ISEA: missing

i have the feeling i'm in new zealand; this icy wellington wind is surely blowing off antarcica, pushing a diverse flock of clouds across a south pacific sky. the hills i can see between the copper-domed victorian gothic buildings are surely the hills around dunedin ... but no; there's a whole different undercurrent here - altho at the conference we're almost completely insulated from it.

i have the feeling i'm missing more than i'm getting. yesterday i arrived at midday, after spending the morning on 090909 things & simultaneously finishing my presentation the afternoon. once again i couldn't decide which sessions to attend, so i caught the end of nina czegledy's artist presentation & then the new zealanders - alex monteith & natalie robertson (it always gives me a kick to sit in an international audience on the other side of the world & hear a kiwi voice say "kia ora"). they were presenting their "local time" collaboration (which incorporates post-colonial critical debate, time-based performance art, and surfing) & began by comparing weather conditions here & in nz - both 14 degrees last night. maybe this is dunedin after all - it's that old airport trick, where they switch the scenery around while the plane is up in the air ... from the window i could see an inflated gingerbread house outside - but later when i look for it, it's vanished; was it a mirage? washed away by the rain?

on thursday night i completely missed the astro+prism VJ performance because i was waiting for my food; a slightly burnt plate of nachos arrived about an hour after i ordered. ian fared worse - when his pizza still hadn't arrived after an hour & a half, he went to investigate & discovered it had been given to someone else. he did eventually get one (& his money refunded) but by then the performance next door was over & i was ready for bed. i was disappointed to miss astro+prism, but at least i did see sisterO & jessie darling earlier in the evening (pictured above). their performance was part of an installation that incorporated images from the ingenious bag-lady device.

the evening had begun with a gallery crawl around the 3 venues for The Exhibition. i'd already seen some of the work, at the university of ulster & the golden thread gallery, but hadn't seen what was at the ormeau baths gallery. there were some interesting interactive works here, such as the musical plants, which responded to touch; a mechanical peacock which seemed to be a bit over-stimulated by the large crowd; a community of ants whose activity produced scratching (on vinyl records) & video; sound objects that whispered when you moved towards them, & a light installation that was possibly some kind of digital connect-4 game, altho we never quite figure it out. unfortunately i haven't had time to go back & re-experience these works without the crowds.

i have a lot more to say but i'll post this now & try to find a moment to say the rest later ...