It Feels So Good To Be Part of the Whole

One of my favorites of the films made by Werner Herzog is "Wild Blue Yonder", a sci-fi movie collaged together mainly of NASA video footage and which posits an interesting temporal schemata- itself collaged together, I imagine, from various sources filtered through Herzog's conscious and unconscious parts. 

I'm drawn as well to the director's ideas about "the poetic truth" vs "the accountant's truth", as extolled here, on pg 252 and 253 of "Herzog On Herzog":   

"I wanted to get shots of pilgrims crawling around on the ice trying to catch a glimpse of the lost city, but as there were no pilgrims around I hired two drunks from the next town and put them on the ice.  One of them has his face right on the ice and looks like he is in very deep meditation.  The accountant's truth: he was completely drunk and fell asleep, and we had to wake him at the end of the take....

"It might seem like cheating but it is not.  'Bells from the Deep' is one of the most pronounced examples of what I mean when I say that only through invention and fabrication and staging can you reach a more intense level of truth that cannot otherwise be found....

"We have known for a long time the poet is able to articulate a deep, inherent, mysterious truth better than anyone else.  But for some reason filmmakers- particularly those who deal in the accountant's truth- are unaware of this as they continue trading their out-of-date wares." 

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At the age of perhaps fourteen or fifteen years I encountered the ideas of the Dadas while lurking around in the public library in downtown Belleville Illinois.  Coincidentally, the music of the Boredoms reached my ears at approximately that same short aeon, and I was thrilled indeed to feel instinctually that there is an abiding correlation between the two.  My first zines, created around that same time, were an attempt to do visually what I felt the Boredoms were doing sonically.

 

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excerpts from RED NOTEBOOK, p 12-19:

24/25

In my dream last night I fought a demonic entity, which I either killed with two swords or which transformed into four swords clattering to the ground after which I picked up two of the swords.  In a circle of ash (or thoroughly burnt-up wood or paper) lay or fell a cigarette butt.  It's burnt tobacco end came to resemble a mouth like a bird or reptile beak which spoke in a deep, slow, booming voice.  It was angry I had defeated the demon and mockingly summoned another [demon?] which it called "The Dragon" or "My Dragon".  A humanoid from- maybe both or neither male/female- rose slowly out of the floor.  It's head was reptilian maybe and with tentacles or horns or a writhing combination of both.  Its movements intimated a terrifying speed.  With the two swords in hand I dashed up a flight of concrete stairs to a door, whereupon  The Dragon caught up with me?  Something transpired... either I stabbed the Dragon with one or both swords or I said something to it, perhaps puzzling it long enough for me to escape through the door?

*            *              *                *                  *

- Should a veiled portraiture of "Ex. A" participants be installed as part of "Ex. B"?

-(TT)P occurs when the artworks of "Ex. A" and the artworks of "Ex. B" are broken down to their base symbolic components and combined or passed through one another.  The "past" and "future"- or more appropriately "Present Tense A" and "Present Tense B" overlap (?) at the moment of... TRANSMISSION?

TRANSUBSTANTIATION?

THE CHRONO-MAGNETIC PROBABILITY FULCRUM?

-If there is any substance to these ideas, then I have already created the work for both shows.  Both shows have occurred, are occurring, and will occur.  I am creating work for both shows.  I will create work for both shows.

*              *                 *                    *                      *

Two texts loosely memorized- over time the slippage of the brain and memory cause them to meld into various combinations through subsequent recital and improv.

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I don't like the question of whether or not I mean all of this, or if it is a joke, a put on, and/or fictional construction.  In fact the success of the endeavor may depend on obliterating such divisions of thought.  The reality and legitimacy of an idea must be recognized to be as firmly and weightily rooted in concrete SUBSTANCE as that of the brick- or the ostrich.  Let us not hide our heads in the sand of materialist hierarchy.

*                 *                      *                           *                               *

Progress feels to be confirming itself, if "machine" can sometimes be defined in an extremely broad sense: as maybe a specific grouping of people each with a different function in the whole;  or something partially constructed but partially enacted- objects and actions existing in a physical or corporeal manner combined with objects and actions existing in psychological or spiritual realms of being.

