Tokyo bird song

soccer cats

2012-02-11T00:40:00.000-08:00

I've been busy writing the thesis so haven't had much time to write about the bird things I have been doing. So instead I will do a lazy post and re-post the videos of cats on soccer fields. Of course this in response to the Anfield cat who invaded the soccer field in the UK- doesn't too look panicked and gets picked up by one of the security guards.

Turns out he has a Twitter account (?) with 53,000 + followers. Most of the content are soccer jokes I can't follow.

Some other cat invasions
From a Barcelona game:

A longer version of the invasion from another station is here. The main picture is at 2:53 but before that you see it streak across the top left hand corner.

Ok do doing this post didn't take too long so I should stop feeling sorry for myself and post some more.

House guest #2

2012-01-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

Manny, the schnauzer is hanging out with us this week.

Remembering Miss Orlando

2012-01-24T20:03:00.000-08:00

who went to ceiling cat a year ago. Dearly missed.

typical Cook River scenes

2012-01-17T03:16:00.000-08:00

New phone, new movie camera! and so now hopefully some better movies to upload. Typical scenes on the walking path by the Cooks River: A sunbathing skink.

And a White-faced Heron hunting in long grass. White balance not so good with this clip- also the phone camera doesn't seem to like the zoom. But I think it has a little lizard, which it swallows then it continues to hunt. Notice the way he shakes the grass with his feet in order to flush a frog or lizard.

House guests

2012-01-12T23:48:00.000-08:00

Now that the weather is pleasantly warm we open the back window wall of the house in the evenings. This has meant an increase in the number of house guests.
The moth that camouflages with the kitchen tiles:

Our long term guest: the insect who loves the blinds in the lounge room and makes a strumming sound like a cricket in our ears while we watch TV:

One of the most beautiful moths I have ever seen. His camouflage of a new lillipilli or gum leaf was a bit of a waste in our kitchen:

And this house guest who arrived very late last night attracted to the lights in the living room and who couldn't find his way out. He flew around the room bumping his body in the ceiling making a dull thud. He sure is one big moth! He sound of his thumping work me up a few times last night so I was very keen to liberate him from the living room this morning. Not before getting some photos though!

garden wonders

2012-01-04T20:53:00.000-08:00

Flowering Lillipilli Casade; the Swamp Banksia with it's massive production of flower candles; a strange cocoon, which feels very light and papery - any ideas?; and the biggest surprise- a stick insect! Maybe Ctenomorpha chronus? suggestions welcome! He was hard to photograph.

UPDATE: the cocoon is a Praying Mantis egg, which will hatch with lots of little nymphs. Thanks R.M for the info! Further update: In this very windy weather we have getting of late the cocoon disappeared.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Vanessa Berry also recently had an very amusing encounter with a stick insect in Sydney.

Hard rubbish #4

2012-01-02T18:51:00.000-08:00

I think this was that best pile of hard rubbish for the year.

Ecountered in September on Warren Rd encountered on the way to the supermarket.
Not only was it was probably the biggest pile I have seen in Marrickville this year, but it was the best because I actually gleaned two items, and I especially enjoyed its many clashing patterns.

The 3 stoneware Mikasa plates I took home and the lovely faded draw-lining paper I did not take home.

You can't see the black&white with fluro highlighted pattern shorts and top (with shoulder pads) that I took home and gave to the stylish and vibrant Dionie, but believe me if I was 12 years younger I would have been rocking the retro 80s look.

I also would have taken the painting 12 years ago but I am now in an expelling rather than acquiring phase.

It was a close call but this pile that appeared a few days before Xmas on School Pde was a pretty interesting temporary sculpture too. I did notice that chuck outs increased dramatically in Marrickville in the week before Xmas. Check out the vintage of the TV!

Happy New Year! I hope you have luck with both gleaning and chucking!

2011-12-22T04:05:00.000-08:00

for what
in this year's-end market
goes a crow

nani ni kono
shiwasu no ichi ni
yuku karasu

何にこの師走の市にゆく烏　（なににこのしはすのいちにゆくからす）

Basho, Haiku #488

I have been dipping in and out of Basho: The Complete Haiku as my bed time reading this year. I think the short form suits the level of commitment that I can give to anything that is not about post-conceptual or Australian animal/human relations. The edition I have is a new translation by Jane Reichhold a respected haiku poet as well as translator (with an extensive, but ugly, website).

Each haiku has a small explanation. The following is for #488:

New Year - 1689. It seems Basho was surprised to find himself going off to shop at the end of year like everyone else. He often wore black robes and therefore called himself a crow.

This haiku sums up my feeling at this time of the year. I avoid Christmas for as long as possible then in the end find myself swept up at day or two before buying books for my Haico, an extra present each for my niece and nephew and liquor chocolates for dad.

Before I went to Tokyo, Haico told me that for him the sound of Tokyo was the mocking laugh of the crows echoing and bouncing off the built canyons of the narrow streets. It became one of my sounds of Tokyo too, along with the alternating toy-like squeak or witches squeal of the brown-eared Bulbul.

About 12 months ago a friend told me a Basho haiku that seemed apt, but somewhere between her telling and my remembering, it got scrambled. My memory of it was:

even in Tokyo
longing for Tokyo
the call of the crow

the actual haiku is #658:

even in Kyoto
longing for Kyoto
the cuckoo

Happy end of year.

Hard rubbish #3

2011-12-16T03:11:00.001-08:00

On Poetic Objects and Poetic Economies » Fringe Magazine

2011-12-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

First time I have tried this "share" thingy

a very good article on letterpress and poem broadsheets

On Poetic Objects and Poetic Economies » Fringe Magazine

Windy Sunday O'Connor ridge

2011-11-26T17:16:00.001-08:00

I went back onto O'Connor ridge this morning, mostly because I really enjoyed the walk yesterday and I was hoping to spot the Speckled Warbler again but also because I had neglected to take my camera yesterday. There is one clearing a the top of the first ridge section (climbing up from Dryandra St) where some of the fire trails meet, that seems to have become a graffiti gallery. The first two pictures are two sides of the same tree.

I"m not sure whether this type of eucalyptus sheds its bark, meaning that these pictures will be fall off over the coming months. Given the way that Canberra public space is organised and policed it doesn't surprise me that graffiti artists have taken to painting trees, although I am concerned for the trees health. The large trees could be at least 80 years old and providing nesting hollows for birds and marsupials.

The wind was blowing pretty hard so I knew it was not going to be an easy day for seeing small birds. In the area that was alive yesterday I only saw one juvenile Red-Wattlebird. In fact the day pretty much belonged to the Crimson Rosellas and Red Wattle birds. Although I walked further this time and came to a grassy area and a family of White-winged Choughs.

On the way down I heard a familiar repetitive 'kek kek kek' calling of several birds. On the dead tree pictured below, I saw 3 Sacred Kingfisher. The subtlety of their colouring makes my heart sing.

Walk on O'Connor ridge this morning

2011-11-25T17:53:00.001-08:00

Birds:
2 Friar Birds gleaning in the flower eucalyptus blossom
Several of solitary sulphur crested cockatoos at various points on the trail- they all seemed to have gather at the park across the road in the evening.
A pair of Crimson Rosellas with 2 green juveniles
A juvenile Dollar Bird perched on the top of a dead eucalyptus squawking (my first sighting of the season)
1 Pied Currawong
I paused for a long time in a mixed feeding flock that was buzzing around in a thicket of small eucalyptus and acacias and identified for sure:
Several beautiful Spotted Pardalotes
A Weebill with a very pink-looking bill
A Buff-rumped Thornbill
Brown Thornbills
A family of Superb Fairy-wrens
and under an wattle a Speckled Warbler - listed as vulnerable in NSW. I think I have only seen one of these birds before ( I don't have my field guide with me.)
3 Galahs flying over on my way down the ridge

Heard but not seen:
Striated Pardalotes
Black-faced Cuckoo-shrikes
A White-troated Tree-creeper

Animals:

1 feral rabbit
2 Eastern Grey Kangaroos (that link will take you to a website that tells to the best places to see each species, they Mt Ainslie in Canberra! This link will take to the ACT government site that has information on some tracking they are doing on Eastern Greys in urban areas)

2 humans with dogs
1 human sweating on a mountain bike
1 human with a pram and a sleeping baby
1 human in training for mountain climbing
3 wide brim hat wearing retirees

(most bird-links are to the excellent Canberra Birds website)

Sunday surprises #2

2011-11-06T23:59:00.000-08:00

I went to check out the Primavera exhibition with Andzrej. This year due to the refurbishments of the museum, it is being held off-site in The Rocks area, with an exhibition in the Bond Store and surrounds. I am not sure whether it really works too well as a show- maybe that is the venue? Or maybe just that Primavera is a show that put together around a group of young artists without too much relation to each other? I enjoyed some works individually, although I think it was not so interesting for show that was at least partly conceived of as working in public space.
The Brown Council have three videos in the exhibition, I can't quiet remember the titles (the wall panels are non-existent which is REALLY frustrating. I had no idea who made all the works...), 2 in the Bond Store and one installed in this historic stone room that looked like it was a laundry at some point as there was some cement and brick troughs on one side of the room.

The three videos are inter-related with the one installed outside playing on the idea of disappearing ( I just looked it up on their website it's called Disappearing Act.)

There are quiet a few nice things in the work- like the awkward mix of theatrical acting/movement and deadpan performance to carry out the "disappearing act". Its really clear how the artists 'magic' themselves away, and it that way the work opens up the magic of the viewers imagination rather than dazzling us with techno wizardry.

The room is not quiet light tight and there are plenty of gaps that let light in. There was a moment in the when the video went to black, which was just before the moment below when each of the four performers came into screen to start walking out backwards.

