#04 I
10:18
The soil from my mother’s garden crunches in the hand shells of snails accumulated grit roots as strong and delicate as greying hairs. Ground that welcomes rain and pushes between toes on bare feet leaving marks like the tide on the shoreline.
10:23
#04 II
16-12-20
Meeting starts online.
“Can you see me?”
“No, not yet”
“I can’t get my camera to turn on”
[sudden loud, harsh electronic noise]
Meeting aborted, whole mug of coffee spilt on laptop
#04 III
06-01-21
A looming disquiet as we attempt to adjust once again.
“What is good news and what is bad news?” … “It feels like an act of warfare to keep people apart.”
At least we can reconnect with what’s on our doorstep. We discuss Hito Steyerl Hyper local /global local.
Relating back to S/S/S practice … we would usually have a face to face element – sharing stories in real space and time. Is it possible to replace that process of interaction with cues of intonation and body language, and how? Then there is the dilemma of having so many conversations, and not necessarily knowing where to put them. How to archive/ document the learning? Continuing the conversations keeps it living. Becoming storytellers. Feeling through in which ways we can develop our practice, new methods, approaches, connections. Community art what is it?
Thinking about soil, one of us remembers seeing mud cloth (Bògòlanfini or bogolan) being made in Djenne, Mail.
The geometric patterns painted on cloth with fermented iron rich local soil communicate tribal narratives, mnemonics and values of the people, passed down from generation to generation.
The collective is about care and finding small pleasures
Hands – what do they know? what can they sense? The skin as our largest organ. Motor memory, seeing hands, feeling with prosthetic’s? Sense of self-hood.
Octopus brains in their limbs/Humans (neurons) transmitters, how knowledge flows the body(s)
How little movement in the house. The body needs to move, even visualising movement can slow muscle tone loss. Lifestyle fitness/ formal exercise, Exercise with purposefulness.
[many disconnected and connected thoughts]
Libertarianism and behaviours an epidemic necessitates, we are where we are.
Leap frogging resources
- Hito Steyerl
- David Abram
- Mud cloth
- Consciousness and quantum mechanics
- Feeling skin and prosthetics
- Merlin Sheldrake in conversation with James Fairhead
- Octopus Eight smart limbs plus a big brain add up to a weird and wondrous kind of intelligence
GG