This is the place to find the ongoing thoughts, inspiration and works in progress of artist Beth Barlow.
4th February 2019
Looking at good news stories for the next leg of LILIWAAC. A few phrases from my research seem worthy of note:
"Tza Nee Da Bee Wah" meaning "how are the connections the family?" (Blackfort Tribe USA)
"Ubuntu" meaning "I am because you are because I am."
Thinking about inventing new customs of connections. The one from New zeland where people touch noses and exchange breaths might be a bit up close for us brits. What could go some way towards it?
OSUSA from Nigeria- pot, everybody in a set community puts in what they can afford. Each month the pot is given to one individual. Next month another.
3rd January 2018
Today has been a day of trying to tie up loose ends, get meetings in place and design publicity in a way which makes sense. Its a good thing to do as it helps me formulate my ideas and question my route before setting off. There are always a lot of unknowns at the start of a project. This is at once exciting and scary. If it was purely a craft project I might know the steps needed and probably what I wanted to have at the end of it. As its art its ok that some things are left unknown so that one can respond to things as they arise. Even more important when your work is based on a socially engaged practice. It would be disingenuous to work with people and not be inspired by what we talk about, to be so fixed on a path that that the interactions become pointless. All this said there do needs to be some rules. I've learnt that this is important for a few reasons. Firstly if you set others off creating work which then isn't suitable they are not that inclined to see it as just a part of artistic process and start again. Secondly some rules and structure strangely enough allow for more interesting fluctuations and stop the habitual.
As the wind of "Storm Eleanor" whistles outside I'm going to do some reading around my first topic "Storm Season". I think that I need to understand more about this one. Both the scientific side of it and the largely forgotten human and environmental long term impact of these storms. I crocheted storm Harvey when it first came on the news but I'd like to revisit that to see where people are at now. I'll place any interesting bits of info and pictures as they arise here.
Notes on connectivity
"The parts are meant for serving the whole, just as the legs, hands, fingers and ears are meant for serving the whole body. " The Science Of Self Realization
"If house flies were about our size or walm , we'd be much more confident that when we plucked off their wings they felt pain (our sort of pain, the kind that matters). What makes us think that some such considerations matter and not others." The Minds Eye page 10
"A fly swatter cannot swat a fly sitting on its own handle." The Minds Eye Page 278
Inspired by page 281- The Minds Eye. The idea of I represented by a TV with a camers projecting photo of itself. The image goes through infinate re-representations. If the camera is tilted it mutated until the image doesn't reflect the original TV shape. How do I see I. Even seeing our own face requires a mirror, a mediating device. People talk of loosing themselves in relationships and circumstances. What does this mean? Conversly they say "I can be myself with them.". How important to our sense of self is a feeling of connection with other world items which reflect our own sense of I? How can connection with inappropriate mediating devices affect our mental health? Worth considering more for the Hope And Despair 2.
If we set up two TV systems and make small change to the angle of the camera in one. As it ripples down this would make big changes to the overal design in one. "Would it then be more correct to say that we have two radically different systems, or two nearly identical sysems?"
My Thoughts: Interesting in terms of the small changes made to ecosystems (in widest sense of the word) which can elicit massive changes in the overal system.Worth Considering in Storm Season.
The TV example is missing the added attribute of the human brain. Namely the ability to peceive its own state. Humans do this through things such as language. "I am a little nervous and confused by her unwillingness to go the party." articulated and then taken back inside the brain for reflection. Artificial intelligence work focuses on giving the robot "A set of notions about its inner structures".
My Thoughts: If as humans we have the, probably unique ability, to bounce between a concept of our inner world and things in our outer one and reflect on external changes is that where our responsibility lies? The God like utterances around our dominion isn't an opportunity to do as we please with the other elements of the earth but to use our abilites to care for it. Prabhupada "The Science of Self Realization" talks of not infringing on others "property" can't be understood with an egocentric idea of property. Is Property owned by the Godhead here? Worth Considering in Storm Season.
