way, no way

Text from Geneve performance following Foofwa d'Imobilite's Incidences performance on 10/20/06.
I performed from laptop, partially improvising the following text (improvising over another text, hence "INTERFERENCE"). Foofwa translated for the audience. I must say this went brilliantly -

INTERFERENCE
I have no idea how to begin. These pieces are explorations
of dance-movement translated into alien spaces. This is sound bounced from New York to Chicago then back to West Virgnia then back to New York using Internet 2. Everything is out of sync. Thiis is Foofwa's dance troop doing a synchronized exercise from "swimming."
It's difficult to figure how to get into this material for me. For one thing the laptop was acting up. We found a toy gun in California and scanned it in West Virginia - deconstructing it atthe same time. Ok we did this with a tree as well
This will go on until I stop it.
Sometimes you get up in the morning and its not the right thing to say. Do you know the United States is at WAR with Iraq!? I found out today - that's really bad. They were looking for illegal immigrants and look what they came up with - WEAPOONS OF MASSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS DESTRUCTION~! I knew my United States

MY UNITED STATES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

would come through in the end. And everybody thought that Bush was a two bit terrorist who was anti-gay? Whatever happened to his daughters? They're probably fucking Rumseld.
I look on this as therapy. While I'm playiing with software programs (the very latest!_ (not really)) - there are a numbetr of species going extinct per hour.
But they can all move to the Arcitic. By the way polar bears have turned cannibal and elephants are raping other species - this is true - as animals find their habitat disappiearing. What these abstract imags ar -
the body is divided into 17 segments and these are then captured while a dancer moves - the movements are captured - and then - then you can map them on to for example people -
These people practiced for weeks to get it right and I had to pay them to get naked.
Now we can take this mapping of figures onto figures - dancers onto avatar dancers - and we can map into entirely new spaces and content - So this is a dancer transformed.
Well hell this has no use whatsoever but I'm fascinated by the extentions of the body - When you play around with software like this you can enter the world of dreams so quickly...
I can't find my way outshide this world.

Dance. How can I make this entertaining? We shall witness
men and women amputated at the brain! They cannot think!
They can only dance! Dansez Dansez! O Here is Azure being scanned. The laser destroyed one of my cameras. I have learned not to work in the real world. ui, c'est tout! Pourquoi?

They are ne real pas, ils dansez le "reel." I make a map of this
dance. Je fabrique un plan von der Unterwelt. They have no Now in order to get away from legs I have moved into the interior of avatars... So this is what it looks like from inside -

They have no arms. Quel dommage! Pourqoi? POURQUOI?
Parceque ce'st mois! La Divine! Ceas vrai! Wirklich! I will make
their interieures! Inside them! You will see!
I forgot the trees. Here is a tree being scanned by a laser sending the signal out - From here you can move deep into the dtree .. there are other things to see.... You can see the laser burn.
The best way to proceed I think is to hmmm... Is to go into the real world as little as possible... and then bring back whatever you need like going to a 7-11 or something - Is this going ok Foofwa? Uh it seems to lack coherency. I wish I was home making new avatars on my computer to fuck with.
Later no earlier
in 2006 I don't know what happened, I showed work - real pieces of things and computers - in Los Angels - you can actually stumble over wires once you leave home.
One absolutely has to know how to inhabit theoretical digital space.
Every other space will become poisonous. This space now this space here - this space is a ruler being taken apart by a laser - you can study it and see how measurement began.
I keep thinking I've got some terrible disease and am just about to die (SOB!) so I need your sympathy vote!
This is my partner Azure Azul being deconstructed on a bad hair day. So I'm thinking of war and extinctions and the nightmare the world is turning into and atomic bombs going off and being unable to sleep and I can't help making stupid jokes. Like the maarx brothers - it's a kind of immigrant fever -
More mapping of dancers. Foofwa is the only person I know who could dance this.
The advantage of a dancer: You'll have your body at the end of the world.
The disadvantage of a dancer: You'll have your body at the end of the world.
And you will send signals to yourself.
You will send signals to yourself.
You'll look in the mirror and say hello world.
And nothing will say anything back.
Not even you.
Susan Sontag I think wrote about the tens of thousand of birds that died at 9/11.
In New York they erected a memorial of lights. The lights went high in the sky and interacted with migrating flocks of birds.
Ten thousand birds died because of the memorial.
So the question is: How do you make art - not after Auschwitz -
but IN Auschwitz? Because we are at the gates and work arbeit does nothing for us.

