Outside ISEA

outside ISEA

now that it's over, & i'm in istanbul, it's hard to put my brain back into last week & the end of ISEA - but i'll try, in an attempt to give some kind of conclusion to my ISEA blogging.

on friday my sense of missing things continued. i was really enjoying benedict phillips' performance lecture "the div: 3D thinkers in a 2D world" about his experience of dyslexia, but i had to sneak out part way through in order to be prepared for my presentation. i'd already met one of the other presenters in the same session, kristine diekman, & had seen an artist talk by another of the presenters, tahera aziz. there were another 2 speakers besides us, & together our papers were diverse yet complementary & there were good questions asked. but i would have liked to have participated in the roundtable on engaged & embodied audiences in participatory electronic artworks, as well as the [prologue] panel discussion. one day i will perfect the art of being in multiple places at the same time ...

on friday evening, relaxed now that my presentation was out of the way, i went with my housemate finn to a barbecue at catalyst arts, where the M.A.R.I.N. residency exhibtion was. i hadn't had a chance to visit the boat so i was interested to at least get a glimpse of the exhibits, which included video logs and other data mapping work from the sea journey, & an interesting water testing & sound work.

at some point during the evening we were lured away to a film wrap party at the nearby king street arts, where we were introduced to local musicians & film-makers who had just completed shooting a short film, "lost commandoes". the film, which deals with the director Joby's experience of growing up in belfast during the Troubles, is not finished yet so we couldn't see it, but we did get an invitation to a personal guided tour of the belfast wall the next day. i hadn't even known that belfast has a wall, & as i hadn't had much opportunity to explore belfast outside of the conference i was keen to have this experience.

a group of us gathered the next day with our local guides, & trudged from the centre to the falls, a catholic neighbourhood very affected by the conflict. previously it had been a mixed protestant & catholic area of workers cottages surrounding the linen mills, but over the last 40 years much of the housing nearer the centre of the city has been destroyed, leaving large open spaces - some of which has been gobbled up by a motorway. the wall begins on the west side of the motorway & snakes up shankill road, higher than the three-storied houses it is protecting on one side, & decorated on the other side with mural after mural & of course a lot of graffiti. it was pretty sobering to walk along the no-mans-land area, where the local people don't go at all, & contemplate the divisions that still exist very strongly.

after lunch at a nice cafe in a gaelic bookshop & cultural centre, we managed to make it back to the waterfront in time for sadie plant's keynote speech. she was talking about the increasing ubiquity of the mobile phone, its rapid uptake in developing nations, & how mobile phones can bypass the middleman & facilitate alternative economic structures. i then dashed home to drop off my laptop, missing the reception for ISEA 2010, & returned with the intention of attending the club night final party. but an opportunity to visit the M.A.R.I.N. boat presented itself, so i went along for that, & then we had a struggle to find something decent to eat. central belfast after 9pm on a saturday night does not have the greatest selection of restaurants and cafes; clearly one doesn't go to belfast for the food. the choice came down to cheesy chips or an overpriced vegetarian hamburger at a faux native american indian grill franchise. we settled for the latter, at least having a good meal to keep us going. back at ISEA, we chatted with people outside the venue, & chatted with people in the foyer, & just as i was thinking i might even go in to see what the club night was like, someone had the idea to go to a local bar where some live bands were playing & i was swept away into the belfast night. at the container outside ISEA there was a vigorous game of rotational table tennis underway, & at the spring & airbrake (interesting name for a pub!) there was a raucous 10-piece ska band that got us all on the dance floor immediately. unfortunately the main-bill (some dublin girls) was not nearly so good. but it seemed that half of ISEA had come to the pub so there were plenty of conversations being shouted across the beers.

back at home, in the international artist residency bedroom at the flax house, i finished off the evening with a cup of tea with eleanor then went to bed, my head swimming with all the experiences of belfast & ISEA. these things take a while to digest.