Sven G //

Where lies the border?

2010-06-24T11:07:00.012+02:00

panel discussion
Atlas Antwerpen
Tue June 22th
20:00h

Whether we like it or not, growing globalisation causes a rise of the phenomenon 'migration'. We keep asking how we should deal with this matter in our society. In this panel discussion the cause and effect of migration was examined and its impact on our civilization.

with Bob Pleysier, Hilde Geraerts and Tom Naegels
moderator: Joël De Ceulaer

Convergence Culture: Where Old And New Media Collide

2010-06-09T20:13:00.019+02:00

Henry Jenkins, MIT Professor and author of Convergence Culture, talks about the new media landscape and transmedia storytelling from New York City's Times Square.

In his book Convergence Culture: Where Old And New Media Collide (2006) Jenkins "delves beneath the new media hype to uncover the important cultural transformations that are taking place as media converge. He provides an introduction to the world where every story gets told and every brand gets sold across multiple media platforms."

p.4 Convergence does not occur through media appliances, however sophisticated they may become. Convergence occurs within the brains of individual consumers and through their social interaction with others.

p.5 Convergence does not mean ultimate stability and unity. It operates as a constant force for unification but always in dynamic tension with change.

p.17 Our lives, relationships, memories, fantasies, desires also flow across media channels. Being a lover or a mommy or a teacher occurs on multiple platforms.

Marina Abramovic - The Legacy of Performance

2010-06-07T00:00:00.006+02:00

Recorded on June 2nd 2010 - 94min5sec

Marina Abramović, Klaus Biesenbach and the performers participating in the Marina Abramović: The Artist Is Present exhibition discuss the relationship between Abramović’s original performance pieces and the process of reperforming them.

interview audio

2010-06-04T21:17:00.015+02:00

uploaded audio excerpts of interviews with

curator Paula Orrell (March 7th 2010)
media artivist Joseph DeLappe (March 15th 2010)
and net artists Eva & Franco Mattes (March 16th 2010)

in the context of the research project
Documenting Durational Live Performance Art Using Social Media

Sum quod eris

2010-05-09T15:01:00.014+02:00

by Mikes Poppe

30 actions

'Sum quod eris' is a series of poetic/terrorist actions that Poppe performs during the exhibition of the Canvascollectie/Collection RTBF at BOZAR. From May 6th until June 6th.

camera & editing: Sven Goyvaerts

We Live In Public

2010-05-04T10:09:00.007+02:00

Country: USA
Release: 2009
Length: 1u30
Director: Ondi Timoner
Dialogues : English
Subtitling : none

Former Internet millionaire Josh Harris has always been fascinated by the influence of new media on day-to-day life. In 1999, Harris launched his own Big Brother avant la lettre by starting an experiment in New York City, in which around 100 artists were placed in a room, filmed, and followed on the Internet every second of the day. According to Harris, the project "Quiet, We Live in Public" was an analogy for what Internet would really come to look like. Sleeping, showering, having sex -- everything was filmed, watched, and commented upon within the community. After the inevitable implosion of "Quiet," this "Warhol of the web" stuffed his apartment with cameras to provide Internet users with insight into everyday life of him and his (first real) girlfriend. They would become the first ‘public couple’. The new project also failed, and that was when a lonely and penniless Harris left for Ethiopia. Filmmaker Ondi Timoner was one of the residents in the "Quiet" project and spent 10 years worming her way around Harris's life. We Live in Public tells the fascinating story of how man is more and more inclined to give up privacy to become part of an abstract community.

May 3
20:00
Cinema ZED Leuven

http://www.docville.be/festival/film_en.asp?film=15084

Homo Interneticus?

2010-05-02T18:08:00.006+02:00

BBC Documentary
THE VIRTUAL REVOLUTION
episode 4 - Homo Interneticus?

KALENDER / WIT

2010-04-30T11:39:00.010+02:00

25.04 - 20.06.10
@ M HKA
Leuvenstraat 32
2000 Antwerpen
www.muhka.be

On January 2nd 2010 Benjamin Verdonck put the finishing touches to his project KALENDER (CALENDAR). More than 150 actions took place in the city of Antwerp over a period of 365 days. These actions related to traditional public holidays, the cycle of seasons, geopolitical shifts and life as it is. None was a failure.
None was a success.

KALENDER / WIT translates KALENDER for the white cube. 365 days of actions in the public space go on show inside the four walls of the museum.

Conference at La Bellone

2010-04-30T11:11:00.010+02:00

The body, the presence and the self – strategies to teach

Practitioners, artists, teachers and theoreticians questioned each other and testified to past or ongoing experiences aimed at handing down art, whether in workshops or in art schools.

TH 29.04 - 14:00 > 17:00

Moderator: Dr. Helge Meyer
Speakers: Yan Duyvendak, Arnaud Labelle-Rojoux, Franko B, Jovana Stokic, Antoine Pickels

Organisation : Les Halles, in collaboration with La Bellone and Momentum

iMAL lecture on the work of JOSEPH DELAPPE

2010-04-28T10:44:00.008+02:00

DOCUMENTING DURATIONAL LIVE PERFORMANCE ART USING SOCIAL MEDIA: the work of JOSEPH DELAPPE
14 MAY - 20:30
iMAL
30 Quai des Charbonnages / Koolmijnenkaai 30
1080 Bruxelles / Brussel
conférence / lecture

Joseph DeLappe is a media artivist and Associate Professor of the Department of Art at the University of Nevada where he runs the Digital Media area. Working with electronic and new media since 1983, his work in online gaming performance, electromechanical installation and real-time web-based video transmission has been shown throughout the United States and abroad. In 2006 he enacted the project dead-in-iraq, where he typed consecutively all names of America's military casualties from the war in Iraq into the America's Army FPS online recruiting game. In 2008, he created Reenactment: The Salt Satyagraha Online using a specially customized treadmill to walk the entire 240 miles in 26 days to control his avatar, MGandhi, as he journeyed throughout Second Life. This resulted in his work being featured at last year's MUHKA expo All That Is Solid Melts Into Air in Mechelen. In March this year Joseph DeLappe gave a presentation entitled Protest, Memory, Reenactment at the MoMA in New York.

For his research project Documenting Durational Live Performance Art Using Social Media, Sven Goyvaerts examines several aspects of Joseph DeLappe's work. Sven Goyvaerts is second year student at Transmedia Postgraduate Program in Arts + Media + Design and participant in a.pt (advanced performance training), a 12-month post-master performance research programme based in Antwerp.

Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture

2010-04-16T14:37:00.010+02:00

Liveness: Performance in a Mediatized Culture addresses what may be the single most important question facing all kinds of performance today. What is the status of live performance in a culture dominated by mass media? A second edition of this book was published in 2008.

VPRO / Slavoj Zizek

2010-04-11T19:16:00.013+02:00

Interview: Chris Kijne
Director: Marije Meerman
Production: Mariska Schneider /Pepijn Boonstra
Research: Marijntje Denters/Maren Merckx
Commissioning editors: Henneke Hagen/Jos de Putter

NG / Too far east is west

2010-04-06T14:48:00.009+02:00

Dear Passengers,

Let’s set sail for the west!

Book your tickets for a night crossing on Sat. 1 May 5 pm – Sun. 2 May 5 pm.

Our mental ship will head out on a west-north-west course and journey through a series of subjectivity bubbles – the subjectivity of each artist-performer – musician, poet, visual artist.

Port of embarkation is plateau/nadine, in Ixelles/Brussels: part-residence (I’ve been living in the apartment suspended beneath the roof since 1 March), part-rehearsal space, part-meeting/discussion space (see photo).

On the “boat” there will be performances, stories, victuals and a bar, hammocks and mattresses for you to rest on, showers and two kitchens ---.

The journey will follow a changing, unstable, fluctuating course.

A night spent drifting, meeting people, staying up in the storeroom.

Passengers will contribute their presence, their longings and stories, their ability to listen.

Please contact me to book your tickets.

Kind regards,

NG

Featuring performances by: Antoine Boute – Jean-Philippe Convert – NG – Sven Goyvaerts – Rémi Marie – Loretto Troncoso Martinez – Jerome Mauche – Erik Minkkinen – Alberto Sorbelli – Hendrik Sturm – Peter Verwimp

Passengers – Observers = Emmanuel Lambion – Marc Lenot – Christelle Nicolas

http://www.nadine.be/

Geert Lovink - MyBrain.net

2010-03-27T20:40:00.007+01:00

The colonization of real-time and other trends in Web 2.0

"There is no evidence that the world is becoming more virtual. The cyber−prophets were wrong here. The virtual is becoming more real. It wants to penetrate and map out our real lives and social relationships. We are no longer encouraged to act out some role, but forced to be "ourselves" (which is no less theatrical or artificial). We constantly login, create profiles in order to present our "selves" on the global market place of employment, friendship and love. We can have multiple passions but only one certified ID."

Performing the Gallery / Performing the Museum

2010-02-28T13:27:00.004+01:00

Marina Abramović:
Performing the Gallery/Performing the Museum

Tuesday, October 27, 2009,
doors at 6pm, talk begins promptly at 7pm
Public Discussion with MARINA ABRAMOVIĆ
Inauguration of ABRAMOVIC STUDIO AT LOCATION ONE
presented by Jovana Stokić

Bruce Sterling on Atemporality @ transmediale

2010-02-27T19:52:00.006+01:00

15:06 - Generative art drains human intentionality out of the art project.

21:22 - Why not designer fiction as life, why not role-playing-games in real spaces, why not become the change you wanna see?

22:33 - Ruins of the unsustainable vs. the informalized, illegalized, heavily networked structure of the emergent new order.

24:53 - Atemporality is a philosophy of history with a built-in expiration date.

Thanks to Networked Performance blog for the heads up.

Relational Art: Is It An Ism?

2010-02-13T17:07:00.002+01:00

http://www.ubu.com/film/relational.html

Thanks to Wouter Huis for the tip!

Symposium @ Artefact

2010-02-10T21:16:00.006+01:00

Artefact presents

The memory of the artist
Symposium on living artist's archives in network relation

(translated from Dutch:
Het geheugen van de kunstenaar
Symposium over levende kunstenaarsarchieven in netwerkverband)

Wednesday February 10th 2010, STUK Arts Centre, Leuven

(abstract translated from Dutch)
The artist's archive today has a hybrid form: digital as well as analog, finished creations as well as drafts, disclosure and financing ... all of which raises questions for artists. At the end of their carreer there is a demand for a place where the archive can be kept alive. Open and dynamic artist's archives provide many opportunities, for artists as well as for museums and research and education centres. Archives are sources for arthistoric or artistic research and are important for the preservation and management of artworks. This symposium looks for good examples of handling artist's archives within a network of institutions and organisations. The recent work around the television oeuvre of Jef Cornelis can attest to the value of an archive for research and education and illustrates the possibilities and difficulties inherent to 'networked' initiatives. Examples from other art sectors also offer inspiration for the development of expertise and good archival practices in the sector of (audio)visual and media art.

Detailed report added shortly.

Documenting Durational Live Performance Art Using Social Media

2010-02-09T11:22:00.012+01:00

1. preserving durational live performance art through the use of social networking sites

2. inventorying contemporary durational live performance art pieces that implement social media

3. artistic practice in which consistent documentation via social media becomes a live performance in itself

The Future of Performance Art

2010-01-14T11:55:00.002+01:00

The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow

2010-01-09T22:46:00.013+01:00

Live Laboratory Symposium
and Durational Performances,
Exhibition and Publication

21 - 24 January 2010

Plymouth Arts Centre presents The Pigs of Today are the Hams of Tomorrow, a curatorial collaboration with the Marina Abramović
Institute for Preservation of Performance Art. The Pigs of Today
are the Hams of Tomorrow will stage, document and discuss
groundbreaking international performance art in order to
examine and sustain the future of the medium.

This is the first curatorial project of the Marina Abramović Institute.
Marina Abramović has pioneered performance art for over four decades on an international scale. Her major retrospective at
the Museum of Modern Art, New York, opens in March 2010.

Ideas for the Institute are mapped in The Reading Room by Transmedia art students Brussels, Sven Goyvaerts & Filip Daniels.

http://www.plymouthartscentre.org/eshot27_11_09/Artinvite.htm

Introduction Week apass/a.pt

2010-01-05T13:17:00.008+01:00

Madeleine

2009-12-21T16:39:00.009+01:00

Madeleine is a fictional personage used in performances based on sexual fantasies found on anonymous blogs posted on the Internet. These works are a selection of photographic registrations of these performances made in semi-public spaces.

- Alexandra Verhaest

Blog Buzz

2009-12-20T14:39:00.005+01:00

Midway through the One Year Life Performance 2.0, the project gets mentioned on a couple of blogs for the first time. Many thanks to Lyra Kilston, Megan Stanphill and Caitlin Cope.

Vrijstaat on YouTube

2009-12-02T11:07:00.022+01:00

VRIJSTAAT
A new city, a personal utopia
November 30th until December 12th
Closing event: December 12th, 12:00
Pond Noordkasteel, Roeikom, Antwerp

A construction/performance by Thomas Verstraeten

Hasan Elahi on The Colbert Report

2009-11-18T16:46:00.000+01:00

The Colbert Report

Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c

Hasan Elahi

www.colbertnation.com

Colbert Report Full Episodes

Political Humor

U.S. Speedskating

Worldchanging

2009-11-16T17:28:00.001+01:00

Reno News & Review

2009-11-13T18:19:00.005+01:00

http://www.newsreview.com/reno/content?oid=1318733

"Sven Goyvaerts’ piece Self-Portrait might at first appear to be a video loop of the artist presented like traditional portraiture, but, in a twist straight out of a Harry Potter book, the portrait is able to interact with gallery visitors because it’s actually a live webcam feed of the artist. It’s a piece that combines technology with an endurance performance—the artist plans to be remotely present during all gallery hours—to create a contemporary twist on an ancient art form."

Thanks to Brad Bynum

Testing Prospectives.09

2009-11-11T19:47:00.002+01:00

Thanks to Jeff Erickson

Shaping Things

2009-11-09T17:02:00.001+01:00

Individual Presentations TM01/TM02

2009-11-05T17:01:00.008+01:00

TM02 Gunther

TM02 Peter

TM02 Maud

TM02 Sven

TM02 Filip

TM02 Natasha

TM01 Milena

TM01 Gust

TM01 Stéfan

TM01 Wouter

TM02 Ryoichi

TM01 Els

Self-Portrait

2009-09-28T23:26:00.008+02:00

Self-Portrait mixes the idea of a video installation, a long durational performance, a surveillance camera and an informal artist talk to create an unusual gallery experience.

Exhibited at Galerij Jan Colle in Ghent, together with documentation of two other pieces - Hotmail and Evernotes.

Selected for Prospectives.09 Digital Arts Festival / Exhibit (Reno, NV)
November 12th - December 16th.

flickr - Account Limit

2009-08-06T16:14:00.002+02:00

"Hey Sven G! About your photostream...

You've run into one of the limits of a free account. Your free account will only display the most recent 200 things you've uploaded.
Anything beyond 200 will remain hidden from view until you either delete newer items, or upgrade to a Pro account.

