</unravel;> : Histories or Tales of Future Times is a performance of the making of a knitted manifesto, a fairy tale which unravels ideas and preconceptions of binarisms: craft and design, analogue and digital, female and male, zeroes and ones. Folk tales and folk art (craft) are both parts of an inseparable interwoven net. They contain the spirit of the collective unconscious. Each day for the duration of the performance we will knit one chapter of this tale, each told from the perspective of a new narrator.We decided to use a hacked knitting machine, a perfect hybrid of two binary systems- coding and weaving- to talk about -and challenge-binaries.
"Myths are clues to the spiritual potentialities of human life." - Joseph Campbell
TITLE
INTRO
NOW WE ARE ABOUT TO BEGIN
AND YOU MUST ATTEND! AND WHEN YOU GET TO THE
END OF THE STORY
YOU WILL KNOW MORE
THAN YOU KNOW NOW.
BEGINNETH HERE THE TALE
CALLED “HISTORIES OR TALES
OF FUTURE TIMES”
WHERE ARE CONTAINED THE TALES TOLD IN SEVEN DAYS BY SEVEN NARRATORS-
JUDITH, JULIEN,
GIOVANNI, JOSEPH,
ANGELA, ANDREA,
DONNA, CLARISSA,
VLADIMIR, MARINA,
VIRGINIA, JACK,
LENA AND RILEY-
WHO ARE HEREINAFTER PRESENTED
FOREGATHERED FOR THE PURPOSE OF DEVISING TOGETHER.
HERE IS THE BEGINNING, WHERE WE LEARN WHO WE MUST BE, AS WELL AS THE MORAL OF THE STORY.
THERE WAS A TIME AND NO TIME...
DAY I
AND ON DAY THE FIRST THE FIRST NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN..
THE PAST KEEPS BECKONING, WITH CROOKED FINGER, FOLLOW ME, AND FOLLOWING I STUMBLE OVER OLD EMOTIONS, BLOCKED IN THOUGHT, OLD HURTS CLOSE IN AND MAKE ME LOSE MY WAY. BUT THIS TIME I HAVE MARKED PAST’S PATH WITH MY LOVE’S PEBBLES. AND AS I TURN, THEY LEAD ME TO TODAY.
GO OUT IN THE WOODS, GO OUT. IF YOU DON’T GO OUT IN THE WOODS NOTHING WILL EVER HAPPEN TO YOU AND YOUR LIFE WILL NEVER BEGIN. GO OUT IN THE WOODS GO OUT.
LIFE AND SACRIFICE GO TOGETHER. RED IS THE COLOUR OF LIFE AND OF SACRIFICE.
DAY II
AND ON DAY THE SECOND THE SECOND NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN..
THE LESSONS ARE SIMPLE, AND WE LEARN THEM WELL. MEN AND WOMEN ARE DIFFERENT, ABSOLUTE OPPOSITES.
FAIRY TALES THRIVE ON SIMPLIFICATION. A DECISION IS RIGHT OR WRONG. ONE TURNS TO THE LEFT OR TO THE RIGHT.
WERE WE ABLE TO UNFOLD THE PICTURE OF TRANSFORMATIONS, IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO SATISFY OURSELVES THAT ALL OF THE TALES GIVEN CAN BE MORPHOLOGICALLY DEDUCED FROM THE TALES ABOUT THE KIDNAPPING OF A PRINCESS BY A DRAGON.
THE DISCOVERY IS, OF COURSE, THAT MAN AND WOMAN ARE FICTIONS, CARICATURES, CULTURAL CONSTRUCTS. AS MODELS THEY ARE REDUCTIVE, TOTALITARIAN, INAPPROPRIATE TO HUMAN BECOMING. AS ROLES THEY ARE STATIC, DEMEANING TO THE FEMALE, DEAD-ENDED FOR MALE AND FEMALE BOTH.
IT IS A QUESTION OF FINDING THE RIGHT MODEL.
DAY III
fffAND ON DAY THE THIRD THE THIRD NARRATOR
AND ON DAY THE THIRD THE THIRD NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN..
THE POINT IS THAT WE HAVE NOT FORMED THAT ANCIENT WORLD- IT HAS FORMED US. WE INGESTED IT AS CHILDREN WHOLE, HAD ITS VALUES AND CONCIOUSNESS IMPRINTED ON OUR MINDS AS CULTURAL ABSOLUTES LONG BEFORE WE WERE IN FACT MEN AND WOMEN. WE HAVE TAKEN FAIRY TALES OF CHILDHOOD WITH US INTO MATURITY, CHEWED BUT STILL LYING IN THE STOMACH, AS REAL IDENTITY.
MEMORY IS THE SEAMSTRESS, AND A CAPRICIOUS ONE AT THAT. MEMORY RUNS HER NEEDLE IN AND OUT, UP AND DOWN, HITHER AND THITHER.
DAY IV
AND ON DAY THE FOURTH THE FOURTH NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN..
BUT FAIRIES, AS SUCH, ARE THIN ON THE GROUND, FOR THE TERM FAIRY TALE IS A FIGURE OF SPEECH AND WE USE IT LOOSELY, TO DESCRIBE THE GREAT MASS OF INFINITELY VARIOUS NARRATIVES THAT WAS, ONCE UPON A TIME AND STILL IS SOMETIMES, PASSED ON AND DISSEMINATED THROUGH THE WORLD BY WORD OF MOUTH- STORIES WITHOUT KNOWN ORIGINATORS THAT CAN BE REMADE AGAIN AND AGAIN BY EVERY PERSON WHO TELLS THEM.
