after sporadic visits by fishermen from the immediate north, and European discovery by Dutch explorers in 1606,[9] the eastern half of Australia was claimed by the British in 1770 and initially settled through penal transportation to the colony of New South Wales, founded on 26 January 1788. from wiki

observation: it is interesting how intimate distance can be.
often our interactions with people who are far away are more direct,
liberal, pure, explosive
and heart driven. there is also space and distance to be more considerate and find clarities.

14 : 30 315: Metaphors of Space
An architectural display and poetry reading on the theme of home and public space.
this is an event at sydney writers festival, and reading this one line made me remember how i am really interested in poetics of space and looking forward to reading more about it when i have the space to read and experiencing and exploring.

observations: changes in my general relationship with this place i currently find myself in
- now that i have decided to go home soon.
less stretched or stressed
more here and able to see the beauty and interest of what is present.
less emotionally blurry
able to take up a more engaged dialogue
the idea of home gives me energy and more focus,
limited time makes me more considerate or careful with how i use it
strange hollow feeling, less drive to make things happen here
less stickiness or overwhelming immersion
it is dryer or less wet in some way

(dialogue with self):
you are not your notebook, you are not the pieces of paper that you carry around and draw on.
maybe i am
maybe you are
maybe i am the paper and for a moment it is my self who travels in
the tip, in the lead of the pencil
and it is is me who marks its surface and breathes through the space.

We have lost touch with the environment, we are living an artificial and materialistic life, racing against time defined only by ourselves. We create necessities we do not need and carry the heavy burden from day to day. Its confusing, and that why we live in doubt
Diego Beyró
i read this quote in a magazine and it rang true. this artists paintings are really really nice, have a look at them.

the only task is to breathe
breathe fully

listening to bring it on by nick cave

idea: to spend a day gathering discarded furniture and wood and other useful things from an urban environment and to construct a architectural space in public. then to have a prepared dinner of feasting delight upon and inside the constructed furniture, and to invite everyone.

Love, love is a verb. Love is a doing
word. Feathers on my breath. Gentle
impulsion shakes me makes me lighter.
lyrics from teardrop by massive attack

obsequear

i accidently lost myself for hours in another bookshop again, ravenous and emotionally affected by art and documentary photography and lives i never get to see into, but because of books. because of books... and i thought that maybe i will have to open a bookshop one day.
traveling through different countries i am exposed to so much printed matter that we just dont get at home. and so maybe i will have to make a bookshop of things that you just cant find or you dont see. really obscure. challenging. really real. small points of light.

listening to Total Transitional Flexibility by Chronox (who are Michael Prior and Lachlan Conn, and they are a totally super awesome art and noise making duo, that have made one of the best installation exhibitions i have ever been to, and if possible would live inside.).

sitting in a garden with beautiful strangers, and the boy next to me was playing a slightly out of tune violin and i drew to his music.

its not the outside reality but how one connects with the inside reality.

So if feeling a bit shaky on the old connection best to reconnect in place of familiarity then move again, when connection firmly established.
Emma

a very simple meal:
white millet (with umeboshi plum paste),
boiled silverbeet/blet,
fresh dulse (purple seaweed),
fried tempeh and freshly fried and ground sesame seeds

You ask me what a work of literature must do in order to be worthy of the name. I suppose I would say it must have a quality of the transcendent. I do not mean metaphysical transcendence, but a kind of heightening. In the work of art, the world is made for a moment radiant, more than itself while at the same time remaining absolutely, fundamentally, mundanely, utterly itself. So the artistic act is almost like the sexual act: in the glare of its attention, the Other, in a sudden access of self-awareness, takes on a transcendent glow. High talk, I know, but we are, I take it, talking of high art. (John Banville)

i am reading the believer book of writers talking to writers

listening to Abandoned ship bells by múm, with ear phones otherwise you wouldnt hear anything.

my alarm just woke me up from a dream where i was about to leave on a very big trip to somewhere for a long time. and i was filling a paper bag with two kinds of plums, small yellow ones and bigger oval shaped purple ones. and my mum was in the kitchen making samosa's and maybe parts of the house were my grandad's house. and all my relatives were there but they were older and calmer than i remembered and I was kissing them goodbye.
and then there was a rush to get in the car with my mum, we were driving somewhere to have a picnic with everyone in the tiny amount of time before i had to go. and my mum was bringing the food she had been preparing. and there were fancy chairs that had been hired but we had to have clear plastic sheets over them for protection. and i hadnt said goodbye to everyone and i wanted to know if they were coming and where my grandad was.
and i was trying to fit my bag of plums in the car without spilling or squishing them. and it was windy and the time for my departure was almost here.
and the car was parked under a tree and the tree was in some kind of spacious green place.
and some of the people werent coming to the next place, before the departure, to have the picnic and say goodbye. And it was confusing and fast, like we were running out of time. but i remember their faces and then then my alarm rang.

