art + blog = blogart?

Another call for the effects of blogging on artmaking. During my MFA, I dreamt of big collaborations among communities spread throughout the globe, bonded together through conversation made possible through this new technology, but sigh...most people don't leave comments. I feel like I'm talking to myself. I again encourage everyone to leave comments. It raises the level of criticality about our globe-trotting lifestyle, considering both its pleasures and its dangers.

Thanks, Joelle

Call for papers at http://www.collegeart.org/opportunities/listing/1784/

CFP: art blogging == global.show(local);

Category: Calls For Papers [View all]
Posted by: San Francisco State University
Deadline: 11/09/07

New Media Caucus in Association w/CAA. Feb 20-23, 2008 Dallas. Panel Chair Paul Catanese paulc@sfsu.edu. Abstract & bio due 11/9/07.

An explosion of blogs from artists, galleries, residencies and museums are reshaping professional practice in the arts. Though promotion is a driver, some sites focus on projecting a local arts scene into a broader context. Other models investigate blog as sketchbook or open atelier. Does art blogging indicate the emergence of a dislocated, local arts scene? Can blogs shift the space of studio practice while retaining its capability to be unstructured? Is the quest for site traffic at odds with periods of gestation and dormancy? What models exist for balancing these forces? What are the implications for establishing an art practice for those who remain virtually present, yet physically distant? Panelists will be requested to participate on a group blog prior to conference. Prior blogging experience not required.

Full panel info: www.artblogging.org

Miwon Kwon's Comments on Nomadism

From Miwon Kwon's "The Wrong Place." Art Journal > Vol. 59, No. 1 (Spring, 2000), pp. 32-43.

It occurred to me some time ago that among many of my art and academic friends, the success and viability of one's work is now measured in proportion to the accumulation of frequent flyer miles. The more we travel for work, the more we are called upon to provide institutions in other parts of the country and the world with our presence and services; the more we give into the logic of nomadism, one could say, as pressured by a mobilized capitalist economy, the more we are made to feel wanted, needed, validated, and relevant. It seems our very sense of self-worth is predicated more and more on our suffering through the of always traversing through elsewheres. Whether we enjoy it or not, we are culturally and economically rewarded for enduring the "wrong" place. It seems we're out of place all too often.

But what is a "wrong" place? How does one recognize it as such, as opposed to a "right" place? What do we really mean by these qualifying adjectives? Is being in the wrong place the same thing as being out of place? And what are the effects of such mis/displacements for art, subjectivity, and locational identities? In light of the intensified mobilization of bodies, information, images, and commodities on the one hand, and the greater and greater homogenization and standardization of places on the other (which, by the way, facilitates the smooth, unimpeded mobilization and circulation of these bodies, information, images, and commodities), I continue to wonder about the impact, both positive and negative, of the spatial and temporal experiences that such conditions engender not only in terms of cultural practice but more basically for our psyches, our sense of self, our sense of well-being, our sense of belonging to a place and a culture.

Finally to work on the expat book. Post your comments soon if you'd like to be included. See my Friday, July 20, 2007 post for more info.

Back in Mad Land by Nicola Jane Barratt

More writing by Nicola Jane Barratt sent from Madagascar

been back 2 weeks now and have adjusted quite well -
the journey here was almost uneventful - small glitch in that i
accidentally booked both flights for the same day so that when we
arrived in Paris, our flight for Tana had left the day before -
whoops! - lucky for us, the US ambassador and his family had missed
their flight to Paris and we took their seats on the flight to Tana
(you'd think we'd all understand the flying thing a bit better by now,
wouldn't you!!) - when we arrived, after our 19 hours of air time, we
were the last ones off the flight, not unusual except that we were
actually seated right next to an airplane exit, and a flight of stairs
had been pushed up next to the door - the steps were only a meter
from our seats but alas, this is Madagascar and the door leading to
the stairs was never opened - communication error??? electrical
error??? finally we were told that the lights were not working near
that exit .... hmmmm... lights? what lights? who knows? (half our
luggage didn't make it so we were the last ones out of the airport
anyway .....(F____ the french and their airline!!!!))

and then you come down the steps into the Malagasy night and your nose is filled with the smell of cooking fires, the streets are dark and quiet, and you know you are back in Africa (sort of).........

but back at home is mostly great - i love my huge (but standard)
european bath tub, even more, i love the lady that keeps it sparkling
clean. i love the seemingly endless supply of hot water from our 100
gallon hot water heater, that someone else pays the electric bill for.
and the other lady who takes care of the children so i can take a long
hot soak. i love coming home from work to the smell of dinner
cooking, with always enough leftovers for lunch tomorrow. i love when
the children are happily ensconced in their classrooms with their age
appropriate activities and professional educators!!! i love that
there are coaches who occupy the older children with round objects
until 4:30 pm and that this will continue until December because it
never rains until then. i love that the phone never rings (never mind
it's because i've had to unplug it so i can plug the space heater in
to the only electrical outlet!). the stove blew up and we lost all
the electric for a while but the internet appears to be working quite
well!!! more soon, love and kisses, nikki

photography + travel

The photograph reverses the purpose of travel, which until now had been to encounter the strange and unfamiliar.
(Marshall McLuhan)

art + blog = blogart?

See previous entry called "art + blog = blogart?" entry below the following pictures. The project is for an exhibition described in that entry. Here's the jist:

1) Look at the pictures (click on picture for bigger image), see if any inspire you / reminds you of your expat experience.
2) Add comments through blog or email to me at jdietrick@gmail.com.
3) The best poems / comments / quotes will be published in a book and the writers of those best comments / quotes will receive one of the books. I'd love to develop the book even further into a limited edition artist book at the Women's Studio Workshop next summer if this one goes well.

Hopefully summertime reflections will help you to process your expat experiences and put it online for others to enjoy. I moderate the comments to avoid an influx of spammers, but feel free to post anonymously if you are shy.

I hope that you find time to participate. The exhibition deadline is July 31, 2007.
Thanks,
Joelle

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art + blog = blogart?

When I started female-expat.org in 2004, my dream was to bring together the creative outpourings of women spread throughout the globe in one place online. The exhibition call below inspired me to not only have it exist online, but to have us collaboratively create a book that would be made available at lulu.com because although we love our computers as a way to explore content, many of us still enjoy having a hard bound book that we can hold in our hands while we take a break from technology.

Here's the quick and dirty directions to this project:
1) Scoll through the images
2) If any image relates to your own experience, write a poem or simple phrase in the one-line thought / quote from another offer, etc that relates.
3) Enter your poem, comment, quote, etc in the comment line for all to read (you can also email me your comments at jdietrick@gmail.com)
4) The best comment will be paired with that image for a book that will be made available online.
5) I'll buy and mail a copy of the book for those people whose writing is chosen.
6) The book will remain online for other female expats for years to come.

Thanks for participating!
Joelle
jdietrick@gmail.com


http://weblog.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=8&title=call_for_entries_internet_based_art_java&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

a + b = ba ?
[art + blog = blogart?]

JavaMuseum - http://www.javamuseum.org
is starting its 2nd phase
by publishing on open call focussing on the question
whether blogs and/or blogging can be tools for creating a new type of net based art.
The launch of this new project in September 2007
is planned to be also the occasion for re-launching
JavaMuseum after a phase of re-structuring since 2005.

[More:]

.
JavaMuseum - Forum for Internet Technology in Contemporary Art,
founded in 2000, realized between 2001 and 2005
18 show cases focussing on Internet based art in a global context,
including more than 350 artists from 40 countries.
In this way, JavaMuseum was able to show for the first time the dimension of Internet based art as a new and individual art genre, even if it is continously said to be dead.
.
For a + b = ba?, JavaMuseum is inviting
artists to submit such an art project
which is using the blogging technology.

One blog project only can be submitted.

Please use this form for submitting:

1. first name/family name, email address, URL homepage
2. short artist bio/CV
3. title of project, year of launch
4. URL of project
5. short project description ( English, no more than 300 words)
6. 2 screen shots (jpg, 800x600 px)

7. answer the questions of the interview
which can be found here --->
http://weblog.nmartproject.net/index.php?blog=11&cat=80

Please send the requested material via email to
info@javamuseum.org
subject line: a+b submission

Deadline 31 July 2007

American Women Ambassadors

A billion thanks to Ambassador Rowe, the United States Ambassador to the Solomon Islands, for recommending Ann Miller Morin's book An Oral Hisotry of American Women Ambassadors.

Also worthy of note, I attended a performance and a master dance class with Urban Bush Women and Jant-Bi. The experience was extraordinary. Urban Bush Woman dancer Nora Chipaumire, herself an exile from Zimbabwe, will be a MANCC artist-in-residence this coming school year, one of MANCC's administrative staff thought there might be room for her and I to collaborate. We'll see if it happens naturally.