AND THOUGH THE STORIES IN THIS BOOK WERE, ALMOST ALL OF THEM, NOTED DOWN FROM LIVING MOUTHS, COLLECTORS THEMSELVES CAN RARELY REFRAIN FROM TINKERING WITH THEM, EDITING, COLLATING, PUTTING TWO TEXTS TOGETHER TO MAKE A BETTER ONE.
AND THOUGH THE STORIES
DAY V
AnAND ON DAY THE FIFTH THE FIFTH NARRATOR
SCI
THE FI
AND ON DAY THE FIFTH THE FIFTH NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN
SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY ARE OUR NEW MYTHOLOGY. MYTHS ARE STORIES OF OUR SEARCH THROUGH THE AGES OF TRUTH FOR MEANING FOR SIGNIFICANCE...
MYTHS ARE CLUES TO THE SPIRITUAL POTENTIALITIES OF HUMAN LIFE.
THE ORIGINAL MYTHS ALL CONCERN A PRIMAL ANDROGYNE- AN ANDROGYNOUS GOD HEAD, AN ANDROGYNOUS PEOPLE.
THE CORRUPTIONS OF THESE MYTHS WITHOUT EXCEPTION UPHOLD PATRIARCHICAL NOTIONS OF SEXUAL POLARITY, DUALITY, MALE AND FEMALE AS OPPOSITE AND ANTAGONISTIC.
FAIRY TALE, AS A FORM, DEALS WITH LIMITS, AND LIMITS OFTEN ACT BY FEAR.
SCI
THE FI
DAY VI
AND ON DAY THE SIXTH
THE SIXTH NARRATOR
SAT BY THE SPINNING YARN
AND THUS BEGUN:
THE CRITICAL PROMISE OF FANTASY, WHEN AND WHERE IT EXISTS,IS TO CHALLENGE THE CONTIGENTS
LIMITS OF WHAT WILL AND WILL NOT
BE CALLED REALITY.
THIS TALE IS AN EFFORT TO
CONTRIBUTE IN THE UTOPIAN TRADITION
OF IMAGINING A WORLD WITHOUT GENDER,
WHICH IS PERHAPS A WORLD WITHOUT GENESIS,
BUT MAYBE ALSO A WORLD WITHOUT END.
WHEN WE FEEL, WE WILL FEEL
THE EMERGENCY: WHEN WE FEEL THE EMERGENCY,
WE WILL ACT: WHEN WE ACT, WE WILL CHANGE THE WORLD.
IIST
DAY VII
ON DAY THE LAST
THE SEVEN NARRATORS
STOOD UP AND WALKED AWAY.
THEN, THREE APPLES
FELL FROM THE SKY.
ONE FOR THE STORYTELLER,
ONE FOR THEM WHO LISTEN,
AND ONE FOR THEM WHO UNDERSTAND.
SNIP, SNAP, SNOUT,
THIS TALE’S TOLD OUT.
THE END
THEIR-STORIES
OR
TALES OF
FUTURE TIMES
edited by
IRENE ALBINO &
ELLEN JONSSON
ON DAY THE LAST
THE SEVEN NARRATORS
STOOD UP AND WALKED AWAY.
THEN, THREE APPLES
FELL FROM THE SKY.
ONE FOR THE STORYTELLER,
ONE FOR THEM WHO LISTEN,
AND ONE FOR THEM WHO UNDERSTAND.
SNIP, SNAP, SNOUT,
THIS TALE’S TOLD OUT.
THE SEVEN NARRATORS
STOOD UP AND WALKED AWAY.
THEN, THREE APPLES
FELL FROM THE SKY.
ONE FOR THE STORYTELLER,
ONE FOR THEM WHO LISTEN,
AND ONE FOR THEM WHO UNDERSTAND.
SNIP, SNAP, SNOUT,
THIS TALE’S TOLD OUT.
THE END
THEIR-STORIES
OR
TALES OF
FUTURE TIMES
edited by
IRENE ALBINO &
ELLEN JONSSON
THEIR-STORIES
OR
TALES OF
FUTURE TIMES
edited by
IRENE ALBINO &
ELLEN JONSSON
The written piece is inspired by Boccaccio’s Decameron frame narrative style- a literary technique of a story within a story- where ten characters / narrators shelter in a secluded villa outside Florence to escape the Black Death- also called the Great Plague- and each one tells a story every night.
The quotes used have been found in the bibliography below:
Beck, J. The Life of the Theatre (1972)
Boccaccio, G. The Decameron (1353)
Butler, J. Undoing Gender (2004)
Campbell, J. The Power of Myth (1988)
Carter, A. The Company of Wolves (1979)
Carter, A. The Virago Book of Fairy Tales (1991)
Dworkin, A. Woman Hating: A Radical Look at Sexuality (1974)
Haraway, D. A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century (1985)
Nolda, L. Loves Prescent, 1991 (impromptu contribution)
Pinkola Estes, C. Women who run with the wolves (1992)
Propp, V. Morphology of the Folk Tale, (1928)
Riley (fictional name), impromptu contribution
Warner, M. From the Beast to the Blonde: on Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (1994)
Woolf, V. Orlando (1928)
Zipes, J. Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion (1991)
