exile. a while

i'm back in munich after a few weeks on the road with We have a situation! - all good but very busy, little time for reflection. we now have 3 weeks before the 4th & final (at least for this funding) situation, in graz at the end of may. so i'm in catch-up mode, & also trying to prepare for graz, then the transit festival soon after that.

after the eindhoven situation, i went to brussels for the weekend to work with agnez on some repairs to the magdalena project web site; as well as working, i met lots of her lovely friends, had a visit to the community garden that she is involved with, and learned about the field liberation movement. this is a belgian group dedicated to keeping GMOs out of open fields and promoting sustainable agriculture solutions. currently, eleven FLM activists are on trial following "the great potato swap" in 2011, where a field trial of GMO potatoes was replaced with organic potatoes. the activists have been charged with belonging to a criminal gang, and could be fined up to €200,000 in damages; at this stage they are appealing the decision and awaiting a new trial date. they have a lot of public support, and fundraising is being done to cover legal costs - including sales of organic produce such as this beer (pictured) and honey.

meanwhile on another part of the planet, andy & i are sponsoring the education of an indian girl through the AA Book Trust, a small indian organisation set up to promote reading and bring books to remote north indian villages. i learned about this organisation in 2009 when i had my residency at the villa waldberta just outside munich, and another of the residents at that time was arundhati deosthale, a writer and editor and one of the founders of the trust. As well as generally promoting literacy and publishing many childrens books in translation, the trust works to assists girls' education and promote gender equality in a traditional patriarchal society. they are running a pilot project to produce picture books with female protagonists, and have a girls' scholarship project to support girls' education in the remote shitala region. "our" girl, bharti, lives in this region in the himalayan foothills of india, and is one of three local girls being sponsored. she's 10 years old & the first school reports we have just received show her to be a good student. we are going to write to her so that she can get to know us, & perhaps one day we will manage to visit & meet her.

my current main project is a trans-european collaboration, We have a situation!. it's a series of live, trans-border, online-offline participatory performances addressing current cross-cultural european issues, and the first "situation" takes place in london, 19-23 march.

the collaborating partners are four arts organisations: Furtherfield in london, APO33 in nantes, MAD emergent art centre in eindhoven & Schaumbad Freies Atelierhaus in graz. apart from Furtherfield who i have had an association with for more than 10 years now, they are all people and groups that i have met through UpStage, who share an open source and experimental philosophy and sense of social justice. we're also working with developer martin eisenbarth, & the project has funding from the european cultural foundation.

the idea of this project is to use cyberformance as a way to creatively present local issues (situations) to trans-national audiences, to then generate meaningful inter-cultural dialogue around the particular issues and come up with possible solutions. it is based on a belief that people across europe are dealing with crises that have unique local aspects but also share aspects with related issues in other european countries, and that by facilitating conversations between ordinary people through a creative event, better inter-cultural understanding can be achieved. we may even be able to help each other by bringing new perspectives to the problems and proposing creative solutions. click here for the media release.

each "situation" comprises a week-long workshop with local artists to develop the cyberformance, followed by the online and local performance event and discussion. you will be able to join the online events from live links on the web site, http://www.wehaveasituation.net/, and you can check the situations calendar for dates, times and time converters.

the tiny himalayan nation of bhutan has announced its intention to be the first 100% organic nation in the world. bhutan is a buddhist country that measures the health of the nation on GDH (gross domestic happiness) rather than GDP. having a total land area of only 38,394 square kilometres & a population of around 750,000 is probably helpful in achieving their organic goal - apparently their only competitor is niue, population 1,300. if smallness is an advantage in going totally organic, new zealand should have a good chance. we might be giants compared to bhutan and niue but globally we're tiny. and conveniently isolated. we should use these facts to our advantage before it's too late.

the concept of "gross domestic happiness" is a nice one, and it connects to the spirit level and to prosperity without growth. happiness is more important than material wealth, and having the latter does not guarantee the former. at this particular moment in my life i can say that my own personal GDH is high. i'm happy (partly because there is so much snow outside! ), i have everything i need, i'm loved and supported, and my work is enjoyable, rewarding and not stressful at this moment. i realise or course that i'm exceptionally privileged in this position, & that it's most likely temporary - new stresses and challenges are probably just around the corner. but it's important to acknowledge and enjoy this moment of high personal GDH

the latest issue of the Organic NZ magazine has made its way from sunny aotearoa (well, actually the postmark says singapore!) to snowy munich, & as usual it is packed with excellent articles. the focus this issue is cancer, with many stories from cancer survivors about diet and other lifestyle changes that have aided their recovery.

