From Russia

Following on from reconnaisance planes flying over Russia, a friend was telling me about a journey there; a lone journey. For me the journey alone is the most interesting as you only have yourself and the place you are in. The details of this journey has kept coming back to me, I think because I am trying to relate to something I have not experienced first-hand. Hearing the story of this person connecting with a foreign place, sights/sites and situations and sensations, was like receiving a postcard from a place you have never been to. You're left wondering how the image on the postcard might translate into reality. One day I will travel with this story in mind and send my own postcard from Russia.

Up in the air

Today I've been thinking about aeroplanes, something I do often, but late last night I watched a doco on UFO's. This followed on nicely from a discussion earlier in the day about drones. I am facinated by foo fighters and aircraft, for me the former is a conspiracy and the latter is the topic of many childhood memories. The idea of tracking and tracing is contstant in my artmaking, and more recently has included the use of satellites. There are many devices and mechanisms that we, as bodies/vehicles can employ to guide and map our everyday movements, but you have to wonder what else out there is doing this for us without our knowledge...the conspiralogist within me contemplates! In the doco it was said that the Black Bird (Lockheed SR-71), an advanced, long-range, Mach 3 strategic reconnasaince aircraft, did continual fly-bys over Russia during the Cold War for ten years before the Russians detected it on their radar. There must be filing cabinets full of secret archives of aerial maps hidden in the desert regions of Area 51.

Left of centre: Middle East

Left is an image of Green Zones in central Baghdad, Iraq. The bend of the river almost reminds me of the bend in the river at the end of my street, the serpentine Brissie River. Right is an image of a dust plume moving off the coast of Libya near Benghazi and into the Gulf of Sidra. These images are pinpoints from my research today.

La Valletta

I have been thinking about food and how the experience of eating can anchor you to a place, maybe a place that you are not in or perhaps have never been to. Tonight I cooked Aljotta, a Maltese fish soup. Last Saturday I cooked Shurba Libya, (Libyan soup). I have been to Malta, I haven't been to Libya. Earlier I was surfing the net looking for Maltese recipes and an image of a Cisk Beer jogged my memory and threw me back to being in Valletta, Malta's capital. Cisk is a beer brewed in Malta. I immediately wanted a Cisk and phoned a few places, no one in Brisbane sells it, who wants to drink Maltese lager? It wasn't that I felt like a beer as such but more that I wanted to continue with the connection of memory...to think I could have been sitting under an umbrella staring out over The Great Harbour watching the Mediterranean sparkle and the limestone glow. I am interested in concepts of place and displacement. It is similar to the experience/memory of music and I have heard that smell, being the most immediate of the senses, has the same effect, whereby smell can evoke past experiences. The Aljotta and Pastizzi allowed me to be in two places at once, and to think about where I am and where I would like to go. It also continued my thinking about Relational Aesthetics.

Destination unknown

I cannot trace this image; I kept it because it relates to my pom-pom maps, there is a topographical similarity in the clusters of dots. It has been ages since I have written here or traced my maps into words here. I am thinking about walking as I haven't been doing much of that lately, not walking for enjoying the act without a destination in mind. This is a link to Daniel Belasco Roger's website sent to me from my friend and fellow walker/mapper Sarah Moor.
http://www.planbperformance.net/dan/mapping.htm

Review of THERE THERE

http://geraldkeaney.multiply.com/journal/item/7/Review_of_There_There_by_Rebecca_Ross

Bikini Atoll & Atomic Tourism

Map of Bikini Atoll

The Bureau of Atomic Tourism http://www.atomictourist.com/