9th of June

Café Fresco Whilst having lunch at a local Canton café, Glenn and Wyn started chatting with the proprietor.

He is a Kurd from Turkey who started telling us his history. His father was killed by the Turks when he was 9 years old, “for being a Kurdish speaker”. His mother then came to Britain as an asylum seeker in 1996, gained refugee status and then brought her kids over to live in London. Other workers in the café are also Kurds, but from Iraq. They can understand each other, but sometimes with difficulty, because one has many Arabic words entering their language, while another has many Turkish words.

He also mentioned how him and his brother (who runs the Tuck In café), were recently visited by the CID, accusing them of supporting terrorism (the PKK). Kurdistan, of course, is spread across four different states: Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. We don’t yet know the name of the young man, but he is very chatty and is keen to talk about his experiences. It occurred to both of us that we should talk to him again and maybe think about building some work around the subject, e.g. Kurdish culture moiréed differently in each state of the four states.

WM

12th of May

Meeting at Artstation

Alexis is organising a mini-conference for the 11th of December at Cardiff Uni, called Cultural Translation. Wyn will present Continental Drift, Glenn to present Moiré work (Creole Project?).

This will be followed up in Spring 2010 with a bigger conference called The Moiré Effect in Cardiff. Alexis suggested giving it a “disgustingly attractive” sub-title, like: A New Paradigm of Social Science. The idea is to present moiré as a new rhetoric for the arts, science and politics. The way Alexis thinks about this is as follows:

Moiré = a Trojan Horse
Migration = the soldiers within!

Suggestion: we should contact the European Delegation in Wales re our Brussels project.

Glenn would like to invite Tom Hall from the Cardiff School of Social Sciences to our next meeting.

WM

24th of April

Research seminar at the Centre of European Studies, Cardiff Uni.

• Glenn presented the Paperwork project & Wyn screened film.
• Glenn presented the Creole project and the moire metaphor & Wyn presented Continental Drift.

Comments by Alexis...

Re the jump as user language: it can be seen as a literal representation of suspension, but literalism is all that asylum seekers have. There is the signifier and signified. The asylum seeker operates at the level of basic survival. Migrants don't have the luxury of dealing with anything beyond the signifier. Migrants are called back to the level of singnifiers.

Signifier/signified are notions attached to a binary system of representation. In the context of migration so is inside/outside.

A new situation demands a new rhetoric, a rhetoric that blurs the boundaries of binaries. In the 1980s we had structuralism; in the 1990s, deconstructionism; but now we don't have any script anymore. We have signifiers and we don't know what they signify, the beginnings of a new language. Alexis likes Paperwork because it represents a mediation between academia and the realities of the world. It doesn't project an ideology. A user language is only applicable to a particular situation, it does not claim to go beyond that. Libraries are cemeteries of user language, while cyber space is the exact opposite to a library. It is no accident that the notion of moire is developed by Glenn, an artist who fully embraces digital methods.

Alexis read out the Wikipedia quote on the history of the word moire' ... to everyone's great amusement! The moire metaphor can help undermine the ideology of purity that one finds within translation theory (purity of source language/purity of target language). No reality of the word, but only the trajectory of the word. Moire can an undermine the regime of object/image, and replace it with the notion of tapestry.

6th of April

Alexis, Glenn and Wyn meeting at Artstation

We discussed whether or not to pursue with the Beyond Text scheme or not, and decided to abandon it. The fact that they have covered migration prviously, and we would have to "play it down", is a major problem. Better for us to stay true to our original idea and find appropriate funding that fits closer to our intentions. Also, the deadline of the 7th of May is too tight.

So, where does this leave us now?

Glenn keen to keep pursuing the ultimate goal of exhibiting at the European Parliament building. We can however do both, pursue a similar Welsh Parliament building project, as a pilot project that will contribute towards realising the Brussels project.

• European Pariament. Art project based upon Glenn's moire' idea. Would include photographic stills and large scale projections of moving texts. Also, could include a documentary, made by Wyn, focusing on the individuals portrayed in the images. Would also coincide with an international conference, organised by Alexis.
• Welsh Senedd. Similar idea, but based in Wales. New potential title for the conference: The Morie' Effect: Translation & the Arts. Wyn could do a piece based on Continental Drift. A localised version, using migrant filmmakers and poets based in South Wales for this show (I'll call it Migration Drift as a working title).

