theObservatory

OK, time to play a quick catchup — ! –

Having a great time over here in the craziness that is ZeroOne / ISEA 2006. Project and work and installations going on everywhere you look. I’ve been here since friday and am still getting to grips with all the things to check out.

There is a full contingent of kiwis here at this ISEA - Caro and Adam battled it out alone here for a bit, then most arrived on Friday, so now there is Caro McCaw, Adam Hyde, Ian Clothier, Zita Joyce, Rachael Rakena, Douglas Bagnall and Lissa Mitchell, Danny Butt & Natalie Robertson, the adopted NZer Helga Fassonaki and myself. Deborah Lawler-Dormer I saw yesterday, and Sean Cubitt last night at a Leonardo gathering. Angela Main is also here somewhere. So a veritable invasion!

After what was for Ian and I, a strangely fast flight (i think the talking and the 4 or so glasses of wine helped…), friday was mostly setting into the rooms and the environs of local californian culture - of non-descript brown strip-mall type architecture, processed foods along with vibrant mexican restaurants and vietnamese restaurants and asian supermarkets. San Jose has quite a history, being the first town in the west to get electricity, and there are some interesting buildings to show for it, though now it seems to be mostly a college town/city, and is fairly empty right now, with all the students gone.

The venues are all quite close and this weekend was mostly running around getting setup. Not all work though, as the 42below manuka honey vodka has come into good use in Caro and my shared room, and Zita, Helga, myself and two adopted australians Steve and Michelle, ventured out to the wilds of Berkeley suburbs, to see Stefan Geoffrey Neville play. As it turned out, he was playing at a private house with a gorgeous little white wooden greenhouse in the their backyard. Several performances came before him, including the booming, hovering sound of thuja. Stefan’s backyard performance got a surprise ending from a cop doing noise control, and the whole party got packed into a sound-proofed basement. It turned out the guy whose place it was draws the Emily Strange character though the man had serious difficulty discerning Australia and NZ. It might have been that fridge with the magic pull-handle on the door, releasing beer.

Ryoji Ikeda is tonight and I better get off to sort out my tickets, & get some kind of sustainance, before joining all in the South Hall for the press opening. I’ve been helping Ian with his piece, and will be today handing out Leis to the press, welcoming them to Leistavia, for his Interrogating the Invisible piece . Got all his wall-space sorted last night, though the quality and length of walls supplied is not ideal & has changed his plans somewhat. Also will go see how everyone is doing. Adam was setting up two paper cup telephones last night after some long hours testing another one elsewhere, and Zita got her setup pretty much going yesterday. Rachael and Ian had the lucky swop of a data project for a computer, meaning some fun at 1am last night trying out different projections on and above her container. Rachael is in the Container Culture exhibition, which is about seven containers in a semi-circle, parked at the back of the gi-normous South Hall exhibition tent venue. Her kapa haka boys in the glowing blue of water luminously projected and reflecting down the container looks fabulous. Projections onto the front doors were making for an intriguing entrance to an even more gorgeous space.

Well - I better get going and get myself sorted — but there is a quick little something from San Jose..! Maybe will manage to add some more details later, though realistically, just managing to continue a report, might be enough of a challenge given all that there is to do.. still haven’t gotten to bed before 1am since i’ve been here..!

all the best to all, and more later –
best,
//trudy

p.s. hmmm.. having problems adding images to post, but will do so shortly.

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