A poetic machine

My last post about slow life and the long now made me think about the late Dutch artist, Gerrit van Bakel, and his famous artwork/creation, the Tarim Machine.

Gerrit van Bakel wanted to change the world; redesign it according to his vision; and bring humanity, nature, art and technology in harmony. Turning his back to traditional art, he dedicated himself to the ever-changing world and the fading away of old things. The technological aspect of the artificial fascinated him. He liked researching and reflecting about how humanity invents things and how these things become intrinsic to this world. Technology was thus a source of inspiration for and the means to create his art. Machines form a great part of his works. The Tarim machine is one such testament to Bakel’s fascination with technology.

The great role that technology played in his artwork didn’t hinder the artist’s poetic vision. On the contrary his artworks embody such fascinating metaphors and stories that many people termed his creations as ‘poetic machines’.The Tarim Machine, for example, can be considered a poem of epic proportions. Bakel’s intention was that this machine would cross the Tarim Basin in Tibet, an area that is almost as big as the whole of Europe itself. But where lies the poetry here? In its irony: the Tarim Machine will be able to complete its journey in about 30 million years. Instead of using technology to bestow amazing speed, he created movement in slow motion. Very, very slow motion. It’s a manner of letting us see the invisible movement of nature, just like how the earth moves and yet we don’t feel it.
This echoes the artist’s critic of the focus on technology. The Tarim Machine is his way of emphasizing the relativity of time and movement. It’s his way of questioning the concept of existence and the role that technology plays in furthering this concept. Time and movement, humanity and nature find here a common ground. He illustrated this point by describing how the machine would affect us in the future: "Een grootvader zal tegen zijn kleinzoon zeggen: Zie je die machine, die komt eraan. Je moet tegen jouw kleinzoon zeggen dat hij zijn hutje iets naar links bouwt, anders rijdt de machine er overheen." (A grandfather shall say to his grandchild: Do you see that machine over there? Well, it's coming your way. You should tell your grandchild to built his hut a little bit to the left. Otherwise the machine will drive through it.)

This way of seeing actually presents the respect that can be achieved between humanity, machine and nature. The grandson should try to adjust and not just change the direction of the machine. On the other hand, the machine moves so slowly that its speed becomes organic -- innate with nature -- that the grandson gets the chance to prepare and adjust for the coming change. And that relationship I call art.

Photo source: http://www.gerritvanbakel.nl/werk_extra.php?id=230

The slow life, the long now

If you were asked to think of words to describe the present times, or how the future would be; would you use slow, long, subtractive, simple, basic, sustainable or don’t do it?

Probably not. At least, they won’t make the top 10, I think. But for the growing number of followers of the Japanese “Slow Life” movement, such words echo their vision for society. Their slogan, ‘Ganabaranai!’ (Don't go for it!), sums up their stance against the fast-paced, replace- everything, accumulation-driven mentality of today.

The practice of Slow Life revolves around the following themes:
SLOW PACE: We value the culture of walking, to be fit and to reduce traffic accidents.

SLOW WEAR: We respect and cherish our beautiful traditional costumes, including woven and dyed fabrics, Japanese kimonos and Japanese night robes (yukata).

SLOW FOOD: We enjoy Japanese food culture, such as Japanese dishes and tea ceremony, and safe local ingredients.

SLOW HOUSE: We respect houses built with wood, bamboo, and paper, lasting over one hundred or two hundred years, and are careful to make things durably, and ultimately, to conserve our environment.

SLOW INDUSTRY: We take care of our forests, through our agriculture and forestry, conduct sustainable farming with human labor, and ultimately spread urban farms and green tourism.

SLOW EDUCATION: We pay less attention to academic achievement, and create a society in which people can enjoy arts, hobbies, and sports throughout our lifetimes, and where all generations can communicate well with each other.

SLOW AGING: We aim to age with grace and be self-reliant throughout our lifetimes.

SLOW LIFE: Based on the philosophy of life stated above, we live our lives with nature and the seasons, saving our resources and energy.