Read more of this https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/godidea.html
" The word "atheism" also carries the innuendo of an attitude countenancing moral laxity, or a belief that man-made ethics, having no divine sanction, rest on shaky foundations. For Buddhism, however, the basic moral law is inherent in life itself. It is a special case of the law of cause and effect, needing neither a divine law-giver nor depending upon the fluctuating human conceptions of socially conditioned minor moralities and conventions."
I like the Phrase " fellow-wanderers".Worth Considering for What Now.
Utilitarianism- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism "Utilitarianism is an ethical theory which states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. "Utility" is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the well-being of sentient entities." "utilitarianism considers the interests of all beings equally." Associated with Jeremy Bentham
"God:..It may be that you are a part of me, in which case you may be talking to that part of me which is you...or again you and I might partially overlap, in which case you might be talkingt to the intersection and hench both be talkin to you and me." The Minds I essay by Raymond M Smullyan -Is God a Taoist? "Evil is simply painful...evil is suffering." "..it is inacurate to speak of my role in the scheme of things. I am the scheme of things. ....I am the process...I do not do things, yet through me all things get done. " The devil if there must be one can be thought of as the lenghth of time the process takes. "The truth of the matter is that salvation is partly an individual and partly a social process." "...You and natural law are really one in the same." pg337 "To be valid a law of nature must take into account how in fact you do act, or, if you like, how you choose to act." "the confusion is caused by your bifurcation of reality into the you and the not you. Really now, just where do you leave off and the rest of the universe begin?
Once you can see the so-called you and nature as a continuous whole, then you can never again be bothered by such questions as wether it is you who are controlling nature or nature who is controlling you. Thus the muddle of free will versus determinaism will vanish. "
"I am not punishing Adam and his decendants for the act, but rather that the fruit in question is poisonous in its own right and its effects. Unfortunately, last countless generations." Worth considering for Storm Season.
Thoughts on The Form of LILIWAAC and Clusters/bodies
Hofstadater in "The Minds I" talks of the subselves which exist in the individual. Each subself may be of one mind on a subject. They may be in two minds and need splitting again. All these subselves make up "a mortal" Government/ nations etc are made up of lots of subselves as mortals. more complex again. Whilst it may seem prudent to create rules which dictate that each circle within the work must represent an individual or a group, a set of ideas etc this would simplify it too much. It may even nutralise the overall exploration. Within the Grenfell circle the individuals who died are represented as black stitches. They could have been represented as a crocheted circle each but that might imply that the only pertinant factor within the narrative was each individual human death. What brings a tear and angry emotion in this story is not just the passing of one life but the system and choices which sited certain "kinds" of people together and deemed them less deserving of care. This then grew as it seemed that the issue was endemic. Guided tours of the work might be useful. Like if you went to foraging tour in a forest. A guide would take you around with expert knowledge of what you might find. But along the way there would be other things, conversations etc which alter what is talked about, shared etc. The work should be understood like an ecosystem. I need to gain knowledge of each part which will allow me to talk about it like a forest warden. How about if no piece can be included until I understand the person who created it, their thoughts and their motivations. What I mean by "understand" is in need of more thought.
" The universe is populated by stable things. A stable thing is a collection of atoms which is permanent enough to deserve a name. " Richard Dawkins Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes "The Minds Eye" pag 124
Once you start looking into something you see other related things out of the corner of your eye. Like This:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/12/30/is-a-reconciling-force-literally-the-mental-dimension-of-consciousness/
Storm Season Research- looking for a start point
Pot holes in Northwich. "Freeze thaw".
4th February 2019
Looking at good news stories for the next leg of LILIWAAC. A few phrases from my research seem worthy of note:
"Tza Nee Da Bee Wah" meaning "how are the connections the family?" (Blackfort Tribe USA)
"Ubuntu" meaning "I am because you are because I am."
Thinking about inventing new customs of connections. The one from New zeland where people touch noses and exchange breaths might be a bit up close for us brits. What could go some way towards it?
OSUSA from Nigeria- pot, everybody in a set community puts in what they can afford. Each month the pot is given to one individual. Next month another.
