29 October 2011
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“the seeking of new structures and patterns that may be used by writers in any way they enjoy.” Constraints are used to trigger new ideas and the Oulipo group is an ongoing source of novel techniques, often based on mathematical ideas — such as counting letters and syllables, substitution algorithms, permutations, palindromes, and even chess problems.”
as published on the matzine website
Labels: editorial, matzine, poetry, words
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last night stephen mackie & i, armed with needles & thread strung past issues of matzine on a wall at zap architectures after party, in the basement of hoxton Gallery. the party was to celebrate the opening of the pavilion of protest earlier that day, exhibited in riba's prestigious florence hall. a bit of more guerilla-exposure tactics athankyouverymuch.
Labels: guerilla, matzine, photography, stephen mackie
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22 October 2011
jorge louis borges speaks in 1966 while josef albers speaks in 1968. but here they speak to each other today, based on a loosely arranged script machine.
the bezold effect is an optical phenomena which albers used in his teaching. it describes how one colour appears to change lightness or hue intensity when adjacent to a contrasting colour.
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i have found no evidence that these great minds ever met in person. like some sort of
necro-networking nitwit i’m strangely star-struck by bringing these voices into close proximity. i mean, these dead-guys really seem to be talking, arguing and believably ignoring each other! imagine the bizarre weaves of conversation that other script machines could conjure
the script machine
- interview with jorge louis borges
- interview with josef albers
- 7 comments from each interview, in alternating fashion
- the artist to begin will be judged by a flipping of a 1p coin; heads = borges, tails = albers. [coin flipped 11:50am 5th sept 2011]
- each comment can be one or more sentences long, though the final sentence must end with a question mark [?] for it to be considered usable.
- prime numbers dictate the number of entry used to compile script
* this post is a replicate of my submission to matzine#10
Labels: albers, borges, collage, history, illusion, interview, matzine, script, words
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5 July 2011
josef, étienne & i
"the search is what everyone would
undertake if he were not stuck in the
everydayness of his own life. to be
aware of the possibility of the search
is to be onto something. not to be
onto something is to be in despair"
walker percy, the moviegoer
[as quoted on page 1 of 'seeing is forgetting the name of the thing one sees' by lawrence weschler]
the image above is my submission to the copy/paste issue of matzine#09; it is of two beds, one for étienne and one for i - two characters from a short story i wrote for the previous issue. i had built part of a miniature stage-set for the piece but the simplicity of this spread, the strange divide of the spine, the butterfly and clone effect, the floating beds in paperspace and the questionable penmanship - these qualities won me over.in a 1968 interview, josef albers said something provocative, that has stuck with me and seems pertinent here :
"the source of art - or where it comes from - is the discrepancy between physical fact and psychic effect"
Labels: albers, depth, drawing, dreams, irwin, matzine, quotes, square, vision
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19 May 2011
the city of oedipus
[as published in matzine #08]
like clockwork, étienne + i would spend two long days a month in studio monoculeure. always, the first studio day was the first friday of the month; the second, the second saturday
in turns, one would fall asleep, or employ chloroform. meanwhile the other, thirty three minutes later, would shake his friend awake, whereupon the dreamer would take his dream and put them on a page; the dimensions of their studio wall.
friday, my turn, i inhaled fully and closed my eye. a moment passed before i opened again. absurdly, both étienne and the fresh, wall-sized page were nowhere to be seen.
eight days following, in studio monoculeure, étienne and i met again, rather upset with one another. an emphatic, erratic explosion of airborne blame ensued. étienne defended that the previous friday it had been his turn to capture his dream on the page. only, when he opened his eye the room was empty of both partner and page.
disturbed and irreconcilable, we could agree on only one thing; to meet again twenty days later.
friday, the first day of the month, with little trust or patience surviving, we hung the page along the centre beam of the studio, ready to take a dream on both surfaces. we entered our respective unconsciousnesses simultaneously.
i was in a heavily-dark place; a vast and dense chamber. there was a sense of minutes passing, then hours. i navigated every permutation of turn and stride [ if one could call indeterminate movements navigation; my residual self-image was unrestrained, yet unable to move to anywhere ]. a numb intuition said my partner shared this space with me, just as the excited thought skimmed across the void; we had found it!
although consciously imperceptible at the time, an afterimage of the dream persisted - whole and familiar - though strictly unknowable. a double, a mirror, the eye that can view itself directly.
now awake, days later, stylus and knife in hands, both sides of the page were black with lead scratchings. there was no page left unwarped, only two un-placable, unfathomable maps; uncanny in dissymmetries; the city of oedipus
[this is a fictional foray originally presented in matzine #08 in response to the idea 'domestic exotic'. i really enjoyed writing this - and exposing my retina's to the matzine readers was an added delight]
Labels: borges, dreams, light, matzine, mythology, shadow
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30 March 2011
Dear reader
here-in: the hourglass issue;
the effect time has on you;
how it and you are ‘twine
here-on will test your eye-sight [there is a lot of small text]
where image, prose, thought just might
spur questions in like kind.
so read, scan and ponder,
upon content of times yonder;
the contributors’ resplendent list
the hourglass becomes a symbol,
an object which asks;
“after all, does the present exist?”
Labels: collaboration, drawing, matzine, shadow, time
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28 March 2011
the constructive critique
matzine#006
the following submission to matzine#006 was a collaborative effort between nick shurey and myself, over the course of a month. we set up a scenario were the relationship between critter and critted was brought into question. the ensuing short design and review exercise was most enlightening. this post is a backlog; this matzine edition was released 11th december 2010
read the edition's intro by editor rowan mackinnon-pryde
click the images below to enlarge the text...
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Labels: collaboration, critique, depth, drawing, matzine
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24 October 2010
Dear Reader,
mat.zine is a conduit for collaborative practice, and welcomes submissions from anybody who is interested. The editorship changes with each edition, as does the theme.
The theme for this edition, which framed the included artistic, philosophical and poetical exploits, was a single word; views. The group originally involved in mat.zine has now disbanded and ventured to different regions of our shrinking terra firma, as indeed has the greater cohort of Dundee School of Architecture class of 2010. Most have before us new cities and towns, landscapes and vistas, or at least new awareness of the places we already know most intimately. The choice of media, method and motives were yours to each decide. Photography, writing and drawing were the obvious ones. All the editor asked is that you each responded in some way to the word; seriously, profoundly, even ironically.
The results are as varied as they are mysterious - see what you think.
Yours, in optimism,
The Editor
[these are the words of ian pollard]
[this edition is important for the matzine; it represents the language of a broader range of connected individuals, and it is a determination to grow in this way]
Labels: matzine
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