I am forever grateful to the ambassadors who have sent me letters for my project. I realize that they have hectic schedules. Thanks again.

More soon on Ann Miller Morin's book...

Flyover + the American Outback

After having professors insist that I not go to a small town for fear that I was committing art career suicide, I found it comforting to find praise for Flyover, a blog that collectively covers strong small town art scenes. The site led me to Jennifer Smith's coverage of the Wisconsin Triennial and commentary on the work of Stephanie Liner. With my own tendency to combining women's bodies and domestic objects, the work appealed to my sensibilities. Check out her website at www.stephanieliner.com.

bell hooks

Now reading bell hooks' book Art on My Mind: Visual Politics. In a chapter, titled "Women Artitsts: The Creative Process," she writes about the need for a room of one's own (see also Virginia Woolf's 1929 extended essay). I flashback to my days overseas: with the excitement of travel and the desire to take advantage of the experience, I made little time for reflection. my Female Expat Project was originally created to encourage expatriated women to do so. From hooks' chapter:

I think often and deeply about women and work, about what it means to have the luxury of time-time spent collecting one's thoughts, time to work undisturbed. This time is space for contemplation and reverie. It enhances our capacity to create. Work for women artists is never just the moment when we write, or do other art, like painting, photography, paste-up, or mixed media. In the fullest sense, it is also the time spent in contemplation and preparation. This solitary space is sometimes a place where dreams and visions enter and sometimes a place where nothing happens. Yet it is as necessary to active work as water is to growing things.

Jill Ker Conway

I just finished Jill Ker Conway's memoir True North, and after my first year of full-time university teaching, it was the perfect summer read. Particularly refreshing were moments when Conway finds a core group of female friends at Harvard or later when she realizes what an important role model she became when she took lead administrative roles. I'd recommend True North to anyone.

Letters to a Young Diplomat: Plea for Participation

Picture of Eugenie Moore Anderson
In October 1949 President Truman appointed Anderson United States Ambassador to Denmark; she was the first American woman to serve as the chief of a mission abroad.

Ok, "plea" for participation sounds a bit desperate, but here's the deal: in times when our foreign policy is constantly questioned by other countries (and often rightly so), an art project highlighting a more human side to our activities overseas seems critical. Why art? At its best, art whittles down matters to powerful visual and forms that have residence. I leave you with one of my favorite art quotes.

There are moments in our lives, there are moments in our days, when we seem to see beyond the usual. Such are the moments of our greatest happiness. Such are the moments of our greatest wisdom. If one could but recall his vision by some sort of sign. It was in this hope that the arts were invented. Signposts on the way to what may be. Signposts toward greater knowledge.

Keith Ferrazzi on Networking

I was listening to podcasts online and stumbled on this one that seemed worth sharing: http://content.monster.com/articles/3473/18780/1/home.aspx

Below are a few of my notes from that interview, much of it from Keith Ferrazzi, Never Eat Alone What I liked about the podcast is Keith's focus on networking as natural. I love the Christmas package analogy because I do like meeting and helping other people. With this subtle shift in attitude, the conference or cocktail hour can become less anxiety-ridden and more pleasurable.

When you are at a conference / party:
-imagine that everyone's a Christmas package, and you get to unwrap them and discover their goals
-ask how can I help them be successful? what can I do for him or her?

Personal relationship action plan

How many people are going to be critical btw now and you achieving your dreams?
-probably 25 people (family, friends, etc)
-list 25 people
-list next 50
-list next 50
Then you'll have 125 people

Send a quick email to the top 25: keep in touch with them every other week.

It may sound contrived, but your family and best friends can be in that top 25, and we all know in the chaos of life, it's easy to fall out of touch. Sometimes, it helps to have weekly reminders to reach out to others. This is especially true when you are bouncing around the globe...

Best Expat Blogs

Interesting list at Expatica = http://www.expatica.com/actual/article.asp?subchannel_id=25&story_id=32358.

Looking forward to nosing through it later.

A billion thanks for the web's best-of sites because there is just too much stuff to wade through on the internet. For all of my art lovers, here's one of my favorite art ones = http://newsgrist.typepad.com/

Stay tuned for more.

obituaries + movement

Notebooks from a Creative Capital Foundation workshop has me writing one, three, five and ten year goals. Then it asks me to write an obituary. Although it sounds like a morbid task, it does put every goals into perspective. Now I'm nosing through the New York Times obits only to find one on Isabella Blow. When her rich grandfather escapes gambling debt by fleeing to Kenya where "he joined the Happy Valley set of alcoholic, aristocratic semi-exiles." It's no wonder when expatriates are thought of as privileged vagabonds. I flash back to a squirrel seen yesterday—specifically to his skip, skip, leap, skip and his simple joy found in movement—maybe in less cynical terms, that is what all the moving is about...

Howard Zinsser

Another expat contacted me about her interest in my project and mentioned her interest in writing about her expat experiences. I recommended Howard Zinssers' How to Write Your Memoir. Since I loved his book On Writing Well, I'm guessing that I can recommend his book on memoirs. An interview with Zinsser about memoirs can be heard at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5340618.

Enjoy...

Letters to a Young Diplomat: Letters Sealed

Having stuffed envelopes for far too long today, the letters to our current female US ambassadors are sealed and ready for delivery. Admittedly, I am terrified that none of them will participate--I realize that they have hectic lives--but I'm hopeful so that their voices might be gathered in one spot rather than scattered in a handful of publish and unpublished memoires.

The value of artworks is that they develop ideas / critical thoughts / momentous events into powerful forms. Inshallah, my piece for the fall show, resulting from these letters, will be one such form.

More to follow...

Letters to a Young Diplomat

Websites for inspiration:
guide2womenleaders.com/index.html
artonpaper.com/LTYA/
www.sfgoth.com/~immanis/rilke/letter1.html

Florida State University gave me a 2007 summer grant to continue work on my Female Expat Project. In preparation for an exhibition this fall, I'm emailing and sending letters to all of the current female U.S. Ambassadors a letter by a fictional, inspiring young diplomat. I'll also post that letter here. Modelled after Rainer Maria Rilke's "Letters to a Young Poet" and Art on Paper's "Letters to a Young Artist, the project documents what role women play in the power structures of the 21st century. Please email me at jdietrick@gmail.com or simply post to the blog if you have a response. These responses will be used to create glowing plexi pieces housed in furniture with the possible addition of sound. I'm so excited.

As I wrote in the letter of introduction to our ambassadors, I hope that you will consider participating to help document our shifting definitions of place for future generations of women overseas to enjoy the recent, huge shifts in these definitions.

Thanks,
Joelle

Dear Ambassador:

I am writing you as a young woman interested in the Foreign Service. Although I was raised in a small city and have only traveled throughout the United States, other cultures have always fascinated me. Coupled with my interest in international relations and a commitment to community service, this interest in a life overseas inspired me to research careers in the Foreign Service. During this research, I encountered your name.

At the prompt of our teacher's assignment, I am writing to you in the hope that you can find the time to write a letter in response. I'm specifically interested in the joys and challenges of a life overseas, and if you would do anything differently. Although regret is a useless emotion for an individual, when clarified for a future generations, it is informative. I hope you are able to find time in your busy schedule to send a few words of wisdom.

First, I have a few questions about gender. If the people with the greatest amount of power in the 20th and especially the 21st centuries are those people who can thoroughly understand and gracefully navigate the global scene, what role are women playing in these high-powered roles? Have you found any challenges in the Foreign Service because you are a woman? Do you notice any difference in how your male and female colleagues manage their work and personal lives? Is there a glass ceiling? Are you always taken as seriously as your male counterparts in other countries?

Lastly, with anti-American sentiment on the increase, does you position in the Foreign Service ever make you uncomfortable? Friends of my parents, who have lived overseas, say that people in other countries often clarify their anti-American sentiment by explaining that they dislike the government, not Americans. As a representative of our government, can you clarify how this sentiment affects your work and sense of self?

In contrast to the politically correct statements made my most government officials, I hope you can speak candidly in your response since such honestly will helps guide me to make important decisions. I tried to look up memoirs of diplomats and other books related to the Foreign Service. Not a single one was written by a woman. Please let me know if there are any that you can recommend.

I look forward to your response. Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,


Joelle Dietrick

Jeff in Madagascar

Ok, it has nothing to do with women roaming the globe, but this picture had to go up.
Thx to Jeff + Nikki.

itinerant

At the prompt of Noah Wardrip-Fruin's visit to Naomi Spellman's class at the University of California, San Diego, I ordered his book Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media. Although I'm not a big gamer, the emphasis on play and analysis of the virtual / actual overlap attracted my attention. Since Noah teaches at UCSD's School of Communications, local favorite thinkers / artists—like Lev Manovich and Adriene Jenik—are in the book..as they should be. Having just dipped into the book, I've only read Teri Rueb's description of her artwork Itinerant involving a small pocket PC with GPS and headphones. As a participant moves to a specific section of the city, their new location, tracked by GPS, triggers the playback of sounds that have been "placed" in that area. Excerpts from Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and Rueb's text about an uncle (I think fictional) who wanders the world with restlessness and is ostracized by their family.

