Performance At Mucsarnok

I had the great chance to perform exhibit at the museum of modern art of Budapest, Hungary.  I performed with the groups asztaltarsasag and "fanzine show" both of these groups were part of a larger show "No one belongs here more than you."

I have some pictures of the performance, where I performed together with 5 other artists.  I was talking about my Nümod project and giving demonstrations of the nümod rituals. The works I displayed in the fanzine show are from my visual diary, which you can find a link to on the top of this blog.  The fanzine show link is the best... click on it.

Artist Statement

First, I seek to see the world through a pseudo-spiritual shamanistic view point, where every material and interaction has a greater meaning regarding the overall collective state of human and nature.  Then, I try to look and find the shadow cast.  The shadows which we often try to deny within ourselves, and the extension of ourselves into our environment through the triumphs of civilization.  When I say shadows, I mean the byproducts of modernization including, mental illness, pollution, and war.  We have a tendency to push these shadows away; with the motto “out of sight out of mind”.  Within my art, I attempt to restore the  growing imbalance through fully embracing our shadows.  To accept the conditions in which we live  and use our flaws to advantage.  Thus, it is with the most physical manifestation of our shadow side that I use as sculpting material--Trash.  This abundant material I craft into costumes, instruments, structures, vehicles and masks. Materials of darkness are crafted into objects of light.  Providing me with a useful means to incorporate “shadow” into an identity that embraces the full spectrum of human civilization.  Communicating the less physically tangible shadows of mental illness and war.

We are living in Critical times and therefore need to be Critical.

Crit-i-cal

  

1.               inclined to find fault or to judge with severity, often too readily. 

2.               occupied with or skilled in criticism. 

3.               involving skillful judgment as to truth, merit, etc.; judicial: a critical analysis. 

4.               of or pertaining to critics or criticism: critical essays. 

5.               providing textual variants, proposed emendations, etc.: a critical edition of Chaucer. 

6.               pertaining to or of the nature of a crisis: a critical shortage of food. 

7.               of decisive importance with respect to the outcome; crucial: a critical moment. 

8.               of essential importance; indispensable: a critical ingredient. 

9.               Medicine/Medical. Having unstable and abnormal vital signs and other unfavorable indicators.

10.               Physics. 

a.               pertaining to a state, value, or quantity at which one or more properties of a substance or system undergo a change. 

b.               (of fissionable material) having enough mass to sustain a chain reaction. 

Yoruba Ritual

I began my freshman year in college at SUNY Purchase. There they have a permanent exhibition of african art.  It was from this exhibition that my brain really began to turn.  It was here that  I considered the pratical applications of performance art. The origins of peformance art. The spiritual meaning of costume and mask, and the meaning behind embodying the traits and characteristics of a spirit/demon.  I began to consider the application of these rituals to my life, time and world.  I realized that these performances allowed for a release of the bad energies or the demons of a group of people.  It brought to the front the reality of the human experience.  Energies that can only be felt, where personified in the costumed transformation of the actor.  The actor took on these qualities that could not be said with words.  And gave them movement and life.  For a child this actor really was, the spirit.  Like a child of western civilization really believes that he sits on santa's lap.  For the adult it is understood that this spirit actor is not the spirit, but embodies the same vibe of the spirit.  How can we understand the spirits of our time.  What are the spirits of our time and how do we represent them.  In what objects did the spirit demons of our society manifest.   It was in the things that we wish to separate ourselves from. To distance and to push away.  Junk. This way junk can become the material to be used in the costumes that explain the essence of the demons of modern society.

Please follow this link and find the video of the Yurba tribe ritual: Link. 

