[-empyre-] response to Robert's first post

Sat Feb 9 05:02:07 EST 2013

Thanks for the great summary of Shani's latest / unrealized projects, Robert. I think she would have appreciated that people learn about them and that we create a "memory" of them. She once, on a day she was in a darker mood, said that she believed her work "would be forgotten anyway" -- I vehemently objected and assured her that this couldn't and wouldn't be the case. I believe this discussion is part of making sure that her work, realized and planned, won't be forgotten.

In response to Antoinette's question about traits and abilities that Shani wished she had, I think it was indeed one of her gifts not to think that way, at least most of the time. "Connecting her own situations, gifts, efforts toward some of the most important issues of our time" -- as Claire put it -- seems to have been her mode of thinking. I don't recall ever hearing her say "I wish I were more this or that" with regret. She would reflect on who she was -- and very analytically "list" the positives and negatives  -- but always look forward: this is who I am and that is how I'm going to apply myself in the world. I'm aware that I am generalizing a bit, but perhaps Shani's acute awareness of how little time one has in one's life was a driving force behind this attitude.

Reading Robert's post I remembered that Shani originally saw "Nostalgia in the Post Colony" (or a different version thereof) as one part of The Cost of Life series. I don't recall the details but perhaps we can reconstruct her thinking process.

Christiane

________________________________________
From: empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au [empyre-bounces at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au] on behalf of Renate Ferro [rtf9 at cornell.edu]
Sent: Friday, February 08, 2013 9:28 AM
To: soft_skinned_space
Subject: Re: [-empyre-] response to Robert's first post

----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
Robert, I will write this now quite quickly as I dash out to do
errands before this huge blizzard begins to ravage the Northeast. Why
am I always dashing to do silly things?    I want to thank you on
behalf of all of the -empyre community for your  amazing posts these
past few days.  We are so thankful to you for sharing such an honest
glimpse of Beatriz' life and work.  This post that you write about the
work that remains unrealized as she left us is truly riveting.
Perhaps most inspiring is the unselfish productivity she possessed as
evidenced by the work you so generously reveal on her behalf.  It is
evident that her life was her work and her work was her life.

I can say that these past few days have been an inspiration for me (as
it has been for all of us I am sure)  to look at life and ask just
what it is that it is important to get done every day. How much of an
investment do we have in our production and work?   What is important,
what do we prioritize ?  What seems senseless and just irrelevant in
the grand scheme of things. Beatriz__ Shani is so lucky to have you.
Thank you Robert.

