Issuu

007

BRIAN TAYLOR 008

Superinterior

PATRICK CADENHEAD 016

A Brief History of Music Since 1911

ANTHONY CIOE 022

Exploring: Material, Methods, Minds

LILY COX-RICHARD 030

ELI KESSLER 044

CHRISTOPHER MAHONSKI 052

Lightning Wireless When You Discover Luxury... Being Lost

DAVID GRAINGER 064

A Curious Conceit: The Maypole Research Model

MARIA PITHARA 072

The Migrations of Two Edible Fruits

JAMES SHAM 078

The Birth of Mirth: An Account of Jest

JULIE NAGLE 088

Locomotives and Last Flights

SAMI BEN LARBI 096

Foreword

Three Parts Make a Hole

112

Biographies

115

Colophon

Foreword The first issue of Curious was printed in the spring semester of 2007. The second issue, like the first, is an independent project undertaken by graduate students from the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. Each of the eleven artists who contributed designed pages reflecting his or her self-directed research, and the resultant document reflects eleven very different studio practices. Curious (2008) is constructed with a range of visual materials including watercolors and drawings, sampled images, scanned archival materials, data charts, and staged photographs. The artists address in unique combinations of image and text, research topics including the contemporary Court Jester and socio-political commentary; exhaustive data gathering around deceased music stars; musings on the trade routes of two edible fruits; a constructed history of the lightening rod and the telegraph; a screenplay built upon a very personal identification with filmic characters; the story of the ill-fated confederate silk air balloons; accounts of wooden shipbuilding and scientist voyagers; sepia toned landscape snapshots captioned with poetic traces; a reflective look at artistic research practice through the metaphor of a maypole dance; a fashion spread and product display; and a rather freestyle defining of nystagmus. Curious indeed. KENDALL BUSTER Associate Professor Department of Sculpture + Extended Media Virginia Commonwealth University

Superinterior BRIAN TAYLOR

108

in the spirit of some new and exciting kind of amnesia – avalanche – adidas – I’m talking and dressed in orange Patrick stands holding a lighter and says it’s the same fire as always and ! I agree – flashing lights are magic – don’t waste time ok – light and fast and strong, economical – that the apocalypse will come slowly, painfully, continuing on its arrival path the way it is, lumbering, instead of gorgeously drowning us all in giant and successive waves of lava and water and mud and wind and with asteroids too – with optimism! – not there, there – just throw it! – dealing with other people’s sensibilities – leering, sleazy horn sections – dark hair – ice – that time in the park, in the summer, SO hot out, after the funny kid running around cheering with his hands up, saying yeah! then over where we were laying down on the side of the hill, in the grass, and I could feel the earth move – lighting is important; I’m sayin – I can’t see magic eye prints – there’s too many people in the world – my halloween costume needs to be intense – video is like a jacuzzi; as an adage, like a discovery – don’t ever live in the suburbs – I think maybe my formative years were too boring – huh – too late – giant squid – I’m gonna get doored and, not die, which would be fine, but be paralyzed, and suffer, probably because I got hit, after drinking heavily, and actually wearing my helmet, which will “save my life”, but only insofar as I’m a paraplegic – verbal overflow – friendly manitoba – the wars the wars the wars the wars the wars the wars - two squares inside one square, proving some maths – gross – is the brita filter too old? – what’s wrong with your eyes; are you crazy – no, I’m pretty sure no, but sometimes, for instance when I drive, I have a sensation that’s like a synaptic leap from seeing this to seeing that, and the filling-in in that gap that reminds me of that great line in All The President’s Men that goes “You know if you go to bed at night and there’s no snow on the ground, you wake up and there’s snow on the ground, you can say it snowed during the night although you didn’t see it snowing.” then I imagine doin the I’m-gonna-turn-the-wheel-quick-on-purpose-headlong-into-oncoming-traffic bit – Nystagmus is an involuntary rhythmic shaking or wobbling of the eyes, characterized by a smooth pursuit in one direction and a quick flit (saccadic movement) in another. Also described as “dancing eyes”, the term nystagmus is derived from “nmstagmos” a Greek word used to describe the wobbly head movements of the sleepy, drunk, or generally fucked-up. There are at least 45 different types of nystagmus. One of these, Horizontal Gaze nystagmus, is used as one of a battery of field sobriety tests to determine whether or not someone has been drink-driving.1 Congenital motor nystagmus – being related to the control (or lack thereof) of muscle function – rarely worsens over time, and can be alleviated a bit by a surgical procedure in which the muscles of the eyes are detached, then reattached, to alter the amplitude of the jerking eye by tightening the attendant muscle tissue. Lying flat on the gurney, post-op, looking up at the ceiling, eyes watering and very light-sensitive, sutures coming out of my eyes just like really long weird wiry eyelashes, and the doctor telling me to look straight up at the ceiling, that fucking drop-ceiling, and not to blink, as he adjusted the sutures, fine-tuning his previous arrangements, tugging inside my skull, which now that I think of it, was a little like the scene out of The Third Policeman2 with all the chests that start out modestly-sized and horribly work down to invisibility, mixed with sleight-of-hand magic, where certain methods of cardarrangement have as their goal a certain ‘naturalness’ in which the perfection of the skill necessitates its own imperceptibility. Astronomers discovered a one-billion-light-year-wide pocket full of nothing in the sky.3

Following Shot A shot in which the camera follows behind or along with a moving subject, which, somehow, is different from a shot with a moving camera shooting a stationary landscape, as it continually falls away, an ever-disappearing index. Detached Shot When Spike Lee focuses on a subject, who is stationary and yet hypnotically gliding through a space, further elucidating Malcolm’s spiritual and/or psychological transcendence. William H. Bates (1860-1931) was an American physician and ophthalmologist who developed controversial techniques to cure a variety of afflictions, primarily of the eye, from myopia (nearsightedness) to cataracts. The Bates Method centers around rest and relaxation of the eyes, using exercises such as controlled blinking and a technique which involves standing before a point of focus, and swaying the body back and forth while moving the eyes in the opposite direction. His ideas were published in the magazine Better Eyesight (published by his own publishing company Central Fixation Publishing) and also in his book Perfect Sight Without Glasses, from 1920. Bates believed that the eye focuses not by a change in the lens, but when the eyeball itself changes shape using the surrounding extraocular muscles. This stood in contradiction to the science of his time and still does today, though some of his methods are used in concert with corrective lenses and surgery. One of his more controversial theories proposes “perfectly remembering black” as a substitute for anesthesia during surgical procedures. Bates also wrote extensively on illusions, particularly of light and color, and in May of 1886 reported his discovery of the organic substance epinephrine. More commonly known as adrenaline, it lies waiting inside the body, and when secreted into the bloodstream, prepares one for action. All these flakes were kicking at my face. Soft, small nicks at my cheeks along with the wind biting. I try looking at two swirling slivers at the same time, the jaunty crystals, but just for a second. Like Teddy and the orange peels in that Salinger short story. I pretend to be distracted by the lights, by that girl, by the illusory cant of the post-box on the corner. This is like the winter equivalent of a bike ride alone at night in the summertime; the urgency of the hyperborean fantasy in the city. Hey let’s go over there – I know, our world is small – you can get a beer, I just want to get my picture taken, with my face like this; with my face looking like this. an ever-disappearing index – static – breathe out – field recordings – “I followed a few philosophies and codes throughout. Starting with our first top-bill shows in ’79 and continuing up to now, what I do is the night before the first performance, I’ll show up extra late when everybody’s gone after a rehearsal, nobody there but a couple of crew and a night watchman. I get a big bath towel, and I get on my hands and knees, and I wash every square centimeter of that stage. Sometimes it takes me quite a while, but it reevaluates for me that if I’m willing to do that… then there’s nothing else left to do. There’s no further commitment that you can make.”4

“Sergio Leone established a rule that he follows throughout The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. The rule is that the ability to see is limited by the sides of the frame. At important moments in the film, what the camera cannot see, the characters cannot see, and that gives Leone the freedom to surprise us with entrances that cannot be explained by the practical geography of his shots…for example there is a moment in a cemetery where a man materializes out of thin air even though he should have been visible for a mile. And the way men walk down the street in full view and nobody is able to shoot them, maybe because they are not in the same frame with them.”5 horizontal gaze type, mild amplitude – I should call Heather – and Philip – shitihavesomuchtodo – ever play the game where you try and draw the perfect island/continent? Making what must be the perfect peninsula, lagoon, or port – gigantic piles of dirt – the nest of antlers above the gem saloon bar, the best tv sculpture ever, a home in a home made by death and energetic, firm hands – the ghosting of the replay footage in the Olympics, especially the ski jumpers, where the camera follows, and follows, and follows, and there’s the ghost of his competitor next to him, comparing form, as she/they, in slo-mo, wipe down to some bottom, some place, with the blur of the background in the background, until that funny delicate landing and CHEERING! – and the evil of the mid-day sun, 2:30 pm, which is so depressing, like an end, not a beginning, screening everything through it, and seeming like it’s squashing melancholia into everything, I hate the sunny, cloudless afternoon – blues, indigos, violets, reddish-purples, hot reds, fluorescent greens, near-blacks, especially dark blues – purple perspex – PURPLE! – stellar regions – oh, come on! Come on – push ups! – a picture of her eating a chocolate cupcake, next to a green (that green) lightpost, gray streets in the fall, wearing a sweater with the color of caramel I think on the cuffs, after I just bought some violet so-strong tint, that crazy glass/ceramic retro design reflection explosion store, and that smile, those mischievous eyes, facing west, West, the future – shadows – Raul Ruiz – when you’re depressed, do you listen to music to get you out of it or keep you in it? – the title of this lecture is called marriage is almost inconsequential: and I raise my open palms slightly above the lectern and set a quick pace – I want to be a runner! – don’t look at her, pretend you’re lost in your own world – what would I do if I ran out of gas, uh, ok I guess really, it would be funny, I would start walking, let’s say it’s along a highway, and I would start walking, and eventually come to a place where I could get a red jaunty plastic gas pail, and trudge back, then go back again, driving… enjoying the sweet, humid air, and maybe some silence, for once – Sun Ra – maybe I should have vodka instead of beer; it probably doesn’t matter – nothing worse than overcooked pasta – well, mealy apples – I just winked at myself – I don’t even know you – need to eat a giant bowl of rice – I can’t decide if I like the nickname peaches – ball lightning – amazing laugh – when I was young I rocked back and forth for a while before going to sleep, backforthbackforthbackforth and sometimes it make me dizzy but mostly I just needed to work it out, get tired – I want to crush things in my hands! – squeeze your eyes shut squeeze them shut! – the girl I was dancing with where is she – I need some bacon – are those gunshots? No. they must be fireworks, but fireworks? At 2:22 am in march? – Muscae Volitantes – “flying flies” – the floaters in the field of vision, miniscule deposits in the thick fluid of the vitreous humor. I’m layin on the beach in Chicago, staring up at the sky, and saw them; meaning that I didn’t look at them. One of them looks like a small line with a dot next to it; another is just a tiny curved line like half an eyelash. They’re suspended. small carbonation lifting up from the bottom, from the sides, running upwards so fast from the interior of the glass, then mixed with remembering swimming, underwater, stopping and at the bottom of the pool, letting all my air out, following the biggest half-dome/jellyfish shaped silvery, wobbling, air pocket up to the top, where it POP! disappeared into the void – walking slowly up a staircase, eyes closed, and eventually you reach the top; your body knows it before your brain does The ‘unveiling’ photo by Richard Drew for the AP is like a magic trick…there was a photograph printed in the business section of the New York Times in 2005, in which the CEO of IBM is in the

act of pulling a huge sheet off of their new z9 mainframe computer – the sheet is a shimmering blue-violet, which I didn’t know until a friend got a digital file for me – so originally in black and white, this huge swarthy mass (dark) was being pulled off a cube-ish mass (dark), like some minimal transmogrification. The thing that’s so perfect, is that the photo’s not of the sheet on the mainframe, or the thing itself, but the in-between moment, this event…which I guess makes sense with the story, though the action of pulling a cover off to reveal something that is in a sense inscrutable is bizarre and frigid. With its purpose and potential both encased in a matte black cube, the mainframe is already always obscured. Herman Doomer was a 17th century German cabinetmaker working in Amsterdam; in the Rijksmuseum there’s an enormous cabinet whose oak structure is entirely veneered with ebony and peppered, on its four twisting posts, with mother-of-pearl inlay in the shapes of flowers and butterflies. Not made for any particular client, Herman produced this tall, dark, glistening capsule during his free time. originates; negotiating space, relationships; an assertion-point

Shoulders; the place that all movement

reckon; the way Alexis said it – swath wash slurry – draw – what time is it? fuck – walking down the street, reciting verse6 – also, looking at people out on a sidewalk or in the bar, not knowing if they’re looking at me or not, I can’t tell – the idea that you can fix imperfect eyesight with strange exercises that involve blinking and patterns and fingers and swaying and test cards – There was a study, the results of which were published in 1996 in Dreaming: Journal of the Association for the Study of Dreams in which subjects spent two nights sleeping in hammocks, which were gently rocked back and forth to explore the relationship of vestibular activation (balance and equilibrium) to dream lucidity and mentation. The dreamers were wakened during various stages of REM sleep, and data was recorded on different scales such as self-reflectiveness and bizarreness. While the researchers pondered over their data, the dreamers slept, and there was an increase in nystagmoid-like compensatory eyemovements during the rocking periods. {I’m in a corner in the ocean, laying back with my arms spread open, one to each side, my back in the corner. My head is thrown back and I’m laughing and a big grey tiger shark is eating my guts out – just taking huge chunks out of my stomach repeatedly, blood everywhere, and I’m laughing, head back, uncrontrollable laughter, tears in my eyes, and I wake myself up laughing for real.} constant movement – constant tight movement! – in john adams’ naïve and sentimental music the guitar in the first movement especially is like a mirror of the cadence of the rest of the orchestra, as an after-effect, an echo, also like foot-tapping, nervous, anxious jangling of a leg under a table – salad – there’s a way that you could build something so all the pieces fit together snugly but the whole thing is teetering, seeming like it’s on the edge of exploding – Penderecki! – the sensation of trying to remember something you actually know, but can’t think of at the second – was there a beep? I didn’t hear a beep – garbled message – can’t hear shit – a totally solid thing made in gaps in time – it seems like it’s going to rain – cones are for color rods are for motion – the wire the wire the wire it’s like it’s always in the current, the undercurrent – it’s cool; remain calm, just like Rakim – i’m bulletproof fire and dirt, super-fluorescent green Inspiration and sources not cited, and besides Wikipedia, include 1. lowvision.org; 2. Flann O’Brien; 3. Harper’s Weekly emails; David Lynch; 4. David Lee Roth, describing his performance prep in his 1987 autobiography Crazy From The Heat; 5. Ebert; 6. Ghostface; Eye Movements: A Window on Mind and Brain (Murray, Fischer, Gompel, Hill, 2007); Zen in the Art of Archery (Eugen Herrigel); my people in Chicago; VCU 07-08 Graduate Sculpture Team; All the liner notes I’ve ever read

