Resident's Loft

There is a saying that says "It is better to have loft and lost than to never have loft at all."

So I think we're pretty much in a win-win situation here at Basekamp with the newly created* "Resident's Loft", as we've been calling it. Basically, it's a bunch of wood that we can do stuff on. It's by the kitchen and there's a big window above it. Things have been moving kind of slowly with the loft, both it's being made and what will take place up there once it's finished. But basically it's done, for anyone who doesn't live here or hasn't seen it, it basically just needs a few more boards, nothing major. At the most recent basekamp meeting Christine and I wrote down some things that we had all discussed about how the loft could work as a space for residents to do things with. Sort of boring and pretty elementary, but here it is just so you can't say we never told you:

RESIDENT'S LOFT

The resident's loft will be a place for events, projects, exhibitions, and displays of any and many kinds. It will run on a weekly schedule, with a set date for installation and de-installation, with the possibility for extension to be discussed by all residents at the end of each project. Projects will be listed on the Basekamp website calendar, and while outside people will not be openly invited to "apply" for a "show", residents are welcome to bring in people who may be interested in working with the residents on projects. Residents should sign up on the calendar to reserve the space for projects they are interested in doing. Projects may be collaboratively generated or not, but residents are encouraged to discuss their ideas with the rest of the group and widen the circle of participation beyond the boundaries of the singular, autonomous, masturbatorily self-generated self.

That being said, I'd like to post some thoughts I had earlier today about the loft. I was talking to a guy I work with today who is also an artist and realized how it would probably be a wise decision to really get the most out of the opportunities of the loft as an exhibition/whatever space for residents. It may end up being, as a teacher of mine once said, not so much stream of consciousness as stream of...kookyness. but that's ok, and so I'm not going to look at it again before I copy and paste it, because I know if I do there will be some stupid thing that I'll have to take out because it makes me sound like a wiener, and then I may end up just not posting it at all. please feel free to comment, etc. This is really just to "get the ball rolling", so to speak, on the loft and what to do with it.

...

as an artist
i am interested in

to say
i am interested in
[insert symbol here]
is interesting

what does it mean that it is interesting?
it is sort of circular to say that
about a symbol
about something outside of you that you can be "interested in"
and use for your art
but miss the point

so

as an artist
i am interested in
going beyond interest
and into
reality

the cracks between words
the world comes contained in words
but breaks them apart when we stop holding up the edifice

I'd like to do something up there in the loft
but I don't know what
I'm not even sure if I really want to do something up there
but I don't have any things dying to go up there
it's more that the space is there and when I think about it it seems like a waste to not take advantage of it.
but I don't want to force it or do something stupid just for the sake of doing something.
"Coming up" with an idea. could be interesting. performance where you come up with an idea. you carry an idea into the loft. reflective on the whole language of the process. why? puns? wordplay? delving into the structuring of the experience. looking at your perception of it and exploring that. what else? besides our shel silverstein idea there is not much in the way of other ideas. and the problem seems to be that...I don't have lots of ideas flowing or ideas that really want to be done. It doesn't seem to make much sense to do something. so look at the desire to do something when it doesn't seem to make much sense. why do anything? ego driven desire to do something up in the loft so I can put it on my resume and have slides of some project for my portfolio. that is fine, but at least make the thing that is up there that is filling your resume be of interest to you.

And I thought, because of all this...you can't just expect to "come up" with an idea. if you want to collaborate with other people, you have to talk and work on it and something will develop. right now we aren't really doing that, so...
we aren't doing that because first of all there are only two of us here and we work most of the time, so the time we do see each other it's not for that long and we aren't really thinking that seriously about what could go up there, we're just relaxing and enjoying not being at work.

"what could go up there?" is the phrase I used. I used it spontaneously. so what are the assumptions contained in that? because that could be the key to alot of stuff.

Take advantage of the space. in a bad way.

"missing the point." mourning the loss of the infinitely dense mathematical point containing all the energy of the universe prior to the explosion that preceded the formation of our universe.

the idea of putting something up there. or doing something up there.
do something in secret. what is he doing up there? what's going on up there? I don't know. what's going on these days at basekamp? I don't know, there's something going on up in that loft.

There's something going on up there.
a light, going on.
an event
where a light
gets turned on.

some mysterious thing happening. what's going on at basekamp? people outside of basekamp might ask that. a light is going on at basekamp. a performance is going on at basekamp.
come up with an idea for the loft. like an altar and it needs a sacrifice. the altar doesn't need the sacrifice, the deity needs it. or the person who offers it. The altar is the stage for the sacrifice. to appease the gods. so they will say ok, it's fine, I won't punish you. a sacrifice to the art "gods" so they will say ok, I won't let you disappear into obscurity and crappy-job-land forever. but you have to give your best, to convince them that they should spare you. but you really have to give it up...you can't keep it. in exchange you get spared. but you don't have to offer the sacrifice. you could always just not be forgiven for your sins and be destroyed by the gods. your career could also be ruined by offering a bad sacrifice. The art gods may smite you if your project is uninteresting, lacks social value, or has no market value. the sacrifice is more than an ego trip, it is a survival technique. so you don't disappear. right now we are invisible here at basekamp, and this loft doesn't exist.

can the windows open up there? I just thought it would be really cool to have some performance that ends with a majestic offering that ascends into the sky through the windows. and then maybe ninja's come down from upstairs and there is this huge fight and maybe the gallery owner upstairs ends up getting sacrificed to the ninja's and a deal is struck where they vow to protect basekamp (or keep giving it the coolness of being beneath a kung fu studio).

basekamp. maybe the name is a key to something. this whole sacrifice and altars thing makes me think of mountains, like abraham sacrificing his son up on the mountain, or little altars on mountaintops and sides. i guess this place is supposed to be sort of a base camp from which to explore beyond it. the loft can facilitate a kind of journey out of basekamp and up through the windows and maybe there can be some kind of balloon that floats over the city so everyone can see basekamp. it could be like the peak of a mountain. what if there was a big floating peak that was tethered to basekamp that floated as the highest "peak" in the city? like some invisible, mystical mountain emerging from the fog. a mountain cap that fades out as if peaking through a mist.

*the loft is still in the process of being created