Collapses can be seen as momentary, somehow unpredictable disruptions or, else inversions of a established direction in the evolution of any system, whether a simple social and spontaneous biological model (a community of insects, by instance) or a complex game played by different parties. At some point the previous conditions turn out to be no longer tenable. A sort of chaotic, non-linear development bursts out, sometimes with devastating effects. After it takes place, the old picture must be disposed of. The order, no longer existing, might be restored or just retained in some local portions of the system.

This text was the central offering statement from a conference called Collapse(s) as part of an architectural festival in Barcelona. I went to one of the three days of the conference last week. It was very interesting, and also quite hard to grasp what some of the speakers were trying to express, particularly in a technical sense. There is a lot to think about in this idea of Collapse. The concern of the conference was to talk about the theoretical and very real nature of part and full collapse of our current structure of living. There was a particular focus on architecture, but some very interesting definitions and ideas of architecture were discussed, and at the end, even i felt like an architect. a very simple one.
Architecture is no longer merely devoted to designing buildings or drawing urban plans. In our days, it is also an attempt of giving feasible responses, both theoretical and practical, to problems arising from our lifestyle and connected to our multi=faceted social interaction in an urban overpopulated environment. It is not a mere academic exertion on the infinite possibilities of spatial shaping and surface modeling. It is not simply baroque vs minimalism...architecture demands that we take our own responsibilities in planning bio-ecologically balanced, energetically recycling and socially comfortable living structures... reflexive and fully self-critical architectural work is something to be necessarily...it cannot possibly be exempted from addressing the emergency which neatly stands before us.

things i wrote down in my notebook, that i heard speakers say:
bitruncated cubic honeycomb///subsystem transactions
(We need to move) from an ethic of conservation to an ethic of transformation - a dialogue with nature. ecologicstudio.con
what happens when disused materials become operative to the design?
question the heroic approach
discard an axiom*
(*a statement or proposition that is regarded as being established, accepted, or self-evidently true)

reality isnt built by designers.
thermal leakage
non-formal architecture??
50% of the population live in cities,
and 90% of people in cities live in slums.
collapsing lightness
simplicity
the tree circus - axel erlandson

last night when i came home one of the very lovely people i am living with at the moment was preparing a dish which i got to enjoy the pleasure of discovering. A nutty grain with parsnip, pear (sliced and fried with the other vegetables), walnuts, carrots, courgette, and champignons. The squishiness and sweetness of the pear worked really well with the nuttiness of grain and walnuts - parsnips and carrots provided the quirk of flavour. It was really nice little adventure in eating, and we had a bowl of beautifully red crunchy radishes to go with it.

is listening silent? can you hear someone listening? perhaps the sound of their breath would give them away.

Chopping the ground with their feet, making it invisible visible,
and bury your feet with your arms to fly, to dive into the body and silence,
relying on the accuracy of intuition.
the poetic wonder of google translate

Last week the federal Government approved nearly $8 million from the Aboriginals Benefits Account to support 24 indigenous art centres. These funds include royalties from mining on Aboriginal land. see report here

...creativity as an ability to open lines of flight from apparent
reductive definitions and restrictions.
njp:now jump

"when i went overseas, and then came back again it made me so aware of my connection to place (that being melbourne) it's knowing the names of the streets, its some kind of undercurrent in the atmosphere...sometimes i get chills just from sitting in a certain spot and letting the world rush over me..." Adelaideyes connection to place is something that is slowly built up over a long time, these fleeting roadside moments in other lands and peoples dreamscapes are held briefly in wonder for a moment, but it takes time to really be somewhere.

Humans are funny creatures, we cant keep up with this fast world we have created, because essentially we are very slow.

i had an interesting quote for you today...one was "artists make the world understandable for everyone else" and the other was "I'm cutting along in my life as it leads me" (kerouac) not sure if their any use to you but i liked the ideas of them...
Adelaide

i woke up with the sensation that i was waiting for something

I went to an improvised dance performance the other night as part of LP'09 Dansa...O No festival in which the dancer was investigating her movement patterns and habits. Dancing and annotating her research and thoughts on a blackboard. It was interesting but the text heaviness of the performance was hard for me (it being in spanish). Afterwards I found a folded paper bird someone had made from a program and outside I threw and flew the bird, making my own movement research, experimenting with direction, speed, orientation and flying upsidedown, which proved the most interesting as spirals were often occurring and interesting soft flight from a spiral into peaceful sliding landing. I thought about Jonathon Livingston seagull.

this is what happens when i buy a packet of envelopes.
instead of making one letter i fill every envelope
with an address. to request a letter email me your
postal address, and it is possible, at a point when
i feel like it I may write you a letter too...
actually i dont even have to be involved. just write
letters, from anyone to anyone, spread the papered
love.

