http://cixa.org/ephemerides/(sic%7Bsic[sic]%7D).php
On Fri, Dec 31, 2010 at 6:51 PM, Aditya Mandayam <[email protected]> wrote: > Home is a camera. > Home with camere. > Home, my cameras. > > <img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg"; > width="640" height="518" alt="" /> > > càmera rum. camara; prov. cambra; fr. chambre; sp. e port camara: dal > lat. CAMARA e CAMERA == gr. KAMARA (zend. kamara, pers. kamar, arm. > gamar, a.a.ted. chamar, boem. pol. komora) arco, volta, dalla rad. CAM > esser curvo che ritrovarsi nel sanscrito (KMAR data dei lessicografi > nel senso di andar torto) e nel celto: ond' anche il lat. CAMURUS > ricurvo . il gr. KAM-PTEIN piegare, girare KAM-PE piegatura, (v. > Camuso e cfr. Gamba, Cambiare, Campo, Gambero). > > Questa voce daprima fu adoperata dagli architetti romani per > significare un soffitto centinato e poscia ogni stanza costruita con > quella specie di soffitto. Oggi vale Stanza principalmente per per > dormirvi; e si disse ancor Il Luogo dove si conservano le scritture > del pubblico; al presente Cancelleria, Archivio, l'Erario pubblico, il > Fisco, e nella Roma papale Il Tribunale che conosceva delle cause > fiscali. Cosi chiamasi inoltre Il Luogo dove si adunano i senatori e i > deputati per discutere le leggi. > > »Camera stellata« dicesi in Inghilterra l'Alta Corte di Giustizia > de'Lordi sedente in una sala, sopra i muri della quale erano una volta > dipinte delle stelle. Cosi spiegano i Dizionarii storici; ma uno > scrittore contemporaneo, Greene nella sua Storia del popolo inglese > dice a tale proposito; »Al tempo di Gugliemo il conquistatore, cioe > verso il 1070, gli Ebrei, che erano fuori della protezione delle leggi > e non potevano domandare soccorsi che al solo re, ebbero il permesso > di depositare le loro cedole di sicurezza in una sala del palazzo > reale di Westminster, la quale riceve il nome di star chamber, dal > nome ebraico delle cedole«. Infatti STAR o neglio SHTAR dicesi in > ebraico ogni stipulazione per scritto, contratti, cedole, ecc. la > radice e SHTAR scrivere, che esiste anche nell'arabo. Ora la voce > ebraica star o shtar fu col tempo confusa coll'ingl. STAR stella, onde > camera stellata. > > Deriv. Cameràio; Cameràle; Cameràrio; Cameràta; Cameràzzo; > Camarella-etta-ina-otto-uccia, Cameriere-a, Camerista, Incameràre. > > càmera romanian camara; provincial cambra; french chambre; spanish e > port camara: dal latin CAMARA e CAMERA == greek KAMARA (zendo kamara, > persian kamar, armenian gamar, old high german chamar, bohemian, > polish komora) arch, vault, from the root CAM to be curved found in > sanskrit (in the sense of going the wrong way) and celtic: ond' also > latin CAMURUS curved . il greek KAM-PTEIN bend, turn KAM-PE bending, > (see Camuso and Leg, Change, Field, Shrimp). > > This word was first used by Roman architects to signify an arched > ceiling, and later, every room made with this type pf ceiling. Today > it is used principally for a room to sleep in; and is said to be still > the place where the public records are kept; the Registry, the > Archives, the Treasury and Taxes; the courts of papal Rome that knew > of tax cases. This is also how the place where senators and deputies > gather to discuss the laws is called. > > »Star Chamber« is how the High Court of Justice in England is called; > the Lords sat in a room whose walls were once painted with stars. So > says the historic dictionary; however, a contemporary writer named > Greene writes in his history of the English people; »During the time > of William the Conqueror, around 1070, the Jews, who were outside the > protection of the law and could not demand succor from the king, were > allowed to deposit their coupons in a secured room the royal palace of > Westminster which was called the star chamber, from the Hebrew word > for coupon«. Indeed, STAR or SHTAR is Hebrew for every stipulations > for written contracts, coupons etc. the root SHTAR to write, also > exists in Arabia. Over time the Hebrew word star or shtar was confused > with the english. STAR star, star chamber. > > Derivations: Cameràio; Cameràle; Cameràrio; Cameràta; Cameràzzo; > Camarella-etta-ina-otto-uccia, Cameriere-a, Camerista, Incameràre. > > From April to December 2010 I lived inside a camera. A foro > stenopeico, a camera obscura. By taping up my windows and door-jambs > with black paper I was able to shut out all external light in my home. > A single hole, the size of a one Euro cent coin, was made in the paper > covering the north-facing window of my bedroom. This room, my own > camera clausa. This room would become my dunkelkammer, my foto-aparat, > my own star chamber. A place to work, to sleep, to fuck, to dream, to > wake up to distorted figures walking my walls, bicycles overtaking > lorries on my ceiling. > > Some previous occupant of this room had put up fluorescent stars on > the ceiling which I used to lay staring at. I liked to think that > surely they were a map of