3rd January 2018
Today has been a day of trying to tie up loose ends, get meetings in place and design publicity in a way which makes sense. Its a good thing to do as it helps me formulate my ideas and question my route before setting off. There are always a lot of unknowns at the start of a project. This is at once exciting and scary. If it was purely a craft project I might know the steps needed and probably what I wanted to have at the end of it. As its art its ok that some things are left unknown so that one can respond to things as they arise. Even more important when your work is based on a socially engaged practice. It would be disingenuous to work with people and not be inspired by what we talk about, to be so fixed on a path that that the interactions become pointless. All this said there do needs to be some rules. I've learnt that this is important for a few reasons. Firstly if you set others off creating work which then isn't suitable they are not that inclined to see it as just a part of artistic process and start again. Secondly some rules and structure strangely enough allow for more interesting fluctuations and stop the habitual.
As the wind of "Storm Eleanor" whistles outside I'm going to do some reading around my first topic "Storm Season". I think that I need to understand more about this one. Both the scientific side of it and the largely forgotten human and environmental long term impact of these storms. I crocheted storm Harvey when it first came on the news but I'd like to revisit that to see where people are at now. I'll place any interesting bits of info and pictures as they arise here.
Notes on connectivity
"The parts are meant for serving the whole, just as the legs, hands, fingers and ears are meant for serving the whole body. " The Science Of Self Realization
"If house flies were about our size or walm , we'd be much more confident that when we plucked off their wings they felt pain (our sort of pain, the kind that matters). What makes us think that some such considerations matter and not others." The Minds Eye page 10
"A fly swatter cannot swat a fly sitting on its own handle." The Minds Eye Page 278
Inspired by page 281- The Minds Eye. The idea of I represented by a TV with a camers projecting photo of itself. The image goes through infinate re-representations. If the camera is tilted it mutated until the image doesn't reflect the original TV shape. How do I see I. Even seeing our own face requires a mirror, a mediating device. People talk of loosing themselves in relationships and circumstances. What does this mean? Conversly they say "I can be myself with them.". How important to our sense of self is a feeling of connection with other world items which reflect our own sense of I? How can connection with inappropriate mediating devices affect our mental health? Worth considering more for the Hope And Despair 2.
If we set up two TV systems and make small change to the angle of the camera in one. As it ripples down this would make big changes to the overal design in one. "Would it then be more correct to say that we have two radically different systems, or two nearly identical sysems?"
My Thoughts: Interesting in terms of the small changes made to ecosystems (in widest sense of the word) which can elicit massive changes in the overal system.Worth Considering in Storm Season.
The TV example is missing the added attribute of the human brain. Namely the ability to peceive its own state. Humans do this through things such as language. "I am a little nervous and confused by her unwillingness to go the party." articulated and then taken back inside the brain for reflection. Artificial intelligence work focuses on giving the robot "A set of notions about its inner structures".
My Thoughts: If as humans we have the, probably unique ability, to bounce between a concept of our inner world and things in our outer one and reflect on external changes is that where our responsibility lies? The God like utterances around our dominion isn't an opportunity to do as we please with the other elements of the earth but to use our abilites to care for it. Prabhupada "The Science of Self Realization" talks of not infringing on others "property" can't be understood with an egocentric idea of property. Is Property owned by the Godhead here? Worth Considering in Storm Season.
Read more of this https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/godidea.html
" The word "atheism" also carries the innuendo of an attitude countenancing moral laxity, or a belief that man-made ethics, having no divine sanction, rest on shaky foundations. For Buddhism, however, the basic moral law is inherent in life itself. It is a special case of the law of cause and effect, needing neither a divine law-giver nor depending upon the fluctuating human conceptions of socially conditioned minor moralities and conventions."
I like the Phrase " fellow-wanderers".Worth Considering for What Now.
Utilitarianism- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism "Utilitarianism is an ethical theory which states that the best action is the one that maximizes utility. "Utility" is defined in various ways, usually in terms of the well-being of sentient entities." "utilitarianism considers the interests of all beings equally." Associated with Jeremy Bentham
"God:..It may be that you are a part of me, in which case you may be talking to that part of me which is you...or again you and I might partially overlap, in which case you might be talkingt to the intersection and hench both be talkin to you and me." The Minds I essay by Raymond M Smullyan -Is God a Taoist? "Evil is simply painful...evil is suffering." "..it is inacurate to speak of my role in the scheme of things. I am the scheme of things. ....I am the process...I do not do things, yet through me all things get done. " The devil if there must be one can be thought of as the lenghth of time the process takes. "The truth of the matter is that salvation is partly an individual and partly a social process." "...You and natural law are really one in the same." pg337 "To be valid a law of nature must take into account how in fact you do act, or, if you like, how you choose to act." "the confusion is caused by your bifurcation of reality into the you and the not you. Really now, just where do you leave off and the rest of the universe begin?
