Voynich manuscript downloadable as pdf

The Voynich manuscript, a 15th century book entirely written in a code that remains one of the ones never cracked. Maybe because it doesn't mean anything.  Noone knows who wrote it, but there are many speculations of alchemists and mysticists like John Dee and Roger Bacon. Most fascinating to me though are the strange illustrations, mostly botanic fantasy dissections, diagrams and patterns but also naked ladies bathing in something green unknown, maybe for some medicinal purpose. Now in the following it's possible to download a pdf containing  the full manuscript!! And also another script, which I know less about but also looks fantastic, Codex Serahinianus.

 http://www.holybooks.com/voynich-manuscript-codex-serahinianus-pd/

 

El Golem, Jorge Luis Borges

"The simulacrum raised its sleepy eyelids,

saw forms and colors that it did not understand,

and confused by our babble
made fearful movements."

I didn't know that one of my favourite writers, Argentinian Jorge Luis Borges had written a beautiful poem about Golem. "El Golem" is part of the 1964 book El otro, el mismo (The other, The self). His poem uses the tale of Rabbih Loew making a Gloem out of clay and he also quotes philosopher Gershom Scholem.

You can read a full translation from spanish to english by James Honzik here. It's short so go ahead and read it. And below is is a recording where Borges recites the poem in spanish.

Working on Golem game again

Working again on my Golem game after a whiles break. I was looking for a tool for writing the the branching storyline and dialogue and found Twine, an open-sorce tool for writing interactive fiction with conditional logic, variables, CSS, javascript and more. Apparently there is a lot of people writing interactive stories and adventures and many of them can be found in the Interactive Fiction DataBase, IFDB.

Drawing the noice

I've put together a page with text and images from my part of the exhibition Attention: Craft in Liljevalchs konsthall last summer. You can find it here in my map.linusersson.com site.

Compassionate and passionate love

The most recent article in my map.linusersson.com site. I've been reading a couple of texts about the functions of love and in these texts kind of found the "solution", or rather a justification of the balance between reality and fiction which has been troubling me and whch I've tried tried to treat in many of my artworks. A justification that it's ok to endevour in fiction as in beauty, romance, enjoying tourism, popular culture etc. at times and which I very much enjoy but often have some trouble allowing myself to.

Read the article here.

Superego

Slightly rewritten article in map.linusersson.com about a society with stronger superegos leading to racism, conservatism and higher borders, resulting in repressed feelings and ultimately to violence and fanatism. A process already long gone and horribly demonstrated by yesterdays slaughter of lives and freedom of press at Charlie Hebdo in Paris.

Read the article here.

   

Art and ADHD!

My first choice of articles I will publish on this blog from my map.linusersson.com - site. With the header; What is art to me, I compare the neuropsychological diagnose ADHD with art as a alternate viewpoint for me, other artists, critics and spectators to to look at art from. A viewpoint with different conditions which have the potential to open up for a broader reading and hopefully expand the possibilities of what you as an cultural producer dare to present as art.

Read the article here.

Map.linusersson.com

Finally publishing the documentation of last year’s Research Lab project in Konstfack, University College of arts, craft and design, Stockholm. The documentation is a set of articles about my art works spanning from my educational times in the mid 90s until today, published in a website with the name and web address, map.linusersson.com. The articles are written in a speech kind of way, with the intention of also being a tool for me when I present my work in different contexts. The articles can be read in the order they were published in the site, or in the end of each article the reader can choose between three given choices of which article to read next. Meaning also that you don't have to read'em at all at the same time but can come back at another time and choose differently.

