FeelingSafer

feeling safer

(some writing, f̷̬̲̣͎̺̖̯͞ų̧͡͞҉̩͍̤͖̤̞̝̜͓̥͓͖̳̯̖̗t̷͏̻̬̪͕͙̦̼̘͈̙̭͉̝ư͢͜͡҉͕̳̠͍̱̲̖͎̗͚̦̦͎̥̗r̤̖̹̳̪͚̰̻͔̻͖̩̖̲̩͟͟e̗̗̰̗͉̻̯̘̥̙͙̗̼̹͓͕͈̬̕͟͢ ̝̩͖̥͈̦͇̤͍͍͉̱̫̯̠̯̖͠<̵̖͔̤̮̺͕̜͢͡ ҉̷̡̜͕̹̠̪̥̫̜̙͚͢͜ṕ̴̶̹̥͈̪̝̀r̨̧̖̹̞̦̺̩̲̼̬͈̲̗̫͍̩̯̼͘ę̀͟͏͕̜̺̝͙̞̭̝͇͖͈̜̝͔s҉̨̬̘̰͕̯̼̫͙͖͈̤e̷͞͝҉͍͓̦̺̬̲̻̫͈͓̩̞̬̥ͅͅͅn̴͚̼̩͔͎͉̥͍͕̲̜͓͈̣̮͡ͅͅt̴̤̪̮͔̠̜͕͓̼͍̩͕͔͙͓͉̝̟̕͘͞ ̸̧̨̝̟̰͉̩ͅ≯̷̢̰͍̙̬̱̪̯̯̣̘̠̯̙͝ ̥̖̤̜̻̙̖̫͕͉͉͡͝ṕ̵̱̠͚̮̯͖̖̝͉͕͓̮̰͉̥̀͡à̶̡̰̦͇̖͎͙̣̟̟͙͘s̡҉҉̮̫͉̯̘͈̹͓̥͕͍̺̤̳̝̙ͅt̨̨͈͈͔͉͈͢͡)


�̙̬̜͔̝̬͙̺͚̪̘͔͈̥͉̼̕�҉̛̼͔͎̙͈̫̪͓̩̲̪̲͕͉

For Feeling Safer on Resonance FM curator Mark Jackson and artist Luke McCreadie present a one hour programme on their obsessions with the recent apocalypse and what that might have meant for creative practice. Expect the audio equivalent of beans, bullets and BAND-AIDs along with Geiger rhythms and cockroach poetry. Feeling Safer foreshadows the themes from the forthcoming exhibition at IMT Gallery, London, in June and Gallery North, Newcastle’s, offsite exhibition in New York later this year.


 

freeserve

FEELING SAFER


Press Release 30/03/2016


DATES: 3rd JUNE - 10th JULY 2016

PREVIEW: 6-9pm, THURSDAY 2nd JUNE 2016


IMT Gallery presents Feeling Safer, an exhibition of work by AAS, Verity Birt, David Burrows, Elliot Dodd, Joey Holder, Luke McCreadie and Maggie Roberts (0phan Drift), with a performance by AAS. Curated by Mark Jackson.


“Kim, if you had your choice, would you rather be a poisonous snake or a nonpoisonous snake?”

“Poisonous, sir, like a green mamba or spitting cobra.”

“Why?”

“I’d feel safer, sir.”

“And that’s your idea of heaven, feeling safer?”

“Yes, sir.”

William Burroughs, The Place of Dead Roads


Recently Kim’s been thinking about preparing for an apocalypse. There’s a lot in the news that bothers him. It always has. Sure Kim isn’t going ever to be any safer, but perhaps he can feel safer. So he’s been reading a book called Preppers by Lynda King that tells him that cataclysmic and catastrophic events often lead to major innovations, presenting the example of the Great Blizzard of 1888 giving birth to the subway systems in Boston and New York. He’s been thinking about the art he reads about and some of the posts he’s seen on Facebook about being innovative. He’s been thinking about art galleries. How they seem to be interested in preserving a culture, some dependability in the face of other stuff that’s not so good, like survivalists preparing for a mass extinction. How galleries can seem like cultural lagoons, almost invisible from the street unless you know they are there. As when O’Doherty says in that old book from the reading list how the galleries are secretly thinking that, "the outside world must not come in." Even how publically accessible events are often called private views.


