"To the Beat of My Own Heart"

Hello all! I am writing this blog from NYC, back in the Big Apple for one week time clock ticking starting.... NOW! All of you who are here I want to see you, but from all of you I'm going to need a little help for this piece I am doing. This is my inherited Corpse from Carly from who she recieved her Corpse from Eva.

After looking at her images and reading her post I found that that which was sticking most in my mind were the ideas of youth, this contemporary generation and how we not only relate to ourselves but how we view ourselves. I scoured my brain for a unifying quality of all of these traits what immediatly surfaced was the word "narcissism". It was not until I came to the city late the previous evening that I understood how I could make a piece with these thoughts floating through my brain. Thus I am conducting a performance piece, whose documentation is inspired by Vito Acconci's step piece.

I decided to choose a public place and experience it through completely the direction of my own body , my own perspective - I walk only to the beat of my own heart. With one hand on my pulse on my neck I find I look down and notice hardly anything about my surroundings, not the throngs of people, not the looming buildings not the incessent traffic and noise. All I can concentrate on is keeping my steps synced with my heartbeat.

Here are the first places I have gone and how long it took me to walk them:

Place-
14th Street Union Square to Washington Square Park
Time- 9 mins 23secs

Place- The Perimeter of Washington Square Park
TIme- 11 minutes 48 Seconds

The Lenght of One Block (short)
3 mins 31 seconds

The Lenght of One Avenue
6 minutes 27 seecs

Walk up all the stairs of the NYU Library
55 seconds

Walk down all the stairs of the NYU Library
2 minutes 2 secs

I found the stairs quite interesting an experiment as the faster my heart rate increased the faster i had to walk which cylcically caused my heart rate to raise and so on and so forth.

So. I have talked to Chris but I would like everyone to give me a place to walk about to the beat of my own heart. In addition, I would like to assign a task to everyone. I would like everyone to choose one place they can/or do walk around everday, even if it is just down the steps of your apartment building to the street. I would like everyone to do this every day to the beat of their own heart and record the time everyday. Until We New Yorkers go to Sydney. It dosen't have to be hugely ambitious, like I said. Don't choose Central Park or the Brooklyn Bridge. But I would like to see all these places recorded and experienced everyday through the heart beat and maybe the time will change depending on the state of mind and body - happier, sadder, angry, distraught. How will this affect how we epxperience ourselves? In the end we will have long lists to display side by side each - maybe type written, again please look up Vito Acconic's Step Piece for how I am envisioning documentation. Here is a link for reference http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/step-piece/

Could everyone post for me a - where they would like me to walk and b- where/what they intend to experience with their heartbeat everyday.

I can compile a list of all the information every month if that would be helpful and interesting for people to see how and what everyone has chosen.

Ok all the best everyone! I can't wait to hear from you all


Again, only here in nyc

Inherited corpse..

Hello, hello =]

Ok, so...I inherited Jessie's corpse, which was a little daunting because I LOVED her work. And Eva's writing, which Jessie expanded on was brilliant too, so add this to the fact I was having one of those weeks where I just didn't even know where to begin and you have me fretting.

Jessie wrote of Dominick Lacapra's lecture where he spoke of "a self preservative step back to safety", and this got me thinking about this crazy world we live in and how out of our depths we can often feel. The ladies and I were talking the other day about the way cities like New York can make you feel like your suffocating because there are just so many people and you are constantly surrounded by people, and I thought it would be good to look at the aspect of leaving that crowd and that crush in order to keep yourself alive.

I found a qoute from the Cuban activist Jose Marti - "An insatiable appetite for glory leads to sacrifice and death, but innate instinct leads to self preservation".

This made me realise that inside everyone is that switch that makes us keep going and to move forward in order to survive. This is more relevant, for me anyway, in todays society where I often feel like everything is moving too fast and I'm almost drowning in a sea of people yet not one of them can hear me. But I keep moving. Sometimes I get upset, sometimes I scream out, but I always keep moving.

So here are some images. I would really like to do more of these in the colour processing labs, doubling up the negatives and so on. But for now they are done with good ol' DigiSLR, and words added on the computer. The words are phrases and thoughts that really struck me about self preservation and at the same time being left behind.

In the images I am saying the words on the picture over and over again. Hence, you have my mouth.

Feedback would be great!!

x Ash

Ok first of all my apologies-- the internet connection over here is incredibly slow so I am not able to send a bigger file at this time :( I will try later though.

So here´s my daily routine... I have to say the only constant thing happening everyday has to do with water or tea. lets say liquids...especially because it is incredibly hot these days. Did you know that everytime it rains the snakes come out ? Saw several over here already... I think the monsoon is starting.

I think if an outsider looked at my life it would seem something between unreal and exotic... (if you only look at the routine)
The outsider´s pictures are usually more distant and cool comparing my own view...

so here we go.



1. I heat up water to have bath in the morning

2. I have my breakfast at a traditional cofee shop in panjim

3. I have a fresh orange juice sometime after that

4 my afternoon tea at home.

5. one of my daily glasses of water at home


Mark

Oz Exquisites

Well, here we are at our first gathering at Rozelle up the road from SCA. Its unseasonally warm for autumn, yay!

A day in the life...

Greetings from sunny Sydney.
This is the hottest autumn I have ever experienced, and Cronulla is currently sweltering in the heat and the air is thick with sea salt and surf wax. Love it!

So, we were asked to think of 5 things we do every day and take for granted. We then had to document these daily tasks from the point of view of someone observing, and from our point of view.

The 5 things I do every day to the point where I don't even think about them, I just do them, are:
1. Make breakfast
2. Sit in my backyard for a few minutes before going to work/uni
3. Go for a walk everyday
4. Make dinner
5. Chat on the phone for an hour to my best friend

If someone, say a tourist, observed my life for a day I think they would be bored and view me as a very tedious person, however, I have tried to document the fact that I always seem to be rushing or late for something, even if I'm doing these things in order to relax.


x Ash