CRUMB COLLECTING

2 Carol Browns collect every last donut crumb before exiting the studio.

INNERVIEW WITH COCO & ME

Here's a Q&A between Coco Solid (Q) and me (A) for her new mag ... (intro by Coco)...

WHO IS CRYSTAL DIAMOND?

To me Crystal Diamond aka Caroline Anderson is a writer, artist and an existential rogue in this world of limits and hang-ups. We met many moons ago at would you believe.... parties (hang tight, this word will prove important later). One day out of the blue she chose to actively deepen our nice-enough friendship by writing to me from Melbourne. She openly told me about a tough time her heart was enduring, so I shared some of my horror stories and insights – and before you knew it, we were (and still are) close pen pals.

As trans-Tasman buds, I was attending her George St Clown parties in Melbourne (an amazing red-head crumping collective made up of Crystal and her sister Joanna – they even have official t-shirts). Crystal was coming to Aotearoa for boogies and the occasional drunk summit. Then something cosmic started to happen.

Crystal was sending me live reports from the field of her brain saying she was beginning to see some chronic connections. The ego fabric that protected everyone from their true selves was starting to unravel and make less sense to her. Some pretty uplifting secrets were beginning to transmit themselves to her and she was both overwhelmed and over-stimulated. Me being a cynic she managed to keep my faith with the odd psychic observation and super creepy coincidence. (Let it also be known that Crystal is one of my few friends who hasn’t thrashed psychedelic drugs and at the time was more into The Rza than any church, so I just observed this movement engrossed).

Her blog (www. crystaldiamondwrites.blogspot.com) was the de facto home of nervous laughter and puzzled looks among our friends, which was understandable – both Crystal and her musings were getting authentic and wild. She was amazingly honest, hyper-expressive and keeping it surreal. Crystal called her spiritual outlook ’The Party’ with this metaphor proving crucial to how she truly believes humanity should interact. (FYI Celestial updating, restyling and rebranding is something we constantly bond over, why does spirituality have to have such an unfashionable stigma for so many?)

To me, the party was Crystal’s truth and her writing was resonating with me too much to ignore.

Eventually I ended up finding my own remix of The Party Within, I recommend it. Caroline also sends everyone packages, letters, presents or casual symbols from their destiny. To this day I will look at something she sent me a long time ago (a candy wrapper, a picture, a note) and recognize the predictive message that was in it. Shit is usually levels. Anyway I’ll let her explain the rest. >

CS : I'm just gonna jump in the deep end with no water-wings. What is the party?

CD : This is one of those zen situations where it's easier to say what the party is not. It's not not pure ecstatic joy and it's not not also really sad. (Heapsa contradictions in zen). It is a new configuration of consciousness whereby the dividers dividing your mind into categories dissolve and all the contents falls into your inner outbox for processing. Your brain shuts up and stops being the boss and your heart takes charge, pumping tingly orders all round your body. It's a cellular office party. Inside YOU. 

CS : You describe yourself as a rogue scholar but also a 'Party Artist'. What are the responsibilities of the Party Artist.

CD : Once a party artist has unlocked their inner party vault they party alone exploring all the zones of their own club for quite a while and enjoy themselves quite a lot. Retrace their steps, visit old friends. They continually keep emptying their inner outbox and keep it's contents in circulation via the postal system, internet, direct friend to friend contact. They channel everything that is inside them, ie. thoughts, emotions, genius plans, and look at it when it comes out to get objective perspective, distance themselves from the fruits of their own psyche in order to keep their minds fresh, clean and receptive to incoming transmissions. They revel in this task. Rogue scholars are people who take responsibility for their own education and shoot for honorary doctorates for going hard in their chosen field, outside of an institution.


CS : Crystal, this is gonna be a mammoth can of worms but what happened to you on that fateful day you discovered 'The Party Within'?

CA : I cried.


CS : How do people react when you grow through such a strong psycho-spiritual change?

CD : It polarises your friend base and sorts out the babes from the babes 2 be. Lots of people might reckon you have bi-polar disorder or delete you as their facebook friend cos you're getting too real. Others show mega compassion, understanding and patience while you moodily struggle through the transistion from being human to realising you are actually a dolphin crossed with fireworks then learning to embody that fact inside your human shell. Many bring you back to earth and enliven you with the magic of SOUNDS. Music has been my greatest saviour.


