new york diary part five

Part five including audio of the performance. The images are my notes used for the performance. Those on pages of The New York Times were created as part of the performance as were the final three notebook pages.

Changes and omissions in square brackets.

The other parts
http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-one.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-two.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-three.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-four.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-six.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-seven.html

http://santiagosdeadwasp.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-york-diary-part-eight.html

14/10/10 Early afternoon
[Omitted]

Had a good night's sleep despite being woken some time early morning by four guys coming in making noise and switching on the lights. Got back to sleep easily enough. And I can't complain since I showered just after 8 with ventilator fan going - then came back around 10:45 to use the toilet twice and between times boil the kettle for coffee and early lunch. And just now rushing back [omitted].

Happily my cold's about gone. There's a little nasal mucus but I'm not sniffing and my voice is fine.

Another beautiful warm sunny day. A lot of high cloud but it doesn't look like raining yet. A shame there aren't more larger parks nearby I could have gone sat in.

I think back to AC Institute now to introduce myself, find when the earlier performance starts and maybe take a look at the other spaces in the building.

At Franklin Avenue subway station man stamps on edge of platform to scare of pretty big rat moving about under the rails. It retreats a little then stays where it is.

Damn shame I have to pack up and go tomorrow. But it's just about enough to make sure I fill this notebook and probably overflow it.

I think I bought the notebook just before [1 October]. Partly in case I felt the need to write anything down and partly for notes for the London performances. It'll be a little odd to finish a notebook inside two weeks. But it's plenty of material for the blog.

My infallible weather prediction skills work again and now I'm in Manhattan it looks like it might rain anytime.

Some of the small books in the exhibition that aren't Seekers of Lice are Jill Magi. Tamarin Norwood did the paper folds and Marit Munzberg assisted [her] with the Homologues as well as being behind the larger mainly blank book.

Enjoyed the Exchange Value show[s] a lot more this time. Not too sure about the Sebatjan Leban and Stas Keindienst contribution Buy Your Own Art Experience. I don't think it really made its point or gave enough aesthetic compensation.

New York Trash Exchange by Max Liboiron was attractive in its own right and to mee seemed to engage better with the themes it claimed to investigate. [It consisted of a representation of Manhattan made from junk material. Viewers were invited to take away part of the city and replace with something else. Materials were provided as well as feedback forms where you could say what you'd left and why.] Some of the responses - people's reasons for replacing parts of the city seemed sentimental or sometimes selfish. At the same time it was essentially a thought experiment. The absence of obvious real-world applications is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. The work seems endlessly replicable and capable of being transferred to other media. I'm thinking especially you could make a computer game of it.

Kim Wan's piece When does an art gallery give away artworks? was attractive and well intentioned though I wasn't sure how the different parts of it fitted together. It seemed like two or three ideas bolted together. The painted dollar bills ($210 of them) with their recurrent motifs were interesting to look at. The pledge of water was a cool idea but there was no obvious relationship between them.

Be Andr's piece Structure was simple and similar to Katie Latona's The 'Eat My Problems' Bake Exchange. [In the case of Structure l]eave something behind in exchange for a poster and all items will be sold off after the show. I'm not sure I was that keen. It didn't do as much [for me] as [The 'Eat My Problems' Bake Exchange - hereafter the cookies project].

I liked the cookies project a lot. I didn't intend to take a cookie but I did plan to leave a trouble for a future cookie. I think I'll do that this evening, probably [omitted].

14/10/10 Evening
Overall the works seemed to sidestep issues of capitalism except for Sebastjan Leban and Stas Kleindienst's piece which [I thought] embraced it in a fairly unironic way. Or at least I think the intention of [irony] was there but didn't really come through. The irony and the art were made subservient to the fairly uncontroversial contention the work makes. That art in a capitalist system is given an arbitrary market value. To me the cookie project addressed that more effectively and elegantly.

It also failed to look at the related way that non-capitalist and/or non-democratic systems also have their own arbitrary values for art. Leading from that is the recognition that as some systems openly value propaganda so to can work under capitalism [be valued as propaganda]. Such work can act as propaganda for capitalist values or at least reflect people's values back at them. I felt that the piece fell into this last category without offering a real critique or question of its own.

I looked in a little more detail at the Department of Micro-Poetics materials too. To be honest though I didn't take in a great deal. I spoke to Joseph at the space and found out the performance before me by Paolo Javier was off. But essentially I was introducing myself to let them know I was in town and would be there later on and so someone recognised me.

We discussed the practicalities of the space, how I'd use it and what stuff I'd have where. I said I'd record the audio and I think they'll take up to 60 minutes of video.

A little daunting there might be an audience of some size. I never normally worry about an audience but this is much more exposed and it's a new country never mind city. I also met Holly [Crawford, director of AC Institute] briefly.

Has been a generally pleasant day and good to actually talk to someone for a period of time. I hope there'll be more of that.

Sad this evening before heading out to prepare my food for tomorrow knowing they're my last meals in New York and tonight's my last night on this trip. I have to go away again.









Audio from performance at Department of Micro-Poetics, AC Institute New York, 14 October 2010

14/10/10 Night
I hope the performance went well - I have no objective view on it. There was a point maybe 40-50 minutes in when I thought I'd have no fucking idea how I'm going to put all these elements together or even if I have enough elements of sufficient quality to bring together.

I'll find out when I listen back to it.

A nice evening after the show. Headed out to a bar with Joe from the Institute for a couple of beers.

People really are a lot nicer here than in the UK. I feel a whole lot less uptight - though some of that's a product of the changes this year and having had a couple of beers. But I really don't want to go home.

Eventually I managed to remember my plan and start to bring together various of the elements I'd been playing with. It did help from the standpoint of confidence and giving the work a structure in my head to come up with the conceptual architecture of overlaying different spaces on the gallery space and consolidating the various experiences from prior to London until today into one space. Although once again it was a last minute decision,

Maybe I should try being properly prepared in future - it might work for me.

The bar Joe advised and where I'm still at although he had to leave is great. This is my last drink here but it's a memorable and warm last evening.

Tomorrow might wind up pretty aimless but I'll try to give it a decent shape.

I wonder if this trip's changed me? It should have and I can't see how it wouldn't. [Omitted for being rubbish]

It took a little time but I finally got into the rhythm of things here. I will contend that my habit of avoiding tourist spots and walking to get lost really helps.

One of the things this trip has helped give me back - although it was on the way already - is my love of people. Other people are just amazing. Instead of being the frightened defensive person I used to be I have to embrace them a bit more. While of course looking out for my own safety.