Teri Rueb is one a handful of artists doing great work with GPS systems. The incorporation of this technology in stories about Female Expats navigating the globe make sense. More about Teri's work is at terirueb.net.

world's top 100 most livable cities

For those of you bouncing around the globe, deciding where to go next, a useful website listing the World's Top 100 Most Livable Cities was just posted.

Thanks to www.illumineerima.com for the head's up.

Enjoy.

New Nomadism

I wish I could go to this conference. http://www.symposiumc6.org/home/
April 26-28, 2007
The Art World is Flat
Globalism—Crisis+Opportunity
Chicago

bomb shelters

Check out this video shot inside a house with objects flying back into space. http://www.spyfilms.com/FTP/METRIC/EMPTY(web).mov Related to my artwork's flying figures (think dislocation and new ideas about space), the video was meant to see. Make clear connections to Zabriskie Point, Michelangelo Antonioni's 1970 film where objects explode at the end.



Wandering into my friend's bomb shelter also served as recent inspiration. The contrast between my floating figures and figures burrowing deep into the ground works well. The discovery also informs the show I'm curating this fall (Oct 1-Nov 11) at FSU's Museum of Fine Arts called Locating Secret Psychological Space. A post with info about the show is soon to follow.

Writing Home

April 25 | Town Hall Readings: Writing Home

PEN American Center
588 Broadway, Suite 303
New York, NY 10012

When: Wednesday, April 25
Where: The Town Hall: 123 West 43rd St.
What time: 8 p.m.–9:30 p.m.

More info: http://pen.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/1305/prmID/1411

Thanks to Yanira Castro for sending me the link.

errant

Word of the Day for Tuesday, April 3, 2007
errant \AIR-uhnt\, adjective:

1. Wandering; roving, especially in search of adventure.
2. Deviating from an appointed course; straying.
3. Straying from the proper standards (as of truth or propriety).
4. Moving aimlessly or irregularly; as, an errant breeze.

Errant comes from Middle French errer, "to travel," from Late Latin iterare, from Latin iter, "a journey"; confused somewhat with Latin errare, "to wander; to err."

saatchi showdown

It's voting time. 10 stars. You know you wanna...


http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=7503

the business of art

I listed to Alyson Stanfield's interview with Paul Dorrell and was pleasantly surprised to get great insights into artist-dealer relationships. http://www.artbizcoach.com/resources/dorrell.html

I would guess that her workshop is equally useful.
Enjoy if you are in the area.
Joelle


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Alyson B. Stanfield
303.273.5904
alyson@artbizcoach.com

FLORIDA ARTISTS SET THEIR ALARMS ON MARCH 25 TO GET IN ON
SELF-PROMOTION SECRETS

March 16, 2007--They're not going to come knocking on your
studio door. Ever. No matter how incredible your art is you
have to get out of bed (and get out of your studio) and
share it with people. If you've been throwing darts and
praying for the best for your art career, think again.
Successful art careers don't just happen, but are the
result of hard work and savvy skills. Alyson B. Stanfield
of ArtBizCoach.com is flying in from Colorado to share
self-promotion secrets with artists in Central Florida.

Artists should make plans to attend the Shameless
Self-Promotion for Artists workshop on March 25 from 9:30
a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Art Center Manatee in Bradenton.
If you roll out of bed early that Sunday, you'll learn:

--Nine things every artist needs for promoting their work.
--Why the process of writing your artist statement is
critical to your marketing (and how to make it pain-free).
--How to build a network of people who are essential to
your success.
--Creative ideas for marketing your art.
--What promotional materials you'll need and the rules to
follow when creating them.

You should absolutely stay in bed on Sunday if:
--You think you know everything already.
--Have no desire to make a living from your art.
--Believe that if your art is good enough, you'll be
discovered.
--You have a highly contagious virus.

On the other hand, you should set your alarm and join the
other shameless self-promoters if:
--You are fired up about sharing your work with the world.
--You're ready to put into place the tools you need to
advance your art career.
--You realize you can't succeed on your own.
--You're highly entertaining and can provide comic relief
at the breaks.

The workshop is $75 and includes lunch. Get registration
details at
http://www.artcentermanatee.org or by calling 941-746-2862.

Stats on Women in the Foreign Service

from http://kennedy.byu.edu/events/pdfs/shippy_12sep04.pdf
___________________________________

"Women in the Foreign Service"
Ambassador Ellen Shippy, Diplomat in Residence, University of NM
12 September 2003

The United States has approximately 288 posts abroad in 162 countries. These are primarily embassies and consulates, which are "branch embassies." The Department of State has approximately 47,000 employees, of which 5,500 are Foreign Service Officers, 4,000 are Foreign Service Specialists (support staff), 7,000 are Civil Service, and 30,000 are Foreign Service nationals. With respect to women, 34% of FS officers are women; 31% of Specialists are women, and 61% of Civil Service employees are women.

At senior levels, the senior Foreign Service and the senior Executive Service, women represent 25% and 30% of senior Foreign Service and Civil Service positions.

Now let's talk more specifically about women in the Foreign Service. The first woman joined the FS in 1922. The first woman ambassador was appointed in 1949; she was ambassador to Denmark from 1949 to 1953. The first woman assistant Secretary of State (for public affairs) was appointed in 1973. The first woman to head a regional bureau was in 1985. The first female Secretary of State of Madeleine Albright in 1997...Yes, there are sometimes difficult questions to deal with, such as dating, marriage, children, employment for your spouse...the same questions male FS officers are dealing with.
_________________________________

The last sentence reminds me of the many questions I am asked and ask myself about my focus on only female expats when both men and women face challenges when they chose a life overseas. From what I observed as an expat, in families, typically the women gave up their careers if one spouse sacrificed a career. My concern was that if the movers and shakers of the 21st century are people who can successful navigate an international career, then I wanted to know how women were doing in this arena. I flashback to statistics about teachers overseas. Although I do not have exact figures, I recall that a high percentage of teachers in international schools were women, but a low percentage high-level administrators were female.

Wow. I'm really enjoying updates from an expat in Estonia at http://www.illumineerima.com/. She has a good eye for the absurd. Check out her recent entry. Here's an excerpt to wet your whistle:

Her caption: "I think my favorite promotional item was this deck of cards. Blue for boys and pink for girls, apparently."

Creative Capital

I just attended this amazing artist retreat by Creative Capital. You should definitely attend these workshops if you get a chance.
http://pd.creative-capital.org/

The schedule for their upcoming retreats are at http://pd.creative-capital.org/calendar.html. Maybe you can write your state's Division of Cultural Affairs to support your state's artist by inviting Creative Capital to your community. Florida paid for me.

Not only did the workshop expand my professional network, but it also gave me strategies to focus on goal to work more effeciently and be more financially stable. I'm excited to use their techniques.

boredom, skip the first 15 min

Ok. I'm giving it a second listen, and I think you could skip the first 15 minutes of that link...

boredom link

Yea! It's up = http://broadcast.uwex.edu:8080/ramgen/wpr/bok/bok070204b.rm

Or you can go to The Best of Our Knowledge website. (http://www.wpr.org/book/)

http://www.illumineerima.com/

I'm really enjoying the emails that I automatically get from http://www.illumineerima.com/. This blog contains the type of entries that I orginally wanted my blog to gather in one spot, sort of like what http://newsgrist.typepad.com/ is to art. I just applied to a residency at the Atlantic Center for the Arts during May and hope to use that time, in part, to tweak female-expat.org into something closer to my original vision.

To the Best of Our Knowledge on Boredom

Shortly after arriving in Tallahassee, I learned that the city has one of the best NPR stations in the country and discovered new favorite programs like To the Best of Our Knowledge (http://www.wpr.org/book/). What more? To the Best of Our Knowledge has a fantastic website where folks (say the dear expatriate readers of this blog) can visit and listen to their own time. With this in mind, I was not upset to find myself mid-broadcast of a fantastic hour on the topic of boredom because I thought I could listen to the rest later. Right? Apparently wrong. The show is not yet properly archived, but as soon as it is, you should check it out. Boredom, restlessness and curiosity drive many of us overseas, and therefore, the show provided some much needed insights into the topic. Please take a listen. I'll try to keep an eye on the site to provide a more direct link asap.