CS : Who are some of the people (alive and dead) you call on when you are rendering a large file with the cosmos?
 

CD : I must psychically call on Mum cos she always shows up. For some reason for the big ones I always call on Andrew Liversidge, an artist from Melbourne who I call my involuntary psychic professor. I write to him all the time and he never writes back but for some reason that doesn't deter me. He has some special powers that transcend bodies for shiz. Also YOU (Coco), Bek Coogan, Carl Jung, Dan Lucka, Joanna, Torben Tilly, Jo Randerson, Sam Crawford, SECRETS. There are many.


CS : You regularly send people in your network parcels and artifacts. Why?

CD : There are many reasons for that. To pop the bubbles around private documents, starting to brace myself for the critical views of the external world and learn how to respond without getting hurt feelings. Provoking discussion regarding the content, making a physical map of the important connections that contribute to the book I'm writing, The Party Within. Planting seeds of ideas for future collaboration, no matter how oblique they might be. Also so if I die the party lives on, it is a big puzzle and will link up all these amazing characters from all different areas of my life and they might have fun making a book or something together. It is a spontaneous evolver of a project, nothing is set in stone and could all change on a whim tomorrow. It is more about the joy and connecting capabilities of the process than any sort of outcome. 


CS : Transient as they are to you, what have been some of your favourite possessions?


CD : I had a red wooden diamond that I liked. Records, tapes, 2 lips phones. Moleskine journals. Latex futon, a painting by Maiangi Waitai, salt lamp, Miss Crabb threads, Alexandra Dodds ANATOMY OF CLOUDS ring.

CS : Describe this monster artistic undertaking you are shadowboxing with in Australia, where you live.

CD : Basically is an installation at Westspace that functions as a mini-series, loosely based on some of my experiences. The project is in the Next Wave festival and is called Wake Up And Wait For The Sun To Rise : 500 Methods For A New Beginning. It's a one month residency at the Meat Market which I am wagging right now to write this. Our collective is TAPE PROJECTS and the series is called Becoming Carol Brown, taken from an extra role I played on Flight Of The Conchords in 2008 who keeps taking a bus out of town, which is something I frequently do.The character is not exclusive though, it is a vehicle for transmitting a bunch of ideas and anyone has the opportunity to step into the role. The room in Westspace is the set and we will provide prompts for action that people can get amongst if they choose to. Costumes will be provided. It is part peach office, part lilac house, part black hole for trashed thoughts, part beach. Each day will be a new episode, some we have roughly pencilled in are ... ANTICIPATING ANTICIPATION, CAROL GETS SOME PERSPECTIVE, THE CYCLICAL NATURE OF BIKE RIDING, A CHRISTMAS CAROL and HUNGOVER BEFORE IT'S BEGUN. Theme song by SECRETS.


CS : Tell us about your recent exhibition in Wellington and the whole 'Year of the Rat' and 'unpacking' ethos surrounding it

 
CD : Hmm... this is an interview in itself. No time!


CS : How you live totally wastes positive visualization in a fight, lets be real. How would you describe the serendipity and connected way in which things transpire for you on a daily basis.

CD : Progressive Seinfeld.

CS : Where were you born?

CD : Whanganui

CS : Tell us about Crystal Diamond Writes and how that has helped your process

CD : It's a blog I started in October 2009. At first words flew out forcefully straight onto the internet, so many of them in a very short space of time. Outlining my initial book idea, talking about how we are all mash-ups of all the characters books, music, environmental factors etc that go into our existence. Sharing some handy life hints then I did a bunch of profiles on characters that had affected my life dramatically. Then I put lots of quotes and things on it that gave me heart and egged me on when I wasn't getting heaps of encouragement elsewhere. It's a good instant way to socialise psychic fruits without having to go to the post office. Plus people become aware of the buzz you're on and doors open up as a result.

CS : How did you get your name?

CD : I was about 4 and my brother and sister Sean and Joanna used to go down to the cattlestop and "go to town". In their place Billy and Sally would return. They looked heaps like Joanna and Sean but weren't. Sometimes they'd swap letters and be Silly and Bally but there were always fights over who got to be Silly. I didn't just want to be boring old me so I dubbed myself Crystal Diamond Necklace, named after my necklace which was actually red blue and white beads.