The growing sentiment for slowness amidst the fast-paced, technology-driven society draws a lot of insights to mind. It reminded me of several paradoxes, like U2’s “Running to Stand Still”; and the film, “Hero”, where Jet Li’s character learned that the measure of a true Swordmaster is the ability to fight without the sword.
This also called to mind McLuhan’s 2nd and 4th Media Laws, also known as Reversal and Retrieval respectively:
• When pushed beyond the limit of its potential, it will reverse into what were its original characteristics; into what does it reverse?
• What does it retrieve from the past that had been formerly / obsolesced?
Speed and accumulation are birthing slowness and reflection. A longing for what used to be the way of life is emerging once again.

But then again, can we afford to take it slow? How can you live slow, when life is so short? Or is this precisely the best reason to slow down, look around and take it all in. Why hasten towards the end when you can walk slowly and make the here-and-now longer?

The cultural anthropologist, Shinichi Tsuji, explains this paradox with striking clarity:

“ ‘Slow’ embodies the idea of subtraction. The idea is that an affluent life is not achieved by adding to what you already have…. In today's society, people have the idea that leisure involves adding something. In other words they think that a slow life can be achieved by adding something spatially or temporally. To be able to do this, they try frantically hard and work fast so that one day they'll be able to enjoy a leisurely life.” ( http://www.ntt.co.jp/kankyo/eco_e/talk3_e/talk_page2.html )

But that day never seems to come, eh? No matter how fast we work, or how meticulous we plan, what we do never seems to be enough to achieve that ideal picture of a serene, slow-paced and leisure life. A very ordinary and little example: I try to finish all my projects way before the deadline, not necessarily always in the name of good planning, but so that I can begin, as soon as possible, with doing nothing. Sometimes, this works, but most often, it doesn’t. I just end up being stressed out and barely having free time before the next project starts.

Stewart Brand of The Long Now Foundation writes:
“Civilization is revving itself into a pathologically short attention span. The trend might be coming from the acceleration of technology, the short-horizon perspective of market-driven economics, the next-election perspective of democracies, or the distractions of personal multi-tasking. All are on the increase. Some sort of balancing corrective to the short-sightedness is needed-some mechanism or myth which encourages the long view and the taking of long-term responsibility, where 'long-term' is measured at least in centuries.” (http://www.longnow.org/about/)

A slow pace and longer view of the here-and-now is needed to balance the frenzied rush to the future. But where to begin? I think I will try to daydream more, for starters ;-p . And try not to panic when the great plans I’ve made for my life suffer setbacks (this will be difficult!). Oh yeah, and also not obsess with projects deadlines…like doing this blog instead of making my internship plan ;-)
Related links:
http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,70013-1.html?tw=wn_story_page_next1
http://www.japanfs.org/db/database.cgi?cmd=dp&num=202&dp=data_e.html

Philippine exchange rate: not P51 = $1 dollar, but 74 lives to the peso

I heard the terrible news on Saturday afternoon from my mother during my regular weekly phone call.

Ay, so many people have died, she suddenly interjected while I was rambling about how I have yet to find a place for internship. What, who, where, I rapidly fired back.

During the anniversary of ‘Waw wa wi’, my mom replied.

What’s that? I asked, thinking it was some new Korean soap opera or a religious cult of some kind. It’s a game show, she said. A game show for the poor.

Later I found out that the program was called ‘Wowowee’ — the wow’s, ooh’s and whee’s stemming from the incredible prizes the show has been giving away. A P2.5-million house and lot package (est. 40,000 euros), P1 million in cash (est. 16,000 euros) and a passenger jeep were to be the top prizes in what would have been the show's first-anniversary celebration.

Thousands were camped outside for days, the poor majority of my country, coming from provinces far away in the hope to get a free entrance ticket and a chance to play in the show. Thousands came — some with modest wishes, others big dreams — but each one believing in the chance to end poverty, if not to keep it at bay, even for just a day.

