–A first-hand experience of the impacts of stress and poor anger management in two acts and a baroque-like subheader, almost longer than the two acts on themselves-
ACT I: The derailment
ACT II: To heal and to reconstruct
– – – BACKSTAGE – – –
This action connects with actions 3 and 4 in terms of materiality and the explorations I’ve been doing on making with wire, rather than in terms of the concept. This was more like an exploration about one of the ways stress manifests to me which is through soaring hands.
My hands are, by far, my tools of choice. I work with my hands doing carpentry, I work in a pizzeria, and I play the guitar. When I’m under stress or not rested enough, I can feel the tension and fatigue bulking up in my hands. This action was an expression of that, but it was also an action for the pure joy of making and having fun with the process. It worked, after all, as a way to make my hands relax and have a little fun during a Sunday afternoon.
DISCLAIMER: No hands were harmed during the footage. The goofy finger is just one more of my old football injuries.
Thanks to my wife, Agustina, for taking care of the backstage footage and the pics while my hands were busy. Gotta give credit!
For this action, I left my apartment and went out for a walk into nature. I went to the woods nearby home with the idea of looking for examples nature could provide me for Scaling Out (Vs. Scaling Up), the Stretch Lexicon concept I had been working with. In the beginning, I started looking for examples of those things I related to the concept such as horizontal and vertical growth, spreading and other assorted associations I would make.
The (uncountable) trees surrounding me were the perfect place for starting. I started looking at the roots and thinking how those could represent for me an instance of horizontal growth and a notion of scaling out, necessary for providing the anchor for the vertically growing trunk. But then, at the same time, that vertically oriented growth is simultaneous to a diametrical and horizontal growth of the trunk, as the rings can elegantly assess. At different stages of the process, branches would grow in more complex and perhaps less defined trajectories, with their own processes of vertical, horizontal and diametrical growing, perpendicularly to the trunk where they would also leave their imprint and rings.
Grey the sky, green the horizon; that cold, wet, October afternoon was a perfect match with the many fallen old trees lying on the brown ground. With their aged roots in the open-air extending vertically and their resting trunks, with missing parts and holes in the rotting wood, those trees and that place were becoming more absorbing by the minute. At some point, without being conscious about it I was no longer thinking in Scaling Out (vs. Scaling Up) but, rather, I was totally committed to just observing the trees and all the things happening and growing around them. From then on I was there in the woods just observing and photographing, glad to be out in the open air, which I found I really needed.
Back at home I went into a different process but still observing those things that caught my attention. I downloaded the pictures to my iPad and started drawing them with the Honestizator, my gadget made for Action 3. The difference with what I had done in the previous action was that this time I wouldn’t be drawing on the iPad and translating that to the paper. This time I would just follow interesting traces and contours in the photograph with the iPencil while simultaneously drawing in the paper with the pen. Doing this allowed me to observe those pictures deeper and deeper every time I would find something interesting and to transfer that into the paper without looking or even thinking about the drawing itself. The Honestizator was useful this time more for tracing my observation rather than for translating my intentions as it was on Action 3.
The first illustrations were pretty simple and uniform in their traces, but as I was getting more used to the balance and weight of the gadget and getting deeper into the observation, I would spend a longer time on every drawing and the traces would become more complex and with different thicknesses. After doing some illustrations on paper, I drew on some Screentones for representing the translucence of the leaves and added those to the branches. As an alternative strategy, I also went into drawing without looking in a couple of illustrations. Finally, as I also had done in action 3, I used some wire and traced the shadow cast by the figure.
From the woods back to the apartment for drawing with The Honestizator
Scaling Out (vs. Scaling Up) was the definition from the Stretch Lexicon I used for this action. The goal with this work was to start from the screen and expand into new spaces. As I mentioned in ACTION 2: Terroir, I didn’t feel that represented by the illustrations I made for that assignment so, this new action was an opportunity for me to take off from where I left and doing some modifications.
The premise of starting from the screen and extending/making into new spaces led me to think about connecting something digital with something material. I wanted to try again with illustration so, I thought of drawing something on the screen and something in a different, material space. On the digital end I would use an ipencil and my iPad, and at the material end I would use a pencil/pen and a paper. For connecting both ends I had to use some kind of bridging device, and for that I made my own Digital to Analog Converter (let’s make it sound fancy) using wire.