Nothing has been deleted, and if you upgrade, they'll all come back unharmed."

eXistenZ

2009-08-06T14:07:00.013+02:00

Yesterday I took out David Cronenberg's 'eXistenZ' from the library and watched it for the second time. The buzz around Second Life
and MMORPGs* led me to revisit this brilliant, 'existential' film and its discomforting, deadly funny premisse: what would happen if a virtual computer game reached the point of becoming so lifelike that it would lead us to confuse the game with our physical existence?

Behind the literal interpretation of the movie murks the more philosophical level, which Cronenberg elaborates on in the featurette included on the dvd:

"One of the excitements, of course, about doing ... getting into the game, in the movie, is to find yourself questioning what reality is. To what extent do we create our own reality - to what extent are we all characters in our own game? And, yeah, as you get older you begin to realize - it becomes a very strongly evident and palpable thing that people define their characters almost as though they have written them. You decide what things appeal to you about how you project yourself in society and so on ... And we all do play certain roles."

* also check out the trailer for Second Skin, the first widely released movie about virtual worlds - a movie for the 50 million gamers who spend most of their time in virtual worlds, and all those curious to understand this phenomenon - "Humans want to be more than what they are - we are driven to be more than what we are."

Wired

2009-08-06T12:43:00.007+02:00

(from Wikipedia) Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since March 1993, that reports on how technology affects culture, the economy, and politics.

Here's a schematic for how to 'Balance Your Media Diet', from the latest August issue:

"Practicing good nutrition keeps your mind sharp, your body fit, and your life long. The same could be said for consuming media. (Seriously, knowledge is power.) When you add it all up, the average American spends roughly nine hours a day glued to some kind of screen, and like your diet, quality is as important as quantity. Here are Wired's suggested servings for optimal media health."

Another Perfect World

2009-07-31T11:24:00.006+02:00

Another Perfect World is a documentary about digital utopias, about online worlds created as places for work, play, friendship and love.

People have always created utopias, worlds that reflect the greatest, most enlightened and noble ideas of the period in which they live. The utopias of the future will be created online, in digital worlds capable of rendering photo-realistic depictions of whatever the mind can imagine with technologies that allow people from around the world to join in. We now have the chance to build a new world from scratch.

If you were going to do so, on which principles would you establish it? What is more important: freedom of expression; an active marketplace to encourage social interaction; or laws
to define the limits of social relations?

Another Perfect World is a production of http://www.submarine.nl

Gandhi in Jail

2009-07-25T13:59:00.008+02:00

A Performative Reenactment in Second Life

-and-

Twitter Torture

May 5, 2009- January 26th, 2010

Media artist Joseph DeLappe aka MGandhi Chakrabarti presents an ongoing, durational reenactment and performance in Second Life. MGandhi is currently in prison for a 9-month reenactment of Gandhi’s 1930 post-Salt March jail sentence. This reenactment commenced on May 5th of 2008 to coincide with the 79th anniversary of Gandhi’s post-Salt March imprisonment by the British in 1930. MGandhi is presently online 24 hours a day in his cell - DeLappe inhabits him daily to interact with visitors and to engage in a performative reading of the recently released and now infamous Bush-era Torture Memos. Twitter Torture, as commenced on July 4th, 2009, MGandhi/DeLappe involves reading a selection of the torture memos verbatim, from his jail cell in Second Life. These live readings are performed first in Second Life and fed live, to DeLappe’s Twitter and Facebook updates.

From Joseph DeLappe's WordPress blog:

"This work is a conscientous experiment – both in Twittering the memos and in placing Gandhi in prison in SL. After wandering freely in Second Life last year, I’ve had many requests to bring Gandhi back to SL. (...) At some point, the notion of placing Gandhi in jail, confining him in SL as he was confined in RL in 1930 just made sense – it is a continuation of the Salt March reenactment while also serving as a different kind of durational, mixed-reality project. I am not imprisoned in real-life as Gandhi is in Second Life – this is of course the primary difference between the imprisonment and the march. This work is also an explicit tribute to the work of Tehching Hsieh."

my SL avatar in front of the poster for the performance at Odyssey

________________________

e-mail from Joseph DeLappe:

MGandhi Chakrabarti

to me

2:34 AM (11 hours ago)

[17:32] MGandhi Chakrabarti: sorry I missed you! thanks for stopping by.

Synthetic Performances

2009-07-25T01:36:00.004+02:00

Synthetic Performances

by Eva and Franco Mattes aka 0100101110101101.ORG

A series of reenactments of historical performances inside synthetic worlds such as Second Life. All the actions are performed by Eva and Franco Mattes through their avatars, which were constructed from their bodies and faces. People can attend and interact with the live performances connecting to the video-game from all over the world. The series started in January 2007.

«It was such a good idea, I'm sort of jealous that it never crossed my mind» Marina Abramovic, ARTnews, February 2008

My Second Life

2009-07-24T10:05:00.000+02:00

'My Second Life' was shot entirely in the popular online world Second Life. On one of his visits in SL, filmmaker Douglas Gayeton came across a series of seven video dispatches by a character named Molotov Alva. It appears that a man by the same name mysteriously disappeared from his real world California home in January 2007.

The Machine is (Changing) Us

2009-07-22T12:09:00.001+02:00

No Impact Man

2009-07-22T11:15:00.003+02:00

Neo Human

2009-07-16T00:45:00.008+02:00

Multiplicity

2009-07-14T16:18:00.012+02:00

"A comedy about a man who clones himself to save his marriage,
and then almost loses his wife-- to himself! Overworked and over-scheduled, contractor Doug Kinney never has enough time for his wife and family. So when a helpful geneticist offers to "xerox" Doug, it seems like the perfect solution-- until the clones begin to take over his home, his job, and his bed."
(www.imdb.com - written by Robert Lynch {docrlynch@yahoo.com})

This 1996 comedy by Harold Ramis I just had to see, given my interest in split personalities, which is, I think, most obvious in the way I divide myself into the Sven G characters. The movie hardly made me laugh at all, but Laszlo Kovacs' (RIP) cinematography is a beaut, as are the following two quotes that managed to move me more than I had expected:

00:14:00
Doug Kinney: I feel guilty because I don't spend enough time with my wife and my kids and then I get resentful about it because I feel like I should - you know - maybe get a little time for myself. It's like: work is first and my family is a close second and I'm a distant third bringing up the rear, you know? Hell, I don't know ... Is that crazy?
Dr. Leeds: I don't know, I am not a psychiatrist. (laughs) Anyway, you don't need one. These problems are not in your mind - they are real. They require real solutions.
Doug Kinney: Well then ... what DO you do?
Dr. Leeds: I told you, I make miracles. I create ... time.
I make clones.

01:41:30
Laura Kinney: I gave you a chance, it was just so ... mean.
Doug Kinney: That wasn't me.
Laura Kinney: That's just the point - you've been acting like a lunatic lately.
Doug Kinney: Listen, I .. I just got a little confused about who I was, that's all. All right, I got real confused about who I was. Hon', look, it's happened to you! I mean, you want to be a mom, but you also want to work. You want to be completely independent, but you need to be taken care of a little, right?
Laura Kinney: ... yes.
Doug Kinney: It gets confusing, doesn't it?
Laura Kinney: Yes.

S

Ltd

2009-07-14T15:44:00.007+02:00

- Live, time-based & documentary

and also, from Wikipedia:

- A private company limited by shares is a type of company incorporated under the laws of England and Wales, Scotland, that of certain Commonwealth countries and the Republic of Ireland. It has shareholders with limited liability and its shares may not be offered to the general public. Private companies limited by shares are required to have the suffix "Limited" (often written "Ltd" or "Ltd.").
(in Belgium = BVBA)

- Laser target designator, a laser light source which is used to illuminate a target

- Long-term depression, in neurophysiology, the weakening of a neuronal synapse

- Living the Dream (TV series), a New Zealand TV series

- Light travel distance, a cosmological distance measure

S

Evernote - Monthly Allowance

2009-07-08T21:01:00.001+02:00

Art As Experience

2009-07-07T22:35:00.001+02:00

Video Vortex

2009-07-07T12:44:00.002+02:00

Notes -> Evernote

2009-07-03T20:16:00.029+02:00

Yesterday the Notes app on my iPhone began to crash whenever I opened it. Apparently this is a known malfunction, often occurring after you make the 3.0 upgrade for your iPhone. I have since switched to another app, Evernote, to keep track of my daily actions. My previous post shows the layout of the mail you get from Evernote, whenever you send a saved note to your personal e-mail account. The 090702 blog post meant to mark my transfer from Notes to Evernote - an app that introduces a range of new possibilities.

Evernote does come with quite a few advantages. One of them is the possibility to share my notes with the rest of the world at the same time as when I add them to my personal account on the Evernote site. In fact, on a WiFi-connection or on my Mobile Internet network these notes are constantly automatically added to the web - I do not even have to add them myself (as was the case with Notes)! Another plus is the integration of the social network Twitter with the Evernote application, which I am trying to figure out now.

Instead of waiting for my daily post on the Sven G blog, in which I show the document of the previous day, people can now access the notes I make on my iPhone much faster - almost in real-time - via
the link in the top right corner.

S

090702

2009-07-03T07:36:00.008+02:00

090701

2009-07-02T11:50:00.004+02:00

1121 check mail
1124 get up, put on glasses & toilet n#1
1127 put off glasses & shower
1137 put on glasses
1143 sorted desk, put dirty laundry in bin
1145 browse for apps, installed vpn connection
1308 had lunch, continue browsing
1346 update document 090630 & post document on blog,
check blog
1423 sent mail to steven & check mail
1426 drink aquarius
1435 checked new trailer 'inglorious bastards'
1444 sent mail to sgs
1459 checked trailers for 'the informant!', 'brüno',
'public enemies' & michael moore's new movie
1503 checked mail, send mail to nath
1518 checked mail, sent mail to steven
1526 went to get electric razor for mom
1527 toilet n#2 while reading aardschok magazine
1550 take bike to repair shop, change to sunglasses
1619 changed to glasses & back, left bike at repair shop
1624 riding tram back home
1630 update ical
1633 arrived home, changed to glasses, browse for apps
1645 sent mail to kristina
1649 take off shoes, continue unpacking rucksack
1652 import audio recording performance 090628 to mac
1707 call from jochem - missed, called jochem
1708 listened to last week's sdb recordings, continue
unpacking
1729 checked fb, posted pug clip on maud's fb
1758 flipped through slagwerkkrant magazine, checked
myspace (own, pestilence, periphery)
1809 update ical
1814 sort desktop
1830 checked for zoom support
1831 diner
1848 blew nose
1903 inserted lenses, mini-brush
1940 started rehearsal
2209 stopped rehearsal
$ duvel tournée & sausage - 11€
0028 went drinking with frank & peter, on the way
back home
0119 toilet n#1
0135 arrived home, removed lenses, put on glasses,
sms from & to maud
0142 watched clip frank the pug
0145 checked mails, remove glasses, sleep


sent from his iphone

090630

2009-07-01T13:47:00.003+02:00

0920 turn on radio
09.. toilet n#1
1016 laid in bed with maud, got op
1017 check mails
1021 shower & put on glasses
1032 clear table
1039 breakfast
1050 blow nose
1119 dishes & blow nose
1135 blew nose
1149 blow nose, brush teeth
1151 put on clothes
+$ 1153 yesterday's groceries - 9€ from maud
1155 update document 090629 & post document on blog,
check blog
1201 leave for school
1205 changed to sunglasses, blew nose
1221 on the road to school
1238 kissed maud, showed ticket
1245 call from an
1257 got external hard drive from an, blow nose
1304 sent sms to mikes
1310 call from mikes - missed
1319 ate piece of pancake from maud, called & sent sms
to mikes
1328 called mikes
1338 changed to glasses
$ itunes credit & asia cd - 31,99€
1437 kissed maud
1512 having lunch
1516 blew nose
$ chinese place - 7,70€
1545 having coffee in café bebo
$ coffee - 1,90€
1630 arrived back at maud's, toilet n#2, browse for
pug pics
1631 blow nose
1635 checked fb
1640 blow nose, check maud's final cut
1712 packed rucksack, ate watermelon, blew nose
1713 head for station to take train to antwerp,
drinking water
1724 kissed maud
1732 take train to antwerp, reading metro newspaper,
drinking water
1803 updated ical, sent sms to frank sdb
1805 sent sms to mom
1806 review camera roll
1810 nap
1847 taking tram home, drinking water
1902 arrived home, take off shoes
1903 check mail
1904 diner
1913 blow nose
1922 blow nose
1937 checked height (1,78m) & weight (65kg)
1939 watch end of news on tv
1949 browse for roster of wilkinson american movie day
1953 browsed for info on medical tests
2017 toilet n#2 while reading dag allemaal
2025 set up mac
2028 make playlist june 2009
2035 called kwinten - unavailable, called jochem
2037 updated ical
2038 continue making playlist
2134 sent mail to boris & steven
2141 listened to 'your beat' by siln with annelies
on vocals
2151 listened to asia's self-titled album & 'denying
gravity' by textures
2156 sent reply to mail by hans siln
2210 browsing for apps, dowloaded 'twinkle' app
2322 downloaded 'aroundme' app
0153 watched movie 'american gangster' while eating
chips, toilet n#1
0154 check mail
0205 brushed teeth, washed face, go to bed


sent from his iphone

090629

2009-06-30T11:56:00.003+02:00

0956 put on radio
1155 made love with maud, get up
1157 put on glasses, toilet n#1
1203 set up mac, take shower
1221 updated 090628 document, post document on blog,
check mail
1251 checked site sigrid, watched clips of rotor &
browsed recipes for salads
1253 go shopping for groceries
1257 changed to glasses
$ groceries - 18,24€
1336 changed to sunglasses, lunch
1341 blew nose
1458 laid on lawn in park, drinking water
1506 arrived back at maud's, changed to glasses,
blow nose
1536 finished mise-en-place, head for pool, eat apple
$ tram - 1,70€
1545 drink water
1555 throw rest of apple & tram ticket in trash
1605 returned camera to pool
1622 threw empty bottle of water in trash, heading back
to maud's place
$ 10 credits tram - 12,30€
1641 riding tram back to maud's
1653 arrived back at maud's, kissed maud
1659 drank orange juice
1700 watch movie 'blade runner' & nap
1722 sms from frank sdb
1831 toilet n#1
1833 finish making mise-en-place
1845 blew nose
1848 call from an
1859 went to lay in bed next to maud, washed hands
1902 check mail & tm-site
1906 update document 090628, listening to songs by 27
1928 make diner
1957 having diner, blew nose
20.. make love with maud & sleep