Gemstones and a Wedding by Nicola Jane Barratt

I guess we're all collectors. When we go to a new place, its nice to
bring home something to remind us of all the fun we had - something to
put on the mantle and make us think of sunny beaches on a cold winter
day. Well, moving to and living in different places lends itself to a
more extreme form of collecting for Jeff and me. In Bahrain we
collected carpets – 16 I think in all. In Zambia, it was art - giant
abstract oil paintings, sculptures in ebony and mahogany, masks,
doors, tables and beds from tribal kingdoms. So what do you think
I've chosen here? Here's a hint - I'll be able to bring all of them
home to show off every summer, on my fingers, through my ears and
around my throat - yes - it turns out that Madagascar is the latest
treasure trove of precious gems – some say the world's finest
sapphires and rubies are coming out of this island now, and as
exploration is only a few years old, gem hunters are not in abundance
and gem buyers are in even shorter supply. So the laws of supply and
demand are working in our favor and there's some beauties to be had -
that geology undegrad degree is coming in handy for something! Many
of the less precious gems are in even greater abundance. Amethysts
are literally for sale at the supermarket as are topaz and aquamarines
in sizes up to 4 carats! Jeff bought me a beautiful watermelon
tourmaline necklace – something I've always wanted. More to the
mainstream, he also bought me a 2 carat star sapphire and had it set
as a ring.

All this came about because Jimmy Freeman and Chandra decided to come
to Mad and get married! They asked us to have wedding rings made so
Jeff went about figuring it out. He came across a 2 man team of gem
dealers who are now regulars at our home! Yes – they do house calls!
They came to the house with about 50 stones of every size and hue. We
chose a lovely royal blue sapphire for C and a big red garnet for
Jimmy. Then we decided to get some ruby earrings and some sapphire
earrings as well – what the hell!! Since then we got a beauty of a
pink sapphire for Cindy and some huge jade earrings for me and really
I could keep on going for a while! Did I mention the new petrified
wood coffee table

The wedding was under a big banyan tree on the beach. The kids and i
collected coral and made an aisle for Auntie C to walk down. We
picked hibiscus flowers off the bushes nearby and made a bouquet. Jax
walked her down the aisle, Tigi was best man and ring bearer, Gabby
was flower girl. Jeff did a beautiful job with the service and Billy
and i did photos. Hope you're all well! More soon, Nikki

Conference on Cosmopolitanism

What I attended during Florida State's Film Lit conference on Cosmopolitanism (http://english.fsu.edu/filmlit/) on Friday, February 2, 2007.

1) Gender and Genre
Room: 123A
Dennis Bingham, Indiana University, Indianapolis, "The Biopic Gets the Guillotine: Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette"
(Exceptional presentation #1 because of the presenters sense of humor and incredible insights into a movie that some considered sheer fluff. Dennis reminded us of the autobiographical nature of Sofia's films in that all of her main characters are women in privileged positions, because of their social / cultural context, and we watch how they use their positions of privilege. In this way, it reminds me of my Female Expat Project since I focus on expats that have a choice about where they live and how they spend their time.)

...left above and caught the end of:
2) Global Longing for Form
...to see Weihsin Gui, Brown University, "Kazuo Ishiguro: National Cosmopolitical Impressions" + Wendy Lee, Brown University, "The Unintentional Comedy of Teaching World- Respect in Paul Beatty's The White Boy Shuffle"
(High energy presentations with a humor and joy found in the books presented made for time well spent. Barry Faulk asked an important question about the timeliness of questions about complicated questions of identity and cultural forms as the ideal way to introduce political questions. Adorno and his belief that art cannot embody political questions, only point to them, was discussed. For any artmaker with any ounce of social awareness, these questions come out constantly, and I am reminded that I need to revisit Adorno, the man who questioned how anyone could “write lyrical poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.”)

...after lunch
3) The Military and Militarism Room
(Left this sesson during the first presentation because I was bored with ideas about women as mere ornamentation and the insistence that we pay more attention to women's POV during the war. Important to say, but no new insights provided)

4) Liquid Modernity
(Good to reminded Jim Jarmusch film's in relationship to liminal spaces and the ambiguity of otherness in Lost in Translation, but again, no new insights gained. Perhaps I am getting tired of sitting, but I continually wonder, do these people not know that points are best driven home by examples and visuals. Admittedly, Power Point can be misused, but when talking about the films, why not project the film stills allowing the images to be the visual focus of our contemplation while you present your paper? It would be so much better than giving us a bad xerox copy of many images and only showing a short clip form the movie.)

5) Keynote address = Tim Brennan
(Tim Brennan was dull, and the response John Marx thankfully shook things up. Why keep asking these same questions, Marx asked? Barry Faulk discussed a synergy at present that prompts us to revisit questions about globalism. I agree. The room felt restless, tired of the day's intellectual masterbation and eager for real action, whether in our classrooms or beyond.)

6) Darwin's Nightmare
(Important, powerful film, but my brain is mush, and I'm desperate to make my own work with a political conscious and a eye on circulation to people without lots of pocket change.)

film lit conference

FSU's Literature and Film Conference on Cosmopolitanism is approaching, and I'm getting sooooo excited.
More at: http://english.fsu.edu/filmlit/
Schedule at: http://english.fsu.edu/filmlit/filmlit_schedule2007.pdf

Titles like "Spaces and Places" and "'I'm Not an American, I'm a Nymphomaniac': Spectatorship, Cosmopolitanism, and Trans Identities," are actually causing me to drool with anticipation. (Ok, not something I should admit on my blog but whatever...)

melquiades

I watched two movies last night, namely:

1) The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada (http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70035191&trkid=90529)
2) Mostly Martha (http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=60025545&trkid=90529)

Both were good, but the first was incredibly satisfying, partly because I see the female expat project in everything. Flashing back, I focus on the dullness of a small town and the restlessness created as a result. The setting breeds characters looking for an escape—into an affair, a mall, a telenovela, a porn magazine, the nostalgia of a hometown called Jimenez / Cincinnati, or into another country with a lover or mission.

hey art lovers, see david byrne

Good article by David Byrne about the Art Basel Miami Beach fair that I attended by have yet to process.
More at http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2006/12/1271006_miami_b.html

Just starting my class "This Question of Moving" at Florida State. Should have lots of great details to blog soon.

Two Recommendations for Holiday Joy

1) Nowhere in Africa (Nirgendwo in Afrika (2001), German)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0161860/
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/nowhere_in_africa/

Focused on the story of the Redlichs, a German Jewish family forced to move to Kenya during WWII, the movie taps into the larger themes of displacement and adaptation. Having won the 2002 Oscar for Best Foreign Film, the film paints the expat experience in a thorough and satisfying way. Always with the Female Expat Project in the back of my mind, I naturally focused by how the international move affected each character. Every Redlich grows stonger, but the emotional weight of losing family to the Holocaust and new debates about home psychologically stretches them thin. The locust scene poignantly echos their struggle and the destructive nature of a survival of the fittest mentality. Some critics complain that the movie is buried in a nostalgic, rose-colored haze, but the view must recognize that the story is told from Regina's point of view. In this context, what is told and not told (the natives being painted with childlike wonder and the colonists practically ignored) makes more sense. I highly recommend this film to anyone experiencing the expat experience.

2) Happiness: A History by Darrin M. McMahon
http://www.amazon.com/Happiness-History-Darrin-M-McMahon/dp/0871138867/sr=8-3/qid=1166883080/ref=pd_bbs_3/002-1999856-7868810?ie=UTF8&s=books

I haven't read the book, but it's on my Christmas wish list so I'm hoping to write more about it in the near future. As expats choosing to bounce around the globe, searching for a life that is more satisfying, I'm curious to know how our innate restlessness and resulting lifestyle figure into a historical account of happiness. Perhaps the author (admittedly a friend from Florida State) does not tap into our particular twist on the quest for happiness, but I'm excited to read the book and find out. A fascinating premise for a book.

arrival-project by Susy Bielak

A friend of mine is doing a project related to the expat experience. Please help her out by emailing her at susybielak@gmail.com or posting your comments here. Also check out her website at susannahbielak.com.

Thanks,
Joelle
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear friends,

As some of you know, I'm working on a project exploring moments of arrival; when people physically arrive to a new place or reach a milestone in their lives.

A story that inspired me to ask these questions is that of my grandmother, who arrived in Mexico from Poland at the age of six and stayed for the remaining 82 years of her life. She often described her wonder at arriving in Mexico and finding a world more vibrant than she had imagined, cloth more densely woven, colors more fierce, and fruit like nothing she'd tasted before. Upon emerging from the ship, a dark hand of a fruit vendor presented her with a fruit she'd never seen before—a mango, which tasted like a spicy carrot, sweeter than dew, soft and textured. Struck with the new warmth, color and language, she realized that her life would be forever changed.

This story inspires me to ask the question of when and where we experience arrival in its many forms. Moments of arrival can range from crossing a national border, to purchasing a home, to finalizing a divorce, to embarking on a new career, to falling in love.

