(dis)comfort zone addition

3 moments from Tasnim Jivaji, in addition to the previous (dis)comfort zones issue of blueprintreview:



Who wants to be a plane crash survivor?

The aviation industry must
Must on high priority design
The aircraft better seated
For surviving crashes.

These narrow tubes, packed for profit
Have bodies jammed, on aprons all over the globe
Right now, even as you are reading this
After soft landings, their payload still trapped.

How difficult it is to merely disembark, orderly and calmly
That obviously an emerency evacuation is impossible
No matter how earnestly you listened
To the pre-flight briefing and you are seated near the door.

You, you as a survivor
Would not make it to any door
Or a crack
Nor a window.

It is time
Every ticking blink
That will save anyone
To leave it all and break lose.

But with heavy and high rigid chairs
Stunned people grabbing belongings rather than fleeing
No matter how much you have your wits
You will perish because the aircraft design failed you.

The Black Box they treasure
Put it in a safe place to learn from its contents
But they must now push the limits so that from their safer aeroplanes
More people will walk out of crashes than ever before.

Written By: Tasnim Jivaji
25th May 2010.
--------

Three die in head on collision
The pain when you hear about a tragedy is numb. It silences the noise of our lives with an unsettling calm, because for the rest of our lives we will never have them who had to leave so abruptly to complete the picture of the world we see ahead.

Written By: Tasnim Jivaji
20th May 2010.

-----------------

For just one moment, could we do this, just once?

Blood - G, donno.

Hunger - er, we do not wear G strings.

Water - Great, why?

War - Google Terrorism.

Canada, let's treat G click, let's air lift, person bloodied, hungry, sheepskin water jug, child not waking to peace and plonk them with G#.

Next G to be held, oh, where gangs are rallying, where they line up for food for half a day, walk a marathon to dig their water and for sound effects, there is nothing like war.

Written By: Tasnim Jivaji
Tuesday, June 22, 2010

2 poems

.
amplification

i try to feel something
for you
deep in my heart
but you skim the
calm surface
like a flat smooth
stone.



the architecture of pillows

in the night
a fan blowing wind
each pillow
like a cold boulder
on top of Mt. Everest
each one
serves its own
sweet purpose.


- Michael K. White, Colorado (more)

Núcleo Arqueológico moment

In one of those happy accidents of traveling, we arrived at just the right time at the Banco Comercial Português, located near the Tagus River in downtown Lisbon. There an archeologist took us beneath the bank building for a personal tour of an archaeological dig /museum. “Lisbon,” she said, “has been continuously inhabited since the Bronze Age, so any time you dig the foundation for a new building, you are likely to find something." But this sprawling dig was remarkable in exposing evidence from various stages over a 2500 year long history, including archaeological structures and artifacts "from the Romans to the Moors, from the Visigoths to the Medieval and the Pombaline periods, down to the phreatic layer.”

The site was used as a pottery workshop, and there is a lovely 3rd century mosaic floor. She showed us an oven dating from the Moorish period and the base of the Pombaline 'gaiola' (birdcage) structure invented by the 18th-century engineers to resist earthquakes such as the one that destroyed the city in 1755.

I was particularly fascinated by the large square vats that were used for the production of fish sauce. This was an important flavoring ingredient used for hundreds or thousands of years and was traded all around Europe. It was a big industry in Lisbon. They would bring in the catch and cut the fish up into these vats with water, salt, and herbs. After it was fermented for an appropriate time, it was filtered and put into amphorae with their bases pointed to facilitate stacking them in ships’ holds.

“Fish sauce was everywhere,” she told us, “almost like Coca Cola or McDonald’s today. The aroma and flavor of fish sauce were familiar to virtually everyone, all across Europe.”

But at some point, the fish sauce industry died out. There was evidence of its passing, as one of the vats had a new wall constructed within it to divide it into smaller cells, and a skeleton was interred on one side. Having lost its use for making fish sauce, the vat had been subdivided and used for a burial.

“Now,” the archaeologist continued, “the flavor of fish sauce has been lost. Nobody knows exactly how it was made. This flavor that once was so common in Europe has completely disappeared.” Of course, there are other fish sauces in other places, like Asia, but they may not be the same.

It is a thought that stayed with me long after we left the Núcleo, that a once ubiquitous flavor has been lost. Surely many other flavors, too. What endures and what does not? It is a question that applies not only to archaeology and to the past, but also to the present. Sometimes the answers are surprising.