Instead of getting a black screen there was an incidental image projected from an accidental camera obscura or the room was a giant pin hole camera. I couldn't work out what the image and was and where it was coming from but, it was a very nice unexpected magical moment.

Sunday surprises #1

2011-11-06T00:22:00.000-07:00

This morning the sky told me:

Somewhere on the Midlands Highway,

2011-10-30T00:23:00.000-07:00

in someones front paddock, this good advice:

I should pay attention, it's been a tough couple of weeks back on the mainland. I have been feeling a little behind on my documentation of the I live with bird project and overwhelmed with reading students papers and prospective students applications- as a result the usual fear freeze.

Cafe birds #1 Brisbane

2011-10-20T02:34:00.000-07:00

Are all cafe birds "junk birds" or just behaving like "junk birds"?

A typical Launceston bird moment

2011-10-04T20:50:00.000-07:00

Saturday daylight savings.

2011-10-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

After packing up at the John Hart Conservatory Fernando andI went to look at the monkeys. If you don’t know Launceston then you areprobably doing a bit of a double take at the sentence.

Short story is that City Park has a zoo display of JapaneseMacaques. There is a history of having animal displays in City Park and someyears ago Launceston wanted to keep this tradition and so found the animal mostsuited to the weather conditions. Unlike the monkey park in Beppu, the monkeysare contained behind perspex walls because they have hepatitis.

Saturday was the day the clocks shifted to Eastern SummerTime; it was also the first day of the monkey being on display till 4:30(instead of 4). We arrived at about 10 past four. The monkeys were veryrestless and soon started milling around the cave in the corner of theirenclosure where the door is their evening enclosure. I think their body clocks where telling them that their keeper waslate. Below are 4 short films of there behaviour during the 20 minutes ofwaiting.

Monkey #1: forlorn sitting and pacing

Monkey #2: agitated calls

Monkey #3: temporary abandonment of the waiting game

Monkey #4: waiting over

twitch tip #3

2011-10-01T01:05:00.000-07:00

Fernando and I meet up with Ralph this morning who is the co-coordinator of the Birds Australia Atlas entries in the North of Tasmania. We had a really good conversation about birding and the Tamar Island Wetland site. We were sitting in front of the large observation window so the footage has the aesthetic of a 4 Corners program as though Ralph was a fugitive whose identity needed protecting. The quickest part of the conservation to post is his twitch tip for the Banded Lapwing- occurring more reliably in the north of the state instead of the south.

Twitch tip #2

2011-10-01T00:37:00.000-07:00

One of the first bird stories in Launceston was the photo of the Grey Goshawk in The Examiner. I have seen Grey Goshawks, but only the grey morph, which does not occur in Tasmania. I noticed that the photographers had a Spanish last name. As Fernando, (this project curator) is part of the South American diaspora I was wondering whether Launceston was small enough that he would know all the other Spanish speakers in town, so that we could get a chance to see the bird. It is of course, with the photographers being friends of Fernando's sister Amparo. But of course, seeing birds is never guaranteed...

But at least a couple of leads to follow up..

Yoko and Zorro

2011-09-30T21:12:00.000-07:00

are the names of the two birds tether at the MCG to scare off the Silver Gulls. Yoko is a Peregrine Falcon and Zorro is a Wedge-tail Eagle.

There is a short video news item on the smh. site that has some good footage of the gulls on the pitch, in case you are like me and never watch AFL, and so don't have an idea of the issue. But even better The Doctor on Triple J has a short interview with Alice and Graham (the handlers) and the birds, on his radio program where Zorro interjects a few times. (its at 27:00- once the story has loaded you can move straight to that point)

Joshua and Jimbo

2011-09-29T08:09:00.000-07:00

Guest Post by Fernando do Campo, curator of I live with birds

The firstbirds I ever cared for were two juvenile pied butcher-birds. Not too young,early days of fledgling stage – it was my first shot at being a wildlife carer.The matriarch of ‘Rockhampton Wildlife Rescue’ dropped them off, with cage, potof raw (ironically kangaroo) mince and dried insect mix. Jimbo and Joshua, asthey were affectionately named by Hilario my brother, were a certain-to-surviverescue mission. That woman is partly responsible for my animal addiction. I wasa nerd, a fanatic that could not be on the highway for 5 kms without yelling atdad to pull-over so that I could check the pouch of a carcass. Art school gotin the way of what I was certain would be a career of wildlife veterinary. Untilvery recently I was happy with this and refocused all my energy into thecolourful, sometimes gratifying art world. Raquel Ormella’s project forIteration:Again, I live with birds, makes me recall these stories. I don’tthink it’s the reconsideration of career paths or Raquel’s contagiousbird-fever, but rather the revising of priorities and commitments, of things Ilove and enjoy.

Bek's emu

2011-09-28T23:00:00.000-07:00

Fernando and I had a interesting conversation this morning with Bek Verrier about an architecture project she is working on for University. The idea is for a community centre in Adventure Bay on Bruny Island. I'll post some more about that soon but below Bek is talking about how she grew up on an emu farm just outside of Hobart.

Male emus (like male cassowaries) are the ones that sit and brood the eggs.

angry white backs?

2011-09-28T00:17:00.000-07:00

There have been lots of articles in the Sydney Morning Herald at the moment about swooping Magpies. The photo above comes from a great series by Darren Pateman in Newcastle. From the picture above, you can see that Pateman has a camera mounted in his helmet capturing a series of stills with the Magpie in various positions including an amazing image of the maximum downbeat of the birds wings. This article also has some moving images of the event.

Having grown up in dry woodland country I know exactly the trepidation of having to cross a nesting Magpies territory. There was a pair in the large hockey fields that I had to cross from Kingswood station to the Univeristy of Western Sydney campus. For six weeks I would walk with a automatically-opening fold-up umbrella at the ready to point towards the incoming bird. The 'pop' of the umbrella worked every time to dissuade the bird from attacking me.

One of the things I am enjoying about seeing this common bird in Launceston is that the subspecies here: Cracticus. tibicen hypoleuca is a "White backed" magpie where as the magpies in Sydney are C. tibicen tibicen and are part of the "Black back" group.
Anyone know of a swooping male in Launceston?

Comments

2011-09-27T00:07:00.000-07:00

Hi All,

I have had some feedback that you haven't been able to comment without a Blogger ID. I have changed the settings so hopefully this will not be a problem now. You still might have to fill in the security text - which is to stop spam.

Under the comment box there is a drop down menu which asks for a blogger or google etc account. You don't need one of these- the very last option is anonymous. If you use that option but want to tell me who you are just sign off in the comments box.
thanks!

John Hart Conservatory #1

2011-09-25T17:37:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who visited the temporary sound installation in the John Hart Conservatory over the last two Saturdays.

I have heard that for many visitors it was the first time they have visited since the renovation a few years ago. I first saw the conservatory about 4 months ago and don't know what it was like before. I've heard it described as a jungle and a kids adventure wonderland, also that the plants where being vandalised. Does anyone have any photos to share?
send to: raquel.ormella@anu.edu.au

Flashed flowers #8

2011-09-25T04:01:00.000-07:00

Wattle season is over in Sydney, the Callistemon season has started, these ones are stolen from the neighbourhood. This one might be callistemon citrons, but hard to tell. Callistemon citrons is also know as "Endeavour", which is the one used in street planting in greater Sydney. It has taken me a long time to consider collision beautiful, as I associated them with dried up dusty suburban nature strips, their fluffy leaves blacked and polluted by parked cars. Haico loves them and he has opened my eyes to how the flowers are delicate and beautiful. Andrew McQualter and I have drawn them in our collaborative wall paintings "Constructed woodlands". The flowers on the type in the vase are slightly longer and fatter than the "Endeavour", and the leaves are smooth rather than fluffy.

Scaevola "Purple fanfare" from our garden- this one flowers all year round.

Kangaroo paw from our garden, photographed before, these have been flowering continuously for 3 months now.

All in 60s west German ceramic vases.

Harassed Sea-Eagle

2011-09-21T17:51:00.000-07:00

Cycling in to Sawtooth on Friday I heard a mixture of Masked Lapwing (I notice people call them "plovers" here) and Magpie alarm calls. Looking up I saw an adult White-bellied Sea-Eagle being chased and harried. Penny had told me you could sometimes see them over the Gorge, so I was not so surprised to see one, but never the less still find it quiet amazing that an urban centre 60km (?) inland is visited by one of these birds.

post impact from a bold Magpie

It's a bit hard to see in this photo but the belly is a solid white

Twitch tip #1: Nankeen Night Heron

2011-09-15T02:02:00.000-07:00

After my talk at the Launceston Art School I got a good twitch tip from Penny Mason, head of Painting.

Nankeen Night Heron, Lauceston Gorge, about 500 metre in from the gate keepers cottage.

I must remember to keep my camera in the horizontal position...

"a triumphant goshawk"

2011-09-15T01:13:00.000-07:00

From the Launceston Examiner Tuesday 13/9/11. Photo by Julian and Oriana Santamaria. I particularly like that that s/he is eating a feral Spotted Turtle-Dove.

I have seen a couple of Grey Goshawks- one who is resident in the Royal National Park south of Sydney and the other in the mangroves near the Cairns airport- however both where the grey morph. Fingers crossed I see Launie's resident. Any tips on a reliable spot for a sighting?

A beginning: again

2011-09-14T17:25:00.000-07:00

Tamar Islands Wetlands this morning with Liam and Fernando filming. I arrived in Launceston on Monday and since then it been a fairly hectic schedule of work.

For those who follow my blog regularly, my blog has been temporarily taken over by a project I am working on called I live with birds, which is part of a larger exhibition: Iteration:again.

This is just the briefest of posts as its time to sort out a artist talk that I will be giving at the Art School at 12:30.

