<p dir="ltr">Dear Rebate I am thrilled by your enthusiastic welcome and I hope I am going to be able to this month interesting topic.<br>
As Renate wrote I am born in Uruguay one of South America's most francophile countries. <br>
I read Baudelaire when I was very young and his conception of "spleen" awoke my interest in the "fin de siecle", the feeling everything is over and the only in front of us is death and oblivion. <br>
The romantic movement shared it's feeling and the atmosphere of pictures as Kasper Friedrich and the Prerafaelists are also touched by this feeling. <br>
As Renate told I was a political prisoner and my four years in prison were far from boring. It was as to be in a benedictine cloister where "ora et lavora" is the motto.<br>
We worked and talked and studied and fought against the feeling of emptiness. In a world without television radio newspapers or books we became carriers of narrative, as in Fahrenheit 451 we became books we memorized and shared books we had read earlier. <br>
Boredom was not present in our world but tediousity was always present.<br>
Ana</p>
<div class="gmail_quote">El may 17, 2015 12:37 AM, "Renate Terese Ferro" <<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu">rferro@cornell.edu</a>> escribió:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------<br>
I am really honored to introduce our next two guests, long-time<br>
participants on -empyre. Ana Valdés (UR) was a participant on the -empyre<br>
list serve in the very early days I recall her telling me just this past<br>
February! A long-time member and guest moderator of -empyre- her topics<br>
have related to the representations of the Arabs in the contemporary<br>
world, the Crusades, and to urbanism and resilience. I value her strong<br>
voice and experience. Her political activism and feminist sensibilities<br>
are especially admirable and I¹m looking forward to her thoughts on the<br>
topic this month.<br>
<br>
Simon Biggs (AU) also is a long time participant and a former member of<br>
our moderating team. Simon has hosted innumerable topics such as<br>
Contesting the Netopticon, Creativity as a Social Ontology, OSW: Open<br>
Source Writing in the Network, Screens, Research in Practice, Resistance<br>
Is Futile:ISEA, Sydney, 2013, and Virtual Embodiment: Some Thoughts on the<br>
Resonances of the Virtual in 2014 to name a few. I am thankful to both<br>
Ana and Simon for taking time out of their busy schedules. I am thrilled<br>
they have agreed to join us for Week 3. I have included their biographies<br>
below some thoughts I have penned below.<br>
<br>
As we begin week three I wanted to not only introduce our guests but also<br>
mention a bit of research I ran into the other day after an internet<br>
search. Prompted by Lyn¹s post earlier last week I have also been<br>
wondering about how boredom is defined clinically. Thomas Goetz, lead<br>
researcher and a professor<br>
at the University of Konstanz in Germany identifies multiple types of<br>
boredom. His research identifies five states of boredom:<br>
<br>
1. calm, relaxed, withdrawn, state of Zen, meditative‹boredom is ok<br>
2. slight state of the recognition of boredom- mind-wandering,<br>
indecisiveness<br>
3. restlessness, unpleasant feeling, looking for ways to not be bored<br>
4. wants to escape boredom at any cost, boredom is so distressing there<br>
is an urgency to escape<br>
5. unpleasant, feeling totally void with neither positive or negative<br>
emotions, depression<br>
<br>
<br>
That said boredom according to Goetz could run the gamut to be a positive<br>
experience as in number one or quite negative in number five. As we<br>
continue our discussion I am hoping that we extend our conversation. Just<br>
thinking broadlyŠ..<br>
<br>
Any artists whose work conceptually deals with the issue of boredom? You<br>
will remember this entire month¹s theme was inspired by a talk the artist<br>
Michelle Grabner on the influence of boredom on her art production.<br>
<br>
What other cross-disciplinary threads intersect with boredom? In<br>
literature? Politics? History?<br>
<br>
Are there cultural nuances to understanding what boredom is and<br>
identifying it?<br>
<br>
<br>
Just a few thoughts and questions on a late Saturday night. Renate<br>
<br>
Week 3 Biographies<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Ana Valdés (UR) was born in Uruguay, South America, in a family of<br>
Spanish and Italian emigrants, raised by German nuns where studied<br>
Geography from German maps from 1942. At that time she was taught and she<br>
believed firmly that Belgium, Netherlands, France, Norway and Denmark were<br>
a part of Germany. She was put in prison when she was 19 years old for her<br>