S.S.P. Trash Raft

Maybe like this, but bigger. That way we can fit a party on the raft.  Perhaps a musical performance!  Only down side is we won't be able to make tips! (unless there are other rafters and boaters floating around.)

http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-build-a-Boat-made-of-Trash--Recyclables/

"So I found these three 4X8X2 Extruded Polystyrene sheets in a dumpster."

http://www.instructables.com/id/Raft-Action!/

Not as cool, less sustainable....but nice cheap canoe design. 

http://zinelibrary.info/files/ccanoeUS.pdf

Junk Ship

In protest of the massive amounts of trash being dumped into the Pacific Ocean, Dr. Marcus Eriksen and his team of like minded supporters have put together a boat to sail 2000 miles from the California coast to Honolulu, Hawaii to help raise an awareness for this problem. Piloting their vessel made from motor-less craft from 15,000 recycled bottles, fishing nets, and a Cessna cockpit, they are sailing 2,000 miles to raise awareness for the problem. With a little less than 1000 miles to go, they expect to arrive finish the trip in a couple weeks.

"Yes, we are risking our lives, but the issue of petroleum-based plastic and our national dependence on petroleum, warrant urgent action," explained Dr. Eriksen on the teams blog.

Nümod: Sea Gypsy

The Danube river floods at the end of march.  The Nümods are drawing up plans.

Common Criticisms of "Parasitic Living"

This is a commentary by Ran Prieur regarding common criticisms to his essay: How to Drop Out  I strongly suggest checking out this guys blog (and reading his essays).  He posts links daily to really interesting current events, research, technology and "easy living."


Isn't it hypocritical to use the resources of a system you oppose?

No. Hypocrisy is when you say something is wrong for others to do, but you do it yourself. I've never said that it's morally wrong to participate in the present system. My position is that it's a tragic collective mistake that we need to work our way out of. I do think it's tactically wrong to participate in it more than you have to, but different people have different tactical opportunities. I understand that many people are more stuck in it than I am, and I'm using my relative freedom to try to help them.

Anyway, what's wrong with using the resources of something you oppose? If you were in a prison camp, wouldn't you look for ways to avoid forced labor but still eat? As I said in the essay: it's not about being pure or avoiding guilt -- it's about adapting and becoming more free. 


Isn't it a contradiction to preach independence while accepting help from others?

Certainly not. We have been confused by the many meanings of the word "dependence". I think it's good to be dependent on equals, on friends and family with whom you have a healthy relationship, and it's good for them to be dependent on you. The kind of dependence that I'm against, that I would like to wipe off the Earth forever, is where someone has you over a barrel, where you have to do what they say because if you don't, they will withhold something that you need. The essence of "dropping out" is to cut dependencies on a system of power-over, and replace them with dependencies on a system of power-with. 


But you use the internet!

Again, the reason to avoid connections to the system is to maintain autonomy. So I'll use any by-product or resource I can, as long as there few or no strings attached. I'll especially use a resource like the internet, a powerful tool to find allies and to transform human consciousness. As William Kötke said, not only is it acceptable to use the resources of the present system to build the next one, ideally all its resources would be used that way.


Dropping out is elitist because not everyone can do it.

But everyone can do it, just not right away. I figure it's going to take thousands of years, if humans don't go extinct first, before all of us can live in societies that are sustainable and non-coercive. In the mean time, we all have to do the best we can, and take any opportunity to get a little more free. The key is, when you get more freedom and autonomy, you have an ethical obligation to help others instead of exploiting them.


Isn't living with somebody without paying them anything called "mooching"?

Yes, it is called that, because we live in a slave culture with a slave language! Before the 20th century, it was normal for extended families to live in the same house, with most of them supporting the household in ways other than paying rent -- if rent was paid at all. The very idea that you have to pay to occupy space is radical, and it serves to concentrate power: if I already have power (represented as "property"), those with less power/property have to give me more. We have it backwards! It is the alleged "owner" who is mooching, benefiting from the legal right to deny someone their natural right to occupy space in this world, to build a shelter and gather food and live in a cooperative community. (Not that rent-chargers are bad people. Many of them have been forced into a situation where they have to charge rent so they can make payments to still more powerful people.) 


What if everybody dropped out? Who would you scavenge off of?