SCALING OUT (VS. SCALING UP)
As an exercise, I forced myself not to look up for the concept until finishing this post so that my actions were less conditioned and reflecting accurately the idea didn’t become an interference in the lapse of time between choosing the concept and starting with the action.
I wasn’t familiar with the concept, but the idea that Scaling Out (vs. Scaling Up) inspired me was one of a horizontal -or surrounding- growth vs. vertical growth, respectively. Whether the interpretation was accurate or not, it still worked for me as a trigger, and it allowed me to get into action right away.
While making the device, thinking about scaling and growth made me think about resources, and resources connected to people. So, I started by drawing on the left side of the screen a person and an excessively scaled up person. On the right side of the screen, I draw another person and then others the same size by the sides as scaling out. At some point, it felt right that the people scaling out horizontally could also lift up together in successive layers so that they could at least reach the same height as the super scaled up person. Interestingly enough, while people in the screen are organized pretty systematically until reaching the same height as the scaled up one, the people in the unruly paper came out way much taller.
The paper illustration looked interesting for being represented in a three-dimensional way so, I decided to go for a second instance of extension and reaching other spaces using wire again.
Thanks to my wife, Agustina, for taking care of the footage and pics while my hands were busy. Gotta give credit!
For this action, I was Iris He’s partner. Before starting with the experience, we made a video call to get to know each other a little more and discuss about what we both could or not eat, and the ingredients we could or not get in our respective locations. As an offering of a representative food with ancestral meaning, and for sure one of my favorites, I sent Iris diagrams for cooking dulce de leche [d̪ulseðeˈlet͡ʃe].
Dulce de leche is a very traditional and characteristic sweet in South America, widely consumed, particularly in Argentina and Uruguay. This is one of the things we Argentinians eat a lot and identify with the most. The origins of dulce de leche remain still today being disputed between many countries of South America, but I like to believe in the theory stating that it was born in Argentina.
Some dulce de leche of my own production
The -Argentinian- legend about the birth of dulce de leche says that it was first made by accident in 1829 when the cook for Juan Manuel de Rosas (the governor of Buenos Aires province at the time) forgot some milk with sugar cooking for some hours. Apparently, she was preparing Rosas some warm, sweet milk for serving with the mate -our very characteristic infusion-, but at some point, after an incident, she forgot about it. When she came back to the kitchen, she found this brown, dense and sweet new thing which turned out to be some kind of mistake that everyone instantly loved.
If that story really happened or not is still being discussed and it’s not that important anyway, but the idea of an accident leading to such a sweet success is really interesting to me. I decided to share this with Iris not only because it’s so characteristic of Argentina and because of the culinary experience in itself. I offered dulce de leche to Iris because of the inspiring idea of a ‘big hit’ being discovered by making mistakes. In that sense, if my diagrams had led Iris into different directions, she may have had a great and different outcome as well, and that could have been interesting as well. After all, dulce de leche was born like that -or so I like to think-.
Dulce de leche doesn’t have any particular rituals or ceremony for eating, but the experience of cooking it brings a sweet aroma of vanilla and caramel that usually extends from the kitchen to other rooms of the house as it slowly cooks sitting on the stove for several hours.
For this action, I tried to use as few words as possible and I avoided sending pictures or videos. I just used the words I couldn’t express another way and offered Iris only the strictly necessary information so that she could have the sensorial experience of cooking dulce de leche in the least influenced way possible. My goal was to create an appropriate level of uncertainty during the whole process so that everything came as unexpected as possible, trying to recreate somehow the moment that dulce de leche was discovered, back in 1829. After all, Iris was about to discover dulce de leche by herself as well.
I guess the diagrams were effective and worked pretty well for transmitting how to cook the offering. Actually, Iris made a really great looking dulce de leche, which is something very hard to achieve when doing it for the first time(s), and even more so when you don’t even know how it’s supposed to look or taste! On the other hand, I’m not so sure I feel represented by the illustrations I made and the approach I used for drawing those. There’s something in those drawings made with an iPad and ipencil that I feel somehow as a disconnection: It’s me the one who’s tracing those lines, but those lines aren’t really mine.