as usual there are also the somewhat depressing articles about the ever-increasing assault by GM companies on our rights as consumers to choose a GE-free diet. a new concern is that cows in new zealand are not only eating healthy grass, as nature intended them to, they are also being feed imported meal which in many cases contains genetically engineered ingredients such as soy, maize and cottonseed. there is no requirement (yet) for dairy producers to label their products as "may contain genetically modified substances", which means that the people of new zealand are now in a similar position to those in the USA, where unlabelled GM food has been forced on them for the last 20 years.

to be sure to avoid GM contamination, buy only certified organic dairy products! if you think you can't afford to, think about this: do you really want to put into your body substances that have NOT been tested for human consumption AT ALL, and that in tests on rats indicate increased tumours and other negative effects? do you want to feed your children this stuff?

furthermore, an application is currently before Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) by dow, monsanto and bayer to approve soybeans that have been genetically engineered to withstand a pesticide cocktail of 24D, glufosinate amonium and roundup. the application only cites unpublished research done internally by dow chemicals themselves, yet FSANZ has concluded in its safety assessment that "On the basis of the data provided in the present application, and other available information, food derived from soybean line DAS-44406-6 is considered to be as safe for human consumption as food derived from conventional soybean cultivars."

what "other available information" is FSANZ talking about? there is not one single study investigating the effects of the chemical cocktail of 24D, glufosinate amonium and roundup on human health. not a single one. there is no "other available information". i am emailing FSANZ to ask them what this "other available information" might be, since clearly internal unpublished studies by the corporate applicant can hardly be regarded as unbiased or good science. if you also want to ask them the same question, email info@foodstandards.govt.nz.

we should all be deeply concerned about this. without actual studies, there is no way to know the safety of these products, and every indication is that it is NOT SAFE. reputable scientists such as gilles-eric saralini, ignacio chapela, Arpad Pusztai and others have been harrassed and attacked for publishing research that questions the safety of GMOs. the excellent documentary Genetic Roulette shows the stories of farmers bankrupted by GE companies, health and fertility problems suffered by cows and other animals fed GE food, and draws very strong connections between GE food and human health problems from autism to cancer.

in new zealand, GE is creeping into our environment through "accidentally" contaminated seed imports, GE cattle feed, escaped field trials, and the carcasses of GE cows rotting and leaching into the ground. we have no idea what the long-term consequences of such contamination might be. i hope it will be minimal and reversable, but there's nothing to measure this on. it's one giant gamble, and the corporations - dow, monsanto and bayer - are gambling with OUR LIVES and those of our children and grandchildren.

incidentally, guess who owns the company that imports GE cattle feed into new zealand, cargill? yep. monsanto.

after a year of deadlines, events, and planes and trains to catch as i rushed from one thing to the next, i have finally arrived at a pause. of course commitments await me in the new year, but until then i can relax; nothing is urgent now. instead, there are parties to attend if i feel social, presents to be wrapped and given, platzl to bake if andy can be bothered and finished projects to file so that we have a clear space to relax in; and there are books to be read, videos to watch, a knitting project to get stuck into and long lazy mornings to be indulged in.

the 3 projects that filled my year have all been good, but also intense and without enough space between them to rest and reflect adequately. so now i find myself struggling to remember what i've done, where i've been & who i've seen. if you are interested in the details of these projects you can explore their web sites:

• make-shift - a networked performance collaboration with paula crutchlow, of which we gave a 14-performance tour from November 2011 to June 2012, with performing from Italy, New Zealand, Australia, France, India, Austria, Germany and the USA;


• the CyPosium - a one-day online symposium about cyberformance, with 10 presentations by artists from around the world talking about online performances dating back to the mid-90s;


• the 121212 UpStage Festival of Cyberformance - the annual UpStage festival was expanded this year to include a retrospective of shows from past festivals, and new performances in UpStage and other online platforms, and went for the week of 5-12 december; as well as the festival, i was busy all year with the ongoing development of UpStage and in october we had a "soft launch" of a new version - so lots of testing, bug documenting and manual rewriting alongside the festival organisation.