"I am not punishing Adam and his decendants for the act, but rather that the fruit in question is poisonous in its own right and its effects. Unfortunately, last countless generations." Worth considering for Storm Season.
Thoughts on The Form of LILIWAAC and Clusters/bodies
Hofstadater in "The Minds I" talks of the subselves which exist in the individual. Each subself may be of one mind on a subject. They may be in two minds and need splitting again. All these subselves make up "a mortal" Government/ nations etc are made up of lots of subselves as mortals. more complex again. Whilst it may seem prudent to create rules which dictate that each circle within the work must represent an individual or a group, a set of ideas etc this would simplify it too much. It may even nutralise the overall exploration. Within the Grenfell circle the individuals who died are represented as black stitches. They could have been represented as a crocheted circle each but that might imply that the only pertinant factor within the narrative was each individual human death. What brings a tear and angry emotion in this story is not just the passing of one life but the system and choices which sited certain "kinds" of people together and deemed them less deserving of care. This then grew as it seemed that the issue was endemic. Guided tours of the work might be useful. Like if you went to foraging tour in a forest. A guide would take you around with expert knowledge of what you might find. But along the way there would be other things, conversations etc which alter what is talked about, shared etc. The work should be understood like an ecosystem. I need to gain knowledge of each part which will allow me to talk about it like a forest warden. How about if no piece can be included until I understand the person who created it, their thoughts and their motivations. What I mean by "understand" is in need of more thought.
" The universe is populated by stable things. A stable thing is a collection of atoms which is permanent enough to deserve a name. " Richard Dawkins Selfish Genes and Selfish Memes "The Minds Eye" pag 124
Once you start looking into something you see other related things out of the corner of your eye. Like This:
http://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/12/30/is-a-reconciling-force-literally-the-mental-dimension-of-consciousness/
Storm Season Research- looking for a start point
Taken From Climate and Extreme
Weather News You Tube Channel
8th 16th December
Thomas Fire-California fires.
Unprecedented in December “You can't stop a fire when there's fuel
and its wind driven.” Not burnt in 50 plus years. 400 square miles.
“Wind Event”.
Ash raining down, dust masks.
Record breaking snow storm in North
East. Usual mild south. Texas to Florida. Biggest in 3 decades.
Alaska sees Record high temperatures.
Italy floods. High rain fall and snow
at higher elevations. Brown muddy water.
Britain -10 130 mile/hr winds.
Philippines Sorm Urduja Turquoise of
building and plastic awnings etc against mud water
Indonesia- people still mopeding to
work through floods.
South Africa tornado 11th
dec. Gates of big houses blown down. Weather does not respect our
gated communities wish for exclusion.
Australia- Super Storm hale the size of
tennis balls.”Well I'm not very happy with mother nature. But you
can't do anything about it.”
High temps in the Antarctic. Greenland
Ice Sheet. 2002-3 massive change in melt water output. Changes in
atmosphere circulation. Particles coming more from the south.
16th 19th
December
Philippines 42 dead. Mostly from land
slide on island of Biliran. Storm Kitack “Tropical depression”.
Only add up the dead once the bodies are identified.
Chile Mud Slide. Black thick Mud moving
like a river. Los Lagos.
UAE and Oman. Floods and landslides
20th -27th
December
Philippines storm. There is nobody
official to help. There are people on one side of a ragging flood.
One set are safe the other are on a shrinking island. A rope is
found. One person on each side hold the rope and people follow it to
safety. What happens when you are the last person on the island
holding the rope? How will we cope as the island of safety gets
smaller? www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xArOQXrtKU
20 typhoons hit the Philippines ever year.