sent from his iphone

090628

2009-06-29T12:24:00.002+02:00

0300 call from maud - missed
0852 put on radio - studio brussel
0910 get up
0911 put on glasses & clothes
0913 toilet n#1
0915 drink coffee
0925 configured voice-mail settings, listened to maud's
message from 0311
0933 sent sms to maud
0953 toilet n#2 while reading slagwerkkrant, blew nose
1024 went to play drums in rehearsal space
1027 shower
1047 checked availability of book 'ctrl-space' in library
1051 empty trash on desktop
1052 watch clip nin's 'survivalism' & look for info on it
1100 update document 090627
1111 call from & to maud
1126 sent sms to maud
1140 sms from maud
1149 sent sms to maud
1239 drank orange juice, post document 090627 on blog
1250 toilet n#1, brush teeth
1257 change clothes, apply davidoff cool water
after-shave
1300 return empty glass for orange juice to kitchen sink,
pack rucksack
1304 blow nose
1314 riding tram to sint-lucas exhibition
1343 arrived at sint-lucas exhibition, set up
installation for performance, change nametag
1346 install fan
1351 transferred yesterday's audio recording to mac
1357 started audio recording
1400 start typing document 090628 on laptop
1413 plug in external hard disks
1415 check incoming volume level on audio recorder
1418 rearrange desktop & watch desktop image from a
distance
1422 continue making 3 minute edit of Archive Project #3
& mix sound in between clips on desktop
1430 adjusted nametags, continue edit AP #3
1431 go ask man in charge to put on wireless internet
1438 back at desk, try connecting to internet
1440 go ask again
1445 try connecting again - failed
1447 mix sound in between clips on desktop & continue
edit AP #3
1451 try connecting to internet again - failed, continue
edit AP #3
1457 adjust artist statement & continue edit AP #3
1503 drink water
1504 exporting edit of AP #3
1508 rearranged desktop, begin to make edit of Inspired
By # 2
1517 rearrange desktop & continue edit
1557 exporting edit IB #2, drink water, rearrange desktop
1559 mix sound in between clips on desktop
1605 adjusted focus on projector, rearrange desktop
1609 begin making edit of Archive Project #4
1615 adjust artist statement, rearrange desktop &
continue edit
1621 mix sound in between clips on desktop
1622 drink water
1623 continue edit AP #4
1629 mix sound in between clips on desktop, continue edit
AP #4
1657 mix sound in between clips on desktop & drink water
1658 continue edit AP #4
1706 mixed sound in between clips on desktop, call from
maud
1707 continue edit AP #4
1711 mixed sound in between clips on desktop, continue
edit AP #4
1715 constantly rearrange desktop
1720 adjusted artist statement & drink water
1758 wrap up installation performance
1831 packed, heading home
1850 start tracking movement
1901 riding tram home
1910 arrived home, kissed mom
1911 drink water & start unpacking rucksack
1933 kissed mom, heading for bxl, drinking water
1944 take train to bxl
2010 dowloaded app 'big oven', looked up recipe for
caesar salad
2016 sent sms to maud
2027 drink water
$ tram - 1,70€
2038 removed 1 lens, riding tram to maud's place
2346 arrived at maud's place, washed hands, took off
clothes, made love with maud
2350 drank orange juice, washed hands
2356 removed other lens, put on glasses, toilet n#1,
put on clothes
0000 kissed maud
0007 diner
0021 blew nose
$ durum & ice tea - 6€
0042 arrived back at maud's place, make love with maud,
sleep


sent from his iphone

090627

2009-06-28T12:40:00.003+02:00

0920 got up, put on glasses & clothes
0921 kissed dad
0928 re-inserted monitor cable in dad's pc, washed face,
put on socks & toilet n#2
0940 updated document 090626, drank orange juice
0942 brushed teeth, mini-shave
0945 on the road to wijnegem shopping center
0959 arrived at shopping center
1034 switched to proximus 3g mobile internet network
1040 sms from maud
1104 played v-drums at roland stand in shopping center
1111 riding car back home, installed proximus sim card
in iphone, sms from maud
1114 sent sms to maud
1124 arrived home, took off shoes, set up mac
1125 skype with maud, post document 090626 on blog
1144 checked for info on proximus site, tested mobile
internet network outside
1203 ate sandwich
1217 checked for info on proximus site, take hankie,
blow nose & start packing rucksack
1230 toilet n#2
1258 shaved, brushed teeth, changed clothes, put off
glasses, inserted lenses, got tapes from upstairs,
finish packing rucksack
1306 riding car to kerkstraat
1323 arrived at kerkstraat, installing setup for
performance
1407 start typing on laptop
1424 check lay-out desktop from a distance, drinking
water
1426 plug in external hard disks
1428 apply nivea deo stick
1430 adjust focus on projector
1431 mix in sound of presentation
1432 drink water
1433 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1436 set up sound recorder
1438 plug in headphones
1443 secure headphones to amplifier
1444 drink water
1448 begin making 3 minute edit of Archive Project
#2: Merlin Spie
1502 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1504 continue edit AP #2
1509 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1510 continue edit AP #2
1515 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1516 drink water
1518 continue edit AP #2
1519 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1520 continue edit AP #2
1523 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1524 continue edit AP #2
1551 drink water
1603 mix sound in between parts of presentation
1604 continue edit AP #2
1617 got caffé latte from marc
1618 export edit AP #2 & drink caffé latte
1620 put edit AP #2 on desktop
1623 drink caffé latte
1624 mix sound in between clips on desktop
1627 drink caffé latte & walk around
1635 sharpened pencil, wrote down contact information
for jan, sit back down behind laptop & drink caffé
1639 mix sound in between clips on desktop
1642 browse on www.jancolle.be & throw empty caffé
latte can in trash bag
1643 begin to make 3 minute edit of Inspired By #1
1645 check desktop image from a distance
1701 mix sound in between clips on desktop, continue
edit IB #1
1723 mix sound in between clips on desktop, continue
edit IB #1
1731 mix sound in between clips on desktop & drink
water
1737 put edit IB #1 on desktop
1739 toilet n#1
1744 went to look at peter's installation, back at desk
1745 drink water
1746 mix sound in between clips on desktop
1747 begin to make 3 minute edit of Archive Project #3
1800 shut down installation
1816 kissed peter & fabia goodbye, on the road home
1828 pinpointed exact location, using maps app
1839 riding tram towards chinese restaurant
1859 applied nivea deo stick, kissed grandma & granddad,
drink appetizer
1900 diner
1913 blow nose
1922 sent sms to jochem
2012 call from mikes - missed
2026 call mikes
2108 sent sms to maud
2303 chewing gum, riding car home
2316 arrived home, drank tonic, served drinks
2319 removed lenses, washed face, cleaned glasses, put
on glasses
2320 toilet n#2
2324 look for apps
2331 downloaded app 'runkeeper'
2349 drank bottle of water
2356 kissed family goodbye
0005 kissed rest of family goodnight, took off clothes,
put off glasses & go to bed


sent from his iphone

090626

2009-06-27T11:28:00.004+02:00

1003 get up
1005 toilet n#1, wash face
1011 checked tm-site, mail & fb
1018 put on clothes, kissed mom, have breakfast
while reading slagwerkkrant
1038 threw wrapper slagwerkkrant in trash
1040 sent sms to mikes
1041 call from mikes
1051 ate sandwich, blow nose
1052 drinking coffee while watching bbc world
1108 read slagwerkkrant, drank orange juice,
called kwinten - unavailable
1123 checked blog, posted document 090625 on blog
1125 called kwinten - unavailable
1136 toilet n#2 while reading dag allemaal,
sent sms to maud
1141 pack rucksack
1146 checked mail
1150 cleaned glasses, leave for kerkstraat
1157 brushed teeth & put on sunglasses
1219 on the road to kerkstraat
1226 kissed peter, set up installation for
tomorrow's performance
1256 went to get projector from troubleyn
1257 install desk for tomorrow's performance
1313 called kwinten - unavailable
1314 check mail
1324 kissed peter goodbye & on the way to bxl
1345 take train to bxl
1358 showed ticket to train attendant
1449 kissed helene
1511 rented camera from pool, going to get speakers
from tm-building
1519 packed speakers, toilet n#1
$ minute maid tropical - 1,30€
1533 start recording rjdj of train ride
1537 take train to bxl, drink minute maid tropical
15.. threw can of minute maid tropical in trash,
nap in train
1615 arrived in antwerp, head for media markt
bvba $ monitor cable & pack of mini-dv cassettes - 73,99€
1707 back at kerkstraat, continuing setup for tomorrow's
performance
1911 packed after finishing setup
1920 diner (paid for by mikes)
1946 blow nose
2008 on the way home
2021 riding tram home
2030 arrived home, took off shoes, toilet n#1
2032 check mail
2038 unpacked material from rucksack, get extension cable
& set up mac
2042 take shower
2111 went to take material from rehearsal space
2113 taking material from upstairs
2116 going to rehearsal space to give cable back to
mathias
2122 check extension cable for headphones, listening to
'so did we' by isis
2129 make dvd 'shoot'
2130 called kwinten - unavailable
2138 sms from maud
2142 skype with maud
2224 continue making dvd 'shoot', drinking coke zero
2230 get monitor cable upstairs to test tomorrow's
performance setup
2241 adjust artist statement & nametag for tomorrow's
performance
0111 adjusting lay-out of desktop for tomorrow's
performance
0204 check mail
0223 toilet n#1
0251 shut down mac, ate half a sausage with mustard,
washed hands
0253 put off glasses, blow nose & go to bed


sent from his iphone

090625

2009-06-26T11:19:00.005+02:00

1012 sms from frank sdb
1052 get up
1053 check mail
1058 toilet n#1
1059 blow nose
1100 breakfast
1106 call from maud
1111 skype with maud
1120 blow nose
1127 call from frank sdb
1141 listen to yesterday's sdb recording, blow nose
1148 update & post document 090624 on blog
1159 lunch
1200 blow nose
1210 blow nose
1211 clean glasses
1213 make mail to catherine
1217 look up availability of bergson in library
1221 blow nose
1222 change clothes
1325 continuing to make mail to catherine
1419 toilet n#2 while reading promotions key music &
reading humo, washed face
1439 finish mail to catherine, check mail, send mail
for catherine to maud
1446 clip fingernails
1453 blow nose
1455 sorted desktop
1504 reading book 'ctrl-space'
1506 sent sms to jonas & hans siln
1510 updated tomorrow's calendar
1517 continued reading book 'ctrl-space'
1524 sent mail to an from momentum & checked mail
1601 sent fb message to jason, check info on dour
festival
1614 ate snack - yoghurt & cookies
1615 toilet n#1
1618 updating tm-site while drinking aquarius
1619 asked brother to play piano using headphones
1735 watch live video for 'ashes' by sdb on youtube,
find info on 3G network
1752 blew nose, eat slices of mango, prepare diner
1759 watch video on neda agha soltan & video for
lady gaga's poker face
1804 register on dailymotion & vimeo
1826 preparing diner
1834 check mail
1849 diner & blow nose
1857 blow nose
1928 continue update tm-site
1929 continue reading book 'ctrl-space'
2047 browsed for nin content on vimeo
2054 confirmed on fb to attend dour festival after
comparing with pukkelpop
2057 checked mail
2058 skype with maud
2105 find info about proximus offers
2130 call kwinten twice - unavailable
2204 chose on fb not to attend dour, checked mail
2205 unpack bags
2214 sent sms to kwinten
2311 continued updating tm-site while listening to
'your beat' by siln
2346 gathered info on ivok website
0002 looked up info on johan grimonprez & cel crabeels
0003 look for nin iphone app & download
0021 finish updating tm-site
0024 threw dirty laundry in bin & threw empty aquarius
bottle in trash, make tea
0032 drink tea while watching numerous commercials &
news on dutch tv
0138 go to bed


sent from his iphone

090624

2009-06-25T11:50:00.007+02:00

0919 play song by sigur ros
0922 get up & put on glasses
0941 turned on radio, made tea, kissed maud &
have breakfast
1003 blow nose & brush teeth
1013 put on clothes, emptied rucksack & leave for
anneessens
1028 kissed maud, on the road to anneessens
1042 blow nose
$ tram - 1,70€
1059 kissed maud, on the road to tm-building
1107 shook hands with bart
1112 hugged lawrence & kissed saskia
1115 blow nose, empty sven g library
1124 check mail
1131 helped maud, shook hands with christiane
1134 kissed maud
$ 1145 tram - 1,70€
1147 kiss maud, blow nose & on the road to maud's place
1204 arrived at maud's place, put off shoes & set up mac
1205 post document 090623 on blog & check mail & fb
1222 updated document 090624 while listening to
songs by 27
1224 toilet n#2
1232 pack rucksack
1309 made lunch & blow nose
1310 lunch
1323 blow nose
1332 blow nose
1339 blow nose
1347 sms to & from mikes
1359 riding tram to train station to catch train
to antwerp
1402 kissed maud
1416 take train to antwerp
1432 showed ticket
1508 call mikes
1543 kissed mikes, kissed peter, helped set up for
performance & call from activa
1610 continue setup for performance
$ sprite - 0,70€
1628 drink sprite
1713 threw can of sprite in trash
17.. toilet n#1
1751 packed rucksack, heading home
1801 sent sms to mikes
1803 call from mikes
1807 sent sms to mom
1832 arrived home, kissed mom, took off shoes,
checked mail
1833 diner
1950 started rehearsal sdb
2204 end rehearsal
2205 toilet n#1
2209 took off shoes, put scrim in window, set up mac
& check mail
2215 listen to & transfer recording of rehearsal
to mac while finishing beer
2227 check tm-site
2236 checked ryoichi's work
2242 upload recording to other sdb members
2253 shower
2308 continue upload recording to sdb members
2311 retrieve document proving that I am a student
2325 mail student document to activa
2333 mail mikes about idea for exhibition
2345 checked tv program, check manchester festival
program
2351 go watch tv
0018 sms from maud
0030 watched ending episode 'mad men' while finishing
beer & eating chips, watch beginning of documentary on
mao while drinking aquarius
0039 call from maud
0104 skype with maud & check mail
0114 blow nose, put off glasses & go to bed


sent from his iphone

090623

2009-06-24T12:11:00.002+02:00

1118 call from mikes
1126 sent sms to mom
1210 made love with maud, toilet n#1
1244 get up
1245 put on glasses
1249 blow nose
1250 eat piece of banana
1252 set up mac
1305 lunch while listening to songs for bjork &
'your beat'
1339 blow nose & check mail & fb
1359 updated document 090622 & fix time on mac &
iphone
1413 posted document 090622 on blog & check blog list
1421 toilet n#2
1422 blow nose
1451 took shower & kissed maud
1452 blow nose & clear table
1454 put on clothes
1501 leave for anneessens
$ sandwich - 2€
1510 eating sandwich, blew nose
1521 kissed maud & arrived at anneessens
1530 blow nose
1549 hugged lawrence, on the road to pool
1608 returned material, drink water, blow nose
1617 thrown cup in trash, on the road back to anneessens
1633 arrived back at anneessens, took off sweater &
blow nose
1641 sent sms to mom
1645 sms from & to evert
1648 packed material, kissed maud & returning to
maud's place
1707 arrived back at maud's place
1708 blow nose
1710 set up mac, do dishes
1719 going to shop
$ groceries - 13,28€
1750 sms from & to frank sdb
1752 blow nose
1805 sms from mom
1810 helped to do dishes, blow nose & check mail & fb
1815 check availability of dvds in library
1828 look up info on film 'home'
1842 helped maud do dishes
1908 helped maud clean up apartment & blow nose
1915 uploading marina abramovic exercises for dieuwert
1945 sent mail to dieuwert
2000 make diner with maud while listening to
songs by feist, blow nose
2053 had diner, blow nose
2111 sent mail to nico
2130 helped maud do dishes, toilet n#2
2132 look for iphone apps
2145 clean glasses
2201 call from mikes
2223 clipped toenails, blow nose
2224 watch 'home'
0020 make love with maud
0044 give maud massage & sleep