Flashed flowers #7

2011-08-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

3 wattles from Canberra and Namadgee National Park. The last vase was too heavy to hold up.

Flashed flowers #6

2011-08-21T00:04:00.000-07:00

Ornamental blossom trees outside the front of the Music School ANU.

List keeper

2011-08-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

Two still from the video I have been working on. It will be in the National artist's self portrait prize at the University of Queensland Art Museum.

Shop lifting bird

2011-08-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

A short video of a seagull taking advantage of the chaos during the London riots to do a bit of looting of his own. My feeling is that he might have done a bit of shop lifting before or at least was used to people emerging with food from this door. I love the way he "runs" away.

There is a few seconds of black before the start.

Thanks to Peter for the link!

flashed flowers #5

2011-08-14T01:57:00.000-07:00

A green Cooks River wattles-I think acacia falcata based on the leave shape and the pattern of the flower pom-poms. It was in the bouquet from last week as well. The acacia longifolia have just about finished flowering, and the Sydney green wattle - acacia decurrens, are just about to come out.
Gleaned from the Cooks River walk.

Ruben's magnolia

2011-08-13T17:40:00.000-07:00

is flowering again.

On a recent trip to my parents I dug through a box of books and found some of my collection of artists books including one by Lucas Ihlein.

Lucas and Ruben. photo by Lizzy from 2008

Lucas and I where co-owners (? fans? carers?) of Ruben. The book was of some of Lucas's writing from 1998-1999 when Ruben was a kitten, and includes two Ruben poems/ stories. The first one is about his naming and the second a dream. Reading them really took me back to that moment in time. I could see the room we where sitting in when we had the below conversation and the bed we shared where the dream occurred.

click to make bigger to read.

Remembering Nagasaki

2011-08-08T17:30:00.000-07:00

Nagasaki Days

by Allen Ginsberg
I -- A Pleasant Afternoon
for Michael Brownstein and Dick Gallup

One day 3 poets and 60 ears sat under a green-striped Chau-
        tauqua tent in Aurora
listening to Black spirituals, tapping their feet, appreciating
        words singing by in mountain winds
on a pleasant sunny day of rest -- the wild wind blew thru
        blue Heavens
filled with fluffy clouds stretched from Central City to Rocky
        Flats, Plutonium sizzled in its secret bed,
hot dogs sizzled in the Lion's Club lunchwagon microwave
        mouth, orangeade bubbled over in waxen cups
Traffic moved along Colefax, meditators silent in the Diamond
        Castle shrine-room at Boulder followed the breath going
        out of their nostrils,
Nobody could remember anything, spirits flew out of mouths
        &amp;amp; noses, out of the sky, across Colorado plains &amp;amp; the
        tent flapped happily open spacious &amp;amp; didn't fall down.

                                                        June 18, 1978

II -- Peace Protest

Cumulus clouds float across blue sky
        over the white-walled Rockwell Corporation factory
                                        -- am I going to stop that?

Rocky Mountains rising behind us
        Denver shining in morning light
-- Led away from the crowd by police and photographers


Middleaged Ginsberg and Ellsberg taken down the road
        to the greyhaired Sheriff's van --
But what about Einstein? What about Einstein? Hey, Einstein
                                Come back!

III -- Golden Courthouse

Waiting for the Judge, breathing silent
        Prisoners, witnesses, Police --
the stenographer yawns into her palms.

                                        August 9, 1978

IV -- Everybody's Fantasy

I walked outside &amp;amp; the bomb'd
        dropped lots of plutonium
        all over the Lower East Side
There weren't any buildings left just
        iron skeletons
groceries burned, potholes open to
        stinking sewer waters

There were people starving and crawling
        across the desert
the Martian UFOs with blue
        Light destroyer rays
passed over and dried up all the
        waters

Charred Amazon palmtrees for
        hundreds of miles on both sides
        of the river

                                August 10, 1978

V -- Waiting Room at the Rocky Flats Plutonium Plant

"Give us the weapons we need to protect ourselves!"
        the bareheaded guard lifts his flyswatter above the desk
                                                -- whap!

                                *

A green-letter'd shield on the pressboard wall!
        "Life is fragile.  Handle with care" --
My Goodness! here's where they make the nuclear bomb
                                  triggers.

                                        August 17, 1978

VI -- Numbers in Red Notebook

2,000,000 killed in Vietnam
13,000,000 refugees in Indochina 1972
200,000,000 years for the Galaxy to revolve on its core
24,000 the Babylonian Great Year
24,000 half life of plutonium
2,000 the most I ever got for a poetry reading
80,000 dolphins killed in the dragnet
4,000,000,000 years earth been born
                                                Summer 1978

You can listen to Ginsberg reading this last section as it was one of the songs in the work Hydrogen Jukebox by Phillip Glass.

Remembering the many killed by nuclear bombs and accidents, sending peace and love to all.

daylight owl #2

2011-08-08T17:12:00.000-07:00

From the Sydney Morning Herald today:

BARNEY'S DAY OUT

A beautiful but disoriented barn owl was discovered on the Fairfax Media balcony yesterday before it flew across the park to the Google building, where Barry Alexander from the Australian Wildlife Rescue Organisation (WIRES) rescued it with a net, and some patience and not a little tenderness (which, when we put it like that, sounds rather like the title of a sweet, if maudlin, country and western song). Anyway, we called WIRES to ask why the owl was pottering about in Pyrmont, and found ourselves talking to their Sydney raptor co-ordinator, Caroline Enfield. ''The first thing to remember is at this time of year you've got some young males about who are not quite as savvy as the adults, and they end up perching in the wrong places, and, when the sun comes up, it becomes hard for them to re-orient to the warehouses they might normally live [in].'' We would like to reinforce at this point Enfield is talking about young male owls. When we spoke to her she was on her way to give an assessment of his health. ''We'll keep an eye for a couple of days,'' she said, ''and let it go at night, probably at the casino, as it's near the water, and its feed supply - rats and mice.'' (Again: we are talking about young male owls.) Enfield added people were often surprised such birds were so near the city. ''There are peregrine falcons at the airport and on the Westfield buildings in Bondi, because their food source - pigeons - is close by. They are around us all the time, but people don't look up.'' Stay tuned for an update on ''Barney''. Or send in a better name should you think of one.

flashed flowers #4

2011-08-07T02:22:00.000-07:00

Three different kinds of Cooks River wattles- Acacia longifolia is one of them, the other two have been hard to identify. I have done a search on the wattles listed as local but the combination of flower and leaf structure didn't seem quiet right. There are about 700 Australian acacia.
All gleaned from the neighbourhood and the Cooks River walk.

sunrise this morning

2011-08-06T23:44:00.000-07:00

From my bedroom- looking towards Mt Ainslie, Canberra.

It was a wonderful mild week with the local green wattles starting to bloom. A relief after last week with everynight going below -3 and frost hanging around till 9:30.

For more picturesque images of frost on plants, rather than the back window of the car just before the 8:30 dash to work, check out Mart's pictures on his blog about the nature on his property in the Canberra district.

The robin is the one

2011-08-01T03:44:00.000-07:00

The robin is the one

That interrupts the morn

With hurried, few, express reports

When March is scarcely on.

The robin is the one

That overflows the noon

With her cherubic quantity,

An April but begun.

The robin is the one

That speechless from her nest

Submits that home and certainty

And sanctity are best.

I went out to visit my parents today and took the chance to dig through some boxes to find some poetry books that I was into when I was a student. I have a student at the moment who is writing poetry and so I wanted to find the sorts of things I was reading when I was her age. (which the time in my life that I now think of as when I was not a birdwatcher, or sometimes I think of it as the time when I didn't realise I was a bird watcher, as I have some many bird associated memories.)

One of the books was a collection of Emily Dickinson poems and flicking through in on the train home I found this one about a robin, a nice synchronicity with my current project.

Paper birds #2: the green screen

2011-07-30T04:39:00.000-07:00

work in progress. Using the green screen at ANU. Not sure of the title yet.

This will be a new video that re-tells my first encounter with a Pink Robin in the Styx Valley in Tasmania. I was told at the time that it was a Rose Robin. The misidentification lead me to become a twitcher. The video will have a narrative where I try and think through why the correct identification was important to me.

Saturday afternoon

2011-07-23T00:34:00.000-07:00

1960's lamp post O'Connor

A perfect day in Canberra: crisp clear air, bright sunshine and warm (for winter), t-shirt and light jacket weather...
but its going to drop to -3 tonight.

The park on the ridge wehere I am living at the moment.

Early flowering grey Cottamundra wattle.

Conversations with cats: the Shirlow gang again

2011-07-19T06:21:00.000-07:00

Lisa Kelly, a Sydney based artist who I have linked to before, sent me an email recently letting me know about a project she did a couple of months ago. It was at an artist run space in Marrickville that had a policy, for a short time, of not naming the artists whose work was on display, so she was not able to blog about the work till the policy changed.

The anonymous policy had me thinking for a while. I would have loved to take up the offer, when an invitation popped into my box asking if I wanted to show some work, as it would have been a great way to test some old ideas: where they recognisable to my practice; or wildly experiment with some really new stuff: does the work stand without my past practice. But this year is all about writing that thesis...

But back to Lisa's work..
She made a couple of nice observational works and I include some images and direct quotes from her blog here about the Shirlow Street cats- but go to her blog for the full story- the lizard walk way artwork is wonderful!

