colours

From the performance by Magenta Interior and MonkeyFish at Monkeytown, NY on Sunday 28th Jan 2008.
Pictures by Steven Taveras.

se um dia um desconhecido...

O mundo estava pegando fogo e ninguém poderia me salvar, exceto você.
Estranho o que o desejo fará as pessoas tolas fazerem.
Eu nunca sonhei que precisava de alguém como você,
E eu nunca sonhei que conhecia alguém como você.

Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Por você... por você...
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)

Que jogo perverso de jogar, me fazer sentir deste jeito,
Que coisa perversa de fazer, me deixar sonhar com você,
Que coisa perversa de dizer, você nunca sentiu-se deste jeito,
Que coisa perversa de fazer, me fazer sonhar com você.

Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Por você...

O mundo estava pegando fogo e ninguém poderia me salvar, exceto você.
Estranho o que o desejo fará as pessoas tolas fazerem.
Eu nunca sonhei que precisava de alguém como você,
E eu nunca sonhei que conhecia alguém como você.

Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Não, eu não quero me apaixonar,
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Por você. (Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
Por você. (Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)

Não, eu... (Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)
(Esta garota somente vai partir seu coração)

Ninguém ama ninguém.

welcoming myself back

...'ou pelo menos um evento fixe' diz a Elsa.


It's time now to start seriously organizing the second edition of ABERTURA, which will happen on the 20th of July.
This will still be a unique one day event to happen in Lisbon which focus on some of the most experimental and interesting work being done in the practices of realtime performance worldwide.

touring NY

in between

This morning I was at University College Falmouth. I went there to talk about zines and other self-publications.
As all the lectures I do, this one was also a way to learn, about teaching, about human behavior and about the subject I am teaching. This time talking and browsing through zines helped me realize the power we have to change what is around us and how creative we can be with our life, with our actions. We are these clothes, our job (or work), our words and all of them shape who we are.
I was in Falmouth but I am still in NYC.
On my last day as a undergraduate student, 13 years ago, me and some of my colleagues were talking about our future. Two of us had this dream of living wherever we liked, I wanted to travel, he wanted to live in a farm but we both wanted (back then) to be graphic designers. We were talking about the most recent technologies (Internet was still unknown to us) and how we could use them to fulfill the dream of being wherever we want to be and work with people living in other parts of the country, in another country or even in another continent (I think we didn't took the conversation far enough to consider living in another planet though). There I was today, in the journalism classroom, in Falmouth, happy to succeed in that aim, facing my students standing in front of me from the distance of an ocean and many kilometers of land away.
Once again I go back to the idea of nature: Here in East Village, we have been passing this intriguing composition right in front of the door of a closed down restaurant and we have been calling it a garden. Both me and Elsa like this composition without understanding very well why. We stop, most of the times at night, on the way to Share and try to rationalize it. We look at it the same way we would be looking at an art work in a gallery and we talk about it: how the greens and pots are organized and how the background of the red door and the chinese types is part of the reason this is intriguing. Nature is a funny concept and so is art.

postcard

Today is Wednesday and, just like last week, I got up and said (this time to Pedro, on the other continent, through Skype, not Elsa like last week) 'today will be a good day'.
Wednesdays and Sundays are special in my life spent here in NYC.
There you go, to Daniela, a postcard from NY. I couldn't put it in a better way.
Wishes of a beautiful day for those I find on my way today and for those I love. To a few people, I wish you were here: David and Ben, you would love all the silver, gold, yellow and colorful trainers these guys wear here (I almost spent 120 dollars on a pair yesterday. But because I am a good girl, I didn't). Girls, I've seen so many times human beauty passing by. These multiracial mixes are a manifestation of nature's generosity and beautifulness.
Today I woke up as when you wake up with a kiss from a lover (just that he wasn't there): in love with the world.

music I can't take out of my head

Merging and mixture of cultural nature. What is nature by the way? Is nature green or grey? How about the colors we have invented for human amazement and gaze?

experiments

Thanks Benton for today's opportunity to try the Rutt-etra video synthesizer. It was interesting as an experience of performing, back in the beginning of the video performance. These were my thoughts at that moment at least. Then I came back home thinking about it and searched for more information. It's way more than a technological device from the past. Like most technologies, are they really part of the past? Don't vinyl records sound like only vinyl records sounds like? Doesn't the same happens with tapes? and how about VHS? All technologies, audio and video, can make unique combinations, expanding our bodies to make amazing, unexpected and unique sets, source of unique experiences.

disconnected for now

mergings

Elsa what did I told you when we woke up? That today was going to be a good day.
The world made sense today: futures and pasts, body and mind, my multiple me and you (plural or singular).
Alex Grey's exhibition has set up the mood and was remembered throughout the day in many ways. We have been to places and the future was imagined and shaped with our actions and feelings.
And then, there is the gorgeous people we met randomly.

Let's sing along: follow the beautiful lyrics.
(it's 5AM here, I have been out dancing in NY for the first time. All will make sense after I sleep).

