Hi again Gian, thought I'd make another cup of tea before head off. In terms of what I'm hoping to actually make here, that, I said in the last post is not exactly dripping in preconceived ideas, however, being able to respond to the other participants has been great! 

I'm intending to make  a break from the ways I've worked in the past. Try new things. Develop long-term mullings. 
The text exchanges between Karen and Ash have been extraordinary. So much of it, and such great writing. (well done guys!). I want to make something that evolves from those texts in some way. I'd like to keep to simple not visually complicated. Perhaps as an output from a coded process that has unforeseeable elements. Randomness and collaborations are preeminent in dethroning the artists from their throne of control, don't you think?

Meantime, I was chatting to Yonat (one of our CAS artists) in the studio the other day, and we remarked about the sheer volume of content that is sprouting up during this Block_Chain project. Its hard to keep on top of. 

I made the first two posts in response to Karens "To Just be". The video is her poem looped in collaboration with itself. What I find interesting about looking at that, other than the almost impossibility of reading it, is the way that the text moves just fast enough to suggest that, at that at first glance the two blocks appear to showing be different content. When I first played it I thought I'd misaligned the frames rates. Funny how perception works, isnt it? 

I think later I'd like to reconstruct her words, generating them into some geometric forms that echo the tape-images. Their connection resonates.   

What about you, all the way across the world in Manila, like some kind of entangled artistic-particle. Sharing the influence on our fourth block of constructive dissent? 

Hi Gian, A pleasure to meet your virtual acquaintance! 
Looks like we're both to whatever extent buffeted by the stuff that surrounds us. I reckon collaboration is damn fine way to go. But where to start though? That's the thing isn't it? 

A ramble usually works. I have a cup of tea, the kids are at school, I have some moments to try and lay an introduction.

I see dissent as a positive thing. It exists in anticipation of improvement. 
What is to be dissented?
What is to be improved?
Where is the path?
How do we find it?
How do we manage to to remain upon it?

For me, this dissent business is more a state  of mind, an approach. I don't readily jump to soapbox particularities) or at least I don't think I do). I find myself asking why, and how and what if? The process is always accentuated in the face of an absolute value: You can't do this. It must be done like this. That is wrong. This is the only way. As it was, so it shall be. Such things are irresistible challenges. When presented with content framed as a necessary connection, the urge to track the exception is catalytic. Am I triggered in to dissenting from confines?

If we're talking about breaking chains of assumption, Hume's the daddy. Just because it happened, doesn't mean it will happen again. Proposing to untangle cause from effect is some serious dissenting! We are not worthy! Its a humbling thing.

My dissent is possibly one of opportunity and response. I am unable to operate in linear, predictable, plan-able ways. It's partly that time vacuum thing. If its a structural metaphor we're after, I feel I'm supposed to be New York. Large, sprawling, rich in diversity, but navigable with a blindfold. Gridded into predictability. Instead I'm more (not in any grand way) like Venice. Just throw the map away  already. A path will go where it will go. Do not resist.

Pay attention to what's in front. Pay attention to now. Preparation exists on some notional plane somewhere. But that's for others. 

So I attempt a breach of the pressurised hull that keeps me contained, drifting in the lost depths of my something or other. Opportunities like this are too precious. Amongst other things, they serve to remind me to stick the bloody periscope up now and then, and see what the hell is going on out there. 

Collaboration is a life saver for me. Its a way to stay in the race when your tanks are blown. Pass the baton, take five. Get ready, its coming back. 
Work in bursts. Its ok. Leave the grid. Wander. Find dead ends. Talk to others. 
Do the school run, work the office, sit the meetings, take the baton. Find a dead end. Pass the baton, wash the dishes. Work the office. 

Raise the periscope.

Find the path. 

Welcome to BLOCK_IV,  Here are three images passed on from BLOCK_II, the last entitled, Midnight Explorations. Use them as you will or not at all, the space is yours. Susan Francis