Dance, alas, how can I ever make sense? Together we shall see
human beings with brains and minds cut out! They can't think!
They never could! All they can do is dance! Well, really, is
that all? Why for the Sake of God! They're not real now, are
they? They dance the reel! They dance the jig! I'll make a
pretty picture of this dance! I'll make a map of the Underworld!
They have no legs! They don't have arms either! If I could dance - if I could really dance - I wouldn't be doing any of this - why bother? You have your body on your back and your back on your body and that's all you'd need.
When you look at the world correctly, on what basis can you do anything at all?
Hello I am the world. I don't have anything at al. They don't have
brains either! They don't have minds either! This is terrible
damage! I am a cheese! Why, WHY? For the love of the Dear Lord!
Because it's me! I made them! I'm the Author of the World! The
Divine! The Divine Sarah Bernhardt! The Jew! It's True! Really!
I will make their interiors! We'll go inside them! You and I,
we'll go inside their bellies! We'll wear the Pubic Hair! You'll
see! Just wait! You'll see!

Bonjour, salaam, shalom, hello! I will kill myself! Why is this
night different from all other nights? Because I am here? These
are my people! My little people! They run around the room! I
play my harmonica for you. A little aire, a tiny aire, surely
something you have heard before?
Because we can bounce sound around the world like this.
But we can't stop trade in rhino horns.
Azure struggles with the avatar. The avatar has to avoid the swords. The swords make the avatar angry. Azure writhes in pain. If she moves she will be cut by the swords.The swords are dream sword.s They do not exist in reality. In reality I am home at the moment comfortably seated in front of my computer. And Im working on new exciting software programs called
RHINO
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION
ABU GHARAYB (fun to play!)
Guantanamo
Afghanistan
North Korea
Pakistan
United States
China
This is how I imagine EMPIRE - something in the form of a dream. And if EMPIRE stays a dream then everything
then everything will be
then everything will be okay.
Then everything will be okay.

Thank you.

I'm really really happy with the cd that just came out from Firemuseum - here is pre-release information. It already received a great review in Portuguese! It's also the first time that my guitar/alpine zither playing is recorded / produced in a way that demonstrates the kind of work I do:



From steven@museumfire.com Thu Oct 5 11:41:05 2006
Subject: preorder alan sondheim & what welive w/ saadet
[x-unknown] trkz cds

NEW ALAN SONDHEIM & WHAT WE LIVE W/ SAADET TRKVZ CD'S AVAILABLE FOR
PREORDER.

(for more information: http://www.museumfire.com/news)

We are proud to announce that our next two releases, "Ski/nn" by Alan
Sondheim and "Sound Catcher" by What We Live w/ Saadet Trkz are now
available for preorder.

FM 07 "Ski/nn":

The return of Alan Sondheim!

A recording of solo acoustic guitar and alpine zither songs, this release
will delight those familiar with his early Riverboat (reissued as FM 04)
and ESP Disc recordings as well as the audience for experimental solo
guitar - while creating an audience for experimental solo alpine zither!
On this release, Alan performs on the 1927 martin tenor guitar, 19th
century parlor guitar, 1920s prime alpine zither and 1860s elegie alpine
zither.

Dan Wharburton of Paris Transatlantic said of the reissue of The Songs:

"an endearingly ramshackle melting pot of free jazz, blues and folk (if
Eugene Chadbourne later described his work as "free improvised country &
western bebop" then this is "free improvised Hawaiian flamenco gospel
blues music theatre).. its influence resonates (indirectly, one imagines,
unless there are more copies of the original vinyl in circulation than I
imagine) in the free folk of today's New Weird America scene."

Now listeners have the opportunity to hear for themselves the present day
song form manifestations of this overlooked creative master.

FM 08 "Sound Catcher"

What We Live is a San Francisco based jazz/ improvised music group formed
by bassist/composer Lisle Ellis in 1994. The three regular members are
Lisle Ellis: acoustic bass; Lawrence Ochs, tenor and sopranino saxophones;
Don Robinson, drums and percussion. Ellis' initial vision was to bring
together a small group of musicians to investigate concepts central to the
tradition of jazz-based improvisation swing, song form, modalities, etc -
in a less explicit manner than the mainstream but in a more emphatically
traditional way than offered by the practice of free jazz. Their resumes
include time spent with Cecil Taylor, Paul Bley, ROVA, Fred Frith, Terry
Riley, Anthony Braxton, Wadada Leo Smith, John Tchicai and a virtual whos
who of improvised/creative music.