No bico do beija-flor,beija-flor,beija flor
e toda fauna e flora grita de amor
quem segura o porta-estandarte tem a arte,tem arte
que aqui passa com raça eletrônico MARACATÚ ATÔMICO
Manamauê Aeia aê ...

Atrás do arranha céu tem o céu,tem o céu
e depois tem outro céu sem estrelas
em cima do guarda-chuva tem a chuva tem a chuva
e tem gotas tão lindas que até dá vontade de comê-las
Manamauê Aeia Aê ...

E dentro da couve-flor tem a flor,tem a flor
que além de ser u'a flor tem sabor
dentro do porta-luvas tem a luva,tem a luva
que alguém de unhas negras e tão afiadas se esqueceu de por
Manamauê Aeia Aê ...

No fundo do pára-raio tem o raio,tem o raio
que caiu da nuvem negra do temporal
todo quadro negro é todo negro,é todo negro
que eu escrevo seu nome nele só p'ra demonstrar o meu apego
Manamauê Aiea Aê ...

upcoming

Interview
6.30PM, Sunday the 20th January, at Reboot (before Share event) until 7.30PM

One of the interests of my research and practice is communities related to VJing and realtime performance and what is specific about each one of them in terms of organization, identity, how people perceive the community from inside and outside.
I am interested in the Share community way before I met anyone related to it, specially because of its generous structure of welcoming anyone to perform. This dismisses totally the filtering role of the curator/sellector as well as conditions and assumptions on what is good/bad, acceptable non acceptable.
I am proposing a round table to talk about Share as well as other collectives and communities related to visual performance people attending are involved with.
I will use audio recorder and will edit afterwards on to a smaller file. The end result will be audio. This document will be published at VJ Theory website on the interviews section.

Presentation at Harvestworks
22nd January 2008

Through her work Ana Carvalho explores ideas of identity, both theoretically and in her practice: she performs under the name Magenta Interior. Ana is one of the two editors of the project VJ Theory which compiles theoretical works about VJing and realtime performance and is interested in exploring ways for people to develop Artist Theory, theory based in practice, individually and collectively.

To create each performance, this performer misuses software or many technological devices not specific for VJing. Stories based in daily life are told through the selection of toys and objects she uses.
In this workshop Ana will present her work to an audience as an opening to a dialogue. Attendees of the workshop are invited to bring examples (audiovisual, text, whether online or on DVD) of their own work or of other artists who also use a diverse range of technologies or create their own. This will be base for a debate on the creative ways of using technologies and an inspiration for new or ongoing work.

Performance
As part of an event called Flow at Monkeytown
27th January 2008

About Flow: ...experimenting with noise, sound, and image...flow brings you closer to the edge of dreams than you would normally find yourself in a waking state. flow provides you with continual sound and vision with stimulating textures leaving you satisfied, yet craving for more...flow consists of performances throughout the evening with a stream of sound and video performed live—enjoy flow...

The space for the performance is very interesting as the performers sit in the middle of the room, which has the shape of a cube. The audience sits around, having dinner. There are four huge projections, one in each wall. This will create an immersive ambience.
For the first time I am aiming at using my William to perform. It makes sense its first time to be here in NY.

and next day I'll say goodbye to NYC until next time.

gold

chinatown has many temples covered in red and gold. They all have a foreigner music playing which you can listen to from the outside. People in celebration or searching for something to fulfill a daily need.

again at Share and tonight we are the stars of the show

Have a look at the lovely video of the performance. so nice!

play

I am the proud owner of an old and portable turn table.
Is the realization of an old dream for a practical reason. The guys at Share will be the first ones to see how it works in the generation of visuals. Yes, visuals. That is what I want it for. until I start performing with other technologies. That is not far to happen either. On the 27th I will be performing with my laptop for the first time. I will use software. Footage will be selected from the collection of footage I have been doing of all the Bikini Kill performances.
This new set, which has no name yet, will take subjects of time and narrative to a new realm. the realtime of the performance is in the past - as I am using footage / recordings from past performances. The narrative is made for the personal collection of toys, all of them with a story or relation to a relevant moment of my days.

sound

My favorite jazz star is nearby.
The Stone is next corner, Elsa says.
More books written by artists and edited by artists are necessary. That is because art theory should be (not exclusively though) written by practitioners. I have been calling it Artist Theory, after the dialogue I did with Mark Amerika and published on VJ Theory web site.
Historians tend to have a perspective and bias point of view on when writing about anything and art is not an exception. As I wrote in my text to be published by Vague Terrain:

'As collaboration is an important feature of these practices, when the subject is theory, the same feature is apparent: theory may now be developed by individuals as part of a collective or even collectively.'

With online publishing facilities, which follow the photocopied fanzines and artist books, this is nowadays easy to achieve. As practitioners, we are the voice of our own practice's construction of theory and history.
This is the importance of this book, which happens to be edited by John Zorn, which represents a turn in the artistic practices, of VJ and DJ, audio and visual performers and composers. There are others, like Mark Amerika's META/DATA and DJ Spooky's Rythum Science. VJ Theory is almost ready to join in, its own way through the publication of the VJam Theory blogs and will be followed by the Cimatics MasterClass blog (another blog which will be published as a book. To see all this evolving and to be part of it is an amazing experience.