IMT Gallery is like that. Just off the road, hidden by honeysuckles and scaffolding. Halfway between the Metropolis strip club and the Museum of Childhood. That’s where he should have his exhibition.  It’ll be of beans, bullets and BAND-AIDs… a survivalist’s tomb. But now he’s worried. Lacking basic understanding of plumbing he’s worried about how he’s going to dispose of all that human waste.  He remembers seeing Lars Movin and Steen Møller Rasmussen’s Words of Advice at IMT Gallery a few years ago in which a guy showed the camera a jar of resin containing a preserved turd he’d fished out of William Burroughs’ drain. He picks up SCUM by Valerie Solanas and reads what she says about culture:  “…Lacking faith in their ability to change anything, resigned to the status quo, they have to see beauty in turds because, so far as they can see, turds are all they’ll ever have…” And he’d planned to stockpile culture!?! Stockpile performance?! Stockpile pornographic materials! Store art like batteries for when the grid is cut off and he can’t access his cloud storage, and when the solar flares delete his memories and connections!?!! What should he do? He likes art a lot, but it this stuff about turds bothers him. So he will make an exhibition. He will see if AAS can help, and Maggie Roberts also. This seems like their area of expertise. And David Burrows. Yes, Burrows will know. And Joey Holder and Elliot Dodd. And Verity Birt, she watched civilisations being destroyed and she made it into art. And Luke McCreadie, he will know all about what to do at the beginning of a new history. And I bet he’s good at plumbing.


🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍 Feeling Safer - The Turd Sessions 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍 was broadcast on Resonance FM 8pm - 9pm Tuesday 31st May 2016 🐍🐍🐍🐍🐍

DAY 1.

Kim is preparing himself for bugging out. He is being held against the table by Bobby. Bobby takes the large knife and inserts it in the centre of Kim's anterior fontanelle, splitting his body in half lengthways.

BOBBY: "Gotcha good, baby cakes."

Kim doesn't know whether to hug him with relief or kick him in the balls. Bobby discards the cold, green parts from inside Kim's head and abdomen and draws his bowels up through the opening, dropping them into the sink. Scraping out the last of it from the inside of the skull, Bobby's thinking about the flight to New York and his hand goes in a bit too far in. Kim bites Bobby's fingers from the inside of his mouth. A drop of blood from an old Art Fair wound comes out the end of Bobby's finger sticking out of Kim's mouth. Always check that the travel adaptor you are using is the correct type for the country you are travelling to and never force it into a socket if it does not easily fit.


DAY 2.

Kim's tail on vibrate against the tabletop, rapping like a horse's hoof.

KIM: "Uh-huh. You must really think I'm an ass."


DAY 3.

Kim is collecting materials. His vision now gives him shadows and shapes rather than

crisp images. He has covered his head in a Luke McCreadie curtain and is throwing the bones of Verity Birt behind his shoulder where they are springing up into all types of materials. The decapitated head lands on a sloped roof below, rolling down towards street level and falling into a garbage-filled dumpster.


DAY 4.

Kim's eyes are sore. He is working with this doll body during sleep, making mirror versions of it and this makes his eyes tired. Kim is reading Lynda King's Preppers: History and the Cultural Phenomenon to his doll body and about the Great Blizzard of 1888 giving birth to the subway systems in Boston and NY. Indeed cataclysmic and catastrophic events often lead to major innovations. As Kim is prepping art, perhaps we might anticipate innovation also? Especially if innovation grants us access to more space? In his address to the Nova Convention William Burroughs stresses that, “it is necessary to travel, it is not necessary, and becoming increasingly difficult, to live,” and so as the last frontiers of wilderness have been closed by technologies from the railway to the Internet, so potential domains of fantasy have evaporated into the spaces of science fiction. The raving man flees back the way he came.  Kim's flight to New York is a science fiction fantasy. The Boeing 777 flight to New York resembles some kind of living bird. 

