April 2020
by Laura Olea López

Navigation diary: a drift of a digital quarantine

1st of April 2020

That day in which the mainland was uncertain
we all jumped into the sea
it came unexpectedly
the city was left behind, a change
it was time to leave.
Looking for new horizons
I remember that we invited to participate
the ship is going to set sail
as we hastily recognized rigging
away from physical reality
we summoned vocation and spirit
making offerings given the situation.

All this
like it unfolded smoothly
because without knowing direction or way
daring sailors jumped into the new panorama:
the route would be adrift
since the maps have no longer any value.

When we saw ourselves surrounded by the sea
and on the horizon, we could only
stay afloat.

5th of April 2020

Religiously on Sundays
a great captain starts boarding
armored with vinyls
shoots Sesión Vermú
during the passing of the morning
DJ de la Muerte, being of a thousand faces
is the one who regularly puts the olive
in this tidal wave of monotony
where we cannot distinguish
from each other the next day.

8th of April 2020

The Big Pink Moon appears
with a certain melancholy of something beyond
glimpses from the window
making us understand.
As witnesses of any discovery
we reveal other appearance
screen shot, memory, also stories
we prepare the contemplation by archiving in logbook.

Part of the crew, soon stunned
needs to rest from the scroll
and we follow the rambling of the waves
dizzy, intrigued
waves of hyperlinks bring us closer to shore
and on Netflix’s beach, we’re now stranded
witnessing epic table-tennis battles
we will wait to regain consciousness.

11th of April 2020

The ship is not moving
second day without even a wisp of wind
the sails well kept
for the desire to stop
oars are lying down
let’s rest
without refreshing
the thumb.

Against a pirate, that minister
the good people
organized the riot
with their first instinct.

The crew without a screen
looks out for other horizons
and recovers the feel of paper
with two pending shelves.

14th of April 2020

Very soon
we return to a calm navigation
leaning out to starboard
a reflection on the water opens the meditation
of the Higo Mental
in what we have embarked on:
interlaced image networks
endless cross relations
constant mutation and repositioning,
this adrift navigation explores
both Atlas and Warburg.

We also look horizontals
passing through the sky
with the hearing of the birds
flowing incessantly:
uncountable past time
in constant correspondence
Alfred Marasigan and Tsering Frykman-Glen
chased any winged trail
now preserved in cloud form
indexed clucking.

16th of April 2020

We sailed before dawn
without using the anchor yet
we see the city
for those who wish
look at the streets of Wuhan,
Quarentine Gallery shocks.
Xavi Ceere is the curator
of three changing scenarios
with seafaring trails
Abel Iglesias, Josep Maynou
Mar Reykjavik, Milena Rossignoli
and even some more
they are creators of great figures
in flashes, they return us to Instagram.
From this website
of radical and open-minded experimentation
to the visualization in 360
their art uses wit, jokes, ruins
in an inaccessible, controversial space.

18th of April 2020

To lead the expedition
we proceed without rudder
with the crew hungry for targets
from newsletter and also shared ones
now without privatizing
open treasures
pleased to be discovered.

In the port with universal draught
with the possibility of evocative treasures
we arrived at Can Felipa, the exceptional island
we consult germs, riddles and fluids
also the specimen by ALLÉLON.

21st of April 2020

In a river between sea and ocean
we follow the currents
in a digital storage ecosystem
the HARDDISK MUSEUM is a metaphor
a display in which to float
files just like material silicon.

Divided by typologies and formats,
.jpg, .mp4, .html, mp3, .gif, .fbx
these files link to question:
Sabrina Ratté, Rosana Antolí, María Cañas, César Escudero Andaluz and Mario
Santamaría …
Also Mit Borrás involved
a world conquered by plants
motion pictures
mindfulness
while you keep leaving your body
to become “an ideal machine”
now take a deep breath.

23rd of April

In the cellar
large quantities of oranges
lemons and sugar cane,
with a colourful sticker, promise of freshness
that we all need
supply must be shaken
savour new sensations
some flavour
for those who say they want to venture:

Gastronomic influences arrive and are followed
by recipes related to songs
with cooking rhythm, a pairing
with Belén Cabello narrating delicacies.

Two experimental chefs perform another stew
Cuina.li with mime and in the shade
a pinch of Jaume Clotet, a dash of Pol Olivé
served for YouTube by Clàudia del Barrio.

26th of April 2020

We found something solid,
land at last?
as we approach
it shows before us
a floating fortress
of powerful construction
marble columns support a ceiling
also floating
they make their shows
with offerings of files, packed
without ground sign
long past times.

With a lot to explore
travelling in one click
it is worth browsing around
virtual techniques
of Samples in Museums
contemporary and ancient
now inland waterway.

Those palaces on the surface of the sea
flourishes in flash player
a rich code
without any land
no bronze
there is no more matter.
Joined to the link
galleries of images
the slide parades
in currents of flatness.

30th of April 2020

Sailing at a shallow depth
a wide river mouth
we anchor for today
to find where we are:
people dance
to the Neurodungeon
masked
under an avatar
they cover their digital entities.

Diverse aesthetics
of anthropomorphic form
they dance tricked
in invented spaces
hoping to recover
the collective ritual
of contact and perreo
longing for what is no longer
body space.

–
“A warning: don’t believe everything you read here”
With this note he closes the explanation of Project X 1497 – 1999, a multimedia poetry installation written and designed by Damian Lopes with whom, using JavaScripts technology, he links texts about Vasco de Gama’s first trip from Portugal to Africa and the south of Asia.

In an attempt to find metaphors to share some of the experiences and sensations of the present, Project X’s poems have been the model for structuring this GRAF Route of April 2020. All the texts of this relic website are interconnected with more than three thousand hyperlinks, including one explanatory encyclopedia indexed in the form of an analogy to the forms of navigation: research, read, remember, learn, explore, travel, write and also surfing the Internet.

–
Text by Laura Olea López for GRAF. Laura is a curator and cultural manager who lives and works between Barcelona and Berlin.