In this lifetime there is so much to learn and learn in
ways not previously available. It can be learnt by safely
externalising perceptions and observations or it can be,
more courageously, experienced, internalised, integrated
and grounded. Either way the learning is you, and within
you. There is no other at cause, there is no injustice,
there is just you and me and our learning.

You know that after, and only after the experience,
comes the wisdom. There is so much to know; the
potential of nothing to provide you with everything.
You know there is so much to keeping on keeping on.
You know there is so much to your divinity. You know
that you know.

There’s so much truth to you that untruths are redundant
before consideration.

You know that all of you is a loving person. You
know that so much of you is OK. There is so much to
you that seeks out positive options and alternate ways of
moving forward. So much of you expresses reality above
fantasy. There is so much in you that acknowledges the
beauty and positive aspects in others. Keeping on keeping
on is so much a part of your integrity.

Adam Davis

authenticity.
integrity.
balance.
neutrality.
clarity.

Fulfill your mind and your heart with the thoughts and dreams which you haven't had time until now to explore, but without sinking into morbid introspection. A financial problem may perturb you somewhat. Refrain from building up utopian plans; keep your feet on earth and overestimate neither your strength nor that of others. Friendship will prove vital in the achievement of your projects. Affective questions will take on such importance that they may interfere with your work.
again i look to my horoscope and notice that utopia comes up again?

Just imagine the manifestations of unknown things this journey will lead to and the immense positive ripples you will create with them. Might be crap but im just trying to give and make sure i take things that will contribute positively...
Megsy on my travelling crisis.

ive reached some kind of crisis point.
why am i travelling?

after walking around in mountains all day, i stepped back onto the concrete, into the underground squished full of people and flew back along steel rails into the metropolis. it made no sense. i didnt understand why i was choosing to return to this. why do we live like this? so many of us together, blind and rushing?

I did a photoshoot of silence yesterday. I think it was the noisiest thing that i did all day.

listening to little life by Josephine Foster

on my way somewhere today, i found mountains and so i followed dirt path distractions.
i found silence and wind and buzzing electrical currents from towers.
i found myself simplified.
dirt. rocks. flowers.

when faced with strong emotion or some sense of something you dont understand or are overwhelmed by, blog about food...

me: i wish i wasnt so affected by travel and could just float around and didnt have such a heavy bag and wasnt so obssesed with maintaining some kind of creative production/// ha
oliver: wow yes i hear you you could ditch a bunch of stuff
i too though, have real trouble wit travel you have to compromise a lot of what is otherwise really fundamentally important
me: TRAVEL ONLY SHOWS YOU THE DIFFERENCES AND STAYING STILL SHOWS YOU THE CHANGES (andy goldsworthy)
it is more profound to stay still and be apart of and watch the changes.
oliver: yeh perhaps but being in other places, be it for a long time or a short time, does wonders for your perspective
i can really feel different things stir inside of me when i am in other places
me: yes and i think to be able to stay still and actually notice and appreciate the subtlesness of changes you need to be very awake... and sometimes travel can awaken you.
oliver: yeah i think thats true haha, i also need travel to help me deal with the grass is greener ..... myth?
like, to be able to make informed decisions about the relevance and reverance-worthiness of exotic places on the other side of the world - which is hard to do if you dont actually go there
me: yes, so true, its funny when you go somewhere thats hyped up
and you see some art or perf and your like yes. its okay. but not amazing. and i know people that are doing things just as / if not more interesting
oliver: and its the same or not as good as at home
me: yes exactly, i really find that a lot.
oliver: we've been talking about this lately
there is this expectation that there is a while world of crazy amazing people doing ridiculous amazing things but that world is actually ours, its just us
11:40 AM oliver: things are more tangible than one allows oneself to
think
or something

words are codes which create/ describe/ design/ propose/ question -- SPACE*

*this is an idea

a salad: fennel, tomato, green apple, onion, celery, walnuts, cucumber
a sauce: pear juice, olive oil, mustard and black pepper.

