ANA WEEK 3 AT JOSHUA TREE

Monday 18th November, 7.18 am

Week three begins, yesterday's sharing at Caps Rocks feels like a perfect closure for a week focused on materializing the ideas into concrete form, the methodology at work. If last week the strata of research was the audio, this week it will be all about the 'two bodies' coming together in screen.  I know similar questions will transfer:, if a significant amount of questions arose in order to arrive at a co-existence -- not translation, not audio description...my audio response/recall -- (as the word means -calling agDance and the Performative for more on this. Two 'stories' branching out  from a shared origin, but each distinct, both are integral to each other.  Here is the taking care...

ain, their words) of two languages, equally, questions will emerge as to how to make two bodies co-exist in the screen.  Two bodies that in choreological terms are not immediately symphonic (neither in 'real time/space nor most certainly within the electronic frame where aesthetic forces take over if one nis not careful), one a 'body' marked by the discourses and forces of the everyday and the other marked by the discourse and forces of the 'dancerly/choreographic, a different kind of 'everyday'-  see Chapter 9

Furthermore, like the English interventions that are not a translation, the movement in the desert is not a representation, nor translation of their stories, but a score, a distilling, created as a 'recall' from both audio and my 'somatic' memory of them when we spoke and walked in the fields.  It is therefore, somatic-marking, a mark in the space inscribed by me, pushed forth (birthed Cavarero would say) from these invisible dynamic forces, as inscribed by them on me. This stratification of time and spaces (as in the audio) seems to chime with yesterday's feedback conversations of exiles and deserts....life then and life now.

Tuesday 19th November, 7.29 am (7 am seems to be the new rule)..

Last night we gathered as a group to listen to the draft audio scores.  It was the first time we were meeting again as a group since the 1-2-1/1-2-4 sessions to devise the material.  We all cooked something, smorgasbord of Mexican, Puerto Rican and Californian fare. I remembered the recipe for 'arroz y habichuelas coloras', it didnt turn out half bad,  I even found Sazon in the local supermarket (will take a bottle with me back to Athens, migratory cuisine). 

This also gave me the opportunity to keep detailing the stages to come.  Of course I had explained the project on our first meeting, but now, having gone through the experience together, there is better ground to understand their participation and contribution to the work.  Their ownership. I recounted the 'sharing' at Artists' Tea, the upcoming Museum event this Thursday as well as the plans for the final installation/durational performance. It was important for me to ensure they arrive at a place where they see the work as theirs, I think we got there last night.

Each woman had the opportunity to listen to their audio story. They all have agreed to move forward, only two minor edits needed. 

Ulysses cried when he heard his story told by another.  There were lots of tears over here as well.  Not tears of sadness, but as Caverero says of recognition of 'who I am' through the tale told. For this group, this statement generated a story that has it place beyond the boundaries of the familiar. The necessary unravelling of hidden [human] stories that we must continue to generate.  Stories, not news, not history...in many ways these seem more real, more 'truthful, than the 'universal' ones, now controlled by logarithms and bots in Ukraine. 

I am meeting my challenge, 1 confronting 1 is becoming generative, the binary code 1-0 seems to be what is producing the redundancy...

As Robert said in Cap Rock, a direct confrontation of one and its other, challenging us, there and there...

I am very thankful for the 'respondent' artists  who joined the meeting remotely: Vicky Spanovangelis, Dawn Schultz and most important Dieca Jones.  Dieca has organised a 'mirror' project, with eleven young women, of similar backgrounds and experiences to the women at Joshua Tree.  Cant wait to see how that unfolds.  The two groups met last night.  I think it was important for the women to have a sense of this second layer of 'community' supporting our project and giving further life through their parallel artistic responses. It was crazy, almost impossible to sustain (as computer ran out of batteries, internet became intermittent, and just the sheer emotional awe), but still these crazy beautiful loaded moments that cannot be contained seem necessary.

To move and be moved....

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Wednesday, 20th November, 11.37 am Joshua Tree

Today. Starting editing  video components.

9.55 pm Joshua Tree

Today was a day of pushing (and succeeding) with the next stages of developments.  I got the thumbs up for the final version of the audio scores. Today I also battled bugs and crashes, old computers and slow drivers, to complete the first video component for the installation. The excitement comes from arriving not so much at an end but at an understanding of the full implication of the methodology and it’s integrity, personal, social and political.

New territories.

The sudden materialisation of the material has opened up a space of calm and I am finally able to give the respondent women artist my full attention.  I have been reading their contributions on a daily basis.  Their responses and related views on the themes that emerged helped clarify many aspects of the process in ways that I am still unravelling...the connective threads need to be untangled for a moment to see how this beautiful fabric has been woven...and then to reconnect them again...

I will write about each starting Friday. Tomorrow will be taken over by the museum event which has, inevitably, become larger than expected...trying to keep the balance of things...keep the process alive although it feels once again that there is an expectation of a product...but it is in my hands...I know how to navigate this...breathe...

Another woman joins us. My childhood friend Maritere Vicens is flying in from Seattle. Maria Elena Lara is coming from Los Angeles. I have not seen them in years...

I am embraced and held with love.  Arts works will not change the world,  art processes change people who then go and change the world...a paraphrasing and extension of what Kurt Jooss said when asked about the impact of The Green Table...and the issue of humility comes right back in flying through the cracks in the window blowing in cold desert wind.
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Thursday, 21st November, 2019, 11.28 am Joshua Tree

Getting ready for Palm Springs Museum event.  I will perform three  'interventions'  in the sculpture garden (final versions of Guadalupe, Olga, Griselda's scores).  This time all boxes are coming with us,  all present.

The audio for the event can be accessed  by clicking here

For details of the event go to:  https://www.psmuseum.org/events/materiality-exile
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Friday, 22nd November, 2019, 9.54 am Joshua Tree

The Palm Springs Museum was a success (if I can say so myself).  A larger crowd than usual, so collaborators were pleased.  Very positive response to the presentation.  The Q&A afterwards also revealed that the audience is 'geeting' it, most spoke about the many layers of the project.  Some said they will come see the final event next Saturday the 30th.

Achievement of today --Live link player is working! 

Everything is taking longer...I am tired and sleepy, coming down from performance adrenaline rush.

The memory boxes installed in the El Rod sculpture garden ready for the evening performance.  I aim to have the video archive available later today.