NOVAD FLASHzine Volume n

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#S17 -- year 1 anniversary reflection [OAS Node n /Transmission]

temporary absence from the field of action gives you a good spot to observe spirals. yes, history is a collection of spirals, pendulums that rover. sometimes it is funny my friends, funny how so much intensity can take us time to digest. to overcome a police officer kicking you in the ribs and smiling sadistically is a slow process. one. two. three

~ go 

the choice \\ to #bloom,, to #ooze a fresh movement :: is urgent to be reconciled with......#year1 is done. now, a tad bit of coffee (or tea) and some peace of mind, some books, a humming-bird whistling political literature,, a kiss from your love and we are on our way for #year2. but what is precisely crossing that valley, we still don't know.

in the last months of our movement,, it became clear that it will take nothing more than a philosophic rebellion in #occupy to dissolve the consolidation of power and remove the stench of our stagnated waters :: our ideological springs are contaminated with pus, and became no longer a good source to drink from ........... if we are to thrive as a viable project it is paramount to reject stagnations and seek fresh currents of thought.

to #occupy with our bodies a given space and park there,, pretending that everything is going to be ok because we are there for "as long as we can!" -- is #ostrichism. and the same can be mentioned about refusing debt or domination without refusing to dominate others:: one is not complete without the other.

~ abolition is volition, says the Oracle of Delphi.

sometimes i wonder if we were to "win" or take power. how different our project would actually be? i see organizers,, sympathetic journalist and theoretical gurus still working under a Toyotist paradigm, {{dling! dling!}} ~ JUST IN TIME ~ {{dling! dling!}} :: "hello! we are here to sell you redemption, with the utmost attention to efficiency & results!"{{dling! dling!}} --

or what acid historians call

                  POST-MODERNIST CRAP 

and we BUY IT! efficiency & results! we BUY it! 

#occupy has only one enemy :: ITSELF :: and not because we are blind, unable to see our adversaries marching on us,, hunting us down - it takes more than physical violence to legitimize a dying order. this is clear for everybody with their necks deep enough. we know that THEIR project was discredited after the fall of the Wall in 2008. not even their own priests believe in their bullshit anymore,, and this will always be for our advantage. the greatest threat comes from the obscurity of our own shadows...

the question is if #occupy is "reformable" or will it take a radical departure from the dominating schools of thought in #OWS to break the chains arresting our imagination.

 -- maybe the mirror is a set of questions -- :: despite the Diaspora,, are we dancing revolution freely and with #poiesis, or are we insisting on the same shit? are we adventurous and curious and experimental or are we picking the safe, broad road?

before trying to destroy the Beast (neoliberal state) by clogging its circulatory system (financial capitalism),,

 _ did we ::