Over the next few months I'll be collecting stories of arrival. The stories (as anonymous as desired) will be collected into a book or journal that possibly will be published. Please let me know if you have a story from your own life, or from the life of a relative, that you would like to share. I'd like both a description of this moment, in as much detail as possible, and a visual representation of the moment (a photograph from the time, a symbolic object). You can write about the moment and send it to me, or we can have a conversation--whichever you prefer.

In case you're interested, here are some questions to prompt the description. Please use as much detail as possible.
1. Where were you geographically (country, city, forest, desert, beach, suburbia, bar, etc.)?
2. What did you feel like (cold, hungry, ecstatic, sad, etc.)?
3. What were you doing?
4. Who was there?
5. What were memorable images/objects/places/colors from the event?
6. What is your sensory recall of the experience-were there any smells, sounds, touches that are part of this memory?

I hope you're interested. Please let me know. Thank you!

Happy winter.

Susy

expat-blog.com

I just discovered a directory with many expat blogs at http://www.expat-blog.com/en/directory/asia/china/. Please email me at jdietrick@gmail.com about your favorites, or better yet, list your favorite expat blogs here at female-expat.org so we can all see your recommendations. I hope to catch up n my blog reading over the Chrismas break.

food-dietrick

Having just moved to the South, I am occasionally reminded of my Southern relatives and the foods that I encountered in their homes. Before I go on, please realize that my relatives were not from the Deep South—although based on their accents, you might think they were more Southern that they were. They lived around Harrisonburg, Virginia, in the parts of Virginia where they still talk about the War of Northern Aggression. It always amazed me that those same relatives, although only three hours south of my father's hometown in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, believed that my mother had married a Yankee. It's that damn Mason Dixon line that although close to both sets of relatives, once divided that part of the nation.

But back to the food, my aunt in Virginia made a certain type of green beans, a flat green bean often stewed with ham and potatoes, that remind me my childhood weekends in the south. I recently randomly reencountered this green bean in Tallahassee, FL.

Contacts Near Barcelona?

I proposed to do a project for Indensitat in Spain (http://www.idensitat.org/a_index.htm) since this year's theme, HOME / AWAY, connects so well with my overall body of work. The piece will be similar to the one that I did in Beijing (http://joelledietrick.com/2006/artwork.php?m=china), but this time, it will involve a group that is rooted in the place (local Spanish people who are interested in seeing Catalonia recognized as a nation) and one that is unrooted (the expat community). I'm hoping that the event will take place in an alternative space in Mataro called Can Xalant (http://www.canxalant.org/).

Does anybody have any contacts for me in Spain? Thanks!!!!

Food and Embodied Memories

Please contribute stories to Kelly Pendergrast's story about food and memory. See description below. You can email her at kjpender@ucsd.edu.

*********************************************************************************************

I have a request!

I am collecting anecdotes to do with food and embodied memory for a short film project. Maybe that sounds a little theory-ific...

Essentially, I am looking for stories about an occasion that was significant to you in some way and involved (or was accompanied by) the eating of a meal/food. Does that make sense at all?

Can you tell me a story?

-Describe the event/scenario
-What did you eat?
-Why was it significant to you? ( the event, or the food, or both).

(eg you were ate your grandmother's wake with your awkward extended family, eating cucumber sandwiches because they were grandmother's favorite (true story). OR you ate dried apricots and drank cheap wine with your ex-girlfriend in a park in paris while backpacking in france and then puked all over her in the train later on (not a true story)....)

Just a short paragraph worth of story is great...

I would be delighted to have your contribution. Touching, weird, awkward, disgusting - anything!

If you'd like to email me an anecdote, that'd be great. If you are willing to tell your story and be (audio)recorded, that would be even better.

switched servers

Sorry if the blog has been strange recently. I just switched servers...

Stay tuned.

Paradise Found by by Nicola Jane Barratt

So, we found it! It was an 8 hour drive - though we stopped and hand
fed some lemurs while they jumped on our heads and let us squeeze
their chubby tummies and thighs. They have the nicest fur I've ever
felt - long and thick and soft and it comes in so many different
colors! Their little hands are so soft - they never scratch you even
when they jump onto your head, which the brown ones seem to be quite fond of doing.

But, I digress - paradise is called Mahambo - a little village located
about 100 miles north of Tametave, on the northeast coast of
Madagascar. The place to stay in Paradise is the Hotel Recif - Six
rattan and thatch shacks on the beach 50 feet from the high tide line,
overhanging mangroves and coconut palms. Parts of the beach are coral tide pools, part volcanic tide pools, perfect for exploring from the
beach or by snorkeling - full of rockfish, urchins, brittle stars, .
Part great for swimming - water temp 80. Air temp 70 at night, 85 in
the daytime, always a breeze. There's no one here - occasionally
someone would walk down the beach or stop for a drink - but mostly it
was just us. Miles of white sand with only the occasional lemur
passing thru for company. There were a few empty houses – there are probably more people around at Christmas. But there was no one to be bothered by the boys playing wiffle or soccer or tag or be angry for
them climbing the trees. There was noone to interrupt my cocktails
and contemplation by insisting I buy something.

There only seems to be two semi commercial occupations aside form the hotel - one is the fishermen, walking or sailing across the reef looking for lobsters - the other is infusing rum with spices or herbs
- vanilla, ginger, cannelle (a fennel like herb), lemon, pineapple or
mixed fruits. Both occupations of which I highly approve of the
outcome!!! The ginger rum with pineapple juice is my new favorite
beverage and the new house drink here at chez Heitmann!

And how's the food at the Recif? Amazing!!!! Giant bowls of hot
chocolate or coffee for breakfast with crepes or fresh baguettes.
Lunch and dinner is grilled chicken or shrimp or lobster covered in
one of a number of sauces - I loved the coconut curry sauce. Sides of
home made pasta or sauteed potatoes or grilled vegetables. Salads of
tomatoes, shrimp, vinaigrette. Desserts of flambéed bananas,
chocolate mousse, coconut custard.

Is there a down side - yes - there is only cold water in the showers -
but the staff will happily make you a bucket or two of hot water for a
stand up bath. And the avocados weren't in season. And because it's
on the east coast, there is no sunset view. But it makes the beach
nice and shady in the late afternoon - good for napping.

But in the end the visa bill arrives and you usually grimace - right?
Well the Hotel Recif doesn't take Visa or Mastercard or Amex - cash
only. Yikes, right? Wrong - the best news of all is the bill! – the
bungalows with one queen size and a set of bunk beds are $15 per
night. The lobster entree which is 2 1/2 lbs is $7. The rum drinks are
75 cents. Snorkeling is free, pirogue (canoe) rides are $5. As much
as we ate or drank or played, we couldn't seem to spend more than $100 per day – for a family of six!!! Truly paradise!!!!

the expat podcast

bit under the weather, but i promise to write more soon. in the meantime, visit this site and enjoy:
http://www.dynamodpod.com/live/

Afghan War Rugs and Other Objects

Recent emails from friends overseas have brought up the topic of shopping as an expat. As a maker of objects, I find our relationship to material culture of special interest. I flash back to my ex-husband's purchase of a Afghan war rug when we lived in Bahrain. (see above) Here are excerpts from the other emails:

1) Found the Motherlode of all Malagasy craft markets. the straw bags are fabulous. All different sizes from beach bags to little purses. Lots of different colors - magenta, lime green, and orange seem to be prevalent though. But there are also primary colors and earth tones. Lots of different patterns – checkerboard, stripes, herringbone for the more traditional of you! And they're all $3 to $10.

2) And all we have here in Rwanda are post-genocidal peace baskets...

Iana Quesnell, dysfunctional nomad

Please do yourself a favor and see my friend Iana Quesnell's show. The work is smart, beautifully executed, and dovetails with the questions and concerns raised by the Female Expat Project. I hope a page with her work here soon.

The annoucement for the show:

Akemi Hong & Camilo Ontiveros in collaboration with the Voz Alta Collective would like to find you at

La Gringa Turista
Iana Quesnell @ Voz Alta
October 28 – November 8, 2006

Reception: October 28, 7 - 11pm

Voz Alta
1544 Broadway
San Diego, CA 92101

What does it mean to own yourself and to own the space that your body occupies in each moment?
Iana has turned what she sees as “dysfunctional nomadism” into the subject of her work. Through a process of documentation, she explores ways to own space temporally. Her large-scale drawings both depict the intimate details that she associates with owning a space while at the same time they are an act of claiming a kind of real estate through scale. The real estate of her drawings, like the real estate of her body, share the conundrum of having to borrow paths in order to physically exist.
La Gringa Turista is a documentation of living in Tijuana this past summer.
Due to the tension of being an outsider this work focuses primarily on the scene outside as viewed from the sofa inside, where she spent most of her time.