We looked up the EU's themes for next year, which is: 2010 The European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exculsion. It seems doubtful that Glenn's moire' idea would fit, better to avoid applying for schemes connected with this stream of funding.

Alexis refers us to an essay by Walter Benjamin (that he himself has translated into French): The Task of the Translator. In it he states that "translation is not for those who don't understand the source language". I.e. the aim of translating is to create something new. This is what he would like to pursue with the conference, within the context of art practice - poetry, film, visual arts. Weblink to essay: http://www.scribd.com/doc/12733233/Walter-Benjamin-the-Task-of-Translator

We could aim for next Spring, say Easter 2010, as a date for the conference/art installation, develop our ideas and locate suitable funding opportunities.

Action points:

• Alexis: to identify suitable schemes to fund the Welsh Moire' Conference.
• Glenn: to create a pictorial presentation of the Brussels art installation proposal.
• Wyn: to investigate potential collaborators for the Migration Drift project.
• Each of us to write a short description of our contribution and post on blog.

We were reminded that we are due to present our ideas at a research workshop at Cardiff Uni on the 24th of April. This could be beneficial for us in clarifying our ideas and receiving initial feedback from colleagues.

The next meeting of the three of us is scheduled for Monday the 27th of April, 2.00, at Artstation.

25th of March

Glenn and Wyn at the Beyond Text grants workshop, Queen Mary University, London.

Useful  trip.  Good to take time out to focus on the project.  Here are some notes:

• transfer knowledge to fileds where it can make a difference

Beyond Text themes (a project should focus on no more than 2 of these):

• Making and unmaking - to unravel, stop/start;
• Performance, improvisation and embodied knowledge;
• Technology, innovation and tradition;
• Transmission & memory - memories communicated over time and space.

Aims & Objectives:

• work collaboratively;
• inter/multi-disciplinary;
• ensure that practice and theory learn from each other.  Outputs in many forms.
• cross boundaries.

Note: almost everything funded to date came in with external partners already in place.  This is useful because it is easier to demonstrate dissemination.

Practice-led/practice-based - the key question is this: How to extract methods from practice?

The RCUK's JeS (Joint electronic Submission).  It is essential that both the organisation, and the individual, are registered.  This needs to take place immediately, because it can take up to 6 weeks to register!  Go to website: https://je-s.rcuk.ac.uk and click on Create Account. 

What are they looking for, what is specifically welcome:

• practice-led methodologies;
• projects that address policy implications, digital implication, globalisation, digital Britain;
• history is currently missing.

Big, bold and ambitious projects cannot be done for £150K, within 18 months.  With this in mind projects can be:

• case studies;
• pilot projects.

Note: the outcomes must be appropriate for research, i.e. they support research, not art.  Don't focus too much on outputs, focus on research.

Think creatively about who might be interested in your research work.

The Principal Investigator will need to spend at least 4 hours a week on the project.

The earliest projects will be able to start: 7th of Dec; latest: 7th of June.

Wyn's thoughts:

One of the most useful part of the afternoon for me was discussing the project with a partner (Ali Campbell from QMUL).  He thought it interesting that our idea emerged from Wales.  This got me thinking about the film being a kind of case study of the moire' metaphor being put into action within the particular cultural context of Wales.  For example, it could focus on language: Welsh/English or even Wenglish (which can be perceived as a moire' pattern).  It makes sense that there should be a good reason why our research project is based in Wales.  

Who can benefit from the moire' metaphor?  How can the concept be effectively disseminated to those who can use it (both within academia and beyond)?  

Roles:

• ALEXIS: academic discourse/theory (Translation Studies)
• GLENN: visual art/concept (the moire' metaphor)
• WYN: film/context specific (moire' metaphor within the Welsh cultural landscape OR the moire' concept in action)

20th March 2009

Alexis, Glenn & Wyn at Artstation.

Alexis likes the idea of moire' becoming a central concept within the project.  He agrees that it fits very well - even the history of the word moire' is itself a moire'! 

