Pastness and forward address

I wake up this morning feeling exquisitely nourished. I thought I would be exhausted (that may still come!) but instead I feel a richness of experience coursing through me. Thank you for creating this event with us.

For months, the event lived within a shifting actual occasion, alternatively composed of the brian-erin pod, the erin-nadine pod, the nadine-marie-evelyne-alanna-nasrin-ronald-troy-celine pod, the all-of-us-at-the-sense-lab pod, the at-the-table-at-Erin-and-Brian's-pod, the reading-group-pod, the alexandre-karmen pod, the freida-karmen-harry-erik-antoine-sense-lab-topological-media-lab-workshop-in-radical-empiricism pod, all pods regrouping regularly, finding new points of attraction (and dissension), working to conceptualize an event that could create a movement of thought.

In February we became affected (literally - you were contagious) by you, each one of you, your names, your interests, your virtuality (yes, we checked up on you in any way we could, spending hours surfing the internet, getting way-layed regularly on Steve's blog) and we began to conceive this movement of thought with you. But virtuality demands consistency to be experienced as such, and the consistency you brought (I think of chocolate cake batter) was more delicious than we could have imagined (and we have good imaginations). These come to mind in my desire to regenerate the present:

Jose, Alanna, Nadine, Ronald dancing the new version of Twister last night (Troy got this one on camera!); Nadine on the old (and better) Twister trying to convince herself that her legs were a meter long; looking across the room during the last speed dating and seeing Alexander and Jose on the inflatable mattress in the tent intensely engaged in conversation; experiencing Tagny and Troy in relational movement body to body (Tagny's eyes were closed and Troy was smiling!); getting wrapped up in Christine's exquisite elastic with Joao becoming Erin's hair; podding with Joao and Jose telling us about becoming-sunset; listening (enraptured) to Steve (Shaviro) talking about Whitehead and explaining abstraction; remembering (again) the becoming-airplane of the child and the wonderful example about love Jose so generously shared with us (and loving the conversation always happening twice - theory should always happen in repeat-mode); delighting in a conversation with Steve (Goodman) about exfoliation and dj-ing where the dj becomes-sound in the convergence of the milieu (the milieu of the synchronicity of the records, the milieu as environment-body); revelling in Susan's exquisite intensity as she furrowed her eyebrows and exclaimed "but I want flesh!"; feeling enriched by the generous and warm and brilliant presence of Sher (impossible to forget Sher's half-smile, a warm look she carries with her always, it seems); loving Stamatia's infinite intensity (and even her capacity for self-deprecation which allows me to re-tell how wonderful I think she is); wondering still about how Andrew manages to navigate the cusp of virtuality and actuality that seems to me to make him otherworldly, infinitely intense and infinitely becoming-child - I think he knows about the plane of immanence; remembering a great conversation with Derek about weather and parachutes and loving that we have a geographer amongst us who donates ripped maps. And I haven't even mentioned the wisdom of Joao, the enthusiasm and intensity of Alexandra, the infinite openness of Philipa (who knows so much and yet stays so open to learning), the rigor of all the students (who have impressed us beyond words), the quiet and very intense magnetism of Brian (and for those of you who got closer, his extraordinary sense of humour), the warmth of Xin Wei and his ability to encapsulate always generously, Harry's smile, Erik's capacity to work the example, Paul's enthusiasm (even though he was documenting the whole time), Michael's great comment about cinema and the dark precursor in the last regroup, Jaime's willingness to share and learn, Alexander's joy, Ronald's intensity, Nadine's real-ness, Celine's courage, Marie-Evelyne's gaze, Alanna's smile, Nasrin's laugh, Tagny and Jhave's blog (and there is so much more to say about them both separately and together), Antoine's dance (behind Sher!), Elinor's curiosity and enthusiasm, Ken's infinite capacity to become-child(especially when he is tracing c's with his body), Tom's amazing capacity to translate (and not only literally), Heidi's heidiness (generous, serious, funny, knowledgeable), Chris's capacity to become-multiple (but can be become-one?).
Thank you. Let's not let the dust settle.
Erin