ЈСП Поетики #1

„Партизанска“ на магловит ден во декември. Скопје се капе во магла и сивило кое се разградува од новогодошните светилки.
Го чекам "the Knight Bus". Се сеќавате на "the Knight Bus"? Еве го за секој случај...

10... 9... 8... 7...6...5...4...3...2...1...

Трескавичното искуство на пистата по Партизанска може да почне. Вторник е. Маглоси, шушумиги, волшебници поретко ама ги има, заедно со по некоја рахитична статуа којашто решила да го искористи бесплатниот превоз, и да види и некоја друга населба освен Центар.

Станица бр. 1.
Влегува г. Дрпник. Тој е веќе подостарен. Никакви напивки не му помагаат во овие зимски денови. Се уште е во жалост за неговата мачка, госпоѓа Нора. Кутрата загина во еден немил инцидент пред многу години. Намрштен, со брчки, бутка кој ќе стигне при влезот во автобусот.
Вторник е, па може да се вози бесплатно. Ќе ја искорсти таа прилига да отиде да нарани неколку мачки во Кисела Вода, стари другарки на Нора.

Станица бр 2.
Влегуваат 10тина бабички од Скопје Север. Тие се мистериозни. Се верува дека практикуваат магија во подрумот  на спомен-куќата на Мајка Тереза. Влезот засега е непознат. Црна магија - да си немате работа со тоа!

Станица бр. 3
Влегува само едно куче.

The Knight Bus лета по „Партизанска“. Новогодишните декорации се веќе поставени и изгледаат заводливо кога е ноќе. Врне дожд. Шоферот кочи ненадејно; губам рамнотежа и се плеснувам со носот во матното и гнасно стакло. Поминуваат уште станици. Две мачки чекаат на една станица. Дрпник е фрапиран, и се бутка низ гужвата да излезе порано.

Порој. Влегуваат уште десетина постари лица, со брчки од бремето што го носат на своите плеќи. Се чувствувам ко парче стуткана хартија бутната во некој агол.

Станица #последна.
Тепачка да се излезе. Вторник е. Прекрасен ден.

Isolated System

First, put the volume on! You must feel the bass line on this one! Perfect ride!

Well, you can already guess, I am huge fan of Muse. They are true food-for-ears. Furthermore, they reflect perfectly some of the main global issues. It was clear since forever that music cannot change the world. It may influence individuals, but it won't affect the people who are products of our pop-culture. Yes, I am fond of making a certain sharp division between people who are products and individuals in this society.

What is a Product?
It is a person who has lost its individuality in the long run in our society. It is a person affected by popular phenomenons and a person devoted to materialism. We are society of production and production. We always want more and more. We always want something new; we want new gadgets, new clothes and then we want this and that. These product-persons are grabbing always more and more. They prefer the City Malls and they are fond of checking in on Facebook from fancy cafes, empty heads who do not read books or watch quality-made movies. I sound too harsh? I know I do. Never mind that!
How to connect this with Muse?
Very easy! In a system where everything is focused on production and sale and more production and more sale; in a consumer's made society, the entropy can only increase. What will be the final scenario? In their Isolated System video, Muse are making an outstanding metaphor of one plausible outcome of such system. It is an isolated system, a narrow-minded system. It is our system.

Dear reader, I hope you are not a product!

Three Songs for Morning-Bus-Ride

Every morning, I enter the bus and I am headed to my university. It's one long boulevard - a 20 minutes frenzy bus ride. I have time to play few songs, but always in my music selection I have three specific songs I would like to play.

1. Radiohead - 2+2=5

I started listening this song last year when actually my English teacher played it on one of our classes. We needed to use this specific song and think of how we can make an advert out of it. It was funny exercise actually and afterwards I got addicted to the tune. I imagined an old grey man sitting on his bed in a dark room. He enters the bathroom and he uses some new random shampoo. I advertised a shampoo in my imagination with this song. The old men leaves the bathroom all refreshed and new, opens the window and so on and so on.
Why am I writing this? So, I enter the bus every morning. Skopje is quite a grey city in autumn and winter. It's also polluted city. Polluted by politicians, by trash and kitsch and ugly sculptures and fountains. It makes me think, this city would need a lot of 'shampoo to get all washed up'. However, it's not only the politicians fault. It's the people as well. 2+2 makes 5 for most of men and not only here in my country, but look at it on a global level. In the first place, Radiohead produced this song in 2003 as a reply to Americans selecting George Bush as a president (if I remember well). For Americans, it was conspicuous that 2+2 makes 5 by making such choice.They were not paying attention.

2. Muse- The 2nd Law: Unsustainable

Muse's latest album again throws the real light on our society. The female voice included in this track openly sends the message what will happen if you continue to be unsustainable.

All Natural and Technological processes proceed in such a way
The availability of the remaining energy decreases
In all energy exchanges if no energy enters or leaves an isolated system
The entropy of that system increases
Energy continuously flows from being being concentrated to becoming dispersed, spread out, wasted, useless
New energy cannot be created and high grade energy being destroyed
An economy based on endless growth is UNSUSTAINABLE.

The fundamental laws of thermodynamics will place fixed limits on technological innovation and human advancements
In an isolated system, the entropy can only increase
A species set on endless growth is UNSUSTAINABLE.

3. Muse- Madness

Finally, I have to play this other song from Muse. Human emotions.