sent from his iphone

090622

2009-06-23T14:07:00.006+02:00

0825 get up & put on glasses
0826 open window
0827 toilet n#1 & shower
0839 brush teeth
0847 post document of 090621 on blog
0848 check mail
0851 search for location film set 'dossier k'
0857 put on clothes & pack
0906 removed scrim from window, kissed mom, drank
orange juice & on the road to train station
$ base card - 10€
0926 charge iphone credit
0928 take train to bxl
0936 sent sms to kristina
0943 blow nose & nap on train
0947 call from kristina
0952 showed ticket to train attendant
0955 checked for credit on tram card
1012 kissed kristina, set up to shoot
1022 sms from gunther
1128 helped kristina to film her installation
1141 kissed maud, blow nose, on the road to maud's place,
to pick up tripod
1232 made love to maud & take train to antwerp
1245 nap on train
1326 arrived in antwerp, on the road
to film set 'dossier k'
1342 arrived on film set 'dossier k' & blow nose
1410 shook hands with guy, blew nose, helped test cam &
took snack from catering
1445 drink water while talking with rits'ers (dieuwert,
kristof, pieter) & apply weekly documemts to icons
1508 call from mikes
1521 call from mikes
1547 toilet n#1
1601 play with camera
1603 sms from frank sdb
1627 eat snack - sandwich with choco
1635 scout location surveillance shoot
1739 shook hands with loft owner, set up camera for shot
& blow nose
1911 shot first scene & blow nose
1958 end of shoot
2005 signed quitclaim, blow nose
2009 shook hands with rits'ers, on the road back home
2019 sms mom
2026 sms from mom
2030 nap on tram
2042 arrived home, took off shoes & kissed mom & dad
2049 drink shweppes
2051 check mail
2054 diner & blow nose
2113 blow nose
2132 blow nose & check mail
2147 blow nose
2149 pack while listening to 'your beat' & songs by
isis & chat with gunther on fb
2158 sms from maud
2208 kissed mom, on the road to train station
$ meurisse bar - 0,80€
2217 take train to bxl
2219 eat meurisse bar, show ticket to train attendant
& sent sms to maud
2250 reading book 'ctrl-space'
2312 riding tram to maud's place
2319 kissed natasha & maud
2331 drinking beer
2337 eat cookie
$ 0021 ate cracker snack, pay bill - 3,70€
0026 arrived back at maud's, take off clothes
0028 toilet n#1
0030 brush teeth
0037 lay in bed, make love with maud & sleep


sent from his iphone

090621

2009-06-22T08:49:00.003+02:00

0702 get up & removed scrim out of window
because of rainfall
0707 returned to bed to snooze
1045 stay in bed
1120 get up
1121 put on mac & play 'your beat'
1122 put on glasses
1129 reviewed document 090620
1132 opened window
1133 toilet n#1
1136 put off glasses, take shower
1146 brush teeth
1150 put on glasses & shave
1157 put off glasses & insert lenses
1201 post document 09620 on blog, check mail &
spelling marc
1212 put on clothes
1216 close window
1219 checked tm-site for kristina's n#, take notebook,
nivea deo stick & hankie
1225 drank orange juice
1227 leave for big family gathering
1251 riding car while listening to songs of cpxp
1255 arrived
1308 kissed, drink & tapas (chorizo & zalm & little
shrimp soup & fish snack)
1404 blow nose
1413 lunch
1453 blow nose
1624 blow nose
1643 missed call from kristina
1648 sms to & from kristina
1722 toilet n#1
1739 review iphone camera roll
2041 leaving for home
2044 nap in car
2106 arrived home, take off shoes
2109 remove lenses & put on glasses
2110 open window & put in scrim
2111 check mail
2112 open skype
2113 browse for jonas balmer
2120 update contact list
2127 check tm-blog
2130 toilet n#2 while reading booklet of isis'
'panopticon'
2140 blow nose & respond to jeroen's mail
2155 skype with maud & check how many times I ate
in bxl this month
2226 update ical & browse for apps
2238 sent mail to maud
2244 listen to 'transit' by fennesz & browse for info
about the song
2248 check djuna's myspace page & my own
2251 added toon to myspace friend list & blow nose
2253 attempt to mix 'your beat' with sound fx
2305 visited dream theater's myspace site
2306 continue updating ical
2308 search for info on exhibition mikes on fb
2312 asked to become friends with melati on fb
2316 chat with evert on fb
2323 show interest on fb in attending
'an evening with auguste orts #6'
2324 blow nose
2327 send mail to mikes
2332 search for info on joelle
2348 chat with nath
0053 search for lyrics to tool's 'part of me'
0205 toilet n#1, eat ricola candy & check mail
0211 blow nose & continue skype with nathasha
0300 blow nose
0329 finish skype with natasha, shut down mac &
put off clothes
0333 remove scrim from window, put down glasses & sleep


sent from his iphone

090620

2009-06-21T12:12:00.005+02:00

0523 get up, put on glasses & toilet n#2
0535 put on clothes
0536 put dirty socks in laundry bin & wash face
0539 toilet n#2
0547 make tea
0550 open window curtains & drink tea
0606 post document 090619 on blog while listening
to songs by textures
0628 check fb
0631 adjust contact list
0640 apply for holiday job at makro
0656 check mail & update document 090619
0704 kiss from dad
0714 start sending 090619 mail
0838 checked voiceofeurope.blogspot.com & timetables
for train
0842 toilet n#1 & go listen to yesterday's recordings
in rehearsal space
0933 returned home to check recording on laptop
& kiss from mom
0939 kiss from dad
0940 dishes
0957 breakfast
1004 blow nose
1031 check mail
1033 toilet n#1 & call maud
1044 called aunt oda twice - unavailable
1051 watching beginning of 'cinderella man'
1104 ate éclair & prepare to leave for bxl
1110 applied nivea deo stick
1114 put off glasses & inserted lenses
1116 riding tram to station
1128 gave someone directions on train platform
1139 waiting on train platform
1144 train to bxl & read book 'ctrl-space'
1152 show ticket to train attendant
1231 gave someone directions on tram platform
1236 riding tram to anneessens
1244 kissed kristina
1249 picked up camera from anneessens & returning home
1301 sent sms to mom & blow nose
1302 reviewing iphone camera roll & sms from mom
1305 train to antwerp
1306 read book 'ctrl-space'
1311 assisted fellow train passengers
1316 show ticket to train attendant
1414 riding tram home
1421 wash hands & toilet#1
1424 check mail while watching 'relax' & 'cinema'
on atv
1428 reply to vlad's mail
1432 sort desktop
1447 lunch
1501 pack for rehearsal
1504 clear lunch table
1507 kiss hans & start recording
1511 blow nose
1848 call from mom
1855 diner while listening to news on tv
1902 blow nose
1917 check mail
1922 toilet#1 & set up laptop & camera to import
presentation
1938 find location sdworx
2007 back to recording to burn cd-r
2028 kissed jonas & hans goodbye
2029 check on import presentation
2036 check fb-page for on titled
2039 change clothes
2046 brushed teeth, applied nivea deo stick & now
on the road to on titled with tram
2056 stood up for other tram passenger
2113 blow nose
2117 got cash from terminal - 20€
2125 arrived at opening, kissed marc, took glass
of red wine to drink, kissed mikes
took a look around, read mikes' flyer, talked with mikes
about lecture proposal
2207 kissed djuna, got proposal from djuna to contribute
to compilation cd
2212 made up an excuse to escape from opening,
on the road back home
2224 blow nose
2256 took off shoes while watching end of the movie
'closer' on tv
2258 toilet n#1
2301 turn on skype & chat with maud
2302 check for mail & iphone update
2308 send tm studies paper to mikes
2318 review imported presentation
0155 listen to songs by isis & sms from & to maud
0203 removed lenses, cleaned & put on glasses, toilet n#1
0212 took off clothes, put skrim in window
0214 sleep


sent from his iphone

090619

2009-06-20T06:20:00.008+02:00

0840 get up
0843 toilet n#1 & shower
0900 set up mac
0902 put on glasses & check mail
0915 adjusted settings iphone & posted document 090617
on blog
0917 blow nose
0935 went to lay in bed next to maud & put glasses off
& on again
0937 checked fb & kiss maud goodbye
0952 riding tram to anneessens exhibition
1000 opened exhibition
1002 helped kristina turn on installations in exhibition
1104 sms from & to maud
1105 ate cookie & drank orange juice
1143 kissed by maud
1148 return projector to pool
1150 call pool
1210 blow nose
1223 sms back and forth to jonas siln
$ 5 credits tram - 7,30€
1228 riding tram back to anneessens & blow nose
1236 call from pool
1243 kisses from maud
1246 go get chinese food
1252 clean glasses
1301 lunch
1305 blow nose
1312 blow nose
$ chinese food & ice tea - 7,70€
1325 kissed & hugged maud
1334 riding tram back to maud's place
to pick up drum gear & blow nose
1344 toilet n#2 & took off shoes & check mail
1400 on the road back to anneessens
to pick up rucksack before leaving for antwerp
1422 kissed maud goodbye & riding tram
to catch train home
1437 train home
1439 sms swimmers
1445 drink water & read agenda newspaper
1513 kissed gael (as a means of saying hello)
1518 sms from unknown n#
1527 dropped gear in rehearsal space & drink coke zero
1528 blow nose
1530 change pants
1535 call from jonas
1537 kissed hans & jonas
1543 took off glasses & inserted lenses
1544 start recording siln
1552 call from guy
1652 snack
1704 sms guy
1815 call from dad
1951 toilet n#1
1957 called saskia 2 times - unavailable
1958 check mail & fb
2000 update document 090618
2006 tried to call saskia twice & diner
2016 blow nose
2059 tried to call saskia, blow nose & continue recording
siln
0007 done recording siln
0008 check mail
0011 remove lenses, cleaned & put on glasses & toilet n#1
0015 ate grapes & drank last bit of schweppes agrum
0016 sms from maud
0022 sms to maud
0023 continue updating document 090618
0048 checking mails & browsing
0109 review tm-pages
0141 sms from unknown n#2
0145 sent sms back to unknown n#2
0151 turn off mac
0153 throw empty schweppes bottle in trash & pick up
small elastic band from kitchen floor & put in drawer
0155 drink glass of coke zero
0159 brushed teeth & blow nose
0200 toilet n#1
0203 set alarm
0204 take off clothes & sleep


sent from his iphone

090618

2009-06-19T09:11:00.004+02:00

0906 put on glasses & get up
0908 washed face & toilet n#1
0910 kiss mom
0911 breakfast
0923 flip through magazine sint-lukasgalerie
0926 sms from frank sdb
0927 sms back to frank sdb
0929 check mail
0935 post document 090617 on blog
0946 reply on windows live help forum
0955 change clothes and pack rucksack
1005 put dirty laundry in bin & return bowl for bbq nuts
to kitchen sink
$ 1008 got money from mom - 25€
1009 run to catch tram to station
1023 take train to bxl nord
1030 reading book ctrl-space
1033 show ticket to train attendant
1057 blow nose
1102 walking to tm-building
1113 call maud - occupied
1116 sms maud
1118 walking to anneessens
$ tram - 1,70€
1142 call maud
1148 set up for performance
1159 helped barbara to turn on light in stock room
1205 continuing setup
1227 receive sms from frank sdb
1245 kissed maud
1250 toilet n#1
1254 on the road back to tm-building to pick up
monitor stand together with maud
1305 hugged maud
1308 kissed maud
1316 cleaned glasses
1321 checking mail & fb
1322 return to anneessens with monitor stand
$ 1342 tram - 1,70€
1342 blow nose & kiss from maud
1349 kiss maud
1417 have a sip of water while reconfiguring setup of
performance, not to interfere with lawrence's work
1422 blow nose
1455 going to get lunch
$ 1502 panini & sprite - 4,70€
1504 lunch
1512 blow nose & drink sprite
1521 install lamp on desk as a test & put it away again
1538 help kristina make new nametag
1608 throw sprite can in trash & toilet n#2
1621 put away glasses, insert lenses & shave
1637 brush teeth
1638 refill water bottle
1640 help unload car with food & drinks for reception
1700 kissed maud
1709 help install light at reception
1712 help filp make joris' nametag
1723 change desktop background from red to blue
as proposed by lawrence
1726 blow nose
1731 retrieve toiletbag & bottle of water behind counter
1732 help saskia & lawrence to re-install window
1744 apply nivea deo stick
1745 help filip, saskia & lawrence print out
emergency exit sign
1751 sync time iphone & mac
1755 go wash hands
1758 clean screen iphone & toilet n#1
1800 help joris get ice for reception
1805 start typing on laptop
1827 kiss from maud
1838 drink red wine from reception
1839 move back to laptop
1841 adjust artist statement
1842 drink red wine & go to see peter's film,
sipping red wine
1843 turn off sound iphone
1846 move back to laptop
1847 returned to desk to type on laptop
1848 review timeline
1849 going to see saskia's film
1850 watch saskia's film while reading booklet
1854 kiss from maud
1858 call from mich
1859 take camera from stock room
1901 take mini-dv cassettes from bag
1902 review timeline
1903 mingle with crowd, drinking red wine
1909 watched joris' films while talking to frederik
1912 eat apple while reviewing timeline
1918 kisses from maud
1919 go throw rest of apple in trash, wash hands &
be barman
1933 make sign that says '1€' for bar
1935 return to bar
1952 ask kristina to replace me at the bar
1953 kiss from lawrence & lick from saskia
1954 take a sip of water & review timeline
1957 go find mom & dad
2000 prepare camera to record performance maud
2004 take a sip of water & review timelime
2005 change font artist statement & sip water
2006 put away tripod
2007 go find camera position to record performance maud
2012 finish red wine
2013 kiss from alice
2018 toilet n#1
2023 get ready to record performance maud
2117 finished filming maud's performance &
sip from water
2118 toilet n#1
2124 kiss mom & dad goodbye & bring water &
clothes to maud
2135 finish red wine
2137 got cherry from maud's mother & eat cherry
2140 finish red wine & continue filming exhibition
2141 shook hands with erwin
2146 took tripod for camera
2157 kissed angelique & hugged gunther
2158 help maud look for wristwatch
2213 finish performance
2216 shook hands with farid
2222 wrap up material performance
2229 sent sms to jonas siln
2230 return glass to bar
2232 continue wrapping up
2233 hugged maud
2312 helped maud clean up after performance
2314 drank wine
2316 kisses from lawrence & saskia
2338 riding tram to maud's place
2354 wash hands & drink fanta
0004 removed lenses & sms back and forth to swimmers
0007 toilet n.1 & brushed teeth
0010 go to sleep


