orig posts posted about 1 year ago
I spent the last 10 days in Estonia, mostly at the MoKS AVAMAA 2009 ArtSymposium. While the symposium offered traditional workshops (on printmaking and sound electronics), I participated in Mutopia 3, an exploration of collaborative creative practices that is quite difficult to describe.
Led by MoKS coordinator John Grzinich, the name is intended to combine the idea of Utopia with the process of mutation. And Mooste, Estonia does seem like some type of Utopia to my city-stained soul. A village of 500 people, about 40km from the also-charming Tartu, Mooste was far away from the distractions of my everyday life. The workshop was very focused on Mooste itself (though Mutopia 2 was held in Portugal) – the ideas of place and space were perhaps the one common theme throughout.
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Led by MoKS coordinator John Grzinich, the name is intended to combine the idea of Utopia with the process of mutation. And Mooste, Estonia does seem like some type of Utopia to my city-stained soul. A village of 500 people, about 40km from the also-charming Tartu, Mooste was far away from the distractions of my everyday life. The workshop was very focused on Mooste itself (though Mutopia 2 was held in Portugal) – the ideas of place and space were perhaps the one common theme throughout.
I’d never say that J.G. Ballard was one of my favorite writers and I don’t think you could get me to defend his prose style under any circumstances. But his influence on art, literature and film (which have in turn influenced me) is incalculable. There’s been a deluge of tributes, blog posts, and other articles since his passing last week and I don’t really have anything to share myself to really justify this post. But in grad school, through the provocations of his detractors I found myself finally connecting with his ideas.