Pure Sense

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https://www.urbanarchive.org/urbanarchiveny

For reminiscing the past of New York, and hopefully also reminding that archival materials are products and representations that are constructed, made possible by certain contexts. Existing records are voluminous enough that we blissfully accept them as “evidence,” which we interpret from, build narratives around and tell stories about, while areas left blank are unquestioned. The “darkness” of archives is, then, overshadowed when people are content with their nostalgia for the past. Only in understanding that archives are never “neutral” or “objective,” and in being aware of the limited narratives imposed can we see archives as space for all.

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The Secret Life of Objects: Strategies for Telling New Stories in Exhibitions #livesofobjects - Allegra

You can find the entire cosmos lurking in its least remarkable objects - Wislawa Szymborska, Polish poet It’s 2013 and I am poring over the Ethnographic Collection of the University of Göttingen with two anthropologists from the research network Dynamics of Religion in Southeast Asia (DORISEA). We are preparing for

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每個人只能陪你走一段路，遲早要分開的。

山河故人（賈樟柯，2015）

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你能去任何地方 可以去 到了就發現 沒什麼不一樣的 但都過了大半生了 所以之前 得騙個誰 一定是不一樣的 你懂這意思嗎？ 我懂 你不懂 你在想別的 我告訴你最好的狀況 就是你站在這裡 你可以看到那邊那個地方 你想那邊一定比這好 但你不能去 你不去 才能解決好這的問題

大象席地而坐（胡波，2018）

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反思性實質就是換位思考。我們往往會生活在一種主流的思維模式和意識型態（經濟主義）中，但人和世界都是豐富且多元的，主流遮蔽了其它的各項維度，它甚至會導向災難。因此我們應該在主流中為支流留有餘地，使得它們成為一種剎車或糾錯裝置。反思就是一種為支流創造空間的機制，相反，順應習以為常的社會秩序和既定的思想邏輯是一種廣告、宣傳，甚至是意識形態控制，它絕對是非反思性的。 反思性就是創造＂違和感＂，因為娛樂工業可以完美的完成＂和諧＂的任務，這根本不需要當代藝術幫忙。當然＂違和＂不是一種無厘頭的挑釁、純粹的解構（我們早已厭倦了這些藝術上的小伎倆），而是必須重新樹立或發現一種觀看世界的視角，建議出一套理解事物的新邏輯，並最後論證在當下製造這種＂違和＂的必要性。 藝術展覽是面對公眾的，如何使得反思進入公眾，那便是對話、交流。只有交流才能使得不同的思想維度產生碰撞，才可以不斷推進我們進入試圖互相理解的程序，才能產生換位思考。對話、交流不僅打開了對於他人的思考，還借以帶出了自我的關照和反觀，那是為了能看清我們所處的位置，從而尋向對於當下的批判、對於未來的選擇。 我的策展人朋友林書傳也開玩笑說： 「有些問題站圈子裡看不明白，其實在圈子外有很多參照，想想也就明白了 ，沒那麼難！小成本或者真的在說一些問題的電影又上不了映，只能走電影節，看的都是專業觀眾和評委，對大眾產生不了影響，這和現在很多自嗨的展覽很像。還有一些走電影節的專業戶，他們的電影看似真實，其實對他自己來說不真實，因為全調成評委的口味了，為了國際語言而國際語言，或者為了國際語言而刻意的反國際語言。這和青年策展人的各項評選很像，只要是牽扯到評獎，整個方案很容易偏出自己平時策展的習慣動作，會往＂遊戲＂的規定動作靠近。」

姜俊工作室：https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/X9_9DglLcG7nrzt4b_6HXQ

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Drawing is the best way to learn, even if you’re no Leonardo da Vinci

Why do so many of us stop drawing when we become adults?

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Art (or adversity) doesn’t necessarily bring these miracles of spirit that people often think it does. Sometimes you’re just like, 'No, man, I feel crushed, and I don’t necessarily feel like art is going to save my soul or take me out of this.' But, somehow, I do in the end believe that it kind of can. It’s very powerful, our own creativity. It can be very restorative and sometimes it’s your only companion on very solitary roads.