15 17

A Brief History of Music Since 1911 PATRICK CADENHEAD

16 18

name robert johnson hank williams patsy cline kurt cobain tupac shakur elvis presley selena lisa “left eye” lopez john bonham johnny cash jimi hendrix jim morrison mama cass miles davis louis prima buddy holly roy orbison sun ra dimebag darrell john coltrane keith moon fela anikulapo kuti stevie ray vaughn marvin gaye sam cooke ray charles bob marley otis redding liberace frank zappa dinah washington karen carpenter albert ayler wilson pickett townes van zandt sonny bono billie holiday john lee hooker janis joplin sid vicious darby crash ian curtis carl perkins peggy lee charles mingus howard duane allman thelonious monk easy e nina simone bon scott nick drake elliot smith peter tosh layne staley freddie mercury joe strummer michael hutchence jerry garcia randy rhoads per yngve ohlin buddy rich waylon jennings duke ellington memphis minnie bessie smith johnny ramone dee dee ramone klaus nomi fred neil jam master jay john lennon notorious b.i.g. andrew wood charlie parker jim croce shannon hoon john denver big pun cliff burton pimp c frank sinatra blind lemon jefferson lightning hopkins edith piaf aaliyah ol dirty bastard george harrison woody guthrie pigpen sammy davis jr hillel slovak big bopper jeff buckley tim buckley django reinhart count basie bradley nowell jelly roll morton sarah vaughn wendy o. williams

age of death 27 29 30 27 25 42 23 30 32 71 27 27 32 65 67 22 52 79 38 40 32 58 35 44 33 73 36 26 67 52 39 32 34 64 52 62 44 83 27 21 22 23 65 81 56 24 64 31 70 33 26 34 42 34 45 50 37 53 25 ? 69 64 75 76 43 55 50 39 65 37 40 24 24 34 30 28 53 28 24 33 82 unknown 70 47 22 35 58 55 27 64 26 28 30 28 43 79 28 unknown (c50) 66 48

# of movies acted in 0 0 0 0 7 31 1(cameo) 1 1 15 1 2 1 2 8 0 1 1 0 0 7 0 0 2 1 7 1 0 0 3 0 0 0 2 0 2 2 1 1 1 0 0 1 11 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 6 3 1 0 0 0 5 1 0 0 0 2 2 0 3 6 0 0 0 0 0 6 2 0 0 59 0 0 10 2 3 8 1 1 31 1 0 0 2 0 4 0 0 2 2

# of movies about 5 0 3 2 13 20 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 8 1 3 3 4 1 0 1 2 0 1 2 1 11 0 7 0 0 3 1 0 1 1 3 0 5 1 1 1 0 2 1 0 2 1 2 0 1 0 1 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 21 2 2 1 0 0 3 2 1 1 29 0 1 4 4 0 1 1 0 11 0 0 1(tba) 0 0 3 0 0 0 0

years performing 9 15 8 5 5 23 11 11 16 48 4 6 9 57 39 3 34 59 23 21 14 39 20 27 14 57 19 7 50 35 20 18 18 45 31 10 26 53 7 3 3 4 43 55 36 10 26 9 49 16 3 12 25 17 22 29 20 35 8 ? 68 43 57 30 25 22 28 6 15 19 19 5 10 18 13 10 33 5 5 15 60 3 30 28 10 14 43 26 14 57 8 2 6 9 25 60 8 unknown (c40) 47 10

zodiac sign leo virgo virgo pisces gemini capricorn aries gemini gemini pisces sagittarius sagittarius virgo gemini sagittarius virgo taurus gemini leo libra leo libra libra aries aquarius libra aquarius virgo taurus saggitarius virgo pisces cancer pisces pisces aquarius aries leo capricorn taurus libra cancer aries gemini taurus scorpio libra virgo pisces cancer gemini leo libra leo virgo leo aquarius leo sagittarius ? libra gemini taurus gemini aries libra virgo aquarius pisces aquarius libra taurus capricorn virgo capricorn libra capricorn scorpio aquarius capricorn sagittarius unknown pisces sagittarius capricorn scorpio pisces cancer virgo sagittarius aries scorpio scorpio pisces aquarius leo pisces unknown aries gemini

cause of death murder overdose plane crash suicide, disputed murder, disputed overdose, disputed murder car crash asphyxiation, alcohol diabetes asphyxiation, alcohol, disputed drug overdose, disputed heart attack stroke brain tumor, complications plane crash heart attack pneumonia murder liver cancer overdose (mama cass connection) aids helicopter crash murder murder, disputed liver cancer melanoma, soccer wound plane crash aids prostate cancer overdose heart failure related to anorexia suicide, drowned, disputed heart attack pulmonary embolus skiing accident cirrhosis of the liver illness overdose overdose suicide suicide throat cancer heart attack lou gehrig’s disease motorcycle accident stroke aids breast cancer alcohol poisoning overdose, suicide, disputed suicide, stabbing, disputed murder, disputed overdose aids heart defect suicide, asphyxiation, disputed heart attack plane crash suicide heart failure diabetes pnuemonia stroke car accident prostate cancer overdose aids cancer murder murder murder, disputed overdose pneumonia, bleeding ulcer plane crash overdose plane crash heart attack bus crash overdose heart attack unknown cancer liver cancer plane crash overdose lung cancer huntington’s disease gastrointestinal hemorrhage throat cancer overdose plane crash drowning, disputed overdose brain hemorrhage pancreatic cancer overdose asthma lung cancer suicide

m/f m m f m m m f f m m m m f m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m f f m m m m f m f m m m m f m m m m f m m m m m m m m m m m m m m f f m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m m f f m m m m m m m m m m m m m f f

death premonition yes yes yes yes yes no no yes no yes no no no no no no no ? no no no no no yes no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no yes no no no no no no no no yes no no no no no no no no yes no no no no no no no no no no no yes no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no

city of birth hazlehurst georgiana winchester aberdeen marin city tupelo lake jackson philadelphia redditch kingsland seattle melbourne baltimore alton new orleans lubbock vernon birmingham arlington hamlet harlesden abeokuta dallas washington chicago albany nine mile dawson west allis baltimore tuscaloosa new haven cleveland heights detroit fort worth detroit baltimore coahoma county port arthur london los angeles old trafford tiptonville jamestown los angeles nashville rocky mount compton tryon forfar rangoon portland westmoreland kirkland stone town ankara sydney san francisco santa monica ? brooklyn littlefeild washington d.c. algeirs chattanooga long island fort lee immenstadt cleveland brooklyn liverpool new york colombus kansas city philadelphia lafayette roswell bronx castro valley port arthur hoboken unknown centreville paris brooklyn brooklyn liverpool okemah san bruno new york hiafa sabine pass anaheim washington dc liberchies red bank long beach new orleans newark webster

state of birth mississippi alabama virginia washington california mississippi texas pennsylvania worcestershire arkansas washington florida maryland illinois louisiana texas texas alabama texas north carolina london texas dc illinois georgia saint ann georgia wisconsin maryland alabama connecticut ohio michigan texas michigan maryland mississippi texas california manchester tennessee north dakota california tennessee north carolina california north carolina angus oregon washington

california california new york texas louisiana tennessee new york virginia ohio new york new york ohio kansas pennsylvania indiana new mexico new york california texas new jersey texas texas new york new york oklahoma california new york texas california pont-à-celles new jersey california louisiana new jersey new york

country of birth united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united kingdom united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united kingdom nigeria united states united states united states united states jamaica united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united kingdom united states united kingdom united states united states united states united states united states united states united states scotland burma united states jamaica united states zanzibar turkey australia united states united states sweden united states united states united states united states united states united states united states germany united states united states united kingdom united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states france united states united states united kingdom united states united states united states israel united states united states united states belgium united states united states united states united states united states

ntry of birth ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted kingdom ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted kingdom eria ted states ted states ted states ted states aica ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted kingdom ted states ted kingdom ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states tland ma ted states aica ted states zibar key tralia ted states ted states eden ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states many ted states ted states ted kingdom ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states nce ted states ted states ted kingdom ted states ted states ted states el ted states ted states ted states gium ted states ted states ted states ted states ted states

city of death greenwood oak hill camden seattle las vegas memphis corpus christi la ceiba clewer nashville london paris london santa monica new orleans clear lake hendersonville birmingham colombus long island london

state of death mississippi west virginia tennessee washington nevada tennessee texas atlántida windsor tennessee

east troy los angeles los angeles beverley hills miami madison palm springs los angeles detroit los angeles new york ashburn nashville south lake tahoe new york san francisco los angeles new york los angeles macclesfeild jackson bel air cuernavaca macon weehawken los angelis aix-en-provence london tanworth-in-arden los angeles saint andrew seattle kensington broomfield sydney forest knolls leesburg ? los angeles chandler new york memphis clarksdale los angeles los angeles new york summer key queens new york los angeles seattle new york natchitoches new orleans pacific grove white plains ljungby municipality los angeles los angeles chicago houston plascassier abaco islands new york los angeles new york corte madera beverley hills los angeles clear lake memphis santa monica fontainebleau hollywood san francisco los angeles hidden hills storrs

wisconsin california california california florida wisconsin california california michigan california new york virginia tennessee california new york california california new york california

california louisiana iowa tennessee alabama ohio new york

tennessee california georgia new jersey california england england california washington london sommerset california florida california arizona new york tennessee mississippi california california new york florida new york new york california washington new york louisiana louisiana california new york california california illinois texas

new york california new york california california california iowa tennessee california florida california california california connecticut

country of death united states united states united states united states united states united states united states honduras united kingdom united states england france united kingdom united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united kingdom kalakuta rep. united states. united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united kingdom united states united states mexico united states united states united states france united kingdom united kingdom united states jamaica united states united kingdom united kingdom australia united states united states norway united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states sweden united states united states united states united states france bahamas united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states united states france united states united states united states united states united states

# of google hits 14,700,000 4,660,000 1,960,000 6,910,000 2,560,000 20800000 14,600,000 536,000 992,000 12,200,000 13,000,000 3,830,000 296,000 9,840,000 978,000 3,340,000 3,550,000 5,450,000 774,000 4,270,000 947,000 750,000 3,180,000 4,830,000 1,590,000 11,300,000 17,700,000 2,120,000 881,000 6,030,000 1,170,000 692,000 327,000 840,000 689,000 456,000 4,290,000 2,360,000 4,790,000 1,420,000 112,000 1,240,000 1,270,000 1,560,000 1,590,000 350,000 1,890,000 711,000 3,400,000 1,360,000 2,300,000 931,000 1,280,000 275,000 2,910,000 1,690,000 357,000 1,760,000 734,000 15,500 1,100,000 1,950,000 4,450,000 376,000 1,070,000 1,070,000 25,300,000 239,000 370,000 491,000 13,700,000 4,980,000 979,000 2,560,000 962,000 122,000 7,420,000 1,020,000 618,000 2,660,000 13,600,000 312,000 149,000 4,010,000 6,790,000 618,000 6,080,000 1,570,000 27,300 1,230,000 88,000 372,000 2,940,000 1,050,000 36,300 2,510,000 164,000 453,000 1,980,000 798,000

genre blues country country rock hiphop rock tejano r&b rock country rock rock folk jazz jazz, swing, pop rock rock jazz metal jazz rock afrobeat rock, blues r&b r&b r&b reggae r&b, soul pop rock, jazz, exp. blues, jazz pop jazz r&b folk, country pop jazz blues rock punk punk post-punk rockabilly pop jazz rock jazz hip-hop r&b rock folk rock, folk reggae rock rock rock rock rock, folk rock death metal jazz country jazz blues blues rock rock new wave folk rap rock, pop hip-hop rock jazz folk rock folk hip-hop metal hip-hop pop blues blues pop r&b,pop hip-hop rock, pop folk rock, blues pop rock, funk rock folk folk gypsy jazz swing rock jazz, swing jazz punk

right/left handed r r ? l ? r r r l r l r l r r r r r r r r r r r r ? r r r r r ? ? r r r r r r r r r r r r r ? r ? r r r r r r r r r r r ? r ? r r r r r r r r r ? ? r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r r ? r ? ? r

day of death 16 1 3 5 13 16 31 25 25 12 18 3 29 28 24 3 6 30 8 17 7 2 27 1 11 10 11 10 4 4 14 4 ? 19 1 5 17 21 4 2 7 18 19 21 5 29 17 26 21 19 25 21 11 5 24 22 22 9 19 8 2 13 24 6 26 15 5 6 7 30 8 9 19 12 20 21 12 7 27 4 14 unknown 30 10 25 13 29 3 8 16 25 3 29 29 16 26 25 10 3 4

month of death 8 1 3 4 9 8 3 4 9 9 9 7 7 9 8 2 12 5 12 7 9 8 8 4 12 6 5 12 2 12 12 2 11 1 1 1 7 6 10 2 12 5 1 1 1 10 2 3 4 2 11 10 9 4 11 12 11 8 3 4 4 2 5 8 9 9 6 8 7 10 12 3 3 3 9 10 10 2 9 12 5 12 1 10 8 11 11 10 3 5 6 2 5 6 5 4 5 7 4 6

year of death 1938 1953 1963 1994 1996 1977 1995 2002 1980 2003 1970 1971 1974 1991 1978 1959 1988 1993 2004 1967 1978 1997 1990 1984 1964 2004 1981 1967 1987 1993 1963 1983 1970 2006 1997 1998 1959 2001 1970 1979 1980 1980 1998 2002 1979 1971 1982 1995 2003 1980 1974 2003 1987 2002 1991 2002 1997 1995 1982 1991 1987 2002 1974 1973 1937 2004 2002 1983 2001 2002 1980 1997 1990 1955 1973 1995 1997 2000 1986 2007 1998 1929 1982 1963 2001 2004 2001 1967 1973 1990 1988 1959 1997 1975 1953 1984 1996 1941 1990 1998

grammy(ies) 1 1 0 0 3 1 0 1 11 0 1 0 9 0 0 5

hall of fame(s) 3 3 1 0 1 4 0 0 1 5 1 1 0 1 1 1 3

0 1 1 0 4 3 1 18 1 2 0 2 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 1 0 0 0 0 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 12 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 11 0 0 0 5 0 6 1 1 4 0 0 0 0 0 11 0 3 11 1

