An ovoo (овоо, ''heap'') is a type of shamanistic cairn found in Mongolia, usually made from rocks or from wood. Ovoos are often found at the top of mountains and in high places, like mountain passes. They serve mainly as religious sites, used in worship of the mountains and the sky as well as in Buddhist ceremonies, but often are also landmarks. At especially prominent sites, ovoos can come in clusters, for example of 13 ovoos.

When travelling, it is custom to stop and circle an ovoo three times in clockwise direction, in order to have a safer journey. Usually, rocks are picked up from the ground and added to the pile. Also, one may leave offerings in the form of sweets, money, milk, or vodka. If one is in a hurry while traveling and does not have time to stop at an ovoo, honking of the horn while passing by the ovoo will suffice.

Ovoos are also used in mountain- and sky-worshipping ceremonies that typically take place at the end of summer. Worshippers place a tree branch or stick in the ovoo and tie a blue ''khadag'', a ceremonial silk scarf symbolic of the open sky and the sky spirit Tengger, or Tengri, to the branch. They then light a fire and make food offerings, followed by a ceremonial dance and prayers (worshippers sitting at the northwest side of the ovoo), and a feast with the food left over from the offering.

Strathern presents two images that correspond to what we have called ‘quantitative’ and ‘qualitative’ scales of comparison: respectively, the map and the tree (Holbraad &Pedersen, 2004: xvi–xvii)

landscape as ‘representation’ Vs ‘taskscape’:

‘the intrinsic temporality of the taskscape […] lies in its rhythmic interrelations or patterns of resonance’ (Tim Ingold, The Perception of the Environment: essays on livelihood, dwelling and skill p154)

I like pete. singing in the woods m

singing as mapping - replacing/layering the visual with sound?

ethnomusicology: 'Essential song' by Lynn Whidden (an ethnography of Cree Indian hunting songs)

i suggest we camp sometime between the 10th and 17th April

Pete Seeger turns a mountain brook into a song without an end.



Like bottles of 'Chateau Eyquem', Seeger's banjo picking is made up of a localised history, 'a portable sample of the region' which embodies his perception of the natural world around him.

'' This song doesn't have any ending, it just keeps trickling on like a little mountain brook. Near my home in the Hudson Valley there is a brook like this, crystal clear. I can't say as much for the Hudson River. In a manner of speaking there are little clear streams of music like this all through our country, and probably throughout the world, and sometimes the larger streams get polluted, but these little streams are still there. Twenty-five years ago i was a teenager and i first heard music like this, and i started trying to learn some of it, and I'm still trying " Pete Seeger.

Interview with Metahaven. 'On Design and Research'

'Research' could mean different things. It could mean research 'for' design and research 'by' design. If you are looking for a more effective way to have research inform your actions, then it is the investigation adjacent to designing. Research 'by' design means that the process itself is a type of research; if the way you work is committed to getting outcomes which appear different then the research needs not to just inform but also form to work.
...Research traditionally is not part of what designers have provided as solutions. What we have inherited from this situation is a discipline where just about anything has become a stylistic capsule, where you find that disagreements over typography, 'mentality', color, form etc., prevent any larger discourse from emerging. On a larger scale, the corporate end of the profession, involved in branding and identity, no longer offers new ideas but provides mainly 'hollow shells' as brand identities. The hollowness is becoming apparent especially that banks, financial institutions, and car brands collapse, or merge, and no one knows anymore which logo applies to which entity.
(Iaspis Forum on Design and Critical Practice - The Reader)


Radicals and Radicants, Nicolas Bourriaud.

...It is above all, our modes of representation that are called into question by globalization. More precisely, globalization is the locus of a complete and total shattering of the relations between representation and abstraction. For it is precisely at the level of the representation of the world that modernism is linked to the capitalist machine - on the plane of where our general image of the world is produced, and then the various images created by artists, which ma echo, confirm or invalidate that general image. As the propagating agent of an abstract virus (a "deteritorializing" one to use a Deleuzian term), globalization substitutes its logos, organization charts, formulas, and recodings for local singularities. Coca Cola is a logo without location; by contrast, every bottle of Chateau Eyquem contains a history based on a particular territory. That history, however, turns out to be mobile; it comes with the bottle, which is a portable sample of the region. The moment humans lose all living contact with representation is the abstract moment by which capitalism consolidates it's holdings.
(Radicals and Radicants - The Radicant by Bourriaud)

Three 'logos without location'.