Laleh Khorramian; https://thecreativeindependent.com/people/visual-artist-laleh-khorramian-on-knowing-when-to-take-a-break/?utm_source=Weekly+Digest&utm_campaign=c0dd4c89e7-tciweekly_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6d839791f5-c0dd4c89e7-179378453

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The Workers Club (2017)

Adam Sobel

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這兩天因為公司一個人事消息有點昏昏沉沉，剛剛過馬路因為這個該死的燈號差點被一台休旅車撞，還好對方有停下來，當下我還用理直氣壯的眼神看著那台黑色大車，幾秒過後才發現那個被旋轉的號誌。異常冷靜，想說如果真的被撞到，我應該會覺得這一切都是那可憐司機的錯。

不過自己會如此恍神最開始的原因應該還是那條人事通知，一個在公司十八年的櫃檯人員因為公司結構改變要被裁撤了，之後將會轉給外包的公司。已經是一年多第二次，前一位被裁的也是在公司十幾年了，雖然兩位長輩都表面整好情緒說會沒事的，但還是覺得這結構可恨，不應該這樣陷下去。另一方面，外包公司聘人給員工的薪資福利聽起來也蠻差的，約聘制，沒上班就沒薪資，沒有年假可言，可能因為是櫃檯，連想上廁所也要等有人替代才能去（沒基本人權嗎？）聽說上太久還會被唸怎麼去那麼久（有監視器監督）胃不好拉肚子不行嗎？總之，他們還是這樣度過每個工作天。這群他們大多是黑人女性，我常覺得一個公司如果人孔面貌很單一，其中一定有什麼不尋常的地方，但這種事好像在這看多就越來越不怪了，而同時紐約市長還是能自豪地說紐約市是個涵納多元文化的城市。

常常有人問我過得如何，每次都不知道怎樣回答，實在是在這裡大開眼界啊（情願與不情願地）。說過得不好也不是，畢竟物質生活還是有滿足，但說過得好又太沈溺在自己的世界，可能就是還可以吧。

I’ve been light-headed these two days after hearing a staffing notice. Without close attention, I almost got hit by an SUV earlier, because the pedestrian light was not facing the right direction. I got lucky that the driver stopped before hitting me. I didn’t realized that at the moment, and was staring at that black car when it ran to me. If I got hit by it, I probably would still think it’s all that driver’s fault…

What’s still ringing in my head though is that staffing notice. Our front desk position is being eliminated because of company structure change, and the position is being outsourced. She has been with the company for 18 years. This is the second person laid off due to this, in about a year. The previous employee was with the company for over 20 years. Both of them collected themselves fast, almost like they had anticipated this to happen. I’m with the company for 18 months, but this is still sad news as I work with both of them closely. I couldn’t imagine being laid off after so many years in a company. Simply so. I think this structure change is a disgrace.

On the other hand, employees in the outsourcing company aren’t being treated well, either. They’re contractors. Their employer/manager use every second of their time. They cannot go to the restroom whenever they want to. A replacement has to be there then they can leave the seats. They still spend every work day as is, and accept what it requires. These “they” consists largely of African American women. I’ve always been skeptical about companies which hire people from certain backgrounds (racial, class, etc.) without clear reason. I feel like there must be something going on. But after being here for three years, what was aberrant seems to become acceptable now…

People often ask me how I am doing. Frankly, I don’t know how to answer this in a few words. I’d say I’ve learned a lot about the world, probably in the most condensed form in my life (to date). I couldn’t say I’m not well. After all, I am living a fine lifestyle. However, it’d be too naive for me to say that I’m happy. So I guess I am just fine.

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I have always been struck, in America, by an emotional poverty so bottomless, and a terror of human life, of human touch, so deep that virtually no American appears able to achieve any viable, organic connection between his public stance and his private life. This failure of the private life has always had the most devastating effect on American public conduct, and on black-white relations. If Americans were not so terrified of their private selves, they would never have become so dependent on what they call 'The Negro Problem.'

I Am Not Your Negro

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… He pilfered a copy of Ulysses, but it was possibly the one book he did not finish. ‘What’s the point of it? I suspect it was a bit of a joke by Joyce. He just kept his mouth shut as people read into it more than there was. Pseudo-intellectuals love to drop the name Ulysses as their favorite book. I refused to be intellectually bullied into finishing it.’" “Robert Frost received a thumbs-down –‘I’m glad his reputation is starting to fade’ – and Knight said that when he ran out of toilet paper, he sometimes tore pages from John Grisham novels. He mentioned that he didn’t like Jack Kerouac either, but this wasn’t quite true. ‘I don’t like people who like Jack Kerouac,’ he clarified.” “’I do have a sense of humor,’ Knight said. ‘I just don’t like jokes. Freud said there’s no such thing as a joke – a joke is an expression of veiled hostility.’” “Knight’s ability to hold a grudge was impressive. Though many National Geographic magazines were buried beneath his tent, he despised the publication. ‘I didn’t even like stealing them,’ he said. ‘I only looked at them when I was desperate. They’re really only good for burying in the dirt. That glossy paper lasts a longtime.’ His aversion to National Geographic extends back to his youth. When Knight was in high school, he was reading a copy and came across a photo of a young Peruvian shepherd standing beside a road, crying. Behind him were several dead sheep, struck by a car as the boy had been trying to guide them. The photograph was later reprinted in a book of National Geographic’s all-time greatest portraits. It incensed Knight. ‘They published a photo of the boy’s humiliation. He had failed his family, who had entrusted him with the herd. It’s disgusting that everybody can see a little boy’s failure.’…