What Alexis likes about the idea more than anything is its relevance to translation studies.  Translation, according to Alexis, has not really been theorised.  The study of translation, like many other disciplines in the West, is still dominated by "the limited lexicon of the Middle Ages".   When asked to expand upon this he explains that, essentially, a binary system of rhetoric continues to dominate Western thinking.  This "binary system" originated within ancient Greek philosophy (Plato's "ideal" versus "reality"), later it was developed within Christian philosophy (Heaven vs. Earth, Angels vs. the Devil, etc.).   This pattern is replicated within the context of translation: Text A is translated into Text B, one is the original and another a copy, the first is pure and the second is impure.  

Using the concept of moire', however, within the context of translation studies, represents a new rhetoric.  Grid A is placed on top of Grid B, but because of cultural differences, they are not perfectly aligned.  As a result a moire' pattern is created.  The cultural interference is made manifest, it can be perceived, discussed and analysed.  The two grids are in both a symbiotic and a dynamic relationship to each other; what is created goes beyond the sum of its parts.  One cannot be "reduced" to the other, their relationship has been made complex.  The moire' concept thus offers a model of irreducibility.  

Our discussion lead naturally to metaphor.  Glenn's notes used the word unproblematic-ally, but for Alexis the term is problematic.  Metaphor, in common parlance, continues to be imbedded within a binary system of rhetoric.  Reality vs. an image of reality.  Alexis prefers the term user language, a term borrowed from cybernetics, which we used within the Paperwork articles.  A user language does not claim to be anything more than a useful term within a particular context, at a particular moment of time.  It does not claim to have a directly equated with reality.  The term metaphor can be seen to be imposed from above (meta), whereas user language comes from below, it can be said to emerge organically from conversation.  However, Glenn claims that metaphor, as used with cybernetics, is different, is more complex, but needs to expand upon this. 

The concept of moire' introduces tapestry as a key concept of understanding and analysis.  Rather than using metaphor or an image to describe phenomenon, we can use tapestry.  The fact that moire' patters are sometimes experienced as moving, also captures the dynamic-ness of cultural changes.   We begin to move away from fixed images and embrace the ever-changing-ness of life.  In speaking form the tapestry, one could say, the project will be engaged with inventing a new rhetoric.  (We are aware that when writing the AHRC application, it will be necessary to tone down our grandiose claims!)  

20th March EXTRA NOTES

On the Moire and Interference
Etymology of the term Moire is fascinating keep in mind our search for new rhetoric in respect of migration - the migratory linguistic history of the term moire:

From the Wikipedia:

The term originates from moire (or moiré in its French form), a type of textile, traditionally of silk but now also of cotton or synthetic fiber, with a rippled or 'watered' appearance. The history of the word moiré is complicated. The earliest agreed origin is the Arabic mukhayyar (مُخَيَّر in Arabic, which means chosen), a cloth made from the wool of the Angora goat, from khayyara (خيّر in Arabic), 'he chose' (hence 'a choice, or excellent, cloth'). It has also been suggested that the Arabic word was formed from the Latin marmoreus, meaning 'like marble'. By 1570 the word had found its way into English as mohair. This was then adopted into French as mouaire, and by 1660 (in the writings of Samuel Pepys) it had been adopted back into English as moire or moyre. Meanwhile the French mouaire had mutated into a verb, moirer, meaning 'to produce a watered textile by weaving or pressing', which by 1823 had spawned the adjective moiré. Moire (pronounced "mwar") and moiré (pronounced "mwar-ay") are now used somewhat interchangeably in English, though moire is more often used for the cloth and moiré for the pattern.

Here we see migrants as undesirable artifacts !:
[edit] Pattern formation Moiré patterns are often an undesired artifact of images produced by various digital imaging and computer graphics techniques, for example when scanning a halftone picture or ray tracing a checkered plane (the latter being a special case of aliasing, due to undersampling a fine regular pattern).

The drawing on the upper right shows a moiré pattern. The lines could represent fibers in moiré silk, or lines drawn on paper or on a computer screen.