(1) prepared something in its place,, a QUOTIDIAN alternative,, or are we making the same mistake of the French Revolution?

 ~~~ the French Terror occupied the vaccum left by decapitations ~~~

_did we ::

(2) realize that we don't need to clash with the state, but rather make it obsolete?

so this is it. #year2 ~

! we more than ever enter a time of self-discovery. maybe #occupy can't be reformed, but this might not be a bad thing :: it takes a while to understand that we can always write history in the way of a wanderer, 

     ~ instead of #settling,

#rooting,

                     ;; instead of #occupying

or  #OCCUPY -- :: maybe just to       #ROVER?

             Happy Birthday family.

Atchu

OASN1@BH Week 2 Review

[Novadic transmission from A, September 1, 2012]:

friends. 

this morning i received a sweet letter from a NYC occupier which raises important questions for the struggle. riding on its wave, would like to discuss a bit the Body-Without-Organs (BwO) notion and the hot possibility of mathematically modeling the movement through non-linearity.  

occupier letter.

"The key is in learning to embrace contradiction. It's the only way we can grow. Radical + reformist. Masculine + feminine. Rejecting the system + using the system to implode itself. Outreach + Inreach. The list is endless. I know it's personal for me, but I feel so strongly that if we blow up the binary, everything becomes so much more POSSIBLE. It's a pretty obvious thing that these divisions are created to keep us submissive. What do we do once we dissolve these imaginary lines?"

C.

this brings us to the exploration-experimentation that our collective has been conducting in the movement so far, namely with the use -and abuse, why not?- of pluripotential spaces. these zones are effectively TAZs elicited by organizers, whom "code" a given space with the right inscription (rules) and then present the instructions to the players; through this rune-like operator, trained organizers can optimize the emergence of flow (optimal experience) at any given loci, outdoor or indoor. the consequences are endless. 

         A.

time suspension.                    

~ "When you will have made him a body without organs,

then you will have delivered him from all his automatic reactions

and restored him to his true freedom." ~ 

                         A. Artaud (1947) 

Fibonaci Arena (FA) is any given space coded with instructions that elicit flow (e.g. Salon, Magic Mountain). FAs are intentionally unintentional vortexes, a spiral-eliciting accident, which draws its theoretical basis on anarchy and the notion of BwO that Deleuze & Guattari introduce in their collaborative work. in those instances where play is elicited time is abolished. 

play is flow & flow is play

"what is your name?" dialogues.

(...) existence means exposition to and adaptation of a full range of given norms, structures and boundaries (...)

(...) this does not lead to a loss of personality but to a construction of an artificial one: already before we are born we are categorized based on our genitals, which decide what kind of name is going to be imposed on us, Susan or Tom (...) 

(...) a stratification of our bodies, which is created through the hierarchical order of society (...) Thousand Plateaus (...) continuous power relations amongst members of society (...) power where those at the top oppress the others 

Mark

in illo tempore ~ "in that time" ,  or "once upon a time".

in order to break binaries, and thus promote a revolution in the logical framework that guides -- and ensnares -- Western thought it is suggested: 

(1) that instead of "breaking" boundaries, revolutionaries seek to "dissolve" them by eliciting phase transitions :: from solid to liquid :: liquid time, flow :: ~ this method of engaging Empire discussed by OccupySunTzu acts on the links, on the spaces in between.

(2) this phase transition may be elicited through flash ~ liberations, i.e. collective processes of emancipation in public streets & squares :: similar to ancient tribal hierophanies :: regression to the undifferentiated state of BwO :: 

(3) dissemination of Fibonaci Arenas. 

the resulting kaleidoscopes are #novad-like supernovas. 

occupyMathematics ~ "and they say you always hated math (...)"

to start thinking about how to mathematically model the movement, at this point of maturity and beyond, is probably the last thing that Empire wants us to do. from here on lies the suggestion that we OccupyMathematics. 

check out mathematical approaches to model complex emergent behavior (eg, central nervous system;; ant colony;; traffic jams ;;) and these links with tricks from the trickster: 

• %Cellular Automatta (Turing machine): http://cscs.umich.edu/~crshalizi/notabene/cellular-automata.html

• $Network Theory and associated cartographies: http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/ijoc/article/download/1136/553

• #Singularities in Pluripotential Theory: http://www.math.lsa.umich.edu/~mattiasj/research/ppt1.pdf

Sent from my soul

Mapping the voyage of the Hippo.

∞

[NOTES]:

The dynamics that manifest as revelations in the material zone or phase only comprise a small fraction of the dynamics in play. Most of the dimensional arena is active with immaterial transpects demonstrating what can be described as multiplicity, resistant to epistemology or the recursive. The key for the lead artist is to encourage or facilitate the transiting of evidence, of life, through the spatial layers we designate as free and open to our pluripotential phenomena. 