The Stranger in the Woods

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The mechanistic takeover of a cinema conceived as a show to be exhibited in large theatres with a standard duration, hermetic structures that are born and die on the screen, satisfies, to be sure, the commercial interests of the production groups, but it also leads to the absorption of forms of the bourgeois world-view which are the continuation of 19th century art, of bourgeois art: man is accepted only as a passive and consuming object; rather than having his ability to make history recognised, he is only permitted to read history, contemplate it, listen to it, and undergo it. The cinema as a spectacle aimed at a digesting object is the highest point that can be reached by bourgeois film-making. The world, experience, and the historic process are enclosed within the frame of a painting, the stage of a theatre, and the movie screen; man is viewed as a consumer of ideology, and not as the creator of ideology. This notion is the starting point for the wonderful interplay of bourgeois philosophy and the obtaining of surplus value. The result is a cinema studied by motivational analysts, sociologists and psychologists, by the endless researchers of the dreams and frustrations of the masses, all aimed at selling movie-life, reality as it is conceived by the ruling classes.

Towards a Third Cinema (1969), Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino

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The sociologist Wayne Brekhus might point to sanitation work as an 'unmarked' element of daily life. The world around us is more completely comprehended if we look for phenomena that are usually unnoticed -- unextraordinary, he calls them -- and therefore unanalyzed. They stand in contrast to things, relationships, identities or behaviors that are marked, claims Brekhus; these garner a lot of attention and are often used as examples that purport to illustrate larger realities, but recognizing only marked phenomena distrots our understanding of the world. Brekhus makes the case that important truths are lodged within the unmarked and the unseen.

Robin Nagle

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A few weeks ago, I found the card-holding compartments of my wallet are tearing apart. Making a wallet (or at least something I can put my cards, changes, bills securely) then became my small project after previous time making an unwanted (and couldn’t make my mind getting rid of) shirt into a small bag. After about 3 weeks, my wallet was FINALLY complete… hand sown with denim fabric left from the last time, some bought from Ebay and old zipper from a camera bag.

Sewing is really calming and soothing in a way. It kind of becomes something productive to do while I’m experiencing the meaninglessness of working/surviving.

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'Existence itself, in practical terms, is there by contingent upon our information about that entity.' 'Dewey (decimal classification) system is highly reflective of a guy living in Albany in the late 19th century.'

Bob Frost of University of Michigan, School of Information

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On "white hipster b***sh*t"

偶然看到這個詞，其實已經發現很久，但還不確定要怎樣定位呢。首先問的是為什麼在喜歡的樂團的場地，觀眾總是白人居多？喜歡樂團成員臉孔背景為何也是白人居多？為什麼耳朵會被訓成這樣？依然，最近在聽的psychedellic團們仍是這調性。前幾個月聽了一陣子Sinkane蠻喜歡的，聽久還是膩了不知道怎樣把這條線連下去。之前看完紀錄片Two Trains Runnin'還有把Mississippi John Hurt找來聽，但藍調對我來說還太重，昨天放Gil Scout-Heron跟Jamie xx合作的那張也沒很喜歡，也許未來繼續探索發掘...

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最近開始看Dear White People，有看到另外一個身份定位的方式，外在髮型、穿著、去的party（連接到音樂上）的確好像有那些不同。但現實生活中密切的問題比較像是，為什麼我們公司account teams那麼多白人，儘管已經很提倡"多元"，目前非白人還是屈指可數，但好像也因此覺得自己在的support team區域很豐富蠻幸運的，平常聽得到英文中文西班牙文

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雖然還是難免帶著那樣的習氣，不過在這些日子裏，也開始批判反抗那個樣子了。

在國外漸漸各個方面獨立的過程裏，跟爸媽的關係好像也漸漸舒展開，我沒有像以前需要那麼依賴他們的關係，他們好像也感到我要慢慢遠離他們——那個距離形成的可怕。但大概就是這樣的條件下，才真的開始有開放的對話。某天庭眾像把我當朋友一般的說了一堆過去的事跟工作上的抱怨，尤其跟修敏的歷史上，從認識過程、三個月結婚、家裡狀況變化、分居到離婚（一部分我促成的）、他搬出去又搬回來等等，原來發生過很多，但自己所記得的又那麼少，雖然那麼少但卻默默影響著自己，家庭還有家族史，對於自己無阻礙的覺得無所謂的這樣長大了，好像也蠻有趣的，可能也是因為這些自己個性上蠻奇異的，也常常覺得無法融入什麼吧。”

想到那天看Paddinton的話，我大概永遠都會是城市的孩子？

“Mrs Brown says that in London everyone is different, and that means anyone can fit in. I think she must be right - because although I don't look like anyone else, I really do feel at home. I'll never be like other people, but that's alright, because I'm a bear. A bear called Paddington.”