Renate

On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 11:54 PM, Robert Nideffer <nideffer at gmail.com> wrote:
> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi Renate, I don't know about Vimeo, but this is probably the best link to the video:
>
> http://beatrizdacosta.net/Dying_for_the_Other/
>
> Again, if you scroll to the bottom you'll see a video excerpt with a password protected link to the full version. Type "humans" to access the longer video.
>
> Thanks Christiane, Antoinette and Claire for both of your insightful comments.
>
> @Christiane:
>
>> I often thought how difficult dealing with terminal cancer must be for people who do not have Shani's amazing abilities and
>> experience as a researcher. (And sharing her findings was of course her motivation behind the Anti-Cancer Survival Kit, her last
>> project).
>
> Yes, as well as being sensitive to the difficulties friends and families (i.e., loved ones) of those suffering from the disease have as well. So I think the kit, as was the case with so many of her projects, was/is also a means to empower and create/maintain/strengthen community. BTW, I never heard her talk about the Artport project, so that was interesting to see!
>
> @Antoinette:
>
>> I wonder what Shani wished she had that she didn't? (Apart from more time, the need for which must have hung over her like a
>> sword.)  Perhaps it was one of her gifts not to think that way?
>
> Yes, that hung over her like a sword, more than ever toward the end. But spending time wishing for something she knew she couldn't have was, like being sentimental or feeling guilt over what had been, so far as I could tell, not something she did much of. She certainly didn't externalize it if she did. The time she did have, and figuring out what she could do with it was simply too precious. This of course put a lot of stress on her, and created an incredible need to always be feeling productive. In the last couple months of her life, on several occasions she said to me that she wished she could just 'relax and do nothing... ' That was an interesting shift. Partly she was just tired and aware that her body was, as she put it 'shutting down.' But she may also have felt there was something worthwhile, perhaps even healing and regenerative, about allowing herself the space to just be, and not always be doing.
>
> @Claire:
>
>> thus i really miss her when i read
>
> And I really miss her when I write! But it does somehow feel as though it's an important part of the process.
>
>> But your post makes me think of the life examined by an other, in this case, Shani's life well observed by you. Which has
>> everything to do with love. It is obvious that you saw her clearly -- how could you not? She was so definite. Your lens is
>> unflinching, but generous
>
> This passage raises so many questions for me, about the notion and nature of "observation," "love," "clarity," generosity," I don't  know where to begin. I really appreciated your comments and the spirit with which they are offered... and yet so much of my current "process" involves constant and at times painful interrogation of all of those things. I don't want to derail the discussion of Shani's creative work by moving this into such solipsistic navel-gazing (one thing I can say for certain is Shani would HATE that!), so it's probably best I stop before starting... but "lens" is perhaps the most interesting word to me here, since it carries with it the notion of a kind of mediation, a looking through something, which can be filtered in so many ways, and that which gets observed/reproduced through it is always so contingent and contextual.
>
> @Renate:
>
> As to other work she was thinking about and planning, well... that's a complicated and sensitive subject, and I'm not at all sure, or confident, about how to approach it. This is partly because I'm insecure about how comfortable she would be with my publicly sharing things which were so early in her development process.
>
> Simply going through her various computers, the terabytes upon terabytes of external disks, attempting to organize things, back stuff up, etc, was a very interesting and revealing process for me. In a very general (yet highly personal) sense, one's computer(s), the applications, the folder names and file structures, the organization of media, the projects and documents, the bookmarks, all serve to provide a fascinating kind of portrait... I suspect much more could be discerned about personality by analyzing these sorts of things than, for instance, hand writing.
>
> The amount of effort Shani put into project planning was pretty incredible. Even things that she was just beginning to think about had a high degree of clarity. I'll mention just a couple, and risk her wrath. Hopefully I won't butcher the concept. She wanted to create her own cell line, so that various chemotherapy agents could be tested on them, in effort to ascertain effectiveness. She actually wanted her neurosurgeon to take a sample from a tumor in her brain while she was under anesthesia during her last surgical procedure on December 6th, when she had a port implanted in her spine for drug delivery (her third, the first was in her chest, and the second her skull). He was not willing to do this, but he did take a sample of her spinal fluid, which he said could be used for the same purpose. I've been thinking I should contact him about this. I think it would have been an amazing project. She may have had a working title for it, but I can't find it right now.
>
> She was working on a book ("The Train We Thought We Should Have Been On") of short passages/stories, to be accompanied by photos, about various happenings from her daily life: her dog's being almost supernaturally sensitive to her emotional state/need; the perceptual shifts in hearing, thinking and seeing that were triggered by swelling in her brain, accounts of what it's like to be pushed and pulled around the city with a body becoming increasingly out of control; the loss of memory, among many other things.
>
> "The Unlikely Dancer," a project inspired by seeing Herzog's film on Pina Bausch and the idea of using untrained dancers. She wanted to develop a piece in collaboration with a choreographer about her progressive loss of control of her balance and her body. In fact, in what would become the last week of her life, she wanted me to mount a video camera in the apartment and start shooting footage of us walking to the bed, the bathroom, the table, and so on. I bought her a light kit for her camera as a Christmas gift to do it, but it was not to be. It's another piece I can really feel, as I still have such a bodily memory of the intricate steps that were required to get from one place to another, and the manner and method with which she would prompt my movement and participation, and vice-versa.
>
> She also had begun "nose work" training with her service dog, a wonderful companion named Lucinha (Portuguese that roughly translates as "little bringer of light"), because she had been reading about the possibility of training dogs to sniff cancers for early detection.
>
> There were many others. The last I'll mention for now, just because it represents a work that was not about her illness, was  "Nostalgia in the Post Colony." Shani's father was from Goa, India, a former Portuguese colony. Some of her family on that side remain there in a home that they have had for many years, and which held a special place in Shani's heart, and around which many interesting stories could be told. I never had the chance to go there with her (though we'd started making plans to do so this past Fall). She had been in communication with her aunt, and was planning to do a video piece (that would have been part of a larger installation including an architectural model of the house, and multiple projection screens) documenting their stories.
>
> Apologies for the length of the post!
>
> Robert
>
> On Thu, Feb 7, 2013 at 12:00 AM, Renate Ferro <rtf9 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>>
>> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> Thanks Robert and Christiane.
>>
>> Robert_ For some reason I can not find Dying for the Other on Vimeo
>> anymore.  I was able to see a portion of it a few days ago and I must
>> say that it was very difficult for me to watch.  There was such a
>> straightforward yet vulnerable tension throughout the portion I
>> watched.  If you have the direct link and could pass it on that would
>> be good.
>> Thanks so much for sharing with us your recollections of visiting Dr.
>> Schneider as well.
>>
>> To both of you_ As long as this is our first week it may be good if
>> you wouldn't mind talking generally about Beatriz as well as other
>> projects she was working on most recently. Any links that you could
>> pass would also help. Establishing a good base this week will lay the
>> foundation for the rest of the month when our other guests join us.
>>
>> I have posted her website link below:
>> http://www.beatrizdacosta.net/
>>
>> And the Irvine announcement
>> http://news.uci.edu/briefs/studio-artist-beatriz-da-costa-dies-at-38/
>>
>> I also noticed that some of her work is archived in the Rose Goldsen
>> Archive of New Media Art today as I was doing a bit of searching.
>>
>> I will be introducing two new guests on Friday so anything you can add
>> would be great.  This month's discussion will be archived.
>>
>> Hope you will freely share.  Many thanks again.  Renate
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 7:04 PM, Robert Nideffer <nideffer at gmail.com> wrote:
>> >
>> > ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> > Thanks for your comments Renate. I was able to locate the password to view the full length video for those that are interested. From your first link, at the bottom of the trailer you'll see a "To view full video... click here" which takes you to a pass protected page -- just enter "humans" to gain access.
>> >
>> > I also was struck by the immediacy of Dr. Schneider's response. I went with her to that first meeting at his lab. A number of others would follow. The specifics of much of the initial conversation escape me now. It was background about the nature of his research, some discussion of Shani's most recent history with cancer, and of course her project ideas. I do remember his being quite taken by Shani, If I had to guess I'd think it in part due to her deep knowledge of her disease, the considerable research she'd done on laboratory practices involving mice, her directness and openness, her motivations, and her desire to translate her experience into something she could creatively offer to others while in the midst of dealing with her own terminal illness. He introduced us to the researchers working with the mouse models in his facility (exclusively women as I recall, at least the ones we met and who became featured in the video), and essentially granted her access on the sp

