Mirror, mirror...

This is Portugal in the world news today. First, the movements against the abortion law, the turnover in opinion polls, from 53% to 38% in favour, and the opinion of a Roman Catholic Portuguese priest comparing abortion with the execution of Saddam Hussein - "it's a variation of capital punishment". Secondly, the rating in the programme Greatest Portuguese, adapted from the BBC Greatest Britons. Those in the top 10 were announced alphabetically but someone was first. Wanna bet who that was?

Sonic Bed_ London

Kaffe Matthews has said to be one of the leading artists working with sound, and become known by making site-specific sound works live, playing in the dark in the middle of the space, the audience surrounding her, the sounds moving around them. This project - Sonic Bed_ London, developed in 2005, has been transformed and developed again and in new in different places, in all a different bed. I went to the London Bed on a sunday afternoon, at Kaffe's current residency in Bethnal Green. Climbed the stairs, stretched in bed and started to feel the music in a way I have never experienced before. I had 6 sub woofers under the mattress and 8 mids+tweeter behind side panels, meaning that 12 independent sources of sound were playing and moving independently at any one time around and under me. It makes you literally feel all the vibrations of the music in different parts of your body. Kaffe sees the bed as an instrument, and therefore works with anyone who is interested as well as commissioned composers to make pieces for it, using the specially developed software, built by and being developed in collaboration with David Muth. This allows her to control the 12 sources of sound and that act as 12 preassure points in your body. She chooses where to touch you. Kaffe says it's like bringing a gig to a person who can't go, it's about making new and experimental music more accessible to more people, by exploring other ways to experience it. I guess it's that but it feels more than that. Made me feel about other possible uses for the Bed, for example for people who, for some reason or another, are stuck to their beds. Anyway, Kaffe has a website - Annette Works - if you want to see what she is up to. To know a bit more about this project and the other beds (in Shangai and Taipei), read in Music for Bodies. This is intended to happen in 12 countries around the world, with a new localized bed being fabricated in each country using materials and craftspeople of that place and a local Bed Team found and facilitated to run the workshops and new music making activities in new spaces beyond the initial installation. Ah, by the way, Sonic Bed has been already awarded a Distinction in Digital Musics at Prix Ars Electronica, 2006.

comentar a arte: ajuda?

O Expresso comenta o novo tríptico de Paula Rego - Vanitas. Chamo a atenção para a seguinte linha descritiva da obra - "um género particular de natureza morta". Se o diz.

poesia dos últimos dias

Deixar fechar a porta

puxar o capuz e tapar o cabelo

molhado

Esperar no beiral da porta.

A chuva cai aos poucos, há luz no lampião

E o cimento revela-se

Reflexos de cores, primárias

Coisas primárias vivem à chuva.

Molham-se

Guantanamo

Dezenas de activistas da Amnistia Internacional vestiram impermeáveis cor de laranja e cobriram as caras com máscaras brancas em representação dos perto de 400 detidos na base militar norte-americana de Guantanamo, em Cuba, por suspeita de ligações à Al-Qaeda. A iniciativa decorreu junto a uma réplica da Estátua da Liberdade em Paris e teve como objectivo exigir o encerramento de Guantanamo pelos alegados abusos cometidos contra os prisioneiros sob a responsabilidade dos Estados Unidos. Foto: Maya Vidon/EPA

A primeira a chegar

Bum shake. Espalhanço ao comprido numa calçada de Lisboa para quem corre os dois minutos finais de 2006. Entrar com um joelho esmurrado em 2007 não me parece de todo mal. A arte de fazer planos não concretizados tem vindo a caracterizar os meus finais de ano. Ia a muitos sítios. Confesso que começa a ter uma certa piada. As coisas já não são o que eram e no entanto somos os mesmos. Bem-haja o novo ano, há-de trazer coisas novas, com certeza. 2007. Sempre fui muito má com datas mas pode ser este o ano em que começo a associar acontecimentos às datas. Género “2007, o ano em que houve inundação no primeiro andar a pingar para o rés-do-chão, que valeu a duas bacias lugar na mesa de jantar na casa dos Bengaleiros na noite de Natal ao lado da travessa de bacalhau, do vinho quente e do azeite quente com cebolinha. E que belo Natal. Ou terá sido 2006?

Um clássico de mudança de ano que não entendo é acerca do primeiro bebé a nascer. Desta vez foi a Cármen. Consta que pesava 2,420 quilogramas. Importante. Não entendo mas está bem. Diz que foi a primeira a chegar.