0 1 1 0 0 1 2 2 1 1 0 1 3 0 1 1 0 0 5 2 1 0 0 0 4 1 3 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 3 1 4 1 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 4 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 2 1 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 3 5 0 3 3 0

instrument(s) voice, guitar voice, guitar voice voice, guitar voice voice, guitar voice voice drums voice, guitar guitar, voice voice voice trumpet voice, trumpet vocals, guitar guitar, vocals piano guitar, voice saxophone drums voice guitar, voice voice voice piano, voice vocals, guitar, percussion voice piano voice, guitar voice voice, drums tenor, soprano saxophone voice voice, guitar voice voice voice, guitar voice voice, bass guitar voice voice, guitar voice, guitar voice double bass guitar piano voice piano, vocal voice voice, guitar voice, guitar voice, guitar voice, guitar, drums voice, keyboard, guitar voice, guitar, piano voice voice, guitar, banjo guitar voice drums voice, guitar piano guitar, vocal voice voice, guitar voice, bass guitar voice voice, guitar turntable, keyboards, drums, bass voice, guitar, piano, bass voice voice, bass guitar saxophone voice, guitar, piano voice, guitar voice, guitar, fiddle, keyboard voice bass voice voice voice, guitar voice, guitar voice voice voice guitar, ukelele, sitar, piano, vocals guitar, voice, fiddle keyboard, percussion, guitar, voice voice, vibraphone, trumpet, drums guitar guitar, voice voc., guitar, bass, harm., organ, drums voice, guitar guitar piano, organ voice, guitar piano voice voice

label(s) brunswick sterling, mgm four star, decca subpop, geffen interscope, out da gutta, death row, makaveli, amaru sun, rca victor emi, capitol arista, laface, tha row records atlantic, swan song sun, columbia, mercury, american, house of cash rsvp, track barclay, polydor, reprise, capitol, mca elektra dunhill prestige, columbia, warner brothers brunswick, vocalian, decca, varsity, okeh, hit, majestic, rca victor, mercury, columbia, ... decca monument, mgm, mercury, sun, rca, je-wel, warner, virgin, wilbury/wb el ra, ... atco, big vin prestige, blue note, atlantic, impulse! decca, brunswick, polydor, track, mca, universal republic, warner bros. afrobeat epic motown, columbia specialty, keen, rca atlantic, abc, warner bros. records studio one, beverley’s, upsetter/trojan, island/tuff gong stax, volt, atco, rhino, sundazed columbia, dot verve/mgm, bizarre/straight, discreet, zappa records, barking pumpkin records, rykodisc keynote, mercury, emarcy, roulette a&m bird notes debut esp-disk impulse! atlantic, stax, rca poppy, tomato, sugar hill atco, reprise, kapp, mca columbia, commodore,decca, verve modern, vee-jay, chess, abc/bluesway, pointblank columbia emi, a&m slash records factory sun, columbia decca, capitol debut, impulse!, candid, atlantic, blue note, mercury, columbia mercury, capricorn blue note, prestige, riverside, columbia ruthless, priority, relativity, epic rca victor, philips, bethlehem, colpix, legacy recordings albert, atlantic, atco island virgin, cavity search, kill rock stars, suicide squeeze, dreamworks, anti-, epitaph, domino island, intel-diplo columbia parlophone, hollywood cbs, sony, hellcat atco, epic, mercury, v2 rhino,, arista, warner bros., acoustic disc, grateful dead epic, sony posercorpse music verve, novus, mercury rca victor, mca, epic columbia, brunswick, impulse!, verve, victor okeh, columbia, vocalion, decca, bluebird columbia sire, radioactive, chrysalis sire, wanker rec, world service, other people’s music, corazong rca elektra, capitol jam master jay, profile parlophone, capitol, apple, vee-jay, emi, geffen bab boy stardog records, polygram savoy, dial, verve capitol, abc dunhill capitol records rca, bmg, windstar, delta, cmc, sony wonder loud megaforce, elektra rap-a-lot, trill, ugk columbia, capitol, reprise paramount, okeh aladdin (us), imperial, bluesville, prestige, verve records... polydor, columbia blackground/jive, blackground/atlantic, blackground/virgin, blackground/universal loud/rca, elektra, roc-a-fella, sure shot, nutech digital, dame dash music group/koch parlophone, capitol, apple vee-jay, emi, dark horse records library of congress, victor,folkways, stinson rhino, arista, warner bros., acoustic disc, grateful dead decca, reprise, motown, mgm, motown mca, emi mercury columbia elektra records, straight records, discreet records, rhino records fremeaux french rca victor, mca, columbia, verve, emus, pablo uni/mca, liberation/mushroom, victor, library of congress mercury, pablo stiff, capitol, passport, gigasaurus/sledgehammer, profile

alias(es) multiple luke the drifter ginny 2pac, makaveli the king

bonzo

the lizard king, mr. mojo rising ellen naomi cohen miles dewey davis iii king of the swingers charles hardin holley herman poole blount darrell lance abbott trane moon the loon, moonie, uncle ernie olufela olusegun oludotun ransome-kuti srv dale cooke brother ray, the genius

wladziu valentino liberace, walter busterkeys, walter liberace, lee liberace, liberace chefroach,... queen of the blues little bird wicked pickett

lady day

john simon ritchie bobby pyn

norma deloris egstrom skydog monk eric lynn wright ronald belford scott steven paul smith stepping razor, winston hubert mcintosh farrokh bulsara john graham mellor jerome john garcia dead traps the drum wonder waymore edward kennedy ellington lizzie douglas john william cummings douglas glenn colvin, dee dee king klaus sperber jason william mizell dr winston o’boogie, mel torment, the reverend fred gherkin biggie smalls, biggie, frank white, big poppa yardbird, bird richard shannon hoon john deutschendorf, henry deutschendorf, jd christopher lee rios, big punisher chad butler ol’ blue eyes, the chairman of the board, the voice, francis albert sinatra lemon henry jefferson sam hopkins edith giovanna gassion, la môme piaf aaliyah dana haughton russell tyrone jones,ason unique,the bebop specialist,big baby jesus,sweet baby jesus,... l’angelo misterioso, hari georgeson, spike wilbury, george harrysong, carl harrison woodrow wilson guthrie ronald c. mckernan slim, slimbillybob, huckleberry jiles perry (j.p.) richardson, jr., jape timothy charles buckley iii jean-baptiste reinhart william james basie ferdinand joseph lamothe sassy, the divine one the queen of shock rock, ultrafly

band name(s)

nirvana, fecal matter outlawz

tlc led zeppelin, band of joy, terry web and the spiders tennessee three, the highwaymen the jimi hendrix experience, gypsy sun and rainbows, band of gypsys the doors mamas and the papas miles davis quintet louis prima and his dixieland gang the crickets traveling wilburys the arkestra pantera, damageplan, rebel meets rebel, miles davis quintet, john coltrane quartet, john coltrane quintet the who africa ‘70, egypt 80, koola lobitos, nigeria ‘70 double trouble the moonglows the soul stirrers the raelettes the wailers the bar-kays

berace chefroach,...

baby jesus,... rrison

notable intrument(s) gibson l-1

the drifting cowboys fender jagstang, fender stratocaster

ludwig drum kit, paiste cymbals fender stratocaster, gibson flying v

fender stratocaster, fender telecaster

dean dimebag, washburn dimebag

fender stratocaster

gibson les paul

mothers of invention

mirror chandler baldwin grand piano gibson es-5 switchmaster gibson sg gibson les paul fender stratocaster synclavier

the carpenters

ludwig drums

midnight movers sonny and cher epiphone sheraton, epiphone sheraton ii big brother & the holding company sex pistols, siouxsie & the banshees the germs, darby crash band joy division

jazz workshop the allman brothers band, derek and the dominos, allman joys, the hour glass

fender precision bass

gibson ‘59 darkburst les paul, gibson ‘68 cherry sg

n.w.a. ac/dc, fraternity, the valentines, the spektors heatmiser the wailers alice in chains queen, wreckage, ibex the 101ers, the clash, the latino rockabilly war, the mescaleros inxs, max q grateful dead, legion of mary, reconstruction, jerry garcia band, old and in the way, jerry garcia acoustic band... ozzy osbourne, quiet riot mayhem, morbid buddy rich’s swingin’ new big band the highwaymen

fender telecaster gibson sgs, guild starfire, 1957 gibson les paul, gold-top les paul with p-90, fender stratocaster “alligator”... jackson rr signature model, karl sandoval “polka dot” custom flying v, gibson les paul cus.

ramones ramones

run dmc the beatles, plastic ono band, the dirty mac junior mafia mother love bone, malfunkshun

rickenbacker 325, epiphone casino, gibson j-160e, les paul junior

blind melon terror squad agent of misfortune, ez-street, metallica, trauma ugk

rickenbacker 4001, aria pro ii sb-1000

13th floor elevators

wu-tang clan the beatles, traveling wilburys, the quarrymen, plastic ono band almanac singers grateful dead, mother mccree’s uptown jug, champions, the warlocks

rosewood telecaster martin 000-18, gibson southern jumbo, gibson j-45

red hot chili peppers, what is this?

count basie orchestra sublime red hot peppers, new orleans rhythm kings plasmatics, ultrafly and the hometown girls

21 27

Exploring Material, Methods, Minds ANTHONY CIOE

200 years ago shipwrights were the environmentalists of their day. These skilled craftsmen constructed seafaring vessels with pieces of timber carefully selected for characteristics inherent in the wood. They surveyed the forest in search of trees that suggested the shape of a ship’s part to be constructed and utilized the grain of the wood to create strong visual elements. This technique not only resulted in a sound vessel for warfare or exploration, but was also the most efficient timber use. The method in many ways relieved the impending forest devastation that had resulted from legions of wooden ships being built at that time. The long-enduring fascination with the greater world lead to countless ships being built and launched for battle and exploration. These seafaring vessels were the equivalent of today’s modern space shuttles and great lengths were taken to construct the most physically fit model to endure the uncertainties of the ocean. Many used for expeditions of scientific study were handed down from a previous life of battle or heavy trade, making the state of repair and vulnerability of these ships at sea a constant worry. Among the many noted vessels of scientific exploration, The Descubierta, The Pizarro and The HMS Beagle remained directly and indirectly connected to one another through the explorers who navigated their courses while making noteworthy political and scientific contributions.

The Descubierta At dawn we were greeted with a spectacle as new as it was delightful, particularly to those who had not yet frequented the pleasant lands of the tropics. The shore, attractively clothed in various shades of green, the gradations of which added further contrasts to the beauty of the scene, the many birds, their songs and colouring entrirely new to us, the balsas, the canoes, the combination of houses, trees, water and craft in almost a single grouping-all reminded the admiring spectator that the extent and variety of nature exceeds, in its marvelous beauty, what even the most vivid and rapt imagination could conceive. Alejandro Malaspina sea diary entry at Guayaquil

Alejandro Malaspina, an Italian-Spanish naval officer undertook a voyage around the world from 1786 to 1788 and a scientific expedition from 1789 to 1794. Two corvettes were built for the expedition under his direction, named Descubierta (“Discovery”), and Atrevida (“Daring” or “Bold”) to honor James Cook’s Discovery and Resolution. Malaspina commanded the Descubierta and Jose Bustamante the Altrevida. The expeditions of these two ships had a specific mission in which the collection of scientific data surpassed that of Cook. This included groundbreaking research in the Tonga Islands where Cook had never even landed. Despite his great bravery and considerable achievements, changing political circumstances in Spain led to Malaspina’s imprisonment upon his return. His collections were confiscated and his journals were prohibited from publication until the late 19th century. Malaspina’s achievements remained obscure and discredited by historians until the late 20th century. Today he is regarded as one of the greatest and least known explorers of the 18th century.

over: In 1823, Peter Guillet’s Timber Merchant’s Guide was published to illustrate the practiced methodology for shipbuilding. It contained 30 lithographed plates of the trees needed to build a seventy-four gun ship of the line. See the collage on the next page where I have reconfigured and layered these 30 plates to create a forest. left: The Descubierta careened.

The Pizarro In a few hours we sail around Cape Finisterre. I shall collect plants and fossils and make astronomic observations. But that’s not the main purpose of my expedition. I shall try to find out how the forces of nature interreact upon one another and how the geographic environment influences plant and animal life. In other words I must find out about the unity of nature. ... I do not remember having ever received from the discharge of a large Leyden jar a more dreadful shock than the one I experienced when I very stupidly placed both my feet on an electric eel that had just been taken out of the water. I was affected for the rest of the day with a violent pain in the knees and almost every joint. Alexander Von Humboldt diary entry at the Orinoco and Amazon Rivers

Alexander Von Humboldt, commander of the Pizarro, credits Malaspina by describing him in thia way: “This able navigator is more famous for his misfortunes than his discoveries.” From 1799 to 1803 Humboldt was captain of the Pizarro, the same ship that conquistador Francisco Pizarro had used to conquer the Incas. But Humboldt ventured to South America not to destroy a culture but rather to gain knowledge of the indigenous people. Humboldt expressed a desire to “Observe nature directly, without benefit of any intermediary literature.” He was a hands-on explorer who is reported to have subjected himself to a variety of life threatening experiments in the name of science. In one account, for example, he writes of drinking curare, the poison used by local tribesmen in hunting arrows. Humboldt ingests the toxin to test the substance and demonstrate (fortunately) that the poison is only lethal if injected into the bloodstream. On

another occasion he reports on a companion who drinks the juice of the cow tree. This episode results in the poor man vomiting up balls of rubber. Humboldt even persuaded an accomplice, Aime Bonpland, to receive alternate shocks up to 600 volts by holding one end of an electric eel while Humboldt held the other. This tenacious adventurer also climbed the 19,000 foot summit of Chimborazo, which was the greatest height reached by any person at that time. It has been said that Humboldt’s greatest achievement on his voyage to South America was the fact that he survived. The Beagle … I have too deeply enjoyed the voyage not to recommend to any naturalist to take all chances and to start on travels by land if capable if otherwise on a long voyage. He may feel absurd, he will meet with no difficulties or dangers (excepting in rare cases) nearly so bad as he before hand imagined. In a moral point of view, the effect ought to be to teach him good humoured patience, unselfishness, the habit of acting for himself, and of making the best of everything or content… Charles Darwin from HMS Beagle sea diary

Charles Darwin who called Humboldt “The greatest scientific traveler who ever lived,” was an English naturalist who conducted a five year voyage from 1831-1836 on the Beagle. Darwin realized his theory of natural selection while on this expedition. His scientific discoveries provided an explanation for the diversity of life and remains the foundation of modern day biology. Darwin’s work, like that of his predecessors Humboldt and Malaspina, became an invaluable source of knowledge.

SOURCES Botting, Douglas. Humboldt and the Cosmos, New York: Harper & Row, 1981 David, Andrew; Fernandez-Armesto, Felipe; Novi, Carlos; Williams, Glyndwr. The Malaspina Expedition, 1789-1794: Journal of the Voyage by Alejandro Malaspina London: The Hakluyt Society, 2001 Darwin, Charles. 1809-1882 Journal of H.M.S. Beagle round the world, London: J.M. Dent & Co.; New York : E.P. Dutton & Co., 1926 Guillet, Peter. Timber Merchant’s Guide, Baltimore: J Lovegrove, 1823 Humboldt, Alexander von. Mi viaje por el Camino del Inca (1801-1802) Santiago, Chile: David Yudilevich Levy, 2004 Keynes, Richard. Darwin, ed. The Beagle Record, Cambridge University Press: 1979 Moorehead, Alen. Darwin and the Beagle, New York and Evanston: Harper & Row, 1969 Philip, George & Son. Oxford Atlas of Exploration, New York: Oxford University Press, 1997

HMS Beagle careened.

Humboldt sailed the Pizarro from Havana, Cuba (above) to Cartagena, South America.

The recorded maps of The Descubierta, The Pizarro, and The HMS Beagle’s chartered explorations reveal similar routes of navigation throughout the Pacific Ocean at different moments in history. If one were to overlay the courses of each, one would in the process mark a point of intersection where the three routes overlap just off the coast of Lima, Peru. These three vessels if launched at the same time, could have possibly collided at this geographic point. My drawing depicts an imagined scene where a ghost ship hybrid of the three vessels floats just at the point of their collision.

[As I stroked the cat’s back, it became] a sheet of light and my hand produced a shower of sparks. Is nature a cat? If so, who strokes its back? Day after day I asked myself what is electricity and found no answer. Eighty years have gone by since and I still ask the same question, unable to answer it. Nikola Tesla1

In Colonial America, lighting (also known as “The Rod of God”) was a tool for heavenly intervention. A general sense of corporal insecurity and sustained awe of God’s power inspired moral striving and helped maintain order.2 It wasn’t until the Enlightenment that the divine agency of lightning was questioned. In 1752, Benjamin Franklin’s lightning rod protection system was installed on the Academy of Philadelphia (later the University of Pennsylvania) and the Pennsylvania State House (later Independence Hall). The following year, in the 1753 issue of Poor Richard’s Almanack, Franklin published instructions for protecting houses from lightning damage.3 Some still objected to lightning protection and considered it presumptuous for man to interfere with the will of god.

This engraving shows mastery of lightning by analogy: as lightning strikes a church, the spark from a Leydon jar ignites the model of a church. In demonstrations of lightning protection systems a small chain would be attached to a wire running down the side of the model. When the spark was applied, the charge ran down the wire and chain, demonstrating how lightning rods could be used to ground the electrical charge. The chain was then removed and a second discharge was applied, this time setting the model church on fire. The effect was often exaggerated by placing a small pile of gunpowder inside.4

1. Marc J. Seifer, Wizard: The Life and Times of Nikola Tesla (Secaucus, NJ: Birch Lane Press, 1996) p 5. 2. James Delbourgo, A Most Amazing Scene of Wonders: Electricity and Enlightenment in Early America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2006) pp 64-66. 3. E. Philip Krider, “Benjamin Franklin and Lightning Rods” Physics Today, January 2006, p 42. 4. Delbourgo, pp 72-73. 5. “The Invention of the Telegraph” The Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress, U.S. Govt. retrieved March 15, 2008. http://www.loc.gov/. 6. “Telegram Passes into History” Wired Magazine, February 2, 2006. http://www.wired.com.