"...whether the bird is a sinister invention of the terminators that went wrong or the result of thousands of years of machine evolution is probably not important..." - Mills, P. and O'Neill, K. 'Nemesis the Warlock: Killer Watt' episode 1, 2000 AD Prog 178 (20 Sept, 1980)


DAY 5.

“[The] act of rebellion itself, whatever the outcome, already counts as a success, insofar as it instantiates the immortal idea of freedom” - Zizek, S. Living in the End Times, London: Verso (2011:xv)

Kim's lust for the zombie is entangled in your new sports shoes. On the one hand your fantasy is tribal, rural but in a non-pastoral setting. The sports shoe wearing zombie is, perhaps, one survivor that might be deemed realistic in terms of being culturally consistent, with both commercially and academically validated precedents and outputs. COLLECT PROJECTORS AND MEDIA PLAYERS - EDIT TOGETHER VIDEOS - ATTEND BALTIC'S ARTS STRATEGY EVENT - SHIFT LINGUALS during breakfast - RETICULATE SPLINES - INT. SUBWAY STATION - ESCALATORS (N.Y.)


Day 6.

For the sake of transparency Kim needs to explain the resources/tech paradox of Feeling Safer as this will be what he is principally involved in negotiating over the next couple of days. Negotiating the paradox with heart is the secret to a successful exhibition. On the one hand Kim must follow the survivalist mantra, that tools can make all the difference in the fight for survival. A biker climbs off his counter stool, revealing a huge Bowie knife, an invaluable asset in a survival situation:

"[T]he serious advernturer will always carry one. Knives are dangerous, however, and can be used as weapons. They should be surrendered to the pilot or airline staff when travelling by air as part of standard anti-hijack procedures, and never displayed in tense or awkward circumstances." Wiseman, J. The SAS Survival Handbook, London: Collins Harvill 1986.

On the other Kim knows that Knowledge is the Key to Survival and that with knowledge he can achieve the impossible. The land is Kim's toolbox. He is a citizen of nowhere. All that he needs can be provided for he is going to be taking the biggest of apples from the tree at the centre of the modern world.


Day 7.

A narrow passageway between warehouses, Theo Scott graffiti on decrepit brownstones with shattered chicken-wire windows, moss growing on the bricks over his images as if they've been here for years. Drone footage filmed by Motsonian of Kim and Bobby as they walk through a thick blanket of steam which pours out of a factory vent. They splash through puddles; Kim spits in his own face. We move through the mist with them, revealing a tattered, rain-soaked couch and chair, upholstery shredded. A spool once used for telephone wire functions as their coffee table. Kim is held against the table by Bobby. Scene reconstructed with a freeware video game engine and labeled 'Day 1'.


Day 7 (DUSK PHASE)

There's a figure standing in the distance. But it looks too small to be Kim. We rush towards it, changing into slow motion just before impact. The figure is a dripping WETBOY with a sinister smile. YOUNG KIM.


FEELING SAFER: BUGGING OUT

with Gallery North at Temporary Storage Gallery / Brooklyn Fire Proof, New York

as part of Exchange Rates


Press Release 30/06/16


DATES: 20th - 23rd October 2016


"You just extinguished a human life!" - DG


Kim voted REMAIN in the EUref so he's got to get out of IMT Gallery fast before SHTF. London being underwater in a few years anyway with all the yuppies falling from towers. Kim's a TV baby so bugging out to the big city Kim saw in Home Alone 2 seems apropos of getting more guns and expert advice.


Gallery North is an externalised section of the Kim’s nervous system. Exchange Rates seems like a good environment to put Kim under a significant amount of stress. Not so much that it will kill him, but enough to be able to register the release of any stress-induced hormones. Perhaps, like a stressed octopus, he will eat himself.