Open by appointment: iquesnell@ucsd.edu | no phone

For more information, contact Akemi Hong & Camilo Ontiveros:
(916) 524-3712
(619) 398-6872
acecollaborations@gmail.com

This Question of Moving

The Advanced Art Workshop has a new subtitle, namely "This Question of Moving." It's from the Charles Baudelaire quote from Paris Spleen:

It seems to me that I would always be better off where
I am not, and this question of moving is one of those
I discuss incessantly with my soul.

FEP folk, sorry for the blogging hiatus. I think I'm finally back. This first year of college teaching has sucked up all of my time and energy. Now back to the business of artmaking.

recent readings, kaplan and all

As I'm planning my Advanced Art Workshop on Mobility for Spring 2007 at Florida State, I though I should share the list of texts with the readers of the Female Expat Project. Here you go:

Bachelard, Gaston. The Poetics of Space. Boston: Beacon Press. 1964. ($10)

Clifford, James. Routes: Travel and Translation in the Late 20th Century. Cambridge: Havard University Press. 1997. ($17)

Fitzpatrick, Robert. Universal Experience: Art, Life, and the Tourist's Eye. New York: Distributed Art Publishers. 2005. ($20)

Kaplan, Caren. Questions of Travel: Postmodern Discourses of Displacement. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. 1996. ($23)

Kristeva, Julia. Strangers to Ourselves. New York: Columbia University Press.1991. ($21)

Robinson, Jane. Unsuitable for Ladies: An Anthology of Women Travellers. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1994. ($15)

Rogoff, Irit. Terra Infirma: Geography's Visual Culture. New York: Routledge. 2000. ($33)

powered by Audioblog.com

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use audio blogger!!!

Teaching at Florida State University has been heavenly, and my digital art students will soon start an audio project that is closely aligned to the aspirations of this site. In preparation for the project, I've been researching some of my favorite sound art project. Here's a few with more to come...

Ricardo Miranda, http://www.ambriente.com/wifi/index.php
Murmur, http://murmurtoronto.ca/
Teri Rueb, http://www.terirueb.net/flash/TeriRueb.html
Jeff Talman, http://www.jefftalman.com/install.html

I'd also like to encourage people to use the audioblog set up for this site. It's so easy!!! For instructions, visit:
http://www.female-expat.org/2006/post.php#audiobloginstructions

Ibn Arabi quote about travel

"If you engage in travel, you will arrive."
Ibn Arabi
Thirteenth-century Sufi Master

Home: A Connection to the Land by L. Joyce Mundy

SOUVENIRS for Sept. 5, 2006
By L. Joyce Mundy
for more by L. Joyce Mundy, visit http://flyinggeesepublications.com

HOME: A CONNECTION TO THE LAND
Roots grow deep in Southern Indiana soil

I have long been aware of the strings that bind me to this particular place in the world, and to the locations that will always be "home" to me. Wherever I travel, the distance is measured from here. When I leave, I always have in mind how long it will be before I return. In the past, the bonds were entwined with the presence of my parents, but the connection to this place endures even after they are gone.

It almost seems that we have some unknown quality that centers us on the spot where we were reared. The Holler in Martin County, never lost its attraction for my father, as well as for others who were raised there. Garnett Mundy, one of the few remaining folks to grow up in the little valley, still has a longing to visit that place. The last time she was there, about 15 years ago, only the concrete porch and foundation of her parent's house could be found among the trees.

When I drive by our old home place, at the mouth of the Holler near White River, I still recognize enough of the terrain to feel a sense of nostalgia. Now the river bottom fields and hillside pastures are covered with trees, but I can imagine what was once there. And some things never change. The meandering little creek still runs into the river, and the river still flows west toward the sunset.

Our roots grew deeply into the fertile land cleared by our ancestors. Perhaps we can be compared to stubborn plants which are so firmly attached that some bit of the root still remains where it was first planted. Transplanted roots can flourish in new gardens, but there is always a memory that is never lost; a longing for the bit that was left behind. I wonder if it is only farm folks who feel these connections, or if people who grow up in the city can be similarly rooted there.

It must have been very difficult for our ancestors, to sail away from their homelands never to see them again. Owning one's own land was often the ambition of those who immigrated from places where this was not possible. They cut the strings that held them to the places of their birth in order to survive, and to find their own bit of land in which to grow new roots.

Lemurs and Malagasy Rock Bands by Nicola Jane Barratt

Lemurs and Malagasy rock bands - Aug 31, 2006

Did our first excursion on Saturday. Drove out of town for about an
hour to get to a private lemur reserve. The total distance was about
20 km (14 miles) but this took an hour! The winding streets of Tana
are very crowded, especially on Saturday. There are lots of
rickshaws, small ones for carrying a single passenger and large one
for carrying goods to market, like vegetables or rice. Some carts
drawn by oxen, some scooters, motorcycles, lots of minibus and taxis -
which are mostly old 2CV's from France and a few giant SUV's like
ours!.

Two or three storey brick buildings line these narrow streets. They
have steeply peaked clay tile roofs with spires at the corners, and
balconies with carved wooden or wrought iron railings. The ground
floors are mostly little shops, some with strings of sausages and
dryings chickens and ducks hanging in the doorways, others full of
spice bins, others selling mobile phone scratch cards.

The roads wind through town then go for miles along dikes built up
between the rice paddies which fill every low spot around town. The
countryside opens up, hills with gold and brown grass, scattered
trees, larger homes built in French country style, villages of
highland Malagasy homes - tall mud brick, chickens and pigs on the
ground floor - cooking and dining on the second and sleeping on the
upper floors under those same steeply peaked roofs.

The Lemur Park has 9 species living free in groves of bamboo. They
are mostly rescued lemurs as there are no lemurs native to this part
of the island. A river forms one boundary of the reserve - lemurs
don't swim so it keeps them in! We see sifaka, crowned sifaka, brown
lemurs, ring-tailed lemurs, mouse lemurs, ruffed lemurs and others.
Our favorite is the sifaka or "dancing lemur". They are called this
because they always move on two legs - but they don't walk - they
bounce or leap, up to 7 m (22 feet)! They love to bounce down the
bamboo fence railings that run along the river - leaping after each
other - wonderful to watch. Then they sit and eat leaves or the fruit
which is put out for them.

Saturday night in Tana there is a "rock concert" out in front of the
gorgeous 19th century train station. A stage is set up and two
different bands play - sounds like a combination of jazz and Santana
with Malagasy lyrics. There are stalls set up that sell snacks and
drinks. Lots of bottles rum and fruit juice combos, Three Horses
beer, beef brochettes, cookies and crackers. We listen for a while
then go out for a lovely French meal in a quaint restaurant up a
winding cobblestone street.

jetlag and nits by Nicola Jane Barratt

jetlag and nits - Aug 24, 2006

We arrived at Newark with our allotted 12 checked bags and a number of carry-ons. Then two of the carry-ons became checked bags due to the no fluids on board rule. They did let us bring the 4 oz of liquid Tylenol but what how was i supposed to survive with no toothpaste for 32 hours? no problem - international flights always include that little amenities bag as well as a glass of wine to calm the nerves, right? wrong! US carriers no longer give out amenities or free drinks! ugh! well, then it turns out that Continental has no agreement with AIr Mad so the bags can't be checked to Mad anyway - they can only go as far as Paris...

so, during take-off i find the first bug crawling around on Gabby's
head but i don't think too much - lots of bugs in the US in
summertime, right?

We land at Charles de Gaulle at 1:30 am our time - the airport has no
security at all but is a nightmare nonetheless - we retrieve the 14
checked bags and are trying to lug them to our nearby day rooms at the
Comfort Hotel. We ask several employees (in French) if the shuttle
bus is coming to the sign-posted shuttle bus waiting area at door #5 -
they all say, "Oui, la prochaine autobus, certainement"...after an
hour, someone finally tells us that due to roadworks the shuttle only
comes to door #5 in the next terminal...aaah, the french – so
helpful and informed, so dedicated to their jobs - my only hope, in
retrospect, is that during one or more of these conversations some of
my lice jumped onto their heads!!! The Comfort Inn is not, but at
least we lie down for a few hours and dig the toothpaste out of the
checked bags, the journey back via 2 buses and the wrong terminal,
thanks to some other helpful frenchmen is worse than you can imagine.

It is 11 hours to Tana from Paris - AIr Mad nas no in-flight
entertainment. Bill (who just turned 2) has no option but to raise
and lower his tray table for 11 hours. The chair cushions are one
inch thick - so no chance of me dozing off and letting Bill play with
his tray table without supervision. At last, Bill finds another
activity. He stands up on his chair, turns around to face the seats
behind and thwacks a sleeping gentleman over the head with his bottle
full of milk! The gentleman is very nice and only mumbles that
perhaps he could stop! The people in front of us are not quite as
understanding of Bill's boredom - at one point, a heavily made-up,
bejewelled frenchwoman turns around and yells "SSSSTTTTTOOPPPPP" at
bill - my only hope is that some of Bill's lice jumped onto her head!

