| (no subject) |
[Sep. 3rd, 2008|11:46 pm] |
I am starting to want to map out "My Chances" spatially, much like any musical score, to take note of the recurrent motifs and underlying references in the polyphonic spree.
It reminds me of the diagram I did for Deleuze and Guattari's desiring machines back in hons year. |
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| From "The Urban Ideal" -- conversations with Paolo Soleri |
[Aug. 25th, 2008|08:58 pm] |
"I think the epitome of economy is not to be found in what we call the economic world. It is to be found in the aesthetic world, where a very tiny amount of energy, a very tiny amount of material, does very powerful things." (p 117)
"Aestheto-genesis, the generation or genesis of the aesthetic world. Sainthood is a synopsis or telescoping of the process of moving from mind into spirit, from psychic energy to God. Through suffering the saint or martyr is able to present an almost god-like image or aspect. Sainthood doesn't have to be a person, it can be the experience of a people, maybe like something that happened to the Jews during the Second World War. That's one road.
The other road is to transform matter into beauty, into aesthetic beauty, compassionate beauty. This transformation, too, takes place in the presence of anguish, of that suffering which is part and parcel of life. Beauty cannot be created through logical processes, through rationalisation, through jsutice, or any such instrument. It must come into being through its own special process of creation: aestheto-genesis. Matter has to be metamorphosed, through anguish, into the aesthetic, the spiritual. As the number of these transformations builds, a god-like condition begins to emerge in consciousness. So we are revealing fragments, infinitesimal fragments of God by the aesthetic process.
...
Creativity and anguish don't arise together automatically. A person might just go out of his mind. Anguish might mean destruction. But sometimes, in some circumstances, and not very often, a man is able to transcend his anguish. He can do so only at a given moment, in specific circumstances. The next time he has to start again. Each time you act, you can act as a fool, as an artist, or as a saint, but you have to do it day by day.
And there's no limit. No matter how much you do, there is an infinity that hasn't been done. An infinity waiting to respond to the touch of your anguish. The more you know, the more you grasp, the more you imagine you could know, the more you sense the limitless gap between the possible and the real. God is in this somehow. The element of anguish becomes the trigger for a larger expression of beauty that is compassionate, as compared to the beauty of nature, which is dispassionate. A landscape is beautiful, but it doesn't have the compassion of man in it, the thing that comes from his consciousness of his helplessness in the world, the consciousness that distinguishes somehow between good and evil. I think the dilemma of being good instead of being evil is part of the anguish out of which beauty and God are born." (79 - 80) |
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| International Symposium of Electronic Arts 2008 |
[Jul. 25th, 2008|12:23 pm] |
yay, ISEA2008! It's here in Singapore!
I am such a geek.
After providing a description of the main exhibition to G Pakiam, he said that it sounded like scientology.
I love the thought of brainwaves projected on a screen and alternate consciousness. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 13th, 2008|09:01 pm] |
Me: I have a code of honour.
J: You sound like you've been playing Metal Gear Solid 4.
--
Want, one of the instructors of the creative writing course I've been attending for the past six weeks, hugged me goodbye yesterday, saying that I always looked so comfortable and cosy in my seat, so cool and unruffled.
That was such a strange perception. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 19th, 2008|12:25 am] |
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I am a victim of the Chinese Parent Dialectic. |
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| Primitive Glee |
[Jan. 1st, 2008|11:03 pm] |
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No more morning assemblies and waking up at 6 am! |
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| Hello, postgrad |
[Nov. 12th, 2007|08:11 pm] |
It's just about time to get back into the groove of things. First up -- getting reacquainted with Virilio again. Don't want to get too obsessive at this point, so I'll probably lie low and look at some Baudrillard if I have the time.
I think I'll miss the brainlessness, but I've spent too much energy yearning for the time to read this stuff, so here we go!
(I'm still clinging on to UK Vogue for escapist literature though.) |
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| Regarding relationships |
[Sep. 22nd, 2007|01:00 am] |
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So we concluded that men and women are different when it comes to the hereafter... women forgive but don't forget; men forget, but they don't forgive. |
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| (no subject) |
[Aug. 9th, 2007|01:50 pm] |
Your Score: Eden McCain You scored 41 Idealism, 66 Nonconformity, 33 Nerdiness
I think you really want a donut.Congratulations, you're Eden McCain! You've got a colorful past, and your persuasive abilities are second to none. In addition, you're a quick thinker with a solid amount of guts. Your best quality: The art of persuasion Your worst quality: A fondness for some stereotypically "bad" behavior
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| (no subject) |
[Jul. 9th, 2007|11:26 pm] |
Met up with Mingma for dinner with HL and talked till 10 pm -- good to still keep in touch and catch up.