Across the top of the telegram, Morse gave credit to Annie Ellsworth, the young daughter of a good friend, for suggesting that he send this quote from Numbers 23:23.

Telegraphy, the long-distance transmission of written messages without the physical transport of letters, is as ancient as smoke signals and as modern as email. The first electrical telegraph line in America was established between Washington DC and Baltimore on May 24, 1844. The line officially opened when Samuel Finley Breese Morse transmitted the message “What hath God Wrought?” Morse’s early system produced a paper copy with raised dots and dashes, which were then translated by an operator.5 In 1851, Western Union was founded, and

quickly became the first communications empire. Within ten years, the company had completed the first transcontinental telegraph line. Western Union dominated the American telegraph industry during the peak years. In 1929, 20 million telegrams were sent. By 2005, the number of telegrams sent dropped to 20,000. Western Union sent its last telegram on January 27, 2006. The final messages included birthday wishes, condolences on the death of a loved one, notification of an emergency, and several people trying to be the last to send a telegram.6

top: “First telegraphic message” The Samuel F. B. Morse Papers at the Library of Congress. U.S. Govt. Retrieved April 2, 2008. www.loc.gov. far left: Engraving 1787, Delbourgo, p 73. above left: Example of modern telegraphy. above right: Wireless Infrastructure: Antenna concealed in church steeple. From Stealth Concealment Solutions, Inc. www.stealthsite.com.

The Tower In March 1901, Nikola Tesla began work on his Wardenclyffe Tower and adjacent laboratories. This “World Telegraphy Center” would transmit across both Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.7 J. Pierpont Morgan, who was the financial backer for the project, encouraged Tesla to take things one ocean at a time. When it became apparent that the Tower’s immediate profitability was not a

concern for Tesla, Morgan refused to release the remainder of the funds promised, and blackballed his efforts to secure funding from anyone else.8 Tower construction slowed and Tesla’s plans were ambushed.9 On December 13, 1901,10 Guglielmo Marconi sent the first trans-Atlantic radio transmission: three taps, Morse Code for the letter S.11 The Tower was never completed. During World War I, it was dismantled and salvaged for raw materials.12

7. In addition, the tower would employ the ionosphere to provide free wireless electricity to the world. Telsa also thought it would be possible to use the tower to end war (with his macroscopic particle beam weapon, also called the “Peace Ray”), control the weather, and light the ocean. Seifer, pp 189, 416. Nikola Tesla, “The Wonder World to be Created by Electricity,” Manufacturer’s Record, September 9, 1915. 8. Financial difficulties set in even earlier. The project was impossible to budget because Morgan himself had wreaked havoc on Wall Street: in order to regain majority holdings in his own company, Northern Pacific Railroad, he issued an order to buy back the stock at any price, effectually crashing the stock market and skyrocketing the price of steel. The cost of materials rose two to three times more than originally estimated. Meanwhile, Tesla had redesigned his tower to be twice as tall (refusing to “take it one ocean at a time.”) Seifer, pp 264-265. 9. Besides financial difficulties, the project’s architect, Stanford White (the man behind the Niagara Falls Power Plant and one of the architects of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair), was distracted by his daily courting of Evelyn Nesbit, a 16-year-old artists’ model and showgirl. Seifer, p 270. (White had outfitted one of his Manhattan apartments as the ultimate bachelor pad (despite being married) with a red velvet swing, with which to “entertain” such young women. Seifer, p 258) The affair would lead to his murder in 1906. A famous crime of passion, White was shot in the face three times, by Nesbit’s sadistic (horse whips!) and cocaine addicted husband, Harry K. Thaw, while attending a musical premiere at Madison Square Roof Garden, which White himself designed. Wardenclyff would be White’s last project. Seifer, p 322. 10. The messages were sent from Cornwall, England and received in Newfoundland on December 12 and 13, 1901. In Mark Seifer’s biography of Tesla, there is emphasis on the messages being received on Friday the 13th (during a lull in an especially miserable hail storm). Fridays and the 13th day of the month were Tesla’s favorite days (in defiance of superstition), making the news even harder for him to bear. Seifer, pp 255, 274, 315. 11. Marconi won this race by pirating Tesla’s inventions and patents. In 1904, the patent for radio was reversed and awarded to Marconi. Tesla immediately began his fight to re-acquire the patent, but it wasn’t until shortly after his death in 1943 that the U.S. Supreme Court acknowledged that Marconi’s work wasn’t original, and the patent ownership was given back to Nikola Tesla. 12. The salvaging was ordered by George Boldt, who held the deed for Wardenclyffe. Boldt was the proprietor of the WaldorfAstoria Hotel, where Tesla lived. Tesla had temporarily signed it over to him as a kind of “I owe you” for back rent. Boldt, increasingly impatient with Tesla’s strange behavior (odors emanated from his room, and he had a disurbing propensity to bring home sick and injured pigeons) demolished, the tower to make room for more viable enterprises. Seifer, pp 381-87. According to an article in The Electrical Experimenter, the federal government suspected that German spies were using the tower and thus ordered the demolition. “U.S. Blows Up Tesla Radio Tower” The Electrical Experimenter, September 1917, p 293. left: How the Wardenclyffe Tower would have looked when completed. (Drawing by Frank R. Paul; Smithsonian Institution) Seifer, p 370. over: News release from Sandia National Laboratories: “Image of Sandia’s Z machine firing. The ‘arcs and sparks’ formed at the water-air interface travel between metal conductors, generating temperatures hotter than the interior of stars.” Photo by Randy Montoya. page 38 left: Image from a 1936 Washington Post article, National Lightning Protection Company Sales Manual and Textbook, St. Louis, MO, p 22. page 39 right: Nikola Tesla’s improved lightning protector, United States Patent 1,266,175. Issued May 14, 1918, p 1.

Lightning Rods: Pointed vs Blunt He snatched lightning from the sky and the scepter from tyrants.13 The debate between pointed-tip lightning rods and blunt-tips was a political one: Benjamin Franklin advocated for the pointed rod, while his English colleagues favored blunt-tips. In 1776, while Britain and the colonies were making another kind of thunder, scientists in London were busy trying to prove the superiority of blunttipped lightning rods. Although the results of the experiments now seem moot, they were enough to convince King George III to switch out all his pointed conductors for blunt ones.14 When Franklin learned of this royal decree, he seems to have been amused, “I have no private interest in the reception of my inventions by the world, having never made nor proposed to make the least profit by any of them.” (Franklin considered it an act of philanthropy not to seek a patent for his lightning rod. This response did prove profitable: the French contributed one million livres to aid in the harassment of their longtime enemies.)15 In the United States, the lightning rod is commonly understood as a symbol of American ingenuity and inventiveness, but more specifically, the pointed rod was also a symbol of American Independence.16 Franklin’s earliest lightning systems were actually quite dangerous. By 1762, Franklin had improved his design, and this one remains the basis for all modern lightning protection codes

in the world today.17 Nikola Tesla thought that it was inviting danger to encourage lightning to strike with a lightning rod, even if the charge is almost always carried safely to the ground. Tesla’s improved system for lightning protection avoids points. Unlike Franklin’s system, which was designed to draw lightning from the clouds and carry it safely to the ground, Tesla’s system acts as a kind of lightning repellent, protecting the structure by not being struck at all.18

13. Famous epigram on Franklin, said by the late 18th century French economist, Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot. Philip Dray, Stealing God’s Thunder (New York: Random House, 2005) p 139. 14. Dray, pp 134-136. 15. Dray, p 137. 16. Dray, pp 129-136. 17. Krider, p 42. 18. Nikola Tesla, “Lightning Protector,” United States Patent 1,266,175. Issue Date: May 14, 1918.

Blitzfunk February 9, 2008: Before traveling by plane from Richmond, Virginia to Berlin, Germany, I sent myself a telegram through itelegram.com. A telegram from the US to Germany costs $29.95 + 0.89 per word, and is usually delivered within 24 hours. According to the website, my message would be transmitted by a cable to an office close to its destination, printed and delivered. Other than the novelty of it, why would someone send a telegram in an age of email and super-cheap long-distance calling? According to the FAQ section: “Naturally, telegrams are much faster than airmail. And unlike a phone call or e-mail, telegrams can be sent nearly anywhere from the busiest city to the tiniest remote village. Telegrams are an excellent way to communicate with people in remote places with poor telephone service, because telegrams are hand-delivered. [Unlike email, telegrams are legally binding documents] People use them for canceling contracts, contacting government officials and VIPs, social milestones such as weddings and graduations–or just to say “hello” in a unique way.” My reasons for sending a telegram were simple: I had never sent or received one, and I wanted to know what it was like. I found a 1922 New York Times article about “Lightning Wireless Service,” I immediately thought of cell phones and wireless Internet. But in 1922, the term “Blitzfunk” referred to an innovation in radiotelegraphy. This article seemed confusingly timeless, and just the right thing to send in a telegram to myself. So, I arrived in Berlin on February 10. It was

Sunday morning and not much was open in my neighborhood, so I figured telegraph offices were probably closed too. I spent Monday morning half-expecting a knock on the door, and a delivery person in an official telegram uniform handing me an envelope. That knock didn’t come. On the evening of February 13, my telegram still had not been delivered. Unable to find a phone number for the local telegraph office, I emailed the iTelegram Customer Service Center. After several emails were exchanged, I finally received my telegram by post on February 16, exactly one week after I sent it.

19. It seems that the Germans have an official uniform for every profession. Carpenters get to wear really cool black corduroys. above: “Lightning Strikes,” The Sydney Morning Herald, November 1, 2005, retrieved April 2, 2008. http://www.smh.com.au/. over left: Image adapted from National Lightning Protection Company Sales Manual and Catalog, St Louis MO, 1937.

Subject: Re: Order Confirmation # 22247281 On 2/13/08 4:58 PM, “iTelegram” <helpdesk@itelegram.com> wrote: Dear Lily Cox-Richard, Delivery was attempted 11 Feb and refused - no such person - returned to post office. We can attempt redelivery at your request, a charge of $25 will apply. Please reply if you would like another delivery attempted. Regards, Customer Service Centre iTelegram

When You Discover Luxury... A series of destinctive perfume bottles brought to you by ELI KESSLER

50 44

NOBLE IDOL ROBE: 1910 Odd Fellows Lodge robe, 100% velvet with gold embellishments; altered with 2007 Enyce track jacket, 87% polyester/13% cotton

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Being Lost CHRISTOPHER MAHONSKI

52 62

Children are prone to wandering, can have erratic sleep patterns and may not understand the consequences of their actions, such as going out in the cold without warm clothing.

Can you see the top from where you are? No, I don’t think so.

You can’t open any of the doors, last night it rained three feet of glass.

Stay together, don’t wander

Sometimes the tracks disappear.

Makeshift.

By this point you talk to objects around you as if they were your closest friends.

The wristwatch battery expires.

63 73

A Curious Conceit: The Maypole Research Model DAVID GRAINGER

64 74

Sublimity consists in a certain excellence and distinction in

does not pretend to be complete and analytical. It follows

expression … for the effect of elevated language is, not to

a process of whimsy. It examines and is the convergence of

persuade the hearers, but to entrance them; and at all times, and

poetics and procedure, itself an example of the very thing it

in every way, what transports us with wonder is more telling than

addresses.

what merely persuades or gratifies us.1 PLATO

LONGINUS

… He is not able to make poetry until he becomes inspired Modern dance is too talkative and expresses too much.

and goes out of his mind and his intellect is no longer in

OHNO KAZUO

him. As long as a human being has his intellect in his

Futility … is nearer the art experience than excitement. Yet, the

possession he will always lack the power to make poetry

life–forcer is always trying to incite a fake madness. The mind is

or sing prophesy… that’s because it is not by mastery, but

important, but only when it is empty. The greater the emptiness,

because it is by a divine gift.4

the grander the art.3 ROBERT SMITHSON

In Plato’s Ion, Socrates talks circles around a bewildered orator.5 The philosopher distinguishes between artists who

In a maypole ceremony, maidens in brightly colored dresses

master a skill and those who are simply possessed by a divine

braid together separate strands of flowing ribbon in a

spirit. According to this distinction, Ion, a rhapsode, renowned

metered, rhythmic dance. Substitute my observations for the

for his moving poetic orations, is not a true master of his art.

maidens and their ribbons and, if you have the patience to

He admits he can give a powerful performance only when

bear with a few strange beginnings, I’ll weave together these

he recites Homer, and he confesses that Hesiod bores him to

strands. This collection of historical information, texts, and

no end. All those who entertain by reciting poetry, Socrates

stories begins to lay a framework that illustrates something

explains, are possessed by a particular muse and moved by

massive and invisible, something as subjective as a person’s

a rapture that is out of their control. Their poetry is madness,

curiosity.

an uncontrollable force. Like a ring that touches a magnet

This is a casual but resolute interrogation. It is not a

and, thereby, gains the power to attract other rings, divine

factual scholarly article. What follows is a gathered bundle of

inspiration flows to Ion from the Homeric muse, so that he

texts and stories that relate to questions of inspiration and

may move his audience. True artists, like doctors, study their

research, two experiences the artist undergoes. This article

material and become masters. On the other hand, singers,

dancers, and other public performers only dance to certain

darkness for him was an absence. Goethe’s experiments were

songs or sing certain styles. Perhaps in a contemporary

altogether different: observing light only in the presence of

version Ion would be replaced by a popular entertainer

a complementary dark space, the poet found unique spectra

(rapper instead of rhapsode), and the truly skilled masters by

along the borders of shadow and light. The pronounced

the ‘art world.’

cyan and yellow at the intersection of dark and light were

Socrates proves to Ion that he cannot be both a master

missing in Newton’s experiments. Goethe’s process shows a

and divinely inspired. But is there a middle ground today,

humanistic way of looking at the world, and reveals his poetic

perhaps related to ‘performance art’? Can mastery of a skill

sensibilities through an alternate scientific process.

coexist with ‘divine possession’? Can the contemporary artist

bend Socrates’ rule, blur the boundaries, or ignore them? How

VERTOV

do we, in light of this distinction, approach ‘research’? After all,

A little man armed with a movie camera leaves the little

if an artist moves only when a muse calls, and has no skilled

fake world of the Film Factory and heads for life.7

judgment otherwise, what is the point of research? This is how Dziga Vertov explains his film The Man with the GOETHE

Movie Camera. He abandoned the dark box of the film studio,

Plato is … making a nasty joke on poetry, by attacking with

and recorded banal events as they happened, in the light

‘Aristophanic malice’ its claims to inspiration. This was the

of day. Outside the cave of the studio, he thought the true

verdict of Goethe.

existence of things could be seen and recorded.

In this film, Vertov takes pains to implicate the camera Johann Goethe may have defied Plato’s distinction. For 40

repeatedly, reminding the audience of the techniques that

years, all throughout his literary career, Goethe maintained a

are used to create the work. He doesn’t do this just once, but

rigorous scientific research practice, observing light through

makes sure to underline over and over the mechanics of the

prisms and the camera obscura. The poet must not have

shooting and editing processes. The movie actually depicts

been completely out of his wits. Although his conclusions

the film projector being turned on, the camera opening its

about optics differed from Newton’s, they are held up today

aperture. Scenes reveal the editing process—with his editor

as equally valid.

and cameramen as actors in the film. He creates a montage of

Sir Isaac Newton treated white light as a complete thing in itself, and separated it into all the colors of the rainbow;

his cameraman filming while on a moving car, followed by the footage from the moving car’s vantage point.

