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Present Past Subjects Projects Misc
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APRIL 1998
Fool's Day. Considered how "new information often upsets our delicate sense of balance". Bought a new bicycle (a Brompton) and went to a play by Mechtild Prins, 'Het Land in Mij' in the Rotterdamse Sschouwburg. Had a discussion with Dick Rijken about identity control. I for one, would like to retain control of (and construct) as much of my identity (representations, information) as possible. Dick maintains that identity is created by others and is impossible to control. Spent the afternoon with Lowie Eskes, a rock importer. Drove to his storage site in Zijderveld (near Vianen) to look at his stones. Afterwords we drank some tea in a chinese restaurant and I told him what I wanted to do for the coming exhibition. We went on to Wageningen and looked at the site together. He'll help me and he has got the right stones. So why did the whole experience leave me depressed? Lowie and I talked a lot. Too much for my own good. He seemed very eager to take part in the project. He's an old BKR artist. Seen in Wired's April Jargon Watch: Scribe Tribes: Netizens who publish their journals, diaries and daily ramblings on the web and organize them into journal webrings and link lists. Wonder what's a 'journal webring'? Fell asleep while reading Deric Regin's 'Traders Artist's Burghers, a cultural history of Amsterdam in the 17th century' Here's an alexandrine by Vondel celebrating Van Neck's voyage to Batam and the Moluccas. This voyage returned the company for 'distant trade' (Compagnie van Verre) a 400% profit in 14 months--and so began Dutch tade and colonialism in the far east. He who has risked but one receives four as reward,
Went to the library and borrowed and photocopied books and articles on nuclear reactor design. Spent the day reading and making notes. Surprising how simple a nuclear reactor actually is. Was today in Wageningen. Visited Wim Koops from the Department of Health Physics of the University, chose a site in the Park and ordered the containment fence from Heras. I've been allergic all weekend to the weather. Bought some more Triludan. Loes mailed me some valuable information on the potential dangers of this modern antihistamine. Thank God for the Net. Got an unsettling email from Maurice Nio, and I'm worried about the Amsterdam 2.0 project this morning. Investing even MORE time and energy into it is a gamble. There is irony to this fact. After all, seventeenth century Amsterdam was completely built on the idea of RISK, so apparently it must be with the "new Amsterdam". Called Wim Koops from Media-GN. I will be able to get the uranium-oxide pellets I want from KEMA Nuclear! Had dinner with Jules to celebrate his news. Busy day at Media-GN. Had an interesting meeting discussing the future with Thomas de Boer, an econometrist from the university who came to speak with me about a symposium. Stayed in Amsterdam with Loes (travelled back down on the train with Mark Madel). Finally identified the pair of birds swimming and diving in the yacht harbor- Grebes (Dutch: Fuut). FRIDAY, 10 APRIL 1998 (GOOD FRIDAY) Was up at 4:30 to start a working paper on Amsterdam 2.0. It's a RFC, I'd like feedback on it. Had a meeting with Maurice this afternoon to discuss my continued participation in the project. Jouke came to visit this evening. We had dinner in the Hotel New York. Visited the Africaanermarkt for the first time, stocking up on fruit and vegetables for the long weekend. Bought a copy of Die Siedler card game. There is lots of activity in the yacht harbor outside. Will officially open this afternoon with cannon fire. No sign of "my" grebes. Went with Lewie Eskens to Zuiderveld again to choose the definitive stone for Nuclear Garden. I finally decided on the very mountainous looking stone (from Norway) that captured my attention on my first visit. Weight: 4,200 kilos. SUNDAY, 12 APRIL 1998 (EASTER SUNDAY) Had some pie for breakfast at Dudok and then went together with Loes for a walk on the beach at Hoek van Holland. Lots of wind. Lots of people flying high-tech kites- some being lifted several meters into the air! Played a round of Die Siedler card game. Watched most of Ridley Scott's 'Black Rain' on television. Spent most of the day online and distracted (by rec.games.board and the Game Cabinet). Having second thoughts about my choice of stone. I decided on a very specific and distinctive stone- would it not be better if the stone was non-descript and plain? Fred called me at Media-GN this afternoon with some very bad news - out of the blue a commission at the university has decided to FORBID my use of uranium in the arboretum. This is not due to concerns about safety. Every scientist knows there is NO DANGER from the uranium oxide that