My paper due on Friday found me up til 9am and then getting up 3 hours later to pack, get ready for class, eat, and get to school. I had to present on an essay from the Critical Art Ensemble about basically what they call the "fourth domain" that is essentially transgenic hybrids and the fear of them that has been instilled by culture. It talked about the need for the mitigation of this fear by those who are looking to exploit it for profit, imperialism, due to the fact that they have run out of actual land to exploit in the world, sans-maoist countries and islamic countries. They spoke on the methods that are currently being used to break down enough of this fear in order to move into the domain, even though it uses fairly contradictory/bipolar lines of reasoning and therefore offers an exploitable whole for which the activist maybe able to prevent this by pointing this contradictory nature out. I, noticed in their examples of fear of hybrids and the 4th over the course of history, they left out one seminal example, Genesis 6:4, in the Bible, which speaks of the fallen angels that impregnated the "daughters of men" and in turn brought forth a race of giants and also was a contributing factor to the human race being wiped out in the great flood. The thing is they bring up the fact that current companies and ways to mitigate fear have used Christianity as examples for the fourth domain bringing about miracles and blah, yes they don't directly cite the Bible, which I think would have strengthened their examples of fear (I included this in my paper). We also discussed Baudrillard's "The Spirit of Terrorism." I actually was much more engage in this book than the C.A.E. article. Baudrillard talks about terrorism being a natural resitant force to globalism, that is potentially part of the system, however has evolved in regards to the disequilibrium of the Good/Evil balance that it has attacked globalism in such a way with 9/11 that there is no possible response, and with the attack it has shifted its war into the symbolic realm and hence cannot be combatted with conventional war. There's a slew of other things, however, these are some of the main things.
In the end my paper ended up being more on Baudrillard and using the C.A.E.'s fourth domain to account for the climate of fear that terrorism has brought, both it's usages for terrorists and the state's control apparatuses. I also, found that countries like China that now have hybridized economies and Venezuela with a hybridized government now maybe considered of the 4th Domain of the non-biological order. There was also the equating of God declaring war on himself analogy that Baudrillard brings up to a sort of formation of "Globalanity" (Globalism as Religion in relation to Christianity) by means of having its equivalent of the rebellion of Lucifer with the attack of 9/11 and hence needed 9/11 in order to elevate itself as a tested god, since it is already a quasi-omnipotent force in todays current world. Terrorism has become Globalism's Devil. When I presented it was funny I just started just going and went for like 15 minutes straight and no one like interrupted or had anything to say at all they were all just listening, it was all very eery, like I had total control of the room. The teacher finally jumped in to back up to look directly at the text (oh ya mind you I was in class eating this big roast beef sandwhich and a quart of OJ to drink). When we discussed Baudrillard I was all over that. It was a real good class and got me real fired up. Then it was off to JFK to head to LA to run sound for the CalArts Feminist Symposium.
So, the CalArts Symposium, seems to have been a smashing sucess. Back, in the LA Times, today, or rather yesterday, with a fairly long article, however, there is one mis-quote, argh. Anyhow, from the mixer's perspective things didn't start off terribly auspicious. No sound check for the first panel = reflections + speakers now speaking into the mic + speaking too softly = phasing + feedback + hum = havoc for me. We limped through it, not without my own pain. Catherine Lord who was one the first panel was awesome, I so want to read some of her writings now. The second panel was a vast improvement, with a 4 minute sound check which resulted it in nearly flawless presentation, save for one ghost feedback that came from nowheres (ghost in the system). Emily Roydson had some awesome glasses and good stuff to say, Faith Wilding had a lot of good stuff to say as well. Third panel no problems at all sound wise. It seemed to bring a lot of recurrent themes and issues to a head. It was on the personal as political, which of course you know I'd be interested in since I love politics. Martha Rosler was good even though she tried to sell tees at one point and so was Dorit. Especially liked her mention of a class that she had taught about conducting a class in courtrooms and then having the students actually carry out art projects within the space of a court room setting as audience members. I've spent my amount of time in the court room and never had thought about that.
Post-symposium involved lots of relaxing, such as sitting in a chair stationary for hours with Audrey out in Santa Monica, that was so nice. The weather has been great, gosh, sun, warmth, I haven't seen it in ages, I got to get a lot of it while out with Audrey wandering around the city. Oh, one funny thing, we went into a New Balance store and this guy was like do you need any help and I was like ahh, naw just looking but he saw my shoes, my sunburst tiger's and was like are those, such and such's? I was like ya. he was like I've never seen them in that color ever. It was funny cause it was like he was beholding something sacred, so funny. Had some Lenninade, Audrey had a hand roll, all from Famima, we officially love that place.
Today, went down to L.A. to see the WACK! show at the Geffen. It was good, but it felt like I was walking in a maze, the layout was like agh. There also wasn't much context for a lot of the work, or enough. Audrey was off doing a radio interview for a public radio show with a few other grad students so I wandered the show on my own. Felt like I was in an Escher painting. Mary Kelly, so mathmatical and scientific, not to mention abstract. Saw "Art Education" a short animation about Art History, that was good. Saw some of Martha Rosler's early photo-collage/montages. The layout for them was horrible in regards to their placement in the show, they were all stuffed together and some I couldn't even see cause they were too high. Me and Audrey got some Sushi after, so good. Kicked it at my place for a bit and then headed to el gato rojo for the Martha Rosler lecture. It was good, I got to see a lot of her work, I haven't seen a whole lot of her stuff. Rather interesting that a lot of the subject matters and ideas about things overlap with my work a lot even though I didn't know this at all really. She, even had a minefield in relation to the current Iraq War which was totally like what the heck? However, one thing I don't care for is the kind of rough asthetic, I'm very much a person of very high production, however it takes much longer to create. I asked a question that kind of had her searching for answer and pushed her a little bit off balance, but I'm glad she talked about about what I had asked, if only to reaffirm what I thought she might think. All in all, rather good lecture and good day. Gosh, I can't get over the weather though it's sooo bloody nice! Well I'm off now. Have pictures soon.
