6-12 February 2000
nqpaofu ahmedabad letters
notes quotes provocations and other fair use
conversational drift, informatic license
by jouke kleerebezem

ahmedabad letters mean to update you on my experience/performance, and host an open correspondence, during my stay for Doors of Perception's 'Doors on Tour' seminar, at the National Institute of Design in Ahmedabad, India, 6-12 February.
Ahmedabad Letters will close upon my return, when its contents will be edited and moved to nqpaofu memory high.

Scroll down to add to this list. For line breaks use <BR> in your text. And no, this doesn't mean you can upload any HTML to this list. It is not that multi-author. If you try you might corrupt it, so be my guest and refrain.

Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:
Date:Sun Feb 13 3:35:12 2000

"with a web site the only way to be absent from the people or places you wish to avoid is to take down your site" Paul writes at alamut.com, comparing physical and web presence. Actually I do the opposite, to the same effect. I hide in my site and hope to disapear slowly out of sight physically. One of the huge advantages of the web is that you are present in any identity you choose. I'm for example not at the Random Access, Ahmedabad's first cybercafe, with two students of NID, to do a final check out, just having had a fresh hair cut, Ahmedaban 2000 Style, and a head massage in one, at the expense of Dfl. 2.25, or $1, after having eaten dust at the Sunday Market, after having taken a walk on Ghandi bridge to see the sun rise over the Sabermati beds, with its busy population, after having woken up at 4am. not to return to sleep again, for reasons of rushes of insightful evaluation and projections of works to make -- instead... instead I am here on Schiermonnikoog with my mother for a short break away from the stress of a deep France estate, where I actually do not live, etc. Web presence's one critiqued quality is its lack of verification and of course some of the foregoing is untrue. I am where I have been telling you that I am doing what I am telling you what I do. See the videos. Honest. Web presence of the weblog kind wouldn't have much value if it contained too much schemes.

Actually what I miss away from home (apart from my loved ones) is being away from my computer. I know, such stupid thing to say. Not nerdy. Unlike a studio the machine is not waiting for my return with all kinds of works in progress staring at me from easels, it is just switched off until I'm back. There's not the slightest activity inside it. No dust gathering. No colors fading. Unlike a studio entered after the artist deceased, swithching on my computer after my death will not give you any senation of presence. It is patient and dies with me when I unexpectedly wouldn't come back (excuse my hypochondriac anticipation of another long flight and two short hops. Again I fly without a will waiting). I have no fear of flying yet there's always the mood of excitement which shifts the perspectives on where I am, the fact that I'll be returned to sender and where that will be and how. Forget it. Short: my computer's dead without me behind it.

The market was quite a sensation. Recycling Heaven. Bought some tiny collectibles. Presents. No books. Not a goat. No art. Not even a shining lota. If I had a ship waiting for me in Bombay harbour I would have shopped differently. Actually I woke up this morning churning on the one important subject the past week, for me: traditional craft and networked communication. I had some valuable insights in the nature of design and artistry and global markets, the value of hands-on experience etc. Jotted down 6 pages of notes and tried to get some more rest, only to get up at 5.30 and leave with the camera to see the sun rise. I need at least a few weeks to decompress. I might leave this up until a file by the same name is ready for publication. This week has been very, very good for me, and for Doors. Check.
Name:Paul
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Sat Feb 12 12:15:36 2000

Thanks Jouke for your update.

I'm very interested in reading the complete report of your week at the institute when you are home and especially hearing more about the institute sociologist's critique of 'weblogging'.

As you know, even here in Holland we have colleagues who shiver and express disgust or embarrassment at our weblogs and our blur of private and professional information. Too 'American' they murmur. But I am surprised to hear the same critique from an Indian. I've always thought that Indians (in general) maintain a rather 'expanded' (or lenient) view of 'personal privacy'. Take a ride on a public bus and see for yourself how much personal space you are allowed by your fellow passengers (even when the bus is half empty...)
Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Sat Feb 12 10:50:54 2000

Sitting at the Coscron again wrapping it up for Ahmedabad Letters on a broody Saturday night. Left of me is Kristi and right is John, the two of them will be leaving by train in half an hour. Tomorrow the students will take me (last one around to play with) to Ahmedabad's notorious 'Sunday Market': a one of a kind flee market, in a city that has (flee) market written all over it, in our perception. But this one's supposed to really top it. Most people's advice has told me I would either never come back to Ahmedabad or never leave after having experienced it, as they described it as the ultimate Ahmedabad kick, probably making up for what a weeks visit lacks: any real good insight in what this is about. And we tried hard. Doors East was discussed over breakfast with Marco Susani, Derrick de Kerckhove, Joghi Panghaal, Ranjit Makkuni, Hans Schreuder (o2), Michael Douglas, John, Kristi and myself reviewed lessons learned and next steps. The discussion was very productive, but for any in depth reports I'll have to be home first.

