A Journal for Walking Over Fallen Fences

Susan and I have been shooting our film about mythologies and intentional communities. Currently living in a holistic intentional cumminity called Lothlorien in Vale do Capão, Brasil. With the effects of the city small and the valley large, I’ve been thinking much of different styles of intentional communities: hippie, new age, religious, utopic, etc.To form your own community, instead of starting with some abstract ideal, it would be great to see friends organize themselves communally. Friends can work together to find an easier way to provide an income and share resources. This does not necessarily mean living together, or out in the country.

Close to an example of what I am thinking of is the urban UFA Fabrik community in Berlin. They share living, cooking, and transportation resources, along with many others. This sharing reduces the cost of individual overhead while still providing what people need without it being too much a pain or sacrifice. Income is derieved from their cafes, circus, theatre, and other works… and then is split and shared in a communal purse. They have no ideology, other than have fun, be creative, work together for what you believe in.

It would be great if DIY templates of “friend organizations” were available for people to reference.

http://www.life.ca/nl/42/fabrik.html
http://www.lothlorien.org.br

Enjoyed the FILE reception last night.  I had not realized that FILE is considered to be the most important digital art festival in South America, perhaps the world.  I had not expected the large turnout and free champagne.  While generally turned off by the gallery scene, I found the selection interesting and largely non-pretentious.

I was pleased that FILE included my “ilovebees:the reality of alternate reality” work in the pamphlet and then featured it on one of the big walls.  I was therefore even more pleased that the piece was not installed right.  The images and design template were missing, making my words appear white on a white background.  It was unreadable… but would the audience know that?  They would first believe it was displayed as intended.  Some may view the strangely distorted piece with suspicion… and then try to find more clues in the piece.  The project fed on a kind of paranoid awareness to reality, and FILE was structured around interactivity with the pieces, so perhaps one who reads between lines might discover an embedded message.  On the spider web come dawn, morning dew and strangled flies both glisten.

However, even if ilovebees would be viewed as intended, the piece is in English and the audience mostly Porteugeus.  I can´t read my own write-up without the aid of a translator.  How will droplets not dissipate in the high noon?

As Susan and I begin shooting our film through this continent, layered intention and missed intention are pronounced.

My ilovebees project with CAPitALLism.org has been included in the 2006 FILE (ELECTRONIC LANGUAGE INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL).

I am flying down to Brasil for the opening night on August 14th.  For those who will be there, drop me an email and we can meet up: matt at dunnerstick dot com.

http://www.file.org.br

FILE FESTIVAL 2006 PRESS RELEASE

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Net-art, video-installations, interactive works, robotic performances and beyond at FILE 2006. Launching in August 14th, FILE brings artists from all over the world to São Paulo to exhibit a true, sincere crop of world’s electronic arts. A true crop, as FILE is also exhibiting non-famous artists. Prestigious names such as Zachary Lieberman and Young-hae Chang, already used to hype-exhibitions, share the gallery space with artists that are bravely facing their firsts bugs, short-circuits and victories in Art&Technology world. The festival is open to the general public, that will be able to interact with the works and take part in the other events, such as Symposium and Hipersônica.

Aug 15th to Sept 3rd, 2006
Tuesdays to Saturdays, 10AM – 8PM / Sundays, 10AM - 7PM

Opening ceremony: Aug 14th
Monday at 7:30PM – guests only

SESI Art Gallery
Paulista Avenue 1313
São Paulo/SP Brazil
T 55 11 3146 7405

FILE MEDIA ART

FILE (Electronic Language International Festival) contributes more and more to expand and to intertwine the cyberculture networks. In each edition, the Festival’s net-art archive, FILE Media Art, receives new invited and selected artists from all over the world. This megabank of internet art can be accessed at SESI gallery, and through the Festival’s site.

FILE SYMPOSIUM

A great meeting for discussion and digital arts popularization is being held in FILE Symposium 5th edition. Artists and intellectuals present overviews that illustrate what is recently thought and produced on electronic means of art. FILE Symposium’s thick, concise content shows how many reasoning and creativity possibilities are potencialized in Internet’s universe and by an intense non-functional relationship with personal technologies.

Register your seat:

Aug 14th to Aug 18th, 2006
Begins at 2PM
SESI mezzanine
Paulista Avenue 1313
São Paulo/SP Brazil
T 55 11 3146 7405

FILE POETRY

This year FILE launches a new festival called FILE Poetry, where people will be able to see, read and interact with new poetic experiences built within digital virtuality.

FILE HIPERSÔNICA

Hipersônica shows how hybrid art can be when remixed with sonorities, videos, noises, transmissions, body interaction and strange objects. The sonic realm in FILE presents experimental compositions in SESI theater, performed by musicians and artists that think way beyond melodies.

HIPERSÔNICA THEATRE

14th (only for guests) and 16th to 18th of August, 2006
begins at 7:30PM
Tickets will be avaliable from 5pm for each presentation.

SESI Theater
Paulista Avenue 1313
São Paulo/SP Brazil
T 55 11 3146 7405

The same people who control the school system control
The prison system, and the whole social system
Ever since slavery, nawsayin?

–Dead Prez, lyrics from They Schools

Is your opinion of scholastic institutions similar to gloomy perspective of the Dead Prez? Would you like to see an alternate rooted in positive example?

Recently, Fritz Haeg asked me to teach a class for his new Sundown Schoolhouse. Last night, I went to a potluck with other Sundown Schoolhouse teachers, and was wholesomely inspired by the curriculum. Taught in a Buckminster fuller geodesic dome home, the class will facilitate social organizing and personal transformation. It considers important what most classrooms would not even know how to consider.

Fall Season titles of classes with teachers:

*Word Up Word Out: Amplifying the Conversation (Lisa Anne Auerbach, Los Angeles Alternative Times)
*Schoolyard Expedition (Emily Scott, Los Angeles Urban Rangers)
*Everyday Manifesto (Fritz Haeg & others)
*In the Glow of Collective Empowerment (Aaron Gach, Center for Tactical Magic)
*Flaps Market Butterfly (Marc Herbst, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest)
*Workshop (Mark Allen and Jason Brown, Machine Project)
*Ecstatic Resistance (Emily Roysdon, LTTR, Lesbians To The Rescue)
*Prana Vinyasa Yoga & Improvisational Dance (Carol Mcdowell)
*Moving Vegetation & People, Changing Topography, and Sci-Fi Mobilities (Deena Capparelli and Claude Willey, Moisture)
*Inventing Kindergarten (Margaret Wertheim, the Institute For Figuring)
*Finding New Movement (Flora Weigmann)
*Intersubjective Communications: Psychedelic Journalisms (Robby Herbst, Journal of Aesthetics and Protest)
*Sand Castles and Sand Candles at Zuma Beach and presentation of a work in progress: The Free You: Delving into past in search for models of non-institutionalized study and community action (Amy Francescini & maybe Phil Ross)

I will be in South America, and am postponing my own class until a later season, but keep your eye on this school. Price is $2400 (to cover costs), but is on a sliding scale for those who cannot afford. Enrollment is now open.

Onward to a new template.

http://www.sundownschoolhouse.org/