It occurs to me that these moments in the film address what Walter Benjamin calls distraction: “Distraction and

are also caves for conception, flashing images projected into black rooms, where something may come alive.

concentration form polar opposites which may be stated

Here, things just keep percolating. Mike Kelley’s early

as follows: A man who concentrates before a work of art is

performances strike me as attempts to harness an overflow

absorbed by it … In contrast, the distracted mass absorbs the

of internal sludge and creative juice. Of course, maybe my

[film].” Viewers can concentrate on traditional artworks and

imagination makes them larger than life. After extensive

have the freedom to turn away from them. Film technologies

research, he would string together different sources,

hide the tools of illusion—the mechanics of the camera and

structuring text in ways that were uncommon, that found

the editing process; thus, Benjamin says we are held in a film’s

their own logic. In Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s

frame with no reference to its making. We consume the film in

Profile, Kelley used the repeating possessive apostrophe as

a state of distraction as it flows in a perfectly lifelike way.

the textual lynchpin that held the piece together. As I look

Reminding the viewer of the camera’s existence, Dziga Vertov makes us aware of the illusion of the film. The audience

through the images, I can only imagine the grandeur of the linguistic spectacle.

is not alone; they more directly experience the creative process

In Let it Bleed Colin Gardner describes Kelley’s actions in

and consider the camera together with the actors and director.

this way: “Kelley’s performances, with their endless streams of

It is a coming together, a removal of distraction.

metonymic associations, tangential blind alleys, and shifting nodal points, defy one’s ability to reduce them to a rational

KELLEY

sense. They are driftworks, nomadic rhizomes, in which linear

When spelunking sometimes you have to stoop …

non sequiturs vie with repetition and circularity in an endless,

sometimes you have to go on all fours, sometimes even

aporetic exchange.”11 I like to think that this relates to my

crawl … Crawl Worm!9

research. This roundabout connecting of information doesn’t ‘make sense’ in a conventional way, it makes sense through

Mikhail Bakhtin tells us that the cave is a place for conception.

creative understanding; Kelley’s performances are a stir-stick

In older texts, Jesus was born in a cave, not a barn. As was

for inner eruptions and pooling stews. Is this the unskilled,

Mithra, an ancient Persian deity. The cave is also the grotto,

‘divine inspiration’ that Plato accused the rhapsodes of

which gave us the grotesque: “Grotesque realism knows no

exploiting? Is this the uncontrollable flow of poetic language

other level; it is the fruitful earth and the womb. It is always

and ‘rhetoric’ that he condemned?

conceiving.” The camera obscura and a darkened theater 10

In an interview, Mike Kelley states that people

interpreted his work as having to do with adolescent anxieties

a quick and essential improvisation, bumping around

or some repressed personal pathology. Although he didn’t

blindly. The dancers use shaking, improvised grotesque

agree with this assessment, Kelley decided the truth didn’t

representations, extreme contorted facial expressions, and

matter. He made more work that fulfilled these expectations

quick chameleon-like shifts of subject. One moment the

and gave audiences what they wanted. Is this like Vertov,

dancer is acting as a tree, the next moment he is a bird in the

revealing the workings of the editing process? Does it go a

tree, the next he is the wind, and so on. This is like an inspired

step beyond, giving the audience a say in what stays on the

rhetorical shift from one object to the next. The thing itself is

cutting-room floor?

dematerialized into a physical utterance, melted and mystified

With divinely inspired poetry, the sublime expression

that Longinus describes, the flow of ideas carries the

for the purpose of entrancing an audience.

DUNCAN

audience, not the rigor of research or the rationality of an

Her discovery comprehended no limitations, since she

argument. Research for an artist need not be based on logic

found that movement springs from an inner impulse, then

or on mastery of a skill. Ion and Kelley convince by their

radiates and returns in a never ending wave of renewal. She

elevated language, the sublime rhetorical force that is given

fixed no style, or form, but found a confirmation of what

to them from on high or from down below. It’s a spectacle

had been revealed to her, in the attitudes and gestures of

of language, connecting and making sense of the logically

antique Greek sculpture . . .13

incongruous, streamers tied up in a complementary braid of colors. I see similarities between Mike Kelley and Tatsumi

Irma Duncan could just as well be describing a Butoh dancer. Instead she describes the American dancer, her foster mother,

Hijikata’s dance style, Butoh. Perhaps they are slight and

Isadora Duncan. The warm day to Hijikata’s night, Duncan is

inconsequential (I don’t know. I am wrapped up in my own

my ideal of the maypole dancer—a chiffon-robed, barefooted

knot-tying enterprise). But compare Kelley’s Silent Screaming

maiden, exuberantly skipping through the springtime breeze.

Clown with the silent scream of the Butoh dancer, both faces

Both revolutionary figures in modern dance, Hijikata and

blanched white with make-up. Or the simulated sex with

Duncan are to me updated versions of Plato’s hapless Ion. If they

teddy bears in Kelley’s Nostalgic Depiction of the Innocence

have mastered anything, it is the pursuit of their own muse.

of Childhood compared with Hijikata’s exploration of adolescence and sexual energy in Revolt of the Flesh. Butoh is literally “dance of darkness.” The dark begets

Isadora was admittedly unable to teach her techniques; you either watched and learned, caught the wave of inspiration, or you did not. But her foster daughter Irma passed

the forms down in lessons and in text. In the small booklet The Technique of Isadora Duncan, Irma writes of her teacher: It has been maintained by many, that Isadora Duncan had no technique; that she was a ‘dilettante of genius.’ It has also been said that she had no basic knowledge of the technique of the dance and although she produced something entirely new in our time, her execution betrayed her secret. She was an ‘amateur.’14

The braid is finished for now; this end is adequate and well fit. These are all artists or texts I find interesting and thus research. But my concern has been not to deepen any field of thought, so much as create a rhetorical quilt, weaving one idea alongside the next. For some of us, the Platonic ideal of mastery is not the goal. I see the real singular ‘truth’ as a myth that has persisted from ancient roots up to today’s spring

NOTES 1. Longinus, “On the Sublime,” Classical Literary Criticism, T.S. Dorsch, ed. and tran., p. 100. 2. Ohno Kazuo, from Butoh: Body on the Edge of Crisis, Audio Plus Video, Northvale, NJ, 89 min., 2001. 3. Robert Smithson, “An Esthetics of Disappointment.” 4. Plato, “Ion” (534b), Two Comic Dialogues, Paul Woodruff, trans., Hacket Publishing Company, p. 26. 5. Plato’s dialogues are rigged! Socrates always talks with a one dimensional character whose sole existence was to agree with the point made, spur the master towards excellence, and eventually be proven completely wrong in his assumptions. Wouldn’t a conversation with a person who was always right be maddening? 6. Translator’s note in Two Comic Dialogues, Paul Woodruff, trans., p. 9.

7. Graham Roberts, The Man With the Movie Camera, I.B. Tauris Publishers, New York, 2000, p. 54. 8. Walter Benjamin, “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” 9. Mike Kelley, text from Exploring, 1985. 10. Mikhail Bakhtin, Rabelais and His World, Helene Iswolsky, trans., Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1965, p. 21. 11. Colin Gardner, Let it Bleed: The Sublime and Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile, Mike Kelley Catholic Tastes, Elizabeth Sussman ed., p. 116. 12. Interview, PBS, Art: 21, Season 1, 2001. 13. Irma Duncan, Technique of Isadora Duncan, Dance Horizons, 1970, p. x. 14. ibid. p. xi.

blossoms, just budding. We commemorate spring by the tying up of a maypole; a celebration not of what we know, but of how beautiful we can be. The singers and dancers that weave make their way through divine inspiration. They do not understand or comprehend; they are out of their minds, following one ribbon to the next.

IMAGE NOTES Sanae Hiruta in Hibari to Nejaka. Painting of Socrates. Maypole festivities, April 30, 2006. Goethe’s color spectra viewed through a prism, projected onto a wall. Mike Kelley, Nostalgic Depiction of the Innocence of Childhood, 1990. Still from The Man with the Movie Camera, 1929. Byakko-Sha featuring Sanae Hiruta performing Hibari to Nejaka. Mike Kelley, The Silent Scream, 1984. Cave. Still from The Man with the Movie Camera, 1929. Performer from Hakutobo Company in Hitu Uchuno Magdelena. Mike Kelley, installation view; Plato’s Cave, Rothko’s Chapel, Lincoln’s Profile, 1987. Newton’s color spectra. Painting of Goethe. Isadora Duncan dancing with group.

The Migrations of Two Edible Fruits MARIA PITHARA

72 82

The Fig (Ficus Carica)

the Carolinas and Virginia. I have heard of immigrants from Southern Europe diligently raising fig trees in New York,

Warblers, bats–which at night I sometimes mistake for

covering them with blankets in the winter, even burying

swallows–and humans all like figs. The fig, though modest

them in the ground. I forgive this battle against the nature of

in appearance, is stunningly extravagant in flavor. Unlike all

the tree, which loves warmth and dryness. Maybe someday I

other plants, it conceals its flowers inside its fruit. Courtesy

will fight it too.

of the tree in my mother’s garden, I have eaten thousands of flowers. I had been in the U.S. for five years before encountering a fig tree. When I came across one, barely 4

The Pomegranate (Punica Granatum)

feet tall, I was more confused than delighted. Where had it come from? I thought that I had brought with me the ghost

In the garden, next to the fig tree is a row of dainty

of the fig. But of course the tree, most likely as a handful

pomegranates, a present from my grandfather. Their orange

of seeds, had crossed the Atlantic some five hundred years

flowers are not my favorite. The beauty of their fruit however,

before me. It was introduced to Cuba and Bermuda in the

which ripens amidst the melancholy of fall, cannot be

15th century by Spanish explorers. From there, it traveled to

disputed. Come October, I am ready for the ritual of de-seeding the juicy pomegranate. I cut the fruit in half and immerse it in water. Then I dig and peel. Its yellow skin becomes buried under my fingernails; my shirt is irreparably stained fuschia; but to take in the color of its floating arils gives me great pleasure. Some claim that we have misread Eden’s forbidden fruit as an apple, that it was in fact a pomegranate–whose first name in Europe was pomme granate (seeded apple)–that tempted Eve. I have yet to see a pomegranate tree–which is stubborn and refuses to be tricked into fruiting–on this side of the Atlantic, but I know that orchards in California prolifically produce cultivars with names like Wonderful, King or Cloud. The absence of the pomegranate in the landscape of my everyday life perversely preserves for me a sense of order. In a similar manner, the knowledge that figs grown in the eastern United States don’t taste as good as those from the Mediterranean, comforts me. Here and there remain disentangled. But on the rare occasion that I come upon a fig tree, fragile and out of place, I am no longer confused. Its presence reminds me that plants, like people, are always on the move. They are part of the story of migration and the acute desire that follows it: to weave into the present a reminder of the past that allows us, even if temporarily, to take roots in new terrains.

Some true events and hypothetical instances in the westward journey of the pomegranate. In the summer of 329 B.C., Alexander of Macedonia crosses the Oxus river and enters the Persian province of Sogdia. In this alien terrain, the arid steppe of what is now northern Afghanistan, the king and his men encounter so brutal a resistance that their days can only be lived as a strange hallucination. Lost in the remote depths of Asia, with only the murky Oxus as a respite from the harshness of the land, they fight in a numb haze. After many lost soldiers and horrific

injuries-many sustained by the king himself- Sogdia is annexed onto Alexander’s growing empire. At this moment of abating crisis, a Bactrian captive, attractive and bold, performs a notoriously seductive dance for the king. Then and there, Alexander chooses his first official wife. In a simple ceremonial gesture—the sharing of bread cut by his sword—Alexander makes Roxane the woman who will bear the heir to the throne. Willingly, young Roxane is tied for life to a complex man, intelligent but belligerent, emotionally awkward and sexually conflicted; a man who is followed by many ghosts and a feeling of isolation he cannot shake. They travel further east. On occasion, he visits her chamber. He shows an interest in Persian ways that surprises her. She continues to dance for him, now in private. She shares with him the fruits of the land that had been for the Greeks the backdrop to a nightmare: the sweet melon and the tart pomegranate. Is it possible that in Roxane, Alexander, whose thirst

for expansion increasingly alienates him from other Greeks, finds an unexpected companion? In 326, the Greek army crosses the Hydaspes river, where it fights a last blood-soaked battle before turning to Babylon. Luxurious Babylon is where Alexander’s life ends, four months before Roxane gives birth to his son. He never returns to Greece. Perhaps he had no longer held such a desire. Roxane will also never return to her home country. I follow Roxane to Amphipolis, the hilly Macedonian city that overlooks the river Strymon. She is forced to come here so that her son’s rigorous education can begin. The Macedonians find her crude despite her beauty; to them she is a barbarian. She, in turn, dislikes the austere women of Greek aristocracy; to her, their etiquette is jarring. In a few years Roxane and her son will be murdered. Before that, in an effort to protect her son’s right to the throne, Roxane will become a murderer herself. But she has not yet hardened. She is thinskinned and distrustful of the winding river, which her chamber overlooks. The gentle curve of the hills makes her dizzy. The proximity of the blue Aegean only reminds her of how irrevocably separated she is from Persia. She misses the wide honest Oxus, the directness of the plateau, the nakedness of the plains that lie beyond it. She misses the fragrant gardens of Persia. She longs for the slow and erotic rhythm of her old life. It is this transplanted queen, who was once vivacious and is now dispirited, that I imagine bringing the pomegranate to Greece as a private consolation to her sorrow. In her first month in Amphipolis, Roxane plants a seedling in her garden and waits for its fruit to come. When at four years of age the tree bears fruit, Roxane receives an unexpected visitor. It is the botanist Theophrastus. Theophrastus, who had studied with Alexander as an adolescent, remembers the late king as clever but impatient. When news had reached him that

Alexander had killed the historian Callisthenes, who both Theophrastus and Alexander had loved in childhood, Theophrastus had been devastated. At first, he says nothing to Roxane, though she understands more Greek than he thinks. After a few moments of silence, he begins to speak slowly about a fruit that the royal scientists had recorded, a toughskinned apple with ruby-colored seeds. The queen shows Theophrastus her garden, where she picks for him the largest pomegranate. With this old man whom she has never met before, the first to ask about Persia, she shares her private comfort. She tells him everything she knows about the fruit and its uses. Like this, I envision Roxane giving to Greece, a country she does not love, the gift of the pomegranate.

and more reserved than his peers, Ibn al-Baytar feels the urge to seek order in everything around him. By the time he is 20, Ibn al-Baytar is convinced that Al-Andalus is too small for him, or that he is too big for Al-Andalus. His teacher encourages him to travel east, towards the great cities of Islam. So in 1219, he gains permission to board a cargo boat carrying Andalusian silk to Tripoli. He is determined to execute an ambitious project: a comprehensive compendium of plants growing in the Mediterranean. He travels this good-humored sea on various boats, discovering new plants and meeting great masters of science. After seven years of wandering, he lands in Adalia, on the southern coast of Asia Minor. Here he stays for two nights. His next stop is in Cairo, where he becomes chief botanist for the governor al-Kamil. He eventually travels to Damascus. There in 1248 he dies, alone but distinguished.