sent from his iphone

090617

2009-06-18T09:33:00.009+02:00

1003 get up
1004 toilet n#1
1006 shower
1026 put on some clothes & set up computer
1028 blow nose
1029 kiss maud
1051 preparing to send 090616 mail
1103 start sending e-mails
1116 blow nose
1130 blow nose
1141 sms from gunther & pass cellphone to maud
1147 kiss maud
1154 return sms to gunther
1248 sms from jonas siln
1249 lunch
1258 blow nose
1335 made love to maud, drink tea & continue sending
1344 kiss maud
1350 sms back to jonas siln
1351 kiss from maud
1352 brushed teeth
1355 check mail, toilet n#1
1357 pack
1403 call pool
1413 inserted lenses & continue packing
1424 clear lunch table & finish packing
1431 apply nivea deo stick
1438 on the road to tm-building to return projector
1505 toilet n#1
1515 packed projector & toilet n#2 while checking mails
1526 return to pool & extend rental of projector
1528 sent sms to mom
1543 read sms from mom
1550 negotiated exchange beamer with gertjan
1552 return to tm-building
1610 packing material to go to anneessens station expo
$ metro - 1,7€
1631 got advice from jan about contacting dirk wouters &
blow nose
1649 setting up projection in anneessens station expo
1713 ... while sipping from cara beer offered by lawrence
1751 riding tram to station bxl nord
1801 call maud
1804 take train home
1808 blow nose & read book ctrl-space
1838 refused to sign petition against lange wapper bridge
(already did once)
1848 kissed mom & dad & toilet n#1
1851 diner
1902 sms maud
1926 blew nose
1929 review finances
1940 read humo
1948 helped to clear diner table
1950 removed lenses, put on glasses
1957 check mail
1958 continue to send sven g mails
2102 skype with maud - ...
2112 check server problem & contact windows live help
2204 toilet#2 while reading humo
2214 eat duyvis bbq nuts & update blog
2337 swatted fly
2344 receive mailorder update conspiracy records
0019 visit peter verwimp's blog
0023 helping maud with preparation for tomorrow's
performance
0112 browsed for info about josh harris'
we-live-in-public.com
0148 drank last bit of coke zero from the fridge,
threw bottle in trash
0150 toilet n#1
0152 brush teeth
0156 switch to pyama, shut down mac,
put down glasses & sleep


sent from his iphone

Hotmail Account Blocked

2009-06-17T23:04:00.006+02:00

A post I have just made on the Windows Live Help forum:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Re: My account is blocked due to sending too many bulk emails

Hello there,

My name is Sven and I am from Belgium. One hour ago I started experiencing the server problem.

The notification on my iPhone 3G says: 'The connection to the outgoing server "smtp.live.com" failed.'

Here's what must have caused it: I am a student following a postgraduate Transmedia degree in arts, media and design in Brussels (www.transmedia.be). This morning I began sending an e-mail to everyone in my contact list (roughly 600 people), as part of my research project. This is NOT meant to be spam. The mail I send will be accompanied by a second mail afterwards (which I can hopefully send later tonight) with a disclaimer explaining how people can be removed from the mailing list, if they please. To be taken off the list, they just have to send me a message back to my address {removed email address}.

Can I please continue sending e-mails? I had no idea that this would happen, I apologize.

Thank you for your assistance.

Greetings,

090616

2009-06-17T22:49:00.006+02:00

0828 got wake-up call from maud
0829 get up
0830 put on glasses
0831 toilet n#1
0833 wash face
0838 took dvd-player for maud
0841 toilet n#2
0848 put on clothes
0852 mini-shave, insert lenses, brush teeth, clean ears
0859 open bedroom window
0900 pack rucksack
0914 close bedroom window
0918 drink orange juice, take hankie, take water bottle &
take an apple
0925 riding tram to station
$ 0933 got cash from terminal - 20€
0941 train to bxl nord
0949 applied nivea deo stick
1008 got sms from maud
1017 call maud
1021 walk to pool
1034 take out material from pool & blow nose
1039 walk to tm-building
1055 blow nose
1114 kiss maud
1115 set up presentation in classroom
1236 burning dvd for maud & test dvd-player
1251 kiss maud
1253 kiss maud
1254 browse for roman opalka, read e-mails from workshop
participants
1301 thrown mini-dv wrapper & cd-spindle package in trash
1314 moving belongings out of classroom
1318 toilet n#2
1323 scout location courtyard
1324 kiss maud
1337 preparing to shoot performance maud
1338 blow nose
1341 walking to pool to get monitor from maud
1410 call from peter verwimp
1418 call maud & natasha
1431 helped maud with installation & start up camera
1519 blow nose
$ 1521 bounty bar - 0,6€
1522 eat bounty bar
1524 throw bounty wrapper in trash
1526 kiss maud & help to clear her installation in the
hallway
1531 kiss maud
1532 pack bag
1540 pause with maud
1550 continue to pack
1606 blow nose
1613 kiss maud & return books to school library
$ 1623 load proton - 5€
1632 got book 'ctrl space' from school library &
return to tm-building
1642 grab water bottle & join tm class
1644 drinking from bottle
1647 blow nose & leave to read book ctrl space
1708 join tm class again & drink water
1715 going to have a beer at l'ane fou with classmates
1722 drink palm
1752 sent sms to mom
$ 1758 palm beer - 2€
1801 return to tm-building for results
1807 kiss maud
1850 kiss maud
1852 toilet n#1
1857 call mom
1907 kiss maud
1908 back at l'ane fou
1915 sms from dad
1919 drink beer
1934 diner
1940 blow nose
1943 kiss maud
2000 call from activa
2003 sms from activa
2004 blow nose
2005 kiss from maud
$ quiche & beer - 8,10€
2032 kiss from maud
2103 arrived at maud's place, took off clothes,
check mail
2224 made love to maud
2225 browse internet
2245 kiss maud & rent movie
$ 2304 movie & chips & fanta - 4,95€
2308 eat chips
2319 watch movie 'the happening'
0057 make love to maud & sleep


sent from his iphone

Artist Statement

2009-06-17T10:53:00.012+02:00

Sven G is a documentary performance artist.

Yesterday, on June 16th 2009, Sven G embarked on a yearlong documentary performance. He started to record everything he does during the day onto a timeline. The daily document that is kept is sent to all of the people in his contact list. It is a reality show, coming to you, each day, on the morning after, for one year, for free.

Sven G has included you on his mailing list. If you no longer wish to receive e-mails from Sven G, please send him a message.

svengoyvaerts@hotmail.com

Documenting Momentum

2009-06-10T21:46:00.016+02:00

Last week I have been attending the Momentum Platform for Performance-Art, a festival for visual art performance that took
place in Brussels. The organization had asked me to film all of the performances on the program. This became a great opportunity for me to gain some experience in documenting performances.

Here are stills from some of the videos that I have shot over the course of the week:

Roi Vaara

Jason Lim

Boedi S. Otong

Danny Devos

Melati Suryodarmo

Lee Wen

Momentum Performane-Art Workshop

2009-06-03T21:12:00.005+02:00

Here are some first pictures of the workshop Maud and I are participating in at the Momentum Platform for Performance-Art. Artists in charge are Roi Vaara and Jamie McMurry.

Roi Vaara

Jamie McMurry

Elevator Performance

2009-05-18T16:00:00.008+02:00

Today, on Monday May 18th 2009
I stood motionless for five hours
inside the elevator at school
from 08u55 until 13u55
attempting to make eye contact with the passengers.

The Model (pt. 5) - Clock

2009-04-25T22:19:00.013+02:00

Maud had sent me an e-mail she got from a friend of hers who is working on a project about Time and Memory. Catherine Oldenhove (that's her name) is asking people to provide her with some personal insight on this subject. The testimonies she gathers will serve as the basis for a theatre play revolving around the image of a kind of clock which has empty picture frames on the side instead of numbers. These frames are meant to be filled in by the participants.

If you look at the calendar from my previous post, it is obvious to see how the Sven G character has quite a lot to do with the concept of time and the record of memory. In my response to Catherine's inquiry I have therefore included excerpts from my earlier blog posts about The Model. There used to be only 10 sub-characters for Sven G, but in light of Catherine's project I decided to add 2: the sleeping one and the eating one. I added some other random thoughts as well, relating to her project specifically:

"Two of the things I would call my ‘work’ are dividing my time and the present performance of the character I happen to be in."

"I am a director, a cameraman, a blogger, a drummer, and a clown.
Time and Memory are of course key concepts in what I do. Film is a memory bank in itself in a way and so is drumming. And what about LIFE in general? This question happens to be the point where I have arrived at today, now that I am researching the tradition of what is referred to as ‘art as life’, a term introduced by Allan Kaprow in the early 70s, later picked up by Tehching Hsieh and also applicable to the work of artists like On Kawara and Marina Abramovic. Instead of talking about these people I will tell you about my own personal investigation into living life by means of performance and how time plays a part in all this."

"I have put the icons on your clock in a random fashion, but I tried to oppose the characters which are most in conflict,

G (doing what you feel like) vs. zzz (sleep)
smilie (laughter) vs. dollar sign (business)
TM (school) vs. triangle (work)
...

Although this is all very personal to me in particular, I believe that anyone can find something in these icons. Because I do not mean to claim these symbols as my ‘work’, I have simply taken them from the internet, where they are available to anyone. The sources are:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Fra_Luca_Pacioli_Letter
_S_1509.png

http://majorlyenglish.files.wordpress.com/2008/03/money_bag_with_dollar_sig
n.jpg

http://www.joystiq.com/media/2006/05/men-at-work_sign.jpg

http://store.drumbum.com/media/colorful-music-notes-cutout.jpg

http://www.logoblog.org/wp-images/logos/trademark.gif

http://cmerry.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/heart.thumbnail.gif

http://www.columbuspolarity.com/images/sm_zs.gif

http://www.iconarchive.com/icons/icons-land/points-of-interest/Restaurant-
Blue-2-256x256.png

http://willowtreehome.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/LET-G-M.jpg

http://collections.lopolis.com/wp-
content/uploads/2006/07/superman_logo.gif

http://www.schwimmerlegal.com/smiley.jpg

http://willowtreehome.com/Merchant2/graphics/00000001/Village/LET-I.jpg"

Catherine's play is meant to be finished around summer. To be continued...

S

The Model (pt. 4) - Calendar

2009-04-04T15:36:00.016+02:00

In keeping with my promise to come up with a calendar for the Sven G characters (introduced in Part 3 of The Model) I now present the first version of a weekly planning which can be put into effect.

The icons on the right side of the schematics represent the characters who are able to interrupt the given time schedule at any moment.

I hope all of this will be clear once things start to become more concrete!

Monday a.k.a. performance day

Tuesday a.k.a. work day 1

Wednesday a.k.a. work day 2

Thursday a.k.a. work day 3

Friday a.k.a. music day

Saturday a.k.a. free day

Sunday a.k.a. rest day

I Performed

2009-04-04T15:09:00.015+02:00

On Mondays March 23rd and 30th 2009
I stood motionless for five hours
in a hallway in school
from 08h55 until 13h55
attempting to make eye contact with passers-by.

(drawing by Maud Lefever)

DocuPerf - NIN

2009-04-01T17:26:00.006+02:00

Something which can be added to my research into the limits of (and between) documentary and performance, abbreviated to DocuPerf, for future reference:

After having talked to my classmate Maud Lefever about how dance, performance and film could work together, I sent her this e-mail.
Translated in English.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Yow Mo,

Talking about the participating cameraman and choreography:

The man in charge of the visuals for Nine Inch Nails got onto the stage during their most recent concerts and is now putting the images he shoots (together with the sound from the mixing board!) for free on the internet.

NIN: Wish live with Ben & Greg from The Dillinger Escape Plan - Adelaide, 2.28.09 [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

So see, THIS is how men dance!! ;)
On a video shot from the side of the audience you can see the cameraman walking across the stage:

NIN Wish w/ Dillinger Escape Plan Adelaide Soundwave 2.28.09 from Sarah on Vimeo.

Also fun - backstage footage from when power fell out in Sydney.

NIN Sydney 2.24.09 - Mid-show Power Outage [HD] from Nine Inch Nails on Vimeo.

Now that's what I call documentary, damn it!

The truth, free of charge, instantly shared, up close and bloody intense.

And in the case of the power outage: a catastrophe turned into something brilliant, also typically documentary in a way.

S

Identity

2009-04-01T17:11:00.005+02:00

Time to catch up with some things that have spurred my attention recently!

To begin with, another blog conversation between my classmate Filip Daniels and myself:

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You’re currently reading “Identity,” an entry on TPDR

Published:: March 2, 2009 / 10:17 pm

The next part I got from a stand up comedy show, but it struck me as I like to think about this subject (’identity’) too and this quote has come closer to my own thoughts than any other one I found. If anyway recognizes this quote, even though translated from Dutch, please let me know which dutch comedian has this in his show because I missed that info.

Identity is empty…it is just about what other people think of you or what you would like others would think of/see you … Why not just act normal, the way you are? Because that is really scary…but it doesn’t hurt trying this when nobody is looking, just for the fun of it:)

Anyway if you live your live the way you would like to be or the way others think you should be…you will always be less than the person you actually ever could be.

Especially this last sentence was/is very interesting I think

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

sveng
3.12.09 / 2am

Ah yes, our own identity: a most precious and mysterious thing.

“Identity is empty”, that would be my favorite sentence.

In his book ‘Tarrying With The Negative’ (1993) Zizek expands on this topic of the subject as a void:

p.40: … everything that I positively am, every enunciated content I can point at and say “that’s me” is not “I”; I am only the void that remains, the empty distance towards every content.

This idea of the human subject as a void is definitely a Lacanian concept. The Real truth about ourselves is something which is forever out of reach, which cannot be captured or understood by the appearances produced by the so-called Symbolic order; the way we look, talk, act etc. Or THINK, for that matter. We cannot even ‘think’ of ourselves as a subject with a specific identity, because we are only ‘I’ insofar as we are unable to think of ourselves as an ‘I’!

This is, in some ways, the death blow to Descartes’ motto “I think, therefor I am”. Because: to automatically associate the ‘I’ with the ‘Thing that thinks’ is already an assumption.

Zizek states on p.15: The paradox of self-consciousness is that it is possible only against the background of its own impossiblity. (…) I cannot acquire consciousness of myself in my capacity of the ‘Thing which thinks’.

So the next logical step would be: if we cannot find out who we really are (because the extent in which we canNOT think of ourselves is precisely the thing which defines us as human beings) then we might as well invent a fictional version of ourselves (which we have been doing all along, actually).

Earlier in the book, p.11: Today, even the mass media is aware of the extent to which our perception of reality, including the reality of our innermost self-experience, depends upon symbolic fictions. (…) Suffice is to quote from a recent issue of TIME magazine: “Stories are precious, indispensable. Everyone must have his history, her narrative. You do not know who you are until you possess the imaginative version of yourself. You almost do not exist without it.”

Conclusion: best of luck in ‘acting normal, the way you are’ - either in private or in the company of people. But personally, I don’t believe there is anything natural about ‘acting normal’. Most of the time it is either a rational choice on our parts, or we are driven by subconscious drives, or (if we also were to consider thàt) merely a randomly generated reaction.

