I’m not doing anything (2020)
This piece will be showing on the Heroes Gallery website from 3/4 - 3/6, 2022, in conjunction with the group show GNAW. An abridged version of this video was also published by Quarantine Arts in March 2020. Parts of the text will be recognizable from elsewhere. I plagiarize myself a lot.
I’m not doing anything (unerring robots) (2020)
when the sadness persists
with your head and your hands
sing a little song
next to your heart
sing a song to your heart:
“wherever you are,
here i am”
what—should this—really be about
there will be more poetry
i will do a different show than—I—thought
and i do not need to explain
and no one does
ever
again
let this—
i never have to explain again
let this speak
let it speak
just this
…..
let this be a mess
there was so much suffering then
like you couldn’t imagine
and the belief that that was life
if you make the robot lose its train of thought occasionally
if you make the robot need to rest
occasionally
“to err is human—”
just this
“—unerring…robots.”
and what’s happening is
i’m not doing anything
does our suffering make us beautiful?
does our imperfection introduce
chance?
our interaction with the universe has the holes
for it to seep through
if you’re all light no holes
if you’re the light that comes through the holes
“to be perfectly en-light-ened”
—unerring robots—
but to have compassion
to make beauty of our history of suffering
“what would you do if you never had to die?”
i’m not doing anything
“to err is human—-unerring …robots”
“your problem isn’t going to be money it’s going to be being happy—”
we will be enabled…we will be enabled by computation
“—focus on being happy.” when we get
nano implants?
sure why not
“to watch with curiosity what the human is doing”
what would you do if you never had to die?
im not doing anything
i’m watching
im watching it happen
from somewhere else
there’s no time anymore for specialism
and my thing versus your thing
get in a room
listen to the others
build something
NOW
“there’s no time anymore for specialism
and my thing versus your thing
get in a room—”
i’m not sure? shhhh
“—listen to the others,
build something,
now,
there isn’t time to plan or control
prepare your part and come
urgency urgency
everyone get together
make your offerings for the sake of our spiritual survival for the sake of
love for the sake of
life itself for the sake of beating what threatens to tear us apart
no more comparison!
inclusion radical inclusion
no more “outside”
nothing is “outside” anymore i didn’t bring enough socks or maybe warm clothes? i’ll be fine”
loose pearls through the sewer great
loose pearls through
the sewer grate
“i think—-
music…sharing music"
i feel like i my dont have a my i made a i hope i feel like i made a i dont have my meh-did
distance
i made a distance in my speaking and my trying “you’re in a hole i’m sunlight” it’s different
“i end the piece by listening
for what…might be next
for what i cannot hear”
subtlest score
micro sounds
vocal manipulation
moment of broken apart, deconstructed speech
some combination, some silence? i’m not sure
a sj—hhhh
a listening
sliding down into the pool in the under-mind
i end the piece by listening for what might be next, for what i cannot hear
a sj—hhhh
a sj—uhhh
a sj—hhhh