Not all who wander are lost

Jack the noise by Palov and Mishkin. Groovy.

My blog is, was and always will be premised on the idea of “out-of-the-box.” Everything written or shown is supposed to challenge assumptions, if not abolish what society calls “normal”. My gift to you as a blogger is a temporary respite from mass media, mass culture. A place where things nonsensical can thrive instead of disappear. Today,
I just have
so many images to post.



First of all,

This is my friend Nick Tank. Not only can he freestyle rap while driving with his head out the sunroof of his car,

he can plank on his face.

Now that we got that moment out of the way,
here are some interesting views of my neighborhood
so you can feel like you are walking around with me.

Remnants of the student protests^

typical montreal 3-flat apartments^

Rue Prince Arthur

Here’s some eerie art I think is appropriate for Halloween,

by  Brandi Milne & Esao Andrews

and your dose of hover animals:

side note:
don’t you love when mirrors do this?

Now, excuse my popular culture, but the next section may resemble what it would look like if I had a tumblr.

yes^

Ronda, Spain^

The Magic Waterfall Mountain Hotel, Southern Chile^

This is the last stop on our out-of-the-box journey through some of the saved images on my computer. I’ll leave you to contemplate this one.

the masquerade

Tokimonsta, “Cupidity”

A Coat
I made my song a coat
Covered with embroideries
Out of old mythologies
From heel to throat;
But the fools caught it,
Wore it in the world’s eye
As though they’d wrought it.
Song, let them take it
For there’s more enterprise
In walking naked.

-W.B. Yeats 1914







in my last post i went into detail about my views of technology,
my insistence that in using technology to assist with every detail of our lives, we are becoming more distanced from
direct experience,
or what i equate with "nature" and "authenticity". in my mind the definitions of these two words are up for interrogation as our contemporary culture moves further into an age of completely mediated experience, regulation and impersonalization: computers instead of notebooks.
(This being said, I am aware that I use technology to post my blog. The blog is an extension of my creative self but it is not quite the inner creative self. It is too public especially considering the art I post is not my own. Even while my writing here is true to experience, the root of my creative self exists in notebooks where there are also pictures of sheep and other doodles which describe my thought processes)


my friend pointed out to me that maybe social technology in particular is helping fix a problem- perhaps an ideological problem we all share- that is our fear of being vulnerable. of sharing ourselves completely with each other.
elaborating on my comments about facebook, he explains,
"I think that what is ‘easier’ about technology is that it does not require us to be vulnerable. By culling photos, sharing selectively and editing my comments and statuses before I post them, I can create a character, pseudo-me, that is free of my self-doubts. I suppose the place where we part ways is that I don't think it is the constraints of Facebook that limit my self-expression, but instead my desire to detach my self from my expression...
Even when I do share secrets through technology, it's not the same as doing so in person. Writing always feels less ‘real’ to me than speaking, regardless of the medium. I would be much more reluctant to send very private messages through Facebook if I were required to dictate them out loud instead of typing. Speaking a word breathes life into it in a way that writing never will. "

the point my friend brings up which i'm Really concerned with is congruent to marshall mccluhan's idea that "the medium is the message"...


the internet being the medium,
what is the message
if an entire society is creating pseudo-selves?
if an entire society can open up to each other over instant messaging or texting, where one is less vulnerable, but cannot talk to each other in person?

is it convenience, or a masquerade?
a false sense of freedom?

in specific, are we as connected to others as we think we are in this day and age, if what we’re always receiving from others inherently (because of the public nature of the media) has to be some sort of self-construction of complete invulnerability?
as usual I’m discussing the nature of truth. the nature of meaning. and, as usual, I find myself searching for it through looking at media.
what I observe is that new media is a particularly difficult topic since people perceive technology to be completely objective. new media, as opposed to traditional forms of poetry and art, seem as representational of direct experience as one can get. people take new media to be unmediated reality since it is so instantaneous: seen more like a form of documentation than meaningful creation. I find this view to be problematic. what I’m trying to suggest here is that creating social media has replaced art and written expression in the establishment of identity, yet the identity expressed is far less intimate as posts are faced toward the public and not toward oneself. the serious part of the problem lies in the fact that  we are now immersed in this world of virtual constructions like never before. it has replaced personal means of expression and relationality. “Virtual reality is a paradox, since what is virtual has become real” (myself, in the post “Merry-go-where-round?”). I’m concerned that in our constant surfing we have lost touch with the real. with each other.



What I really mean is,
are you cool with wearing a mask? ‘cause it kind of suffocates me sometimes and I can’t really see into your eyes.
Yo,
we’re at this masquerade but I can’t find any of my friends.
Where did Clark Kent go? Bruce Wayne? I want them back.
What is authenticity if not vulnerability?
Let us play with shock.
Let us dance without masks on.

Exhibit A.
an aesthetically pleasing mouse
and two crystals dangle
the liquid of truth i see
to untangle
a battery almost dead
transparent its uses
it cruises, abuses
loses
strength
life, a series of drafts
laughs and white giraffes
perceiving halfs
twisting tongues
playing on tents in fields of puns
boxes of red, yellow
spun
and switched with some other
in a dance










What follows is a temporary stay against confusion,
behold, the beautiful:

^{Amy Shackleton}

Gordon Terry

Loci

Hyper-real oil on canvas by Ben Weiner

“What does it mean to craft mirror images that are not fugitive but fixed and stabilized, or flowers that are forever preserved in paint?
Are these pictures produced primarily to offer moral edification and reminders of mortality?
Do they not also nurture the cherished fiction that that which is most ephemeral can be possessed and preserved—at least in art—from the ravages of time?”
-Celeste Brusati, “Stilled Lives: Self-Portraiture and Self-Reflection”

Preach

 

Go to church.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(Notre Dame Basilica in our very own Montreal^)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

do you feel small yet?