Huomo Universalis

2009-03-18T12:59:00.003+01:00

Quoted on the myspace-page of Open Source Ecology:

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

- (sci-fi novelist) Robert A. Heinlein

S

The Century of the Self

2009-03-01T14:21:00.008+01:00

A bit in contrast to my previous post: here's the introduction to a 4-hour BBC documentary by Adam Curtis (available on Google video) about how psychoanalysis (and its inventor Sigmund Freud) helped shape our Western consumerist society in the 20th century. Horror!

S

The P2P Community

2009-02-23T12:03:00.010+01:00

- - - - - - - - - - - -

An e-mail to Michel Bauwens:

Hi,

My name is Sven Goyvaerts and I am a student at the Transmedia postgraduate art & research program at the Sint-Lukas Hogeschool in Brussels.

I just had to let you know how I recently stumbled upon your amazing blog. After seeing Frank Theys' documentary 'Technocalyps' in class your name popped up on the internet as a collaborator on the project. Mindblowing film, I have to say, speaking for several
of my classmates as well.

Your blog is an unbelievable inspiration for what I am researching at the moment: performance art in the public space, speaking in the broadest sense of both those terms. Artists ranging from Allan Kaprow to Marina Abramovic up to Stelarc and the Yes Men,
just to name a few.

I like to call myself a 'documentary performance artist' in my own practise, attempting to combine what I believe to be two of the
most profound and daring forms of expression: documentary (film especially, but also photography, prose and lots of other media) and live performance.

Thank you very much for providing this abundance of information on your blog. My page is called svengblog.blogspot.com . I am just about to make a post about your reference to Vinay Gupta, another revelation.

Kind regards,
Sven

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Response by Michel Bauwens:

Dear Sven,

Thanks for writing!!

Reactions like this are of course very nice to here.

I will invite you to our Ning-based p2p community, and if you feel like contributing anything, including about your own work, you are very welcome ...

I have no section on 'p2p art' on our wiki, feel free to send me anything on that topic (I can give you access to)

Also, the country page on Belgium is rather empty, and perhaps you know of open/free, participatory, and commons oriented initiatives in belgium or the flanders?

I will of course check your blog, and thanks for eventually spreading the world about the p2p foundation in my home country, as I think it is almost not know over there ..

Michel

Theory and Action

2009-02-22T00:18:00.008+01:00

A quite self-explanatory excerpt from Richard Linklater's wonderful film 'Waking Life' which I find myself coming back to every so often:

Browse my YouTube favorite list for more bits of this fabulous movie.

S

The Model (pt. 3) - Way of Life

2009-02-21T20:12:00.024+01:00

And so, at last, I present you the preliminary structure for my Model - the fictional Sven G character - which I intend to impose on myself in daily life. This is the third post on the subject of the Model. Parts 1 & 2 were posted in January.

The main objective of my Sven G character is a fairly straight-forward one: to become the person I want to be,
without any restraint or compromise.

This does not imply however that matters such as restraint and compromise will now suddenly be banned from the picture, because these values may very well be considered valuable in several situations, undoubtedly. So what is perhaps more difficult to imagine is that the role of Sven G will offer me a chance to come to terms with ALL of my feelings and thoughts, even if they contradict themselves, which they most certainly will. More than anything, this role of Sven G will be an exercise in brutal honesty. But - if you really get the idea of what I am trying to say - then this honesty can also manifest itself in the form of a lie.

How can I even begin to explain all the things I personally want to happen in my life? A daunting task, no question about it. This is why I have created 3 groups that cover a grand total of 10 sub-characters, some closely related. Often these characters overlap. Sometimes they could also belong to one of the other groups, depending on the context. But for the sake of argument I have put them where they are now, for the time being. All but one of the characters reside under the name of Sven G.

0. crossed S - everyday self - I will start with the one exception to the rule: my everyday self, by the name of Sven Goyvaerts. I would call this my 'default' self, symbolized by the crossed-S icon which is shown above. This side of myself can also be referred to as my EGO. My looks or appearance, in this particular state: wearing my trusty glasses.

The crossed-S-icon caught my attention on the internet, not just because it looks a bit like the well-known drawing of the Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci, but it also resembles the barred-S-sign representing the Lacanian subject; the subject which is irrevocably split between the conscious and the unconscious.

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The Sven G character is essentially the amplification of my everyday self. Since I happen to work fairly multi-disciplinary, I find it easiest to divide myself in different characters; one more business-minded, one more concentrated on making music, one concerned with helping out a fellow man, etc. Each of them belongs to one out of 3 categories, which are inspired by Freudian theory: SUPER-EGO, ID (or ALTER-EGO) and LOSS OF EGO. In my case SUPER-EGO stands for the pressure exerted by our Western society to become a wealthy and successful individual - to present a product, make money with it and to be a participating consumer. ID is the melting pot of my subconscious drives and desires; feelings which are being repressed, under normal everyday circumstances, but which can potentially be adopted by the ALTER-EGO. Finally, LOSS OF EGO is (what I would describe as) my own will to nothingness; an urge to become one with the whole universe.

Instead of using such Freudian concepts, I could also turn to the 3 stages of reality according to Lacan: the SYMBOLIC, the IMAGINARY and the REAL. Symbolic: the world which is generated in front of our eyes, constructed by artificial means, such as language, tradition, morality and ideology. Imaginary: the reservoir of our wishes, fears and our imaginations. The Real: the true dimension of reality, which will forever transcend or escape our awareness; a void, a gap, a cut into the fabric of the world as we ‘symbolically’ perceive it.

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Symbolic level - Work, Money & Performance. Appearance: new glasses.

MARKETING & EARNING MONEY – SUPER-EGO

1. $ - business self

2. triangle - working self

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Imaginary level - Art, Music & Performance. Appearance: lenses.

CREATIVITY & TECHNOLOGY - ID or ALTER-EGO

3. G - imaginative self

4. music - musical self

5. TM - transmedian self

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Real level - Existential, Social & Performance. Appearance: unrecognizable.

EYE CONTACT & GROUP DYNAMICS – LOSS OF EGO

6. I - collective self

7. love - loving self

8. Superman - heroic self

9. laughter - laughing self

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In the forseeable future I hope to provide a brief description of each of these characters, although the fields in which they operate will already begin to become clear once I start presenting some work. This actual work being produced by the characters will eventually matter the most in the big scheme of things. But I sincerely believe that, in the end, the state of mind in which they were made possible, outlined in this all-encompassing way of life shown above, is of even greater importance.

All of the Sven G characters are being documented and all of them are (at the fundamental level) live performances, I would argue. I have carefully ordered these different characters in a time schedule - a calendar - which repeats itself every week. My purpose is to stay true to this planning, although I consciously put in some counter-measures, allowing me to switch between almost any character during the day, whenever I see fit. The schedule should serve as a solid foundation. Nonetheless, changes will certainly be made to it over time.

I will unveil this calendar, or weekly planning, in one my next posts.

S

Bucky-Gandhi

2009-02-21T17:33:00.007+01:00

Found on the P2P Foundation blog and added to my blog list:

Where Buckminster Fuller and Gandhi come together:
Vinay Gupta's 'Bucky-Gandhi Design Instution'.

Half Indian, half Scottish, and residing in Iceland, Vinay is an engineer at heart. Whether its software, physical structures, or
social structures, the man is a tinkerer at an advanced stage of development. He has developed the self-sufficient Hexayurt, presented mass evacuation strategies to the Red Cross, and worked on policy papers such as Winning the Oil Endgame. Gandhi and Buckminster Fuller are two of Vinay’s heroes. But the real magic is in combining Gandhi’s political thought with Fuller’s engineering, what Gupta calls a “curry and chips phenomenon.”
(courtesy of www.treehugger.com)

For an inspiring call to action by Gupta himself: read here.

S

Transhumanism

2009-02-15T21:06:00.022+01:00

Are we prepared for dealing with the prospect that humanity is not the end of evolution? Technocalyps is an intriguing three-part documentary on the notion of transhumanism by Belgian visual artist and filmmaker Frank Theys. The latest findings in genetics, robotics, artificial intelligence, bionics and nanotechnology appear in the media every day, but with no analysis of their common aim: that of exceeding human limitations. The director conducts his enquiry into the scientific, ethical and metaphysical dimensions of technological development. The film includes interviews by top experts and thinkers on the subject worldwide, including Marvin Minsky, Terence McKenna, Hans Moravec, Bruce Sterling, Robert Anton Wilson, Richard Seed, Margareth Wertheim, Kirkpatrick Sale, Ralph C. Merkle, Mark Pesce, Ray Kurzweil, Rabbi Youssouf Kazen, Rael and many others.

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In an earlier draft of my last year's final paper I had written a considerably more metaphysical, even spiritual ending. This text was rejected by my supervisor Herman Asselberghs, and rightfully so. It didn't succeed in wrapping up what my paper was about, but instead transformed into a kind of apocalyptic science-fiction scenario. Afterwards I secretly kept hoping for the time that this alternative ending for my paper would be allowed to surface again, sort of like a director's cut.

When we saw Frank Theys' documentary 'Technocalyps' in class
last week during a seminar led by Robrecht Vanderbeeken, I immediately remembered this alternate ending I had written. In fact, the resemblance to the content of the movie was quite uncanny, to say the least. You will recognize the same first two paragraphs I used in the final version of the paper, which I posted in my previous blog entry. The sci-fi ending went like this:

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Why would we be convinced that what we experience during a performance is ‘real’? That’s easy: sometimes a living being is in danger of harming itself or dying. Now what would happen if we were to consider our consciousness of our fragile body as ‘fictional’?

Performance would be foolish to concentrate itself on the body in order to banish the art object. The body IS precisely the object that remains, and will have to be overcome in the end. Simply speaking: we will have to realize that nothing of what our body perceives through its senses is ‘real’. This is what the Dalai Lama describes as the ‘ultimate’ truth. The worldly, opposite ‘conventional’ truth is fueled by a completely reverse process: our need to give form to our thoughts by means of sensory awareness, which will end up being nothing more than an illusion. That is why ‘performance’ (the act which normally accompanies the idea) will have to sacrifice itself. What will remain, is only the ‘idea’.

The end of the world will mean the end of both truths and will be a work of art, a last performance consisting of two parts: conventional, followed by ultimate. First, a performer will create a so-called fictional situation in which everything which he/she and the public imagine at that moment will be manifested in the senses. Illusion becoming reality. The results of all this will be catastrophic. Like Zizek remarks in ‘The Pervert’s Guide’: “We have a perfect name for fantasy realised. It’s called: nightmare.” Hell. Judgment Day. Darkness. Fear. A negative energy. Immediately afterwards a reverse movement will take place in the second part. The fiction, which was just turned into reality, will again be made into fiction. Because on that moment, when all matter will be destroyed, a performer (maybe even the same one) and his audience will present themselves as ghosts, conscious that nothing their body saw or felt had ever been ‘real’. Together, these ghosts will form one single universal consciousness, freed from their bodies. A positive energy. Light. Love.

Given the fact that all material reality will have ceased to exist, this consciousness will be the only thing left, a reality in a fictional state as it were, which will no longer be able to return from its performance to the ‘conventional’ world of old, unless this consciousness ressurects this world. Then the world would start over again, but purely as a dream.

Not so much repeating what had happened before – a circular motion – but moving inward and then outward like a spiral, of which the beginning and the end converge in infinity, which will forever be incalculable and which is (and will be) present nonetheless in every smallest, holy moment of our lives.

And that to think I am not a religious person at all.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

A comparison can easily be drawn to this portion of the film:

'Technocalyps' describes a remarkably similar storyline to the one of the apocalyptic alternate ending. Apparantly, due to progress being made in the area of technology, we will have to decide, as a species, whether or not we become super-human cyborgs, thereby releasing so much power that humankind as we know it could be at risk of extinction.

I have posted a blog link to the webpage of Michel Bauwens, who collaborated a great deal in the making of 'Technocalyps'. Bauwens and his P2P Foundation are conducting research into peer to peer systems; shared means of communication on a global scale, which is booming these days, if we look at web-applications such as Blogger for example, but also Facebook, myspace, YouTube, iPhone-apps, ... you name it. These examples are not full-grown peer to peer systems however, because they are still monitored, censored and because they do not allow for maximum customizing, which, if I understand correctly, is the ultimate goal behind this p2p-philosophy.

Bauwens made a post on his blog to accompany the release of 'Technocalyps' in 2006. Here he proposed 7 axioms that can help us in dealing with technology today and in the future:

1. The technological quest is a spiritual quest

2. The spiritual unconscious can cause damage if it is not brought to awareness

3. Technological transcendence is not real transcendence

4. Technological development can/does stimulate spiritual awareness

5. Spiritual development is necessary to technological development

6. Technological and spiritual transhumanism should not be opposed, but integrated

7. Spiritual transhumanism is equally necessary for our individual and social growth and further evolution

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The central task of our current epoch is to spiritualise technology (by becoming conscious of the unconscious drives that push it forward, and using it in positive ways) on the one hand, and to ‘technologise’ spirituality on the other hand. By drawing out the valid psycho-
technologies within the core of religious traditions, purifying it from the layers of belief and literal myth. Or in other words, in a more broader sense: we need to spiritualise rationality, and to rationalise spirituality. Only when this is achieved, can one really talk about the cyber-sacred in any real sense. (Michel Bauwens)

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So, rather than pretending to be a mere 'transmedian', I should perhaps consider evolving into a transhuman documentary performance artist!

Having said all that, I hope I can find time to post my actual Manifest (pt.3 of the Model) very soon. In the meantime: take care!

S

Documentary Performance

2009-02-15T18:14:00.018+01:00

Before I will finally unveil part 3 of my Model (or Manifest, if you will) there are still two subjects which need to be addressed first. One is the always troublesome relationship between documentary and performance, the other, which will be featured in my next post, is the topic of so-called 'transhumanism'.

My final documentary project last year was an investigation into the relation of documentary and performance, focussing on the live performances of the Serbian artist Marina Abramovic:

Exercise 22 - Sitting on a chair, facing the empty wall. 7 hours
(photo by Isabelle Tollenaere) Sint-Lukasgalerie Brussels, March 2008

At this page you can download the dossier of my final project as it was presented at the end of the year. The conclusion to my paper 'More And More Of Less And Less', which was written in conjunction to the project, has had a great influence on the conception of my Model, which will soon be presented. The paper, in Dutch, can also be downloaded here. The closing chapter ('REALITY IN FICTION - a matter of life and death') elaborates on the importance of fiction in the way we perceive the world, according to philosophers such as Slavoj Zizek. I already introduced this notion in part 2 of my Model. The end of the paper goes like this:

- - - - - - - - - - - -

Why would we be convinced that what we experience during a performance is ‘real’? That’s easy: sometimes a living being is in danger of harming itself or dying. Now what would happen if we were to consider our consciousness of our fragile body as ‘fictional’?

Performance would be foolish to concentrate itself on the body in order to banish the art object. The body IS precisely the object that remains, and will have to be overcome in the end. Simply speaking: we will have to realize that nothing of what our body perceives through its senses is ‘real’. This is what the Dalai Lama describes as the ‘ultimate’ truth. The worldly, opposite ‘conventional’ truth is fueled by a completely reverse process: our need to give form to our thoughts by means of sensory awareness, which will end up being nothing more than an illusion. That is why ‘performance’ (the act which normally accompanies the idea) will have to sacrifice itself. What will remain, is only the ‘idea’.