(dis)comfort zone 6

the next (dis)comfort zone is up. it's the darkest so far - the topic it deals with: serial killers.

• 'Visiting Hours': a serial short story by Phoebe Wilcox ("There was a man who was a monster. He later forgot it though..") + abstract photography by Jeff Crouch: 'Escape'
  
  
• 'Stuck In The Mud': a serial poem by Richard Stevenson ("According to your curious malaise, / You’re not a pederast or killer /until the evidence is in..") + a photo by DL: 'enclose'

no easy zone, this. one that comes without much comfort to balance the (dis). Stuck In The Mud includes an author's note, though, the note gives some background to the poetic investigation of evil:

"We're talking about evil, certainly, but also about a sick society that privileges these stories and begets bad actors, board games, serial killer cards, song lyrics, magazines, web sites, computer games and all sorts of misogynistic effluvia that are symptoms of a much bigger disease than individual psychopathy. Is the culture psychopathic?" (link)

following (or rather: preceding) this question on another level are 2 of the recent blog contributions, they both address sanity, security and fear: sanity device resurrection by Gary Sokolow, and olypmic (dis)comfort zone by Karyn Eisler.

elation + (dis)comfort: hypertext

Susan Gibb, author of the "Different" story in the current (dis)comfort issue, is also a hypertext specialist.

her hypertext story Blueberries is featured in the new river, a journal of digital writing and art, together with other digital works, all of them fascinating in their different experimental approaches. yet compared with "word only" stories, hypertext comes with an own set of hurdles. the new river editorial itself opens with this statement:

"I reject hypertext," one of us may have blurted out during a more frustrating moment editing this journal.

in her blog, Susan Gibb contemplates on the fascination of hypertext after corresponding with hypertext newcomer Finnegan Flawnt, here's a passage:

"...hypertext entertains the question of new media being metafictional by nature. It is worth thinking about, if perhaps even the simplest hypertext is in fact calling attention to the act of writing by its visual invitation to interact with the text.

We’ve gotten used to seeing text as thoughts and read them not as signs and sybolic marks upon a background (think of looking at a page of Chinese writing when you can’t read the language), but see the idea presented in the pattern formed by the letters. Possibly seeing beyond the words and sentences to the images they represent.

Hypertext includes links within text of a different and obvious color that is saying something about the text itself and the process of reading it, rather than merely being a part of the story. It’s talking directly to the reader. It’s an interesting way of looking at new media, particularly when it includes audio and visual effects that further call attention to the experience." (link)

it's this complexitiy, the effects, the changed process of reading, and the metafictional aspect, that sometimes might lead to hesitance: "Even as I encourage others to try the hypertext form, I realize it’s out of comfort zone for many writers as well as readers."

this line is from an interview Susan was giving last week. the interview was lead by Nicolle Elizabeth, who starts with a walk down memory lane to the 1990's, when computers still came with black screens and green fonts, a (dis)comfort of its own kind.

here the interview link: "Checking in with Hypertext Fiction"
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sanity device resurrection

The empty skyscrapers haunt
As black fields terrify

..............................................Days go by

What is it could fall out the sky

......................Empty mind

Take this any place you need to
The clouds having reached a tumult

The whitewashed wards and the bathrooms
Full of the pink tile of mercy

And this the way the water will go
And this the way the writing will go

New string on which to pluck a rude note of joy

I am discipline ...............I can wake the dead

These very thoughts that pulse through circuits, unvoiced unknowable

sanity device resurrection

---
text: Gary Sokolow (more)
image: DL

olympic (dis)comfort zone

vancouver 2010 torch relay,

_________ __hours before the opening ceremony.

flame of hope, friendship, peace, unity /

_____ _wall of fear, precaution, mistrust, security.








text + images: Karyn Eisler, Living ?s, Vancouver
--------------

refrain note:

olympia also comes with poetic (dis)comfort
about theme restrictions for cultural events:

"the artist shall at all times refrain from
making any negative or derogatory remarks.."

more about that, here: "from refrain to decline"
- from Daniela Elza's blog 'Strange Places'

(dis)comfort zone 5

the next (dis)comfort zone is up. it consists of:

• 'Complexion': disorder poetry by Heather Hodges ("The innards of a clam: the tragic sum of the things kept outside..") + abstract art by Susan Gibb: 'eggs'.
  