In practice, the problem is not too many people looking for different ways to live, but not enough. The dumpsters are still full of good stuff that is not scavenged but wasted in landfills. Too many people still buy pre-made junk food instead of making their own healthful meals, or drive cars instead of riding bicycles. This world is full of people with the skills and knowledge to build paradise, but they can't even begin, because they would lose their jobs shuffling data in the command structure, or manufacturing attention-wasting gadgets, or laboring to provide excess to the elite. As these roles are dropped, life will get easier, not harder. 


Health care is not a manufactured need but a necessity.

Good health care is a necessity, but the industrial medicine that we've been trained to call "health care" does more harm than good at enormous expense. A good book on the subject is Medical Nemesis by Ivan Illich. Another good book is The Health Of Nations by Leonard Sagan, which presents evidence that modern improvements in health and life expectancy have not been caused by "advanced" medicine or even by better sanitation, but by social and psychological factors.


What if you get hit by a car? I hope the doctors and nurses haven't dropped out.

I hope they have! I'm already excluded from the American medical system, because it's so expensive that only rich people can afford it. If I got hit by a car, I might try to hide from the ambulance and crawl home to splint my broken bones with sticks and rags, rather than go a hundred thousand dollars in debt and be effectively a slave for the rest of my life.

But if more doctors and nurses "dropped out", if they carried their interest in healing outside the money economy, then they would have room to be more helpful than they are now. The less money they needed, the more they would be free to treat people without asking for money. It's true that expensive industrial medicine is ideal if you get hit by a car, but other forms of medicine are adequate for acute injuries, and much better for chronic sickness... and if everybody tried to live the way I'm living, in a few decades there wouldn't even be cars!

Kontra Chord Fingerings

Been practicing daily now.  Getting a lot better. 

Sustainable Living Urbanism Mumbai

Temporary homes on a bridge. All these will be washed away during the monsoon. Slum is ruin and it is a construction site, urban ruin as a human nature's life providing platform. Slum is open form, as nature is. The dynamics and energies of a slum are much more powerful than those of a fixed, closed form settlement, industrial architecture.

Construction workers. These guys are nomads moving from one construction site to another. They will build up their own village from the left over construction material of the houses that they are building.

http://sustainablelivingurbanismmumbai.blogspot.com/

2 in 1 Bike/shelter.

I had the idea while working on my yurt, to use a bike wheel as the crown of the yurt the circular center piece.  I also am working with the idea of welding two seated tricycle bike cart for transporting the yurt and other necessary items. Looks like this guy is already working with the same ideas.  Check out the set up and take down of this 2 in 1 transport and shelter. http://casagrandeworkshops.blogspot.com/2010/01/urban-nomad.html


Here is a zine guide to bike touring. Check it out!
http://zinelibrary.info/files/diy-bike-tour_update.pdf

Nümodism defined (first draft)

Definition:

Nümodism: Societies specializing in waste reclamation requiring periodic movement between urban areas. They are imbued with cultural values far beyond just doing a job. They offer a new sustainable cultural identity to those who have lost faith in contemporary ways of living. Nümodism is as much a way of life as a way of making a living. 

Mythconceptions

There are some that glorify nomodic ways of life, the novelty of the gypsy and the ease of life of nomods. Never held down to sedentary troubles and responsibilities. While others considered them escapists, lost wanderers eluding responsibility and purpose. An inability to invest in long term commitments material and social. While others go as far as to asume the nomod is a despicable homeless. Worse yet, parasites leaching and disrupting. The nomodic reality is of course neither as idyllic as romatics have imagined, nor as selfishly obstructive as critiques assume.

Sustenance: 

The nomods have assumed themselves as a transitionary culture. Substaining themselves through current sustainable accessible recourses. They react to the their immediate environments 

Cultural/ecological areas:

Those nümods who exist in rich technologically advanced areas of the world, have, for a time, the ability to survive completely off the excessive waste essential to capitalist profit techniques. For the time, nümods have the ability to benefit from capitalism while not contributing very little to it. The nümod can use post-consumer waste to sustain themselves while transitioning to self dependance. The nomod must enact a slow transition from the culture of their upbringing and the ease from a modern life. Sustenance from waste provides the nomod a constructive venue for embracing and transforming the culture of their upbringing. 