Some fictitious moments relating to the fig, arising from what is known about a lover of botany. At the southernmost region of Western Europe, hanging just above Africa, is the fertile peninsula of Iberia. From 711 until 1492 it is under Muslim rule, a territory belonging to two worlds. Al-Andalus, as the land is called, is saturated with the vibrant colors of Islamic art and shaped with the severe geometry of its architecture. Ibn al-Baytar, the veterinarian’s son, is born here at the end of the 12th century, raised in a climate of tolerance and intellectual curiosity. His hometown is Malaga. It is a lively port city of perpetual celebration and indeterminate waiting where boats stay docked for weeks waiting for the wind Levanter to pass. The boy studies botany with Abu al-Abbas al Nabati and collects plants with his teacher in and around Spain. A curious and quick learner, he is particularly fascinated with plants of a medicinal nature. Better mannered

One August night, Ibn al-Baytar’s last in the sweet port city of Adalia, the sea breeze tempers the heat and uplifts his spirits. He reluctantly accepts an invitation to drink with his ship’s captain, who like him is an Andalusian. They are joined by a mediocre geographer from Bugia. The three men drink fig raki, a specialty of the province of Mersine. Al-Baytar’s face wears an expression of uneasiness. Adalia’s mild carelessness reminds him of Malaga. Indeed many of the ports he has passed through resemble the one in which he was born, yet none conjure in him any feelings of nostalgia. He wonders how he has come to know with such conviction that he will never return to Spain. The captain asks the geographer if he has ever tasted a fig from Malaga. He replies to the captain that he has not, but asks “How can they possibly be any sweeter than the heavenly figs of Caria?” The captain asserts that Malagan figs, which are currently in fashion and in high demand across the Islamic world, are far superior. Ibn al-Baytar, who usually avoids drinking feels the strong raki burning his insides. He

remembers three things about the figs of Malaga: The branches of the trees hung so low that as a child he could pick the fruit without having to stand on his toes. The figs were so irresistible that at ten he stole a whole basket of figs that had been left out to dry on the roof. As a young man traveling with his teacher in Castile he had carried with him a basket of carefully selected figs from Malaga, seeking to trade them for a copy of Dioscorides’s herbal. A merchant from Bruges accepted the figs but never honored his part of the deal. “Surely the botanist can tell us which figs are the best.” says the captain. But Ibn al-Baytar does not reply. He finishes his drink and leaves. Yet later he wonders if it is possible for a fig tree to grow in Bruges. He makes a plan to someday visit the Christian lands, even if they are too cold for anything important to grow. The following morning Ibn al-Baytar searches the docks of Adalia for a boat carrying Malagan figs. When he finds one, he pays good money for a basket,

and gives these to the same geographer who had the previous evening discussed the relative merits of figs with the ship’s captain. The geographer, now en route to Egypt had the night before declared that region to be a place wondrously fertile, but one that produced figs few and dull. The Egyptian governor will later receive the figs, deem them exquisite, and seek to establish a trade route of Malagan figs into Egypt. In this way, Ibn al-Baytar will introduce to Egypt, where he will live most of his life, the sweet and well-regarded figs of the country that raised him.

On Jest, Propriety and Rhetoric The 2006 White House correspondents’ dinner marked one of the most pertinent and last known sightings of the increasingly endangered creature called the Court Jester. Stephen Colbert, in reprise of the historic role, launched social and political commentary in the guise of parody, directly addressing George W. Bush and his administration. The performance was an updated recasting of the court jester in almost every way. Colbert’s buffoonery gave him license to say and do that which would be called inappropriate according to common custom. Rather than the traditional cockscomb and bauble, he wore a crisp suit and glasses, perhaps the most apt costume possible. His delivery was as sharp as his feigned dimwittedness. The mild controversy that followed seemed to revolve around two major issues: whether Colbert had been inappropriate in his politics, and whether or not he had been funny. Interestingly, the two are mutually implicating. Satirical humour relies on the notion of the “inappropriate” to be funny, while failure to be funny makes any political commentary a moot point. It is not at all surprising that Colbert gave such an address, in fact most would easily have predicted it. The utterly surprising fact is that he was given the venue — that somebody in power hired a specialist for the specific task of belittling their own regime, whether for entertainment or catharsis. This is a sociological phenomenon that spans as far back as ancient Egypt, where a fool is given license to speak out of turn simply for the reason that he is as a character out of turn. A wide-ranging tradition, court jesters are found throughout history in empires as diverse as Bavaria, China and Bohemia. The jester not only humiliates the King, he gets paid for it; he is a master of impropriety. In the tenuous shift between critic and entertainer, the jester resides in the margins of the “inappropriate”. This is a vastly grey area in which the dynamic standards of social and behavioral decorum are delineated. An act of satire presupposes the above and therein encodes a culture’s system of taboo.

Take the two following qualities of humour: 1) humour is among the most difficult skills to master in a foreign language and 2) humour is among the most universal of pre-lingual interaction. While both points have independently accumulated scholarship, as joint phenomena they have paradoxical implications. The latter, that humour is highly accessible in pre-lingual exchanges (or in transactions without a common language), implies that ‘funny’ is trans-cultural, or at least trans-linguistic. The former, that humour is a difficult skill to acquire in a foreign tongue, implies great inaccessibility to those outside the cultural norm, refuting the notion of trans-culturality.1 This phenomenon is most apparent to those undergoing cultural migration, especially in fast-changing societies. Directly following the attacks of September 11, 2001, I found myself in a community of newly-arrived immigrants with varying levels of English proficiency. A blanket of taboo had covered much of the public discourse concerning the events, and people were in general at a loss as to what could be addressed, and in what manner. Uncertain as to what was and wasn’t appropriate fodder, the group would watch Comedy Central and Saturday Night Live for cues. The tonal transition from grave to tongue-in-cheek to downright sarcastic indicated changes in the greater ethos and reflected the dynamic standards of propriety at large. Had the advent of post-9/11 jesting occurred two months prior, it would have been in bad taste. The delivery and subtext of each punch line conveyed the incredibly complicated and nuanced map of when and what issues were mentionable, at least in the mainstream. This function of jest is precisely what Mary Douglas articulates in the incongruence theory of humour: that jokes are expressive of the social context in which they arise. The thought is that incongruences in a joke reflect incongruences in the surrounding social structure, and vice-versa.2

1. Of course, the obvious gap in this analysis is that I have not differentiated between types of humour, whether there are classes of jest for which there may be varying classes of analyses. I have also not accounted for the leap from language to culture, which rests on certain anthropological and linguistic assumptions. 2. Mary Douglas, “The Social Control of Cognition: Some Factors in Joke Perception.” Man: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3 (1968): 375.

The line between whether something is funny or inappropriate also demonstrates the contractual relation between jester and audience; both jester and audience must be in agreement as to the basic standard of propriety, since in jest this standard is constantly befouled. A Saturday Night Live joke about Freedom Fries, for instance, assumes of the audience an agreement that government-endorsed anti-French sentiment is both petty and absurd. Had the audience at large been of the same mind as Representative Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio), the joke would have fallen on deaf ears or simply seemed nonsensical.3 The appearance of this joke in the mainstream tells us that Representative Ney is in the minority, and that making light of misplaced patriotism is permissible. The broadcast of humour containing embedded assumptions has also been used historically to propagate what is and isn’t the majority view. In the same manner that a Freedom Fries joke marginalizes Representative Ney’s beliefs, a jest also positively reinforces ideologies. David Chappelle’s performance as Clayton Bigsby, the blind white supremacist unaware that he is black, reinforces an agenda of tolerance by rendering intolerance absurd. If I do not find this absurd however, the parody falls flat. I might be offended for example, were I a white supremacist, or find the entire premise tragic if I naively took Chappelle’s depiction to be sincere. Contrarily if I do find it absurd, then I have already acquiesced to at least some part of Chappelle’s premises on race-relations. To find something funny requires an agreement of assumptions, and this can be used as rhetoric. The thought process goes like this: if I find a joke funny, I must comply to some degree with its premises. Laughing becomes a marker for my agreement with the notion of absurd, whatever my convictions prior. That is, my laughter proves the joke’s communicability and grants the jest its presuppositions.

This rhetorical function of jest is precisely the facet that grants it influence. In amendment to the incongruence theory of humour, Michael Mulkay turns to the socially disruptive possibilities of jest.4 Assumed agreement on the notions of ‘absurd’, ‘appropriate’ and ‘funny’ allow humour the capacity to be deterministic, rather than merely reflective. This is clearest in the mainstream, where the perception of popular opinion is at its strongest. Of course, mainstream media may not comprehensively reflect a society’s ethos. For those alien to the cultural discourse however, the simplicity of the mainstream provides accessibility to at least some guise of popular perception. It is a convenient fiction that stands in for an inconvenient truth. That the mainstream is indicative of the majority is clearly problematic, but as a marker for popular consumption it is a convenient carrier of social dogma. King Lear’s fool, for example, tells us more about the Elizabethan dynamics of power than a straightforward historical account, simply because it tells of the zeitgeist rather than the mere facts. A jester’s satire communicates not only the attitude of the King’s critics, but also the King’s greatest fears and insecurities. That is, a jest tells us about the King’s ego because the satirist must prod it without deflating it. On the Difference between Buffoons and Jesters Before we turn to historical analysis, the distinction between a buffoon and a jester is of the utmost importance. The flatfooted distinction is simple: the jester is a wiseass, and the buffoon a dumbass. While this articulates the gist of the difference, it is a little dismissive to conflate the nuances of the jester under the blanket term ‘fool’. Historically, courts were entertained by a great variety of fools, most of which were made spectacle of by virtue of perceived physical or mental deficiency. Dwarves, madmen, and exotics held entertainment value

3. On March 11, 2003, Representative Ney as Chairman of the Committee on House Administration Representatives declared that all references to French fries and French toast in restaurants and snack bars run by the House of Representatives be removed. Such food establishments were ordered to rename French fries “freedom fries”. 4. Michael Mulkay, On Humor: Its Nature and Place in Modern Society. (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988), p.176

simply because of their natural traits, while jesters appropriated imbecilic mannerisms for the purpose of satire. While both buffoons and jesters might have employed specialized talents such as minstrelsy, juggling or acrobatics, the jester remains the only truly meritocratically appointed post. Even if a dwarf lacked all talent, as an oddity he would have inevitably provided entertainment, however callous. After all a dwarf might be a poor juggler, but he can never really be a poor dwarf. A jester who is bad at jesting on the other hand, is a bad jester. Of course dwarves often filled the post of court jester, but their success depended on wit rather than height, although the latter was regularly used in service of the former. As such, jesting requires the difficult coupling of two perilous elements: humour with critical commentary. Should the jester fail at providing laughter, he is simply an uncouth advisor. Should he fail at providing a critical voice, he is no more than a buffoon. Both elements are required in concert. This distinction goes back to the 12th century where a “natural” fool is contrasted with an “artificial” one. The distinction arises out of the practical concern that a “natural” fool may require specialized treatment or care. “Natural” fools, afflicted with their ailments by birth, exhibit physical deformity or mental disability. As such, many would require a caretaker or warden. Hence dwarves, madmen and other “natural” fools were commonly perceived as sub-human, even if treated humanely. Often they would have equivalent status to that of pets, potentially resulting in either loving or abusive treatment.5 Conversely the “artificial” fool does not require a valet or warden because he merely acts the fool. It should be noted here that this distinction is more pertinent to Europe than elsewhere in the world for the fact that true madmen and other oddities do not appear for the most part in the courts of other traditions. This concentration of “natural” fools in the European tradition is the exception as elsewhere courts almost solely appointed jesters in full command of their faculties.6 This discrepancy suggests several problematic hypotheses about Europe’s

relationship to exoticism, which are unfortunately just beyond the scope of this writing. That said, it must be emphasized that jesting is a skill, and buffoonery a condition. On the Difference between Advisors and Jesters Where buffoons lack the wit to give critique of the regime, royal advisors lack license. Even the most tactful of Presidential advisors are to some degree censored by their very use of tact. In fact, tact itself is an indication of the risk entailed in expressing too rousing a view. This is precisely the arena in which the jester maintains his post, intentionally perpetuating tactlessness. Playing the fool affords the jester the agency to launch serious critique without a tonal severity. This allows the King the option of dismissing sardonic criticism as comedy to preserve the perception of

5. Enid Welsford, The Fool: His Social and Literary History (London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1935), p. 119 6. Beatice K. Otto, Fools Are Everywhere (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001) p. 37

power. Er Shi, the last emperor of the Qin dynasty once decided to lacquer the Great Wall so that it would be too slippery for intruders to climb. All his advisors feared retribution for speaking against the emperor’s ludicrous venture and it was left to his jester, Jester Twisty Pole, to dissuade his monarch. To do so, Twisty Pole overzealously embraced the project, championing it as genius and worthy of the countless hours of labour and sacrifice required. He concluded by getting to the practical part of the project, stating, “The laquering’s easy enough, but building the drying room may present a problem or two.”7 With this the Emperor laughed and abandoned the idea. In terms of rhetoric, no amount of rational argument could have dissuaded the Emperor and as such, his advisors were helpless. That said, Jester Twisty Pole does not simply fool his way into dissuading the Emperor. He actually utilizes a classical apagogical argument, but masks it in humour for the sake of Er Shi’s ego. Reductio ad absurdum is one of the standby weapons in the jester’s arsenal and is perhaps the only logical device accepted in his rhetoric. That is to say, if everything about the jester’s parody is foolish, then the only thing left to take seriously is an appeal to absurdity. In this manner a jester provides the voice of reason with no good appeal to reason whatsoever. On Authenticity and Liminality Naturally, this position was highly coveted and many of those wishing direct and open audience with the King would try to pass themselves off as jesters. These false jesters become a problem in 15th century Scotland and the “Act for the Awayputting of Feynet fools” is passed, administering punishments ranging from ear-nailing to amputation.8 The question of authenticity is curious, since the criteria for being a jester is wholly ambiguous. On the one hand there seems little difference between an inauthentic jester and an unsuccessful one. On the other, an extremely funny advisor does not necessarily gain jester status. Even if Bill O’Reilly were to hone his comic delivery and blanket his broadcast with gut-busting

hilarity, he would still never quite be Stephen Colbert. Any attempt would result in O’Reilly masquerading as Colbert, who already masquerades as an O’Reilly-like character. The selfreflexivity would collapse into a hermetically sealed cycle leaving no room for external commentary. Put simply, the jester who advises and the advisor who jests are completely different species. This is not to say that a jester cannot exhibit erudition. Some jesters, such as Solomon Jacob Morgenstern of Germany, were quite entrenched in academia. Morgenstern not only studied Philosophy at Leipzig, but taught history and published volumes on Russian Law. In fact, Morgenstern organized and hosted one of the earliest symposiums on Folly in 1737.9 As elusive as the necessary conditions for being a jester seem, it is fitting that jesterdom deny easy definition. It is just this elusiveness that brings me to Victor Turner’s concept of liminality. Borrowed from anthropological analysis of rites of passage, the notion of liminal states introduces a cleaner vocabulary to explain the jester’s peculiar status. Rites of passage often involve an initiation period in which individuals become wholly ambiguous, where they are as Turner defines, “betwixt and between the positions assigned and arrayed by law, custom, convention, and ceremony.”10 The classic example is that of adolescents, who subsist as neither child nor adult, typified by social, economic and sexual ambiguity. Usually this is a temporary state of transition in which the conventions of a society are turned on their head. There are cases however, of liminality functioning as a more lasting and precarious

7. ibid, p. 128 8. ibid, p. 36 9. Welsford, p. 189 10. Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-structure (Chicago: Aldine Transaction, 1969), p. 95

condition. The concept is frequently used in analysis of religious figures for which liminality is a signifier of divinity. Jesus Christ for example, is neither God nor man, prince nor pauper, and perhaps all of the above. His earthly origin is strangely auspicious regarding Mary’s ambiguous chastity, and even his social status as a blue-collar carpenter with an entourage of fishermen is offset by his sagacity, political influence and entitlement as “King of Kings.”11 This is the same manner in which a jester is positioned in the dynamics of power. Nicolaus Cusanus, the 15th century theologian, even argues for the congruence of God with the fool. The mathematical premises are that the greatest cannot by definition be greater or less than what it is, and the same is true of the least. Hence the greatest and least are equal and by extension, God is congruent with the lowly fool.12 Of course this argument rests on a fallacious use of Leibniz’s Law, but in all fairness, Leibniz would not have been born for another 200 years or so and is generally known to have detested foolery of all varieties. That said, the jester plays to ambiguity by toeing the line between reason and madness, dignitary and outcast and even man and woman.

