a whole lotta wondering...
yo.
i'm in India.
it's fucking crazy here.
this will be a long rambling email, later more cohesion (maybe ;) and more on India.
for now...
righteo so,
in a country where intense population (and I mean there are a LOT of fucking people here), limited water, limited resources, limited space etc. are already hugely prevalent - are the issues of global warming, environmental collapse, and the impending end of the world being discussed?
well, i've only been here a few days, but from those i've talked to so far....
i've gotten a pretty straigtforward "NO" - across the board
really?
really.
tonight the circle i was with explained that Hindus are primarily concerned with Salvation.
Personal salvation.
and further more.... with so many concerned primarily with where the next meal is coming from, they can't bother to think or care about other things such as global warming, and so on.
Is it actually a Priviledge to consider and discuss these issues?
because we have Time (ah! that elusive substance, we think we don't have enough of, and is ticking steadily away...and yet some of us have too much time, or enough time at least to devote to these ponderings)
Because providing for our basic necessities do not consume our every moment, we are able to consider what it might be like when we lack them, when we are exclusively concerned with what small patch of stable land will hold our feet and what water will not infect us if we drink it.
(that's another one i've been thinking a lot about, along with global warming, nuclear holocaust, all that lovely stuff, but about what's IN the water. the fragile balance of our health and 'control' of disease through vaccination, the way this could all crumble down, which makes me think now - should look at the black plague, for statistics on how many died in what amount of time and what that hell-on-earth pandemonium death-in-your-face world was like. there's a GREAT intro to Bocaccio's Decameron on the plague (as it set the stage for the book he wrote))
okay, some very interesting tid bits from Hindu mythology...
cycle of 4 ages
the first, #1 - peace and harmony, people are simple and kind, 2 - people start developing aspirations and desires, 3 - age of prosperity (material wealth) and # 4 - the one many say we're IN NOW, the Kali Yuga, the age of destruction.
Shiva will destroy the world when it gets too full of sin and evil ways.
Check it, Shiva is the lord of the DANCE, he is always depicted with one foot raised, in an attitude of dance, he will destroy the world with his Cosmic Dance
When the second foot (his raised foot) touches the ground, the world will end.
Some say it will be from the ferocity of his dance, another widely described scenario is his dance brings a great FLOOD, and the world ends in deluge - isn't THAT interesting?
also - this cycle of the four ages CONTINUES. it is a cycle. it repeats.
right.
jumping to the notes i took the one day i came to your rehearsal, (probably this is all redundant, skim away )
if time is considered as circular, rather than linear, the Beginning and the End are actually the closest to each other. many cultures recognize creation and destructive energy as stemming from the same source. ie: the Hindu goddess Kali
propaganda. how about some serious GREEN propaganda? go spray paint, stickers and stencils!
do the neo-religious-conservatives actually want to HASTEN destruction/the End?
i mean, if they believe they are Chosen and will be saved when it all goes up in flames, um some motivation to bring it on?
"I wanna get my kicks before the whole shit-house goes up in flames" - jim morrison
oooo I want to share a few aaaawesome hiphop songs, is there any way to upload music?
(mos def, variable unit - two songs in particular)
myth /image clips: (book of revelations) dragon in the sky, rain of fire, release the beast, who wages extended war on earth, ta-da! "the rapture" !
some websites:beliefwatch.com, apocalypsesoon.com
Time Watch.:what the fuck is up with the gregorian calendar? check out for more on lunar calendar (and mayan astrology)
other creatures in nature KNOW about things...their internal thermometers are still rigged to the pulse of the planet. note all the shit, namely concrete, et al non-responsive materials, inhibiting human connection to earth rythyms.
are you surprised with delight when you catch the moon in the sky?
or do you 'keep track' of where she's at?
or DO we know on some ancient cellular level, cause we're still animals after all, but we just don't respond? (and what's up with that?)
