Tout Comme Elle

The Toronto premier of Tout Comme Elle, that was apparently very popular in Montreal, was very popular here too with a very civil queue snaking round and round in the foyer for people waiting to collect tickets before the show!

Everything about the city seems so spacious, well paced and relaxed. Although it was a bit of a culture shock initially arriving downtown on the bus after weeks in the mountains, fields and forests, it's very quickly become the comfortable place I remember from our day-ling visit last year!

The show was great - from the moment I arrived under the star-like skies of the St Lawrence Centre, to see fifty pairs of sleek heeled shoes positioned over the stage. 

To walking, several streets away after the performance, still turning when I hear a couple of women's voices talking closely, swaying forms in the conversation waves, that may have been about anything, and felt that they could still be about being Elle.

The program gave nothing away, just a long packed biography of a dozen or so production team and fifty women stars.   

But the awakening, empathy, generous twinkling in the eye, laughter, depth of emotion and synchronicity were all part of a pretty tangible sense of a commons created here tonight. Wow, wonderful looking round the auditorium as we all stood to get up and drift away, at so many women, mothers, daughters too, all now one in a sisterhood of recognition, Elle. 

Men looked clumsily out of place, a bit embarrassed, selfconscious, or simply not-so-present as the women celebrating their renewed commonality of experience the world over.

A wonderful evening of theatre!

Colour Grid 1000063

Origami. That was the other beautiful suggestion on the colour grids from my studio-mate yesterday. The strong bright colours , folds of paper, 3G Rubik cube emerging, of origami. 

This grid moves, has so many patterns rhythms dynamics tensions I can see it's form spring to life through this magical ancient (?)paper art. Where can I find origami paper? I can make my own, practice paper constructions like the 10 steps from 0 to 10 of foundation exercises. Made real with the grids. 

I see how quick time goes how delicate to hold the days plan. Struck how after even 4 days here a simple task of putting water in the right hole, coffee in the tray ( take sachet out of foil wrap first) jug under tray and switch to on ( power remains a constant, no need to replug) such a simple task has superceded me several times already since coming here! I have a first sensation of what it may be like to be a nun in a monastery!

Message sent from a handheld device.

Jackie Calderwood

www.jackiecalderwood.com

Begin forwarded message: 

 

Things I see here are:

Harmony balance a grounded sky. As above so below.

I notice:

Patterns and vibrations a strong cohesive form.

I notice that as I scroll up to look at it I can touch it with my fingers 

changing it's colours clumsily if I'm not careful.

The colours in this grid are like:

A song of strength, equal tension, rhythm. normality

I made this colour grid at http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51.171619,-115.561142 using http://twitter.com/gathererapp

This is a very beautiful thing, it's quite delicate to hold. As I made it I knew exactly as it should be. As I wrote of it I inadvertently changed it's form several times. I had to think hard and be careful to return to to how it was made. The logic wasn't as clear in reverse. But when I got there and trusted it was right then I saw the original beauty more clearly. Defined on it's fragility and strong in it's repercussions, resonant pathways stretching out way beyond the grid.

This is the remembering that I take as a tool into the balance of seeing- making-doing-being and Writing-reflecting-seeking to understand. For understand comes from the making where one stands under the feeling of what is become; and knowledge (spoken) comes from the remembering of the action in the truth of what is made. Not from making it anew.

Catching up!

Yes, a morning swim was a good idea, I think my soul's catching up! There's a saying I love (from the middle east ? sufi maybe?) that the soul travels at the pace of a camel. Since first drawing up the structure for my thesis 18months ago there's been this little message I slip in (one of many..) with that saying. I know it has something to say on the way we experience pervasive media, connections across time, space (real and virtual).

It was great to hear Plan B's project recently at the Nottingham Towards Pervasive Media event, Soul tracking, where Dan talked about the soul travelling at walking pace, and both he and Sophia were using an iphone app to track their emotional response to his journey and separation by travel. Early findings were that flights between Berlin and the UK with short research/work visits would take about a 3 day lag on his 'soul'.

I prefer the camel though, it feels more scope to run with wind in your hair. It sits well with me that the soul can carry a person with it, trot and gallop, play stubborn and refuse to move, carry it's own resources and survive even long times in the desert. So 3 days into arriving across the Atlantic (and most of this massive East to West landmass too) I wonder if my camel's caught up with me yet? How far can a camel swim! Or can they fly... a magic flying camel sounds like a creature for an Arabian geoartcache!

Which brings me to the catching. Swimming and a whirlpool. The light is different in the pool in the morning. Not the same beautiful ripples of light bouncing off the surface and reflecting on walls and windows that I love about evening swimming. Instead a much more work-like, present focus of moving through the water. Three things clarified as i swam over the same small area of the pool back and forth:

1. The magical creature of Canada is the magical creature of the Commons; that I can start to explore and invite people to bring to life with me here, and continue singing with it on my travels back and forth in Canada. This will be the 'public' project that I focus on here.

2. Spaces of Thought. Inspired and pondering by the 'space to think' , I realised that there are many spaces for thinking - thinking in different ways, and different kinds of space. Of course Clean Space (where I heard that I had been offered a place to come to Banff) may be a key to approaching and understanding, thinking about, this. 'Spaces of thought' feels like a structure that could deal with and address the various ideas I've come with - revisiting journeys, communication across time and place, interactive walks, reflection, creation and collaboration.  It feels good. It feels appropriate for here. More of a 'private' project. That I can share and learn from, articulate and interrogate with others whilst I am here.

3. Writing: I've been writing loads, and enjoying it, since modelling writing at my best. Now it's time to model academic writing at my best here in Banff, so that I can make use of the time to do that also, effective, enjoying and efficient.

With that, geology walks and messages from Jen, the day is comfortable, full and fluid... I may even have an evening before I fall asleep!