CS : How did dressing up as Tina Turner when you were a child teach you the meaning of expression? (I'm just looking for an excuse for you to tell that story cos it makes me laugh so hard)

 

CD : I don't have time to regail you right now ! but it taught me that if you can't do it, just mime and everyones parents will still think you're cute.

CS : Based on your experience and limitless love for The Party, how can readers at home lambada with life?

CD : Do whatever you want to do, hard and charismatically. 
DIG DEEP, BUY MY BOOK

TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN

here's a mail-out I just did on the electronic postal circuit (write me a message if you would like your inbox to be kept updated on movements within the Movement Movement!) :

Hola,


This is to say THANKS to everyone who came down to the set of Becoming Carol Brown @ West Space during the NEXT WAVE festival, donned pastel skivvies and wigs, became Carol Brown and generously helped themselves revel in their practical tasks in one or more of the following episodes :


Episode 1 : Anticipating Anticipation
Episode 2 : Receiving Transmissions
Episode 3 : Carol Tears It Up
Episode 4 : Carol Re-bakes Old Ideas
Episode 5 : The Party Within The Party Within
Episode 6 : Carol Gets Some Perspective
Epsiode 7 : A Christmas Carol
Episode 8 : Cliff-hangover 


Pictures from Episode 5 : The Party Within The Party Within :




Carol in a sax consultation with herself in HER OWN PEACH OFFICE ...




Some guests in Carols brain observing her sax crimes from their respective locations in the middle of everywhere ...




Conga line leaving The Party Within The Party Within to circle the oxygen chamber and finally impregnate the Aussie culture DJ set next door with their imitable brand of highly enthused radically sensual mythically scientific magical party logic ...


She could never have learned to party this hard without you !


+ thanks Pia Johnson for the pics !


Please stay tuned for the next tangible nugget to get panned out of the deep south of Carols' mind ...


Crystal Diamond Sutra : Joule of Transcendental Parties


... it's about NRG


xx


CB aka CD aka CA aka CZA

THE RESIDENCY

I just did a Next Wave residency for one month at the Meat Market in Melbourne, in preparation for an art show about new beginnings, which is a topic that roams right up my alley and close to my heart. My team was Michael, Zoe and Matthew from Tape Projects. Ours ended up being a live interactive mini-series called Becoming Carol Brown. It finished on Sunday so I am just beginning to digest the experience. There were four other collectives too. Sadly though, we all got engulfed in our own creative bubbles and barely saw each other until the last week .

Here is a photo essay of the residency part.

Didn't the month fly by !

WHAT IS ALCHEMY & HOW CAN WE BE FRIENDS ?

Show opening at The Physics Room in Christchurch tonight, on not a disimilar buzz thematically (externalised process-wise) from what is currently going down on the mind-set of our Next Wave project, BECOMING CAROL BROWN :

The title of this project, with its nod to alchemy, suggests an outmoded philosophy. To me alchemy is particularly interesting when understood in terms of process and not product. It’s not really about attaining gold from base metals but rather the mental space that that process allows – that utopia, if you like. Process over product, that’s the key.

— Simon Starling

British artist Simon Starling’s Autoxylopyrocycloboros documents a project he undertook in Scotland in 2006; this slide sequence being the only permanent record of the event. The original work entailed the artist reclaiming a small steam boat called Dignity from the bottom of Lake Windermere then motoring in it across nearby Loch Long, using the wood from which the boat was constructed to fuel its motion in a process of auto-destruction that eventually returned the vessel to the bottom of the loch. This cycle of recovery and destruction finds its ideal visual analogy in the revolutions of slides that pass through the projector to seamlessly document the performance. As a record that outlasts the action, it offers a metaphor for photography’s historical value; yet Autoxylopyrocycloboros actually takes us nowhere, as each rotation returns us to the beginning; a perpetual return that delivers no final effect.

Starling describes his work as ‘the physical manifestation of a thought process’. As such it is an absurdist response to the terms of the Cove Park Commission for which the work was executed, which is designed specifically to enable a contemporary artist to undertake a period of artistic research in order to produce new work. Using old technology—steam propulsion and slide projection—Starling provides a humorously fitting analogy for the possible consequences of future real-world auto-destruction, referring—in the raising and sinking of his little vessel—to the Trident submarines that carry missiles as part of the United Kingdom’s strategy of nuclear deterrence that share their base in Loch Long. Autoxylopyrocycloboros is therefore more than a record; it survives as a meditation on history and technology and a pointed critique of our all-too-human investment in progress and the abuse of power to which it gives rise.

