’t work out well.

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