Visiting the end of Shirlow St in the afternoon and no sign of cats. Riding back after dark and a pair come galloping towards me from down the road, seeming familiar with a figure on a bike. They prowl around, tails up, expecting food. Returning to the gallery to get the box of Friskies. Coming back they remain aloof and disinterested in me. Smart cats.

not-knowing-experts

2011-07-17T03:55:00.000-07:00

I have been a bit busy lately with writing my thesis. A couple of weeks ago I a gave a paper at the Festival of Ideas at Melbourne University. You can watch the session on their site. And belong is my transcript. I will upload some of Walking through clear fells soon.

*****

To get to the Styx Valleyyou take the Lyell highway out of Hobart that goes along the longer reaches ofthe Derwent River.

When the far edges of Hobartdisappear you spend some time going through farming country and woodlandpatches till you turn into the Gordon River Rd. This road will eventually takeyou Lake Pedder and the South West, but way before the Lake, before you evenget to the Styx valley, you will drive through the picturesque cluster ofcherry orchards and hop fields that make up Bushy Park.

Continuing along the GordonRiver Road after you past Westerway there is a small family owned saw mill onyour right. On your left is the Styx Road, the main logging road that winds upthe Styx valley.

As with many logging roads,at the beginning there is a locked gate.

This is the start of the narration that accompanies thevideo installation Walking through clear fells that I made in 2009 and 10.

The work is a video installation in two parts. One is thesingle channel being screened behind me.

I made the work with the Tasmanian cinematographer JoeShemesh; it’s filmed using a red camera, which is a very high-resolutiondigital camera.

In this channel the camera tracks across the Styx andFlorentine Valleys following first the Styx rd, and then the Gordon River.

As the helicopter is able to negotiate the hilly terrain itreveals coups hidden from the view of the highway by hills and rises. Itreveals how narrow and small the uncleared areas of forest are. And Inparticular it reveals the network of roads: undeclared logging tracks, publicroads closed to traffic because of logging trucks, and the highway whichfunnels tourists and locals through the disputed areas to the alpine NationalParks. These roads, logging coups and destroyed forest reveal not only thelevel of destruction but also the construction of ‘wilderness’ and/or ‘highvalue conservation area’ as remote and untouched by human habitation.

The second part is a synchronised double channel of twopeople (myself and Joe Shemesh) walking through a series of clear fells in theStyx and Florentine. The camera again points directly down and captures ourfeet and the ground immediately around us.

At first it is not clear what kind of landscape this is,however with accumulative viewing an endless horror emerges. One clear fell ismuddy and churned up by the machinery; a second is after fire bombing, and isblack like forest fire except for the hard sharp lines of fallen timbers andgiant stumps; and the third is a recently cut coup, littered with many “waste”rainforest trees.

As the camera is strapped directly to our chests the footagecontains the motion and sway as our bodies struggle with the uneven ground.There is no horizon and this claustrophobic view creates nausea and disorientationwithin the viewer.

The two parts are exhibited at right angles to each other.

Walking through clearfells was motivated by a desire todescribe the landscapes of the tall forests of Tasmania and their currentdestruction. Whilethere are many photographs of clear fell logging used in activist campaigns, Ifelt these representations did not capture the visceral feeling of loss anddestruction. Neither do they adequately capture the scale of individual loggingcoups and the way these coup effectively form a honeycomb pattern ofdeforestation across vast valleys.

Rather than using a perspectival view creating sweepingvistas over destroyed forests, that I believed would evoke a feeling ofcatastrophic sublime, I instead employed a directly pointing down camera whichI hoped would turn the viewers eye into a scanner like machine, so that theview seem dispassionate objective. And that it would disrupt the picturesquetradition that connotes ownership and control. Yet because of the disorientation of both the aerial andwalking footage the work evokes a very physical and emotional response in thebody and mind of the viewer. (Itwas interesting when filming how wearing the very large and heavy camera createda feeling of turning oneself into a machine).

The two parts Walking through clear together form a macro and micro view of the Styx andFlorentine Valleys.

Returning to the narrative

Its funny looking at thislandscape from the air even though I know this space there still a way in whichwhat I know doesn’t quiet connect with what I am seeing from above.

There was a lot of loggingactivity happening when we filmed this in early 2010. The weather had been sobad for twelve months that the summer logging season was quiet intense.

Although you wouldn’tnecessarily know that looking at this footage.

The helicopter, and pilot wehired, belong to the same company that Forestry uses to drop incendiaries ontoclear fells to start fires in the Autumn months. Forestry burn them to stop therainforest species regenerating there by facilitating the growth of a moreprofitable mono culture of eucalypts that will harvest for paper in 20 years.

The pilot did not want tofly over clear fells that contained working machinery, despite the company andForestry, agreeing to a requested route, and so in 20 minutes of footage youonly glimpse two cranes at the edge of the frame.

Instead of documenting thevalley busy with people this landscape looks at once both occupied andstrangely empty.

There are a few ideas that I want to briefly raise inrelation to this work today that concern artist’s position and voice, inartworks that are motivated by conservation concerns, rather than discussingthis work in relation to national or regional narratives. I should say thatthis point that I have no familial connection with Tasmania and while I havevisited often in the last 8 years I have never lived there. Also I am not along distance walker and the only landscape I know intimately is the StyxValley. I have in fact spent more time in clear fells than in forests, and Iactually find the tall closed forests quiet frightening.

My work is like many mainlanders who are interested in theenvironmental campaigns in Tasmania as much as I am interested in the campaignsto save the Kimberly and Queenslands wild rivers from resource exploitation.

Conservation campaigns are often focused on making presentthe unseen complexity of the natural world. Evoking both the wonder of nature,the horror of it’s destruction and potential lost. The motivation ofenvironmentalists to depict and give voice to the unknown, or the knownunkowns, by revealing the complex entanglement of human values and exploitationof nature; is particularly evocative and attractive to artists. I contend thatthis is because, these are projects where the questions raised byrepresentation and documentation are central, and these are questions asked ininteresting and dynamic ways by artists and artworks. Further moreenvironmental projects have an increasing sense of urgency, which creates forthe artist a sense of, or actualises, being engaged with the world.

Detailed and expert knowledge is highly valued withinenvironmental campaigns whereas a cliché about artists is that they work from aposition of not knowing. Although I think this is perpetuated by artists as away of avoiding having to put into words that which sits outside of language,i.e. the sensation and effect created by visual artworks.

Working as an artist in relation to conservation raisesquestions then about how to negotiate communicating important information while not being a didactic or taking up an authoritarian position. I ask myself inwhat ways can the artwork I might make give space for the viewer experience? (Idon’t necessarily think I have answered that question in this or other artworks Ihave made.)

In looking for potential models to address this problem of anot-knowing-expert I have been looking at the writings and artworks associatedwith post-conceptual practice.

Post-conceptual practices are cross and multi-disciplinarythat focus on the process of making before the production of artwork. Theyemphasise connectivity between artists, subjects, artwork and audiences andoften seek to employ artwork in the service of educating audiences in relationto politics and sometimes the environment.

Lisa Graziose Corrin describes these artists as:

‘culturalproducers’ – at times social gadfly, researcher, performer, writer, filmmaker,curator, collaborator and occasional fabricator of objects. Whenan object was chosen as the communication medium, these artists avoidedhigh production values and exhibited ‘context’ - the site of display- asan intrinsic component of the work. Moreover, their productions relententlesslyquestioned how we approach and understand ‘truth’.

Often these are artwork that we might describe as practicingan institutional critique, uncovering biases in museum collections, or past outdating thinking in relation to the types of items collected or the informationattached to these objects. Post-conceptual artist often mine archives foralternative narratives, or organise tours of ignored or politically potentsites, often asking non artists- i.e. holders of other expert knowledges or marginalisedculture groups to speak on these tours. Often installations seem like acollection of documents- an artwork one might read, interspersed with thingsthat might be artworks.

I find these attractive as potential ways to negotiate thenot-knowing-expert although in relation to discussing remote and un picturedlandscapes, I don’t see them as a practical solution.

Instead I think of Walking through clear fells as part document and part artwork. The aerial channelis a important document of a landscape being exploited, I am open to it’spotential in being used in other ways and contexts- although I’m not sure howuseful it is…

In the context of this document being an artwork, thenarrative, read by myself describing an alternative way of moving through thelandscape, and the process of making the film is an important self reflectiveelement that is being added to by other voices (Peter Hay) and this alsoinvites the viewer to construct their own narrative sequence or memory ofvisiting that landscape. The walking feet is in a sense the clear artisticinterpretation of landscape and belong to the tradition of artist walking thelandscape such as Smithson, Long and Fulton.

This footage is taken at theend of summer and you can see guy lines threading one tall tree to the next.The guy lines create a network between the protesters tree sits and platformsat the top of the tall eucalyptus regnans. They are there so that if the policetry to evicted one platform or cut it down they will pull off the otherprotestors. It’s a way of slowing down and delaying the police break up of thecamp.

The camp was evicted thepervious autumn. It was beforethat coup had been logged..

This camp now blockades thelogging road. In an effort to stop it from turning off to the right and goingdeeper into the Florentine valley.

The last section of thisfootage is where the helicopter has past the camp and into the World HertiageArea. They then have turned around and are filming as they are flying backtowards the camp. AS you cross the highway and there is some relief that thereis no sign of logging activity the helicopter passing over health landscape, oftea-tree tickets and then forest. The film ends where you start to enter tallforest again; right at it’s edge, there is a road.

Hard Rubbish #2

2011-06-28T21:29:00.000-07:00

Five houses have been up for sale on our street in the last couple of weeks- strangely this has meant an increase in junk on the footpath.

flashed flowers #3

2011-06-26T04:31:00.000-07:00

Kanagroo paw from the back yard: Anigozanthos Bush pizzazz

Early flowering grey wattle, stolen from the neighbourhood.

