Tonight and tomorrow, I’ll give some lectures at C-Space from these blog essays. 06 May 18.30h, ‘Cities’ lecture no. 1, Michael YUEN 20.00h, Corpus Callosum (2002) film screening, Michael SNOW 07 May 14.00h, ‘How to make Moni-Moni-Moni’ workshop, Elaine W. HO 19.00h, ‘Cities’ lecture no. 2, Michael YUEN 20.00h, ‘Chainletter dinner’, Michael YUEN/Elaine W. HO/Emi UEMURA
Two years before the French revolution of 1848, the French printer, politician, writer, anarchist and son of a barrel maker, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, wrote a letter to Marx: “let us not set ourselves up as the leaders of a new intolerance, let us not pose as the apostles of a new religion even though this religion [...]
Sitting down to think about an exhibition in the Beijing spring, my mind first turned to the news that on Monday some twenty plus artists protested on Chang’an Avenue the eviction of artists from villages in Beijing. Some were well known both in and outside of china; some were perhaps friends. How correct was the reporting? [...]
I am partially native to many cities and foreign to others. As I move from city to city, I roll a small red bag packed with books. It is my travelling library, part of a greater collection gather dust, let’s say, in the city I visited last. I have read there is a donkey [...]
Two men sat in a bar. They looked similar, about the same age, weight and height. They went by the same name. Michael. They were the same man. Their paths had separated when the man on the left stopped drinking, seriously drinking. Sitting at the bar, the man on the right drank fast and continuously. [...]
“All ran to meet their chains thinking they secured their freedom,” I recall for you from Rousseau’s Second Discourse, “for although they had enough reason to feel the advantages of political establishment, they did not have enough experience to foresee its dangers. As I recall Rousseau’s words, Beckett’s lines from Godot come to me from the [...]
There are many versions of the story of Gilgamesh. This is a preface not for one but for all this versions. Herbert Mason opening summation is elegant. “It is an old story But one that can still be told About a man who loved And lost a friend to death And learned he lacked the power To bring him back to life.” The [...]
If I have a message, it is this: life can be made better, not by the repetition of old phrases but by the application of imagination. Imagination and reality. Imagination is the important one in the pair. But, imagination must find its basis in reality. It exists within a broader context of creativity, history and life. [...]
My reading leads me do believe Machiavelli was the first to seriously use broken-ness as a tool of investigation. When he wrote The Prince, the sixteenth century Florentine was attempting to find in the question of morality a new continent in the vain of Columbus’ great discovery. It was an age of empire, of discover, [...]
Outside is not a question of degrees. The outsider holds some secret knowledge, a private solo joke which only old age will articulate. It is a happy and special position on the edge of a city. Conlon Nancarrow was a dissenter, an inventor, an exile, an outsider. It is no coincidence that one of the [...]
对不起，我写英文 I’ve started blogging over at Miji at Yan Jun’s site. I’m publishing drafts of essays that will eventually become a talk at alsospace. Some things will be duplicated here… Many of my friends know I have been working on the concept of the city for some time. “The picture of the city that we carry [...]
Imagine what Simondon is writing against. Le Corbusier and the space race, they come to mind–and also the sleek lines of homeware modernist design. Or, let’s imagine the modernist in any other form. “Culture has become,” quoting the Rienaart’s entry, “a system of defense designed to safeguard man from technics”. The one liner is complete. [...]
After my first steps in this world, I’m sorry I’ve been a little silent. Listening to Yanjun’s audio posting and reading the blog has been highly entertaining. I imagined that Yanjun was eating seeds just for me. Elaine, thankyou for your welcome note. Reinaart, thankyou for all the links. let me put forward a journalist [...]
i just finished looking over this interview. i thought parts might be relevant. (please don’t share with other just yet.) especially, we seemed to have talked about these 3 paragraphs. the whole piece in below. the picture is of making cheese… separating the curds and the whey (solids and liquid). But also DICA isn’t a sort of “anti-gallery” [...]
everybody, hello! this is cooking @ the shop 每人， 你好！。。。在 the shop 这是做饭 actually, this is my first blog posting ever. finally, i’ve joined web 2.0. it feels good to have arrived. here is a dear friend’s website: http://hiromihotel.com/ here is our donkey’s website: www.donkeyinstitute.net and, (inside china) www.michaelyuen.com.au/dica/dica.html here is mine: www.michaelyuen.com.au more to come later. … it is beautiful and sunny [...]
Author: michael