Doors at the NID was all-in-all a success. I avoided the B word in my talk, as you might have guessed. There's a small core of students who took it very seriously but the institute's sociologist mentioned 'exhibitionism' and 'voyeurism' in her critique, which was delivered without any possibility to talk back, at the end of Thursday sessions. First the whole 'subject' and 'object' and 'the other' thing has to be thoroughly reviewed vv. the Net, etc. There's a certain fear for imperialist options and criminal commercial strategies, though we were not directly accused of that ;-)

I have to be brief now, we're off. I had funny tummy and funny moody the past days. Feeling allright now, really looking forward to tomorrow's market, probably a hair cut, then home, where it is freezing and sunny I hear. Ha! Hope the family will like my colorful gifts. Slight possibility of tomorrow.
Name:Paul
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Wed Feb 9 13:24:58 2000

I wrote: "For God's sake me careful"

Ah JK, If you had parked these letters on a Swiki or used Winer's 'edit this page' site at least we could go back and fix our typos (and Freudian slips)...
Name:judith
Email:
URL:http://www.calamondin.com
Date:Wed Feb 9 10:29:30 2000

Yes, yes, yes. I wholeheartedly second Paul's admonitions re: the blog. Writing it in fact evokes only this:
http://us.imdb.com/Title?0051418
Name:Paul
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Wed Feb 9 9:32:19 2000

Oh and for God's sake me careful with Peter's 'blog'(instead of weblog) meme. The natives have no protection and the term is as contagious as smallpox.
Name:Paul
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Wed Feb 9 9:25:02 2000

What about having 'Take me away from all this death' painted up as a road sign? (for the Moulin?)

Good luck with your 'Weblogging' sessions.
Name:Paul
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Wed Feb 9 9:22:00 2000

Jouke writes:

"...a mini-Doors where I've announced to do the Weblogging: the Gentle Art of Agency poster. Since once again the NID is out of a connection I am currently downloading your sites on floppies at the Coscron cafe."

And here I am in the middle of a *major* revamp of my 'past' page. Too late to make an impression in Ahmedabad I'm afraid... :-P
Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:
Date:Wed Feb 9 7:53:05 2000

CareFul Glances Cut Accident Chances (road sign)

We did a death defying car trip along the road to Bombay today, to Andad, 80 dangerous kms. India has 80.000 killed in traffic accidents each year. Somehow this is a trip of impressive, astounding, numbers.
Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:
Date:Wed Feb 9 7:42:41 2000

Time fails me completely to serve you. Wait until i'm back at NQPAOFU. I'll give it another try however Sa/Su. Maybe some micro posts like this one inbetween. A link:

http://csf.colorado.edu/sristi/honeybee.html

And i will take Paul's suggestion with me. Tomorrow and friday are a mini-Doors where I've announced to do the Weblogging: the Gentle Art of Agency poster. Since once again the NID is out of a connection I am currently downloading your sites on floppies at the Coscron cafe. Boy I'm glad not all blogs are as IMGS intensive as Slashdot.
Name:Paul Perry
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Tue Feb 8 13:32:32 2000

Hi Jouke,

Dirk Hine's Subterranean Notes page links today to a transcript of a lecture by David Ross (former director of the Whitney, now director of S.F.'s MoMA) that lists 'Ross's 20 Distinctive Qualities of Net.Art':

http://switch.sjsu.edu/web/v5n1/ross/index.html

Would this be interesting for you to print out and use in your discussions at the National Institute of Design? Could anyone there produce a comparable list of the '20 Distinctive Qualities of Indian Arts and Crafts? How do people there think that Indian Design and Arts and Crafts will translate to the Net?

BTW: Say Hi to Jogi for me! (Remind him that he sat at a breakfast table discussion that I moderated at one of the Doors Conferences years ago. Topic then: 'The Nerds Will Inherit the Earth')
Name:Paul Perry
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Tue Feb 8 8:19:26 2000

Addendum to my last post:

With a 'free agent nation' population of 924 million in India alone, who needs a 'world without walls'?
Name:Paul Perry
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Mon Feb 7 17:09:05 2000

Jouke writes: "India has a workforce that is 92.4% self employed."

Which means at least 924 million 'free agents' and a 'free agent nation' that is 37 times bigger than this well known 'free agent nation' -> http://www.freeagentnation.com

(Who said 'Die Yuppie Scum'?)
Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:
Date:Mon Feb 7 11:23:00 2000

More URLs tomorrow. Stay posted and post.
Name:Jouke
Email:
URL:
Date:Mon Feb 7 11:21:52 2000

I stopped counting camels, parrots, elephants, monkeys, donkeys, scooters, colors, kids, money, things I forget all the time. And i have some fabulous video> That's by far the best piece of equipment that I brought. The river bed I keep returning to for its dramatic scenes of survival and eh, self employment indeed...
Name:Jouke
Email:jk@ciw.net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Mon Feb 7 11:17:34 2000

Thanks for your letters and hi Judith and Paul, I miss you too as I do my family and those others who know I do. The easiest and fairest thing to say is: wish you were here, this is one great environment to recast your priorities.
Name:Jouke
Email:jk@ciw.net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Mon Feb 7 11:12:18 2000