 ot.
>> >
>> > Walking out I remember turning to her and expressing my amazement at what had just happened, since it's very rare to be allowed access to film inside an animal research facility, especially for a visual artist. If she was surprised, she hid it well. I do know she was very happy... and immediately began planning what to do next.
>> >
>> > On Sun, Feb 3, 2013 at 4:07 PM, Renate Ferro <rtf9 at cornell.edu> wrote:
>> >>
>> >> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
>> >> Dear Robert,
>> >> Thank you so much for agreeing to be our guest during such an
>> >> emotional time for you. I wanted
>> >> to respond to you sooner but your post was so compelling yet complex I
>> >> found myself reading
>> >> it and then rereading it over again.  I post the URL to the website
>> >> "Dying for the Other" for our subscribers
>> >> and those who may not be familiar.
>> >>
>> >> http://beatrizdacosta.net/Dying_for_the_Other/
>> >>
>> >> Also this on Vimeo
>> >>
>> >> http://vimeo.com/33170755
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> The timeliness in which Dr. Schneider responded to her first query
>> >> seems remarkable.  I look forward to your sharing not only this
>> >> completed project but also the ones that were in progress.  Can you
>> >> let us know if there
>> >> are any online resources for the video project?  This month's
>> >> discussion may be a good place to begin to help assimilate these
>> >> resources.
>> >>
>> >> Many thanks again to both you and Christiane.  Looking forward to
>> >> hearing from both of you.
>> >> Renate
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > empyre forum
>> > empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> > http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Renate Ferro
>> Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
>> Cornell University
>> Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
>> Ithaca, NY  14853
>> Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
>> URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
>>       http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
>> Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net
>>
>> Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
>> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre
>> _______________________________________________
>> empyre forum
>> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
>> http://www.subtle.net/empyre
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.subtle.net/empyre

--

Renate Ferro
Visiting Assistant Professor of Art
Cornell University
Department of Art, Tjaden Hall Office #420
Ithaca, NY  14853
Email:   <rtf9 at cornell.edu>
URL:  http://www.renateferro.net
      http://www.privatesecretspubliclies.net
Lab:  http://www.tinkerfactory.net

Managing Co-moderator of -empyre- soft skinned space
http://empyre.library.cornell.edu/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empyre
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