Rest in peace Kathy Eriksson

Thunder Road - a letterpress project by The Unbearable Banishment

2011-06-09T03:45:00.000-07:00

I came across this interesting chapbook project by Mark on Art Book Object. The chapbook marries an essay "Thunder Road" by Nick Hornby from his book 31 Songs to a broadsheet with the lycric to the Bruce Springsteen song that inspire the essay.

The project was a labour of love spanning more that 5 years, Mark tells the whole story of the project on his blog: The Unbearable Banishment.

All proceeds go to the school for children with autism: TreeHouse.

The chapbook pages and broadsheet where printed by Synaesthesia Press with the covers printed by Lead Graffiti who have some nice things in their store including these great cards made out of re-cycled food packaging.

More mushroom musings

2011-05-29T17:18:00.000-07:00

over at Lisa Kelly's open studio.

My pictures here

Canberra sky

2011-05-29T17:12:00.000-07:00

Last week was perfect back burning weather: very cold and no wind. There was a slight smokey smell the whole week and it felt as though you where tasting air as much as breathing it. The up side is that we had some beautiful sunsets.

Flashed flowers #2

2011-05-23T18:37:00.000-07:00

Stolen from my neighbourhood. Pretty sure this is cotoneaster - a weed. So I consider it a good deed to harvest the berry fruits for vases and then them discarded into the rubbish bin.

Japanese song #3

2011-05-22T19:17:00.000-07:00

go to flickr for 30 seconds of Bec's marathon

Japanese song #2

2011-05-15T18:32:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow at 1:30pm- right after lunch, I will descend into the dark and grimy cave that is Echo Point to participate in an artwork by Bec Dean. Bec is going to sing for 12 hours, non-stop, no repeats, only breaks for toilets and snacks. It's for an exhibition put together by Micheal Dagostino called When Good Curators Go Bad. He has invited former artists who are now curators to make a work asking the questions

If you stop creating do you stop being an artist? Are years of study wasted if you don't go on to have an arts practice? Can you be an artist and curator at the same time?

Bec has invited us one or two at a time for half an hour each, and will

be recording this entire solo performance on video, which will be played back at MOP and installed along with an Echo Point inspired mini-bar that punters are welcome to partake in.

The only thing that I have practiced consistently over the last 15 years besides writing and curating is Karaoke. Many of you have joined me in various Karaoke bars over these past years, and so I am making a work that is dedicated to you.

For some reason my post about karaoke on Bec's birthday has been hugely popular. It's the number 2 most popular post on my blog with 82 hits. Number one is Field Guide to the Birds of Tokyo's Metro System- 121 hits, which I think is popular as there is a band called Birds of Tokyo. Most of my post get about 20 hits with the popular ones reaching 40, so I am not sure what is bringing this post up. Perhaps Bec's legendary karaoke performances have reached international fame and are destined to be the next internet sensation. Stay tuned!

feeling nature

2011-05-15T17:36:00.000-07:00

On the way to work on Friday morning I heard a pack of Australian Ravens making short barking sounds. It wasn't there usual call and when I spotted the group to my horror, I saw that they had flushed an owl from a daytime roost and where driving it away. They where soon joined by Magpies and Sulfur-crested Cockatoos, with the poor owl pecked and harried. It was so distressing to watch. The owl was having trouble flying and getting away as its sight is affected in daylight. I couldn't help but anthropomorphise the event and project a feeling that the aggression of the birds was because the tables where turned on a top predator, who was weakened by being outside of his dark realm. I followed them around awaiting to see if it fell out the sky but they went over the Art School and into a groups of trees.

I didn't have my binos so couldn't see what kind of owl it was, but going on size - it was bigger than the magpies but smaller than the crows, and colour - dark streaked brown, it was either a Tawny Frogmouth or a Barking Owl. The outline - a stubbed head and neat fan-shaped tail make me think that it was a Barking Owl. Will have to check the birders chat line to see if anyone has seen one recently.

Launceston gorge

2011-05-04T23:17:00.000-07:00

I did a flying visit to Launceston on Wednesday, to check out some sites for a project in September/October this year. Photos above are from the Launceston gorge- which is in the middle of town- at night.

I was an intense 21hr trip and a late night of sorting out the ghosts in the machines when I got back to Hobart but everything is now back on track- enough time to start a new flyer drawing! If you happen to be in Hobart on Friday night come to CAST.

Autumn fungi

2011-04-30T19:51:00.000-07:00

Its been a really wet couple of weeks in Sydney- raining everyday with brief periods of bright warm sunshine. I went for a walk along the Cooks River and was amazed with the amount of different fungi that have sprouted, not only the variety but the quantity. I don't think I have ever seen this many mushrooms before.

Nadege and an unhappy snake

2011-04-28T23:09:00.000-07:00

a long time ago in Cairns... not that long ago, but feels like it this Friday afternoon with a lot of work still to be done.

conversations with monkeys

2011-04-25T05:30:00.000-07:00

in Beppu.

On the edge of town there is a large forested hill that is a reserved for a very large colony of monkeys. I was hoping that visitors would be able to walk through the forest observe the monkeys there, with the added benefit of some birdwatching- however all the walking trails where closed and the monkeys where being feed in an open area- like an open zoo. There was a show going on which seemed to be about how monkeys can work out how to get food out of all sorts of containers that one would think was animal proof- like hanging your food in a bag from a tree. The mans narration of the monkey feats was being broadcast from speakers that were all over the clearing. His voice was around you- rather than directionally in front of you. When the the man stopped talking the monkey's starting hooting loudly as if they could finally get a word in edge ways and have a conversation with each other. It was really odd, like they were in the same space as us but trying their best to work around our irritating presence.

This demonstration started with the woman offering peanuts- the small chimp pn the rail jumped up like he was going to get it- but the Alfa male you see on the gund just below him climbed up and pushed him off. It was for him actually and the women did series of demonstrations about how far he could jump.

While she was doing this, the guy who had been doing the show about how monkeys can get into anything, walked along behind and scatter what looked like barley or wheat. The monkeys went absolutely crazy swarming to get the food. I was terrified of being in the way and knocked over by them as there was some aggressive scenes between them. I was very conscious while there of here Jane Goodall talking about feeding chimps while she was trying to study them and now this changed the chimps group dynamics.
Despite the presence of so many monkeys the place didn't stink too badly because there where uniformed attendants sweeping up the monkey shit.

Even though the monkeys where everywhere and so close to us, there wasn't really the feeling of interaction- like the visitors where obstacles to be avoided and the attendants irritating sources of food. You sort of felt invisible and yet completely responsible for their behaviour, leading to a very odd guilt at the futility of human attempts at interacting with wild animals.

thinking about horses and photographers

2011-04-22T19:14:00.000-07:00

All my words are being taken by my thesis at the moment (although I have managed to put a few together about Fuji). I might post some parts here eventually. Above is the work I have been thinking and writing about these last two weeks. Bianca Hester's horse action in Please leave these windows open overnight to enable the fans to draw in cool air during the early hours of the morning at ACCA.

I have uploaded a little film on flickr.

Infinite thanks-Vale John Barbour

2011-04-19T17:47:00.000-07:00

John Barbour
An amazing and inspiring artist from whom I learn how to look at small things, to enjoy jazz, to accept limitations, to grasp joy.
Gone too soon

remembering Mambo

2011-04-11T16:21:00.000-07:00

One year since he passed away. still missed.

snow walking with animals

2011-04-10T05:21:00.000-07:00

One year ago...

walking through mountain forests, along paths that follow river streams that flowed because of the hot springs feeding into them. The snow was quiet deep after late falls and the paths were marked by previous walkers. All the way along our human footprints mingled with animal tracks...

including lots of monkey prints..

and hare foot prints- although we saw monkeys, and two weasels bouncing through snow drifts, we didn't see any hares.

In some areas the river had large amounts of animal tracks, either as a place were it was easy to get down to drink, or get in were the springs of hot water where entering the river. We didn't see any monkeys bathing but a lot of evidence of monkey activity.

One day we walked up to try and get over mountain ridge to get to a perched swamp surrounded by higher peaks. The snow was deep close to the top and being completely unused to walking in those conditions, in a landscape we didn't know, we turned back. On the way back almost at the end of our walk, near the onsen, we had an encounter with a mysterious creature.

Just ahead of us we saw a large animal clamber up the rocks near the path. My first thought was that it was a wolf, but I remember reading that the Japanese wolf was extinct. Haico was dancing around singing "It's a bear, it's a bear!" I wasn't sure, although it was large enough to be a bear (on the Tokyo subway on our way home there was an add with bears in it that was uncomfortably close).

The animal looked at us and we at it. Luckily I had my binoculars with me and while not being able to identify what it was we could see it had small horns and was therefore was no bear. It stood its ground and we walked slowly along the path towards it. It kept its eye on us on as we passed it and went behind. Close up we could see it was like a large hairy goat, or a stocky hairy horse?

Back in the onsen Haico looked up all the possible words for goat and mountain goat and deers but there wasn't anything that seems right. We entertained a fantasy for a moment that it was a figment of our imagination, that being both Capricorns, we had conjured up a mythical mountain creature that had resisted being photographed. At dinner we showed out photos to a experienced walker who was at the onsen as well (and who had made it over the ridge that day), he was totally surprised and asked us where we saw the rare "kamoshika"- a Japanese Serow (antelope) -Capricornis crispus.

The next morning along the track we had walked in on, we saw several groups of monkeys, including a family group with alpha males and females with babies, looking for the young bamboo shoots coming through the melting snow.

It's Wednesday and I'm at work

2011-03-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

Despite having two good seasons of rain the Oak trees at the front of the school are still looking like they have a lot of drought die back.

more Aid for Japan

2011-03-26T03:47:00.000-07:00

Just found a website called Pay for Japan that has collected together various companies that are donating products for fundraising in Japan- including the fantastic book Art Space Tokyo. Great interviews of curators and directors of art spaces as well as maps and hits- I hope they send the new edition!