🏃 🏃 🏃


FEELING SAFER: BUGGING OUT London 👉 New York, with Gallery North (Newcastle) coming like a #thirdmind #faceswap. Kim is carrying samples (AAS, Paul Barron, Verity Birt, David Burrows, Paola Ciarska, Joey Holder, Luke McCreadie, Motsonian, Maggie Roberts (0phan Drift), Theo Scott, NaoKo TakaHashi) in a case like a terror pack but really as bribes to get through check points like a family friend [poss hidden in refidgeratir truck? - check notes*]


*the truck will have a gnashing zombie torso tied to it face painted with "NO MORE TALK!" - Kim will hurl huge balls of severed gnashing zombie heads tied into huge balls with twine and standing on a hill near the Nu Earth castle he makes his body into a symbol like a big K for Kim




Kim's Third Person Shooter New York Diary (maxium sensation no feeling)


IMPACT Motivational: "The outside world must not come in" - O'Doherty 1999:7

A Bad Policeman is Always Busy


I hit my boyfriend today.. wow I feel like crap. I guess I’m gonna get picked up by the cops tomorrow, so I figured I would tell you guys what happened. Gallery North, Newcastle, presents A Bad Policeman is Always Busy, an exhibition of work by Joe Fletcher Orr, Lucian Freud, Holly Hendry, Lotte Rose Kjær Skau, Ciara Lenihan, and Luke McCreadie, curated by Daniel Davies and Mark Jackson. We were both stunned for about 10 seconds before he started crying hysterically and ran into my room and locked the door.

We were having an argument and he went too far. He made a comment along the lines of "your loser father couldn't keep a relationship together and you can't either!" The exhibition will run from 13th April to 7th May, and includes a collaboration between Kjær Skau and McCreadie reimagining her 2014 installation United We/I Stand etc. originally exhibited at IMT Gallery, London, and featured in Mass Effect: Art and the Internet in the Twenty-First Century published by MIT Press. I think I must of broken a bunch of cartilage or something because blood shot out of both his nostrils, got all over me, got all over the floor.

So I am going to wash my hands, and while I am in the bathroom I hear him run out of the house and take off in his car. The argument was about the show, and how it was conceived to respond to the systems and processes by which exhibitions at a university-affiliated gallery are organised and delivered. He made a comment about the contradictions between observing rules and the fostering of independent thinking. Something about hyper-observation, slippery objects and the interesting artistic insights that might arise through the enactment of policy. Nottingham-based collective Reactor have built a separate exhibition called The Gold Ones in a different part of the gallery. That was about 5 hours ago so I guess he didn't go to the cops or anything. So later I go home and break down in tears.

Welcome Blue Mountain Arcturus

“When you cut into the present the future leaks out.” – William S. Burroughs, Naropa Institute 1976


There's someone you've just got to see. The first step in bringing about a change in the human condition is to allow it as it is.  That’s the starting point. Watch Christopher Walken as Whitley Strieber in Communion (1989), hypnotised to uncover the source of memory loss and wild hallucinations in a log cabin. Nothing matters except for WalkenStreiber to be well. And the motivation has to be to help.

Now look carefully for a short edit embedded within memories of WalkenStreiber, under hypnosis, talking to camera. WARNING: The edit is from a later event! This may NOT be a continuity error. This may NOT be your imagination getting the best of you. This edit may be a FLASH FORWARD. This may be a SUPER DUPER LOOPER; an electronic think. We’re producing electronic thinkers who cannot think sequentially anymore because their lives are monitored by TV and Internet and films, pulling in pictures from all over the place.  So one of the things that happens is, you look at a cup of tea, equals this particular cup of tea, equals a blue mountain, equals Arcturus, equals the little green men, equals… you understand? Everything’s fine and then one day a little bit of elf dust gets precipitated out of the fatty tissue for no reason necessarily and *POM!!* a SUPER DUPER LOOPER through 180 degrees and you're looking at the Martians.

Now.  Here’s the question: what was WalkenStreiber doing? Take WalkenStreiber’s hypnotic trance, answering questions about a traumatic memory. Cut up WalkenStreiber’s past to write WalkenStreiber’s future.

So, here's something for your eye: Alan has built an e-meter to help locate that which is just below the level of consciousness and we will use it to determine edit points and make something happen for the future to leak through. We made a robot, quite soft not like the hard robots of Earth, and we filled it with elf dust. We panic the world because we use our noodle.