As I have posted about before, me and Uri Turkenich made our first artistic cooperation this spring, with the support of coproducer Skogen (Gothenburg) and The Swedish Arts Grants Committee. Here is a video documentation of show 3. Slowly learning to edit…
Me and Uri really liked this project, and it seems we are going to continue working on the practices and themes that developed through it in a new show during 2016-2017. More on that later…
Photo: Anna Lamberg, 29/3 2016, Skogen, Gothenburg.
I wrote this text for The Black The Box The Theatre – Texting Textures, that was a series of events programmed by Pontus Pettersson at Weld 11-15 mars 2014. The text was part of an ongoing exhibition, originally edited in a font made by Pontus and written in dialogue with texts by Pontus. I repost it here, despite the fact that I can’t really make the ASCII images work very well in this format.
SEE MY COMMENT ABOVE
__( )__
‘– . . –‘
/ _ \
(/ \)
I’m imagining that this figure could come back and weave the text together also at later occasions.
I READ THIS AS A TITLE, both because it is short and because it is in capital letters.
The strongest organizing pronoun is I.
Example:
I’m thinking of Beautiful Boyz with Coco Rosie.
(Ask me for the kind of feedback that gives you something!)
(Take the threads that interest you!)
(Tell me if you have questions!)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
__
_n______I_II_
|”””””””””””””\
|__.——.[]:|-.
you | _ |-‘
_!________|(_)|
| == o |
\______________|
(The questions of course do not have to have answers, but could have.)
I try to indicate a possible limit between asking a question and giving an answer.
A question can be raised in so many different ways.
– It can be a feeling that there is really an answer but that it cannot immediately be reached.
– It can be a feeling of being provoked, a demand to know if things mean anything at all.
– It can be a feeling that one can share a question with someone else, think of it together.
– It can be a feeling that there is no need for straight answers and that that is ok,
that it’s ok
OK
to rest in a rythm or sensory experience of language
_____________________
A clear line makes it easier to say something about what I question.
_____________________
I’m thinking of what I wrote above.
I’m thinking of Not Gonna Get Us with t.a.T.u.
I’m thinking of pop pop pop goes the world.
– – – – – > ♥< – – – – –
Somewhere a story starts that is less about my own perception of things and more about someone else’s mediated experience of things. Is that what happened here?
Sometimes I lose my grip because the image is so used. That is what happened here.
I need to know what things mean in practice,
Sometimes I wish I didn’t know language.
That said, it doesn’t necessarily mean it has to go.
Maybe you prefer exactly that kind of friction.
|||||///////|||||||//////|||||||//////||||||||||/////////||||||||||///////|||||||
I am thinking of the song Every Step You Take.
The ”you” is traveling through these lines.
Also here, the ”you” seems distant.
Where are you in the process?
Where are you in me?
(I got a fantasy about a perspective change from ”me” to ”you” and the other way around.
This limping exchange that forges us into – US.)
_ _
__( )__( )__
‘– . . — . . –‘
/ _ \/ _ \
(/ \)(/ \)
# # # # :: :: ::
# # # # :: :: ::
# # # # :: :: ::
# # # # :: :: ::
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # #
# # # # # # #
I am thinking of tell me sweet little lies with Fleetwood Mac.
So unclear in that song if the lie belongs to ”me” or to ”you”.
maybe i’m just like u
Why is ”i” small here when it’s big everywhere else?
Why is ”u” ”u” here when it’s you everywhere else?
What is the meaning of these pronouns,
Preprogrammed positions of enunciation,
Prepositions?
A.
A lonely word.
Well. Words might seem innocent but aren’t.
I’m thinking, like really thinking, of the significance of the small words.
I’m thinking of Words Don’t Come Easy with F.R. David.
Tell me words,
Tell me sweet little words
Tell me, tell me words
If I could turn the page
In time
Then I’d rearrange
Just a letter
Or two
This is what I think of little words!
I think of Thanks Heaven for Little Words!
A small play of words, like
– Are sheep cheap?
– No, sheeps aren’t cheap, sheeps are
– – – – – > fluffy, girly, sweet < – – – – –
,ww
w WWWWWWW_)
` WWWWWW’
II II
I’m thinking
The play with words is extremely successful,
very violent/drastic, and works best in written text.