Ecology of movement

The nomod is not a lost wanderer but travels knowing where they are going and why. Neither is the nomad homeless for they live in a transportable home (typically a yurt) The nomod benefits from a culture of waste, yet they do not encourage it, nor wish to participate. Yet for the time being they seek to reduce the drastic negative impact of their culture and seek to sustain from waste for the time being. The nümod seeks to enlighten communities of people to alternative living styles. Thus nomod's are cultural educators. As the nomod's educate larger populations of people to the ways of waste sustenance, they must move travel around as recourses of waste dwindle with increased populations are educated of nümodic sustenance techniques. Nomodism fills an important nich which often provides a standard of living superior to wage laborers. The Nomod has developed an efficient way to exploit and convert natural areas of excess that are otherwise wasted into rich sources of energy. They are not held to sedentary production of resource requirements ei. Space+labor= profit. 

Social and political organization

The nomod is societal rather than occupational. A new tribal standard dominated by friendship and relations rather than achievement value. The nomod never exists in a vacuum. They are responsive to continuous change in their relationships to dominating sedentary societies. Because of their ability to to adapt to modern times and preparation to exploit industries massive wastes, they have a chance to survive as an intact culture far into the future.

The Punk Beasts of Swimming Cities

swimming cities has inspired me to start a group of no-modic cyclist.  This summer starting some time in July I will be biking with a group from michigan to the east coast.  At each stop, we will set up our no-mod yurt and host ritual, performance, and party.  We hope to have at least 12 bikers on board.  I will be presenting more information soon.  For the time being check out the punk beasts of the swimming cities.

No-mod yurt first full erection.

No-Mod Yurt frame is up!

No-Mod Manifesto

As we trudge on through the beginning of the 21st century, the side effects of our technologic addiction are near impossible to deny. The detrimental environmental impact and the psycho-spiritual tole are increasingly obvious. Humanities faith in technology as miracle cure all is dwindling. Yet we continue to uphold futurist ideology which wills us to deny the truth and continue business as usual.(1)
A growing number of enlightened youth today are confronted with the consequences imposed upon them by the decisions of recent older generations . They can no longer deny the truth. It is obvious we must reject the culture of the past and begin a new sustainable culture. Yet how can we reject the culture of our upbringing, to reject our own cultural identity? How can we form a new cultural identity when we barely had one to begin with? What do we base our new identity on?

Faced with such difficult questions, I came to a few conclusions.

1. We have much to learn from tribal cultures that have lived in harmony with the earth for thousands of years. Tribal culture is disappearing quickly and we must work to preserve their ancient wisdom.

2. We cannot deny our cultural upbringing and must accept and embrace both the dark and light sides of our modern heritage. Includeing waste, pollution, and mental illness.

3. Art is where culture begins and it is through art that we must begin to assess our current cultural identity and explore possibilities of where to go from here.

With these conclusions in mind I have come to recognize the nomad as being in the most stable and convenient position of this modern age. Nomads still exist today along side technologically advanced civilizations because they choose to live in baren environments considered by most to be intolerable. Nomads are not dependent upon sedentary, modernized people. Yet they do not exist in complete isolation from their sedentary neighbors. There is frequent interaction and exchange between the two. Thus, nomads have the advantage of access to the benefits of modern civilization, without the guilt of contributing to it, and capability of existing without it. Adopting nomadic culture would be a strategic maneuver for those enlightened youth of todays generation.

Nomadic people have a cultural history of over 9,000 years dating before the rise of neolithic farming. It would be both disrespectful and inane for modernized peoples to fully adopt traditional nomadic custom as replacement. The nomad must be a template from which to construct a new post-modern cultural identity. This new identity shall be referred to as nomod (from modern or modish nomad).