Instead, the frenzied build-up of dreams exploded into a deadly rush.As of this writing, 74 people were killed and about 500 were injured when the thousands of people lining up to enter the Philsports Arena broke into a stampede. The victims were mostly women — middle-aged or elderly housewives looking forward to an entertaining and, perhaps, lucky day.

I’ve personally never seen the show, but after learning about it from my family and the news, I can imagine how it’s like. It would be a combination of popular game shows like the ‘80’s hit “The Prize is Right”, the Philippines’ ‘Pera o Bayong’ (Cash or Bag) plus the heart-tugging character of Make-a-Wish (ala ‘Hart in Aktie’ in the Netherlands). Contestants also have to answer questions correctly, but according to the program-makers, the questions are actually no-brainers, since the objectives of the show are to entertain and to give hope to the people.

‘Wowowee’ is a generous show, making sure so many contestants as possible come out as winners. It’s a show that has, no doubt, touched the lives of the poor in a positive way and, equally important, in the here-and-now; which is sadly more than can be said of the Philippine government. However, I can’t help but wonder if the station (ABS-CBN) realized just what they were getting themselves into when they decided they wanted to be in the business of giving hope to the poor.

I think although the station’s goals — producing an entertaining and popular game show combined with helping the poor — intersected at some levels, these also conflicted with each other. Intentionally or not, the show has made poverty into an entertaining spectacle. By being the game show for the poor, it has claimed poverty — or the end of it — as its unique selling point. And this, I believe, is a dangerous proposition, especially in a land where more than half of its 84 million people live on two dollars a day.

I’m inclined to believe that the show’s producers sincerely wanted to help the poor. But perhaps they’ve overlooked the fact that it’s not entirely wise to serve 1 roasted chicken to a starving crowd, nor try to squeeze 50 drowning people in a lifeboat made for 10. Can a TV show multiply loaves and fishes so that everyone can eat as their heart desires?

Of course, people shouldn’t expect such a miracle. It is, after all, just a game show. It’s neither government nor family who are supposed to guarantee that your basic needs are met and that you get the chance to live a life with dignity. To hope that a game show can end your poverty is to despair. But it was exactly this desperate hope that was unleashed among the thousands who flocked to participate in the show’s anniversary celebration.

Knowing this, the game show organisers cannot escape blame for the tragedy that unfolded. It is a tragedy, because it could’ve been prevented. By playing on the despairs and dreams of the people, the show should’ve been ready for the consequences. True, the crowd was also to blame for lack of sobriety and discipline, but knowing the nature of crowds and how enormous the crowds would be — and especially when hope (and money) is dangled and announced as free for the taking — the organisers should’ve taken measures to instil order in the frenzy and chaos it has helped to create.

There are so many questions to be answered and actions to be reviewed. The Philippine Daily Inquirer raised these important points in its editorial:
• What were the guidelines used to control or manage the expectations of the growing crowd?
• What crowd management procedures were in effect, not only at the time of the stampede, but also during the build-up to the event?
• Were other means explored to distribute the tickets in a less risky manner rather than a first-come, first-served basis?
Another question also begs to be answered, one that looks more into the motives of media in general. The struggle to survive is already an everyday necessity for the poor: why then should they be made to compete against each other in a TV show? I can't say I know the answer. I've said how generous the show was, and generosity is something everyone can use these days. But still, the question keeps echoing in my mind.
But the people didn’t seem to mind, perhaps because being already immune to the ferocity of survival, a game show was actually a chance to rest and laugh again. To cherish that silent hope that perhaps this is one struggle they can actually overcome. This could be a contest where the poor can emerge as winners.

Instead, dreams and lives were crushed.

There are no winners. Only a glaring light that bares the poverty of the Filipino people.

More info:
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=65164
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=65202
http://news.inq7.net/opinion/index.php?index=1&story_id=65235
Photo source:
http://www.inq7.net/index_network.htm

Michael Forever!

Good ol' platform games and the Moonwalker? Yep, they actually mix and match in this very upbeat Japanese animation. [Somebody really took the time to do this ;-p ) http://www.hcn.zaq.ne.jp/cabic508/rsf/frame1.html