durations / intensities / locations

‘discourse cheers us to companionable reflection... the sail of thinking keeps trimmed hard to the wind of matter.’ - heidegger, poetry, language, thought, p.6.

yesterday horsemouth journeyed to cork to meet with robert curgenven (recommended by mutual friend sue ferrar).

horsemouth is a big fan of robert’s work but hadn’t purchesed any until this point (for all horsemouth’s writing about music and technology he’s a bit of a luddite really and does as few online transactions as he can get away with).

they began by establishing context - mutual friends and acquaintances (er. sue, ah tim goldie, mattin...), musical or artistic practices, philosphers and politics, areas of london or the world, squatterdom/ co- opdom, gentrification and brexit, england / ireland, NHS and education funding, prospects for work. it turns out they were at the same gig at st. mary’s stoke newington (the old church) - it’s where horsemouth met sue again after a twenty-ish year gap. it was so cold she was handing out blankets to the audience.

the great (gentrification) game is on again in cork - art spaces closing down (venues, workspaces) and yet to horsemouth there still seem plenty of derelict properties (maybe these are just landbanked until the full restoration).

horsemouth mentioned drombeg robert proposed newgrange - like the turrell skyspaces but built to last, tuned to an astronomical fixed point (the winter solstice) like maeshowe. how will the technology appear to a visitor from the future? - it will appear to have gone backwards, to have dissolved in airy generalities. instead a focus on the materiality of sound, pressure waves and resonant frequencies, resonant frequencies in organ pipes, resonant frequencies in buildings, on durations and intensities, and locations.

in reception another escapee from london. a general consensus the country was going down.

in other conversations - on the bus on the way in, a carrigaline builder who’d smashed his shin and ankle falling off his bike in wintery weather christmas eve before last - he had no complaints about the irish healthcare system - he could no longer be a plasterer though, he was learning to type and use computers.

this morning horsemouth is enjoying oar by skip spence.