Its about now that we all start getting really itchy - but, hey,
planes are really dry - maybe its just the dryness, right?

We land in Tana and things improve dramatically - someone from the
embassy is there to whisk us through immigration without waiting for
even a minute. All the bags arrive unscathed. Jay, our new director,
is there to pick us up and hands us $1000 in local currency. But the
currency is weird - its called Ariari - the government decided to
change from Malagasy francs to ariari several years ago – so all the
prices in the shops and the currency itself are expressed as ariari
but the local people still talk and discuss all wages and prices in
francs – the exchange rate is set at 5 francs to one ariari and there
are 2000 (fluctuating) ariari to $1 but it is certainly more difficult
doing two conversions instead of just one, especially with 8 hours of
time change!!

We get to our house and its huge and clean as a whistle – Denise, our
cook and Aimee, our nanny, have been there cleaning for a week – there
is food and milk and water in the fridge. Teak French doors , with
teak screen doors, lead from all the rooms, even the kitchen, out to
the verandahs. The floors are all teak parquet and the stairs and
banisters are teak. We've put the kids upstairs – there are 3
bedrooms, a playroom and a huge bathroom up there! Downstairs is the
master bedroom, guest room, office, living, dining rooms, the kitchen
and a screen porch. Garden isn't too big but there are two large
tortoises resident.

We hit the sack and wake up to the smell of cooking – Denise and Aimee
arrived at 8 and started preparing meals and unpacking for us while we
slept! Next morning, I wake at 6:30 – the container is arriving at 7
– and find a louse crawling down my forehead. Gross!! But what to do
– can't leave and get back before the container – just have to suffer
and scratch and itch! Container arrives with Jay – who I have no
choice but to ask for assistance with the lice – he takes a step back,
says "Wow – you were in my car yesterday – but, don't worry, I'll send
my driver out to get you plenty of shampoo" Driver arrives an hour
later – after the container is fully unloaded, the whole family gets
naked and shampoos. Since we're up all night with no TV, we sit and
pick nits out of each other's hair – the perfect jet lag activity!!!

Madagascar – great French patries!!!! Chilly at night, hilly,
architecture is sort of French, sort of asian. People seem more asian
than African, lots of French shops, a few south African. noone speaks
english!!!!!! it's a bit tiring but my french is improving
dramatically.

School is small, most students are Malagasy, not much green space ....

More soon – we're still picking nits!!!! Nikki

statcounter.com

I heart statcounter.com. If you have a website, you can go to statcounter and have them track visitors to your sites. With a project like female-expat.org, it's encouraging to see that people are looking at the site and that there is interest in our activities. Please let me know if I can do anything to improve the site. Thanks and enjoy!

Cosmopolitanism: Thinking Beyond the Nation

Anyone interested in expatriate life may be interested in attending a conference at Florida State University where I'm currently teaching. Proposals for a panel or paper are due October 15, 2006. I have yet to pull together a proposal but have a few ideas in mind. If you want me to help cooridinate your plans here in Tallahassee, please let me know.

Cosmopolitanism: Thinking Beyond the Nation
February 1-4, 2007
Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida

http://english.fsu.edu/filmlit/

While you're here try to visit the beautiful clear water Wakulla Springs.

ah food + nostalgia

from Aleen Jendian, Ajendian@aol.com

One thing that i notice about my mom and other women and men I know who came from Egypt, Lebanon, etc. is the fascination they have with food. More specifically, how they remember the food to be. For example, my grandpa would always talk about how large the dates were; with major hand gestures and emphasis in his voice he would let me know that they were "this big."

Other foods they talk about: sugar cane, mangos, mango juice, the ice cream there. . . it all seemed taste different, to have larer perportions. When talking to first generation friends we all laugh about this about our parents/family. BUt there must be something there if we all have experienced it.

morning mantras

Pay yourself first

Be true to yourself / selfish of every second of your day*

Focus on purposeful learning

Believe in synchronicity

Do your morning pages / highlight / blog

And I look over this amazing advice from my neighbor, Julianna Baggot, who teaches Creative Writing at FSU (for more see, http://juliannabaggott.com/)

"this is part of a speech i give to the students called "pay yourself first" ... i ALWAYS use my fresh brain cells on my own work. i actually say to the grad students: I promise you this. I will never ever use my fresh brain cells to read your work. And I never want you to use yours on your students. In this way I'm being a role model, talking about the life-long challenge of balancing art and life. i often end up reading their work late at night, sacrificing a little sleep time, but ultimately i've stayed productive here. and therefore, in the long run, a better teacher. b/c if you don't pay yourself first, you resent your students, you feel bitter and like they're the enemy. if you pay yourself first -- even if your best time is 4:30 in the afternoon and you know you will pay yourself -- you feel ebullient and generous ... or at least i do. the work gives me energy"

* Note on the being selfish thing: in the spirit of Ayn Rand (no, I don't subscribe to every bit of objectivism), this mantra doesn't mean that it's you against the world. It's the idea that if in your life you selfishly value your partner and their existance in your life, your doing things for them--giving them hugs, helping them with their projects, etc--is actually a selfish act because it helps your world be better. But it also believes that if you are in a dead end job that is sucking away your life, you should get out of it.

dear female expats, please tag along and contribute!

So I'm starting a class in two weeks (sweet Jesus) entitled The Traditional and The Digital. It's goal=to consider how the digital has influence more traditional forms of artistic production. We'll discuss not only how image editing software has effected the look of artists, the working process and heightened debates about authenticity, etc, but also how we use it as a research tool for content, involvement of audience, and an element of chaos. In preparation for the class, I'm picking up the pace on my blogging. See the following sites for great blogging tips.

http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/archives05/2005/07/usable-content-manifesto (scan down to where it provides a bullet list of usable content tips) and http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/archives05/content/

Happy blogging.

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Reentry by Nicola Jane Barratt

It always takes me a while to readjust to America. And as much as I hate flight connections, I think it's important to stop midway between the third world and the US. Not that England or France aren't the first world - they just aren't the hyper first world. If anything the Uk and France have a much more sensible approach to life, more restrained - smaller cars, smaller houses, smaller parking lots, smaller appliances...

But here I must digress and admit to my addiction to giant American appliances. I love my huge American fridge – with shelves in the doors that hold Gallon milk jugs, gallon ice tea jugs, gallon jugs of orange juice, shelves designed to hold "fridge packs" of a dozen soda... And my giant American washer and dryer that easily hold 20 towels or twenty pairs of shorts and twenty T-shirts. Because of course, what American doesn't take a fresh towel every time they shower or throw on a clean pair of shorts every couple of hours? - none in my family! No matter how many times I explain that there is no maid here, only Mommy. Of course, this laundry requires giant American laundry hampers also for the gang to throw all those towels and T-shirts towards, never in, mind you, just towards!

But landing at Heathrow is sort of halfway home. The plane often ends up parking in what I call the back lot - where you have to clamber down this steep flight of stairs onto the tarmac - dragging hand luggage and small children, then climb onto a bus that takes you to the terminal. This would never be tolerated in America. A recent BA flight attendant admitted to me that she'd never touched down in the US and not had a jetway allow her to walk straight from plane to terminal. I nodded in agreement, only adding that at some small airports in sunny locations, such as Key West, there were no jetways.

Immigration in the US is your first real smack in the face from this hyper capitalist first world nation. Both the new facilities at JFK and Newark must have cost more than the entire annual budget of Zambia. They're vast, lofty warehouses with expansive glass walls and at least a hundred counters of scowling officials waiting to check your passport. Giant flatscreen TVs blair CNN - letting you know that the capitalists are king here and only their version of world events will be tolerated.

Then there's the rain - it's a temperate climate so it rains all year round - not used to that - maybe that's why everyone is so obsessed with the weather - it's so unpredictable. You have to put the car windows up, even though the car gets roasting hot. Sometimes you have to get up in the middle of the night to close the windows, especially those sliding doors - boy can a lot of water accumulate really rapidly when you leave those open! You have to take the cushions off the patio furniture and store them inside - but, where? They're big and there's a lot of them cause its hot - u can't sit inside most of the time.

But there's the food! Wow, there's a lot of different kinds of food here. There's lots of food that comes from the ocean - crabs and clams and mussels and lobsters and all different kinds of true fish and they all taste lovely drowned in butter and garlic and wine! And there's the Italian style pork products - basil sausage, sweet sausage, hot sausage, capicola, mortadella, pepperoni - all so good on a sandwich or a hoagie or a sub. Great on pizza, great on the grill. Noone Kosher or Halaal running the markets and restaurants here!

