This is a photo taken by my bag........as it arrived over Solovki this morning...it is here with me now

Misha…..did you see that cat?

C’on……..there are thousands of cats on this island.

The dead one. Frozen on the ground. It has a small hole in its stomach and its guts taken out.

The one near your flat, Yes.

Will anybody remove it?

The dogs perhaps.

I was stood in the middle of the forest and I am sure I heard somebody whisper.

And?

I don’t know…perhaps I did...... perhaps I didn’t.

Go on?

Well I understand sometimes if you spend time on your own….words can slip between being inside and outside…sometimes words from songs, its stupid , you know…….but this was different.

Ok

With all the ice in the trees, so cold, the trees they chatter all the time.

You heard this in English or Russian?

I don’t know…..now you ask I have no idea……………..I just heard it and thought yes I understand…… then I thought should I say something.

Do you know where you were in the forest?

No…..but I’m sure I could find it again.

Do you know what is buried under all that snow?

No?

Let nothing be changed and all be different.

I’m lost now….again please.

Build your work on white, stillness and on silence……it is possible.
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I am at war with words.
Good…..but they don’t have to be your enemy….you know you don’t have to fight them.
No it is a fight….
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I didn’t see that at all.

What was it then?

I don’t know how it translates, something like an interval….how do you say this?

Interval?

Yes interval?

You mean…….. something between something else?

Again?

Look there are 5 of us here, we are sat talking together, if one of us stops talking there is an interval between when we stop and start to talk again…is this what you mean.

No absolutely not.

Ok…c’om on………….. what?

What are you 2 talking about?

Later please…………..I’m sorry I don’t mean that in a bad way.

I mean it as….let me try…….more like a symbol.

A symbol?

Yes……something that can be….or exist….between consciousness and…how do you say…..primitive reactions.

Primitive reactions!!

Yes…of both basic and higher knowledge……an interval…..a kind of no-man’s land at the centre of the human.

Hang on…..……..I can’t catch this……no-man’s!! is this for men?

Don’t be stupid I mean human’s…If you have a fusion between 2 attitudes that fight each other…….a passionate surrender of the self that leads to a complete identification with the present……cool and detached contemplation of things.

Ok….perhaps you are talking about how this might lead to a position or attitude that could direct the mind.

You make pictures surely you understand how you need to organise or direct your thinking.

I’m getting there.

You know….everybody is at all times schizophrenic….so perhaps memory or memory images are both prior and primitive….but this continues on the edges.

Can you 2 wake up.

No please it is important…..how are we going to proceed if we don’t try and wrestle with this.

Look you 2 are talking to much…tell us a joke?

What is green and smells of pork?

At the edges you said?

Yes…at both the primitive or basic stage and the immediate stage, memory images are consciously stored in pictures or can be constructed in pictures…we find the impression….or a mode of thought.

The joke go on what is it……..and do you want any more tea.

In your case I understand that if you have a difficulty with words, then perhaps pictures might be a good model or place to work.

Yep…………ghosts or ghost pictures.

I understand that pictures are the social organs of culture, they direct us towards things. It is no different for me and icons are like maps for the mind. Then perhaps your use of the word engram might be the spiritual fight or way of breaking open this spiritual tension. Gathering together energetic tensions to animate memory and if you say so ghosts.

I would say yes….also wonder is a good word.

Look…you have a problem with your culture or your cultural tradition so use your wonder to help your schizophrenia.

It is a secret need of our age I think.

Perhaps…………I don’t have this though.

We are going...... do you want to come with us?……we are meeting the evening, going outside, c’on get outside.

Ok.

I’m staying.

All I can think about is………. the exchanges between images and images, sounds with sounds, sounds with images.
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The place is melancholic….it could eat you up.
Sorry…what?
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Images have no sounds…so perhaps it might be possible to make images that have a new rhythm. The sound of feet or a printer creates a rhythm. This might be possible. In a book there are no sounds, only imagination.
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Light can be organised……. not just by adding more….. but by re-adjusting the way you might look at things.
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C’on this is very political…yes… or private?
What is the difference?
I don’t care really?
What………… how can you not care?
Its a game?
Look it means a lot……… and what can I do about the situation?
Ok I understand…….but don’t we have to keep thinking about it?
Of course?

sound.....or music and film........perhaps sound/music in combination with the film.....question?...does sound or music isolate the film from the life of the film. I think it modifies or could even destroy the film...removes it from the "real" like alcohol or drugs.......to play with this idea.

To communicate impressions.

Listen…..some things just take time, but I get frustrated, you know how do you develop the right sort of patience.
C’on how does it work…….
I don’t know…..
Well we have to find out….I only understand how to start
I f you go there you might not come back….
That is the problem….but if I don’t….. I will never know…anyway part of this whole thing is about getting away from accumulated errors.
What?
You know things that are familiar…its not complicated……just right now I need to find out something
What?
That’s what I need to find out?
ok....you say something like.....make visible what,without you, might perhaps never have been seen.

Started filming....ideas:

to always film from left to right......the camera as static object....to stop my accumulated errors......get to know my resources better and make sure about them (my bag will arrive soon!!).....the idea of directing myself not others or subjects or light or places or spaces........perhaps light is very important on solovki as a material, metaphorical and as a symbolic thing in itself....so at first I will try to direct myself and light......it is of course not possible to represent everything only a margin of indefiniteness, little things or marginal things ...............well... not only trying to form new relationships but a new form of re-articulating and re-adjusting to things......in russia they say everything is possible....so I have to explore what is possible.

Repetition is still very important to the process, to help play and test what I can articulate.....some things I just keep looking at and filming again or taking photos of again...not sure why?....yet?


Sound................?
Colour...............?

Until my bag arrives I can't put images on the blog....the idea was to have lots of images and a little text....so.....?


Perhaps the brown bear that arrived, by ice, is still on one of the islands but nobody is really sure.....do not stray to far from the road?

Tonight I want to film in the forests at night....to record the sound of the trees at night and the sound of the frozen air...last night there was no moon but 10000000000000 of stars.

onwards

Monday......very clear skies........cold'ish........arrived on solovki.......it is a place of extra-ordinary wonder........sat inside the building you can see below.....the web link on the right will take you to the museum web-site....it also has 2 web cams...VG......so now to think about what to do???......1 of my bags is still in Moscow...but it will arrive one day soon I hope....I have all I need appart from some clothes!!!....so I will see what is in the local shop!! the light is so clear.....russia is another world...nearly the same but not.... in everything.I have enough power in my cameras for a while, the chargers are in my other bag...but I have paper and pencil and my eyes.....of course.I t may be possible to borrow a camera from the museum but my phone camera is good and I have a charger!!! Advance.