It’s difficult to read out loud. Silently read,
the text should be limping more rythmically.
Or could this limping be mediated in speech?
^, ,^
‘o o’
=_~_=
/ \ (\
(////_)//
Miaou
A lot of images follow each other in quick succession.
The connective words. The connective tissue.
I like this construction.
Like the cat becomes a virus invading the text and in this sense keeping it together.
Could more cats show up in this way inside the text?
I’m thinking of catastrophes, catalyst, catering…
Example:
Would it be reasonable that the pronouns and the verbs are the most important words –
not necessarily where they are in space,
how many they are
or other organisational and decisive grammatical cat-egories?
_._ _,-‘””`-._
(,-.`._,'( |\`-/|
`-.-‘ \ )-`( , o o)
`- \`_`”‘-
I’m thinking of Possibly Maybe by Björk.
_…_
.’ .-. ‘.
( ( o ) )
`._’-‘_.’
“`
The ”I” seems to be back at the center of the song.
But why does the ”I” become an eye apart from only sounding the same?
Is it supposed to establish a situation and then introduce a surprise in it,
a bit like language sudoku?
Is the speling intentional?
Why is the day feminine???????
Can this sentence be read narratively or not?
Is this a spelling mistake or is it intentional?
Why does the phrase phrase end with a comma,
_________
____________
Some lines are not broken. Others are.
The idea of burning text into furniture seems very consistent with that.
Like a bookmark angel,
==
<^\()/^>
\/ \/
/ \
`”`
I am busy with when it seems intentional and not.
See my comment above. This is the second time this appears.
The repetition makes it more meaningful and significant.
As if there was really something within that, that I wanted to reach.
I’m wondering if the peach is wetting the floor or if the floor is wetting the peach.
You’re so sweet I get a toothache,
make my pitch recognition hurt.
The rhyme is too efficient to read out loud.
Makes me wanna make rythmical exceptions,
Put emphasis on the last syllabe,
Like this.
(As we might remember, there was a trace about truths and lies already earlier on.)
– – – – – > we< – – – – –
I cannot see any collisions in the language.
It’s as if it belongs to one person, one world.
i/u
(e/u?)
☆ ☆
☆ ☆ ☆
☆ ☆
☆ ☆
☆ ☆
☆ ☆
☆
I’m not sure that the doubleness is clear,
I would like this doubleness to be clearer, more intentional
This doubleness works for me
I’m thinking of Slow,
with Kylie Minogue
Something happens when this reference to pop culture shows up before I
think of Another One Bites the Dust
The significance is emphasized.
But that also depends of how the very text is organized –
That it encourages you to read it in a special order.
What if if you read it from below?
See my comment below.
The last three lines do something else than the rest of the poem.
NO!
This is not typical for the rest of the material.
Couldn’t one just write the order how it is for real, or almost?
Couldn’t one just write the order how it is for real, or almost?
Couldn’t one just write the order how it is for real, or almost?
Couldn’t one just write the sentences how they are for real, or almost?
Couldn’t one just write the sentences how they are for real, or almost?
Couldn’t one just write the sentences how they are for real, or almost?
This seems to be here more to demonstrate a function then to say something in itself.
This seems to be here more to demonstrate a function then to say something in itself.
This seems to be here more to demonstrate a function then to say something in itself.
My feeling is that the same thing happened many times, whatever happened.
I’m thinking of What’s Love Got to Do with It with Tina Turner.
The loss of the other is reoccuring uncountably.
Something static and glorified falls.
The ”me” ends up with several hearts.
– – – – – > ♥♥♥♥♥< – – – – –
”I” am still a strong pronoun but just one among many.
What better way to end a story?
I am thinking of the fox in Kate Bush’s Hounds of Love.
Whatever comes after such a sentence invites to be read as a rabbit story,
\\
\\_
( _\
/ \__
/ _/`”`
{\ )_
`”””`
and it is important to take care of that somehow.
,^
; ;
\`.,’/ ; ;
/_ _\`—–‘;
\/` ,,,,,, ;
)// \))
“” “”
(Deny it if you don’t want it.)
(Welcome to sit on the carpet of language.)
(Please don’t feed the animals.)
fingervals 