In OAS we discovered in Week 2, for example, that a course need not exist to exist in substantiated iterations. We found, additionally, that timing can pronounce the extended, even epic, duration of a 4D artistic project, given a dedicated locus + chronos, as long as the witness(es) and presenter(s) share the space with a focal media array, including networked electronics attached to the web and database. As such, the spectacle is only activated by a combination of hard-, soft- + wetware [LOL], in the actual stage, with the virtual as both accompaniment and archive. In relation to experience, the transmission is conducted in a flux of casual and formal micro-environments. The environment has a time feature, and it is easily translated as "a moment" itself, although such a designation is incomplete. 

The technical evaluation of the phenomena is hardly encompassing of the experience. 

Another interesting anecdote involves the act of preparation for the transmission. Is such activity not also an invitation, or a calling? What if the calling IS the event? 

∞

Super Lucky Cat reappears to connect OASN1 & AFHGC.

{Imagining the Scenario (Coffee Painting)}:

1. Lead artist wears a "red dirt" shirt from Kauai, to initiate a discussion of source material for artistic, organic staining processes.

2. Today's business section of the NY Times is provided as a substrate, but also as an acknowledgment of timeliness, and other relevant considerations affecting (or not) the artistic enterprise. The subject of materials is expanded to include "non-artist" materials.

3. The lead artist displays a large set of many types of painting tools, mostly brushes. Students are encouraged to choose several for painting with the coffee. The brushes serve as the point of origin for a conversation about the "life" of the artist's tool, and/or the partnership between the artist and the tool + the history of making that may be thought of as embedded in the tool through usage and application. [Introduction to Techne, time, craft traditions... (+)]

4. Many types of papers are introduced. Experiments on viability as substrate for medium, "pigment" and expressive means.

5. An array of large format (mostly floral) photographs are mounted around the classroom. We will paint on the museum board cut into window mattes, enclosing the photos. Many considerations. One of the photos (a rose) is displayed on a nice Italian easel at the door.

6. "Final" exercise will be to paint on very fragile light paper (multi-hued), which will buckle and otherwise dramatically respond to the coffee-paint. 

7. Discussion about artists who use coffee as an important part of their exhibition practice (like Sara Sun, who has a show going currently at Governor's Island Art Fair - thanks for the heads-up Andrea; and Jayson Musson + Manning Williams). Discussion about coffee growing (political/economy). 

Clemens Poole + Shane Kennedy & other Hippo crew members talk story to a full Haus, Friday, August 31 at OASN1.∞

OASN1 reached an important marker with the "Voyage of the Hippo" program on Friday, August 31. The evening presentation, which consisted of a fantastic, compelling slideshow/movie sequence + Q&A + commentaries facilitated by Clemens Poole and long-time AFH anchor Shane Kennedy, realized our vision of how our "class" format would work in practice. At the conclusion of the talk, many of us walked to Tandem, a few blocks down Troutman in Bushwick, to continue the vibrant concourse over libations. 

∞

Interior shot of Pickthorn in Bushwick.

We continue to make friends in the neighborhood, like Jayson Musson, AKA Hennessy Youngman and the amazing ladies of Pickthorn. We are also beginning to establish strategic partnerships. OASN1 is now sponsored by both Wyckoff Starr and the vaunted Brooklyn Rail. JenJoy Roybal is already proving invaluable, as she begins the process of scanning the domain for artist-teachers and relevant organizational/mission comparisons to/for our enterprise. She sent Chris & I links that reveal possibilities neither of us had entertained prior. JenJoy is gifted with big vision. 

∞

The discourse that is percolating in the novad pool is providing us with tremendous inspiration and seed-thought, moving forward. Coming in multiple forms (poems, images, sounds, movies, links, texts, notations, forwarded correspondence, system schematics, references, citations, equations, juxtapositions... [+]) the novadic inputs are fueling some OAS movements, refining threads, introducing new seams, expanding horizons, shifting PoVs & frames of reference [+]. Thank you, gamers!

∞

The occupationalartschool [dot] com nexus is weekly undergoing facelifts, as we assess the proper format for that organ. For now, the preponderance of notices and documentation is being sited on the OAS Tumblr and in the OwA/OAS Facebook pages. The OAS Twitter, Pinterest and other social media are functional but rudimentary in our usage of them for a bit longer. The question at this point is whether to invent an entirely new framework for the virtual / actual interplay. 

∞

Finally, the ripple effect from DisciplineAriel [Event 1, August 25, 2012] has only begun to evidence itself in our secondary co-lab phase. Stay tuned.

Neighborhood Metal [OASN1@BH][August 24]

Clif Hawkins. Click the image to visit Clif's Tumblr.

Some reflections on Clif Hawkins' visit to Occupational Art School.

By Paul McLean

Friday night, and the Bushwick sidewalk and street outside Bat Haus are quiet. We haven't really got a handle on the traffic flow in the neighborhood, yet. The conversation around it reminds me of gallery talk in Santa Fe, which relies, or did when I was there, on a significant walk-in demographic. Gallerinas and -rinos would pass the time conjecturing on what might responsible for a slow spell, and what the duration might be. I thought of it as an equivalent to dowsing. The lights in BH are low. It's an altogether pleasant moment. Clif and I and some friends sat in the ergonomic office chairs and carried on a relaxed conversation.