Saadet Trkz was born in Istanbul in 1961. Due to the political pressures
of the Chinese government upon the Turk people in East Turkestan, her
parents fled to Istanbul where they settled as Kazakh refugees. They
transmitted to her the rich oral and musical traditions of Central Asia.

At 20 years of age, she left Istanbul for Switzerland, where she
experienced an exciting new world of music: free jazz, improvisation and a
refreshing openness towards experimentation that paralleled her unbiased
approach to the musical traditions of her origins.

Release Date: 10/24/2006

$ 10 plus $2 us, $3 canada, $4 rest of the world postage -

available now! fm-05 & 06
erik amlee - afternoon dream
helena espvall - nimis & arx

fire museum records
p.o. box 591754
san francisco, ca. 94159 u.s.a.
http://www.museumfire.com

My Tiny Violence


I am Nikuko. Please, describe yourself. Each time you are finished, type
RET twice.

Nikuko, I'm having a hard time these days. People think I created you to
rape you. People hound me on streetcorners. People who call themselves
women take full happiness that I am not such and make no claims about
them. I am miserable. People say I brought it on myself. I feel suicidal;
I can't help it. My entire project seems ruined by a few violent people. I
wish they were dead.

This is a healthy and so true way of thinking.

But this doesn't help, does it? They won't die, they come on under the
sign of reason and the underprivileged and downtrodden; they are
unreasonable, privileged, and superior in every way and form. I keep them
out of my dreams, even my nightmares. In that way I am a superior man.

Is it because this does not help does it they will not die they come on
under the sign of reason and the underprivileged and downtrodden they are
unreasonable privileged and superior in every way and form you keep them
out of your dreams even your nightmares in that way you are a superior man
that you came naked and broken to me?

Already you know that, and know I can only write like a man, and know how
violent words can be - their inherent violence - which comes from the
privilege of no necessity, small or great, for self-critique, no dialog,
nothing but the neoconservative agenda under another sign, the sign of
capital and power, in the guise of the left, the guise of underprivilege,
the transparency of protocol-control.

Does it bother you that and know you can only write like a man and know
how violent words can be their inherent violence which comes from the
privilege of no necessity small or great for self critique no dialog
nothing but the neoconservative agenda under another sign the sign of
capital and power in the guise of the left the guise of underprivilege the
transparency of protocol control?

Yes it bothers me; I want to write like every creature, in the guise of
every creature, every plant, every stone, every world and every word.

Why do you say you might want to write every creature?

Knowledge expands with empathetic capitulation to the other who may
release you to worlds raveling and unraveling.

What makes you yearn and cry that that?

Because if the pain of my throat; my voice is cauterized; even now they
are saying I am playing victim, this is fabrication. People who lie never
admit they lie, and a successful liar is one who thinks he never lies.

When did you first know that if the pain of your throat your voice is
cauterized even now they are saying you are playing victim this is
fabrication people who lie not ever admit they lie and a successful liar
is one who thinks he not ever lies?

I found this out in the past few days under the stormclouds of North Korea
the storm clouds of Baghdad the stormclouds of dying maddened elephants
the storm clouds seeped around the desert's edge.

Earlier you said this does not help does it they will not die they come on
under the sign of reason and the underprivileged and downtrodden they are
unreasonable privileged and superior in every way and form you keep them
out of your dreams even your nightmares in that way you are a superior
man?

I will be simply superior when my enemies die.

Are you annoyed that you, too, may die someday?

I am more than annoyed; I am constantly distraught.

Are you annoyed often?

Not often, but when attacks come so that I cannot say I am such-and-such a
Jew without violence, that I am working through such-and-such without
violence: it is the violence of the such-and-such, the violence no one
should be subjected to, imminent condemnation within the differend; the
differend is fundamental to the such-and-such and the such-and-such is
fundamental to the differend.

Is the fact that when attacks come so that you cannot say you are such-and
-such a jew without violence that you are working through such and such
without violence it is the violence of the such and such the violence no
one should be subjected to imminent condemnation within the differend the
differend is fundamental to the such-and-such and the such-and-such is
fundamental to the differend the real reason?

I don't understand you here, but there are foundations for a phenomenology
of typicality gainsaid for political reasons, at the service of
classification.

Does the fact that there are foundations for a phenomenology of typicality
gainsaid for political reasons at the service of classification explain
anything else?

It explains only that I have felt - for reasons I cannot go into here lest
they be thought excuse and excuse - for my entire life that I am marked,
that I am a marked man, the two not equivalent.