But you have to buy before the end of March

conversation between sea eagles and mice

2011-03-26T01:48:00.000-07:00

A coupe of weekends ago Haico and I went camping at Congo Beach on the south coast. I spent one afternoon lying down on the grass reading and looking up to see adult Sea Eagles glide by overhead. At one point both adults where directly above me- divine! I don't think I have ever seen two Sea Eagles together. One day we walked further down the coast, threw the narrow strip of Euraobodalla NP, to Bingle Bingle Point and we saw a a juvenile Sea Eagle too. So I guess the pair had a successful breeding season like the pair at Olympic Park. The pair at Olympic Park raised two chicks and there is some great footage of the adults feeding the chicks on the Birds Australia Eagle Cam. Next year the camera is going to go onto Live feed- very exciting- I love turning and watching even when "nothing" is happening.

When we packed up the tents under Haico's we found a squashed mouse- just a house mouse. Haico figured the mouse must have crawled under the tent during one of the raining nights and decided that being near him was nice and warm- fatally when Haico rolled over and squished him.

Birdland

2011-03-24T19:07:00.000-07:00

A couple of months ago I posted a poem by Marian Waller. Marian had uploaded to the ABC radio Pool site where they where collecting material and for part of the of a radio documentary "Birdland". Marian poem was included- Hurrah!

What birds mean to Australians... and how we'd feel if they were gone. A unique collaboration between ABC Radio National and its listeners, brings you Birdland.

Birds are everywhere. Even in the center of the cities, the white cockatoos call as they form silhouettes against blue sky; the rosellas squabble for fruit.

But Australia's bird populations are under threat, as even such iconic and common birds as the Kookaburra are diminishing in numbers.

The Birdland project asked Radio National listeners to tell us what birds really mean to them. Responses ranged from audio to text, and images. The best contributions are a part of and have informed the direction of the radio documentary.

The result is a profound exploration of what birds mean to Australians... and how we'd feel if they were gone.

As well as the radio broadcast, Birdland also became a slideshow, at Federation Square, Melbourne, which you can see below.

Music on the show by Gretchen Miller, Russell Stapleton, Boyd, Stephen Adams, Bree Van Reyk, Alex Anderson, Rose Lang, Sean Scott, Al Kash, Terry Plunkett and Ashley Holmes.

Poems and writing by Anne M Carson, Catherine Evans, Judy Fander, Maya Ward, Willow, Marian Waller, Carolyn Leach Paholski, Rebecca Newman, Belinda Hansen and Barbara Henery.

Produced by Gretchen Miller you can download the radio documentary here.

One thing that stands out to me immediately is part of the introduction states that (me paraphrasing) "birds have gone from Tokyo and instead you get their sounds broadcast from speakers". The "truth", as Tim Low would say is much more complex- we humans create winners and loosers. While there is probably less diversity (in Tokyo and Australian cities) some birds are doing extremely well in the environment that we are creating. For me the sound of Tokyo in winter is the mocking laugh of the two species of Crows and the squealing of the Brown-eared Bulbul. Both rise above the white noise of the millions of people going about their business. I saw some rare birds over- wintering in Tokyo, that we much much harder to see in the Summer when we where high in the national parks. And the memories of birdwatching in reclaimed wastelands, planted forests and shrines strengthened my conviction that we Australians, have generally become lazy about our immediate surroundings.

Take a look at this article on the Sulfur Crested Cockatoos of Sydney from today's Sydney Morning Herald to get a sense of complications.

However the State of Australian Birds- which is put together by Birds Australia and is based on observations by their thousands of members, as well as scientists, does indicate a decline in overall bird numbers, including the Kookaburra. And habitat loss, that's us and our sprawling cities, retirement and holiday home developments, are the number one cause of declining numbers.

wordless

2011-03-21T03:52:00.000-07:00

The Hume Hwy somewhere north of Melbourne and south of Benalla.

Most of March has been spent travelling up and down the South-Eastern seaboard. For holidays as well as work, but what words my students haven't stolen, have been sucked out of me by the Hume Hwy. Not much writing done this month on anything.

Aid for Japan

2011-03-21T03:41:00.000-07:00

Art-it Asia has a listed some fundraising events for aid assistance for the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. One of the projects listed asking for direct donation is by architect, Shigeru Ban and is a project to construct cardboard partitions for survivors living in relief centers in the Tohoku region.

Like in the Christchurch Earthquake, Red Cross Australia, re directs donations to the Japanese branch.

thinking of Japan

2011-03-12T15:05:00.001-08:00

All of my friends are safe although very shaken and distressed with the strong after shocks.

The images of the tsunami leave me speechless. My thoughts and best wishes are with the people of Japan.

This is how I had my bed set up at TWS, I usually included a bottle of water too. The strange shaped thing is a torch. I had another helmet next to my desk, and one down stairs in the studio. I was paranoid- the TWS building is very new.

Andrew sykped with Utako in Tokyo yesterday, she was wearing one of these white helmets, her family in the north are all fine. I have heard from Hanako who was at TWS during the quake, everything and everyone there was fine, although she said it was terrifying. She had to walk back to Asakusa- a journey Kajsa and I did in reverse on our bikes home after a sento visit in February a year ago. It's a long way and disorientating - even more so if you are avoiding walking under the raised JR train lines.

Backyard Bandicoot!

2011-02-27T13:59:00.000-08:00

For the last couple of months we have been planting and designing our garden. We where leaving it a bit late with summer coming on and we have been really lucky that this Spring and December has been very wet. For the 12 months Haico has been working very hard, removing the cement driveway and creating plant boxes, an putting on a deck. We planted out garden in the hope of attracting some native birds instead of the Mynas and Spotted-turtle Doves- respectively the worst feral bird and one considered to have the potential to become as bad. Rainbow Lorikeets have enjoyed the grafted gum, but the small insectivorous birds haven't moved in. One morning in the first week of January Haico woke me up, distressed because something had been attacking our garden.

The Inner West Long-nosed Bandicoots!

NSW Environment speculates where they might have come from:

Long-nosed Bandicoots in inner western Sydney shelter mostly under older houses and buildings, and forage in parkland and back-yards (T. Leary pers. comm. August 2007; Australian Museum Business Services 2007; Leary et al. unpubl. data, ms submitted). The sub-adult and adult bandicoots presently living around the Dulwich Hill area may have dispersed from a source population occupying a larger area of remnant vegetation, such as Wolli Creek to the south. There are apparently no large blocks of suitable habitat, likely to support a large source population, on the Cooks River to the south, or along the southern foreshore of Parramatta River and Sydney Harbour to the north.

You can tell by the pointed cone shape of the scratching.

The Bandicoot stayed around for a few days and then went on his way- which is apparently their pattern. They like to hide under the house, forage for a few days then move on to the next old house with cracks in the foundations. It looks like the one that visited us lived under the new back deck.

They have arrived back though- not so much to our yard but to the nature strip out the front. National Parks have installed a motion-censor camera in our backyard to try and get some images. Fingers crossed it gets more than our legs going to the tap and compost bin.

house mate

2011-02-24T04:49:00.000-08:00

He came into the house on the 42 degree day and since then, turns up in different spots. I don't mind when he is on the walls, but the thought that I might accidentally touch him while picking up a book is a little disturbing.

conversations with cats - through the sapphire sky

2011-02-20T14:46:00.000-08:00

Check out this post over on through the sapphire sky about the cat painters of the Edo period:

Using cat paintings to rat proof - cat painters in Edo

lone cockatoo

2011-02-13T23:40:00.000-08:00

like a Christmas tree angel on top of the Norfolk Island Pine tree next door

I think he might have been an avery-escapee as he was on his own- you usually see Sulfur-crested Cockatoos in flocks- or he might be from the gang that hang out just south of the Cooks River temporarily separated. He was getting harassed by the local Magpies and Noisy Minors.

"A conference of cats"

2011-02-09T17:20:00.000-08:00

It's not been a good day

Not much progress has been made on the chapter that is almost finished and I am in terrible hormonal mood which is sinking into a blue funk as I face the reality that I probably wont be going to Japan or Europe this year.

Siting at my messy desk I notice a zine that has been living on the left hand side of my computer for some time now. It has a price sticker on it which makes me think that I bought in the flesh from Sticky (as opposed to online) on my way home from Nagoya which included a long stop in Melbourne. My desk is like that, things land there and stay there.

Anyway I was procrastinating so I read it for the first time- I often buy zines quickly on the feel and look of them.

Called "Raining in my room" it was a charming read. I realise now that I shared a table with the writer Emma at the Wollongong zine fair couple of years ago. She is one half of Take Care distro. (Flaps doesn't currently stocks with them) (if your interested in zines it's worth checking out her blog, scroll down for distro information and some posts from her about zine making, also good list of links)

Its a zine about suburbia and memory, and the last section is about the stray cats that hang out in the closed off road at the end of Shirlow St, Marrickville - it turns out that they are many peoples secret pleasure.

Emma I hope you don't mind me posting part of your zine here:

My favourite line: "The streets are dark and catless."

now I can move this zine to the pile on the bookshelf..

I saw a sign in the sky

2011-01-27T14:57:00.000-08:00

Sufijan Stevens last night at the Opera house was probably the best concert I have ever seen. Sun Ra transfigured, blues, cacophony, mystical love. I don't really want to describe the details, I need to hold them in still. He mostly played form The Age of Adz and All delighted people. At the end balloons where released from the roof. I just wanted to carry home some of that delightful magic. Below due to Haico's shutter timing, I am accidentally doing the dance moves from Vesuvius.

