The Alan Sondheim Mail Archive

:Interrupt state meant for Interrupt con/in/ference:


My life has a dismal sameness about it, abjection sets in, under the guise
of substance, interruption is a kink or knot, negation is at the heart of
it, as it is of organism; organism exists by interruption; a split of the
same - that is, a parasitic split of the same, out of which comes
inscription and the efflorescence of culture. In that sentence is what
might be said in that regard.

Now there are paradoxes in Max Perleberg's translation of Kung-Sun Lung-
Tzu; here are some; they function as interrupt in a sense paralleling that
of Zen discourse but with other purpose, different phenomenology -

Things never come to naught.
The shadow does not move.
A white horse is not a horse. (most famous of course)
An orphan calf never had a mother.

Now Hui Shih

The sun at noon is declining. The creature just born is dying.
The south is without a limit and has a limit.
I go to-day to the state of Yueh and arrived there yesterday.
I know the centre of the world is north of Yen and south of Yueh.

The dialecticians, Chuang-tzu of course

The egg has feathers.
A fowl has three legs.
Mountains bring out moths.
Wheels do not press the ground.
Fire is not hot.
A tortoise is longer than a snake.
The shadow of a bird does not move.
A white dog is black.

But these are not the works of Kung-Sun Lung-Tzu; they are background to
the works, armatures which appear to require explanation, koan in con-
junction with inscription.

There are no interruptions in the world. There are absolutely no inter-
ruptions. You'd have to tell me when I'm interrupting. You'd have to give
me a sign. You'd have to say something. You'd have to say something back.

An interruption is a difference that makes a difference, borrowed Bateson.
But look here, an interruption also presupposes something to interrupt;
I'm not part of the party, I'll crash it. Perhaps it's not an interruption
- perhaps you've arranged this, it's a surprise party. Signals fire and
cross-fire.

Now online where I make virtual worlds in virtual worlds, at least for the
moment, although they're before and after me, anyway, where I make virtual
worlds, there's Heraclitian motion, yes there is, maybe Brownian or chao-
tic, but I'd think more determinate than that, although the states them-
selves remain indeterminate, yes they do. There are goings-on and that's
about it, and my work, if it's had any direction before and after online
or before and after virtuality, however defined, is just about that, what-
ever's meant by goings-on, and how they go.

:/ ILLUSTRATIVE VIDEO - skysphere machine at last generating stuttered
spacings /: http://www.alansondheim.org/mach2.mp4

nudes and interludes


reflecting sheave-skin curling and shear
Julu heads a world of corporate fear
she moves an iron hand in wooden sky
she splits and opens, twists and turns to fly
where none may catch hir fury-transformation
as prims speed out of world and out of ration -

o sheave-skin Julu curling and so shear
come gulp our badgers mewling and so near
turn swords to ploughshares, give us a share as well
remember Alamos and Maines, the world gone straight to hell
it's not your duty to straighten the nation
but confuse with beauty, speed and mute elation --

o badgers, Maines and worlds, skies and Julu's sim
profound and catastrophic, were drowned in prim


affixation of male characteristics on fundamental female avatar as defined
within the aegis of Second Life; I create a toroidal representation of
rotating members inserted into the sheave-skin body at the proper level; I
deconstruct the interior of the topology, reflecting sheave-skin curling
and shear.

http://www.alansondheim.org/ nude01.jpg to nude13.jpg

Julu Twine riding vertically in partially deconstructed deconstruction of
Odyssey exhibition space; there is beautiful polyphonic rhythm here.

http://www.alansondheim.org/jumpymotet.mp4

sometime it might behoove you to look at these videos which are narrowed
slices of Second Life life, carefully tailored to bring one or another
facet to the foreground, most likely, as in this case, a facet which has
been added or modified, and therefore presenting a different surprising
configuration to what might have been taken for granted or dismissed or
hardly noticed in the first place, since, of course, originally there was
no anomaly, nothing but this odd playing field of confusion and brilliant
light.