along with these (and other!) projects, i did a considerable amount of travel this year - celebrating the start of 2012 with philippa, andy and others in dunedin then travelling to christchurch, karamea, wellington, brisbane and coffs harbour before returning to wintry europe in february. after 3 days to recover from the jetlag and do my washing, i repacked my suitcase with winter clothes and european power plugs and headed to nantes, france for a meeting and make-shift performance. a couple of weeks after returning to munich i was off again, this time with summer clothes and mosquito net, to pondicherry and auroville in india, where i participated in the magdalena festival "tantidhartri". april was relatively quiet for travel, with only an easter escape to czesky krumlov in the czech republic; but in may i was hardly at home - travelling to vienna, berlin and nantes. in june i went to providence, rhode island for BIARI, and shortly after getting back to munich i was off to edinburgh for a research focus group; andy joined me there and we had a little holiday in the scottish highlands. the summer should have been restful but there was so much to catch up on at the end of the make-shift tour, as well as preparing for the CyPosium, that even when andy and i had a few days lying on a slovenian beach i took my laptop and did a little work every day. in august i drove to lugano for teatro delle radici's annual international school, then september was largely filled with CyPosium preparations and preparing materials for a make-shift exhibit in london. aunty ruth visited us from australia for a long weekend - the first of my relatives to visit me in europe - and we had a trip to the medieval town of rothenburg ob der tauber and an oktoberfest experience. the CyPosium was not long over when i was off to the UK again, passing through london (for the exhibiton) and york (to give a workshop) on my way to a conference in edinburgh; and a few days after getting back from that, i drove to linz for a weekend meeting. then my focus was totally on 121212 and now that that marathon is done - nothing is urgent anymore! and i have no travel planned until february!!!!

so finally i have some mental space - to enjoy losing myself in a novel or a film, to put my creative energy into knitting a cardigan for andy (& understanding german knitting abreviations!) &, importantly, to reflect on and process everything that i've packed into this year. there's been a lot of learning - about practical things such as how to stream out from Second Life, as well as about respecting my own creative needs and limits. when i don't have the time to process all of this, it becomes a huge tangled mess in my brain & i feel myself ceasing to function effectively at any level - which is not good.

my last new year's resolution was to do less, but i failed miserably; i don't think i could possibly have done more this year, without having some kind of breakdown. as the mayan calendar signals a new cycle of time, i am hoping that next year i can live up to my promise to myself to do less, to move at a slower pace with more reflection, and to realign my busy life into a more sustainable and peaceful one.

the frankfurt book fair is currently happening, and new zealand is this year's "guest of honour"; frankfurt is a mere 4 hour train journey from munich, & i would have loved to go - but with 3 big projects climaxing simultaneously over the weekend, it was impossible. such is the life of the independent artist - try as we might to spread our work out in a manageable timeframe, things do have a habit of clustering!

the big event for me this weekend was the CyPosium, starting at 4pm CET on friday 12th, & finishing up at 3am saturday morning. an "online symposium on cyberformance", the CyPosium featured presentations by 10 artists & researchers, recalling and discussing examples from the body of cyberformance created over the last 20 years or so. all but one of the presentations took place in the Waterwheel Tap, an online interface that facilitates audio-visual streaming as well as real-time manipulation of audio & images, & a concurrent text chat for the audience. the one exception was miljana peric's presentation in UpStage, where we had a record attendance of 69 connected computers. all in all, the CyPosium was a great success - the presentations were inspiring, the audience was engaged & vocal, & the technology performed brilliantly.

barely was the CyPosium over when WWW:World Wild Web opened at Furtherfield's gallery in Finsbury Park, London. paula & i have an exhibit in this group exhibition, "Dave's Quiz (part 2)": this is a hard-copy multichoice quiz that people can complete in the gallery or download online, developed from our research for and performances of make-shift.

at the same time as all of this, the long-awaited new version of UpStage (v2.4.2) is about to be released; initially it was to be installed over the weekend, but - as often happens in the world of software development, cross-time-zone collaboration, & over-committed artists - we didn't manage to complete the final testing in time. the up-side of this is that we also haven't finished the new user manual, so now there is a bit more breathing space to get that done ... but the 121212 UpStage Festival of Cyberformance is rushing rapidly towards us, so there is precious little time to pause!!

all i can say is: YOGA!!!!! if it wasn't for yoga i think i might go insane.