In this way I try to illustrate that my practice (or any artist for that matter) is not always being logical or consistent but on the contrary often tends to run away in different directions, choosing side tracks and may even end up in sayings that seem contradictory. Sayings that not necessarily are meant to tell truths or reflect my own beliefs and opinions, but rather raise questions and picture phenomenons and tendencies of the time we live in.

map.linusersson.com

I'm not sure I've suceeded totally with these intentions and I mean to develop this site (or a new one) further, maybe into some kind of blogging tool where you can write posts, not in chronological order but more like the branching system of the mind mapping softwares (Xmind, Freemind) I often use when I write. A tool that might have the potential to be a better suited system for documenting an artistic work and research process than the traditional ones used in research today. In such a system the ability to commenting posts and building up communicational systems with the readers of different levels would also be of high importance.

In the meantime I will continue using this blog for publishing posts about the progress, (I'm also still working on my Golem Game) and also publish selected articles from my map.linusersson.com- site   

Attention:Craft Liljevalchs Konsthall

I'm part of the great exhibition Attention: Craft, 26th of june until 7th of september in Liljevalchs konsthall in Stockholm. If you're around you must go and see. My room/space is called Drawing the noice and shows mailnly the result of my one year course Research Lab at Konstfack in Stockholm.

Checking sneakers and getting inspired for work.

Like beautiful paintings. I actually bought one of them, can you guess which ones?

Studio images

Trying setups for Liljevalchs exhibition

I'm building a model of the room I'm going to exhibit in, in the group exhibition Attention: craft in Liljevalchs konsthall in the coming summer. Working at Konstfack, I'm trying a couple of possible settings and ideas, including an icon mountain, an over dimensioned wall shelf and podiums with drawings on them.

 

Gazing

I'm god and a priest with the ability to create life

I knew it. There's more to this Golem myth than you might have expected. God may not excactly have sculpted Adam out of clay as is told in Talmudic and Abrahamic legends. The process seems to have been a bit more chemical, but still we might have our origins in clay. Being a clay artist suddenly makes a spiritual sense to and I will have to rethink my approach to the ceramic material. I'm god and a priest with the ability to create life. People should worship me as a performer of the holyest of all professions.

I will be able to make a living clay Golem without using rituals, gods name on small paper notes, blood or the hebrew words of life and death. If I don't fire my raw Golem sculpture I just have to wait long enough, letting the chemical processes grow and then - he/she/it will take his first step and walk away.

Read the article here.

Studioimage

I wonder if this fits in the idea of being a vase or a pot. Not yet finished, I think I'm gonna paint something on it.

Tim Burtons original short film Frankenwennie from 1984

The animated 2012 Frankenwennie film is a remake of Tim Burtons own shortfilm from 1984. Both movies are great and beautiful. The story, a homage to the old Frankenstein story, is about a boy trying, and succeeding, in waking his dead pet dog alive. As in the old story the dog is not an evil monster though people he encouters in the story threatens to make him one. There is a beautiful little ending in this one though that make me smile all the way up to my ears.

Christmas present?

Saw this version of Mary Shelleys Frankenstein with some clay included so you can sculpt your own monster. I don't know, but there should be a version with clay included of Meyrinks Golem also. He/she/it is at least made of clay while Frankenstein is made of human bodyparts. Hmmm, they didn't want to include bodyparts - a bit to messy I guess, and probably against the law.

Golem and the princess bowl

This is where the beautiful white princess is molested the by the red Golem clay, almost falling over but still on her feet because she has three strong supports holding her up. Still raw and unfired and there will be a glaze on the bowl, hopefully a crystal glaze, but with ceramics you never know how it will come out after firing. It can, or will probably crack and the glaze may be a total failure so the story of this one is still to be continued. 

Just another bowl

Another studio image of a bowl I made. Handbuilt, still unfired, thumbed, about 15 cm high, but this time I've worked on the finish of it in a I way usually don't. Scraping, polishing and removing all the fingerprints I usually leave as a signum of my work. I call it a princess bowl, but in this picture it's not finished yet! Right now it's just another bowl - but I have plans for it! 

To be continued... 

Pot, cup and plate

Some studio images. Maybe unusual for me handbuilding (sculpting) pots and cups again. Both are still raw and unfired, The pot on is ready as it is but kind of frozen in the process of coiling without smoothing out the last attached coil.