the idea

A month ago I received the news that I got into a residency in the mountains of Southern Spain in December. In the proposal I simply wrote:

My inquiry: the forgetting (or questioning) of time. During the week of my residency I will observe my own changing perception of time with meditation, and externalize my findings in photography, video and prose.

I subsequently applied for a mobility grant from the European Cultural Foundation to cover the cost. Not knowing anything about the EYE project other than some deadlines, I tried to connect the materials I'd generate over the residency to the what I might make for the EYE.

In the grant proposal[1] I wrote:

I will explore the notions of modern time and articulate its underlying structure biased for rush and perhaps a tendency to judge. I want to find the juxtapositions between the mentality fostered by urbanity and that by nature and bodily knowledge, and, further, to portray them with an empathy inspired by wilderness and self-resilience to a larger audience in the (post-)industrial cities...To achieve that, I will spend my days at Joya unlearning the familiar urban time-keeping through meditation, walks, documentation, and conversations with my hosts.'

The above is what I've conceptualized so far, and I'll revisit the context and framework after I make something concrete.

the method

"Making work starts with setting rules for myself," one of my fellow artist once said to me. For a dinner production, she set the rules to only use what she can find locally (whether through foraging or through the market, depending on the setting) and to set a ritual for the eating of the food (only once everyone is served a dish can they start to eat). There were probably internal rules that I was not aware of, but I was amazed, if not awed, by the cohesion of her project. It was both thoroughly thought out and well executed.

I have set rules for myself before (the.train and the artist room in particular), and it seems to be the overarching methodology I've used for non-artistic works in architecture (discovery, research and synthesis) and related to the actual workflow employed in programming (specific instant, abstraction, generalization). Over the past two months at PZI I have noticed my tendency to gather, order and archive... It's not just the reuse of old ways, though... For example, I feel uneasy with the analog photos I've developed. A lot of them are soft and blurry, the images look nothing like the reality that I experienced... I am building a new kind of relationship with these photos compared to what I have had with photos shot with a DSLR or a phone. This needs more articulation, of course.

I will still gather the footage and photograph for the EYE project.

I will re-read some exercises from the Performance Art Workbook, which will give me old and new ideas for defining the gathering process.

synthesis/creation

I am likely to write about time, my sense of time, the disconnection in my mind, anxiety, disappearance of anxiety, feeling alone, feeling loved, good and bad feelings in general.

TODO:

Look through footage:

- from a residency in Finland (lots of food, fire, darkness, light through the windows...)

- water pipes in Tallin

- instagram videos

and find common threads. Perhaps I will use old footage as well.