Tag: featured

Trelograms #33 — Snow Fakes

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This is expanded from my entry to the “SNOW” Mini-Contest on Scribophile

Snow.

For a long time, it only existed in a corner of our living room between December 1st and January 6th — threads of silvery, translucent plastic running down the branches, increasingly entangled over the years in and out of the box — can one still call it a tree if it’s also made of plastic?

I grew up without snow — many of us do. If i accept and embrace your excitement, will you acknowledge my baseline indifference and occasional annoyance now that the phenomenon has been part of my life and largely experienced from the practical perspective of avoiding hypothermia and slush puddles or slippery sidewalks?

Before the plastic took over, there must have been some kind of magic — what was it? Maybe i’d have loved to know it and share that with the rest of the world also.

I wish you all a Merry Today — whether or not you celebrate it — perhaps you did it yesterday or are waiting until January 6th to be merry? There are many of us. If you feel gloomy or reflective, i’ll accept that as well — be!

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Featured photo: snow stickers for a warm globe (Odesa, Ukraine, “Winter” ’19)

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration

Trelograms #32 — Concepts

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“Careful!” — “What!?” — “The dead bird.”

Too late — Roma had already stepped on the animal. Upon noticing it, she jumped away, slid the transgressing foot off the shoe, then rubbed it against the other leg — probably an attempt to override the disturbing tactile reflex.

“Sorry, i noticed the dead bird when i arrived yesterday and forgot to tell you about it — what should we do?” I didn’t quite understand her answer, but it seemed as though it was no longer my problem.

We were clearing a few extra square meters of land to plant cucumbers, and my job was simple: to dig the perimeter, as straight as i could, and root out the bush-wannabes — i’m sure there is a precise, not-even-that-technical term for that — weeds? (Note to self: consider including more gardening books in my diet.)

I was given a shovel, which is quite fortunate because that’s something i’d seen before and could name — maybe — you’re now going to tell me that there are at least seventeen kinds of shovels, right? At least eleven — told you! There are supposedly eight types of shovel everyone should know (there will be a quiz at the bottom), and sixteen types of snow shovels alone.

I was appropriately given a trench shovel. Even so, it’s tough to dig a trench in a straight line. The process reminded me of an architect i shared the stage with at Ossobuco last year — she learned how challenging it is to build a straight wall from a construction worker, and the realization led her into a journey of acceptance of our limited control over materials.

Back in the present, i also wondered how many worms i might have accidentally sliced in half in the process — another note to self: look up how vegans who grow their own food might deal with this.

“Mika, come over here and bring the shovel.” — “The shovel?” — “Let’s bury the bird next to that tree.” — “You want to bury the bird?” — “It’s a living being.”

Having synchronized her request and my understanding of it, i dug the hole — with the trench shovel, which is also the one i was using to weed out the prospective bushes (and also kill more worms and whatnot) in the second part of my job. She dropped the bird, which she now held by the feet with her bare hands, into the hole. I covered the hole with dirt, stepped on it to compress, and stared at it in contemplation for a couple of seconds — we all moved on — it was not very ceremonial.

Or perhaps already too much — for lunch, kholodets‘.

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Featured photo: a bench?

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‘Trelograms’ is a wordplay between ‘telegram’ and ‘trélos’ (Greek for ‘mad’)

Trelograms: inspiration

TEDx Drobeta-Turnu-Severin (Romania, November ’18)

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My TEDxDrobetaTurnuSeverin talk is out 😀 I want to thank my friend Dana once again for bringing all those speakers, volunteers and audience together, and for inviting me to be one of them.

I don’t mind the title given by the publisher, though that’s not quite the question i’m asking — what i’m wondering is whether we’re not confusing privileges for basic needs. Western society sets us up to prioritize the former, crystalizing an ever narrower and more homogeneously accepted notion of what constitutes a position of advantage. Attaining (or maintaining) that doesn’t always yield contentment.

In hindsight, i acknowledge that having the resources to ponder over the distinction between needs and privileges is itself a tremendous privilege, and i should have made that explicit in the presentation — i wanted to emphasize that this privilege is cast wider than many of us notice, and might have made neither point salient enough.

There are some issues with the audio towards the end. Rather than compromising the result, i’d like to think they enrich it. You’re invited to think about the way i dealt with the problem at the event (and the editors dealt with it afterward) as a metaphor for what i wanted to say — indeed, it was when the microphone stopped working that i finally woke up — i wish it had happened in the beginning :p

Other than that, i still stand for the bulk of what i said — i hope i will manage to pack my message more clearly, and deliver it with more confidence and energy in the future. I also hope my name in the video title will be changed to Mika, which is more than just a pen name to me.

Thank you for watching 🙂

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Featured photo: courtesy of TEDxDrobetaTurnuSeverin

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Fuji & Mika #16 — BONUS: Stubborn Face Together

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My friend, artist and supporter Fuji [website, vimeo] and i challenged each other throughout the month of October to experiment with different habits and create something new every week. We made videos describing our process and results, and shared our dialog here on my blog: fiction_Extract_test1.0, The Stubborn Face of Matter, Haikus from Borzhava, Infinity + 1, “Failure” Is just a Story and Collagenge.

Fuji edited a flattering video to accompany The Stubborn Face of Matter — the song i made for the first challenge. As i said then, the words for the tune came to me during my Copenhagen–Istanbul cycle tour in Fall ’16. I asked him to add some clips from my journey to it, and really like the result! So, i’m sharing it as some sort of post-closure bonus:

See you on the next creative challenge, Fuji!

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Experiments: Creative October Challenge; Fuji & Mika

Fuji & Mika #15 — Collagenge

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This is the second of two posts wrapping up the Creative October Challenge — a collaboration with my friend, artist and supporter Fuji Hoffmann [vimeo, website] to create something every week (of the month of October :p) and share the process and results along the way.

The discarded items were collected during my trip to Romania to present at the I TEDxDrobetaTurnuSeverin, visit old friends, and spend some time in their stretch of the Carpathians — this was the inspiration for the process, which was then carried out in three of four relaxing sittings throughout the months of January and February.

I’ll miss this.

Fuji and i challenged each other throughout the month of October to experiment with different habits and create something new every week. We made videos describing our process and results and sharing our dialog here on my blog. It starts with Fuji & Mika #0 — Creative October Challenge, where we explain the concept and share our first challenges to each other. To read and watch all posts from the challenge in chronological order, visit Creative October Challenge.

If you prefer to start with some results from the challenge, then i recommend fiction_Extract_test1.0, The Stubborn Face of Matter, Haikus from Borzhava, Infinity + 1, or “Failure” Is Just a Story 🙂

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Experiments: Creative October Challenge; Fuji & Mika