what side of your brain

"The Right Brain vs Left Brain test ... do you see the dancer turning clockwise or anti-clockwise? If clockwise, then you use more of the right side of the brain and vice versa."

Click on the photo to see the animation >>>

Very interesting on two levels.

Physically. It shouldn't be possible to see it going counter clockwise. I opened the animation and it is constructed to go clockwise. But I can see it going both ways. Very, very odd.

Conceptually. Does it actually mean anything that you can see it going both ways? There is an interesting article about the validity of the study which spawned this viral internet test.

http://scienceline.org/2007/10/29/ask-hsu-spinning-girl-right-left-brain-hemispheres

here's your assignment should you choose to accept it

here's an assignment for everyone: (we won't have time to discuss this until after our show, most likely)

1) find your mayan sign and number.
2) then think about how this information might relate to our group,i.e., what are the strenghs of your sign and how do you see yourself using these strenghs to benefit the group. or if you don't think they'll benefit the group, maybe mankind, or your family? or maybe nobody?

* here's where you can find your sign and number:
calculate with your birthday


you'll get a name and a number.

* here's where you find the explanation:

http://mayandaysigns.blogspot.com/

Past?Future?Present?

Well,

the reason that I e-mailed the past life information is that it did come up in the group and this is a topic that I have had some experience with. Not only with astrology but with the gestalt/hands on deep memory work. I have had nothing but amazing results from this work. I am not quite sure what I deeply think about past llives- sometimes I think we have past lives throught our DNA code. It is like our souls seem to pop into a DNA code that is not only suited to our souls evolutionary desires or just that this is what occured- . I also think that sometimes souls just incarnate in a family to help the families/universal evolution. So I do not know if the Karma or fate of a soul is always personal. I have found that memories really do harbor in the body and doing the deep memory work can help release anything that is blocked in the body itself. If anything I think that the work help us with our imaginations and our compassion. I will write more later.....

Tasking Each Other

I was thinking about the meeting we just had and how I was hoping we might pull ourselves in from the abstract to the medium-practical in terms of direction and group activities. While the abstract discussions are important and will certainly go on even beyond the scope of any project, I was wondering if you all might be interested to play a little game that is about some concrete tasks.

Pam told me about a project she is working on with Shirley Tse and since they are both traveling a lot during the summer, they each gave the other a list of tasks that may or may not in the end have anything to do with the work they make together. I thought that perhaps we could each come up with one task for each other member of the group. So we would each end up with 5 tasks each, one from each other member. They would need to be things that could be accomplished without any tools, technology, or money unless you wanted to use those things. We also wouldn't have to complete all 5 tasks, but it could be a way to focus ourselves into engaging with the topics and themes we have been considering.

Please respond and if it is of interest to everyone (consensus), then we can proceed with how to do it. If it is not of interest to any one of you, please write about something that might accomplish the same goal (to make the abstract more concrete and pragmatic) and suggest an alternative that we cal all consider.
a

on Contemporay Directions in Creativity

Wondering about the possibility of exploring emerging but not mainstreamed notions/directions for art. I feel that the cult of the celebrity, started as a kind of seriously serious joke by Warhol in the 70s, and now taken, without any irony or self reflection, to be Reality like Pimp my Ridable Video Projection, and I'm just wondering if the importance of being earnest is too ironic or grandly illustrated or meta-narrational or if, with a constant and healthy dose of reflectivity, it is possible to address the meaning of meaning. Well, that's a little sarcastic but I want to know what is on the minds and hearts of my fellow creatrices. I'm not so interested in the purely sentimental or merely decorative or the doe-eyed earnestness that embarrasses me when I confront it. Or am I??

on Language

I wanted to bring up the question Linda posed about developing a new language. I think this could be a really exciting place to explore. We many never have a single answer but it certainly is a very pertinent question for us to look at, in my opinion.