In case you’re interested in giving dulce de leche a try, here’s the file:
Iris’s offering were some delicious scrambled eggs with tomatoes and these were her instructions:
These are the slides for my experience cooking Iris’s offering:
Thanks to Iris for this great and tasty offering! I really enjoyed cooking (and eating) this, and my wife also really loved it. This is definitely going to be added to our regular menu and culinary repertoire.
You should try Iris’s recipe, it’s great!
Thanks to my wife, Agustina, for taking care of the pics while my hands were busy. Gotta give credit!
For this first action, I was Chiara Schmitt’s partner. This assignment was a nice opportunity for getting to know each other, sharing some of our backgrounds and previous works, sharing some music, and sharing about our lives as a German and an Argentinian. The core topics of those conversations were Home Ground and Identity, and what those mean to each other. The actions and reflections I’ll post here are a product of those conversations.
I’m not currently living on home ground, even though I’m in a place where I feel comfortable and where I guess I could live for a long time.I’ve been living in Denmark for seven months now, but this is still a place where I’m not planning to stay. At this moment, I can only call home ground my ancestral location: Argentina.
Until not so long ago, my answer to what home ground was for me would have been fairly straightforward: both Junin, my home town during childhood, and Buenos Aires during adulthood. But now, after being away from home for some time, my perception of home ground has grown and feels like a wider concept. During my first years in Buenos Aires, my representation of home ground was Junin. As years went by and I started to settle in Buenos Aires, that big city became part of my concept of home ground as well -a feeling which was intensified by the time of arriving in Copenhagen-. Currently, through the distance and after some time, the concept of home ground feels more comprehensive, and it’s related to Argentina in general: somehow even those places in Argentina I have never visited have something of home ground for me now.
HOME GROUND [past - present]:
JUNIN --> (JUNIN + BUENOS AIRES) --> ARGENTINA
Nevertheless, I think that home ground can eventually mean for me a new place outside Argentina in the future as well. I believe home ground is for me a place where I can settle, feel comfortable, do the things I want to do, and share my time with people I choose to share it with. In that sense, the same way as my perception of home ground changed and grew as I changed and I grew, this concept may continue to be modified as long as I keep doing so with myself. Home ground already means for me many different places at once, so there might as well be room for a new place fitting in that tag in the future.
HOME GROUND [past - future]:
JUNIN --> (JUNIN + BUENOS AIRES) --> ARGENTINA --> (ARGENTINA + _INSERT PLACE HERE_)
WHAT IS PART OF MY IDENTITY?
The places I’ve lived in, the many things I’ve learned from the people that surround me, the music I’ve listened to since I was a kid, the thousand hours of playing and watching football, the things I’ve built as a hobby or as a job, the good and the bad experiences I’ve gone through, the good and the bad decisions I’ve made, and probably many other things I’ve lived but I’m not acknowledging now/yet.
THE ACTIONS DESCRIBING HOME GROUND
More than one action came to my mind while working on this assignment, and I wanted to explore some of them. These actions may be more or less complex, but they all relate at some point and have something in common: sharing with friends and family, definitely a big part of what home ground means to me.
ACTION 1.1:STARTING A FIRE FOR AN ARGENTINIAN ASADO
WHAT IS ASADO?
Asado [a. – sa. – ðo.] is a traditional meal in Argentina, probably the most representative one of our culture. It’s basically grilled meat but the main difference with a barbecue, for instance, are the grills and the meat cuts we use, and the use of coal or wood -or both- for generating the embers for slowly cooking the meat without using any fuel at all.
HOW DOES THIS ACTION REFLECT HOME GROUND FOR ME?
Starting the fire is the first of many things to do when cooking an asado. The whole cooking process, from starting the fire to serving, can take from 2,5 to 4 hours -or even more- depending on the meat cuts, the cooking method used, and the number of people eating. Although it may sound like a lot of time and work, one of the best things about an asado is that it’s usually made with the guests being around and participating. It’s a shared experience from the beginning to the end.