THIS IS NOT PREDICTABLE ...
The nonlinear interaction of the optical patterns of lines creates a real and visible pattern of roughly horizontal dark and light bands, the moiré pattern, superimposed on the lines.[1] More complex line moiré patterns are created if the lines are curved or not exactly parallel. Moiré patterns revealing complex shapes, or sequences of symbols embedded in one of the layers (in form of periodically repeated compressed shapes) are created with shape moiré, otherwise called band moiré patterns. One of the most important properties of shape moiré is its ability to magnify tiny shapes along either one or both axes, that is, stretching. A common 2D example of moiré magnification occurs when viewing a chain-link fence through a second chain-link fence of identical design. The fine structure of the design is visible even at great distances. The moiré is also related to effects seem as imaging through various types of display

The term shadow mask and tension mask attracted me to:

Aperture grille
The Wiki again: Aperture grille based CRT in close-up Image rendered by aperture grille

An aperture grille (tension mask) is one of two major technologies used to manufacture color cathode ray tube (CRT) televisions and computer displays; the other is shadow mask.

Fine vertical wires behind the front glass of the display screen separate the different colors of phosphors into strips. These wires are positioned such that an electron beam from one of three guns at the rear of the tube is only able to strike phosphors of the appropriate color. That is, the blue electron gun will strike blue phosphors, but will find a wire blocks the path to red and green phosphors.

The fine wires allow for a finer dot pitch as they can be spaced much closer together than the perforations of a shadow mask, and there need be no gap between adjacent horizontal pixels. During the display of bright images, a shadow mask will heat up, and expand outward in all directions (sometimes called blooming). Aperture Grilles do not exhibit this behavior - when the wires heat up, they expand vertically. Because there are no defined holes, this expansion does not affect the image, and the wires do not move horizontally.

Frequency fluctuations - different from Moire..
The vertical wires of the aperture grille have a resonant frequency and will vibrate in sympathetic resonance with loud sounds near the display, resulting in fluttering and shimmering of colors on the display. To reduce these resonant effects, one or two horizontal stabilizing wires are welded across the grille wires, and may be visible as fine dark lines across the face of the screen. These stabilizing wires provide the easiest way to distinguish aperture grille and shadow mask displays at a glance. The stabilized grille can still vibrate but the sounds need to be loud and in close proximity to the display.

Additionally, aperture grille displays tend to be vertically flat and are often horizontally flat as well, while shadow mask displays usually have a spherical curvature.

The first patented aperture grille televisions were manufactured by Sony in the late 1960s under the Trinitron brand name, which the company carried over to its line of CRT computer monitors. Subsequent designs, either licensed from Sony or manufactured after the patent's expiration, tend to use the -tron suffix, such as Mitsubishi's DiamondTron and ViewSonic's SonicTron.

While many considered aperture grille technology to produce superior images, advances in shadow mask and hybrid technologies since the 1990s have made people's preferences more a matter of personal choice or specific application. The arrival of inexpensive liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors and other flat-screen designs now challenges both aperture grille and shadow mask CRTs' long reign as the dominant technology behind display screens.

On metaphor - the work of G Pask and Cybernetics.
On Information, conversation and communication theory.

Paper: Cybernetic contributions to a theory of communication : the cases of Donald M. MacKay and Gordon Pask by Dr Albert Muller - Department of Contemporary History in University of Vienna.
albert.mueller@univie.ac.at

Paper for the Austrian Society for Cybernetic Studies. Cybernetics and Systems
Volume 1 - 2008 - Robert Trappl - editor

... discusses how Claude E Shannon's 'A mathematical theory of communication' of 1948 deals with second law of thermodynamics through Ludwig Boltzmans findings on entropy phenomena and the reliability of signal transmission. In the 1980's Shannon became a kind of cult author amongst post-modern media theorists. Muller shows how the work of MacKay and Pask build on deficiencies in Shannons work - Mackay bringing semantics and meaning into discussion ... " Pask concentrated additionally on the characteristics of actors or participants and provided an overall framework of communication by embedding special situations into an observer related system"...

This Moire interference project may be developed to be consistent with Shannon, MacKay and Pasks differing conception of communication.

Notes by GD