Traveling in and out of Time may be a correlation of travelling between, or bridging, or recognizing as One* the various modes of existence:

-physical

-mental / emotional

-spiritual

-etc?

*what does this mean?

*                   *                         *                               *                                    *

"We cannot reach the meaning or higher significance of anything by any unaided logical process, but only by an illumination of the whole personality which lifts it to new basic conceptions... We cannot deal with the world as it is in itself, but only with the world as it is for us... The point which stands out clearly is that the meaning of a thing depends, not on the thing itself, but also on the extent to which one's personality can respond to it... In our view the boundary which restricts our knowledge of the real is ourselves.  It is a subjective boundary."

-GNM Tyrrel, Grades of Significance, 1947

  

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As the works of Ex. A enter the as-yet-unnamed realm between A and B, their less-than-prime aspects fall away.  Only the basic symbolic components remain to be transferred to their reincarnations in Exhibit B.

SOUL DISCHARGE

Red Notebook, p9:

" I would like to invite a small number of people to view 'Exhibit A': a few friends and aquaintances, and anyone who might have a particular resonance with the work or the process of its manifestational destiny with 'Exhibit B'.  The sensory infusion of the work into these people assigns them specific influence:  they become components in the '(TT)Time Travel (P)Process.'

"Perhaps they become storage units (or batteries) within the metaphysical device.  Or perhaps their 4D geometrical patterns of movement throughout 'Ex. A' can be superimposed to create some sort of runework or sigil-map to follow.  In any event, they become corroborators or accessories to the undertaking.  Perhaps their subsequent presence during 'Ex. B' will enact some sort of chrono-magnetic event, drawing the two shows together in timespace.

'IN THIS CITY THERE ARE A HUNDRED PATHS

TO EACH DESTINATION

AND HUNDREDS MORE

THAT LEAD NOWHERE'

                                              -JWT, 2005

"Care is required here; caution.  Do not draw others into this possible folly unconsentingly.  Maybe this whole process is just playing with words; but maybe something more is happening."

........................................................................................

Red Notebook, p 10:

"To succumb to the illogical terminus of one's mortality; to gaze upon the Void and inhale terror; to weild the blunt pickax of imagination, mining diamonds from the blackness of helpless despair.  To lubricate said diamonds with the plasmic residue of willful engagement. To swallow Mystery."

........................................................................................

Red Notebook, p 11-A:

" I fear my resolve may be floundering: where [when] is this thought process leading me?

"These things are good, and may lead to further illuminations:

-eating fish, especially in the morning.  This will lead to greater stamina and psychological insight

- the music of the Boredoms. Specifically the albums POP TATARI, SOUL DISCHARGE, and SUPER ROOTS 6.  SR6 in particular contains some tracks that must be counted among the greatest achievements of human creativity in the 20th Century.

-ridding myself of my possessions.  I must reduce the residual objects of my past to create an open field in which to cultivate new ideas. 

-preliminary experiments. start with this: Ride in a car along a predetermined stretch of road or highway, at a set speed (say 60mph). record the sounds of the journey: conversation, road noises, etc.  Time the trip.  Then make the same journey at a faster or slower speed, replaying the soundtrack from the first time."

........................................................................................

Red Notebook, p 11-B:

"'It belongs to the process.'

   

    'Process vegetative.'"

HOW?

RED NOTEBOOK p 8

"How?

Intuitive process?

The comingling of 

poetic and analytic 

truths?A ranting 

and sometimes still 

voice improvising 

spiritual growths 

upon the taut 

skin of structure 

and inquiring objects?

"Are there particular forms the artwork should take, certain combinations of ideas or materials that might expedite and embody the process?