Making an asado is usually the perfect reason for friends and families getting together in Argentina during weekends or even weekdays. Whether it’s celebrating a birthday, watching a football match or just getting together to eat, whatever excuse we may find will be enough for making an asado. For me, the great thing about asado is not only the food itself but also that it always means sharing with others for so many hours.
Some weeks ago, my wife, two Argentinian friends, and I met to make an asado in a park in Copenhagen. There are three Argentinian style grills in that park so, naturally, being 4 Argentinians with an available propper grill in Copenhagen, the excuse for making an asado was already at hand. The photos below show a little about the experience of cooking, helping and sharing that usually occur every time during an asado:
It always rains in Denmark but, with some helping hands that’s not a problem.
ACTION 1.2:CRANKING UP THE VOLUME AND PLAYING MY GUITAR (LOUD)
Turning the volume up and playing guitar loud has always been a very liberating experience for me. It’s not that much about that old, classic rock n’ roll thing of rebellion and defiance channelized through decibels rather than a physical and expressive thing.
It’s a physical thing because higher volumes move higher amounts of air, which you can not only hear, but you can also feel as vibrations hit your body. It’s an expressive thing because high volume can also allow a bigger expression range: high volume enables you to be heard and felt, but it also allows you to turn down and play softer when you need it. Volume gives more room for expressing ideas, loudly and/or softly. Turning the volume down, on the other hand, reduces the possibilities, and with that, part of the expressive range reduces as well, which can be uninspiring.
In addition to those two feelings, I can also relate playing my guitar loud with the idea of home ground. Leaving Argentina, among other things, meant leaving behind my band, the studio where we rehearsed, and other people I used to play with. Playing guitar at considerable volumes and making music with other people was something I used to do many times a week back in Argentina. For the last months in Denmark, the scenario has been completely different for me, even becoming quite the opposite: now it’s just me in an apartment playing and recording music made by me alone, at the lowest volume possible, sometimes plugged to a pretty small amplifier but, mostly, playing unplugged or connected to a computer.
SO,
FOR ME, HOME GROUND FEELS SOMETHING LIKE THIS:
ALTHOUGH, I’M CURRENTLY DEALING WITH THIS:
The good thing is that I know the second GIF is part of a transitional phase, and home ground is always there, just a turn of a knob away…
ACTION 1.3: PREPARING A MATE
WHAT IS MATE?
Mate is a traditional and pretty unique South American infusion. The mate (the container itself) is usually a dried, cut and hollowed pumpkin, although other materials can be used. The infusion consists of small ground yerbamate leaves, which are spread inside the mate and then infused with hot water (70ºC). For drinking the infusion, a metal straw is used.
One of the special things about mate is that it’s a really long lasting infusion. With only one preparation -and a good technique-, it can be used many times, allowing to prepare around 1.5 liters of infusion maintaining a nice taste and temperature without needing to replace the Yerba. This makes matean excellent infusion to share with other people. In South America, people drink mate everyday -probably many times every day-, and it’s absolutely common to find many people sharing one mate. Of course, this is not a safe practice nowadays in COVID-19 times, and that’s changed during the last months but, before Coronavirus, it was absolutely normal to share a mate with many people. Even with people you’ve just met…
For me, mate -as well as asado-, is strongly associated with sharing. I have drank countless amounts of mate with friends and family, and every time I have one here in Denmark, it works as a little reminder of home and the ones I’ve shared mates with. Every mate is a little piece of home ground, wherever I am.
ACTION 1.4: GREETIN’ & HUGGIN’
Greeting with a hug is another thing I’m almost not doing at all these days and, at the same time, something that strongly reminds me of home. Hugging when greeting someone is absolutely usual in Argentina, but less so in Denmark (or at least for what I’ve experienced or seen so far).
Of course, and to be fair, I must say that I don’t have as near the friends -and even less family- here than in Argentina, and with Coronavirus going on, greeting with a hug is not advisable nowadays.
So, for this action, I hugged an iPad which, although feeling strange, may still be a valid way of greeting someone through the distance as I would do at home ground under normal circumstances.
