my birthday

today is my birthday, how nice. 34 again...no, for the first time ever.
Murray, Kerry, Hannah, John, Suzanne and Iona come round for tea n coffee (and juice n cakes).

John gives me an amazing book on "text within art"...I am pretty stoked by the thought, it's a fantastic Thames and Hudson book ("writing on the wall: word and image in modern art"). John had looked through the book too, and we talked about certain pieces, "the great bear" by Simon Patterson (in the book there is a statement: "the artist as a subverter of conventional codes") - the fact is, we "assume" we know what the "picture" is, but on closer inspection, another form of communication is hijacking our known position on the "London underground" (or pictorial, bastardised representation of the London underground). We therefore must always closely inspect and pay attention to information, no matter how much we think (or, assume) we know what it is about.

This gets me thinking about newspapers, I'd like to explore changing the articles in newspapers...I want to make a "fake" sun (cover), screen printed onto newssheet, I could take a guardian or independent cover, and make it look like a sun newspaper...sneak into shops and replace the original cover with the bastardised version...I wonder what the "sun reader" would think? all of the liberal views presented in a familiar format...would they read it as a sun "voice", or would they tell, straight away it was "an impostor?"

It’s an exploration of the acceptance of "truth" (one "they" are used to), is it a psychosis, "pick up sun...read words...agree...page three...ah, nice tits...get to the sport, these immigrants are pissin me off"...(or do I assume too much of sun readers?)

Just a thought: truth is the undeniable account of something that happened* - an impossible collection of information that reflects a particular point in time.

OPINION is based on truth, whether it follows the logic of the facts or not (which can then turn truth into a lie). The ability to believe or disbelieve "fact" and "truth" is the defect of the human brain - the ability for decisions to be taken in a non-logical (or emotional) assessment of a given point in time. It is this human condition, the need to form opinions that defend "the self", to commune with like minded people and to communicate this position to others that leads "truth" to become "lie" and vice versa. It is emotion, defence, historic and collective perceptions, which dictate that people follow their understanding of "truth". If people did not adhere to these human traits, the world would be more "ruthless" (seen through the eyes of our understanding of right and wrong) - but to be absolute (void of emotion and sensibilities based on rules we all know) would render human spirit void, we'd "simply" be animals** - no right and wrong, no love or hate it would be a world of inconsequential events.

* and of course, the language (or interpretation of the use of language when “describing” an event) will even skew and contaminate the absolute truth.

** and that is an assumption on my part that animals “don’t” have some form of understanding of “right and wrong” – the consequence of a lion killing an eating a bison, is that an animal dies and the pride survive another day.

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gabi and I head to Gray's for the Alumi reception, and meet Chloe and Pat. Chloe gives me three books for my birthday:
The Norton anthology of Theory and Criticism, the great philosophers & literary theory: an anothology. She's spledidly marked a few pages on "truth and trust"...what a great present! now all I need is the ability to freeze time, and read the 4000 or so pages in all three books. Doddle. (only kidding, you know me)