"The exclusivity of the event 'Exhibit A' may afford it a certain independant existence.  If I put a song on and leave my house, the song is still existing in my home.  The dimensions and durations of the rooms there are altered by the playing of the song.  This is true on a molecular level: the vibrations of sound stir the air and penetrate physically the walls and structure.  And I am altered by knowing the song plays, though I cannot hear it."  

exhibit b

RED NOTEBOOK (RN) p 7:

"Maybe in this particular exhibition process, it is not the viewer or creator of the work who travel in time. Maybe the artwork from 'Exhibit A' travels in time, from the 'past' to the 'present' (or from the present tense of 'A' to the present tense of 'B'. We are talking about 'PRESENCE'. Or 'Presents from the prescient PRE-SENSE'. A pluralistic present tense.)

"Unmoored into the free flow of archetypal IDEAE, the prime elements of artworks 'A' may drift and spin throughout the jetties of timespace, dispersing and conglomerating to congeal again against the conceptual netting of 

  ' EXHIBIT B '  "

The above writing presents a rubric of sorts for the process to come, in that it both explains and models a route of inquiry that hopefully leads to the direct and physical realization of the Time Travel Process.

Coming to the TT(P) from a background in the arts (rather than hard sciences) allows me the freedom of invention- I am not bound by the constraints of the scientific method, nor am I buoyed by its assurances.  I am sustained by what Werner Herzog calls the "poetic truth", and I listen to instinct, omen, and the bounties of Chance.  Such being the case, my chosen methods of discovery include wordplay, the sigil, and automatic (or at least improvisational) writing. 

Some examples:

" IN WHICH fragmented arrangements of drawn breath drop with rich plumage upon the Nowspace

  IN WHICH fragmented arrangements of dropped plumage draw richly upon the Nowspace

 IN WHICH fragmented plumage drops upon the Nowspace arrangements richly drawn

                           **************************************************

              the moon at noon

             that pale balloon

              approached

                     and offered

                     me a spoon

              thereafter soon

              I took to swoon

              and fell

                     upon

                         a broken rune

                           **************************************************

A)       Objects in the dust.  The imperviousness of mannequins.  An unexpected turn.  Doors are Us, broken glass is still glass.  What is the imperviousness of mannequins?  Turtle’s shell, turtle- the-shell.  Naked Amos relax… into this tapestry.  Almost Amos doors become us turtle-the-shell with Usage.  Relax!  Imaginary sounds are still sounds.  Broken glass is still glass.

(Sometimes broad formal criteria are delineated beforehand.  This is something from which meaning can develop.  This is something.)

B)  “Point me in the right duration.” 

 

                           **************************************************

  The sun beats down  

      The Earth is a drum

           In rivers of light

               My skin runs

                    Show me the sword

                   Oh Golden Horde

             Show me the way

          The birds still pr-y

                        'Eating flowers in the desert

                        Beautiful flowers in the desert'

 

 

transubstantial phenomena

The idea of Transubstantial Phenomena first became a stated concern of mine in 1998 or 99, at which time I cast the "E" form featured in the assemblage documented above (assemblage dated 2005).  Along with the casting of the form (which I titled "Transubstantiative Totem" and kept with me at all times for the month following its creation) I started writing sporadically on the ideas behind the piece- a practice that continues to this day.  I have also continued to use the "E" in various exhibitions, performances, and in non-art contexts on a quite frequent basis.

RED NOTEBOOK p5:

"The Transubstantial or Transubstantiative Phenomenon finds precedent in such Biblical tales as the Old Testament account of Elijah taken to heaven in a flaming chariot; or in the New Testament: Christ described as an idea enrobed as human: 'the Word made Flesh.'

"The concept appears in fairy tale, as when Cindarella's fervent yet hopeless pleas for emancipation from her life's ugly lot manifests in physical personage as a fairy godmother who in turn continues the process: pumpkin becomes carriage, tattered rags are transformed, in extravagant fashion, into extravagant fashion.

"Contemporary scientific endeavor too has its own examples:

-a quantum body is photographed in two or more positions in space at the same moment in time

-an experiment's outcome is affected by the nonlocal WILL of the participants

-light becomes either wave or particle based on what the experimenter WANTS it to be

"Transubstantiative Phenomena are taking place."

