This virus is more about coping with the terror of a corporation controlled mediascape and the totalitarism of nation states then health. There is no post-truth, only noise paranoid businessmen utter trough the voice of precariat journalists, there is no quarantine only a performance amplifying bourgeois monocultural family values. The message this noise amplifies is their fear that Okboomer virus is a call to action. They fear people will see their fear for what it is and feel alive for the first time. #☭
20200308
Labour of the Artist, Feminist Practices and Troubles with the Infrastructure (2019) Bojana Kunst (via Academy of Fine Arts in Prague). Citing Isabell Lorey, Kunst argues that people are governed by precarity and that a constant state of self-organizing is drawing resources from our potential to organize collectively. In other words: Precarity hinders possibilities to imagine political continuity. She argues that precarity is structured or enforced by the infrastructure of our cities and states that the activities of urban feminist artists and collectives in the 70ties were a response to a collapse of welfare infrastructure (in her view infrastructure becomes visible only when it is in crisis). Kunst builds a case that many leftist artistic movements which desire to repair infrastructure end-up reproducing its problems. It’s not beneficial to cling on to good feelings which responding to symptoms of infrastructural collapse offer. More effort should be put in problematizing conditions cause its hindrance. Unfortunately struggle for a future has been replaced by a struggle of maintaining life in contemporary cities. The film she refers to in the beginning is Subjektitude (1967) Helke Sander. Here is a powerful extract (or short film?) of hers: Nr 1 Aus Berichten der Wach und Patrouillendienste (1985).
Visited Makamik squat but came too late for the support gigs. Felt like a warm community and I hope to visit it again. The last set had a lot of modular synth gear on stage. Feels weird to see modular synths at a squat: There is a mismatch between the affordability of the gear and the accessibility of the site. But modular synths in a squat make complete sense on a conceptually! Also I think gaining skills in diy electronics could easily be scaled to skills in working with the house electricity systems.
The state of economics can be measured from the temperature of elderly world leaders. #☭
20200212
Work on diy orthopedics continues. I’ve made six custom insoles and arch supports using different types of silicones and agitated the solidifying processes using cornstarch (50g silicone / 15g starch). I’ve also added acrylic paint to the wet silicone to match the casts with my shoe colors for a professional look. The moulding process is relatively simple: I place wet silicone on a insole, wrap it in clingfilm and step on it. I started with cheap chemicals for testing and accustoming my feet to the change. The latest versions have been made using silicone intended for aquariums (which doesn’t have anti-mold agents that might cause allergies) and they feel fit for permanent use.
Using self-made insoles feels weird. I can notice my posture changing. I’m not sure if they help with my plantar fasciitis aches but it’s too early to tell. My feet need to adapt, my tendons and joints need to change their shape. This is a slow bodybuilding exercise and I’m a little bit spooked by the process. Artificial limbs, cybernetics and prosthetics were a popular theme in contemporary dance a while back… I think that this cultural interest and aesthetic has prompted my experiments with diy orthopedics. My aim is to restore my ability to work with crafts (as intensively as I used to) but once I’ve accomplished this I might attempt to develop my body to achieve more interesting effects.
Don’t get me wrong, not aching while working is dope but enabling a non-human style walk using custom prosthetics is the mothershit (My take a proposition by Onyx Ashanti). Diy orthopedics give me weird-sad-hope #☭
20200202
When will mining the moon replace mining the earth? When it is cheaper to mine the moon then the earth. The operation will start right after earth has been depleted. #☭
20191018
I don’t like jazz but I enjoy that it exists. I like browsing Wikipedia entries which explain it and detail the artists involved. Browsing is faking research, which is faking working, which is faking there is work. And I couldn’t really concentrate on listening anyway because concentration would make me unavailable for work. Collecting reading lists is how I read… I don’t think I’m alone with this. We are heading towards a future were things don’t matter, because things are just copies of things once made. The remaining work is in building pretty constellations of things that once were and experiencing their temporal relations to the fullest. This experience does not propose transformation, it is only a browse trough a possible reality before the next. Browsing is self-affirming and performs a comforting fatigue: There is no work, there is nothing but work and I’m drowning in it. This is what browsing speaks to me. This is Industrial Loneliness. #ॐ
Communism Against Civilization or Eco-Fascism (2019) zoe4revolution.
As the climate disaster accelerates, the oppressed can build solidarity, increase their own chances of survival, and simultaneously become more experienced in the use of their autonomous power through the creation of networks of mutual aid. Collective networks for harm reduction, to address food insecurity, and provide medical assistance will hopefully be accompanied by the growth of autonomous organizations for the development and synthesization of revolutionary theory, for political mobilization, the dissemination of propaganda, and for collective self-defense.