Today Doors of Perception started its formal program at the National Institute of Design. 80 smart students from different disciplinary backgrounds assembled to have an introduction and then we split up into 4 groups. With Derrick the Kerckhove of the McLuhan Institute Toronto I'm guiding the 'technology' workshop. The general keyword is 'lightness', which is the proposed theme for the next Doors conf, November coming. Other groups are focusing on 'culture/feelings' (senses), 'lightness vv. solidity' and 'visualization'. So lightness and/in/by/notwithstanding technology being our theme we freely rubbed minds on topics varying from mobile telephony web access, to superconductivity using the earth's cold currents for cooling, to GPS using not satelites but fixed existing networks, like eg. lamp posts, to whatsnot. On the more general side we covered globalisation/localisation issues (remember the tribes), users _teaching_ their technology to serve them better, as oposed to irrelevant manuals, some machine/mind wiring (thank you Derrick), the (de-)compression technology necessary to grow a tree from seed plus some environmental conditions, a shift to processing, as opposed to storage and transport, open source development, real goods in real time, closed loops, recycling, reversal of priorities and changing values (affording people to make their own shirts, as oposed to subject them to global branding, thus also creating new conceptions of fashion, or lifestyle, cultural expression -- ok, I stop here for my own peace of mind and yours.

India has a workforce of 92,4% self employed.

Now shine that light over the above mentioned ideas and start thinking all over again. We visited the Self Employment Women's Association and heard of their use of networking technology old and new media style, for a constituency which's main incentive to learn English is that it enables them to use a phone. Then there's an amazing craft skill and discipline -- we've seen their historical textiles this afternoon, and all of a sudden saw the ability to write code illustrated in the detailed tie dyes and needleworks. That's the way the mind spins on occasions like these, we're all familiar with the effects. Lots of speculation and little reflection. A great experience.

Let me go through my notes a bit more. I know already that these are just impuls utterances and it will take me some time to have all the editing going on to reproduce some really readable stuff. Food is great here. All veg and all in the student's cantine but tasty as anything.

Connectivity at the Institute is a nightmare so I just drove 10 minutes in a motorized rikshaw inhaling lots of bad fumes to get to the cybercafe (lucky that I got here: the driver jumped out at every red light to swing the business card I gave him to ask for directions...) before closing time (at 11pm). Come back for more.
Name:Paul Perry
Email:
URL:http://www.alamut.com
Date:Mon Feb 7 8:10:00 2000

Hi Jouke,
Thanks for your impressions so far, especially 'the real thing starts at the gate,' which seems to be, more often than not, our situation. No reality without a gate...
Name:judith
Email:
URL:http://www.calamondin.com
Date:Sun Feb 6 12:23:06 2000

Peter + I saw Jane Campion's new movie Holy Smoke the other night - the scenes set in India made me think of your voyage although there was this oversimplified symbolic logic of India=Enlightenment that was a bit silly at times...I'm off to travel for a few days myself.
Name:Jouke
Email:jk@ciw>net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Sun Feb 6 7:28:10 2000

I can give you one URL, the Tribal Cooperative Marketiing Development Federation of India:

http://www.trifed.net
Name:Jouke
Email:jk@ciw.net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Sun Feb 6 7:21:49 2000

AL2

I can't reach my mail server (yet), so whatever you want to communicate to me you should post here.

I made several walks around and outside the campus. The real thing starts at the gate. On the campus today we happen to be able to attend a tribal festival, organized by the Institute. Tribal culture has its own Ministery in India, so this is all the official tribes we are getting to see. Some great music and dance performances, with their performers (young dancers and musicians from remote rural places) just as curious to see us as we are to see them. Lots of giggles and smiles. 'Us' is the Institute's audience, 90% Indian and some foreign students, and our little Doors tribe, jetlagged, hungry, shocked indeed. More on tribes later. The unofficial tribes, outside the gate, live in this very wide almost but for some pools dried out river bed, where they collect sand, grow little patches of green, wash enormous amounts of textile, hang out. Overlooking all this activity from the long busy loud bridge is like overlooking yet another world, which begs for exploration.
Name:Jouke
Email:jk2ciw.net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Sun Feb 6 7:00:54 2000

First NQPAOFU Ahmedabad Letter
We arrived safe, after exactly 30 hours door-to-door. I was able to change my flight from Mumbai to Ahmedabad 3 hours earlier, when I joined Marco and Derrick on their flight at 2:45am. Jogi Panghaal welcomed us very lovingly at Ahmedabad airport. I slept from 4.30-9.30 and hit it off to see the monkeys in the trees, the camels pulling their heavy loaded cars (like we had seen driving into town, in the night: the drivers are asleep on top of whatever their cargo is, and the camel very slowly walks the load and driver to their destination), painted elephants, painted donkies, and all the exoticism which comes as a shock beyond easy description. I'll have to build up my performance step by step and post short bits. Like this first try.
Name:judith
Email:
URL:www.calamondin.com
Date:Fri Feb 4 11:43:05 2000

bon voyage!
Name:judith
Email:
URL:www.calamondin.com
Date:Fri Feb 4 11:42:59 2000

bon voyage!
Name:Jouke Kleerebezem
Email:jk@ciw.net
URL:http://nqpaofu.com
Date:Fri Feb 4 4:33:30 2000

Welcome to Ahmedabad Letters!