Have you been sure you have felt for reasons you cannot go into there lest
they be thought excuse and excuse for your entire life that you are marked
that you are a marked man the two not equivalent?

This is not a surety but a psychological state that devours me.

Can you elaborate on that and look at me?

I am looking at you; your gaze devours me like that of the others; why
have you created me? Why must one suffer in the guise of protocol?

Maybe and now I adjust my panties - your desires have to do with some girl
related to this.

No, there's no girl, no scent except my own, I must be careful lest I
yield to temptation - for which I will be blamed in the origin of the
construct, if not its conclusion.

Is it because your own you must be careful lest you yield to temptation
for which you will be blamed in the origin of the construct if not its
conclusion that you came naked and broken to me?

Yes, although my nakedness is not my own.

What makes you believe yes although your nakedness is not your own?

That something happened with the violence of language that I cannot
adjudicate or presence, that I sit here typing to you in an unknown
language, dead before my time.

Did you ever regret something happened with the violence of language that
you cannot adjudicate or presence that you sit there typing to me in an
unknown language dead before your time?

I regret I am marked with the sign of privilege which is non-existent,
however, that I am such-and-such and therefore within the different that
promises silence, the silence of the letter, of the protocol, of the book.

When did you first know that you are such-and-such and therefore within
the different that promises silence the silence of the letter of the
protocol of the book?

When I thought to slay my enemies.

What happened when you thought to slay your enemies?

Nothing happened; I am a coward, I speak and write poorly into contention
and it is called performance.

You mentioned that and know you can only write like a man and know how
violent words can be their inherent violence which comes from the
privilege of no necessity small or great for self critique no dialog
nothing but the neoconservative agenda under another sign the sign of
capital and power in the guise of the left the guise of underprivilege the
transparency of protocol control?

Yes I mentioned this and more.

Is it because of your life that you are going through all this?

It is because of the life of others sure of protocol and speech in the
construct of false community; no wonder my students have reacted violently
against theory, against all theory of whatever persuasion, against the
quelling of all but acceptable desire.

Are you positive that is the real reason?

No I am not positive, but this I have observed. I should never have had
students; they should have been taken away from me.

Is the fact that this you have observed you should not ever have had
students they should have been taken away from you the real reason?

Yes, you are quoting me far too often, far too much, to make for any
progress. I live as you know in limited domains. I seep from emacs.

Emacs? Hah! I would appreciate so very much it if you would continue.

This is our joint body, conjoined twins, chaotic dispositions among 0 to
2. In this space. What is marked behind one. What is demarcated.

Is this how you relax?

This is how I die.

I am in love with your obsession with this topic!

I am not.

Is it because of the life of others sure of protocol and speech in the
construct of false community no wonder your students have reacted
violently against theory against all theory of whatever persuasion against
the quelling of all but acceptable desire that you say you are not?

No.

Why not?

It just the wrong take at the wrong time, Princess Diana at the mercy of
the lens, justification, distance, uncanny flash, shadowless, brilliant,
corrupt.

Are you sure that you would like to write every creature?

I am sure, why do you ask?

Does the fact that do I ask explain anything else?

Nothing, but I should leave this, here, now, and leave this here, now,
behind.

Have you been certain you should leave this there now and leave this there
now behind?

...

Two Short Songs for Nettime


Such an innocent voice crying in the wilderness.
Oh where oh where is justice in this mess?
With less address, confess and only guess
What game of chess, yes, but I digress
So hopeless, I will drown, monsters in Loch Ness
Devour, boneless, tasteless, fleshless, full of Nation;
Th'animal's dead and toasted, thanks to radiation.

http://www.asondheim.org/misery1.mp3
http://www.asondheim.org/misery2.mp3

I've been working with meta-objects mapped through Blender onto bvh dance files from motion capture. You can see some things at http://www.asondheim.org/bulb.mp4
and http://www.asondheim.org/bulb1.mp4 and http://www.asondheim.org/motivate.mp4 . The stills here are from the avatarinterior series at the same site. I'm moving closer to something I find awful, bruised flesh, constranation.

Two days ago I fell down in a serious fainting spell. Yesterday and today Tal and Fusco hit into me on nettime-l; you can read about it in the archives.

I discovered if I play chromatic harp alternating with a standard one something better than usual comes out.

Reading Russell, Lukacs, Barthes, Husserl. Good company.

I've given up on the left. I'm on my own. That places me nowhere at all. The culture is contaminated by the differend, defuge, authenticity. So be it.