(School / Mining Collective / Bank)

(Community Scheme / Punk Band / Seafood Restaurant)

(Trade Union / Highway Maintenance / Athletics Comity)

M - Logos / keystones? Landmarks?

working title: Re-placing the map: an enquiry into the dialectic of experience and representation

…‘The map’ vs routes of exploratory navigation

i.e. Ingold’s ‘view from everywhere’ based on multiple trails of lived experience Vs abstract map as ‘view from everywhere’

modernity >> concept of a single/unifying/objective ‘nature’ Vs multiple, subjective ‘cultural’ representations

… ‘a little hitch in this peaceful modernist version of politics: nature was as meaningless as it was disenchanted!’ (Latour 2002:11)

...In that Empire, the craft of Cartography attained such Perfection that the Map of a Single province covered the space of an entire City, and the Map of the Empire itself an entire Province. In the course of Time, these Extensive maps were found somehow wanting, and so the College of Cartographers evolved a Map of the Empire that was of the same Scale as the Empire and that coincided with it point for point. Less attentive to the Study of Cartography, succeeding Generations came to judge a map of such Magnitude cumbersome, and, not without Irreverence, they abandoned it to the Rigours of sun and Rain. In the western Deserts, tattered Fragments of the Map are still to be found, Sheltering an occasional Beast or beggar; in the whole Nation, no other relic is left of the Discipline of Geography.

quoted from J. L. Borges, A Universal History of Infamy, Penguin Books, London, 1975.

Georges Perec, 1936 - 1982

Two Hundred and Forty Three Postcards in Real Colour*

We're camping near Ajaccio. Lovely weather. We eat well. I've got sunburnt. Fondest love.

Visiting the Channel. Very restful. Lovely beaches. Ive got sunburnt. Love.

We're cruising off the Yucatan. Ideal weather. Everything just right. I caught a baby shark, 30 kilos! Love.

'There are undoubtedly many possible relations; but only one impossible relation: the absence of a relation.' (Vivieros de Castro 2003:10)

- the man in groundhog day realized this, yes? the 'absence of a relation' is akin to an 'absence of perspective' - like Merleau-Ponty's normative ideal, the 'view from everywhere' which signals also a complete lack of body, a lack of perspective, and dissolution/death (or just absence, endless death-like repetition for the groundhog man).

so when Vivieros de Castro describes the "everywhen" world of spirit ancestors (1998:343), he is speaking about precisely a lack of tension between entities with relationships. For Amerindians (Amazonian Indians), the world of the ancestors (aka 'death') is a place where there is no differentiation between species bodies, no difference between perspectives. So whilst Amerindians and the rest of us remain not dead, whilst we have an embodied perspective on the world, we will also be part of a system of relationships. 'many possible relations'. i.e. many possible tensions between selves and others, and tensions between people and things. For instance people and places. Or people and maps.

Google maps cannot present a 'view from everywhen' because until we loose or transcend our bodies altogether, we will unavoidably take an embodied perspective on the world and thus live in a tensive relationship with places and their people and their things. All this underlies the 'abstract' map... itself (even in virtual form) a 'thing' which we perceive.

... This trend towards standardization goes hand in hand with the imagined shrinking of the planet, which is accompanied by technical improvements in representing it. Thus satellite images have made it possible to fill in the last empty spaces on the map of the world; there are no longer any unknown lands. We are living in the era of Google Earth, which allows us to zoom in on any point on the planet from our computers. Across the divided-up planet, a globalized cultural stratum is developing with stunning rapidity, nourished by the internet and the networking of major media outlets, while local or national particularisms find themselves sentenced to "protected status" like those Tanzanian rhinoceroses on the path to extinction.

from THE RADICANT by Nicolas Bourriaud



(although, as Bill Murray knows, the depth and detail of our experience of one pin point on the map cannot be distilled down to a satellite zoom macro-perception)

non-places

* 'limited preview': beware of the potholes / pageholes

map *** *** *** ***
/
*** map map map map

As far away as possible on google maps. Five worlds, one set of 'gaps' or blurred places. From this perspective places exist once and don't exist four times. Or alternatively places don't exist once but do exist four times.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satellite_map_images_with_missing_or_unclear_data

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Writing Marathon 2010



Crossing over a bridge in a car. The bridge is a tall road bridge, spanning a wide river. From the passenger seat of the car the camera shows one last glimpse of land before turning to the side to show the river bellow. The riveted iron beams that reach up to the suspension cables flash past. In the side mirror there is the reflection of the car. There are boats using the river. A tugboat pulls a much larger ship carrying containers away from the bridge. The camera pans across to show the view from the windscreen of the car. The bridge is long. There are two lanes of traffic. In the lane beside the car is a flatbed lorry transporting what look like red scaffolding, or maybe they are pipes. The camera pans back round and show the view behind. The tugboat and the ship are much farther away now leaving a long white trail of foam in the water. The iron uprights pass at regular intervals. They are painted dark green. The camera moves back to the front, and the river turns back into land. The bridge links two parts of the same city. There are buildings, cars and roads. There are a few trees. The camera moves to the front. The traffic slows as it comes to the end of the bridge. There is a large silver pickup truck in front. It slows down almost stopping. The camera moves to the side one last time and shows a large industrial building covered in graffiti.

