Here’s an interesting article by Douglas Rushkoff regarding current events in the US economy. He describes our monetary system as …”a shell game, with losers built into the very rules” and makes an appeal for the creation of alternative economies based on generosity vs. greed.
I agree that a person has to borrow money to do anything real in this world, but am finding that I am more and more interested in the wiggle room created by creative acts of sharing and gift giving. I think this concept is tied closely to the Prisoner’s Dilemma I learned about during my negotiation class last spring. What if I can structure situations wherein people are given chances to be generous and are rewarded for even the smallest amounts of generosity?
Personal Advisor worked in that way. Ariana and I introduced strangers to the concept that they have valuable insight just by virtue of being human, and then facilitated the exchange of those insights.
The Committee is working towards a project that would help artists make a living, and I would like our strategies to head in that direction as well.

Type the rest of your post here.

Oregon State Fair, Salem, Oregon

Today is orientation for year two of the PSU MFA program.
I made a concerted effort this summer to go to warm places and soak up the heat. Here’s a little repository of summer warmth for the cold dark days ahead. Remember relaxation. Remember being unbearably hot.

Warren Dunes, Michigan

Incubate, Chicago, Illinois

Mt. Evans, Colorado

Salmon-Huckleberry Wilderness, Oregon

THE MAKING OF THE NEW MAP OF MOSTLANDIA
9.21.08, Reed College, 7-10PM

For more information, visit www.suddenly.org.

Labels: suddenly

On August 11, Rudy Speerschneider (the former T of the MOST) and I hosted the first of four passages we intend to make as we move from being portals to Mostlandia to being bonafied citizens of Mostlandia.

This Passage, titled “A Wake”, was an effort on our behalf to recognize Mostlandian Citizens for making the past 5 years such an interesting adventure and to celebrate and bring closure to all of the work and achievements of The MOST.


We flew Jen (the S) up from San Francisco, and spent an entire day preparing a panwich bar (much like a salad bar but with pancake for bread) as well as a special 4-layer ice cream with each layer representing one of The MOST. (vodka berry, vanilla lime, glowing orb, and peanut butter chocolate)

After dinner, The MOST toasted the Citizens, and received toasts in return.

Citizen Winter presented us all with a surprise batch of rumballs, and true to form, many people made the pained surprised look of having their first Winter Rumball.

Chris Hudson and her friend David Kyle prepared a beautiful sonic eulogy wherein everyone present were invited to take one turn breathing in for 4 counts and out for 4 counts (one count for each member of the m.o.s.t.) before passing the microphone to the next participant. the breathing was recorded and looped, combined and played back amplified. This piece can be both seen and watched at Chris’s website here.

We ended the evening by performing a set of instructions put forth to us by DAMP, our artist friends from Melbourne. The instructions read:

The M.O.S.T Eulogy

1. Press play on portable CD player (please note: no previewing of audio track allowed)
2. Turn up volume (max if possible)
3. Find a rooftop (or go outside)
4. Each wake participant should each take a sheet of reinforced loosefleaf

5. Fold into an aerodynamic flying module *
6. Simultaneously (on the count of three) ignite flying module with naked flame
7. Launch phoenix into the outer stratosphere
8. In synchronicity, vocalise the following:

M.O.S.T is Dead Viva la M.O.S.T

9. Consume champagne ice-cream
* Flying module refers to a paper aeroplane
—–
The MOST finished by becoming ghosts, something we’ve been familiar with since we died for the first time in 2003.

Labels: MOST, suddenly

The Timberline Lodge, above, was built by the Works Progress Administration at the base of Mount Hood in Oregon between 1936-1937. Artists and craftsmen working under the Federal Art Project created art works and furnishing for the lodge.

I hesistate to say too much here, except that the current tanking of America’s financial system has me thinking quite a bit about whether I should be in an MFA program right now.

I’ve been trying to catch up on some of the background of things like Toxic CDOs and Hedge funds, and am finding the following links informative, disturbing and entertaining in varying degrees:

BoingBoing’s America’s financial system was shaken to its core on Sunday

This American Life’s The Giant Pool of Money

With all of this talk of another great depression, I can only hope to live long enough to see the revival of the Works Progress Administration and corresponding Federal Art Project. I better get busy figuring out what the equivalent of a large-scale mural will be by that time. Or maybe I should just start painting. I’ll leave it up to the boingboingers to tell me when it’s time to bury my money in jars in the back yard.