[-empyre-] Sideways thinking - The Zone

Fri May 1 08:11:22 AEST 2020

hi to all, I'm an [-empyre-] lurker poking out of my self-imposed
list-quarantine to say thanks, Kathy, for pointing out Shu Lea Chang's
*Fluid0* and writing this:

> The air may carry viral particles. The winds guts and makes me think it's
carrying blankets of viral loads. We will ultimately be one with the virus.
Our lung waters and > fluids might choke us, like an oxygen starved algae
riddled body of water. We may not show any symptoms. Regardless, I still
think we will find our guides!

Until we become one with the virus and winds guts, healthy cheers from The
Bronx! Benton

Benton C Bainbridge | +1.646.338.9172 <(646)%20338-9172>
*OUT NOW, *2 new video paintings for *Howling: **Bind
<https://youtu.be/1dNZQmgaLMc> & **Phases <https://youtu.be/IQh3Rdlz2YM>*

On Thu, Apr 30, 2020 at 5:55 PM Kathy High <kittyhigh at gmail.com> wrote:

> ----------empyre- soft-skinned space----------------------
> Hi all,
>
> I have to say that I love the exchanges here and again thank you all.
>
> I just received a paper from one of my student entitled “Queer
> Quarantine”. As a queer trans person they have been holed up in a rural,
> conservative part of our country. Not out. Not safe. Not great. They write
> of leaving the university which actually did allow safety and protection
> "while being out" - to now return to this situation which is fraught with
> insecurity - in the midst of this time of uncertainty. They talk of the
> need for "sideways thinking" in their essay. I want to embrace that term.
>
> Other grad students are freaking out as their future funding is in
> jeopardy - as is every other job at our university. I keep having
> conversations with them trying to let them vent, express their concerns,
> asking that they hang on until we have more information (all riding on the
> deposits of incoming students for next Fall semester - a bad business model
> in the best of times). But this is not a unique situation at all. Stay
> open. We will protect each other and be a safety net for one another. That
> is our reality at present.
>
> Changing topic:
> I love science fiction as a genre. I teach a class in sci fi filmmaking.
> And I have been making sci/fi/speculative work of my own of late - about
> readapting, revolting, bending science to our own means. These are mini
> stories where the characters ultimately become anarchists and disrupt the
> systems to tweak them for their own communities’ needs. We are living these
> moments.
>
> While I so love the description in Ricardo’s reference to Xavier de
> Maistre’s story “A Voyage Around My Room” (THANK YOU!)- and found the essay
> by  Rodanthi Tzanelli beautiful as a means of embracing our fortune to have
> homes, to be safe, to keep this gratitude in the forefront -  I keep
> thinking about breaking out. I can’t get the images and dreams of Andrei
> Tarkovsky’s film “Stalker” out of my head. The uncertainty of navigating
> the green space of the Zone gives me hope for re-engagement with a larger
> world than my home. I don’t know why these images from this film haunt me.
> The green vs brown-blacks. The magic dog/wolf towards the end. The way the
> gifts are enigmatic and open ended, full of potential and fraught with
> fear. I would like to imagine that we could work our way there… to a Zone.
> We just need some guides. Courage.
> Envision the Zone.
>
> I also remember Shu Lea Cheang's film "Fluido." The anarchistic, queer
> resistance in that film is incredibly envigorating! The ways Shu Lea takes
> up the (AIDS) virus and reclaims it is inspiring. The fact that there is
> still touch and love and lust in the midst of it all is another take-over.
> Fluids, spray and spurt! We will get there... many trailers out there but
> here is one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heuFjiKLmOo
>
> A friend and I are working on a video project together for FEMeeting (a
> gathering of woman and those who identify as women who work in arts,
> science and technology). We were going to host the first FEMeeting: Troy in
> USA in March. It was to be held in tandem with a meeting in Paris -
> FEMeeting: Paris. Of course these meetings were cancelled.
> Back story: from FEMeeting website - https://femeeting.com/
> "Launched in 2017, the conference “FEMeeting: Women in Art, Science and
> Technology” was driven by the desire to develop and promote more direct
> collaboration between individuals who identify themselves as Women,
> independently of their sex . The idea behind FEMeeting was orchestrated by
> the Portuguese artist Marta de Menezes and scholar Dalila Honorato, after
> realizing that women in the field of Art and Science have an unquestionable
> presence worldwide."
> While we cancelled the scheduled events, we instead launched a call to ask
> FEMeeting participants to create videos in response to the Covid 19 moment
> we are all in. The response has been wonderful and we have received a range
> of works from many speaking their thoughts directly to the camera, and
> others presenting more experimental visual/aural poems. These thoughtful
> video responses marking this moment with the virus will be posted within
> about a week or so. Pls check the FEMeeting website.
>
> I am working on a video for the FEMeeting call - collaborating with poet
> and writer/artist Vidhu Aggarwal. In her poem called the "Avatar of the
> Virus,"  Vidhu imagines embodiment of corona virus (excerpt):
> Like Shiva
> on a petri dish— I don’t bother counting the hours, I frustrate
> my many suitors, entering chupke-chupke without their knowledge. You can
> read my vita
> in your antibodies, in your err-
> or messages, so many variants
> barebacking the river—
> on the visa
> of your liver, urethra, vitreous
> humor,
> in your mysterious fat
> stores: the server, the harvest.
>
> The air may carry viral particles. The winds guts and makes me think it's
> carrying blankets of viral loads. We will ultimately be one with the virus.
> Our lung waters and fluids might choke us, like an oxygen starved algae
> riddled body of water. We may not show any symptoms. Regardless, I still
> think we will find our guides!
>
> With hope and courage.
> Many thanks to you all,
> Kathy
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> empyre forum
> empyre at lists.artdesign.unsw.edu.au
> http://empyre.library.cornell.edu
>
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