in the year from 1 august 2011 to 31 july 2012, i slept in 50 different beds, in 40 different cities, towns and villages, in 13 different countries, in 4 different continents and in 2 hemispheres.

recently i saw an exhibition on the impact of oil drilling in the niger delta. the mouth of africa's third longest river comprises swamps and wetlands that sustain a diverse range of plant and animal life, as well as a human population of around 20 million ... and a lot of international oil companies. since oil was first discovered here in 1956, the niger delta has become the site of the largest ongoing oil-related environmental disaster in the world: there has been the equivalent of one exxon valdez disaster every year for fifty years, and gas flares that have burnt continuously for forty years release as much greenhouse gas as 18 million cars.

the lives of the people of this region are literally overshadowed by the oil refineries and their impact; oil spills and gas flares have destroyed the environment, killing plants, fish and people - yet the oil companies pay no compensation and do not even employ local people. no benefit, financial or otherwise, comes to the local people from this massively destructive exploitation of their environment. the people have protested against this since the 1950s, yet the oil companies ignore them. the nigerian government has repeatedly ordered the companies to end gas flaring, continually extending deadlines as the companies fail to act. a landmark court decision in 2005 ruled that gas flaring was a "gross violation of human rights" and ordered shell to stop gas flares in the iwhrekan area ... and yet still the flares continue. shell even blames the nigerian government, for not providing funds to help them stop the flares! & even refuses to accept that there is evidence of negative impact on human and animal health.

the violence of the oil companies in this area is cultivating violence amongst the people - who are disposed of their land, hungry, sick, unemployed, uneducated and ignored. militant groups such as MEND are growing and becoming more vocal and violent, as the oil companies continue to fail to take responsibility for the disaster they have caused, & continue to take the oil from the ground and burn the gas.

the photographs in the exhibition depict an apocalyptic scenario: poverty-stricken villages alongside massive oil refineries; the rural night illuminated as if it was a city by constant gas flares; corpses of people caught up in pipeline explosions; children scooping oily water from rivers; acres of dead mangroves; armed and masked militants with a kidnapped white man; and women in colourful clothes waving handwritten placards, begging for justice. the exhibition has finished in munich & now gone to öttening, but so far hasn't been booked for other places - it really should be displayed in public areas such as train stations. you can buy the catalogue here, which has the photos & some good texts. one of the artists, ed kashi, has his photos here.

there is a very good movie, poison fires, which you can watch online, it's only half an hour long (it is a bit out of date now (made in about 2007) but from the information in the exhibition & what i have found online, the situation is very much the same). another good source of information is friends of the earth nigeria.

andy has an ice-cream maker, & over the summer we've experimented with a few batches of ice-cream including coffee, caramel, frozen yoghurt, asparagus & most recently carrot (beetroot is next on the list to try). ice-cream often requires egg yolks - the carrot ice cream recipe asked for 7 yolks - so the question is, what to do with the egg whites? a girl can only take so much merangue. i searched the internet for things to do with left-over egg whites, but pretty much everything was cake or some other kind of sweet thing. we have a freezer full of ice-cream, we don't need more sweets!

egg white omeletes were the main savoury option. but this evening, wanting to make spinach sauce for pasta but missing the sour cream, i remembered the egg whites sitting quietly in the fridge (some of them are in the freezer for another day). so i decided to try an eggsperiment, and use the egg whites to make a creamy sauce. i did look first for a recipe online, but didn't find one, so i boldly made it up as i went - & it was very tasty.

first i sauted onions in butter, then added spinach which had been previously cooked (lightly) & chopped. while this warmed, i beat the egg whites until they were firm but not too stiff. taking the pot off the heat, i folded the egg whites into the onion & spinach mixture, & stirred until it was well mixed - normally a no-no if you're folding beaten egg whites into a soufflé or macaroon mixture, but i knew the air was going to go out of it anyway in the sauce. i only beat it because i didn't want the egg white to cook like a fried egg. then into the mixture i added small chunks of gorgonzola, and left it off the heat for the cheese to melt in, occasionally giving it a stir. when the pasta was cooked i combined everything in a big pot & served it with grated parmesan. lecker!

as for the ice cream - the carrot ice cream was not a total success, mainly because i used a recipe from the internet without thinking that the quantity was larger than the recipes in the ice-cream machine's book; so the machine was too full & it didn't freeze while churning. however it froze overnight in the freezer & tastes just fine. so when i make the rotebeet eis, i'll remember to check the quantities!