Then there's delivery. OK we all love to internet shop, and I do plenty, especially in those first days when culture shock doesn't allow me out of the house much and jet lag has me up at odd hours. But here in Wildwood (yes, Jeff and I found a town called Wildwood to buy a house in!) you can get any kind of food imaginable delivered right to the door and usually for no extra charge. Crab cakes...

But the best part is the sunsets from the back decks. Watching the sun set over the water is what I miss most when we aren't here. Watching the colors fade from blue to violet to pink to orange to red, as the boats bring the fishermen home and the gulls circle and cry, finding their nests for the night. A warm breeze on your skin, flushed with a little sunburn from a day at the beach. Cool glass of something in hand, dripping little beads of condensation onto the deck, little music from the house next door...

a few ways to participate

Happy summer, Female Expat Ladies!

I'm writing to share 1) quotes that inspire my female expat project and 2) a series of prompts for our community who want to contribute the project.

To contribute your responses, 1) post them to this site's blog or 2) email them to me at jdietrick@gmail.com, and I will post them for you. Please let me know if you would like your name listed with your writing or not. If you hate to write, sketch a picture or take a photo and send.



Prompt #1:
1. Respond in writing to one of the Kristeva quotes below.
2. Highlight the strongest sections of writing. Post or email.






Kristeva quotes
Kristeva, Julia. Strangers to Ourselves. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. 1991

1. Not belonging to any place, any time, any love. A lost origin, the impossibility to take root, a rummaging memory, the present in abeyance [temporarily set aside; suspension]

2. He is a devotee of solitude, even in the midst of a crowd, because he is faithful to a shadow: bewitching secret, paternal ideal, inaccessible ambition

3. For they are perhaps owner of things, but the foreigner tends to think he is the only one to have a biography, that is, a life made up of ordeals

4. A secret wound, often unknown to himself, drives the foreigner to wandering..."You have caused me no harm," he disclaims, fiercely, "It is I who chose to leave"; always further along, always inaccessible to all

Prompt #2:
Respond to the picture of map below, ideally in story form but it can simply be the first response that comes to your mind. It’s from a video still where two people are walking on a large map covering a Scandinavian city plaza.


Prompt #3:
Write about a household object of some personal significance that you are debating throwing away. If you don't have such an object, write about your favorite object in your house.

A Confession
Although I only lived overseas a total of three and a half years in Italy, Bahrain, Germany and China, I have been back in the states for the last one and a half years and feel like a bit of charlatan still making artwork out these overseas experiences. Still, it seems that there is still more stories to document, and although incredibly happy in my college teaching gig, the draw of living overseas still remains fierce. Additionally, nomadic, transnational lifestyles continue to become more and more common, and therefore, important for someone to document.

A Continued Call For Artwork
If you are a writer or artist, I would still like you to send a few samples of your work. As far as I know, no expat websites showcase the creative endeavors of their members. So that others might be inspired by your intellectual and creative rigor, please email me for more instructions.

Your responses will be part of my curriculum this fall and incorporated into artwork at the Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts this January. (www.mofa.fsu.edu)

Thanks for participating.
Joelle Dietrick

blogher 06

Sorry for the hiatus, but I had to move myself and my belongings across the country. Now I'm in Tallahassee, prepping for my first year as an art professor at Florida State. With plans to have a painting and drawing class influenced by all things digital, I'm research bloggin again. Off to read more about a recent conference about blogging called BlogHer. See the following sites for more info: 1) www.antonellapavese.com/archive/2006/07/201/ and 2) contentious.com/

objects not going

On Wednesday, a man from the moving company came in to the apartment to give an estimate on the shipping. In preparation for the estimate, I had labeled objects that were staying with yellow stickies saying not going. In this middle of the night, as I stumble about the room in a sleepless daze, the objects greet me with their message, and they stubbornly insist "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going," "not going,"

I imagine them in this new painting, holding back, floating in the air, staying in their place long after their owners have left and wandered through the shelves of this bizarre library, the background of the painting, the setting for the scene. Their owners are nowhere in sight. Seven empty aisles can be seen at once, presenting themselves as options and distorting the laws of perspective.

judith butler in undoing gender

From Judith Butler's book Undoing Gender, p1

...about the experience of becoming undone in both good and bad ways. Sometimes a normative conception of gender can undo one's personhood, undermining the capacity to preserve a livable life. Other times, the experience of a normative restriction becoming undone can undo a prior conception of who one is only to inaugurate a relatively newer one that has greater livability as its aim.

getting lighter

http://www.transom.org/shows/2006/200606_after_the_dumpster/audio/after_the_dumpster.mp3

Unusual bit of audio when I'm in the midst of preparation for my move, weeding through objects and in a throw-away mood. It feels good to travel light.

kristeva on freud

While in Birmingham, we stayed at a hotel with a indoor pool and windows in its ceiling. Swimming at night, I could see myself in the windows when I would float on my back. After feeling uncertain about our Alabama project (http://colemanarts.org/2005/artists_Owen_Mundy-Joelle_Dietrick.php) and uncomfortable with being an outsider coming into the small town of York, I desperately needed the slight sensory deprivation that floating in a pool can provide. Something about that moment, body alone, suspended in the quietness, moving and fragmented in the ceilings window panes—the image haunted me and is now the inspiration for the piece I'm doing for Supersonic 2006 this summer in LA. (http://www.supersonic2006.com)

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Recent readings seem to resonate with the initial vision. Still in Kristeva's Strangers to Ourselves, on page 183, she writes the following about Freud's "Heimlich / Unheimlich"—the Uncanny Strangeness:

...Freud's Das Unheimliche (1919) surreptitiously goes beyond that framework and the psychological phenomenon of "uncanny strangeness" as well, in order to acknowledge itself as an investigation into anguish generally speaking and, in a fashion that is even more universal, into the dynamics of the unconscious. Indeed, Freud wanted to demonstrate at the outset, on the basis of a semantic study of the German adjective Heimlich and its antonym unhemlich that a negative meaning close to that of the antonym is already tired to the positive term Heimlich, "friendlily comfortable," which would also signify "concealed, kept from sight," "deceitful and malicious," "behind someone's back." Thus, in the very word Heimlich, the familiar and intimate are reversed into their opposites, brought together with the contrary meaning of "uncanny strangeness" harbored in unheimlich. Such an immanence of the strange within the familiar is considered as an etymological proof of the psychoanalytic hypothesis according to which "the uncanny is a class of the frightening which leads back to what is known of old and long familiar," which, as far as Freud was concerned, was confirmed by Schelling who said that "everything is unhemlich that ought to have remained secret and hidden but has come to light"

Consequently therefore, that which is strangely uncanny would be that which was (the past tense is important) familiar and, under certain conditions (which ones?), emerges. A first step was taken that removed the uncanny strangeness from the outside, where fright had anchored it, to locate it inside, not inside the familiar considered one's own and proper, but the familiar potentially tainted with strangeness and referred (beyond its imaginative origin) to an improper past. The other is my ("own and proper") unconscious.

What "familiar"? What "past"? In order to answer such questions, Freud's thought played a strange trick on the esthetic and psychological notion of "uncanny strangeness," which had been initially posited, and rediscovered the analytical notions of anxiety, double, repetition, and unconscious. The uncanny strangeness that is aroused in Nathaniel (in Hoffman's tale, The Sandman) by the paternal figure and its substitutes, as well as references to the eyes, is related to the castration anxiety experienced by the child, which was repressed but surfaced again on the occasion of a state of love.

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Why the image of myself floating, passing, fragmented in the windows above as I witness a double of myself? Not only was it a seductive sight absorbed in such a relaxed state, but in retrospect, perhaps it relates to the these things:

1) again, approaching people in York and being seen as an other and the awkwardness that followed
2) being recently divorced and imagining falling from grace in the eyes of another
3) seeing myself in the eyes of a new love a year after the divorce and concerns for repeated behavior
4) continuing with the female expat project which involves an uncanny strangeness in others both in:
a) how the women feel when the move to a new culture, and
b) how I feel when I recall my memories of that experience as they tell their expat tales
5) going through the job search and projecting a self
6) soon moving to Tallahassee to teach at Florida State and considering how colleagues, students, and other new friends will perceive me

kristeva on the cosmopolitan

from Strangers to Ourselves, p 38

One who is happy being a cosmopolitan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmopolitan, see 3rd paragraph for definition of a person described thus] shelters a shattered origin in the night of his wandering. It irradiates his memories that are made up of ambivalences and divided values. That whirlwind translates into shrill laughter. It dries up at once the tears of exile and, exile following exile, without any stability, transmutes into games what for some is a misfortune and for others an untouchable void. Such a strangeness is undoubtedly an art of living for the happy few or for artists. And for others? I am thinking of the moment when we succeed in viewing ourselves as unessential, simple passers by, retaining of the past only the game…A strange way of being happy, or feeling imponderable, ethereal, so light in weight that it would take so little to make us fly away…