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20180712

Participating in the ISCP weekly Open Doors Thursday. The beginning of the day was busy. I got to meet nice people but I got tired pretty fast. I retreated into my studio and started to log/quasi-edit Signal #6 (Cifas) footage which was shot by by Camille Laufer in 2017. Here is a raw cut of the Trans-Horse Parade and some footage form Care & Control workshops.

My visit to Staten Island (on Monday) felt like a beating, I’m still recovering. Busses were late, I was late, it was hot and I was so sweaty I couldn’t hold my camera rig steady. I didn’t have stamina to direct the interview I shot. The footage is almost good, better then I feared (More on that later). Bought a Rode RodeLink Wireless microphone system which worked well (Learning how to balance the audio will take a while).

Discovered Kensington Stables at Prospect Park. 45$ for an hour with a horse – Not bad! I learned from the news that there are a drastic development plans for the area and the local urban horse culture is under thread. I guess I’ll go to a riding class next week.

Why the Ed Sheeran lawsuit makes no sense (2018) Adam Neely. A very convincing video, arguing that some copyright lawsuits benefit lawyers (who work for corporations), at the expense of artists (who work for music).

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20180711

Animals and Anthropology (2018) AnthroPod podcast. A good source for learning about approaches animal studies offer anthropology (and arts). When human interests (white male) are positioned outside the focus of a study, different beings have the opportunity to emerge. For example “wildness” (as a state of being) is linked to colonial views of what nature is. Wildlife reserves are for animals which fit westerners views on how wild beings should behave – Uninterfered by human development, like in paradise. The podcast provides (yet an other) argument that anthropomorphisation is not as bad as previously thought, when it offers us a way to approach others (as informants of situated knowledge). There is also a call for decolonisation of animal studies.

More-than-Human Politics (2016) AnthroPod podcast. A less compact series of talks and discussions, which investigates how to translate nonhuman knowledge into words and texts. I think this is a silly question to begin with… It’s not actually a question, it’s a statement (or a prayer, like loreipsum), uttered to further the omnipotence of words. The statement is fuelled by able-bodied nostalgia and a mystic believe that there is a meaning behind what we experience. Judging from a recent column Sofie Oksanen is a victim of the same mysticism A Soviet shadow looms over the Putin-Trump summit in Helsinki (2018).

Language shapes reality, and our recent history still makes Finland behave in a certain way.

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20180709

Got a semi-bad sun burn on my shoulders.

Preparing for tomorrows test-shoots (more on that later).

Met with the July batch of ISCP artists (fun looking people, mainly painters and photographers) and got a breakdown of the “services” ISCP provides for residents. I didn’t write everything down (which I regret as there was a lot to take in). ISCP takes residents on field trips and to gallery/museum openings, organizes various types of open studio events (Open Doors Thursday, Summer / Winter open house events), they organise artist talks (between visitors, residents & staff), third Thursday (of the month) informal gallery tours, critic visits (to which we can book appointments, I booked an appointment with Sara Reisman), aid in productions, some sort of coaching services and there are a lot of tools artist can borrow too. It’s great.. Like a Art-School-Social-Factory-Rehabilitation-Center. Residents are expected to spend 20h a week at the ISCP facilities and to be on location on Thursdays (and to have their studio doors open, for talks and informal meetings). I’m learning to cope with having my home and studio in separate addresses… Constantly forgetting to take gear (hard-disks or flash-drives) with me.

HP Lovecraft’s Racism (2018) Zero Book. A short extract on a longer podcast investigating Lovecrafts political views on others (he’s a racist but it’s complicated).

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20180708

Launched the New York Sock Repair & Exchange service. I’ll send invitations to friends tomorrow right now.

Collected a set of bike tires from Harlem yesterday. On the C train back to 14th st. – 8th Ave I accidentally touched a lady with my elbow when reaching for my phone. She responded immediately by pushing back. I didn’t sense any hostility in her act, she only wanted me to acknowledge her boundaries. I apologised but she didn’t acknowledge me.

People in the public (and free!) McCarren Park Pool changing area hide their nude bodies by arranging towels as wall high barricades. They crouch behind vertical towel towers just slip into their bathing suits. There are different changing ares for males and females, but nobody was nude! It’s weird to see grown men act so immaturely. Everyone is afraid to be though of as a pervert – Which is why they execute weird performances to show that they are not perverts (which is a perverse in itself).

Old Hippie Remembers His Commune Experiences (198?) David Hoffman. A man remembering how a hippy community collapsed.