Multipoint US format

I am starting this string in response to our discussion about the format of the group during our meeting in mid-July. First, I'd like to re-state the mission that's on the Multipoint tab of the website for Small Wonder Foundation. Multipoint is an artists' working group for professional level artists who are interested in exploring the nature of cultural production in contemporary times. It is an egalitarian group with one or another person taking an administrative role (this may shift as projects arise) that facilitates meetings and logistics, but all participants have an equal status and decisions should be made based on consensus, which involves negotiation and understanding (a more difficult tasks than majority votes).
It is possible to provide critique for current work or discussion about the direction of work, but it is really about sharing ideas, pushing our notions of what it means to make art, write, criticize, educate, etc. in today's cultural climate. This can involve a variety of directions.
I'd love if we could exchange a little about how this type of group might resolve conflict, engage with a variety of communication styles, find links and generate the unexpected out of all this.

notes on the number seven

-based on the hebrew kabala, chaldean alphabet-

"The Number 7 vibrates to the planet Neptune. It represents spirituality, sensitivity, sympathy, and mystery. 7 is the number of illusions and delusion, sometimes deception--but also the number of healing and miracles...and faith. A person is influenced by the number 7 if born on the 7th, 16th or 25th day of any month any year.

7 people tend to have remarkable dreams. Sometimes they talk about them--and sometimes they keep them to themselves. But they do dream more than most. Secretly, they have an intense interest in esoteric mysteries, mythology, spacecraft or UFO's...and the entire forest of the unknown. They often possess the gifts of intuition and clairvoyance and they have a certain quieting, calming magnetism which has a great influence over others. Often, their mere presence has a soothing effect on a troubled person. It's not unusual for a 7 person to discover, found, or believe in a new religious concept.

Refined manners, an artistic temperament, and a sensitive nature make up the 7 essence, but don't let these people fool you with their sometimes taciturn nature...you'd be surprised if you knew all the strange thoughts that swim through their minds. You'll be facinated when you learn the secrets of their Neptunian world. But the 7 person must find you trustworthy before they will let you into the inner streams of their contemplation...and you'll have to earn that trust by proving you're not judgmental or prejudiced. 7 people are rarely either.

our next few meetings — scheduling

Juliet's schedule for the next few months:

Work schedule: M-Th
Off: Fri, Sat, Sun

Vacation: Monday, July 30 through Sunday, August 12th.

Good weekends for me are
July 27-29
August 17-19, August 24-26
All of September's weekends

uploading videos or audio recordings to our blog

Hello all,

I'm thinking it would be good to upload the videos of our meetings to the Multipoint US blog. That way they are all in one place for you and are not just existing as easily misplaced emails.

The up side to the way it is now is that the videos are private. Currently I think our Multipoint US blog is public. Is that true April? If I were to post the videos now it would make them public. If we make our blog private (you have to have an invitation to read any posts) then it would keep the videos private.

For what it's worth I think it would be good to make the blog readable by invitation only. It will help keep it more like an extension of our conversation. It's hard not to be self conscious if there is the sense that everyone can listen in.

We can always choose to make the blog public again at a later date if we want to.

Or, another thought, if you all think it's a good idea to keep the video private but would like to keep the blog public, perhaps April creates a second blog called Multipoint US Recorded or Multipoint Media, or something like that. And that blog is by invitation only. And only we are invited. And we upload video or sound or photos that we want to show but keep private.

What do you think?

movement of life creating drawings

I was going to post this on my other blog but since this directly relates to the work for Multipoint I thought I'd post it here. Let me know what you think about this as blog dialog.

I've been thinking about making work that somehow measures or quantifies my interactions. I think that is what the printed video captures piece was about that I brought to the last group meeting.

I saw this online today. It got me excited. It seems to be in some way related.

This guy Tim Knowles sends mechanisms through the mail to make drawings or puts them in cars or attaches them to trees and uses their movement to make drawings.

http://www.timknowles.co.uk





I like this conceptual direction.

I like the quality of measurement.

I like the way the intangible becomes form.

on Collaboration

I'm going to make this on-going stream of notes from our meetings and things I find referencing the notion of collaboration. So please feel free to add. This archive will be one of many guide wires for our expanding awareness of what it means to be a contemporary cultural producer.

landers

my suggestion: I don't mind letting go of landers as a group activity for July.
it frees us to concentrate on sept.
but, I think that landers may be a part of my journey. I just found out that Cynthia (my daughter) planned to go to landers in a couple of weekends with her friends. She is a '7' too, born on the 16th of June.
who would have thought that both of us would go the same month...july (the 7th month)
She is going Saturday 7-7-07 a fascinating combination... I just may go out there too.

Meeting at April's may help us determine what the space will generate for the Sept. exhibition.
I will be gone August 11-18. I have to tenatively resolve my part before I leave.

Landers Trip

Maybe we can discuss the Landers trip here. I don't know if everyone was privy to the emails I got??
a