First, Clif passed me the obituary for Manning Williams. Clif apprenticed with Manning, who became a lifelong inspiration, mentor and friend to Clif. The first lesson in Clif's "Neighborhood Metal" teach-in is the value of the community artist. We go through photos on the laptop, briefly summarizing a life of art and culture. While scrolling quickly through images, Hawkins quietly interjects anecdotes about Williams, what his studio looked like, the kinds of tasks Clif would carry out for him. Eventually, a picture begins to emerge of an exchange that over years helped Clif shape his relationship to art, craft and the artist's life.

Clif enjoyed describing his first metalwork occupations, which he took in his teens. Now Hawkins reached into a beautiful leather bag and produced several portfolios. We leafed through them, stopping at this or that print for my questions or compliments. Clif shares very quickly a progression through his past creations, and after a few minutes of this, it's clear that by his late 20s he had amassed an impressive catalogue of pieces, created for many applications, from stage sets to puppet shows, architectural conservation to sculpture, his own and others'.

We covered territory that for a mid-career artisan, artist, craftsman, tradesman is fairly common, especially after the gloss and ambitions of youth-driven desire for recognition has settled into a programmatic endurance. Again, the discussion revolves around examples of experiences, changing ideas about the fields and options available to a technician, the effect of the economy on culture. It isn't a philosophical talk, as such. It isn't about theory. Clif talks about making things, about people and projects, and the social currents that flow through a life in materials, a life in the shop, a life of manifesting ideas as things.

One can sense respect for fine work, and a keen limit for bullshit, particularly the sort that derives from a desire for great output unaccompanied by recognition of its real cost. It's clear Clif doesn't begrudge a haggler. It's more than this. The sensibility is attached somehow to Clif's willingness, even pride in being a neighborhood shop guy. Ash, his partner at AWS shares this local boy headset. I can verify on my account, having stopped in a time or two with little jobs that Clif and Ash have attended to. Neither one grew up in Brooklyn, but both spend time and energy serving the community.

The last thing I'll mention about "Neighborhood Metal" are Clif's closing thoughts. He seemed genuinely to have enjoyed the evening. I asked him why. He told me that the kind of talk we had seems lost in today's wired world of ever-texting creative classers barhopping and posting about it on Twitter in real time.

Steel Plant Stands

OAS Node #1 @BAT HAUS: DisciplineAriel [Internal Documentation]

[DisciplineAriel performs at OASN1@BH Saturday, August 25, 2012]

Michael Barron on overhead projector. Click image to see Bat Haus photoset.[Performance Elements]:

• Wilson Novitzki improvises on synth and guitar
• Photos shot on camera phones by Paul McLean, performers, Bat Haus owners Natalie Chan & Cody Sullivan, and guests (+ digital enhancements as after effects in some instances) are uploaded to the DisciplineAriel blog in real time, or later, and interlinked in the network of OASN1 sites and portals
• PJM animations for DisciplineAriel are projected and presented on one of the Bat Haus computer monitors, looping
• The overhead projector is utilized for real time old school psychedelic image mixing; Paul initiates the sequence, creating a wall projection, with olive oil, water, Guerra Paint and other water-borne pigments (acrylics) in powder, solid and liquid form, including interference and metallic paints, plus coffee; Michael Barron takes over, and also photo-documents the results
• Wilson invites Adam Caine to sit in on the set; Adam plays guitar

Wilson Novitzki, Adam Caine

[LINKS]:

• DisciplineAriel Blog
• Bat Haus
• Wilson Novitzki [Soundcloud]
• Paul McLean [Art for Humans]
• Occupational Art School Node 1 [Main][Tumblr]
  

Overhead projection, iteration 1 [PJM][Narrative]

DisciplineAriel began in early summer 2012 as a "Borderless Art" proposition + mobile media collaboration for Bushwick-based musician and composer Wilson Novitzki and visual artist Paul McLean. The process involved several informal exchanges at Wyckoff-Starr, plus emails, phone calls and a pre-production meeting and 4d demonstration. Web archive links were exchanged and reviewed.

During a two-month European tour with renowned DIY artist R. Stevie Moore, Novitzki composed short electronic and guitar pieces on synthesizer and iPAD. These pieces were uploaded to a Tumblr created for DisciplineAriel by McLean, who added entries featuring "outside" content - from three sources:

• Famed Kauai-based surf guru Ambrose Curry
• The Voyage of the Hippo blog (long-time AFH collaborator Shane Kennedy contributing)
• Anarchivist/revGamer/Novadic transmissions from Bold Jez.

These satellite or context threads also in real time sequences featured neo-epic or -journeyman components and intersecting trajectories. McLean contributed digital still and moving images, as well as photo documentation of "HOME," i.e., Bushwick, the project's point of origin.

The DisciplineAriel performance for Occupational Art School Node 1 at Bat Haus constitutes a "Welcome Home" party for Wilson; a version of "Talking Story;" a prototyping proof for the particular kind of collaboration Novitzi and McLean practice(d); an invitation to further expand the collaboration to include both random and "staged" participation by OASN1 artists [+]