“Its not easy for us to accept the
reality that nature is not easy to explain.” Albert Chan Chief Fire
Officer Tubod Fire Station
Philippines most disaster struck place
in the world. Invest heavily is infrastructure to cope but current
conflict in making it harder to mitigate against. People told not to
rebuild houses close to the river but need to farm near by mean that
they probably will.
Australia- “Messy all the way along”
Heat Wave followed by high winds and hail storms as big as basket
balls. “ A couple of scratches and cuts.” Rain falling from a
great height leads to hail stones as water freezes on way down.
Alaska warmer than Texas and New York.
20 Degrees warmer
Reporter on CBSN USA news- reporter and
Geoff the Weather man. Costliest year ever for weather disasters in
the USA. Average of 5 to 10. Increase in extreme weather and people
wanting to live in places prone to Storms. Recipe for disaster. More
built up areas means more rain run off as the rain can't soak into
the soil. More downpours 3 I in 500 years flood events happening in 3
years. More extreme heat waves, more droughts, more fires. Stronger
hurricanes 1 in 500 might become 1 in 5 years. Good for Geoff's
employment but not good for the rest of the planet.
Climate change made heavy rain 3 times
more likely and 15% stronger in Hurricane Harvey etc.
January
Monster Storm on the East Coast of USA.
Record breaking cod. Water pipes bursting.
From SOTT
Animals: Man of Wars washed up
dead on beaches in Australia, Thresher sharks dying of cold weather
shock at cape cod, swarms of jelly fish in Crimea,
Bark Beetles as a factor in California
fires. Drought-tree defences down-bark beetles arrive- further
deprive tree of water-lay more eggs and send our pheromones for more
beetles- trees die-dead trees provide tinder for fires.
Man of Wars washed up dead on beaches
in Australia. Known as blue bottles.
“...climate warming...amps up
jellyfish in unbelievable ways. Fractions of degree changes above
normal water temperatures amp up their metabolism, they eat more and
breed more and live longer — it’s astounding what a little
bit of warming can do for jellyfish. Trawling gives them new room for
their polyps to settle, and while acidification or chemical pollution
doesn’t hurt jellyfish, it hurts everything else like fish and
shellfish that struggle with environmental change.” Marine
biologist Lisa-ann Gershin
Swarms of Jelly Fish In the Crimea.
“The huge population increase of
jellyfish is major for three main reasons: All jellyfish love
agricultural waste dumped into the ocean. They also reproduce
better in warmer ocean water. Finally, we ate too much Omega-3 and
overfishing has triggered the jellyfish uprising by killing off huge
amounts of the tuna, sharks and turtles that usually prey on
jellyfish and their eggs.”
Thoughts
The wider natural world with its
storms, fires, land slides, floods, strange animal events etc are a
reflection of I as we are a reflection of it.
The jelly fish example or any non human
“disaster” may be used as a way to vindicate our own destructive
mass affect. Locusts do it, jelly fish do it, storms have no sense of
remorse, Mother nature/god is unkind vengeful or unthinking so why
should we be otherwise? Goes back to idea I had from Minds I that we
have a responsibility because of our awareness. How aware can we be
as individuals? With new media, TV, science etc. answer is probably
very. Other question is how aware do we want to be?
Different earth colours in floods
Rope which drags people to safety
across the floods
Connection between strange animal
gatherings, population growths etc and weather events.
Connection of our modes of living,
disasters and effects of environment including people.
Thoughts
Thinking about ideas which can hang off the main work but stand alone as separate works too. Few ideas:
Yemany Bomb/Knife Slit Badges
Linked sewn cards/pictures
Knife wound suit as a performative piece
Pictures from Williamson Musuem and Art Gallery
Need to consider if I hang above the picture rail what can be hung of equal diagramatic interest below?
Thoughts
Thinking about ideas which can hang off the main work but stand alone as separate works too. Few ideas:
Yemany Bomb/Knife Slit Badges
Linked sewn cards/pictures
Knife wound suit as a performative piece
Pictures from Williamson Musuem and Art Gallery
Need to consider if I hang above the picture rail what can be hung of equal diagramatic interest below?
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