MONA moonrise

2011-01-26T14:54:00.000-08:00

So much to write about the MONA opening- a weekend full of beauty, horror and doubt. But the 1st chapter is getting very close to first draft stage so I am going to push on and try and give you the odd thought bubble later.

Here are some pictures form the concert on the first night. An almost full moonrise during The Cruel Sea. I have to say they played a little flat that night, and the sinking temperature was the thing keeping me up front in the crowd rather than scamming more booze down the back. But they where better the next night.

The Wire that played before The Cruel Sea: they where fan-tas-tic! I was too busy dancing to take pictures.

one year

2011-01-16T18:36:00.000-08:00

of this blog.

I started with a story about mess, or the lack of it and posted photos as a comparison during the clean up. 'Mess' has been a fairly consisted tag, appearing times 7 times, as many times as 'art' and 'ginger cats'.

On the day which was the one year from the day that I arrived in Japan, the anniversary of my first Fuji sighting, I was cleaning up my studio as I was going to have visitors. By the way I consider the photo above of one corner of my studio, while not 'clean' it's certainly 'ordered'- for me! by comparison!
Somehow that process of cleaning finally brought me home, or perhaps it was sense of the floating freedom of 2010 had finally come to an end. It could also have been because I was preparing the various channels of "Feeders" for viewing, I had a chance to reflect on all the work I had done recently and to see myself as a artist rather than PhD student. For whatever reason my old-self drew down my floating-self and I finally felt 'back'.

For the last 3months I have been avoiding being in my studio- and it had a lot to do with appalling mess I had created there while making many props and editing two multiple channel video works. But I think it was also about accepting that I am home and I need to get back onto working on driving my writing and studio forward.

As I took this photo to I wondered how I ever had room for my cat on this desk. The sign in the corner says "This is not the life my mother wanted for me" and comes from this work.

I haven't always posted as much as I wanted or intended to- there are plenty of half finished posts. I'm not even sure who I am writing for. Although I know Sarah and Caren are reading it because they often comments- your tops ladies!

unexpected visitor

2011-01-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

My parents came round for lunch and while I was listen to a long story my father was telling me, my mother ducked outside to wander around our yard and check the growth of the plants.

"Do you know that you have a chicken in your yard?" !! It was scratching around our tumble-weed.

I knocked on various houses asking people if they where missing a young white chicken. They all said no and when I got back he had gone.

heat and humidity

2011-01-11T15:22:00.000-08:00

Every morning a new stand of fungi appears in our garden. Haico has done a lot of work on the garden this year which has included bringing in enriched soil and bark mulch resulting in a large diversity of mushrooms appearing.

Mid week chilled cucumber soup

2011-01-04T17:25:00.000-08:00

Back at work.

Cucumber seedlings given to me by my neighbour. I'll be saving seeds off this beauty.

Collective blue

2011-01-02T22:30:00.000-08:00

What's the collective noun for Blue-bottles? I was thinking that it might be swarm or flotilla.

Various sites list the collective noun for Jellyfish as Smack, smuth or brood and in addition to these wikipedia also lists Bloom and fluther . Bloom is probably the only one I have heard used- and in particular to this bloom of jellyfish in the Sea of Japan (video here at Lateline's small story).

But after reading the wiki entry linked above, I now know that Blue-bottles are not jellyfish and as much of the common language names for the organism and anglicisation of its Latin name (Portuguese Man-o-war) is to do with ships, perhaps flotilla is a good name. But flotilla and even swarm, with it's connotation of out of control bees, does not capture the menace of encountering a stack of the bastards in the water and at the water line on the beach.

After our New Years Eve trip to the deserted and idyllic Era Beach, with a strong North-easterly blowing a massive amount of bluies onto shore, I kind of think that the correct collective noun should be *cluster-fuck*.

Kon Karapanagiotidis quote

2011-01-02T17:23:00.000-08:00

I have decided its time to refresh the "causes" or "activism" section on the right hand side of my blog. I want to keep this section active but not brow beat people who come here to visit. I guess I am still working out what the tone or purpose of my blog is, and also as being an activist or involved citizen is part of who I am so having this section tells visitors something about me. So for the archive here is Kon Karapanagiotidis quote and link will go here. Needless to say with the last months events at Christmas Island, Australia's on going reluctance to act humanely and generously towards refugees has again created a tragedy that will affect so many people for a long time, those on board, thier relatives, Christmas Islanders, Navy personnel and the AFP police who are now investigating.

Founder of the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre, Kon Karapanagiotidis, blogging at the Wheeler Centre:

In the past, I have naively thought the facts would bring an end to the fearmongering – by explaining to people that we receive just a few thousand asylum seekers each year, and that they pose no threat to our way of life or sustainability. I want to explain that 99.99% of people who entered Australia last year did so by plane; that Australia takes just 0.03% of the world’s refugees and displaced people; and that there are 76 countries that take more refugees than we do, based on wealth.

These days, I talk about a much simpler truth: the moral responsibilities that come with living in a free and democratic country, and what it means to be an Australian. This means we have a moral duty to act and show compassion to vulnerable, innocent people who are fleeing for their lives.
Being Australian should count for something greater than pandering to baseless fears.

Blue Heat wishes to White

2010-12-30T03:28:00.000-08:00

What is wrong with this picture? Nothing really it has some playful surrealistic elements like the dolphin flying and the Moon emanating so much intense light as to give the girl some tan-lines but summer and Xmas is the normal way of things yes?

The images in this post are by Tadanori Yokoo and are from an advertising campaign he designed in 1971. Seeing the exhibition *The Complete Poster Works* of Tadanori at the the Osaka National Art Museum was one of my highlights of of my trip to Japan in August for the Aichi Triennale.

The whole exhibition was fairly overwhelming, and with no translations of the titles or wall plate information, I was pretty much lost in the spectacle of his amazing prints. So I had no idea that this series was advertising for Xmas holidays in Hawaii- as I said above, Summer and Xmas just seemed normal- I guess I though it was an extension on some of the images of women he had been doing. (which seems crazy now- but lots of weird things happen in Japan all the time, so weird seems normal)

I think this one is my favourite. (big picture here on flickr)

The flat horizon created by cutting across an image of sea, the centred island and the general From here to Eternity vibe are the first things that hook me in. The placement of that horizon is just above centre- the convention suggests that a mid-picture plane horizon is a very difficult image to pull off- Yokoo nails for me, by anchoring the bottom half with a gianormous pink fleshy nude. But I think the thing that keeps my eye moving around the image is the way the light comes from all different sources: from above on the palm trees and front right of the model just to name two. I also just can't get past the models awkwardness - and her right hand underneath her leg is crab-like and creepy. The pink nail polish is so uncanny! (click over to here for a big version)

Kind of odd advertising for a family holiday in the sun.

(BTW this is a *great* little tourist video showing Halcona Cove Beach on Oahu, Hawaii, where From here... was filmed. The narrators diction is interesting- is that a Hawaiian accent? And all power to this couple who re-enact the kiss- I hope I have the same amount of self deprecating humour and abandon when I am their age.)

Partly my reasons for not recognising what this was about, was I think of Hawaii- thanks to American TV (Magnum PI) - as being American even though I know there are a lot of Japanese living there. Also the landscape is not one I intimately recognise. For example the below scene just says "tropical" to me- maybe even reminding me a little of Mt Warning. And OK- I didn't notice the Hibiscus flower being distracted by that 'jazz-hands' nude. (another landscape poster here)

Who knows what thought to myself when confront with this one- That he didn't like Xmas? That this one was about the family dramas associated with Xmas?

So to all my Northern friends buried deep in a white winter I wish you some Southern heat and will be thinking of you on the beach tomorrow.

Xmas Paradise is missing you all.

Conversations with photographers

2010-12-19T19:41:00.000-08:00

Our friend Nadege was visiting on the weekend from land-locked Canberra, so after an excellent breakfast at Cafe Ella (now open on Sundays!), a bit of art at White Rabbit, we went over to Bronte for a swim at the Bogey Hole- sometimes also known as the Bronte Piss-pool due to its popularity with parents of small babies. It's one of my favourite places to swim in Autumn when the surf turns rough but the water is still really warm- I hate the rips and wild surf at Bronte anyway. (that link sends you to a Beach Safe website which has good images of Bronte on a rough day, when the rocks at the Bogey Hole are completely covered by white water, and explanations of the permanent rips)

When we arrived we saw that it was one of those very low tides that happen now and again in Summer. The drama of the high Winter Tides with a lot of surf, and low Summer ones exposing the rocks and sand bars bring out extra photographers to this picturesque spot. I wasn't surprised to see more people snapping that swimming- the air temperature was pretty cool and there was a big summer storm brewing and it was the last shopping Sunday before the Xmas consumer Fest.

As I was wading in I noticed one particular guy who was pretty hyperactive- moving around a lot- jumping the rocks and then climbing the walk-way fence. He had a pretty serious camera and a kind of washed up baby-boomer look of round glasses, dark baggy jeans, baggy loud printed shirt, and red baseball hat on. I watched him for a while as his frenetic movement was a little out of place at the beach. I guessed I was in some of his shots but what can you do about that. It was a great swim- the water was nice after you let yourself go and as long as you kept moving. Even nicer was that Nadege and I had the pool to ourselves.

This morning Haico called me at 8:30 laughing his head off telling me I was on page 3 of the Sydney Morning Herald- I was wondering what news would have made it there without either of my dealers calling me first. Haico soon informed me it was not about my work but that I should go and buy the paper.

Thank you Steven Siwert for my Page 3 bikini girl moment of fame.

Page 3 of the Sydney Morning Herald 20/12/10

Full size view here.