Overhead projection [operator transition phase]

[PHOTO & VIDEO DOCUMENTATION]: Natalie Chan, Cody Sullivan, JenJoy Roybal, Michael Barron, Paul McLean [+]

This Week [w1] at Occupational Art School

Jeff Sugg at OASN1@Bat Haus on Wednesday, August 22, from 7-9pm. FREE. Click on the image to visit Jeff's website.

OAS seminars commence on Wednesday, August 22nd, from 7-9pm. Through the end of October, we will present a series of fun and compelling expositions that explore perception in time, of space, for being. Classes will be held on Wednesdays and Fridays, from 7-9pm. Additionally, OAS Node 1 will host two or three events per month, featuring performance and exhibition, the types of programming that bring the weekly courses to a visceral point of experience.

AWS Fabrication at OASN1@Bat Haus on Friday, August 24, from 7-9pm. Click on image to visit AWS Fabrication Tumblr.[OASN1@Bat Haus Gift Program]:

• FIRST CLASS IS FREE!
• Each student will be offered pay plans and options.
• Bat Haus members will receive 20% discounts for classes.
• Each class will be retailed at a $10 value.
• Package plans will be offered at a 20% discount.
• The undiscounted retail value of attending all classes (through the end of October) is $168.
• So, a free pass/full OAS package to attend all classes will be $135 and will allow the student to attend all OAS events for free, as an added bonus!
• Plus, any OAS student with a free pass & all Bat Haus members will receive a 20% discount on any item sold in any of our exhibits and performances! Wowsa! 
• And, to make it an even sweeter deal, we will post a list of barter items (using a variation of the OurGoods system of Have/Needs, and the system we tested for Ingrid Burrington's solo expo at SO@Hyperallergic) that student can exchange in lieu of cash!*

*Events will give us a chance to test other exchange models, including the shareware approach. Events pricing will vary, ranging from $5-10 or $20 retail value.

DisciplineAriel at OASN1@Bat Haus, Saturday, August 25, 7-9PM. Click image to visit the DisciplineAriel Tumblr.

[OASN1@Bat Haus Course Description][BETA/Draft 2.0]: 

We have given ourselves permissions to establish a neo-pedagogy. The protocols are emergent, inspired by Novads, rooted in the pre-figuration praxis of the Anarchives, in the spirit of Revolutionary Games. Our modus operandi is dimensional. The Occupational Art School Node 1 is an iteration of Vo-Tech. We are committed to discovering our calling(s), our vocation(s), and willing to delve into technology, as such, to implement vision now. OASN1 is residential and commercial, just like Starr Street, where our host is located in Bushwick. We are zoned as hybrid. The discovery of the formula for our educational and artistic discipline is a direct action as alchemy, an accident, like the invention of Holography. Our goal is to move from occupation to Stage 1 Civilization. OAS assumes sufficient power in the present, assumes we can simply access all we need in the existence in which we are currently situated. Our art is multidisciplinary. It is convergent and multivalent. The space we inhabit is in flux, and we are adapting to conditions as they are and as they evolve or progress. The world is our studio. The OAS student body is not pre-defined. It is self-selected, a phenomenon of free radicalism. The approach we encourage among you is scientific, of curiosity, of wonder. Illumination is a function of collective movement, in our case, a systematic swarming that generates a glow, a flow. Through this creation-dance in the commons, we find ourselves, each one of us, in possession of a gift and, for want of a better word, a "SOUL." In this immaterial nature, we work with materials, tangible, Real. Thus, Occupational Art School is practical. It is Boolean. It is AND/OR and/or not or NOT. We are, in short, dimensional. 

Is this enough? OAS suggests that we will find out, in Time. The Occupational Art School's luminous faculty and staff, all artists and practitioners, themselves, will engage in transmissions with the student body and with the world beyond our classroom walls, utilizing virtual media and actual (p2p, f2f), documented vocalic, aural interpretive exchange, the feedback loop,[+] as our universal transportation-vehicles. It is a question of temporary bands and bandwidth. OAS views this all-directional sensory scenario as a philosophic opportunity, during residency, to test the dynamics of the Media Equation and the Hermeneutic Circle (or spiral). FYI: Teachers are invited to switch and become students, from one class to the next, for instance, either online or in real life (IRL). Our methodology is DIY, together. Our suspicion, based on observation, is that our best students have already settled the argument once and for all, through [r]evolutionary means.

MTS: Talk about Hyperreal! [...]

• occupationalartschool.com
• occupationalartschool.tumblr.com
• batha.us

[CONTACT]: artforhumans [at] gmail [dot] com

Photo by Paul McLean

#A18: Novadic Transmission [Bold Jez]

Photo by Paul Talbot[From Jez]:

Fragments of a thought as it passed thru my brain:

...each Novad is an irreducible radicand under consideration and considered at its root a monad-like or atomic metaphysical entity.  If we drive for something deeper, we find more of the same: the identity-being. 

...the Novad root is not true of all avenues, or at least does not seem to be, for in the course of life one can ride ferries to new ideas, pass thru secret passageways between thought, and feel hopelessly lost in endless mazes.  The Novad has within itself an unidentifiable root, like an imaginary number, attached or embedded to make it a less-than-perfected ideal.