 

Durational Aesthetics- travelling in time

RED NOTEBOOK, p4

"One might be tempted to think upon the idea of Time Travel as a process of bodily movement from one point on a line segment to another at a rate or in a 'direction' other than that afforded one by nature.  But if, as some suggest, time is not 'shaped' like a line but like a tree, or a spiral, or a stream, or a weaving, or a crumpled up piece of paper, or boiling water, and if we would be better served in speaking of Durations rather than Directions 

(ie- "point me in the right duration")

then perhaps it might behoove us to dream up some other possible schemata/ definitions of what it is to be

TRAVELLING IN TIME"

the poetics of absurdity

The idea of the shows comprising some sort of time travel functionality was not originally my intention, but as I thought more on the idea, my interests in both science and science fiction began to show.

RED NOTEBOOK p3:

"WHY IS IT NECESSARY TO HAVE TWO SHOWS IN ONE (AGAIN)?

1) The mock heroic overtones of "going above and beyond"- doing twice as much as the next guy. A showmanship based on unnecessary excesses. Working twice as hard as the last guy, though the "work" might be anything but.

2) Beyond the cheap hype factor of (1) there is a concern for the general dynamics of utilizing entire exhibitions as implements in a larger work or process. The very question- 'WHY?' opens onto a fertile garden of conjecture.

3) Utilizing the conceptual dynamics of (2) in a temporal fashion begins to poke hopefully toward a speculative model for TIME TRAVEL. The viewer of 'Exhibit B' will become a test subject in the possibility of collapsed dimensionalities- a collapse fueled by the poetics of absurdity!"

illustrations

TOP:student work from a public art project I facilitated around the same time I started on the TT(P)
BOTTOM: a sculpture of mine made concurrently

initial urges

I first began the Time Travel Process [TT(P)] project in the summer of 2008. I was living in St. Louis, MO, where I had been cavorting on the banks of the Mississippi for a number of years. But I was preparing to move to Los Angeles in the Fall of that year, and as I divested myself of belongings both cherished and inconsequential, my mind was filling up with plans for the future.

Red Notebook [RN], pages 1 and 2:

"for exhibition in Los Angeles...

'INSTANT INSTINCT' or 'INSTANT QUALIFIER'
or 'INSTINCT QUALIFIER' or
'INSTINCTUAL QUALIFIER'

Penetralia Doubloon?

"Whereas the 2007 exhibitions 'Relics, Rimjobs, Robbery, Resonance...' and 'DREAM WARFARE 3' tackled the concept of the 'Double Opening' spacially: by staging two seperate shows simultaneously in two galleries across the street from one another, I now propose to investigate this simultaneity of exhibitions in a more directly TEMPORAL fashion. I propose to first install one complete exhibition of objects and/or images in the alloted space, then photograph it robustly. I will then deinstall it and replace it with a second body of work, which will be partially comprised of paintings or drawings, in fairly large format, based on the documentary photographs of the first set of artworks.

"How will the development of the first exhibition be marked by my foreknowledge of its hidden existence? Will I choose objects and materials with a regard for their photogenic possibilities? Will I arrange them with an eye toward their intended mediation?

"The intended consumption of the first set of artworks is not through live interaction by gallery goers but rather through the viewing of interpretive "records" of the pieces, twice removed from the original objects (object > photo > painting). Yet I want the installation to remain complete in itself, though very few will actually experience it in this form. Simply arranging things as if for still life is not at all what I wish to do. I want the paintings to function as windows into the past, albeit panes that filter the light in such a way that the views are tinted- distorted and 'drastically yet subliminally altered'"

Introduction

In the summer of 2008 I began a line of artistic inquiry into the nature of Time as biological function and social construct. Much of the resulting material has taken the form of notes, poems, schematics, and sketches which are loosely collected in what I think of as "red notebook" and "yellow notebook" (though in actuality the material is jumbled and spread throughout several sketchbooks, notebooks, boxes, and recordings). More recently (beginning summer '09) I have started rendering my "findings" in a range of media, including sculpture, drawing, painting, video, song, and live action.

In an attempt to clarify and better collect my thoughts and progress, and to share such with a wider audience, I will be archiving here both my notes thus far and my continuing work with the concepts and material.