Perfectly Alone

“Nova” by Burial & Four tet. Peace.

Sometimes I wonder if I was meant for another age, a time before technology became a substitute or transformer of almost all human activities. From the way we transport ourselves, to the way we take care of ourselves, or even the way in which we connect with other human beings,
it’s as if nothing is unmediated by technology anymore.
Before industrialization, before our society broke from tradition to jet into what we call “Modern” times, people probably used weird toothbrushes. But seriously, even my toothbrush is electric. They had to wait for their hair to dry, didn’t have voluminous mascara (were they uglier?)and they had to ride a horse or some shit if they wanted to see their friends, which, I don’t know about you, would make me reconsider who I would put that much energy into hanging out with.
While we believe technology to make our lives easier, faster, I think we often overlook the consequences of how such easiness and fastness is shaping who we are as human beings. At this point in time, I think our concepts of "nature” and “authenticity” are suffering from an age of distraction—an age where we cannot take our time, focus, because the world pulls our attention in a thousand different ways at once. We have adapted to being bombarded with advertisements, being surrounded by strangers, while listening to our headphones [on a bike] and watching for traffic. This is “natural”.

Consequently, we fascinate ourselves with similarly stimulating things such as video games, electric toothbrushes and television instead of more focused and productive activities such as painting, writing poetry or spending necessary time with loved ones (while waiting for our hair to dry). Even spending time on Facebook, and this blog, are recreating something authentic— that is, my personality— through technology. However, the image you all have of me is constrained by the way in which the technology available limits my possibilities for expression (it has been said that “the commands of the applications we use command us”). In that sense, you don’t really know me, but you know what is fabricated about me through the Timeline format of statuses and posts and the pages available for me to “like”. All technology acts in this way, by distancing us from the true subject or activity in order to make life “easier”. What becomes of this is a more superficial world where what is easy and fast always win, even our connections to other people.
Back in a time where one could not simply hide behind a screen, a text message, our parents had to nervously call their crush’s house phone and establish a relationship with Mr. and Mrs. Jones before even speaking to their son or daughter. While we feel as though technologies such as phones and the internet are making us all more connected, we must also see the way in which these technologies alter the genuineness of relationships and alter our sense of timing. In an era of instant “friending” and instant everything, nothing seems to mean as much as it used to (when you had to ride a horse or some shit to a friend’s house). We are, in this technological age, perfectly alone,
content or oblivious to have technology replace other forms of authentic fulfillment.

“Fish don’t know they’re in water”

~Derek Sivers

Skaty Katy

Ketto by Bonobo

It’s funny that I’ve never talked about figure skating on this blog, when it is easily the activity I am most passionate about in the world!
I’ve been figure skating as long as I can remember, since the age of 3. I picked up ice hockey at the age of 7, and the influence that hockey has had on my figure skating (and vice versa) should not be overlooked. One day I’ll write a post about hockey, too. In any case, I’m sure people would understand me better if they could see me on the ice. It’s not an exaggeration to say that many aspects of my personality can be directly tied to the fact that I am a figure skater. After all, it’s what I love most. Me in my element.

Figure skating is a rush of cold wind. The skip of my heart when I take off for a jump. Taking one push and suddenly being in motion. The adrenaline of quick footwork— rockers, counters, mohawks, swing rolls! It’s about knowing my edges, knowing how far I can push myself before I fall. It’s about going as fast as I can while not running into the boards. Skating is nailing a huge jump-- one that I thought was too big for me to handle but then I find myself standing up, surprised, on one foot. Skating is coming out of a jump with more speed than I went into it with.
Skating is magic.
It’s dazzling performance, enthusiasm, and making the audience feel like a part of the program. When I smile I can feel it gliding through my body, extending to each stroke. Skating is bursting energy. Physics. Spinning like a top and the world turning into a blur. It’s knowing how to maintain balance even when I’m too dizzy to see anything.
Figure skating is full of crazy maneuvers, from flying camels to shoot-the-ducks to axels to salchows to flips and lutzes. “Ice speak” could be its own language. Here are a few maneuvers so you can get a taste of what I love so much!

My double loop + double loop combination

My layback spin into a pull-down spin I kind of made up

My flying camel into catchleg spin

To me life should be like a good skating routine— it should be equally as fun as it is polished. That being said, figure skating might be the reason I’m so into things that are vibrant, elaborate and embellished. Being a creative process, figure skating helped me develop a love for art. I would even admit that my artistic style reflects the figure skating aesthetic, colorful and pretty. The ice is also where I developed a taste for music and found out how I could express myself in a kinetic way (this surely has been therapeutic). At the same time, skating is the reason why I’m obsessed with thrill and sensation. Maybe why I live so “fast”. It’s why I love to go out and why I can never stop dancing. I’m always chasing the feeling of being on the ice, a hundred miles per hour, music blasting, adrenaline pumping, feeling every part of my body alive, engaged!
I have worked so diligently in skating throughout my life that it is second nature. It is no longer work but complete artistic freedom,
the clean ice as a blank canvas. My sanctuary.