The exhibition has been realised through a partnership with the Adam Art Gallery, Wellington, and is received courtesy of Casey Kaplan Gallery, New York. 

Simon Starling

Autoxylopyrocycloboros 

Opening Tuesday 22 May, 6pm

23 May – 23 June, 2012

55 Sandyford Street

Sydenham 

Christchurch

In our case we are using our knowledge and experience of past parties and our solid psychic connections with C.G Jung to make current parties in the present totally pop :

 

One of the outcomes will be an Elixir of Eternal Parties in word form.

WAKE UP AND SMELL OUR ART SHOW

 Today is a momentous day in the field of Party Artistry. A collection of collectives have pooled their skills to transform Westspace on Bourke St into a HIVE OF STARTLING ACTIVITY in an art show about NEW BEGINNINGS as part of Melbourne's NEXT WAVE festival. I am writing from a peach office in the heart of Carol Brown's brain on set of Becoming Carol Brown by Tape Projects ... a live mini-series featuring interactive new episodes daily between NOW and May 27th.

Carol is going to receive an abundance of information and needs your help to file it in a TRULY OUTRAGEOUS FASHION !


Here's the trailer :  

Thanks to SECRETS of CRYSTAL MAGIC for the theme song !


Carols consciousness streams live from 6 - 10pm nightly, with reruns the following day between 12 and 4.


Season premiere ANTICIPATING ANTICIPATION starts tonight ...


Level 1, 225 Bourke Street
Melbourne, Vic, 3000
(press the buzzer to get up here)


NOT only that though, there are BRAIN ANGELS wandering round in white jeans getting ready to show us their inventions, and invent some more ...


PLUS an indoor BUSH DOOF TRANCE PARTY, with theme DJs nightly ...


AS WELL as SPACE PEOPLE LETTING US MAKE NEW CONSTELLATIONS every 2 hours ...


and if all those elements aren't intriguing enough, here is the cherry on top ...


we also have ENGLISH PEOPLE in the house! teaching us how to connect GLOBALLY


PATAPHYSICS TURNED TANGIBLE , THIS IS PARTY PHYSICS IN THE MAKING ! and in the BREAKING ... (it down)


Please come and break it down with us,


We'll pretend the opening is tonight !


But if you miss that it keeps opening every night !


with a PARTY on WEDNESDAY and XXX-MAS SPECIAL on Friday,
with presents and everything.
Whoa, heaps isn't it ?

OFF THE CHAIN LETTER

Hello friends,


I am currently taking part in a party art residency in the Next Wave festival as part of TAPE PROJECTS. It's called Wake Up And Wait For The Sun To Rise : 500 Methods For A New Beginning. It is a one month residency that we are 3 weeks into, followed by a 9 day show at Westspace. The festival has a focus on GENEROSITY and URGENCY. Read artistic director Emily Sexton's opening letter here : http://nextwave.org.au/about/.


Our group is making an installation that functions as a live mini-series in the gallery. It is called BECOMING CAROL BROWN and is loosely based on a new beginning someone had once, when they discovered a party within themselves. The set will roughly represent the interior of my brain, a universal brain, as a venue for realising, reading, partying, decoding cryptic puzzles, communicating, experiencing and observing chemical reactions. Each day features a new episode ... which brings me to a request...


For our Christmas episode, A Christmas Carol, we are making a giant pass the parcel full of presents for whoever opens that layer. It will start in the gallery and be passed on and on and on until all the layers are shed and we find out what's in the middle. We are requesting donations of gifts. Anything that you have gleaned all the joules you need out of and would like to pass on. Music, books, drawings, yummy snacks (preferably not ones you've gleaned the joules out of), art, a thought you just jotted down. Paper matter and light things are good.


Please send or deliver any contributions you care to donate to ...


A CHRISTMAS CAROL
TAPE PROJECTS
PO Box 24091
Melbourne, Vic, 3001


or (if delivering) ...


WESTSPACE
Level 1, 225 Bourke Street
Melbourne, Vic, 3000


before Friday the 18th of May or soon after, for wrapping in time for our (XX)X-MAS PARTY, Friday May 25th.


Please pass this on to any genius friends who have the x-mas spirit !


HO HO HO,


Caroline