[Flash 10 is required to watch video]

A bit more footage of the 

Buddha Field Torsion Experiement (experimental work, working title)

A final work for the Lanternhouse Arts Centre - a hidden permanent installation in the garden - six ceramic balls, soaked in White Powder Gold solution, buried, in a circle.

Perhaps 

Not for the Empire II

…an empty space with White Powder Gold drops distributed across all walls, ceiling and floor

As things draw a close for the residency, some final gestures. Here:

Buddhist holy water spray

A short conversation with a colleague explored ideas around intention, belief and effect. While she saw intention as powerful, she questioned if it had an effect beyond the individual creating that intention. Questions bounced back and forth: Did the blessed water from the Buddhist monastery have an effect beyond the monks who blessed it, or beyond those who believed it was blessed? (We didn’t get into the whole Physical Memory of Water story.) Was the calm felt in their temple space simply because of aesthetic and social codes, or did the repeated meditation and devotion of the monks and nuns have a specific effect on other people? If effects were only social, why, on visiting places with a dark history such as a concentration camp, had we and others felt such tangible bad feelings? This linked with something I had read in one of my hypnosis books: We react more strongly to negative things, as these may require immediate fight or flight action. In terms of base instinct, positive stimuli are less ‘important’ and so figure less dramatically in our immediate awareness.

A conversation with a friend about this blog raised one particular subject worth mentioning; that of Over-Identification. A relatively new term, it has been borrowed from Lacan and applied to politics by Zizek among others, and my friend was finding a use for it in a more cultural context. Related to the Post-Ironic - the subject of the discussion which led to the mentioning of the term - she said that she saw it as a kind of warts ‘n’ all affection for a field of interest; a loving submersion within it, combined with an awareness of its ironic potential. My own understanding of the Post-Ironic, and so my meeting of the term Over-Identification, was that it was more complex and not so overwhelming or obsessive: As our understanding of the multiple viewpoints and contexts of a field becomes established, so our own experience of it becomes multi-layered and multifaceted - and that, rather than being all encompassing, it in fact creates more space, confusion and interest, in and around a field. Perhaps this is how it seems from the point of view of a producer within a field, as opposed to a consumer? A more politically driven definition, from a research project developed by the Pil & Galia Collektiv, describes Over-Identification as something which “finds paradoxes within a system, rather than imposing an external logic or ethic to reveal its flaws”. Interesting stuff. 

Comment from a friend:

“I can’t help hoping that whoever might be monitoring me or any such activity  understands at least something of what I am up to…”

Alternatively, security forces might be keenly interested in your project as a personal and shared interest. Might be an area for future residencies/ collaboration (with a government or surveillance industry) or an interview or semi official discussion?

An unauthorized biography is interesting, but sometimes so too is an authorized one.

I find myself a little worried as I realise the communication system I am setting up for the  coordination of my upcoming project - not to mention the project as a whole - is incredibly similar to something that might be used by bombers, terrorists, etc. 

I remember that this was a formal decision I made some time ago, and I am still interested in it, but when it becomes real I can’t help hoping that whoever might be monitoring me or any such activity  understands at least something of what I am up to…

Part of the discussion prior to this residency related to performance, and to a revisiting of elements of my earlier performance practice. I have been following this enquiry, and have come to some conclusions. Firstly, performance in any kind of gestural sense will not be happening with relation to the material I am looking into. De-romanticised it would not be… (Expecto Patronum and a wave of the wand, etc). Secondly, text as performance may work, although I’m not sure if this will take the form of performed text, or simply text which can be read, which will embody certain performative strategies. I’m working on it