will be in 'Nuclear Garden' - the university is simply worried about the public's reaction to the artwork. I am so pissed off about this. Damn, damn, damn, damn. One of the sailboats that they brought in for the opening of the marina left this morning. On its way out its mast (this was a large boat) managed to hit the crane in front of my window and turn it about 45 degrees around. Spent the morning formulating a letter about the situation developing around my work 'Nuclear Garden'. Left at noon for Wageningen to attend David's lecture at the 'Kennisdagen'. Spoke with Jouke, Fred and Govert (Mondriaan Stichting) as well as Mathilde, Trudy and Aernout of the board about our problem. Had the feeling that I had everyone's support. This made me feel somewhat better. I really like Jouke's design for the flyer and invitation. Haven't had the bandwidth to look at the website yet. Uploaded The Master Containment (note to the board - November 1997). Got this in the mail: Arjen Mulder: Paul Perry's Long Voyage (Dutch). Arjen wrote this text for the catalogue of the coming IMPAKT Festival in Utrecht. Theme of the festival: Handbooks for the 21st Century Ate dinner with Loes at a new (for us) Ethiopian restaurant. Later checked out the ST(*)boretum site at http://www.wau.nl/bob/ Jouke has done a great job - though I wonder what the board will say about some of the email he's published... Rotterdam Marathon today. Uploaded the letter: Art, Science and the 'U' Word. It took me the entire weekend to write. Had a meeting with Arjen Mulder this afternoon to discuss a concept for the book/booklet/pamphlet that I want to produce regardless of what happens over the next few days in Wageningen. Two weeks is not much time for writing a book. And Jouke (who I hope will do the design and contribute to the editing and general conceptualization) is going away next week to France for a week. Better get organized. Not getting much sleep (average 4-5 hours). Up the Entropy Slope: started work on the book on the train up to Groningen. Wim Koops called at the end of the afternoon- The word from Wageningen is definitely NO. Be Here Now (1971): "And I met this guy and there was no doubt in my mind. It was just like meeting a rock. It was just solid, all the way through. Everywhere I pressed, there he was!" Onward. The board in Wageningen must decide between option A: I remove the piece from the exhibition or B: I install the piece off the university grounds. The work is not welcome in the ST(*)rboretum. Are we in the wrong business? Jente told me last night that 3rd IT students are being lured away from the universities to work for companies on the millenium problem. Pay? Hfl. 80,000 for 1 year's work... then go back to school. Had a meeting for A'dam 2.0 at Maurice's office here in Rotterdam (in the Brainpark). After my last meeting with Maurice on Good Friday I was apprehensive about this one- but it turned out to be stimulating and productive. Afterwards Arjen I retired to the mensa of the Erasmus University, had a sandwich and discussed the 'Evolution of Uranium'. Uploaded the start of a thread (for the book): Criticality (in Physics and Art) I Paid a visit to Henk Alles at the MediaLab. He told me about his frustration with business people "who see the light at the end of the tunnel but turn it off to conserve energy". Needless to say we got along famously. My order from Laissez Faire Books arrived (two months surface mail from the west coast!) with Friedman's 'Machinery of Freedom', Benson's 'The Enterprise of the Law' and Browne's 'How I found Freedom in a Unfree World.' Essential fare for anyone considering a new constitution for Amsterdam. Updated Criticality (in Physics and Art) I Started Criticality (in Physics and Art) II 3 AM: Typing a citation from Robert Smithson into my powerbook I realised that I had used it before in Concept Redux, a set of notes that I wrote as a proposal for my 'Garden for Two Cars' (Almere 1997) project. Updated Criticality (in Physics and Art) II Spoke to Fred on the phone. Agreed to installed the 'empty reactor' on the site in Wageningen. Hope I've made the right decision. Accompanied Jules to Utrecht for a meeting with Prof. Rookmaker responsible for the ergonomic branch of the AMG. Worked on the manuscript. Looking at the Laissez Faire catalgue this afternoon I saw that Julian Simon died last Februray 8th - at the age of 65. Finished Criticality (in Physics and Art) II Started Criticality (in Physics and Art) III Koninginnedag (Queen's Day) today. Seem to have a slight flu. Continuing to work on the manuscript. Jente kindly typed out a section of James Lovelock's book 'The Ages of Gaia' for me entitled: A Dose of Nuclear Radiation. I hope to add this to the book as an appendix (along with Vernor Vinge's The Singularity).
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