Looking back to the near past history

I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for that letting go moment. Thank you.

beauty in the landscape

1- tall buildings of colorful grey and reflective glass.
2- endless avenues.
3- anonymous amalgamations of faces.
4- panoramic elevators.
5- polluted shades of red at sunset at the end of an endless avenue.
6- sense of being lost.
7- city lights from above and at a distance.

inflicted ignorance

What happened to the world while I was living in the far far away beautiful island of Falmouth?
Not much I realize, now that I am back to the world of reading the news and talking about the state of the world.
Many variations in the sameness:
http://zeitgeistmovie.com
But worth watching.
Perhaps now we can realize that god is nature and nature and the construction of the zodiac is part of a primordial philosophy.

Hi Stephan, we will be at Share tonight!

number 3

Look Elsa, I said, it's the 'Dinner Party'! Fantastic, if nothing else happens during the rest of my time in NY, being here, experiencing and looking at this piece worth it all.
This happened last night at the Brooklyn Museum.
This piece is a major reason of my interest in number three. Three as in the triangle: the feminine pubic shape. I have used three in the structure and construction of Diaries Book (both first and second volume). It also has major meaning in my life. Other numbers as important as number 3 are 13, 4, 1 and 7.
Here in NY buildings don't have the 13th floor for matters of luck.
At the end of the exhibition I found a video called 'Love' by Tracey Moffatt (2003) . I wish I had done that video. I felt emotive, one with the video and this is strange (or maybe not...) as the video is composed by excerpts from films where women kill men with guns. Cathartic I would say, just looking at it.

Tasks of the days

I have to say that this city doesn't sleep. But I do. I am not on holiday either. I did that when I was in my party mode. Now is normal mode. Since I am here that I finished my text to be (hopefully) published by Vague Terrain about collaborations and ways theory can be constructed on the context of realtime performance and other stuff also important.
I will perform at Share on the 13th of Jan.
Mark has posted the dialogue we did and which is published at VJ Theory on the Cimatics blog. Soo cool.

Nature

goodbye green landscape saluting me when I wake up. goodbye the tling tling of the boats and the blue water underneath. funny that I was so used to people's comments about the moon that I took them as something normal and I though of it as an universal behavior. guess in a city you don't even consider explaining the change of your mood in relation to the big circle in the sky. I was lonely on my comments last night of full moon. that was in Porto and here will even be worse as the spotty lights in the sky are not starts. they can hardly be seen, the starts. the little spots in the sky represent people's daily activities rather than distant pasts and futures of the universe.
I get up early everyday thinking it's late and time for... lunch? no, you think you are in Europe but you are not. wake up in NY my dear! than I sit on my knees, look through the window right above my bed in a ritual of reassurance. 'I'm here. this is NY'. there is no way I can go wrong. why? because of the colorful shades of grey of the landscape say so. the landscape I was looking forward to. sometimes there is an annoying helicopter insisting in waking me up. like a fly this thing, looking 'after' us. boring!
these guys actually believe in the movies, dress up as in the movies (NYPD! written in the jackets).
in general these guys (not the cops, of course) have the coolest snickers, sorry I mean trainers I ever seen. In general they are naturally the coolest collective I ever found. just like in the movies, soooo coool yaw!
But it's cold and the cold is dry and goes through my nose and mouth and I feel it inside me, in my chest. It's cold as I never felt before. but It's funny because is also sunny. as is sunny in Lisbon, where the sun light is strong. and so I feel blessed at the corner of every street by the light of the sun. and I close my eyes and think that I don't mind the cold because if I stay very still I feel the warmth of these special rays of sun who exist for me.

A story written in bed

Once upon a time, in a far far land, lived a man who owned 6124 boats. The only cargo these boats carried were messages: in boxes inside other boxes of many shapes and sizes, all inside the boats and never outside. These messages were of all sorts and from many many people to many many other people and to themselves too.
The man had also many wives that he visited while traveling in his boats al over the world and the wives had themselves other husbands and other wives (as polygamy and sexual tendency were not part of the vocabulary or culture of this far far land).
One day he entered a place to have some food and wine and he met a woman which he immediately kissed. Then they spent the night in a bed which was nor hers or his. Through sex they found to be capable of amazing things: The man could see all messages and all his boats at the same time, although they were spread through all the seas, oceans and rivers of the planet. The woman could predict and see the future as visions, hers and his, together and separately during the ecstasy of the orgasm.
Instead of being a distraction to the act of love, these abilities were, with time, learned and improved to make sex a fantastic moment. The man moved his wives to the boats and he could see them and think of all of those he enjoyed to look at the most during sex, while having sex. The woman would invent wicked games and plays which would hypnotize him and would arouse him so she could come.
The end.