Utagawa, Hiroshige is one of Japan's most famous woodblock print artists. His most famous series of works is a set of travel-related and historical images called 53 Stations of the Tokaido. The Tokaido was the road which started outside the gate of the Tokyo capital and led to Kyoto. Along this road were 52 check stations at which officials would check travel certificates and try to catch illegal travelers.
I found a box of card-sized prints of Hiroshige's prints being sold by a guy--amidst other junk he was selling--in a basketball court under Kujo station of the Chuo subway line.
To begin with, the Kujo subway station interests me because it is one of a few stations on the Osaka subway which is ironically elevated above the ground. So, I like having bought the box of cards--which seem to have been produced to sell to foreign tourists (as there are English descriptions on the box)--in a street-level basketball court about 10 meters under the subway station, for ¥500.
The cards are quite nice, and while the box is rather battered, the cards are in very good shape (which is probably what the box is designed to do: protect its contents). Good Job, Box!!
When I bought the cards, I had the idea to use them for some kind of project in connection to moving around Osaka. Even though the cards have no thematic connection to Osaka, that doesn't matter. Osaka, for me, can serve as the venue for most anything. And, as I have used a map of Osaka for previous dérivey projects, that was my first thought of how to approach the cards. From there I decided to drop each card on to the map, trace the edges of where they fall and then use those boundaries as the frames within which to search.
I’ve dropped stuff on this map before. It’s not terribly original, and thus it becomes something to learn from. Originality is fun, fresh, new and unique, but sometimes it prevents depths possible from doing something again and again. Of learning from repeating. So, this time what interests me is how to drop the cards. While I've usually used a chance procedure, letting the card land somewhere without my active control, this time I've decided to try and adopt more of a contrary procedure. The difference between chance actions and contrary actions reveals some nuances I want to explore in this project as a whole. This difference feels like it can reveal some interesting things related to another primary theme in this project: being “in the zone” (as the title of this project alludes). But, also, contrariness seems like it can maybe give some insights into a third theme I am always exploring, that is, how to get lost within a city I now know well enough to not really get lost anymore. I want to write, "Lostness can be facilitated in certain tactics of addressing space rather than place," but we'll see if that pans out and if contrariness helps make it happen.
But, first let me write about chance and contrary procedures.
Chance selections or chance operations (such as ones used by John Cage) seem to imply some other entity or power making the choice, such as some guiding energy that puts a unique order into place. While I have no problem with using chance, I am interested in examining how it makes me feel passive, puts me into an position from where I can’t expect to ask questions or confront the result. It sews an element of destiny into a context and makes me feel like I can’t put much pressure on the invisible functionary of chance otherwise I pollute the purity of the chance operation, presumably by trying to influence the invisible chance operator. Or, by not positively respecting the lot I get given, wasting my energy on doubt and selfish intention rather than just get on with searching for discoveries that I trust I will find if I engage the/any context given with the alchemical tools of improvisation, creativity and poetic-license that I know and love. To be honest, I don't really care how a zone of exploration gets decided because my primary interest is to explore how the tools of activation that I trust I have can be used, repurposed and deepened in the play of search. Part of me just doesn't want to bother deciding where to go because then the choice always seems partly polluted with my potential expectations or unconscious intentions. But, this time, chance feels like it kind of stinks of “Unseen Hand of the Market” bullshit, which seems popular to use to pacify pushback, squelch critique or deny providing help to innocent people in need. Cue the pacifying patriotic background music for the 2008 economic crash and the bailout of Wall Street.
However, contrary approches or procedures bring up an unsettled vibe. That is part of their function. “Jerry, Jerry. Quite contrary. How do you mark a map?”
Contrariness doesn’t align with a plan or abide by any axiomatic unity. A contrary approach doesn’t serve to stabilize any sense of a symmetrical balance of terms or harmonious resolution, doesn’t fit-in within the axial logic superstars that are assumed to do battle and reinforce the assumed match making between “compare/contrast,” “for/against,” “right/wrong,” or “passive/active.” Such assumed antagonisms reinforce the structural binary idea of opposites, group similars and compile a logic of relatability, but they don’t help a dragonfly live amidst this fiery chaos. “Each contrary is a forking path, an alternate route for every instance one is tempted by affirmation” (Culp: Dark Deleuze #331). Contraries suspend surety, making it/me unsure what fundamental ground (if any) is supporting a discussion or a glance or a trajectory across city. Contraries undermind assumptions that underpin logic and its programmatic conclusions and expectations. . . . . . . . .