the night sky somewhere. Lalibela, perhaps; > maybe Antares. > > My room was a facsimile of countless others; Et nos non inventimus > ita, to paraphrase Ibn al-Haytham. The pieces Laptopogram, Handmade > Garlic and the Dunkelkammer Sessions, Creature Feature, And One for > the Cyclops, regalo, Mister Mandayam, Il Lampeggiatore, Bar-Bar > Bar-Bar and szendvics, amongst others, were thought up in this room. > See Works. > > Home is a camera. > Home with camere. > Home, my cameras. > > The images birthed by these walls came from a number of apparatii: > scotch bottle-cases & mother-of-pearl clutch purses; pumpkins & > watermelons; pea-pods & colanders. The materials used were varied: > eggshells, casein, semen, cigarette-ash, urine, coffee grounds, > papaver, mint. > > Over time I grew to despise the stars over me. A number of reasons: > aesthetic, astrological, plain inertia, perhaps. I stood on the top of > my old rosewood desk and took them off one by one. An old habit of > mine, peeling things: eggshells, crabs, scabs, grocery stickers, > beer-bottle labels. I tried to think of what I would replace them > with. People had lived with the weight of the stars over their heads > for millenia before we started dirtying up the skies. I had read > somewhere that during Galileo's time you could see ten thousand times > the number of stars you can see now. La Via di Latte a perennial > ribbon. > > Living inside of a camera distorts your thoughts. At around the same > time as these developments I got hold of a Canon G11. This camera has > influenced me deeply. The digital cameras I had used previously were > distant, intractable objects: not because they seemd daunting or > mysterious; but because they had few charms. The G11 immediately > became an extension of my faculties, a fourth eye, a seventh sense. To > elaborate on the changes and ideas it brought within me is a story for > another time; for the time being I would like to explain a single > image made within my home. > > In November 1948 the Polaroid Corporation started selling the Land > Camera Model 95: the first instant camera with self-developing film. > The ideas contained within this camera date back many decades: to > house everything needed to produce a photographic image within a > single package. Polaroid was the first to realise the complex > mechanisms needed. > > Polaroid was also a savvy marketer; they combined cutting-edge > technology with catchy advertisements for their products. The Polaroid > Swinger jingle went: > > Swing it up! {yeah yeah} > It says YES {yeah yeah} > Take the shot {yeah yeah} > Count it down {yeah yeah} > Zip it off! {yeah yeah} > > > See also: Songs of the Darkroom. > > However, I digress. The point of the Polariod aside was to illustrate > the manners in which I used my bedroom-camera. It was used to make > images of the outside world, of the people and autos milling on the > street below my second-floor window. And the insides; of the rooms > within, of the objects within these rooms, images of the camere and > the cameras within, of the insides of my own body. I used it as my > version of a Polaroid Land Camera: a self-contained system for > producing photographic images; albeit at a different scale, > semi-automated, and not terribly portable. > > In time I realized what I wanted to replace the fluroscent stars above > with: my own constellations: a fantastical map of of the night > overhead. A outline of the demons I had seen while half-awake at noon > on sunny midsummer days; of playing connect-the-dots with the > zeitgeist. > > I started out by looking at the sky. There is only so much you can see > in Veneto. > > Here is the image, once again: > > <img src="http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg"; > width="640" height="518" alt="" /> > > This is an image of the night sky above where I slept for eight months > in 2010. It now lives in myriad forms: as a framed print in a gallery > somewhere; another print lies in the basement of a friend's home in > Paris; two copies lie in a farmhouse in the Polish countryside near > Bielorussia; a few dozen copies float around on the web; sometimes I > surprise myself by finding one on my laptop. > > This was one of the last images I made in my bedroom. I had to leave. > One of the final acts was to turn my sets of cameras heavenward, to > try and squint past the three floors above me, past floors and carpets > and slippered feet; past what-nots and bedsteads and canopies and > lace; past rough hewn concrete and sleet and midwinter frost; past the > low mists that swirl in from the Adriatic; and onto the creatures > above my head. > > Aditya Mandayam > Białystok, Poland > 2010.12.31 > > http://cixa.org/ephemerides/(sic%7Bsic[sic]%7D).php > _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
![http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg"](http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5168/5309539429_28fe63945c_z.jpg"){kind=link}