Hermaphroditic tendencies for jesters are not uncommon as they tend to oscillate between asexual and hypersexual behavior. Gender-reversal occurs even on a symbolic level with both phallic and fertility motifs appearing on the bauble and garb.13 The quality of liminality, especially between reason and madness, sets the jester apart from the ordinary citizen and allows her unrivaled access to the throne. As social misfit, the jester does not seriously challenge the sovereignty of the regime, and can provide the brashest voice in court having already been neutered in the dynamics of power. Like eunuchs made symbolically harmless via emasculation, jesters are similarly made harmless because of their liminality. The inauthentic jester may try to feign such status, but in the end always has an agenda, a purpose to go before the King. Simply put, the jester does not have such intent because he is ambiguously invested in all sides of the coin…or no sides of the coin, depending on which side of the coin you’re on. Occasions where inauthentic jesters were prosecuted relied on uncovering these agendas or in some cases, the perpetrators being caught too comfortably in the framework of reason.14

11. 1 Timothy 6:15 12. Sandra Billington, A Social History of the Fool (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1984), p. 24 13. William Willeford, The Fool and His Scepter (Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969), p. 180 14. Otto, p. 36

On Subversion and Revolution The natural inference that the jester’s practice is subversive would surprisingly be incorrect. While the voice of dissidence is generally characterized as insurgent or revolutionary, this is not always the case. The crucial distinction is that the jester does not have complete upheaval as an end-goal. She relies on the order of the pre-existing hierarchy to maintain her own bubble of chaos and anarchy. In this manner, the jester is a constructive presence in court, even though her methods may involve destructive tactics. Violating the existing order to reinforce it may at first seem counter-intuitive, but is demonstrated by one of the jester’s main motifs, namely, the “face-slap” routine. This routine, which might be the closest instance of a jester breaking the fiction of his rank, is the most brash affront to a King’s sovereignty. In one instance, Emperor Zhuangzong of the later Tang dynasty joking with his compatriots rhetorically asked, “Son of Heaven Li? Where’s the Son of Heaven Li?” referring to his own surname and deistic title. In response, his jester ran up to him and slapped him stingingly in the face. The Emperor, completely irate, demanded explanation and feigning innocence the jester replied, “There is only one Son of Heaven Li, so who was asking for him?”15 Not only does the jester escape by wit, but is able to question the perceived omnipotence of the Emperor without mutinous intonation. While the act of slapping the Emperor’s face superficially appears subversive, it in fact reinforces the existing hierarchy. The logic behind the slap is this: casually asking “Son of Heaven Li? Where’s the Son of Heaven Li?” shows great disrespect to the Emperor. Should anyone show such disrespect, they ought to be slapped. The jester’s slap shows his indignation towards such insolence and even if the Emperor himself is caught in the crossfire, it is a righteous action. In this manner, the jester undermines the Monarch in order to uphold the institution of monarchy. By giving the utmost show of dissent, the jester shows the utmost commitment to the regime. This patriotic loyalty is evidenced by

instances where jesters follow their Kings into exile or captivity, as in the cases of King Lear and King Jean II of France.16 In contemporary times, it might be said that the greatest critic of the Administration is also its greatest patriot. Stephen Colbert’s overzealous nationalism is as much a part of his routine as it is in his role as critic. Providing a polemic voice allows for the ideological conflict that is integral to the democratic process. This is the same distinction that Claire Bishop makes in her analysis of Relational Aesthetics and the importance of antagonism. Contrasting utopian paradigms of democracy with those based in conflict, she writes “a democratic society is one in which the relations of conflict are sustained, not erased.”17 The jester sustains the general air of conflict in the court and in doing so supports the regime by perpetuating healthy discord. As a result, the jester becomes both a symbol of dissonance and complicity towards the regime. The Death and Reincarnation of the Jester This complicity is not lost on the populace at large, evidenced by the proliferation of the jester as a mascot of the luxury and leisure class. In France, jesters associated with Henry III and IV are targeted because of their royal ties, sometimes leading to violent massacre.18 It is no little coincidence that the demise of the court jester begins with the French Revolution. While the mass-exodus of the jester varies from nation to nation, it usually occurs with some shift in the power. In England for example, the jester meets her end with the death of Charles I, and in China the long decline begins in the Ming dynasty and ends abruptly with the advent of Communism.19

15. ibid., p. 57 16. ibid., p. 60 17. Claire Bishop “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics” October 110 (2004): 66 18. Welsford, p. 151 19. ibid., p. 192

Fortunately for Stephen Colbert the jester is reincarnated on the stage, and the transition is most prevalent during the Elizabethan era. Richard Tarlton, a jester serving both Queen and stage is an icon of this period.20 As a favorite of Queen Elizabeth, it is thought that Hamlet’s adulation of Yorick was written in honour of Tarlton.21 More importantly, the move from court to stage marks the deprivatization of jesting as the audience shifts from patrician to proletariat. With Shakespeare we see the beginning of the transition, where at first jesters are cast quite literally as themselves, albeit tempered by script and narrative. The nature of the spectacle remains the same as in court, but is presented for a third-party, namely the public. Slowly the spectacle shifts so that the jester’s gaze moves from the fictionalized King to the audience at large. As such, the question of accountability also shifts from monarch to citizen. This model provides the vital template for later performers such as Richard Prior and Stephen Colbert. The challenge once posed directly to authority now also poses the tacit challenge to citizens. Colbert’s commentary on the Administration at

the correspondents’ dinner posed equal critique of the media and by extension consumers of such media. Furthermore, through self-parody Colbert implicates himself and the voting public in the critical process and this is a marked development from the practice of the early court jester. It is no surprise then, that the ratio of satire to political accountability is no accidental correlation. By this I do not mean to give more credit to humour than is due; political realities are not determined by punch lines and laugh tracks alone. An act of jest however, ensures the voice of unreason required to contextualize social absurdities, which is all the more vital in an increasingly absurd global condition. Adopting absurdity as a tactic affords great accessibility to subject matter otherwise neglected for its sheer complexity and seeming impossibility. The template of the jester allows for polemics without being polemic, severity without seriousness and rhyme without reason. Or reason without rhyme. Or maybe just rhyme.

20. Otto, p. 188 21. Peter Thomson, Shakespeare’s Theatre (London: Routledge, 1992) pp. 114-141, p. 115-116.

Works Cited Billington, Sandra. A Social History of the Fool. New York: St. Martins’ Press, 1984. Bishop, Claire. “Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics” October 110 (2004): 51-79. Douglas, Mary. “The Social Control of Cognition: Some Factors in Joke Perception.” Man: The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 3 (1968): 361-76. Mulkay, Michael. On Humor: Its Nature and Place in Modern Society. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988. Otto, Beatrice K. Fools Are Everywhere: The Court Jester Around the World. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2001. The New American Standard Bible, Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zonde rvan, 2000. Thomson, Peter. Shakespeare’s Theatre. London: Routledge, 1992. Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Sturcture and Anti-structure. Chicago: Aldine Transaction, 1969. Welsford, Enid. The Fool: His Social and Literary History. London: Faber and Faber Ltd., 1935. Willeford, William. The Fool and His Scepter: A Study in Clowns and Jesters and Their Audience. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1969.

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Locomotives and Last Flights JULIE NAGLE

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Lavoisier

Lowe was appointed to lead a civilian balloon corps for aerial

French Nobleman, Antoine Lavoisier studied combustion and

reconnaissance. He immediately set out to build six balloons

thermodynamics (the conversion of heat into mechanical

for the army and invented a portable hydrogen-generated

energy) and was the first to discover and name oxygen

device for inflating balloons on the field. Wooden tanks

which means acid former, and hydrogen. In 1783 he was

filled with iron and water, and then doused with sulfuric

appointed to a committee charged with conducting balloon

acid yielded the required hydrogen gas. Confederate troops

experiments. They filled some baloons with hydrogen

vainly attempted to match Lowe’s success, but without

(charlieres), others with smoke (montgolfliers). After the

imports from the north, they were at a great disadvantage.

world’s first manned balloon flights tested different

First an inefficient, varnished cotton hot air balloon was

technologies in 1783, Lavoisier concluded, “The cause of its

made, followed by two multi-colored balloons made from

ascent must be attributed to the rarefaction of the air inside

silk dresses collected in Richmond, Virginia. The two resulting

the aerostat, brought about by the fire.” Lavoisier proposed

balloons were bright, beautiful targets, easily confiscated

hydrogen balloons be constructed of a “double thickness of

by the Union. They were inflated and hauled to the field

woven silk, with a varnish.”

tethered to a locomotive. The first was captured by the Union

While the Academy of Science found montgolfliers

in 1862 when a tugboat dragging it down the James River

suitable for civilian use, hydrogen filled balloons utilized

ran aground. The second silk dress balloon was captured by

smaller aerostats and flew higher than kites for meteorological

Union troops at the siege of Charleston in 1863.

observations, scientific uses, and military reconnaissance. The Locomotive and the Passenger Pigeon Silk Dress Balloons

After The Civil War the railroad and telegraph industries

Inventor Thaddeus Lowe dreamed of sailing on the first

expanded, and hunting and tracking improved. In 1878 a

transatlantic gas balloon flight when the American Civil

single hunter reportedly killed and shipped over 3 million

War broke out in 1861. He had perfected his design for

passenger pigeons to the East in boxcars, to be sold at a

strong silk envelopes and a mixture of airtight varnish. After

penny-a-piece in the meat markets. Flocks numbered over

impressing Abraham Lincoln with his competence and skill

4 million birds and were once the second largest social unit on the Earth. Their flapping wings roared like thunder as they eclipsed the sun. So numerous were they that the combined weight of their bodies often broke branches and flattened oak trees where they stopped to roost. Hunters took advantage of this phenomenon by deliberately weakening trees to collapse like falling dominoes thereby killing thousands of birds. The combination of deforestation and destruction of their habitat to build the railroad, and the speed at which the birds were hunted led to their extinction. In 1914 the last of their species, Martha, died in captivity at the Cincinnati Zoo.

SOURCES Allan Eckert’s The Silent Sky: The Incredible Extinction of the Passenger Pigeon Stephen Poleskie’s The Balloonist: The Story of T. S. C. Lowe Mary Hoehling’s Thaddeus Lowe, America’s One-Man Air Corps Jean-Pierre Porier’s Lavoisier

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“Three Parts make a Hole” 20 minutes Color and Black & White Sami Ben Larbi 2008

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Perdou, 18, University student, Paris, 1990’s Unruly long hair. Red bib overalls, timberland boots, “The Best is Prince” sweater (his mother sewed that for him). Speaks French. Always he asks himself, “Why don’t I have a girlfriend”. Lies a lot. He has no friends. He eats snickers bars for breakfast lunch and dinner. Lives with an aunt and her son. He never talks to his aunt, except to say that his studies are going well and “ Yes I will marry an American girl someday”. His mother and father are not a part of his life. He takes the subway. Always jumps the ticket booth. Always on the lookout for controllers. He is pleasant. He is shy. He thinks everyone is looking at him. He thinks that everybody is ridiculing him. He looks at himself through a reflection of himself on subways and in shop windows, so nobody will know he is looking at himself. He looks at girls this way too. Film is the only thing that seems real. The only thing that makes him feel alive. Only when talking about film does he show passion. Jean-Pierre 25, actor, Paris, Taipei, Kuala Lumpur, 1960’s Short, tidy hair. Always wears the same suit everyday (or is it a different suit, but the exact same style). Speaks English. Smokes (but not really). Talks but only when the script demands. He is mostly in silent films. He has girlfriends, always the leading lady from the last film. Never deep love, always superficial. Girlfriends always leave him. He has no identity. He is his film character. In his films he is praised for being natural. He is admired for perfectly fitting in his roles. When the camera is turned off he cannot turn himself off. Directors never direct him. He does not act but rather reacts. He never works from a script. Sometimes the filming has already started and he does not know it. He is recognized in the street. He gets depressed after talking to people on the streets. Fans expect life to be like a movie. They see him as one of his characters, only slightly older. This depresses him. His films do not age but he does. He has no home. He goes from shoot to shoot. After filming he stays on location, moving only when the next film begins. Plutarr, 40, writer, Los Angeles, 2010 Long hair, in a ponytail. Speaks English with a French accent. Wears corduroys and boots. Lives alone but wears a wedding ring he wears off and on. He is engaged and amicable when he talks to people. He gets quiet when they ask about his past. He responds with nondescript answers. He has had a bumpy life. He loves to cook, especially for other people. He relates to people this way. He writes film criticism. An old friend has asked him to write a treatment for a film. He is having a difficult time with this. The screenplay is oddly autobiographical. He writes scenes that have been seen already. He watches films a lot. 113

INT. HOUSE - NIGHT SINGLE SHOT - CAMERA IS IN THE CORNER OF THE BEDROOM/LIVING ROOM, UP ABOVE. It’s dark. Light is coming from outside, through the window barely illuminating the room, revealing only shadows. The room is divided into sections by wardrobes. Perdou opens and closes the front door. Light briefly comes into the room. He walks to the bathroom. Light comes into the room again. He is brushing his teeth. He shuts the light off. It is dark again. He goes to his bed. Moments later Perdou’s cousin opens and closes the front door. He goes to his bed. After a few more moments the cousin starts to moan. His moans become louder and he begins to trash about on the floor. Perdou’s aunt wakes up and goes to the kitchen. She is methodical. She turns the light on. (Perdou disturbed) Perdou’s aunt returns with a glass of water. She forces a pill and the water down the throat of her son. He slowly relaxes. All is quiet again. FADE OUT. OUT. STREET - DAY THE CAMERA IS ON THE SIDEWALK, A SUBWAY ENTRANCE WITHIN THE FRAME. It is morning. Lots of activity in the street. Perdou (red bibs, timberlands, Prince sweater and attache) walks into the frame and disappears into the subway entrance. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SUBWAY PLATFORM - DAY STILL FRAME Perdou looks at the reflection of himself on the window of a stopped subway car, while waiting for his train. (Perdou anxious) DISSOLVE TO: INT. SUBWAY CAR - DAY STILL FRAME In the subway car Perdou looks at the reflection of women in the glass. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SUBWAY CAR - DAY STILL FRAME People stare at Perdou. (Perdou scared) FADE TO: 114