The stage is dark; two spotlights from either side meet in the middle and theatrical smoke leaves a thin blue mist. A tall silhouette slowly strolls towards the microphone, the mist parts as he moves into the light, and the gentle applause stirred by the soft piano introduction grows into loud cheers and whistles as the man draws out the first lines “When you’re weary, feeling small.” He grasps the microphone stand with both hands “when tears are in” the applause dies down “your eyes” he lifts his head up and gently sways and his nostrils flare “I will dry…” takes his right hand off the microphone stand and puts it by his side “…them all” he pauses, takes his left hand off the microphone stand and puts it down to is side “I'm on your side” his head rocks smoothly with the piano “ooooohhh, when times…” he clasps his hands together “get rough” he puts his left hand back on the microphone, takes a deep breath raising his shoulders and slightly pushing out his chest “and friends just cant…” he squints, his shoulders are still raised “…be found” a quick deep breath “like a bridge over…” he lowers his shoulders slowly “…troubled water” his hands are back at his side with open palms swaying as he sort of walks on the spot to the rhythm “I will lay me down” he takes a small step back from the microphone and looks to his left. His head is obscured by darkness as he moves but the spotlight quickly pulls up to follow him. The piano flutters. The crowd begin to cheer again. The second spotlight moves from the centre slightly to stage right revealing a second microphone stand and a shorter man in a light green t-shirt moves into the light. The second man begins to sing, gesturing with his left hand and holding the microphone with his right “when you’re down and out” he is now holding the microphone with both hands “when you’re…” the first man looks on, half in the light, still gently swaying “…on the street” the second man raises his left hand to shoulder height slowly pushing out his palm “When evening falls…” he lowers his left hand whilst singing the word ‘falls’ “…so hard” and twists his head to the side sweeping his lowered left hand from in front of him to the side “I will comfort you” there is more freedom in his singing, he draws out and cuts shorts different syllables, playing with the rhythm. “I’ll take your part” he’s gesturing with his hands again, fluttering his fingers as if he’s playing an invisible piano “when darkness comes” the backing music is louder and he raises his voice “and pain is…” he’s singing much louder than the piano now and he’s looking upwards “…all around” both of his arms are outstretched and he flicks his head whilst unexpectedly adding “its just” in two short syllables “like a bridge…” he’s shaking his head “…over trouble water” he lowers his voice “I will lay me down” he clasps the stand and brings his head closer to the microphone “like a bridge over troubled water” he takes his hands back off the stand pushing his hands down in front of him, raising his shoulders “I will lay me down” The crowd begins to whistle and cheer again, there is a cymbal crash and a piano interlude, the second man moves out of the spotlight, the first man steps back to his microphone stand and keeps his arms by his side, the second man returns to stand by his side with a green guitar that matches his t-shirt the cheers die down along with the piano and the percussion twinkles and a soft electric bass is introduced, moving together toward their microphones they begin to sing in harmony “Sail on silver girl” they both bob up and down when they start singing “sail on by” the second man is the more animated of the two, despite now having the guitar “Your time has come…” the first man’s nostrils are flaring again “…to shine” the music softens slightly “All your dreams…” the second man is shaking his head “…are on their way” he steps back slightly and the first man begins to sing solo again “See how they shine” he stares intensely forward and is almost grimacing as he widens his mouth “If you need a friend” the second man returns to his microphone, harmonising “I’m sailing right behind” the first man is really belting it out and is holding his forward stare “like a bridge over troubled…” they both pause “…water” the first man is singing solo again “I will ease your mind” the second man turns to face the band and walks towards the drum kit, his back to the audience, “like a bridge over trouble water” the first man’s voice is faltering he’s singing so passionately, his long arms are outstretched revealing his veins, he takes a deep breath and raises his shoulders up and his head right back “I will ease your…” he looks like he is screaming “…mind” he sustains this final word until he runs out of breath, then drops his head with a sharp flick and the crown shout and yell, madly applauding whist the second man finishes along with the band’s crescendo, allowing the first man to take the limelight, the second man removes his guitar and the two walk hand in hand, the first man is so much taller than the second man. They finish by bowing and waving to the audience and walk off stage together, their arms linked over each others shoulders.

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Google Earth black holes.

'Why bother seeing the world for real?'

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Social contact as currency. Collecting and displaying the evidence of social interaction.

QSL cards were used to verify the connection between two amateur radio operators. They first began being sent in the 1920's and were an early form of social networking.

"QSL cards are a ham radio operator's calling card and are frequently an expression of individual creativity — from a photo of the operator at his station to original artwork, images of the operator's home town or surrounding countryside, etc. They are frequently created with a good dose of individual pride. Consequently, the collecting of QSL cards of especially interesting designs has become an add-on hobby to the simple gathering of printed documentation of a ham's communications over the course of his or her radio career."