First harvest

2010-12-19T16:19:00.000-08:00

We have been working on our garden a lot this year. Haico has spent days digging out rubble, and building raised gardens- I spent most of this time taking pictures of him doing it. I'll up load them eventually but as I am trying to keep on my writing schedule so I'm being brief. The last garden he made was my vegetable garden on the front cement driveway. We live in the Greek part of the neighbourhood so this is in keeping with the tradition- it would be more traditional if there where a couple of lettuce patches in styrofoam boxes but as if Haico would let me do that, and despite how messy I am it is one step too far for me too.

This weekend I have been able to harvest my first fruits: Chillies and yellow tomatoes. The basil has been used a few times already and the rocket has been harvested three times and is now bitter and going to seed.

The weather continues to be very erratic. On Friday afternoon I was wearing a singlet and on Sunday a long sleeve top and pants- its even colder today and I am in jeans.

Marrickville nature strip

2010-12-15T04:01:00.000-08:00

Wednesday again so soon. My problem is I feel like all my words need to be saved for my thesis at the moment.

Kai over Sydney.

2010-12-07T14:50:00.000-08:00

I have decided to start a wordless wednesday thread.

Last week a visit from my old friend Kai, from Strelizer Strasse, Berlin

Flashed flowers

2010-11-28T02:12:00.000-08:00

More hydrangeas from my garden in a 1950's hand glazed Italian vase.

Mambo's Hydrangeas in a West German ceramic vase plus a a small vanitas of a vintage paper scrap book illustration of a Dutch couple with a tiny skull sitting on the frame. Very Calvinist and reminder of the shortness of our lives.

Lilli Pilli from our side garden in the West German vase found for me by Regina's mother Seya. In memoriam.

conversations with spring nestlings

2010-11-20T16:37:00.000-08:00

I found this guy with a Noisy Minor nestling out of the front of Fisher Library. We had a chat (ie. I bombarded him with questions) and it turns out he found the nestling on the foot path. It was still calling for it's parents who where bringing it food. I suggested he put it down on the seat to see if they would still feed it which they did. So we found a suitably bushy tree to deposit the bird it and let nature take its course. As we where leaving two senior ladies passed and said that noisy minors often fall out of thier nests- interesting information- its not something I have noticed before.

Mambo’s Hydrangea

2010-11-20T01:07:00.000-08:00

Is in bloom. They beautiful and they remind me of the blue of his cushion that used to be next to my computer.

It’s seven month since Mambo was laid to rest under the Hydrangeas. I still miss him. Below is Haico saying goodbye.

More letterpress adventures

2010-10-31T22:56:00.000-07:00

There are no pictures of me in action this time as I was the only one in the studio Book Studio, due to term break and Caren is having a well deserved research break- part of which was at Otago printing press, Dunedin. So it was just me and The Beast. I was a little nervous so I did venture into the nearby honours studios and ask the conscientious students ~~socialising~~ working to come running is if they heard screams. But I am please to say that I did not fuck up the press or rip the paper drum (I have forgotten it's Proper Name) although I did print red hate and silver love onto it once or twice. It does sound as if it has a new wheeze but I could just be being paranoid.

I was printing up a couple of things- the extra chapzines (which is still in process but fairly straight forward as the chases are already set), and a cover for the new Flaps: Hate Mail #3. With Caren not being there to check my chases I made several mistakes. Not so many on the first plate- which I printed in red- so I could so straight over the orange of the chapzine plate and not have to clean the rollers. But with the second plate- silver- it took a a while to work out how I should set the chase and place it on the bed.

Take one:

Take Two:

There are four changes that you can see. There was more padding to bring short letters up to type high. With photocopying it's so easy to make a change to where you put a page and my mind is so geared to reversing and the paper and printing face down that it was a little weird thinking through how I had to place and set each plate. Caren would have answered all my questions in two seconds before I had placed it on the bed, where there is not enough space to turn the chases without lifting them up and therefore losing loose letters and all the paper padding you have in place.

The original idea was to have the two plates printed over each other as you can see below:

But as you can see it wasn't working. I set both plates with wooden type as they are a lot larger and you can quickly create a solid page of type. However the same scale makes over printing in this style harder read. I was realising then what was working with the two colour plates in the Nature Strip Chapzine. But the biggest and mist painful aspect about making changes when you have the chase in place , is that it takes many hours to set the plate, and a good hour to clean up so you feel very committed to getting something printed- or using the plates that you have. So an emergency decision was made to print the second plate on the back side. Here's the two sides:

It still needed something to make it work and to make it clear what the zine was about and who by. So we stamped the cover with our trusty rubber stamps- used in three Flaps editions now, the other two being Sad Sack Saturday Night and Joe Jobs.

You can buy Flaps and other zines at Sticky in Melbourne and online with Smells like zines and hopefully soon Format.

Documentation of Feeders at Aichi Triennale

2010-10-20T22:20:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to uploading the installation documentation on youtube. Enjoy!

The encounters that started these works are in the posts Black Kite Kamakura and a post about bird watching at the Meiji Shrine. Although the back story for the Varied Tit encounter isn't posted yet...

You can see the paper birds in progress in this post...

Japanese song I had to wait to come home to experience.

2010-10-01T00:41:00.000-07:00

Which is not quiet true... I was there when a group of people left the after after Triennale opening party for one of the several palaces near our hotel, but after 3 weeks of intense work, I was just too tired.

My dear friend Bec, an karaoke enthusiast, was turning 35, an occasion to eat a lot of food and then head into the CBD to be serenaded by her. The name of the karaoke place is Echo Point, which I find amusing, not only for it's self referential nature, but as Echo Point will always be the Three Sisters to me- a sublime vista, rather than a dingy underground black box lite by black light fluros. (while I was searching for some information on the echo at that location, I came upon this delightful panorama, which pays more attention to showing the parking space available, than the view.)

Bec being absorbed by the screen.

Special inter-state guest Andrew.

Raybe and Andrew looking for obscure gold.

I sang a Shirley Bassey number, and one of all time Pixie favourites among others.

poem forwarded from a friend

2010-09-23T03:45:00.000-07:00

With clacking heels you breeze
through parkland
towards the obligations
of the day.
By an iron gate you pause,
noting within a shrub
a shadowy fidget of birds.

For a minute their presence
holds you, like breath,
a poem unfolding.

You hear the slough of leaves,
the snap of sticks and beak,
the snare of claws.
A sudden whirr of wings
thrums like a heartbeat.

Wide eyed you stoop and peer
into their green marquee.
Rarest of fortune to observe
this tiny theatre of birds.

See how they weave
collaborating twists
of twigs and vine
into a perfect mesh of
form and line.

Perhaps they see your boots or hear you breathe
for now they stop and wait for you to pass
and as they pause, you wonder if they too
are ambushed by a poem about you

Marian Waller

What Bird is that?

Marian Waller 19.9.10

So many wonderful lines in this poem. I think Marian has captured the sense of wonder and privilege I feel when I have an encounter with birds.

From the ABC's "social media space" Pool and the project Birdland.

Pool is:

ABC Pool is a social media space that brings together ABC professionals and audiences in an open-ended process of participation, co-creation and collaboration. It’s a place to share and talk about creative work - music, photos, videos, documentaries, interviews, animations and more.

Melbourne skies

2010-09-09T22:08:00.000-07:00

Lots of dramatic skies over Melbourne as Victoria and the Murray River floods.

human noise

2010-09-06T00:51:00.000-07:00

On my third day in Nagoya I rode south and came to a temple... I can't remember the name of it, it was really hot and I was looking for a pool, but the temple was peaceful- mostly. I could hear all these children yelling. On investigation it turned out to be Akido lessons. These little films are mostly posted for the noise- I am a little disappointed in the quality after compression- But I hope you can see the dailek-like action in the second clip- I can't work out whether the exercise is to practice striking someone on the head, or to practice being beaten on the head- probably both.

The sound of the cicadas also sound quiet mechanical after the compression too.

The title of this comes from Sarah's new blog Human Noise, and these where the words that came to my into my head as I watched.

Conversations with cats - Gotokuji Shrine

2010-09-02T22:42:00.000-07:00

I wrote this more than a month ago but had not had time to correct it or put in as many details as I had wanted- and then I just got super busy finishing the work for Aichi Triennale. But time has passed and is passing so fast and I am now back in Australia so it will have to go up as is in order to think new thoughts.

In 2007 my dear Ruben died. It was long and drawn out. Not long after a friend of Lucas(Ruben's co-owner) and I, Jo Law, had the Australia Council residency in Tokyo. You can read about her trip on her Season Almanac blog. As part of trip she went to Gotokuji Shrine and said prayers for Ruben and her cat Puzpuz. When I came home from Tokyo in April my dear Mambo died and I felt I needed to go to the shrine to visit Ruben and say good bye to Mambo.

Gotokuji Shrine is where the legend of the waving cat- Maneki Neko is said to have happened. The White cat - Tama- is buried in a shrine along side the main Buddhist (?) temple, and this is where I said my prayers.

It was a fantastic thing to do- the quiet ( there was only me and two other people there) and very green space was exactly what I need, and I lite insense and said prayers for all my friend's cats who are no longer around and for those who still keep us company.

Cats of freinds who have passed on: Tupelo, Jose, Blanche, Smilla, Puzpuz, Puspus, Gordon, Lucy, Claude, Gus and Carole. As well as those still living: Otik, Martha, Sushi, Drazic, Orlando, Dexter, Zooty, Minny, Baba, Brian.

I love the backs and the tails in the shot above, and I couldn't resist putting my miniture Yokoo Tandanori cat Buddha in for a picture too.

Conversations with trees #1

2010-08-04T00:18:00.000-07:00

This is a thread I have been thinking about a lot and for some time but was always too scared to start- too much to say, too overwhelming. But I am just going to start and not say much, but post a picture of a tree from outside of Tokyu Hands.