The nomod will employ natural forces. The nomod will adress his current urban environment, utilizing sustainable and abondent recourses. The nomod will not contribute to the popular culture of consumption and destruction unnecessarily. Yet the nomod will not renounce his privileged position of easy access to a boundless knowledge, quick communication, global transportation, and access to abundant waste. The nomod will take full advantage of his privilege while it is still available. This includes reclaiming, and repurposing both post-consumer food waste and material waste. The nomod shall devote his time to the study and preservation of traditional nomadic wisdom, including craft, medicine, art, spirit, and culture.

Shelter, one of the most fundamental and utilitarian arts employed by man. It fulfills our most basic need. It is the symbolic center of family life and cultural identity. It is a visual reflection of our modes of life. Let us briefly critique modern industrial shelter. The modern architect attempts to defy nature. Unsustainable recourses are readily imported from around the world, while local resources are not even considered. Climate control eliminates attention to local climate. Structures drawn up by distant and detached architects, are standardized for budget efficiency, denying the psycho-spiritual needs of the future inhabitants. In comparison, the assumed simple structural designs of nomads are in fact a “complex calculus...evolved to meet a range of geographic conditions, climate variations and inherited traditions.” Nomadic architecture has achieved an equilibrium between “physical and cultural needs”. (2) “Though often slight, their virtue is intimately related to the environment and to the heart-life of the people.” Frank Loyd Wright on nomadic structures.

(1)These are my own opinions and a brief summary of primitivist thinking, for more information see: “The Ascent of Humanity” by Charles Eisenstien, the full text is available for free at http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/ and “Future Primitive” by Johns Zerzan.

(2)Szabo, Albert, and Thomas J. Barfield. Afghanistan: an Atlas of Indigenous Domestic Architecture. Austin: University of Texas, 1991. Print.

History and Geography of the Yurt

What better nomadic shelter to first examine than the complex and ingenious yurt. Our friends from Woodland Yurts sums up the history and evolution of the yurt quite nicely.

History Nomadic peoples leave few written or archaeological records of their passing. So early evidence of the history of the yurt is hard to find. Bronze age rock etchings from Siberia appear to show yurts in use. Descriptions from ancient travellers and some frozen remains offer hints, but no absolute proof of yurt use. Herodotus (c480-c425 BC) described ger-carts and felt tents being used by the Scythian people. A cart found in a 2500 year old Pazaryck grave in Southern Siberia demonstrate all of the technologies needed to build a yurt were available at that time. But firm evidence from before the time of Ghengis Khan is hard to find. The evolution of the modern ger almost certainly began in prehistoric times with the urts or buheg; a tipi like structure, still used by the reindeer breeders of Northern Mongolia and Siberia .

Geography Mongolia is the great stronghold of the yurt, where the ger is still home to three-quarters of the population. To the south, the Inner Mongolia region of China is populated by ger-dwellers. To the north, the people of Tuva and the Buryat region of Siberia live in gers. In Eastern Siberia , the reindeer herding Koryak people live in yurt-like yarangas. The southernmost range of the bentwood yurt, where it is still in common use by nomadic peoples, covers Iran , Iraq , Northern Afghanistan and Pakistan . To the west of Mongolia , in Kazakstan , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan , Tajikistan and North-Eastern China, a region as a whole formerly known as Turkestan , the yurt is the traditional and still popular nomadic dwelling. The national flag of the newly independent Kyrgyzstan depicts a red yurt-crown at its centre. During the middle-ages the Magyars of Hungary dwelt in yurts, where they are still in occasional use today. Bentwood yurts were used in Central and Eastern Turkey until the 1960s. For More information visit: <http://www.woodlandyurts.co.uk/Yurt_Facts/YurtFacts.html>

"The Ascent of Humanity" by Charles Eiesenstien

Lately I have really been jamming with the book "Ascent of Humanity" by Charles Eiesenstien.  You can read it for free online at http://www.ascentofhumanity.com/introduction.php, you can even listen to it for free on this website.  I encourage everyone to at least read the introduction.

