Residents' Daily Notes

It’s tempting to sleep in another half hour. I’d slept at 1.00am the previous night, thinking and writing, longhand, about Day 1. But I’d committed to a morning walk during a wifi window earlier that evening, and sans connectivity now, at 7.15am, there wasn’t a way of reneging. I bargained…

Start to see little by little The frightening feeling I felt yesterday has faded as I began to enter every corner of this house, my house. Each reading begins to speak to me and to resonate in the situation I am living as if each word guided the other with…

Am I the fisherman or the tourist? Quantifying time has always been one of those tricky discussions as each person’s perspective adds a weight worth observing. We are 9 people from 8 countries with a minimum of 32 years worth of experience now being shared around one table, offering much…

It’s an odd sensation, on land at least, to be cut off from mobile phone reception and wifi in rural France. In the air or out at sea, it feels less alien and anxiety provoking — for now, at least. In time, perhaps not. A small window of time (in…

A crowd of fishermen content in their indolence; marauding maddened pachyderms, discontented by jilted Empire’s reluctant reps; whip-yielding convict executioners flexing in dusty Rawalpindi execution fields, their stretched biceps wooing dazed, lusting crowds All commenced a mad stampede, on Thursday, through the muffled hallways of a 15th-century castle in the…

How do we know what we know? Today I consciously direct my attention towards how to conserve and use my energy most efficiently in this new ecosystem of people and artists being created through Culturistan. For example, how can we more authentically convey sensory, personal, conceptual, factual and experiential shared…

Day 1 of Culturistan kicks off, and my concerns about my daily life back at home are starting to escape me. The location and setting where this deep dive into the world of authenticity takes place really add an extra layer of introspection to my state of consciousness. The Chateau…

Our first full day. Ideas shared. Some accepted some rejected. Opinion became interpretation; debate became dialog. I feel a sense of mutual respect from everyone here, which is the basis of authentic conversation. I’m not sure what else to say now. I want to stay in the moment, not demanding…

Arriving from the Zagros Mountains of Iran to the Castle of Grillemont in France. Two distinct worlds, yet both holding the same stillness, nature, and disconnect. Zagros, a challenge to one’s physical body, a testament of endurance within a raw harsh environment and now Grillemont, a challenge to one’s patience,…

Showing up is the hardest part. Only then is one able to even consider authenticity. This was made clear through everybody who showed up today. Many of us had our doubts about just being able to be here at all. Yet despite the unknowing of what this experience will be…

We have embarked on our first day of residency at Culturistan~ “Replace the fear of the unknown with curiosity”! Curiosity brings 7 strangers together down a new path in a serene new environment for the next 10 days….

The only way we understand something is through the contradiction of its essence. We gain perception by experiencing something’s opposite.

This rare sight of a pure sky, unpolluted by electricity or the dimming reflections generated by cities, makes for a good start to a time-segment dedicated to exploring notions of authenticity and how they apply to an ever more polluted world.

As I took the plane to Paris this morning I felt one particular emotion: a great relief. Basically a relief of having the time to be out of what I do on my daily basis. But then when I arrived to this huge and stunning castle my only emotion was…

It’s taken about 10 hours, door to door, to get from Edinburgh to the Chateau de Grillemont. As the last one to arrive, I’m a little anxious about being too late to fit in, to find a seat in the awkward musical chairs of first encounters. But when I do,…