How can this be applied to the audiovisual practice of a filmmaker? If a director suddenly were to be converted to buddhism, then it would be safe to say that he wouldn't ever touch film again in his life. But if the man still values his senses, then he will make an effort to get to know as much as possible about buddhism, he will want to experience it, and afterwards he will take with him those things he considers to be meaningful. It will inspire him in the medium which he still cares for. The man can also choose to exploit the subject, letting it all pass by, imposing his pre-conceived vision on it, which can be very interesting, as long as the man listens to reason. This paper wasn’t about buddhism – or at least not entirely – but about the live performances of Marina Abramovic and their representation. The research made into this subject can be filed under the middle category; a comprehensive investigation was done – through watching, reading, listening, etc. – in order to be able to take a position towards the work. Through researching I learned a lot, of course, but my brief encounter with Marina Abramovic herself and doing her performance exercises have probably taught me the most. Still, these events were also part of that same documentary research, which is important to emphasize.

Performance and documentary are sometimes driven by the same force: an insatiable need to experience the real and to immediately capture it, both of which is problematic. Documentary making would be a frustrating endeavor if one would not realize that reality can only be found in fiction. As a documentary maker one should be willing to step outside of himself, just like Jack did (S: here I refer to the main character of Fight Club, who I introduced earlier on in the paper). This does not always have to be a deliberate strategy, because sometimes we are simply overcome by it - a subject that attracts our attention - just like Jack ‘met’ Tyler; he did not consciously ‘create’ him. In a sense we can consider Jack an example for us all.

Is his endless commitment to his cause (Jack by day and Tyler by night) not a virtue which characterizes only the greatest artists, like Marina Abramovic for instance? Making a documentary should be a performance where the director/performer realizes that nothing he experiences in the process is real, while precisely therein lies the truth. To present this documentary investigation afterwards in the form of a film is somehow a result without meaning, as a work in itself, but it is valuable for historic purpose – to remind people how it was to be there and to give other people (who weren't there) the impression of how it could have been being there.

At PERFORMA07 a debate was held on the function of documentation in understanding performance. The panel consisted of Marina Abramovic and RoseLee Goldberg, among others. This conference was called You Didn’t Have To Be There – a swing at the self-righteous performance fanatics that still worship live presence and do not want to know anything about documents ‘after the fact’. Opinions were formed on how photographic and video-images contribute to or detract from the memory of performance and questions remained whether documentation served its purpose to understand performances better, whether sometimes this documentation could be even considered as art itself or whether these recordings were dangerous enough to jeopardize the integrity of the work. RoseLee Goldberg united these seemingly contradictory views in her final speech of the night: “I think, what has become clear here tonight also is the entire range. (...) I think it’s all of the above. (...) To me, not one aspect of this storytelling is on its own. I find the filmic image, the still image, the conversation with the artist, ... That’s what I as a historian take huge responsibility in and feel that that’s my job, is to gather as much of that as possible. So that I can, hopefully, put that information out there in the world, for others who haven’t had the chance to speak to the artist directly. To hear from them precisely what it was like to make that piece.”

A documentary filmmaker can in turn set himself apart from a historian by researching his subject by ‘appropriating’ it (in the case of performance: by re-enacting the performances) and to present his findings to a public within the context of a cinematic experience.

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The reason why I wanted to bring this up is because I feel I need to decide which category I will place myself in, as an artist, within the field of art in general. 'Transmedian' would suffice, perhaps, given the nature of my current studies, but if I wanted to speak in more standard terms, I prefer to see myself as a 'documentary performance artist', and all that entails.

After graduating as a filmmaker, I now intend to go 'beyond', not being limited anymore by the confines of what I referred to as the cinematic experience. There is a world out there, and (maybe) we don't need good old-fashioned cinema to tell us that.

S

Gaming & Reality

2009-02-14T13:58:00.013+01:00

Who are we playing games?

Just wanted to add this question to make sure I keep it somewhere in mind:

When playing a computer game, do we choose our character because we want to be like that or are we like our character but afraid to see or admit we are like this in reality?

- tpdr.wordpress.com

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A blog response to my classmate Filip Daniels:

Probably it’s a lot like in the movies. In the words of Zizek: “It doesn’t give you what you desire, it tells you how to desire.”

It ‘tells’ us? One can protest and say: in games we can make decisions as a player. But then we should of course ask ourselves whether these choices are actually ‘free’, or just random possibilities within the given parameters set by the game.

Well, instead of just being random, I believe we can actually learn about ourselves in the actual process of playing a game. The amount in which the game affects us is, I think, a choice on our parts. We either allow ourselves to be this character or we don’t. In fiction,
of course :) .

But what’s the difference between real life and the fictional gaming environment? I would say: the choice of responsibility in everyday life and the effect in terms of real-life consequences. This knife cuts on both sides: either we retreat to the fictional state to assume (or avoid?) responsibility - during the instant of gaming - in order to prevent doing any harm in the real world (which we tragically still do by not doing anything at all) or we engage in real life and suffer the possible consequences.

It’s interesting to consider your question as a profoundly moral one, in the sense of: “How do we dare to play games?”

Consciousness (?)

2009-02-12T22:12:00.019+01:00

Hey Vlad,

I again enjoyed talking with you in the café. I hope you felt the same, even despite the slight hostility!

In the attachment I send you my personal frame of reference on the topic of 'consciousness' (for the blog readers: download this file CONSCIOUSNESS.pdf here), a sort of table of contents for a paper which has yet to be written, which we were asked to put together for Christiane's course. I can assure you: there's no explicit killing in it.

To structure our discussion about consciousness, I proposed 16 topics, quite arbitrarily, in the form of questions. These are:

ARTISTIC -
"Which artists are concerned with consciousness?"

SCIENTIFIC -
"Does consciousness reside in the brain?"

(COUNTER-)INTUITIVE -
"Can consciousness be an evolutionary mistake?"

IN DOUBT -
"Can consciousness question itself?"

ASLEEP -
"Are we dreaming our consciousness?"

AWAKE -
"Is our waking consciousness an illusion?"

VERBAL -
"What is the language of consciousness?"

EMOTIONAL -
"Are our desires artificial?"

IN MEMORIES -
"Can consciousness remember?"

FORGOTTEN -
"Have we forgotten consciousness?"

HUMOROUS -
"Is consciousness laughing?"

FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION -
"Is consciousness alien?"

SILENT -
"Is consciousness merely light?"

MATHEMATICAL -
"Is consciousness a series of numbers?"

EVOLUTIONARY -
"Can consciousness evolve?"

AFTER DEATH -
"Will consciousness carry on?"

Some important names: Abramovic, Tool, Zizek, the Dalai Lama, Michael Haneke, Bill Hicks, Alan Watts and a LOT of prog metal music. The ones that are marked in red I talked about in the workshop. The rest will most likely be discussed in my presentation. I made a double cd for everyone, containing all of the songs mentioned in the document. I will make you some copies too. In the middle room on the Transmedia floor I have installed a library of these influences; albums, films, books, etc.

Filip, Maja and Gunther made lists too. These are all worth checking out. Mine happens to be the largest but that really doesn't mean anything :) .

If we would ever want to try to speak 'on the same page', like you have put it (if I remember correctly), then this would be a nice place to start, for my part of the page at least.

I hope to discover more of your influences too, on your blog or in any other way, even if I don't necessarily approve of them, which, again, says more about ME than about these artists.

We should not be afraid to argue. There's, I think, a bit too little of that going on in Transmedia. Strange, because it's a very natural thing.

Like I said: enjoy the weekend!
S

The Shock Doctrine

2009-02-10T23:47:00.014+01:00

- - - - - - - - - - - -

An e-mail to my classmate Vladislav Curcin:

Hey Vlad,

We spoke today during lunch about your interest in 'disorientation'.
I am reading your blog on Jacobs again right now.

Disorientation can be an extremely powerful and inspiring tool
(I can name several films which have had an amazing effect on me,
largely due to the fact that they were almost traumatic to watch)
but I think it's important to be very careful about these things,
which I am sure you are!

The reason I say this is actually because of political convictions.
Let me explain:

I wanted to draw your attention to
a fragment of a book I'm reading at the moment,
called 'The Shock Doctrine' by Naomi Klein,
first published in 2007.
I don't know if you're familiar with her books.
She also wrote 'No Logo' and she is
a successful (quite good-looking) Canadian anti-capitalist writer.

In the book she builds a critique against modern capitalism,
which - according to her research - has been increasingly cashing in on catastrophies around the world (for example: hurricane Katrina, 9/11, the tsunami, the Iraq war) and she argues that this kind of 'disaster capitalism' is exactly the form of capitalism which global financial reformers (like founding father of modern capitalism
Milton Friedman) have been hoping for.

Situations of total catastrophy open up the possibility for an implementation of, what is commonly referred to as,
'SHOCK and AWE'-tactics; stunning and paralyzing the people in order to take over and bring about rapid changes on several fronts.
Klein believes that this is what is happening right now for instance
on the level of global economics: capitalism is being imposed all over the world in a state of shock.

Klein observes that this same 'shock and awe'-procedure can also be found in the military. The most obvious example is, of course: torture.

And so this is where I arrive at my point!

The fragment I read in the train back to Antwerp contained information about the experiments that were performed by the CIA in 1950's on psychiatric patients. These experiments were tests to find out whether it was possible to completely clear/delete a person's mind by means of total disorientation, or, as chief psychiatrist Dr. Ewen Cameron (the man in charge of many of these operations) called it: 'depatterning'.

'The Shock Doctrine', page 31:

According to his published papers from the time, he believed that the only way to teach his patients healthy new behaviors was to get inside their minds and "break up old pathological patterns". The first step was "depatterning", which had a stunning goal: to return the mind to a state when it was, as Aristotle claimed, "a writing tablet on which as yet nothing actually stands written," a tabula rasa. Cameron believed he could reach that state by attacking the brain with everything known to interfere with its normal functioning - all at once. It was "shock and awe" warfare on the mind.

To me this is all terribly fascinating, especially the extremity of it.
That's why I would really like to continue discussing this subject of disorientation with you and keep thinking about it, (even on the less dangerous level of audiovisual arts which we are lucky to participate in) being very aware that this disorientation may very well be the path towards enlightenment but - and this is crucial - that it can also be the work of the DEVIL himself.

Thanks for reading!
S

P.S.: I hope all of this is not somehow intimidating, because that certainly isn't my intention! And if you think I am comparing 2 things which have nothing to do with eachother (art & politics, or the military), you should tell me!

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For a lengthy in-depth interview with Naomi Klein:

Eye Contact

2009-02-08T21:41:00.027+01:00

Last weeks have been very busy:
first I was asked to document a 3-day performance
at Project Perform in De Brakke Grond, Amsterdam,
and then right afterwards I participated in a week-long workshop/seminar called The Document As Performance,
The Performance As A Document, organised by Rits and Campo
among others, held in Brussels.

I hope to make a summary of these events in the not so distant future
but in the meantime I would love to show an experiment I performed
during this workshop in which our group (led by artist Sarah Vanagt)
was mostly concerned with the concept of capturing an interior monologue; finding ways, situations and exercises to allow the subject of your documentary to 'open up' in front of the camera.
Many different solutions were presented by the participants at
the end of the week. I for one chose to keep mine interior,
although not entirely:

Interior Monologue(/Dialogue) - Eye Contact.

Two people: Francois Brice & Sven Goyvaerts.
Camera: Hendrik De Smedt.

OBSERVATION: In our everyday life we rarely look into each other's eyes for a long period of time. Why don't we? Is it because it makes us uncomfortable? If so, how come? Could this eye contact not be the basis for some form of true communication? Or is it rather deceptive instead? Maybe it's a bit of both.

EXPERIMENT: I ask someone I run into to look me in the eyes until one of us stops. A third person who happens to be around is asked to operate the camera, capturing the event. As soon as the eye contact is broken, we give our impressions of what just happened.

INVITATION: YOU can also perform this experiment! Find two other people around you - people you know or don't know, someone you like or someone you don't ... ANYONE really - and then decide on who will have eye contact and who will handle the camera. You can also fix the camera, onto a tripod for instance, and then you would only need one other person, and a camera device. I suggest you already start recording during the preparation phase of the scene and to keep the camera rolling during the conversation afterwards. You can also make a transcript of what's been said. And don't forget: UPLOAD it!

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VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT of conversation at the beginning:

Hendrik: 'Of euh ... of hier?' (Dutch for: Or uhm ... or here?)

Sven: Yah? Okay, uhm, so ... we start? We start ... now.

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VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT of conversation at the end:

Sven: Yah ... Okay, thank you.

Francois: It's difficult, difficult ... both eyes ...

Sven: Yeah! You have to choose ...

Francois: Switch, like, and you want to look to the other, and ... (laughs)

Sven: Yeah.

Hendrik: Yeah.

Francois: Hmm.

Sven: Maybe it's also the distance, eh, if you ... if you go further, than ...

Francois: Yeah.

Sven: No, you always have to choose, I think.

Francois: Hmm.

Hendrik: Hmm.

Sven: 'Dank u.' (Dutch for: Thank you.)

Hendrik: 'Nog eens of euh ...' (Once again or uhm ...)

Sven: 'Nee.' (No.)

Hendrik: 'Maar er is veel euh ... randlawaai, eh.' (But there is a lot of uhm ... surrounding noise, eh.)

Sven: 'Ah, maar dat is niet erg. Dat is niet erg. Allez, ik weet zelfs niet of ik dat ga gebruiken.' (Ah, but that's no problem. That's no problem. Well, I don't even know if I am going to use that.)

Francois: Also, was nice to hear some conversation, because ...

Hendrik: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Francois: You could, you could uhm ... imagine that ...

Hendrik: Yeah. That it's from them.

Francois: ... that it's from us, thinking.

Sven: You also have, like, eyes of a kind of bird.

Francois: Uhu.

Sven: But, like, a real ...

Hendrik: (laughs)

Sven: ... a HUNTING bird. I was ...

Hendrik: A hawk!

Sven: A hawk, or something.

Francois: (laughs)

Sven: Or an eagle. (laughs)

Hendrik: Okay.

Sven: Yah. Yah, thank you.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

About the ENDING: I think I broke off the eye contact because I didn't want to keep Francois for too long. I had a feeling that he was on his way out before we began the exercise. As soon as he crossed his arms I figured it was a nice moment to stop.

After we stopped recording Francois told me that my glasses acted like a kind of screen. This caused a kind of imbalance, I think, which was not intentional on my part. On the video it is hard to see my eyes. So here is some extra advice: if you wear glasses, take them off.

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This experiment took place during the first installment of the week-long seminar The Document As Performance - The Performance As A Document, February 2nd-6th, 2009. An initiative of the drama & documentary departments of the Rits and of De Samenscholing, the research platform of Campo. In collaboration with Kask (3D) and the VUB. Under the general direction of Prof. G. Opsomer. 'Interior Monologue' workshop led by Sarah Vanagt.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/gro...

