Steve Michel's Journal of
Lateral Modernism********************** Vol. IX No.3 March 2008
Theo Jansen: The art of creating creatures
www.ted.com
Dutch artist Theo Jansen demonstrates his amazingly lifelike kinetic sculptures, built from plastic tubes and lemonade bottles. His "Strandbeests" (Beach Creatures) are built to move and even survive on their own.
...read more..
------------------------------------------------------------
Steve's interiors(tm)
| www.flickr.com |
fiction dept.:
Soil Mechanics: PART 5
by Steve Michel
Timo walked the corridors to his quarters seething with an anger he could not tame. Free hour was already over. The other boys were at their rooms already or loitering in the reading rooms. Timo got to his rooms humming his best mantra of tranquility that barely calmed him. Later he lay in his cot watching the cracking ceiling paint. He tried to bring his mind to bear on his thesis due at Equinox soon. Sleep engulfed him and he dreamed that night of the desert. The Cargias and towns men pranced about throwing sand and rocks into a pit were he lay helpless staring up.
Early morning found Timo already in the field, boot deep in dew wet grass. Timo made a morose trudge to the dispensing booth for a ladle full of water. He looked over the field exuding the vaporous mists into the morning air. It stretched out onto rolling hills thinning to the tan colored frontline of sand desert beyond. One random hectare of shrub lawn had been roped off in a quadrangle. This was subdivided further into squares with thread and poles. Timo made his way back to sub-sub quadrangle E12-26 carefully stepping over the stretched colored strings. Around him, a dozen younger boys, mostly neophytes, were similarly assigned. Five days of this he did not relish. Back to his chore he stooped picking his hand spade to resume his count. He counted nematodes, worms, grubs and slug in any given shovel full of carbonaceous geo substrate particulate. The Lectors forbid the use of the word "dirt". With exact calligraphy, he inscribed the clipboard roped to his belt. He bagged periodical samples for lens counting. Timo remembered how six summers young he had made a game of pitting the number of nematodes with the equally rare beetle grubs. The morning sun had risen high and hot; Suddenly a shadow lay across the dry grass in front of him.
"Timo mind you don't fake the count." Brother Xos stood over him with his clipboard and gold stylus. He was a tall oriental Brother with a high top. Only two summers older than Timo, he was known to sharpen his authority with use-or misuse. "The severity of your punishment would be thrice counting under my supervision."
But Timo knew it would be his punishment as well and for an instant considered the possibility. But thought better of it. After refectory hour he needed to look into his project with little time to spare. "How much time to third bell Xos?" Timo asked handing his clipboard to him.
Brother Xos ignored the question taking down figures on his sheaf. "The nematodes are rare this year. I'll have to notify the accountant" he plucked the sample bags from the ground and wandered off to continue his rounds. Timo swore under his breath resuming his count.
Then the three bells of noon rang interrupting his silent litany. Around him, boys sprang up leaping over the wires to the refectory bivouacs festooned with bright banners. They gathered around the tables and benches set out on the lawn. Timo did not join them. Mercifully he could join his compadre further out at the tables near the brown banners. Tables in the hundreds dotted the lawn. Kitchen acolytes stripped to the waist brought out huge steaming cauldrons to each.
Timo sat next to Fid across from Phyto, his wing neighbors. Fid, lanky with a youthful face, was fidgeting as usual like some Ibo trickster. Phyto, stolid with wide shoulders, had a Yoru's heavy hitting strength. It was said he punched a zebull flat on its back at veterinarian lecture. He contorted his broad face in a smile at the sight of Timo.
"Timo sit. Tell us of the rumble." He said crushing Timo's hand in his grip.
"You're the talk of the wing we heard what happened." said Fid. "The Lector's office. Tell us what you saw? Is it true Brethren Jay got demoted?"
Timo chuckled at this. Fid was always the one with gossip. "Pray tell Fid, what happened before I arrived yesterday? I'll tell you the rest then."
"The Cargias came back only an hour before you did. They made loud alarums to the Lector of looking for you all over town before coming back. Word is they were on a lark in town. I hear they got bottles of firewater stashed in their bunks." Fid confided.
"The Cargias: once you've seen these reptiles, they cannot conceal themselves from you." Phyto flexed his arms; he was always looking for a rumble.
"Look, speaking of lizards." Timo said as at the table across theirs, the three Cargias strutted in. They made a ruckus in shouldering aside some lads at their bowls. "What's with these fiends anyways?"
"Timo take a look around you once in while" said Fid ladling soup into his bowl. "Always into your mind or who knows. The Cargias have it in for you since your project has been doing so well."
"Them fiends have it in for anyone they look cross at." Said Phyto thru mouthfuls of breadfruit. He emptied a steel goblet of water in one gulp.
"Pandu, the east ward told me they're not orphans at all. They were sent slumming by rich parents." Fid whispered, "If they were mine I'd send them away too."
"If you ask me" Phyto leaned his wide shouldered bulk closer to the two "I say we sneak into their bunks and trash their..".....to be continued next month
----------------------------------------------------------------
Plant a tree with a click:
Commission tropical trees in Africa
In the News:
Back issues 12/03 ,01/04 , 02/04 ,03/04 ,04/04 ,05/04 , 06/04, 07/04, 08/04, 09/04, 12/04, 01/05, 02/05, 03/05, 12/05, 01/06 ,02/06, 03/06 ,05/06 , 06/06 ,07/06 , 08/06 ,09/06 ,10/06 ,11/06, 12/06, 01/07, 02/07, 03/07, 03/07, 04/07, 06/07, 08/07, 09/07, 10/07, 11/07, 12/07, 01/08, 02/08
Dalani News: Monthly magazine
on the environment,
design, science, culture,
technology and art.
test your vocabulary/FONT>
Disclaimer: The opinions and information presented and expressed are intended for discussion purposes. Copyrights of external web pages and/or articles belong to their respective owner(s). Some externally referenced sites may become inactive or modified. Please notify editor of any malfunctioning or missing pages .
© smichel design co. 2008 all rights reserved **********************contact:webmaster[at]dalani.com
>Commemorative African trees via Paypal certified credit card payment
