iterations of form (at the museum of the home)

11 years later (to the day) horsemouth visits the geffrye (sorry that should be the museum of the home). he had previously visited with his brother and his family and they had traveled backwards through the exhibits denying the development of form (horsemouth had just read ubik and this sat very well with him). 

this time he visited it with catastro/fille and enza. they did the modern stuff first (as if kind of an introduction to the idea) before travelling right back in time. at a certain point in the iteration of how rooms learn, in the endless wastes of history, catastro/fille broke and ran for the exit. it is kind of like the comic book here -a static shot of a space through time (that turns out to be a living room at some point in time), with anachronistic elements bleeding in from other times. it runs off the unity of place.

in between (and to either side of the timeline and the spiral) there was the garden (and in particular the herb garden) and the front square with its lawn and benches.

they next check in with each other on october 30th samhain. there will be music (from 3pm) and then food (but very little drink - that is the plan). 

later (as he wandered back) horsemouth bumped into john and sarah in london fields - the discussion (at least to horsemouth's recollection) was of lewontkin and stephen j. gould (and coetzee's writings on animals)- the ways in which inequality and hierarchy has permeated our understanding of nature and even biochemical processes (seen in terms of DNA 'the master molecule' providing 'instructions' which are then 'obeyed' by other molecules rather than as a 'mutual aid' of molecules with different properties producing a stable-ish system). our understanding of intelligence is similar - a top-down education and training rather than a networked exchange of knowledge. 

anyway here you see horsemouth living in his head (even while walking back). 

horsemouth is back from a housing conference which was two parts inspiring to one part depressing. the news is of course bad - the government want this, they are prepared to pay that (and the co-ops will have to fund the rest). meanwhile overhead and on the radio traveling up there the government is in crisis and the economy is affected. 

it was great to meet the people connected with the retrofit and the consortium bid (a pleasure to meet you all) and it was great to have people cooking for and feeding him and cleaning (thank you hotel staff). he should now sit down and begin to get on with the work. 

if the work goes correctly the buildings will learn - they will sprout new protective layers of insulation. eventually (further down the line beyond the government funding) they will sprout solar panels - all these measures will reduce the amount of energy necessary to heat the building (to the satisfaction of the people living in it) in winter or reduce the amount of carbon needed to generate that energy (is the theory). this energy is of course lost to the atmosphere (eventually) and so contributes to global warming as does the carbon generated in the production of that energy (becoming that much demonised molecule carbon dioxide).

of course there are lots of green measures that are in fact (on closer examination) less green. but we are up and moving ladies and gentlemen.