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I found a box of card-sized prints of Hiroshige's prints being sold by a guy--amidst other junk he was selling--in a basketball court under Kujo station of the Chuo subway line.
To begin with, the Kujo subway station interests me because it is one of a few stations on the Osaka subway which is ironically elevated above the ground. So, I like having bought the box of cards--which seem to have been produced to sell to foreign tourists (as there are English descriptions on the box)--in a street-level basketball court about 10 meters under the subway station, for ¥500.
The cards are quite nice, and while the box is rather battered, the cards are in very good shape (which is probably what the box is designed to do: protect its contents). Good Job, Box!!
When I bought the cards, I had the idea to use them for some kind of project in connection to moving around Osaka. Even though the cards have no thematic connection to Osaka, that doesn't matter. Osaka, for me, can serve as the venue for most anything. And, as I have used a map of Osaka for previous dérivey projects, that was my first thought of how to approach the cards. From there I decided to drop each card on to the map, trace the edges of where they fall and then use those boundaries as the frames within which to search.
I’ve dropped stuff on this map before. It’s not terribly original, and thus it becomes something to learn from. Originality is fun, fresh, new and unique, but sometimes it prevents depths possible from doing something again and again. Of learning from repeating. So, this time what interests me is how to drop the cards. While I've usually used a chance procedure, letting the card land somewhere without my active control, this time I've decided to try and adopt more of a contrary procedure. The difference between chance actions and contrary actions reveals some nuances I want to explore in this project as a whole. This difference feels like it can reveal some interesting things related to another primary theme in this project: being “in the zone” (as the title of this project alludes). But, also, contrariness seems like it can maybe give some insights into a third theme I am always exploring, that is, how to get lost within a city I now know well enough to not really get lost anymore. I want to write, "Lostness can be facilitated in certain tactics of addressing space rather than place," but we'll see if that pans out and if contrariness helps make it happen.
But, first let me write about chance and contrary procedures.
Chance selections or chance operations (such as ones used by John Cage) seem to imply some other entity or power making the choice, such as some guiding energy that puts a unique order into place. While I have no problem with using chance, I am interested in examining how it makes me feel passive, puts me into an position from where I can’t expect to ask questions or confront the result. It sews an element of destiny into a context and makes me feel like I can’t put much pressure on the invisible functionary of chance otherwise I pollute the purity of the chance operation, presumably by trying to influence the invisible chance operator. Or, by not positively respecting the lot I get given, wasting my energy on doubt and selfish intention rather than just get on with searching for discoveries that I trust I will find if I engage the/any context given with the alchemical tools of improvisation, creativity and poetic-license that I know and love. To be honest, I don't really care how a zone of exploration gets decided because my primary interest is to explore how the tools of activation that I trust I have can be used, repurposed and deepened in the play of search. Part of me just doesn't want to bother deciding where to go because then the choice always seems partly polluted with my potential expectations or unconscious intentions. But, this time, chance feels like it kind of stinks of “Unseen Hand of the Market” bullshit, which seems popular to use to pacify pushback, squelch critique or deny providing help to innocent people in need. Cue the pacifying patriotic background music for the 2008 economic crash and the bailout of Wall Street.
However, contrary approches or procedures bring up an unsettled vibe. That is part of their function. “Jerry, Jerry. Quite contrary. How do you mark a map?”
Contrariness doesn’t align with a plan or abide by any axiomatic unity. A contrary approach doesn’t serve to stabilize any sense of a symmetrical balance of terms or harmonious resolution, doesn’t fit-in within the axial logic superstars that are assumed to do battle and reinforce the assumed match making between “compare/contrast,” “for/against,” “right/wrong,” or “passive/active.” Such assumed antagonisms reinforce the structural binary idea of opposites, group similars and compile a logic of relatability, but they don’t help a dragonfly live amidst this fiery chaos. “Each contrary is a forking path, an alternate route for every instance one is tempted by affirmation” (Culp: Dark Deleuze #331). Contraries suspend surety, making it/me unsure what fundamental ground (if any) is supporting a discussion or a glance or a trajectory across city. Contraries undermind assumptions that underpin logic and its programmatic conclusions and expectations. . . . . . . . .
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