Text of the performance by Melanie Bonajo at MEET TAAK (24 January 2013):

How can people create together ? Emancipation of today has its own questions which answers must advance on the lines of the inner need as well as the outer lines. The concentration itself may be concealed, but will appeal to incorporate a higher goal and speak the essence, value and responsibility of being a human. The question of public, social and shared space, and how shared knowledge, the local and community-building initiatives can serve as symbolic processes for remaking the culture of living. Engagement does not have to mean improvement, but is a way of bringing good spirit to the process of transformation and in order to actively keep negotiating the balance. This a moment in which we all reflect together on the momentary position of our principles.

Welcome Everybody,

Tonight we present ourselves as a Living Urban Landscape, as masters of this ceremony we invite you.

We collected some images of the ritualistic acts performed by various cultures in various times. You can see them behind me projected on the wall.

Rituals of various kinds are a feature of almost all known human societies, past or present. Humans have used rituals to create social bonds, to nourish interpersonal relationships, structuring life crises, human development, religious enactment and even as entertainment.

In the usual usage of the term an initiation ritual moves you from one stage of your life to the other. It is a recognition of the new role that you are in, the process of throwing of the old one and coming out in the new, entering in to a more responsible place.

Customs and ways of thinking are organic parts of a human life, constantly growing, developing, changing, dying and decaying like every other living thing. We need to find traditions that respond to our own environment and we need to give shape to our own rituals.

So, just to let you know.. this is what we are NOT going to do.

You, do not have to dress up in a crazy costume.

You do not have to dance naked around a fire.

You will not have to embarrass yourself in any other way either.

You will not feel pain.

You will not be confronted with the the uncomfortable pain of others.

You do not have to convince us by performing an act of strength and livelihood.

You will not be governed by a greater force.

You do not have to demonstrate your submission.

You will not need to kill.

Nobody will be killed.

You will NOT not be accepted.

There are no secrets.

You do not any drugs..at least not this time.

You do not have to go in to magic acts

or places of worship.

Your face will not get painted in a particular colorful

and elaborate style.

You do not even have to sing.

You will not leave this place smelling like sage or other incense. ( We are not even burning a candle )

You do not speak all your sins.

You will not leave completely transformed.

It will be easy, safe and very contemporary.

We will go in a little deeper on the nature of correspondence and feel free to have a drink or two.

What we are here for together tonight is to use the ritualistic ac to create a story.

Lets take a moment to tidy our inner scene.

Facts, can they be reconsidered in another light ?

New principles do not fall from heaven, but are logically if indirectly connected to past and future.

Please, close your eyes and take moment to consider…. consider....consider your nose, your hair, your clothes, your body, that of your neighbor, consider yourself in the space and how you are part of that larger thing in which we all can be. Now consider some of the facts, some facts of our society that are you and me. Consider your dislikes and likes. Consider your dis-comfortzone.

We all create a story today. Your story can be a one word thing. But we all leave our voice behind here on this piece of card board. A personal note. This note will be a form of mental commitment. They can be hopes, fears, but all will be expression of connections and engagement.Your personal view as a gift in writing, your personal tale of contributing and transforming culture.

Or let yourself be inspired by that point where contribution stops and the cause of events will have to make their turn.

 

 

 

CO-ORPORATIVE OPTIMYSTICISM

by Janneke Raaphorst

optimysticism

Optimysticism promotes unlimited optimism.

Our language is enriched with metaphors.

Such a figure of speech refers to the physical realm and so it helps us to communicate abstract ideas.

Mysticism hints to the form life adopts beyond this very, physical, realm.

The more radical the contrast between the visual references, the more effective the metaphor.

In dealing with duality optimysticism challenges you to find a third way between opposites.

To be optimistic is to be positive,

To look at the world positively is to rather see things that are there

than to describe things that are not there.

For example: It is not possible to see a hole.

One can only perceive a hole because the edges are visible.

Seemingly invisible changes on a small scale can lead to obvious change on the large scale.

Co-orporation

co-operation is the process of working or acting together. It is the opposite of working separately in competition, like corporations tend to do.

(corporare is latin - form into a body - combine in one body)

A corporation is a company or group of people authorized to act as a single entity (legally a person) and recognized as such in law.

As a corporation operates in the economic dimension,

co-operations can be detected on various - if not all - levels of magnification

where they obey the relevant laws.

Examples are the inner workings of a human being or even the social patterns of a nation.

Just as inhabitants of our planet seeks for co-operation with other lifeforms,

on the molecular level atoms are drawn to co-operate with other atoms in order to form a molecule.

as we know from microscopic observations an atom consists out of a core with a proton and a neutron with one or more electrons circling around it

the atom advertises its availability by the eagerness to attract electrons

Under the right circumstances atoms ready to share electrons are easily convinced to form a co-operation

to combine in one body, one corpus,

a corporation

an essential condition to form a functional co-operation thus, is to sense the qualities of a future partner

such as

compatibility

and the willingness to share

as for chemistry, the periodic table is developed to illustrate periodic trends in the properties of the then-known elements

in terms of intergalactic alliances, we are still waiting for them to drop us a line

in the alchemy of the current economical climate in the locality of Amsterdam

an utopian period for co-operations has begun

let take TAAK be your chemical agent

and help you detect the qualities of your future partner

with the help of language

see yourself as an atom

see words as electrons

and show your eagerness to attract

let co-orporations on the molecular level effect all scales.