Wasn’t there at 6 in the morning, but friends were, that is Noortje Marres, to make a map of the sunrise in Amsterdam. Try-out (?) or part of a new project by Esther Polak: http://www.estherpolak.nl/.

In April we will execute a first experiment producing a Spiral Drawing for one specific location and purpose. In this case Noortje Marres will act as a commissioner of a Spiral Sunrise. Her motivation in commissioning the piece stems from her move from Amsterdam (a location in close proximity to the Frederiksplein) to London in 2007, and a developing conversation with the artist about the (disputed) capacity of the Spiral Sunrise to bring the Dutch light to her London house.

Script
 
-Execution of the work will take place at the Frederiksplein, Amsterdam, during the sunrise of 6 April 2009, in the presence of  Noortje Marres
-Esther Polak will execute the project based on Marres wishes.
-Noortje Marres will hang the piece in her London house for one year.
-Noortje will document her experience in a diary (log), before, during, and after the recording (3 times 500 words).
-The log is an integral part of the art work, and will be made available on the project blog and/or in any suitable form for exhibition.
 
Research questions:
 
1. What does it mean to trans-locate a sunrise?
2. Is ownership of a work a relevant form of interaction in the context of interactive art?
3. Does the Spiral Sunrise performance create a tangible presence for solar energy in public space?

This afternoon I’ll take a break and cycle up to the Florapark, where F’s Dream Depot has a small exhibition (until April 10th) at the Noorderparkkamer: http://www.noorderparkkamer.nl/: Kijk wij hebben papier gemaakt!. It shows the results of a paper-making workshop at a school in Amsterdam-Noord, and also photographs of the project. A few are online at the still temporary lo-tech website of Dream Depot: http://www.dreamdepot.org.

Oh, so much more beautiful than Googlemaps: Ordnance Survey interactive map of Ireland

Longish remarks on a.o. William Marx, Afscheid van de literatuur under ‘pages’. Of course my remarks are pretty soft – (apparently with my background in literary theory I can stand W. Marx’s approach which centers on what literary critics wrote) – for a harsher but quite fair assessment (in Dutch) read: http://achillevandenbranden.blogspot.com/

Forgot that it’s St. Patrick’s Day. Went for a short ride after work (then back to more work). Prachtige felle zon, nog koud door noordenwind. 15.15 – 17.00.

Marcusstraat – Schellingwouderbrug – Zunderdorp – Schouw – Broek in Waterland – Monnickendam – Uitdam – Ransdorp – Schellingwouderbrug – Marcusstraat

11.00 – 14.45. Fikse zuidwestenwind. Bij wegrijden nog een waterig zonnetje, dan bewolkt, steeds grijzer, bij Bilderdam de eerste sputters, vanaf Leimuiden miezer. Uiteindelijk lekker vies weer en flink doorgereden. Zoals gewoonlijk verdwaalde ik weer half voorbij Hoogmade.

Marcusstraat – Amstel – Uithoorn – Vrouwenakker – Bilderdam – Leimuiden – Woubrugge – Hoogmade – Oude Ade – Rijpwetering – Oude Wetering – Burgerveen – Rijsenhout – Aalsmeerderbrug – Amsterdamse Bos – Amstel – Marcusstraat

For when you get bored reading all the ‘murikan reviews of 2666: http://venepoetics.blogspot.com/search/label/RobertoBolaño

Just reading a bunch of reviews and essays I come across this in a London Review of Books essay on computer games by John Lanchester:

“Northrop Frye once observed that all conventions, as conventions, are more or less insane; Stanley Cavell once pointed out that the conventions of cinema are just as arbitrary as those of opera. Both those observations are brought to mind by video games, which are full, overfull, of exactly that kind of arbitrary convention. Many of these conventions make the game more difficult. Gaming is a much more resistant, frustrating medium than its cultural competitors. Older media have largely abandoned the idea that difficulty is a virtue; if I had to name one high-cultural notion that had died in my adult lifetime, it would be the idea that difficulty is artistically desirable. It’s a bit of an irony that difficulty thrives in the newest medium of all – and it’s not by accident, either. One of the most common complaints regular gamers make in reviewing new offerings is that they are too easy. (It would be nice if a little bit of that leaked over into the book world.)”

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n01/lanc01_.html

I’m not sure if I totally agree with this (but I’m not a gamer), but as a quote I like it.

My last 4 “tweets”:

ariealt going thru my rss-feeds, seeing i havent looked at most of them since november 16th (2008), excepting those of friends &c. less than 5 seconds ago from web

ariealt the website that’s not updated since january 2006! less than 5 seconds ago from web

ariealt first a second big coffee. hmm twitter-spam. have to finish listing my publications of 2008, then update the website less than 5 seconds ago from web

ariealt home (after a’dam-r’dam-enschede-almelo-r’dam-a’dam for an evening on digital poetry in enschede), dishes done, back to work or cycling? 8 minutes ago from web

Yeah, I know, plugins do exist to stream twitter-updates straight to wordpress. I won’t use it, I guess

5 students of the Rietveld Academy (interaction / unstable media) have written a manifesto. There’s a presentation tonight at OCCI, Amsterdam: http://idum5.net/the-vidum-manifesto/.