Reading

From my first tutorial on Monday came this recommendation, which I subsequently encountered quite by chance in the college library and have been reading with pleasure -The conjunctions of words make me smile ... and shake my head sometimes. "The practice of everyday life" was written by a Jesuit, published in French in 1980. It sets out ideas like "Memory is a sort of anti-museum: it is not localizable" and contains phrases like "a mobility under the stability of the signifier" (I went straight to the chapter about walking in cities; it's followed by a chapter on being imprisoned when travelling by train). De Certeau's book is required reading in some social anthropology courses, and theoretically it falls under the phenomenology umbrella; not that its theoretical leaning is important to me - my purpose is to find ideas underlying my art project, not -hurrah!- to pass an exam. (But I digress.)

Also recommended was the John Cage exhibition currently at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge. Just in case I don't get there before 14 November, I bought the book today -Cage (1912-1992) used chance in his composition practice, and chance will be used to determine the layout in each of the exhibition venues.

Perhaps the wiggly lines in his graphic scores will resonate with my "journey lines", or some element of chance might be used in my project - or there could be an idea in his work or writings, just waiting to be found? (Of course you can say that about anything.)

Cage was a big admirer of Marcel Duchamp, and the introduction to the book says: "Today, John Cage's significance for artists is probably greater than at any time since the 1970s. After Duchamp, he is the avant-garde hero most likely to be invoked by anyone interested in expanding the conceptual boundaries of contemporary art. His enduring influence is due as much to his philosophical attitude and ideas, lucidly expressed in his writings, lectures and interviews, as to his work as a composer. An anarchist and exponent of Zen Buddhism, Cage exemplified the subversive spirit of Dada, persistently seeking to unsettle artistic conventions, categories, hierarchies and institutions."