EXT. STREET - DAY CAMERA, IN THE STREET, IN FRONT OF A MOVIE THEATER. Perdou wearing his usual attire comes from the side of the frame and enters the theater. FADE OUT. INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY CAMERA IS SET UP MIDWAY THROUGH THE CENTER OF THE THEATER, POINTING AT THE SCREEN. Perdou walks in from the side. He sits down in the front row, next to other people. He talks quietly to them until the lights dim. FADE TO BLACK. INT. MOVIE THEATER - DAY A film is playing, Tsai Ming-Liang’s “The Hole”. The scene is in the living room. Hsiao-Kang is smoking a cigarette, on the floor, looking at the hole. A hand comes out with a spray can and starts spraying. Hsiao-Kang goes to the kitchen and comes back with a wok lid. He fans out the fumes. FADE OUT. OUT. CAFE - NIGHT SINGLE SHOT SCENE. CAMERA IS PLACE OUTSIDE, FACING IN. STREET NOISE. Perdou and his friends walk into the frame. Perdou is carrying a microphone boom and recorder while his friends are carrying various kinds of camera gear. They sit down. They have a heated conversation. (Perdou upset) He stands up and leaves, without his microphone and recorder. The friends call him back but he does not respond. He leaves the frame. Perdou, outside, comes back into the frame. He goes from one side of the frame to the other. (His friends mock him) FADE OUT. INT. SCREEN TEST - DAY SINGLE SHOT SCENE. CAMERA ON A TRIPOD, FIRST AN UPPER-BODY SHOT THEN ZOOMED OUT MIDWAY TO SHOW PERDOU’S FULL BODY. Nondescript room. Perdou faces the camera, sitting at a table. He is wearing his red bibs and a sweatshirt. He is responding to questions from an off camera character. He is very natural. The interviewer seems pleased. Midway through the interview he is asked to stand up and turn around, to be seen from all sides. There is a flash toward the end, someone is taking a picture. Perdou then shakes the hand of the interviewer, we see only the interviewer’s hand. FADE TO BLACK. 115

OUT. BRIDGE, SHOOTING “WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?” - DAY CAMERA IS TO THE SIDE, SHOWING ACTIVITY UNDERNEATH THE BRIDGE, JEANPIERRE, THE LIGHTS, THE CREW AND OCCASIONAL PASSERBY’S. On a pedestrian bridge. Jean-Pierre plays a street watch salesman. Jean-Pierre is wearing jeans and jacket. DIRECTOR Action Jean-Pierre resets the time on all the watches. FADE TO: OUT. BRIDGE, SHOOTING “WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?” - DAY CLOSE UP Jean-Pierre resets a watch six hours backward. FADE TO: OUT. BRIDGE, SHOOTING “WHAT TIME IS IT THERE?” - DAY CAMERA IS TO THE SIDE, SHOWING ACTIVITY UNDERNEATH THE BRIDGE, JEANPIERRE, THE LIGHTS, THE CREW AND OCCASIONAL PASSERBY’S. Some passerby’s stop to look at the spectacle of the film set but leave. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SHOOTING “THE HOLE” - DAY SINGLE SHOT SCENE. THE CAMERA IS STATIONARY. WE SEE INTO THE SET. WE SEE THE ACTION THROUGH AN OPENING BETWEEN THE LIGHTS AND THE CAMERA AND CREW. On the set of the scene for “The Hole”. Scene in the living room. The set has a living room raised by 20 inches so that someone can crawl underneath. The set shows the corner of a room, with a couch, a coffee table, a chair to the side (barely visible on the frame) and a television. A hole on the concrete floor as been dug in the center of the living room. The scene has JeanPierre sitting on the floor, in briefs and a white sleeveless T-shirt, with a lit cigarette in his hand. Someone from the crew keeps handing Jean-Pierre freshly lit cigarettes. He contemplates the hole in his living room. DIRECTOR Action Suddenly a hand comes out of the hole, with a spray can, and releases the contents of the can. Jean-Pierre goes off screen and comes back with a casserole cover. He uses it to fan the fumes. FADE OUT. INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT SINGLE SHOT SCENE. THE CAMERA IS STATIONARY, AT EYE LEVEL, IN THE CORNER OF THE ROOM. In a hotel room, looking remarkably like the living room of “The Hole” set. The couch is now a bed. There is no hole in the floor. It is carpeted instead. Jean-Pierre, still wearing his underwear and T-shirt,is with his girlfirend. She is wearing the same shirt as the hand that came out of the hole earlier. 116

They are watching TV on the bed. A MOVIE IS PLAYING (scene of an argument between a man and woman). Jean-Pierre has a cigarette in his hand. He suddenly leaves the bed and comes back with a casserole cover. He fans the air with it, as if the fumes are coming out of an imaginary hole. The girlfriend watches him from the corner of her eyes, while watching the movie. She then stares at him. (Girlfriend dumbfounded) She gets up and leaves. He does not notice her leaving. DISSOLVE TO: OUT. STREET - NIGHT TWO CAMERAS ARE SET UP AT OPPOSITE END OF A STREET BLOCK, ON OPPOSITE SIDEWALK. The streets are deserted. Jean-Pierre is wearing the “400 Blows” outfit, black shoes, corduroy pants and checkered jacket. Jean-Pierre walks the city block, toward the first camera. At the end of the block he turns right and crosses the street. He goes off camera until he is on the opposite street sidewalk. CAMERA SWITCHES. Jean-Pierre walks toward the second camera. He again turns right and crosses the street. He goes off screen again. CAMERA SWITCHES. Jean-Pierre walks toward the first camera. DISSOLVE TO: INT. SHOOTING “400 Blows” - DAY SINGLE SHOT SCENE. THE SHOOTING CAMERA IS BEHIND THE LIGHTS AND CREW, TO THE SIDE. WE CAN SEE INTO THE SET AGAIN TROUGH AN OPENING BETWEEN THE LIGHTS AND CAMERA. Set of the rotor. A section of a rotor with two half panels on the far left and right and three full panels in the center. Lights have been set up on top of the rotor and in front. Some of the crew is on the side, while two grip boys go back and forth between the back and the front. A camera is set up 15 feet away. Jean-Pierre walks in dreesed in his briefs and T-shirt. He sits in the middle of the rotor and lights a cigarette. The crew and director look at each other. (Crew and director astounded) DISSOLVE TO: INT. HOTEL ROOM - NIGHT SINGLE SHOT SCENE. THE CAMERA IS ON A DOLLY. THE CENTER OF THE FRAME STAYS ON JEAN-PIERRE. AS THE CAMERA SHIFTS LEFT AND RIGHT, THE LEFT SIDE AND THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE FRAME REVEALS A CHANGING ROOM. In a set, modeled after a motel room in a previous scene. One long back wall with moving side walls. A bed is in the center. Jean-Pierre is sitting on it, looking blankly at the TV PLAYING AN OLD FILM. The room changes a few times. He is immobile in a mutating room. (Jean-Pierre oblivious) FADE OUT. 117

INT. ON THE PHONE - DAY CAMERA IS UP ABOVE PLUTARR’S SHOULDER, POINTING DOWN. Close up of Plutarr sitting at his desk. A small 2010 calendar book sits on the desk. Plutarr is on the phone. He writes compulsively on a notepad. “ONE MONTH”. He circles “PERSONAL” FADE TO: INT. WRITING - DAY CAMERA IS IN THE LIVING ROOM, TO THE SIDE OF A DESK AND FACING A WALL AND A CORRIDOR WITH DOORS. Plutarr comes out of a door jam, in his pajamas, and goes into another room. He turns the light on. Plutarr brushes his teeth. He comes back out, walks into the main room and off frame. He makes coffee. He comes back into the room, and the frame, and sits down on a chair, at his desk, in front of a computer. He starts to type. The computer is connected to a projector, inside the desk. As he types, words on the wall in front of him appear and disappear. It is the beginning of the treatment for Perdou, his age, traits and character. FADE TO: INT. WRITING - NIGHT Plutarr still at his desk. He is now out of his pajamas and dressed in corduroys and a shirt. The projection on the wall shows that not much progress has been made on his screenplay. FADE TO: INT. ON THE PHONE - DAY CAMERA IS UP ABOVE PLUTARR’S SHOULDER, POINTING DOWN. Close up of Plutarr, on the phone. He is sitting at his desk. He is taking notes on a note pad They read: “FILM TREATMENT” He circles the words a few times He then writes “3 CHARACTERS” “DUE MARCH 26” He underlines “DUE” He hangs up the phone. FADE TO: OUT. STREET - NIGHT THE CAMERA FACES A FILM THEATER. Plutarr enters the frame and goes in the theater. DISSOLVE TO: 118

INT. THEATER - NIGHT CAMERA IS NEXT TO THE SCREEN, POINTING AT THE SPECTATORS. Plutarr walks in and sits midway, in the center row. Lights dim. FADE TO BLACK. INT. THEATER - NIGHT DARK SCREEN. 400 BLOWS IS PLAYING. CAMERA IS BEHIND PLUTARR, FACING THE SCREEN. The famous rotor ride carnival scene is showing. On the screen René and Antoine are playing with a pinball machine. They then go to a movie and then to a fair. René is too skittish to go on the rotor ride so he settles for just watching Antoine. DISSOLVE TO: INT. KITCHEN - NIGHT CAMERA IS IN THE KITCHEN. Several pots and pans are on the stove. Plutarr is cooking an elaborate meal. FADE OUT. INT. DINNER WITH FRIENDS - NIGHT CAMERA IS IN THE LIVING ROOM, IN THE SAME SPOT AS THE ONE USED FOR THE WRITING SEQUENCE. Plutarr’s writing desk has been pushed to the side. Plutarr and several of his friends sit around a table, eating. It is an engaged conversation. A woman asks Plutarr a question. He mumbles a response. (Plutarr not happy anymore) The party suffers from this. People are uncomfortable. The guests get up, put their coats on and leave. DISSOLVE TO: INT. WATCHING TV - NIGHT IN A LIVING ROOM. CAMERA IS BEHIND AND TO THE SIDE OF A COUCH, FACING A TV. Plutarr is watching “What Time is it There”. He is visible at the beginning of the scene then slouches in the couch only to reappear briefly at the end, with a pillow in his lap. Scene of Hsiao-Kang watching “400 Blows”. First Hsiao-Kang is picking a movie from the street vendor, and then he is in his room holding a pillow, watching the rotor scene. The segment used from “What Time is it There” starts at 00:26:44 and ends at 00:28:39. DISSOLVE TO: 119

INT. WRITING - DAY CAMERA IS IN THE LIVING ROOM, TO THE SIDE OF A DESK AND FACING A WALL AND A CORRIDOR WITH DOORS. Plutarr is writing an interview sequence. The director of the film is at a film festival, talking to a television crew. DISSOLVE TO: EXT. FILM FESTIVAL - DAY The film director is being interviewed by a television crew. INTERVIEWER Why do you quote Francois Truffaut and Tsai Ming-Liang so extensively in your films? THE DIRECTOR I am interested in the concept of identity and identifying with other people’s identity. THE INTERVIEWER What is so special about these particular movies? THE DIRECTOR Truffaut and Ming-Liang follow the same character over several films. They allow the viewer to identify with the lead character over a longer period of time. THE INTERVIEWER Yes, but is Truffaut not a more recognized director? Most filmgoers have seen his films. And indeed they’re considered to be classics. Ming-Liang is rather obscure. How many people have actually seen his movies? THE DIRECTOR Well, that really does not matter at all to me. I watch his movies and I identify with them. Somewhat. Maybe the crux of all this is really the fantasy. The fantasy of identity. Thinking you’re in a movie, you’re the main actor. We all secretly want this, don’t we? I remember an interview with Truffaut when he recalled Jean-Pierre Leaud, his main actor, talking to a bartender who had seen 400 Blows the night before on television. The bartender was saying that Leaud must have had a rough time and that he looked somewhat older than he did just the day before. But that bartender was confusing real life for film life. The bartender, just like me, just like you I am sure, thought that somewhere, somehow, movies are real, that they truly exist and that we are all in one. FADE TO BLACK. 120

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Biographies

SAMI BEN LARBI (dob. 1972, Reims, Marne, France) Baccalaureate in Math and Biology, Paris, France BFA in Ceramics. University of Washington, Seattle, WA Three Parts Make a Hole For my new project, Three Parts Make a Hole, I am producing a film using a screenplay and production stills as the end product. The story, blending real-life and fictive episodes, is that of three characters all obsessed with film. This project will exist in three forms, as a web project for Blackbird, this book project and a projection piece. PATRICK CADENHEAD (dob. 1975, Fort Worth, TX, USA ) BFA. Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY A Brief History of Music since 1911 A random collection of charted data related to the lives and deaths of musicians from the history of recorded music. Created in an attempt to make some sense of how a person’s life is translated into a cult of celebrity. ANTHONY CIOE (dob. 1981, Providence, RI, USA) BFA in Glass, 2003. Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI Exploring: Material, Methods, Minds A look at a technology of wooden ship building and ships’ logs of scientist explorers including Darwin, Malaspina and Humboldt; and their respective ships: The Beagle, The Descubierta and The Pizarro. LILY COX-RICHARD (dob. 1979, Vienna, VA, USA) BFA. California College of the Arts, Oakland CA Lightning Wireless A selected history of invisible forces, including a tower that never got built, lightning rods, and an account a trans-Atlantic telegram (initiated on-line and delivered by post).

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DAVID GRAINGER

JAMES SHAM

(dob. 1976, Lumberton, NC, USA)

(dob. 1982, Victoria, BC, Canada)

BA in Integrated Arts. Penn State University, State

BA in Philosophy, Studio Art. Dartmouth College,

College, PA

Hanover, NH

A Curious Conceit: The Maypole Research Model

The Birth of Mirth: An Account of Jest

An informal look at Plato’s Ion, Johann Goethe’s color

An account and analysis of the Court Jester in

theories, Dziga Vertov’s The Man with the Movie Camera,

worldwide traditions, and its repercussions on

Mike Kelley, Butoh, and maypole festivities.

contemporary society. The Jester’s capacity for unrelenting sociopolitical commentary and her

ELI KESSLER

rhetorical use of irrationality is examined and described

(dob. 1984, Pillow, PA, USA)

in light of her precarious position in the dynamics of

BFA. Tyler School of Art, Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

power.

When You Discover Luxury... This project addresses the notion of marketed fantasy

BRIAN TAYLOR

through customized perfume bottles and clothing

(dob. 1977, Michigan, USA)

featured in a fashion spread with a mail order purchase

BFA, 1999. The School of the Art Institute of Chicago,

component.

Chicago, IL Superinterior

CHRISTOPHER KYLE MAHONSKI

Six pages about attention spans, slow perception, and

(dob. 1983, Williamsport, PA, USA)

constant movement. I feel like I’m running through

BFA. Tyler School of Art, Temple university, Philadelphia, PA

a hallway carrying a huge pile of wicker, a bunch of

Being Lost A collection of found black and white snapshots that capture landscapes visited and remembered by anonymous photographers, with parallel text. JULIE ANN NAGLE (dob. 1981, Butler, PA, USA) BFA, 2004. The Cooper Union, New York, NY Locomotives and Last Flights Stories and images related to flight and technology, linking the now extinct passenger pigeon to the steam locomotive and civil war aerial weaponry to silk dresses. MARIA PITHARA (dob. 1984, Limassol, Cyprus) BFA. University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA The Migrations of Two Edible Fruits Two fictional stories and an account from memory regarding the migrations of the fig and the pomegranate.

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drawings, some Ethiopian music, a website about time, and a food processor.

Curious Spring 2007

Curious Spring 2008

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Curious is published as a project undertaken by students in a Spring 2008 Graduate Seminar in the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia. April 2008 This publication is made possible through the School of the Arts, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Published by the Department of Sculpture + Extended Media 1000 West Broad Street Richmond, Virginia, 23284, USA Telephone: 804.828.1511 Seminar leaders: Kendall Buster, associate professor; Siemon Allen, adjunt proffessor Cover design: James Sham Individual page designs: the artists Model on page 8: Miriam Ewers Concept and layout editor: Siemon Allen, Flat International

© 2008 Department of Sculpture + Extended Media, Virginia Commonwealth University. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission of the copyright holder. Fair users are of course free to do their thing. Printed and bound in China by Permanent Typesetting & Printing Co. Ltd

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