  
• 'Palindrome': an experimental vidopainting by Isabelle Carbonell: "Palindrome is a painting about the mirror of identity, the multiple masks we offer in different settings, and our subconscious rebellion that emerges in times of epiphany."

the theme of this zone is setting / landscape, and the complex effects the outside has on identity. this theme also is reflected in the connecting links: Heather Hodges is currently living in Buenos Aires, and part of an art project that documents the direct effects of her surrounding on pieces of art: "we wandered the streets to hang our pieces, and later watched them be digested by the city itself."
images of the project are up in the blog Pieces.

and Isabelle Carbonell's website includes a film gallery with documentary films that feature different zones of the world, and often relate to environmental topics: Living from a Landfill /Santiago, Water Warriors / Ann Arbor.

and when widening the viewpoint, Susan Gibb's Hypercompendia blog relates to this theme, too: it offers clues to Tinderbox, a tool that helps to visualize connections by creating colorful maps: visual abstractions of data. which connects back to the first line of "Complexion": "The complexion, completely separate now / from the landscape / something torn anew."

Palindrome

Palindrome:
Experimental (dis)comfort by Isabelle Carbonell

Palindrome is a “videopainting” about what society demands us to do as either immigrants or citizens: to assimilate. It is a palindromic painting about the mirror of identity, the multiple masks we offer in different settings, and our subconscious rebellion that emerges in times of epiphany.

Watch the video: Palindrome

re: blogged + (dis)comforting art

while working on the (dis)comfort issue, i came across an art installation and a photography website that both focus on the feeling of discomfort. i just revisited the pages, and now added them to the issue. the links are up here, in the page with related links and thoughts: re: (dis)comforting art.

interesting sidenote - there is an exhibition upcoming on a smililar theme: Abstract Resistance. the opening note for it seems also fitting for the 2 websites: "Making sense of the artworks requires a shift away from the common expectation that art equates with beauty."

also now included: blog feedback to the (dis)comfort issue, here the direct link to it: re: blogged.

(dis)comfort zone 4

the next (dis)comfort zone is up. here the direct links to the pages:

• 'Coffee': a short story by Karen Swartz ("Why does safety seem so fragile?..") + tunnel photography by Jean Morris: 'With coffee cup'
  
  
• 'Agave': poetry + notes by Rose Hunter ("you rip apart / the wrong wild beast -/ all the things that / reoccur in the morning..") + desert photography from the editor's files: 'Yaiza'

this new (dis)comfort zones includes 2 web-finds: the Coffee-story wasn't a regular submission. the story was up in a writing forum (fictionaut) and i hitched it from there. the other web-find is the connected photo - i came across it in Jean’s fabulous 'tasting rhubarb' blog, and remembered it when putting the Coffee story in layout.

after reading Agave, make sure to click the "about the poem"-link for some background on the poem, as Agave belongs to a sequence of poems.

PS: the call for submissions for the next issue is up, here: "BluePrintReview #24: micro cosmos".
.

(dis)comfort zone 3

the next (dis)comfort zone is up. here the direct links to the pages:

• 'so help me': poetry by Ed Higgins ("the biggest joke / of either heaven / or hell..") + stone photography by Matthew C. Crawford: 'nine five six'
  
  
• 'Different': a short story by Susan Gibb ("She had realized that familiarity is the lone enemy of rudeness..") + liquid photography by Smitha Murthy: 'Color in a Drop'

interesting detail: this third dis(comfort) zone is a combination of “east” and “west” – both texts were written in the west, both images were taken in the east, and almost merge into another when put together as a collage.

Smitha Murthy, who took the water drop picture, also has a current blog post up: "One day, one moment at work" - this blog post is from february 2008, and now brought to the 'blog'-surface again, to mingle in the dis(comfort).
.

One day, one moment at work

It is a hazy day, white clouds hanging over a bored sky, and a listless sun. Even the birds appear tired. From my office window, a pigeon comes to perch on the little temple gopura in front. Basks in the faint sun for a while. Calls out to a friend or two, and then wondering what else to do in life, takes to the air and flies. If only we humans could do that. Not tread dreary feet on old pavements but spread wings and fly to the embrace of the sky. Perhaps our thoughts would match our imagination would match our reality then. Perhaps.

