Blogging about get-ting there

in process

I've been thinking about Lacan's cravat for four years

I feel as though I'm sneaking in an outlier, but I couldn't help it.

I'm in the process of doing a semi-creative/semi-academic piece for the final and I can't get this video out of my mind. I came upon it when I began studying psychoanalysis some years ago and it really stuck to me.

There's something about watching that long-haired student pour water all over Lacan's notes that really gets to me. Or rather, it's an interesting way to begin thinking about context.

Excerpt from Lacan Parle

Talking about sustaining life...

Jumping onto Mel's last post - I thought I'd put this video I came across about mushroom burial suits...


https://www.ted.com/talks/jae_rhim_lee?language=en

MONDAY!

Hey everyone,

We are so looking forward to Monday night's final class!

We will begin at The Topological Media Lab, EV 7.725, at 5:30 sharp.

For those of you that are presenting, we are asking you to please bring:

Laptop, USB or CD-ROM. Please don't put something on Google Drive, or send us a file. It would be easier on the day of presentations to have hard copies of everything. 

We are on a very tight time limit, and we have attached a schedule for those that have let us know about what they are doing. For those of you that are presenting in the first half of the class, we ask that you come to TML at 5pm in order to set up so to avoid too much time lost in between. 

Those people are:

Braden, Justin, Anthony, Jillian, Alyssa, Oslavi, Becky.

We'll have the pot luck in the SenseLab that we'll enjoy during and after the break. If a senselabber can confirm this, we'll ideally have the room open prior to presentations at 5:30pm to drop any food off. 

Here is the proposed schedule:

At 5:30 we will meet at The Topological Media Lab to begin our night of presentations. If you’re planning on bringing food we ask that you drop off your foodstuffs at the Sense Lab just prior to the beginning of class. 

5:00- The curatorial team will be available to set up your screenings or set up an art piece in the Sense Lab.

5:30- Braden 

5:45- Anthony 

6:00- Justin

6:15-Jillian 

6:30- Oslavi 

6:40- Becky

6:45- Alyssa
6:50- CriCri

7:00- Food time/looking at art stuff

For those that are presenting with visuals after the break, please load content before we start up again. 

7:20- Ellie 

7:35- Chelsea

7:50- Jennifer 

8:05- Melanie
8:20- Sima 

8:30- Conclude with José’s sounds piece on St. Catharine’s

We realize that the time frame will be in flux, hence the tentative 5:30-8:20 schedule. However, still plan to have a fifteen-minute presentation including questions in order to allow for the inevitable ‘flow.’ 

** Edit: If you are able, please bring a pair of headphones and some sort of portable device for José's presentation.

See you all Monday, and please feel free to let us know if you have any questions or concerns!

Have a great and sunny weekend,

Alyssa, Rebecca, and Braden. 

Earth Day

Just reflecting on Earth Day (apparently it's today, 22 April) having just received this email from Concordia's official channels (no doubt we all did).  The email briefly summarises some activities related to the 'anthropocene' and Concordia, and it has me thinking more broadly, on the role of educational institution in relation to these sorts of issues.

1. Conference at Concordia in May: 'Can We Avoid Anthropogenic Catastrophe?'
http://www.concordia.ca/cunews/main/stories/2016/04/20/can-we-avoid-anthropogenic-catastrophe-conference-environment-conflict-public-health.html

2. Countdown 2 Degrees - Multimedia Installation
The project counts down the exact amount of time before Earth's atmosphere reaches the apocalyptic '2 degrees' (more than what?) of which the planet can no longer easily sustain life on earth.  This project then, is technically acting like a countdown to the world's end.  The project will be projected onto a building at Concordia over the next few days, after sunset.

It's also calculating data in terms of carbon from the year 1750, which as we know Jason Moore would not agree with.  

I'd love to hear what you think about the kind of alarmist, exacting, calculation which the project makes(and note that it plans to recalculate every year with the aim of remaining exact

Check out the project here: http://www.concordia.ca/news/countdown2degrees.html

********

Interesting to see the varying kinds of discourse on environment and anthropocene; within concordia (projects like these ones in relation to projects such as those our class are involved in), within the email even (which mentioned projects on 'ethical consumption' coming out of the business school next to projects on activism).   Concordia as it stands, is a seething mass of potential discourses, a BwO of environmental projects, strategies and world views.  

Inuit Tactile Maps

Tactile Inuit maps! Compact, buoyant, and can be read in the dark.
 Tactile maps feel like a key to unlock the Earth's paths.
  Tactile maps registers in hand what the body will sense in a little while, crossing that path.
   Tactile maps are very sexy, that may just be my own fantasy...
    Tactile maps carry a sense of layers of history, passed from hands to hands,
     like old crumpled paper maps.
     
       When a path is used often, tactile maps loose their edges, polished by each passage.
So does the Earth, erodes and smooths its peaks, its cliffs.

https://decolonialatlas.wordpress.com/…/…/inuit-cartography/

Vernissage, April 25th

Hello beautiful people, 

Only 5 days until our final class!

There are some of you that we haven't heard from, concerning your final projects. We will have a space or screening and presentations, as well as the Sense Lab and the rest of the EV building for any installation works. To help run this as smooth as possible, and to map out where all your projects will be, please send us the details before the weekend: if your project will be a presentation or an installation, what it will require and if you have any other notes for us. Remember that presentations shouldn't exceed 10-15 minutes!

Feel free to email all of us or reply in this post.

Alyssa: shore.alyssa@gmail.com

Rebecca: reba.s.holt@gmail.com

Braden: bradenscott3721@gmail.com 

xx