Accompanied by your absence
I hear your skin calling.
Silently, still, I answer.
In the solitude of your presence
I remember sliding down your gaze
fearlessly falling into your void,
your being`s foyer.
Next to you, finally, I rest
dreaming and longing,
with the peace and tranquility that comes from
knowing me you.
I have been under tropical storms several times in the jungle. But I have never seen anything like today`s storm over Manhattan. Absolutely incredible.
The Guardian. Photo: Inga Sarda-Sorensen
I have contributed an essay to the book (PDF soon available for free online, and for purchase in book format -a few sample images shown here-) of an exhibition I am curating. 3 years in the making, “Gaze, Reflexion, Fusion” is the highly poetical but politically charged work of one of the most interesting new photographers in the New York art scene: NEBULA.
From Tokyo to San Francisco, Madrid to Seoul, the Spanish photographer Nebula has traveled to 10 cities in 4 countries in order to find inspiration and the right images (somethimes a fleeting reflexion of it) to bring to life what she feels about art, identity, apropriationism, feminism, and psychoanalysis.
Yesterday I was invited to a member`s only screening of Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and post-screening discussion with Oliver Stone and Ron Kovic at MoMA Film Theater 1.
What do I do instead? I end up at Central Park, with lightning bugs around me. I think I am still there. For some reason, I have gotten trapped there, and I do not want to leave.
In a sort of “NY diary”, here is what the last two weeks of June had in store for me.
June 17th: I went to Cha`An in the heart of the East Village, for a very delicious tea ceremony. And it was delicious not just because of the great matcha tea (usucha) and wagashi, but also because Noriko-san was such an excellent host, performing an excellent otemae. Being a public restaurant, and not a private house, not everything was “perfect”, like in the tokonoma, where the scroll was obviously generic.
As I mentioned in my previous post, at IBM Innovation Center in Chicago they have a Watson (more info here) interactive kiosk with which to play an interactive game of Jeopardy. In case you have been living in a cave for the past few months, Watson beat Jeopardy human champions on live TV, the significance of which can not be overstated.
Now, remember: this is a “small version” of Watson, and a “self-contained” version of Jeopardy.
On June 13th and 14th I went to Chicago. Here are a few anecdotes.
If my gate is C, why do I have to go to Terminal B? Go through security twice. #ThankYouIdiots
So, once in Chicago, straight to my first meeting at IBM Innovation Center. Intense, interesting… and off to my hotel for a few hours of preparing for the next day (and BIG meeting). The next day, great presentations and meetings (including lunch with the big boss), and something very interesting: they had a Watson interactive kiosk with which anyone could try and compete at Jeopardy.
