PERSONALDEBRIS  

so in light of my more negative posts about ireland here’s a list of what i like about the “city that for the time being i currently call home:”

1) the ntrg - need i say more? engineers and computer scientists who know how to make artists feel at home.

2) the trinity college library - copyright libraries rule! i can even drop off book titles that i want and pick them up the next day.

3) d.a.t.a. - it’s been over a year and going strong!

4) the city arts centre - for taking risks and being so cool…

5) om diva in georges street arcade: for the inexpensive cute clothing fix. almost my whole summer wardrobe comes from there.

6) ryanair - they just get you there… but at their prices i’m not complaining…

7) european media art festivals - ok, so these don’t really take place in dublin, but living in dublin facilitates my participation and has made it easy to travel to many of these.

an article in the guardian: Ireland is on the move - but where to?

and in light of the upcoming citizenship referendum:

Labour says citizenship proposal ‘deeply flawed’

you know i never really bothered to look at how the U.S. deals with this, but a bit of checking reveals that we (the U.S.) actually have no law that forbids the deportation of non-citizen parents of children who are U.S. citizens, but it rarely happens. also if a child is born in the U.S. to undocumented immigrants, judges usually allow the parents to reside legally in the U.S., or simply do no initiate deportation proceedings (they keep an undocumented status, but are not persecuted for it.) (more…)

had dinner with a group of people very recently, among them a visiting writer from new york. in almost disbelief the writer commented that this was “the whitest city” he’d ever been to.

interesting, i thought, since it reminded me of several months back when another visitor from new york spoke about some of his work in art and technology, and his comment afterward while relaxing in a pub, in an incredulous voice, “there were only what, two people of color in the audience…?” (more…)

ugh. just read in the irish times about some old geezer in county clare who has started a filipino mail order bride service. the 64 year-old found his 22 year-old bride as the first customer! how gross, not to mention disturbing as the exploitation of women in developing countries is making its way to ireland!

of course it doesn’t help that in this part of the world (UK and Ireland) the only representations of asians in the media are BANZAI or “Orchid” from Coronation Street. (more…)

i’m still thinking about the conversation i had with the taxi driver i had on my way home sunday night. 09.05.2004… she asked me how i liked ireland. my answer: mixed feelings. lot’s of great people… but also overt racism, of the type that i’ve never experienced before in my entire life in the united states… and my exasperation at having everyone assume i am chinese (because ethnic chinese are the largest east-asian group in the city, and many people in dublin ignorantly substitute ‘chinese’ as to mean somebody of east asian ethnicity.) . her response: she was surpised… her words… “i’m surprised you get discriminated against because you’re chinese.” (more…)

like jonah has already mentioned, we had a great DATA on thursday… mark tribe from rhizome.org, columbia university, mary flanagan, and and kai-peter baeckman, of mistaril. the musical guest was herv - creator of game boy music that had the entire pub rockin’… conor o’boyle gave an impromptu update on looptracks - a great sound/image piece which he describes as an “interactive music video” - it’s very cool.

on friday, before leaving dublin, cati and i went on a city walk. we discovered this on a boarded up storefront:

started at 7pm - sitting in city arts centre for DATA 15.0. PresentersL John Gerrard, Tom Holley & Derek Hales. later tonight - a performance of simpletext.