(intuition is a muscle that needs to be exercised and allowed to breathe)
images from nature:
fish swallow rocks when storm is brewing.
the universe breathing (expansion and contraction) - you know, they say that OM is the sound of the universe breathing
'sacred geometry'
Movies: Children of Men, Inconvenient Truth (this one is CRUCIAL homework, full of all kinds of statistics and graphs and facts), Donnie Darko (parrallel worlds/time)
Statistic List:
(could cull some pretty cool images from this and play around with juxtaposition and speed)
china builds manhattan every month
every 48 (or maybe it's 72 hours) a new home depot is built
loads from Inconvenient Truth
Sun will go supernova. Limit of fuel.
other stuff:
the ultimate arbitrariness of time keeping and yet Obsession with finite Time. Why?
it's how we know ourselves. how we place ourselves in all THIS.
with this emergent theme of multiple clocks and their relativity, really interested in idea of simultaneous multiple planes of reality a la choose your own adventure – could audience members have different journeys through the performance/performance space and arrive at drastically different conclusions, based on their answers to the questions prompted throughout the show – ie: if different clocks hit midnight at different times and follow different paths leading up to midnight, could audience 'finish' the show at different times based on which clock they align with? (some of my ideas, like these, are pretty spatially specific and concerned with interactivity – these might be elements to develop in future incarnations of the project, in say a large venue that lends itself to audience mobility more than a small-ish dance space.
Rates of Change that we can predict
maybe more importantly - Rates of Change that we CAN'T predict
to do:
GATHER -
(all underway! yay!)
list of questions
lyrics/songs
poems
text exerpts
myths/stories – creation & destruction in different cultures
statistics
use statistics to arrange and rearrange audience – spreading out, corralling in – dancers can also stack and bury?
other shit:
mushroom cloud / mushroom activity (transformation into positive) – mushroom 'community' (it's all ONE. love it)
science or religion – which is your clock?
underground world? (when land is limited will we build up or burrow in? didn't some persecuted christians build some elaborate underground city to hide? where else are there ancient catacombs?)
types of ignorance ('primary ignorance' - you don't know that you don't know, so you can't do shit about it (and mabye it's rather peaceful and pleasant this way), 'secondary ignorance' - you know you're fucking ignorant, so what's it gonna be? denial and refusal or responsbility and action?
Probability vs. Inevitability
well, maybe there's few grains in there worth sorting out.
wish i could join you in a sweet spacious clean luscious dance studio.
did i mention it's FUCKING CRAZY here?
peace
*
ava
i'm in India.
it's fucking crazy here.
this will be a long rambling email, later more cohesion (maybe ;) and more on India.
for now...
righteo so,
in a country where intense population (and I mean there are a LOT of fucking people here), limited water, limited resources, limited space etc. are already hugely prevalent - are the issues of global warming, environmental collapse, and the impending end of the world being discussed?
well, i've only been here a few days, but from those i've talked to so far....
i've gotten a pretty straigtforward "NO" - across the board
really?
really.
tonight the circle i was with explained that Hindus are primarily concerned with Salvation.
Personal salvation.
and further more.... with so many concerned primarily with where the next meal is coming from, they can't bother to think or care about other things such as global warming, and so on.
Is it actually a Priviledge to consider and discuss these issues?
because we have Time (ah! that elusive substance, we think we don't have enough of, and is ticking steadily away...and yet some of us have too much time, or enough time at least to devote to these ponderings)
Because providing for our basic necessities do not consume our every moment, we are able to consider what it might be like when we lack them, when we are exclusively concerned with what small patch of stable land will hold our feet and what water will not infect us if we drink it.
(that's another one i've been thinking a lot about, along with global warming, nuclear holocaust, all that lovely stuff, but about what's IN the water. the fragile balance of our health and 'control' of disease through vaccination, the way this could all crumble down, which makes me think now - should look at the black plague, for statistics on how many died in what amount of time and what that hell-on-earth pandemonium death-in-your-face world was like. there's a GREAT intro to Bocaccio's Decameron on the plague (as it set the stage for the book he wrote))
okay, some very interesting tid bits from Hindu mythology...
cycle of 4 ages
the first, #1 - peace and harmony, people are simple and kind, 2 - people start developing aspirations and desires, 3 - age of prosperity (material wealth) and # 4 - the one many say we're IN NOW, the Kali Yuga, the age of destruction.
Shiva will destroy the world when it gets too full of sin and evil ways.
Check it, Shiva is the lord of the DANCE, he is always depicted with one foot raised, in an attitude of dance, he will destroy the world with his Cosmic Dance
When the second foot (his raised foot) touches the ground, the world will end.
