TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

11:43 PM
Posted by jodi rose

Back from supper with the art posse, finally took them down the end of our street to the fabulous jungle food court with fresh lime and satay delights. Decoded the mass of people sitting at one end - smokers area - and almost brave enough to test the tofu salad, but still not entirely convinced of no shrimp lurking - even though georg checked and found that it's plum sauce, not fish.

Ah the perils of crustacea food phobia. Good to catch up with some of the other kids, after missing the group trip to Malaysia on the weekend - Jahore will be there next time, right, and I had a much-needed break from everything, staying in with a book. 'Shanghai baby' very easy to read, washed over me in an intriguing mix of intensely raw and poetic writing, the story of a young woman bursting upon the world like fireworks. Perfect.

One of the artists told me tonight that I was like Leigh Bowery, started calling me 'Sister Bowery', in the sense of being vibrant and a little bit out-there. Ok, downright crazy - but I'm not, I swear!!! Just slightly anarchic in spirit, and with too much energy that spills over everywhere, all the time. Except when it runs out and I have to lie on the couch. Still feel like I'm doing nothing but organise meetings and conduct electricity...
Although it finally appears that things may be happening, test visit to Sunset Way bridge over Ulu Pandan canal tomorrow, with another ridiculous team of engineers galore - professors, students & researchers, bearing sensors, strain gauges, accelerometers and a specially developed algorithm for transposing infra-sound. Alright!

We've got the system and we know how to use it. Wait until we have a bridge with decent vibrations to apply it to!!! Incredibly satisfying to have things come together like this - fairyland, marge called it - everything you need appears like magic... I just keep meeting the most incredibly talented people, creatively successful and engaged with the world, who agree to play with me on bridges. Truly am the luckiest girl in the world.

Thursday is poetic romantic bridge in the mist performance. Yes, we're either finding dry ice or smokers - although Tad tells me there is a kind of fruit (Lazones it sounded like) with smooth leathery skin, similar to a lychee but not lumpy on the outside, that makes a fragrant smoke when you burn it. Apparently used by Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now. If we can identify that, will try for the organic smoke machine. And coloured gels over the lights along the walkway. Working with the completely fantastic Lynn Lu, and Brian Gothong Tan - truly blessed with artistic collaborations. Had a visit this afternoon to the superb sonicbrat, who lent me some gear for a minimal sound set, almost sans laptop on saturday - ok so I might use it a little bit, but going all live with the processing.

Enough now, time for rest and planning equipment list and workflow for tomorrow. Every day a new angle. Love it. Definitely keeping me agile and alert to any possibility, and following the threads as they unfurl, sure that eventually they will form some kind of pattern.