political<br>
views. Ana belonged to a guerilla group called Tupamaros, at that<br>
timeshe believed that weapons were a way to change things though she has<br>
changed her views, radically, and since then has been a member of the<br>
pacifist group Women in Black for many years.<br>
<br>
After 4 years in prison she was deported to Sweden where she came of<br>
age. She studied Anthropology and worked on death and blood ceremonies.<br>
1982 she published her first award-winning book of short stories (Sorbonne<br>
University) A bilingual writer in Swedish and in Spanish, she has written<br>
and published more than ten books many of which have been translated into<br>
English, French, Greek and Italian. Her latest book, ³Your Time Will Come²<br>
recounts her time in prison including the torture and the resistance.<br>
Counterpunch published an essay of her experiences as well<br>
(<a href="http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/03/28/torture-works/" target="_blank">http://www.counterpunch.org/2006/03/28/torture-works/</a>).<br>
She has participated in several debates about violence and<br>
representation including one with Jordan Crandall, ³Under fire²<br>
(<a href="http://www.wdw.nl/wdw_publications/jordan-crandall-under-fire-2/" target="_blank">http://www.wdw.nl/wdw_publications/jordan-crandall-under-fire-2/</a>).<br>
<br>
Ana is also an independent curator and has worked with Swedish visual<br>
artist Cecilia Parsberg in Palestine where they created the network<br>
³Equator²<br>
(<a href="http://www.ceciliaparsberg.se/equator" target="_blank">http://www.ceciliaparsberg.se/equator</a>).<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Simon Biggs (born Adelaide, Australia 1957) is a media artist, writer and<br>
curator with interests in digital poetics, interactive performance<br>
environments,interdisciplinary research and co-creation. His work has been<br>
widely presented, including at Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, Institute of<br>
Contemporary Arts London, Glasgow Centre for Contemporary Arts, Kettles<br>
Yard Cambridge, Pompidou<br>
Centre Paris, Academy de Kunste Berlin, Berlin Kulturforum, Rijksmuseum<br>
Twenthe, Maxxi Rome, Macau Arts Museum, San Francisco Cameraworks, Walker<br>
Art<br>
Center and the Art Gallery of New South Wales. He has been keynote at many<br>
conferences and lectured internationally, including ISEA, ePoetry, SLSA<br>
and FILE conferences and Cambridge, Brown, UC Santa Barbara, UC Davis,<br>
Cornell, Paris8, Sorbonne and Bergen Universities, amongst others.<br>
Publications include Remediating the Social (2012), Autopoeisis (with<br>
James Leach, 2004), Great Wall of China (1999), Halo (1998), Magnet (1997)<br>
and Book of Shadows (1996). He has been lead investigator on a number of<br>
major research projects and is currently Professor of Art and Director of<br>
the South Australian School of Art at the University of South Australia<br>
and Honorary Professor at Edinburgh College of Art, University of<br>
Edinburgh. He supervises a number of research degree students in Australia<br>
and the UK. His website is at <a href="http://www.littlepig.org.uk/" target="_blank">http://www.littlepig.org.uk/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
Renate Ferro<br>
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art,Cornell University<br>
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office: 306<br>
Ithaca, NY 14853<br>
Email: <<a href="mailto:rferro@cornell.edu">rferro@cornell.edu</a> <mailto:<a href="mailto:rtf9@cornell.edu">rtf9@cornell.edu</a>>><br>
URL: <a href="http://www.renateferro.net" target="_blank">http://www.renateferro.net</a> <<a href="http://www.renateferro.net/" target="_blank">http://www.renateferro.net/</a>><br>
<a href="http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net" target="_blank">http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net</a><br>
<<a href="http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/" target="_blank">http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net/</a>><br>
Lab: <a href="http://www.tinkerfactory.net" target="_blank">http://www.tinkerfactory.net</a> <<a href="http://www.tinkerfactory.net/" target="_blank">http://www.tinkerfactory.net/</a>><br>
<br>
Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space<br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/</a><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
empyre forum<br>
<a href="mailto:empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au">empyre@lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au</a><br>
<a href="http://empyre.library.cornell.edu" target="_blank">http://empyre.library.cornell.edu</a><br>
</blockquote></div>