At the same time I have been trying to follow current futurist thinking:

The systematic application of nanotechnology, self-reproducing micro-miniaturised robots armed with supercomputer processing power, and ultra-sophisticated genetic engineering, perhaps using retro-viral vectors, will cure the root of all evil in its naturalistic guise throughout the living world. And once the pain has gone, with the right genes and designer drugs there's no reason why life shouldn't just get better and better...." Pearce, David. The Hedonistic Imperative. http://paradise-engineering.com/heav22.htm

In the near future, a team of scientists will succeed in constructing the first nano-sized robot capable of self-replication. Within a few short years, and five billion trillion nano-robots later, virtually all present industrial processes will be obsolete as well as our contemporary concept of labor. Consumer goods will become plentiful, inexpensive, smart, and durable. Medicine will take a quantum leap forward. Space travel and colonization will become safe and affordable."  Mohawk, William. Nano-Economics. http://www.geocities.com/computerresearchassociated/NanoEconomics.htm

Two opposite extremes of forward thinking, the "tribalists" and the "futurists" both agree that the ecology of the world is nearing a collapse.  It is their view of how humanity will cope.

Junk Culture

I have been enjoying this musician who was touring with Tobacco, check him out at: http://junkculture.biz/
I think the main reason I like this artist is his name, "Junk Culture."  God I wish I had thought of that!

Kazakh Yurt Interior

Having been home to the many tribes and cultures of central Asia for millennia a great deal of traditions, superstition, religious significance and custom has built up surrounding the yurt.

Spiritual significance

To the Mongolian people the ger is more than just a simple dwelling, in its construction the whole universe is represented: The roof represents the sky and the smoke hole the sun. The hearth contains the five basic earth elements of earth, wood, fire, metal, and water (metal in the grate and water in the kettle). For the Buryat Mongols the fire contains the house deity and is therefore sacred, offerings are thrown on every morning. No rubbish is burned on the fire and outsiders should not take a light from it. The two upright roof poles supporting the crown are of symbolic importance rather than a structural necessity.

The Mongolian people are predominantly Buddhist, and a shrine is set up opposite the door, people sleep with their heads towards this altar. In Muslim areas the people sleep in the opposite direction with their heads towards the south facing door, roughly the direction of Mecca.

Setting up home

The family yurt is usually obtained as a gift from the brides parents on a couples marriage. The frame should last a lifetime, but the felt covers need replacing every three to five years. The yurt is set up with the door facing south. When families camp together during the winter the group of yurts or aul are set in a circle with the opening to the south. The roof poles and crown are carried in through the door, it is considered bad luck to pass them over the wall.

The interior furnishings and seating arrangements are always the same. The altar is placed opposite the door at the back of the yurt. The hearth or stove is in the middle of the floor with firewood or other fuel in front and a low table behind. The western side is the domain of the men, male visitors and honoured guests sit this side, where saddles, tools and airag(fermented mares milk) are kept. The women and children use the eastern side, where rugs, bedding, food, cutlery, crockery and water are stored. Servants, poor visitors and any sick or very young animals that need nursing sit near the entrance.

Figure 12. Traditional furnishing and seating in the ger.

Etiquette

Traditionally, anyone stopping outside of a ger is invited in for a meal, a sheep is killed for the feast (more practical on the lonely steppes of Mongolia than in this overcrowded island). When entering the yurt it is considered impolite to step on the threshold or to hold onto the ropes. The traditional greeting offered by the visitor consists of four questions: are you well?, is your family well?, are your cattle/sheep fat?, is the grass good? the answer to each of these questions is yes, whatever the reality. After exchanging greetings the guest is offered tea, followed by airag and then yoghurt. Visitors to a Kalmuk yurt are offered arak, distilled spirit of airag, three glasses must be drunk in rapid succession. Following these formalities men exchange snuff and the party can become more relaxed. At the meal the guest carves and shares the meat.

There are a number of rules which guests should follow. All weapons should be left outside, do not step on the threshold, point your feet at or put rubbish on the fire. Do not sit with your back to the altar, whistle, write in red pen, step over older people or point a knife at anyone. One should take at least a little of any food or drink offered. When offered arak or vodka flick a small amount to the sky, the wind and the earth before drinking.