travelling itself seems overly concerned with the moving. But what happens when you arrive?
How do you deepen this arrival, and really be here, where you are?
this is the constant question that i am researching and so i continue my practises of cooking, meditating and moving my body...finding some center in this ever moving circus.

french toast with gluten free bread and soy yogurt

the early morning raucous of birds through an open window, turning into the full symphonic chaos of children.

he has a very extraordinary lifestyle
he has had the phone disconnected, turned off the hot water, he doesnt earn money or spend money, he doesnt wear shoes, or use the toilet, he wont travel in motor cars, he doesnt have the physical fitness to ride a bicycle, he wouldnt go to his mothers funeral, he doesnt have any friends or contact with his children. yes, a very extraordinary lifestyle.
Norman

travel is an ecological conundrum
(staying still also poses many questions, particularly in this idea of city living)

in thinking about dreams and balancing them with realities and practicalities.
sometimes its important to go beyond the limits of what is practical and other times enjoy the simplicity and balance of what is realistic in this moment.

lunching in the same place as the french army and im doing dance stretchs and picking roadside flowers...
and i wonder if they are just people too?
and is it possible that an army man spends time meditating or practising qi gong?
would eating organic have any purpose?

there are two main things we must consider in life.
1. that we may live a long time and that means there are a lot of days between now and then to fill with excitement and pace ourselves through.
2. that we may die at any second and all we have realistically for sure is the present.
and so we oscillate between these two responsibilities -
with elements of planning
and this now,
now,
now.

1. waking to the sound of bees. a unic sound that until you tune into it you dont notice it. and then when your there it is all you can hear.
2. a white almond blossom held to my face, inhaling its sweetness
3. the sunshine so bright it made me squint

this is my friends bag, i think it looks like a koala.

black 15.7 hours
white 1.6 hours
red 18.6 hours
orange 1.1 hours
grey 33.4 minutes
brown 3.8 hours
purple 31.9 minutes
yellow 5.2 minutes
turquoise 15.4 minutes
pink 1.1 hours
green 4.4 hours
blue 20.3 hours
rainbow 4.1 hours
light 10.9 hours
dark 4.1 hours
clear 2.5 hours
cloud 42.5 minutes
crystal 1.2 hours

an inventory of colour in music.
i typed the letters spelling colours into my
friends music collection, and noted the hours of
music that was collected under each colour.

a street in avignon - a pot of pear juice, purple maize and ginger infusion.

why do i hold my breath?

|-ˌbigyoōˈā sh ən| |ˈdɪsømˈbɪgjəˈweɪʃən| |-ˈeɪʃ(ə)n|

Syncope (phonetics), the loss of one or more sounds from the interior of a word especially the loss of an unstressed vowel.

listening to a field recording and discussing the resonance that doesnt comply to the regular ideas of what it means to be harmonic but falls into some kind of rhythmic wonderment.
Like the sound of boiling water - bubbling is inconsistent, but it is a complete coherent sound that you could move to and has a really strong rhythmic presence.

what caused the last pause to reflect?
Thomas

The astral influxes will give you tremendous audacity; you'll get plenty of nerve... but will you be able to dominate your worst default, which is to seek refuge in utopia?
this is an except from my chinese horoscope on facebook. seek refuge in utopia, that sounds like me...?

oblong - seaography - worse
strange dashboard poetry

i took this photo a few months ago in berlin.
there is something about it that i intensely love.

i want to write short reviews of all the performances that i have seen this week.

You can -

at any point stop what you are doing.
- - - - and change it.
change direction. change what you are holding and how heavy it is. change pace and speed.
change the way you perceive light.
change how information comes in and what you do with. change patterns.
change jocks. change location. change page. change window. change personality and social structures.
change the rules. change the plan. change the rules, change the plan.
everything can disappear in a second
and so we must take up the infinite potential present in every moment
do what is most important and true
to us (me/you) right now.

Listening to grenade by Josh Armistead streaming from faraway,
and i am sitting on someone elses bed, the rain dampened street outside.

i just went to the cinema and experienced the phenomenon that is widely spoken of but i had never experienced to this intensity before of escapism. in a dark room in a foreign country, watching a film in my language, i ceased to exist anywhere in particular, suspended somewhere in the dark, i was neither in the film or my physical reality.

/salad: green leaves of lettuce as fresh as possible, carrot lacto fermente (like a sauerkraut), gomasio, and dressing: colza oil, umeboshi plum vinegar and a little tahini./
/dish: fried mushrooms, cabbage, coconut oil, ginger, garlic, taboulee spice mix, lemon juice, pre-cooked lentilles de puy and rice complet (cooked with herbs). served with dressing similiar to the salad one but much more tahini in a good way./