S

CIRCA - Rebel Clown Army

2009-01-17T21:09:00.006+01:00

This weekend I am participating in a training course to become a Rebel Clown.

A statement from the original 'clown-activists', which can be found on their homepage,

www.clownarmy.org:

"Clowns always speak of the same thing, they speak of hunger; hunger for food, hunger for sex, but also hunger for dignity, hunger for identity, hunger for power. In fact, they introduce questions about who commands, who protests." — Dario Fo (Italian playwright/fool)

CIRCA is reclaiming the art of Rebel Clowning, it's combatants don't pretend to be clowns, they are clowns, real trained clowns. Clowns that have run away from the anaemic safety of the circus and escaped the banality of kids parties, Fools that have thrown away their sceptres and broken the chains that shackled them to the throne.

CIRCA aims to make clowning dangerous again, to bring it back to the street, restore its disobedience and give it back the social function it once had: its ability to disrupt, critique and heal society. Since the beginning of time tricksters (the mythological origin of all clowns) have embraced life's paradoxes, creating coherence through confusion - adding disorder to the world in order to expose its lies and speak the truth.

The rebel clowns that make up CIRCA embody life's contradictions, they are both fearsome and innocent, wise and stupid, entertainers and dissenters, healers and laughing stocks, scapegoats and subversives.

Rebel Clowns are trained by CIRCA recruiting officers, using a variety of different exercises, training includes finding your inner clown, civil disobedience tactics, learning to be spontaneous and playful, practicing clown gaggle manoevers and last but not least marching and drilling.

------

I was véry intrigued by this project because I consider it a form of performance art in the public space, an art practise which I am feverishly working on at the moment.

I could not have hoped for a better teaser to Part 3 of my Model, which I hope to unfold in the coming days.

More on the Rebel Clown Army in the near future, without question.

S

The Model (pt. 2)

2009-01-04T02:05:00.037+01:00

In Part 1 I made reference to a specific artist who turns her own everyday identity into a fictional character, called 'NG'. Part 2 now provides the philosophical building blocks for my own model - the basic structure for my Sven G character - which I will present in part 3. Warning: because of the number of YouTube-clips attached here, reading this blog entry can take you up to half an hour. I apologize in advance for the madness that might ensue from reading this totally bewildering post! Off we go:

In my daily life I have been struggling lately to organize my time in order to do everything I am supposed to do and/or want to do. Notice here how I make a distinction between what I would call my duties on the one hand and my desires on the other. These two categories can sometimes be radically opposed to eachother (in the case when you're doing a job you don't want to do or when you're neglecting work by doing something you prefer doing instead), yet they are surely not always mutually exclusive (a job well done can offer a satisfying reward and your work can benefit from doing something you like).

My duties, which I have mistakingly referred to as ethics in one of my earlier posts, range from personal to more general. They can also vary in importance. Some of them include: working for an advertising agency (doing pre-production, filming, editing, having meetings), making assignments for school, doing work around the house, cooking, doing the dishes, rehearsing with the bands I play in, keeping in touch with my friends, family, etc. They also include more abstract ones such as: obeying the law, helping out a fellow citizen and taking care of my health.

Some of my desires are none of your business really, but there's of course (in no particular order) sex, drumming, doing camerawork, earning lots of money, watching movies, listening to music, eating tasty food, sipping hot drinks, travelling, etc.

I have recently come to believe that all of my duties and desires are artificial. The life I am leading is, in a sense, already fictional. Let me try to clarify that. For as long as I can remember I have been getting the impression that I am merely a consciousness piloting a mind and a body (for a brief moment in space and time, which is my life) that is subject to several laws, be it the physical/chemical laws of my body or those imposed by society on myself as an acting individual. Up until now I have been taught to desire all sorts of things that are in fact illusions; objects which are, upon closer inspection, perfectly meaningless onto themselves. Now, I do not imply that there are no objects or desires, because there certainly are, but I would say that none of them really matter. Except for
love, maybe, but that one's terribly complicated.

Before I carry on, here are two noteworthy individuals who have influenced my personal philosophy:

Bill Hicks - "Life Is Just A Ride"

Alan Watts - "Meaningless Life"

Not only comedy, philosophy and religion have made me re-evaluate my life as I knew it. Developments in the field of biogenetics have also raised some fundamental questions about the value of our personal identity and freedom.

Slavoj Zizek - "Free Will"

As I mentioned above, I consider myself first and foremost being a consciousness (though I wouldn't go so far as to call it an 'immortal soul') inhabiting a human mind and body, driven by duties and desires that are deceptive. I personally think it is time for this sleepy consciousness of mine to stand up for itself and take responsibility. The first step in being responsible would be by saying (paradoxically):

I am NOT Sven Goyvaerts.
I am not my job. I am not how much money I have in the bank. I am not the shoes I wear. I am not the contents of my wallet.
(to paraphrase a quote from Chuck Palahniuk's 'Fight Club'.)

The buddhist thing for me to do would be to escape from Western society and get rid of all my material possessions, to re-connect with my consciousness. This honestly doesn't seem like such a bad idea to me, from time to time (my final project last year was very buddhist-inspired, more on that soon). But somehow I can't get myself to completely reject everything I used to stand for, and still stand for (check the words marked green on this entire blog). The reason why is that I still believe that I can make a positive contribution to this Western civilization. One thing is for certain though: I will need to work harder. And in order to be able to do this, I will have to turn my everyday life into a fiction. This is where Sven G comes into play. Zizek brings up this concept of fiction when he talks about 'The Matrix' in the opening 1 1/2 minute of the following clip:

The way I read Zizek here is that we can't simply get rid of the fake duties and desires we have been brought up with. Then we would lose reality itself. The idea is, on the contrary, that we have to learn to recognize them and dare to become friends with them. At the same time Zizek argues that whenever something gets too violent or even too filled in with enjoyment, we have to fictionalize it. If we would assume that to be true, then what happens if we turn that statement around? Once I fictionalize my life, will I then be able to live it to the fullest, without compromise? Well, there is a catch. This realisation would theoretically allow me to make anything possible in my life, to make all of my dreams possible, to act on each of my desires, even in their most excessive form, because after all, nothing in my life is really happening. I have nothing to fear. If I'd ask myself: can I live completely true to myself in this fictional state of seemingly endless possibilities I create for myself, 'Sven G', which most people still perceive to be the real me? The short answer is, of course: no. Because sooner or later I might end up killing people, just because I wanted to. Or, even worse: because it simply wouldn't matter to me. Because it wouldn't be real. This is, I think, a dilemma.

And so I rephrase the question I asked in one of my earlier posts on this blog: can I become a fictional character, in what is commonly perceived as the real world, and create a space to release my desires on the one hand and be concerned with my duties towards the rest of humanity on the other? Or should I best retreat to a buddhist monastery?

My name is Sven G and I am a fictional character. In the coming months I will begin to take over the life of Sven Goyvaerts.

Part 3 of The Model will introduce the specifics of the Sven G character.

S

The Model (pt. 1)

2009-01-03T10:55:00.011+01:00

In the second week of our Transmedia Program we welcomed our guest teacher David Karam. He asked us to come up with a model or representation of utopia. This assignment reminded me of the work of NG (no birthdate no country lives everywhere), a female artist who has been focussing on performing her own utopian way of life. I have added her blog to the reading list on my profile.
In her latest post, she asks:

What's your vision of utopia? Or are you constructing your vision as you explore models of utopias or "test prototypes." I have the feeling to live my dreams, dreams i can project in the NG character ...

I met the artist on October 19th in Extra City in Antwerp when she gave a performance there. She showed a slide show of her project 'Break Hotel', while reading aloud the diary entries she had written down over the course of the project. You can find these over at http://breakhotel.blogspot.com/. I mentioned to her that I had been planning to create a 'Sven G' character myself and how I could relate to what she was doing; turning almost her entire life into a fiction:

and NG tells
 my life is a road movie
my character a fiction

Some of her drawings :

In the next post I will describe the model of the Sven G character which I have been putting together.

The Problematic Element

2009-01-01T20:02:00.021+01:00

On December 8th I had a meeting with Malcolm Le Grice, one of our guest teachers in the Transmedia Program. We talked about the so-called 'problematic' element in filmmaking; how any unresolved debate about the making of film in general can become part of the subject of a film itself. You don't necessarily have to take sides as a creator in such a case, you can just draw attention to the complexities of filmmaking, to get people thinking (on a meta-
level, you might say). Imagine making a film about the concept of liveness in today's visual culture, for example. Do we only perceive what happens in our immediate vicinity as something which happens in our presence, or can a virtual stream of live images from faraway also imply presence, on a much larger scale? Can images which have been recorded in advance also capture this sense of presence, which can then be transferred onto a viewing audience on a later date?
This discussion surrounding live presence, especially in regards to capturing pieces of live performance art, for instance, has become
a huge source of interest to me.

In my graduation year at film school we were asked by our teacher to film ourselves delivering a 'pitch' for our final project; a brief description of the problematic element which we were planning to work out in our final film. Back then I was still more concerned with role-playing in society, even on a more personal level.

(The opening fragment of the following clip shows part of a documentary I made in my doubled first year at film school. I put it in to illustrate the point I wanted to make in my pitch and also to bridge the gap between my first and last year at film school. In between those years I had been making Fiction, not Documentary. For my final Master I then switched to Documentary. My intention was to take some time to investigate the real world of performance art, because I wanted to be able to make a realistic Fiction film about a performance artist, or 'body artist'. Pfew!)

Instead of investigating a whole line of artists, I chose to focus on the artist Marina Abramovic for my final project. More on that later.

S

Superman

2008-12-30T22:54:00.014+01:00

As I watched Bryan Singer's 'Superman Returns' last night,
I was reminded of an excerpt of dialogue from Tarantino's 'Kill Bill 2'
in which Bill praises the beauty of the Superman mythology:

The concept of identity and alter-ego has been occupying my mind for some time now. I have adopted an alias, 'Sven G', for the purpose of this blog, which I also intend to use as my pseudonym from now on. To be continued.

S

up2U (pt. 2)

2008-12-30T15:27:00.062+01:00

Although I would certainly love to discuss the numerous flaws of the film (and there are a LOT of them) I would prefer to talk about the things that have suprised me in a positive way after seeing it. I get the feeling that there are some fundamental themes in this first film which have been part of my work ever since. Consider this post as an introduction to some of my 'motifs', if you will.

The title of the film refers to 3 things.

* the icon popping up on the tv screen at the end of the film; 'up2U'
* the main character has to deal with making choices; it's up to him
* the viewer has to figure out what the movie is about; it's up to you

This last point is already a crucial one. Leaving the meaning of a film open to the public has always felt natural to me. Not in the sense of offering an open ending to the film, but bringing about a more overall feeling of: what the fuck is going on?

I have never felt very comfortable explaining my films, because this achieved element of confusion is very important for me. Maybe it is because in everyday life we are expected to interpret and understand the world around us, that I like to present something which you don't necessarily have to 'get'; something which doesn't need to be defined in order for it to exist. An obvious influence of mine on this matter of confusion is a Timothy Leary quote, used as a sample in the live version of Tool's 'Third Eye', from their 'Salival' release:

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening,
terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality. To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.

Important to bear in mind: here there is talk about a confused state of mind, not that a work should be confusing in itself. More on that in the following paragraph.

Another one of my favorite concepts, which is present here in 'up2U', is the meta-level of the film. In this case: the direct reference to the viewer watching the film. The title brings this up, as I mentioned earlier, and by implementing several split-screen sequences in the film I also intended to offer the viewer several choices on where to look. In this way the character's split-decisions are translated on to the screen, but in fact this is merely a lucky coincidence. My main goal here was (and still is) to create a spectacle which people haven't seen before. The story of any particular movie of mine usually has to catch up to thàt specific intention. More than anything, my films had to be radically 'different' from those of my fellow classmates.
The content of a film is completely secondary, I believe, to the uniqueness of the experience an audience can potentially go through when seeing it. But of course, a basic filmic environment always has to be established for an experience to take place in it, in dialectical terms; Viewer (A) looks at Film (B) resulting into Experience (A+B=C). (The substance of my films has become more and more minimal over the years, unsuprisingly.)

One last thing worth bringing up in the context of this film is that it originated from several 'visions' I had, as I would call them, derived from my fantasy. A film usually starts with certain images I have in my head, which I then try to translate into reality. This process is a very difficult one most of the time, because it often comes in the form of either a disappointment (not being able to realize what I
had in mind), some sort of trauma (by being utterly overwhelmed
by emotion while working on it and by even blacking out sometimes) or violence onto others (not literally speaking, but by brutally commanding the film crew for example or - on a much larger
scale - by disregarding the suffering going on in the world today). The psychoanalytic views of Slavoj Zizek have intrigued me immensly in this respect. One quote of his which I never seem to get rid of:

We have a name, a perfect name, for fantasy realized. It's called 'nightmare'.

Like the main character in 'up2U', who's troubled over some silly bar fight he had with a friend, I wonder: can I find a space, between fantasy and reality, to act on my desires on the one hand and be concerned with ethics on the other? (I have been reading bits on Kant and De Sade lately.)

So, that's it for 'up2U', for now!

Enough with the theory,
you can expect some more visual input in the upcoming posts!

S

up2U (pt. 1)

2008-12-26T19:04:00.012+01:00

On November 4th, our first day of Transmedia this year, I wrote down in my notebook:

"up to you"

In the morning we had an introduction to the house rules of the Transmedia Program. An important aspect of the Program turns out to be its reliance on the students' initiatives. If a student wants to learn about specific software, a workshop can be arranged. If a student wants to organize a lecture on the school grounds and invite a guest speaker, he or she will be encouraged to do so. This Program, more than any other, can be what you make of it. It is all up to you.

My final short movie in my first year at the Sint-Lukas film school, in 2003, was called 'up2U'.

This uncanny resemblance of words got me to believe that I have come full circle in a way to arrive at the same place I was 6 years ago: still at the same school, back where I started. That is why I choose to kick off this humble retrospective of mine by showing my very first actual film. I will then point out what strikes me most about it at this moment in time, now that I've graduated film school.

For the record: this movie didn't pass the jury and made me double my first year.

Enjoy! ;)

S

Moleskine Notebook

2008-12-26T16:54:00.006+01:00

At the beginning of the school year, I bought myself a small Moleskine notebook that might come in handy during Transmedia courses :

Because of the Transmedia Program's emphasis on research, it led me to compare the predicament of us, students, to that of reporters, like for instance those portayed in one of my favorite TV-series 'The West Wing'. The White House reporters cannot ever be caught without their trusty notebook, so it seems.

The notes that I have written down in the notebook will now serve as my guide to recap the first 2 months of the Transmedia Program.

S

Mission Statement

2008-12-26T16:11:00.002+01:00

We are rounding up this year and it has been a truly eventful one for me. This blog will not only keep track of my experiences in the Transmedia Program from now on, but will also look back at some of the things that have happened in 2008.

Additionaly I would like to use this blog to dig even deeper into my past, in an attempt to evaluate what I have been making so far and to pinpoint the very core of my work.

Hope you will enjoy the show!

S