Merry Xmas!

All the best, happy holidays and enjoy the break!

 

Ahvaland

The printing studio from the Mul-Åland Drive post now has web presence!


Ahvaland

Cosmic Diversion

COUNT GURUCULA: Hey, how come we send people into Space but we don’t help the poor?

I re-shifted in my deck chair, still searching optimum comfort. The sun level was good but the self appointed guru was wafting for a response. Again he asked,

COUNT GURUCULA: Hey, how come we send people into Space but...

ME: Space? What about war, that unending and dedicated past time of ours?

CG [encore with more poignancy]: Yeah but listen, how come we can send people into Space yet mother earth is dying?

ME: I’ve never heard of oil! Sorry, continue...

CG: Yeah but listen, how come we send people into Space yet the sick with their cardboard walking sticks...

ME: Pharmaceutical companies never exploit anyone! Oh, space, you were saying?

CG: Listen…

On and on it goes. I realised I couldn’t kill this self-resurrecting beast. I drew a diagram hoping to illustrate where mankind puts his efforts; thick arrows with large capitals emphasising ‘ WAR', ‘ OIL', ‘ PROFITEERING' and skinny arrows with small fonts on ‘science’ and ‘immigrants’; it was a master class of my design skills. 

Still, Count Gurucula was having none of it. The real enemy of mankind was Space. A contented silence absorbed in to the glazy sunshine and I lost track of time.

ME: Hey, how come we use all our resources on war yet there's all that space above us?

The Count nodded. The real enemy of mankind is Space. I had conceded, there was certainly lots of it.

Leveraging The System

The philosopher Jacques Ellul said that the 'sacred' came from nature. But then technology replaced nature, and so the 'sacred' is now misplaced - we worship technology. 

Well, I think it's time to correct this. It's time technology served us so that we may dance in the fields, eat from the orchard and return the divine. With the vision of an 80's bedroom programmer, let me show you how.

You see, I read artists on Spotify make between $0.006 to $0.0084 per single play of a track. So, I shall release one song. That song will be cut into tiny pieces, 2 seconds long.

Doing the maths (avert your eyes if genius sums makes you nauseous)

- 2 second track = 7,200 plays an hour.
- 7,200 x $0.006 = THOUSANDS of dollars an hour 

or $43.20 an hour if I use a calculator instead of enthusiasm.

All I then need to do is boot up spotify, select 'loop', hit play and leave the room. System leveraged.

I open the front door, feel the soft wind diffuse the kafkian air by my terminal. I leave the keys on the table. Adieu, ladies and gentlemen. I have a basket of divinity I need to return. 

Mul-Åland Drive

Between the mainlands of Sweden and Finland lies the Åland Islands. Before christmas I cascaded through the plane-bus-bus-ferry cleansing ritual that Åland guides you through before arriving upon her shores.

I spent a few days in this wonderful place. Philosophically and geo-politically, opportunities to ponder the relationship of 'belonging' and 'independence' arose and I lost them all under the rug of my yawn and some belly scratching. 

You see, when you arrive in the upper hemisphere during the winter solstice, your orientation is gently disintegrated.

The sun takes a relaxed attitude to rising. Here it is kissing the horizon yet you're facing neither east or west. It's midday. Your nose is pointing south and your stomach is anticipating breakfast and supper all at once.

My colleague and host heard it resembled the setting of David Lynch's 'Twin Peaks' and I think it does, albeit without peaks - Åland is insistently flat.

This serene and beautiful pancake is built on pinkish-red granite, quietude, armies of trees and the possibility of infinite reflection.

Wait, infinite reflection?! Bah, we unloaded it into wheelbarrows and built a fire to watch it burn deeply through the night (it really did burn a long time. Infinite reflection is a tenacious fuel).

In the morning (and in the fantasy of my mind) I tried to engage my host in a bike race which he reacted to by barely acknowledging me and casually accelerating off. 

Non-chalant overtaking

Photo shoot for 'Rapid Yee-ha Pedal Monthly'

As I snapped out of my fantasy, I noted my host is setting up an impressive studio on Åland - a printing press. It is a project 'in process' as he takes on the stewardship of some industrial printing presses. I am not posting any photos of the studio space (it's not finished!) but we did have some fun making postcards with the little hand-press.   

Brace yourself, I will momentarily enter a hippy state.

There's a poetic bond between being on an island and making postcards. This isn't an ethereal assertion. The desire to communicate is funnelled through a self-reflection (which ultimately proved inexhaustible by fire) offered by the island.

The postcard seems the right format. Concise in its volume and therefore perfect for the distilled pondering gathered on bike rides or from gazing on the shoreline, squinting at the fuzzed out sun, still wondering if it's breakfast or supper time.   

Larchimesh

I have this new blog up 

larchimesh.blogspot.com

It's a little more spatially and critically focussed. 

Check it out!