Some say it will be from the ferocity of his dance, another widely described scenario is his dance brings a great FLOOD, and the world ends in deluge - isn't THAT interesting?
also - this cycle of the four ages CONTINUES. it is a cycle. it repeats.
right.
jumping to the notes i took the one day i came to your rehearsal, (probably this is all redundant, skim away )
if time is considered as circular, rather than linear, the Beginning and the End are actually the closest to each other. many cultures recognize creation and destructive energy as stemming from the same source. ie: the Hindu goddess Kali
propaganda. how about some serious GREEN propaganda? go spray paint, stickers and stencils!
do the neo-religious-conservatives actually want to HASTEN destruction/the End?
i mean, if they believe they are Chosen and will be saved when it all goes up in flames, um some motivation to bring it on?
"I wanna get my kicks before the whole shit-house goes up in flames" - jim morrison
oooo I want to share a few aaaawesome hiphop songs, is there any way to upload music?
(mos def, variable unit - two songs in particular)
myth /image clips: (book of revelations) dragon in the sky, rain of fire, release the beast, who wages extended war on earth, ta-da! "the rapture" !
some websites:beliefwatch.com, apocalypsesoon.com
Time Watch.:what the fuck is up with the gregorian calendar? check out for more on lunar calendar (and mayan astrology)
other creatures in nature KNOW about things...their internal thermometers are still rigged to the pulse of the planet. note all the shit, namely concrete, et al non-responsive materials, inhibiting human connection to earth rythyms.
are you surprised with delight when you catch the moon in the sky?
or do you 'keep track' of where she's at?
or DO we know on some ancient cellular level, cause we're still animals after all, but we just don't respond? (and what's up with that?)
(intuition is a muscle that needs to be exercised and allowed to breathe)
images from nature:
fish swallow rocks when storm is brewing.
the universe breathing (expansion and contraction) - you know, they say that OM is the sound of the universe breathing
'sacred geometry'
Movies: Children of Men, Inconvenient Truth (this one is CRUCIAL homework, full of all kinds of statistics and graphs and facts), Donnie Darko (parrallel worlds/time)
Statistic List:
(could cull some pretty cool images from this and play around with juxtaposition and speed)
china builds manhattan every month
every 48 (or maybe it's 72 hours) a new home depot is built
loads from Inconvenient Truth
Sun will go supernova. Limit of fuel.
other stuff:
the ultimate arbitrariness of time keeping and yet Obsession with finite Time. Why?
it's how we know ourselves. how we place ourselves in all THIS.
with this emergent theme of multiple clocks and their relativity, really interested in idea of simultaneous multiple planes of reality a la choose your own adventure – could audience members have different journeys through the performance/performance space and arrive at drastically different conclusions, based on their answers to the questions prompted throughout the show – ie: if different clocks hit midnight at different times and follow different paths leading up to midnight, could audience 'finish' the show at different times based on which clock they align with? (some of my ideas, like these, are pretty spatially specific and concerned with interactivity – these might be elements to develop in future incarnations of the project, in say a large venue that lends itself to audience mobility more than a small-ish dance space.
Rates of Change that we can predict
maybe more importantly - Rates of Change that we CAN'T predict
to do:
GATHER -
(all underway! yay!)
list of questions
lyrics/songs
poems
text exerpts
myths/stories – creation & destruction in different cultures
statistics
use statistics to arrange and rearrange audience – spreading out, corralling in – dancers can also stack and bury?
other shit:
mushroom cloud / mushroom activity (transformation into positive) – mushroom 'community' (it's all ONE. love it)
science or religion – which is your clock?
underground world? (when land is limited will we build up or burrow in? didn't some persecuted christians build some elaborate underground city to hide? where else are there ancient catacombs?)
types of ignorance ('primary ignorance' - you don't know that you don't know, so you can't do shit about it (and mabye it's rather peaceful and pleasant this way), 'secondary ignorance' - you know you're fucking ignorant, so what's it gonna be? denial and refusal or responsbility and action?
Probability vs. Inevitability
well, maybe there's few grains in there worth sorting out.
wish i could join you in a sweet spacious clean luscious dance studio.
did i mention it's FUCKING CRAZY here?
peace
*
ava
posted by agentava at 12:01 PM
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