Cheers,
Trickster

ATW #1: Turn Around and I will Show You Something (full version)

(technical remark no. 1 from the author: If you are right now in your office when opening this article, please close the tab and leave it for when you are home, in your room, alone! As well, please note that ATW #1 is interactive and requires your collaboration)

In 1990, for the first time the world got to know about ENIGMA - a musical project. Founded in Germany, by the Romanian musician Michael Cretu, plus David Fairstein and Frank Peterson, Enigma was among the very first to contribute in the raise of the alternative new music genre: the New Age music. And what they did is moreover amazing, because before launching their very first album, they traveled around the world for around 10 years collecting tunes and vibes from each country they visited in their world voyage! They were sort of... Silent Warriors in the Age of Loneliness.

In the last decades the world witnessed an immense development in all social spheres; but it witnessed the world wars, major disasters caused by humans, politicians-dictators, genocides, economic crises, famines etc. But, artists were always bit different, more spiritual, they are able to see in depth, don't you agree?
The new age music appeared as an umbrella term for down-tempo music which is able to create ambient of meditation and artistic creation, as well as it is good for stress management since we live in very dynamic times. With its tunes and lyrics, it aims to bring the spirit of the New Age movement, a spirit which has been described as "drawing on both Eastern and Western spiritual and metaphysical traditions and infusing them with influences from self-help and motivational psychology, holistic health, parapsychology, consciousness research and quantum physics". What is very important, the new age movement, music and spirit hold on to a HOLISTIC VIEW OF THE WORLD.

ho·lis·tic/hōˈlistik/
Adjective:           Characterized by comprehension of the parts of something as intimately interconnected and explicable only by reference to the whole.

Now, turn of the lights! Take a deep breath and relax, for this will be the voice of Enigma! In the next few minutes (or in the next one hour - it's all up to you*) you will be taken in a different world of music.Click on the video and press the "full screen" button. As well, it would be even better if you have headphones with you!

VIDEO: (ENIGMA- Turn Around)

(Technical remark no.2: Now you are back. I hope you watched the video carefully. If not, please repeat the procedure! You can as well check the lyrics here.)

Earth. a biosphere. A complex, Subtly balanced life support system. Morphing thru Time, we came Out from the Deep. Are we just travelers in endless space? Why we are here? When I was just six or maybe seven years old, I was standing in my living room staring at the TV which I can clearly remember that was turned off and I was staring at the walls as well and the sky outside. It just came to me out of nowhere: Why am I here, on this planet? Why am I exactly in this body, member exactly of this family in this country? Why there is life on Earth and not on any the other planets? How it happened? These questions, overwhelmed my little brain in a second. And I started asking my mom: Why this and why that? It has happened to you the same, right? Next, you maybe asked your father, or your cousin or whoever you felt close with, right? or maybe you didn't ask anyone, but found out all by yourself. Yes, many times we are left all by ourselves. And as we grow, we are more and more left on our own. And all the answers you wanted to hear over the years didn't come easy, but they did eventually, right? All the books, all the movies, all the good lyrics, the great friends... they helped!

Do you remember, that one fine day back in the day? You are older now. (Please turn on this song now) It's indeed a fine day. People open windows. They leave the houses, just for a short while. You are leaving your house and going to school. Quotes from Woolf's Mrs. Dalloway, which you just finished last night, are flashing through your brain and you know, your brain is beautiful. You are miracle of nature. You are one of a kind. Your eyes are clear and you start to TURN AROUND. You see the trees and then you notice the structures of the houses, all the buildings, the cars, maybe the hills around the city; some mountain ahead. You notice other people as well. You see how they walk. The postman is on a bicycle. Maybe, he is delivering a letter to you right now. You hear a telephone ringing somewhere. All the noise and all the sounds! (Maybe, the telephone rings back in your house as well, or right now?). The sun is up in the sky. There are some clouds and they were beautiful. You know that they are in one of the Earth's atmospheres. You know, the Earth is in the Solar System, in the Milky Way Galaxy which since it will be a fine night tonight, you can climb the hill with your friends and observe the Milky way. Maybe ask the stars, a question or two? What you remember next is: we are all made of stars. we are all stardust. starlight. you think: I am a miracle. Then, you think of a person on the other corner of the world, maybe brushing her/his teeth before going to bed and having these same thoughts. You continue to observe. Maybe, you will grow into an artist, maybe you will be the next president. It doesn't matter. You are observer first. You see a plane leaving a trace up in the sky; you have never taken a flight. You arrive in the school yard and you listen to people whispering. Some of your peers are crying. Some boy from the upper classes has died, you hear. Then you remember that quote from Mrs Dalloway that some people has to die in order for others to value life more.

You are right now, in front of your computer, and reading ATW #1 on the this particular blog. What's the time? How much time did you lose? You still have a time for one last turn around. Turn around and observe. (switch to this song now) Observation is one of your primordial gifts. You are just like your far-far ancestor who woke one day in a forest and noticed that he is able to observe and that he can remember things. He was hungry. Turn around again and observe just a little bit more. What do you see, you traveler in endless space? Maybe, you remembered something? Do you have faith in all the changes?

There are more potential combinations of DNA (physical forms) than there are atoms in the universe. Each physical form will see the same things differently.

(*For all those of you who would like to continue the journey with Enigma later on, please keep the lights off, click on this link) and start to move slowly, very slowly and let the rhythm be your guiding light, but first please comment and contribute to the interaction)

Stefan Alievikj and Challenge:Future Create-A-Art Action Team #10

The official website :)