--
Smitha Murthy, just a moment, February 2008

Jesse

Gypsy light, crosswind,
the same question over and over
again, sun burned into skin, pretty
river glass polished in brown sand, then
unearthed among the torn

ghost cups, anonymous Styrofoam
litter, moonfish, tiny spider
conch shells, every found and tossed back
pebble sifted from sand
through my hands, collected
in pockets of graphite and ink
uprooted ever since the Potomac
whispered, Run Away, it's a trick …

And I let the trick play on my own eyes,
sad fire-keepers, guiding the woman
you could not have known
I would become, strong and winter wild,
but smaller than a star, quiet

and still, right there, waiting for the night
you might look up, just once
remember, wish.

----
Eliza Kelley, NY (more)

liquid (dis)comfort zones

the next (dis)comfort zone is up, here the direct links to the pages:

• (Addict)ion - poetry by Jennifer Whitley (“It hurts. It’s good...”) + water photography by Karyn Eisler: 'The Bow'.
  
  
• In Her Dreams - a short story by Beate Sigriddaughter (“She tries to save this into waking...”) + artwork by Eliza Kelley: 'Waiting'.

Eliza Kelley also wrote the poem that is new in the blog: Jesse.

a theme that runs through the new texts and images: the translucence / liquidness of reality.
above, a collage of 'The Bow' and 'Waiting'. and here, a stanza from 'Jesse':

conch shells, every found and tossed back
pebble sifted from sand
through my hands, collected
in pockets of graphite and ink
uprooted ever since the Potomac
whispered, Run Away, it's a trick ...

enjoy the liquid (dis)comfort~
.

contributor blog roll + gender zones

after having pieced the (dis)comfort issue together, i went on a blog tour - and put together a blueprintreview contributor blog roll. so far, the blogroll includes contributors from issues 23, 22, 21, 20. you find it when you scroll down, it's in the right sidebar.

surprise discovery: even though the issues are rather balanced from gender, there are significantly more blogs that belong to female authors / artists. (9 'male' vs. 26 'female' blogs). why is that? i don't know. any ideas anyone?

and following the gender theme: i didn't plan this, and only noticed this yesterday after i did the blog count, and then moved to the issue to have a 'gender look' at the zones, too:
- the first zone of (dis)comfort is male (only exception: the nightfall image)
- the second zone will be all female (texts and images)
- and the third zone - will be a mix.
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the delight of unpleasantness

"Why would we get such delight from unpleasantness?"

that's a question i came across in a NY Time issue, some days after i watched a disturbing thriller, even though i knew i would be alone here for 2 days, and thrillers don't make for soothing night times. still i kept watching.

here's a passage of the essay, with one of the possible answers:

"We are drawn to horror and tragedy because they are creative representations of worst-case scenarios, situations that we really need to worry about, such as being attacked by strangers, betrayed by friends, experiencing the death of those we love, and so on."

here the link to the article: The Long and Short of It, by Paul Bloom (NY Times, Sept '09)

(this article partly motivated the idea of creating a BluePrintReview (dis)comfort issue, and triggered the idea for the title, more about the incidents that lead to this theme, in 'about this issue').
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blueprintreview #23: (dis)comfort zones

the new issue of BluePrintReview is on!

theme: “(dis)comfort zones”. and yes, this issue includes some disturbing pages – there will be blood. disorder. pain. but also: dissident fun. and soothing melancholy.

as all the (dis)comfort might be a bit overwhelming in one go, this issue will go live in zones:

the issue starts at 37.000 feet above rain, with blackstone/saga poems by Patrick Pilarski. from there, it touches ground with a short story by Richard Goity that includes spreading scorpion words.

this first sequence features visual art that crosses the line between photography and abstraction: “desert3” by Steve Wing, and “light”, from the editor’s files.

for a theory of discomfort, click to the blog – parallel to the theme opening, it picks up a twisted question: "Why would we get such delight from unpleasantness?"

see for yourself: http://www.blueprintreview.de/

enjoy the (dis)comfort ~
dorothee

ps: new discomfort zones will open every couple of days, check back or just follow the announcements on twitter and facebook.

des + comforter

page by page... i just completed the next series of pages for the upcoming (dis)comfort issue of blueprintreview, and sent out preview mails. just some more days now, then the issue should be complete.

while working on the issue, i also browsed the etymology of comfort and discomfort. here the definitions, as a first (dis)comfort touch:

comfort:
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French cunforter, comforter, from Late Latin confortare to strengthen greatly, from Latin com- + fortis strong
Date: 13th century
1 to give strength and hope to (cheer)
2 to ease the grief or trouble of (console)

discomfort:
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French descomforter, from des-+ comforter (dis- comfort)
Date: 14th century
1 archaic: dismay
2 to make uncomfortable or uneasy
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