Kind of feels nice having familiar friends around (including one who's FINALLY somewhat sane), though I'm missing Shao at this moment. :(
I'm looking forward to next year, because I'll finally have a little more time to fiddle with my ibook functions and read those iCreate magazines, catalogue the photos and WRITE!
For now, it's just marking, marking and marking.
Nian Nian is uber-cute. |
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| Go East |
[Jun. 23rd, 2007|04:53 pm] |
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So I brought some of my colleagues to my di pan (territory), the East, when we did a spot of cycling/blading at East Coast then dinner at Siglap's Werner's Oven. Met Debbie while blading and she made the comment that people from the East are different -- more down to earth perhaps, more laidback, more easy-going. And I guess that could be true from what I love most about the East -- that I can effectively walk into any fancy eatery here in Katong (was the case for Le Bistrot when it was in Katong), Siglap and of course the beach in shorts and slippers and it'll still be fine. We'll still have our manners and eat with genteel etiquette, but we'll be decked out in slippers because we'd have just walked from across the road or from the beach for our casual dinner. |
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| (no subject) |
[Apr. 26th, 2007|12:38 am] |
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Full steam ahead. Two events to plan and execute, back to back in the space of two weeks, not to mention assignments to mark and an application to send. And that's only May. |
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| Thoughts on sabre fencing |
[Apr. 7th, 2007|09:02 am] |
From someone else's journal on sabre fencing:
The core of modern sabre is the attack. Your opponent has to believe that you are going to attack, every time, all the time. If they don't, you can't begin to do anything else.
The second center is the tempo attack--starting the hand and foot just a fraction earlier than an opponent in a near simultaneous situation. A good director will see it and give you ROW and the touch. Once you can establish a tempo attack, you can also show tempo attack to draw your opponent into trying to finish with or ahead of you, then step back, out of distance when your opponent finishes, and take over the attack. Or work a pris de fer, or a stop in time, or parry-riposte or time cut/time thrust.
Which leads to the third center, the driving attack, pushing an opponent back until he/she stops/counter-attacks or runs out of real estate. Then finishing the attack correctly...
The fourth center is an active defense, against a driving attack, dipping in and out of distance, and using every weapon you can--stop cuts, attempts to take the blade, fake counters, fake parries--to disrupt your opponent's attack.
True. I've realised that I can't do anything else other than come off as aggressive with the attack from the start. (I suck at parries anyway because I tend to seek the other blade).
I need to learn to control the distance and the speed. I tend to want to move things as fast as possible, cut corners, etc. I need to be able to step back, change speeds, etc. |
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| 2 things I've learnt from fencing |
[Apr. 6th, 2007|02:18 pm] |
Two things I've learnt from fencing:
1) You don't need to meet the opponent's blade when you're defending yourself. As long as you position yourself to cover your bases, you're well-defended. Defense can be very simple.
2) Being a proponent of brinkmanship, this is a harder one to learn for me: when going for a counter-attack, wait for your opponent to move back, approach slowly, then quicken your steps to seize the shock. |
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| CNY |
[Feb. 14th, 2007|06:31 pm] |
Chinatown, around midnight on a Saturday
Thank God for the Chinese New Year holiday! |
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| Wishlist |
[Jan. 10th, 2007|09:51 pm] |
Couple of gigs this year that I would like to go for:
Yo La Tengo
the one with the Beastie Boys
Films I want to catch:
Pan's Labryinth
The Painted Veil
Going for MUSE on Tuesday with a bunch of lawyers. :) |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 9th, 2007|10:41 pm] |
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It's certainly been an eventful day. I spent some time last night typing out my lecture, due tomorrow, and the free periods of my day today, making sure I've got my running commentary down pat. After going through it a few times until I was reasonably satisfied with it, I stupidly deleted it and emptied the trash. I spent the rest of the afternoon typing it again and I've just finished it. Grr. |
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| (no subject) |
[Jan. 9th, 2007|12:36 am] |
Finished writing first draft of that scientist opinion piece!
(It's so full of fluff! : )) |
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stellen's journal