︎ virtual care lab archive
scroll for a chronological glimpse of some of our collective practices.
for specific records, email virtualcarelab [at] gmail.com
01
and not: authentic movement
apr. 15, 2020
host: m. k. volcofsky
gathering format: zoom
certainly how the echo of that lab has gone, for me.
This screenshot Sara took is a very precise frame of a heart of the AM thing itself.
its relationship to life off-screen;
to the double-bind of home and safety;
the surveilled v. the witnessed;
the time of the anticipated v the time of the absent;
to wait without measure, and the desire for eternity and for the never.
The body as the button and speech the button hole; fastening us in, or as, our garment.
Some were alone; some were only alone on screen.
The voice dropping out; the image stuttering and glitching; sudden HD sharpness changing the image’s dialect; tidal shifts - screen intimacy to boredom to something just a gaze.
In a non-COVID room, with bodies in person, the mover, alone, before us - their aloneness and loneliness is always striking.
It rings, a fleshtone, heard - and becomes the sea the person exists in.
For me the screen both emphasized and obscured this ambient loneliness; changed it, at least.In person no one at least seems at risk of disappearing with a click. (It may be possible, and happen more often than not.)
But technologically at least, in that sense it was interplanetary, or at least ship-to-ship authentic movement.
The seeing ourselves watching (or watching ourselves seeing) also an impediment and very curious addition to the idea of the witness.
Matthew
resoundingly you
apr. 26, 2020
host: hop nguyen
gathering format: zoom
archive: portal ︎
urban {care} lab
may. 3, 2020
host: roundhouse platform
gathering format: zoom
tools: google streetview, google drive, color push
the plan
- compare walks using Google street view
- explore and illustrate historical maps from Sanborn collection
- learn about and observe/imagine soundscapes
things to think about...
- what goes into your experience of a place and your relationship to it?
- how has your relationship to your place changed recently?
something different from your memory of it
something sparking emotion
something surprising
something unique to this place
something else / wildcard
colorpush experiments
Definition - What is a city? How is it different from other places? Does the city have a purpose? If you thought of the city as a system, how would you describe its components, parts, features and functions? If you thought of the city like an organism, how could you describe its organization from the simplest, cellular level toward the most complex coordinate organ?
Color - How do we see a city? Do you ascribe a particular place with a particular image or memory? In what mediums might the city be recorded, represented, or abstracted? How do these representations change over time and what do the changes depend on / depict? What role does color play in a city? Where does color exist in the city and how does it differ from the use of color in representation?
Accessibility - Is the city perfect? What aspects of the city are public, free, shared, common and equal for everyone? And, what conditions of the built environment expressed biased to either specific individuals or specific groups? Who makes all the important decisions? Could you imagine the pros and cons of everyone having an equal say in designing the city? Which design decisions reflect norms? Which design decisions reflect exceptions? In your city, if you could redesign one thing to be more caring, what would it be?
Imagination - How do you imagine the city 10 years from now or even 100 years or 1000 years? Has the definition of the city changed? How does the future city feel and function? Who makes the decisions now? How has it's history been recorded? If you had to describe the future city as person you care about, who would it be? What are the characteristics of this personality?
herbal allies
may 6, 2020
host: laney paradise
gathering format: zoom
archive: Youtube ︎ , Discord channel ︎
Oregon grape ~ Berberidaceae family
Bitter quality ~ used as a digestive
Contains Berberine ~ potent medicine, anti-fungal, liver stimulant, antimicrobial
Sources report eating the berries and making medicinal jam the berries are reported to be very tart!~ harvest in late summer ~
Allies as a Blood tonic, antimicrobial, laxative & to ease stomach irritability
Prepare a strong infusion to soak wounds in.
Use as a strong tea or tincture for digestion
Use the strong infusion for eye infections/irritations
***many herbal sources recommend to use the root or bark to make tincture/medicine with, I would only use this if I really needed the medicine as it entails digging up and killing the entire plant to utilize its medicine.
I would first consider what plants grow around be abundantly and can I ally with those to help me before I ally with Oregon grape? We always want to aim to use what plants are most abundant around us because they have made themselves available for our healing!
That being said Oregon grape is very potent medicine and when needed is a powerful ally.
Using the berries is a much less invasive way to interact with Oregon grape. (the berries are packed with Vitamin C so am amazing immune tonic!)
~~~another less invasive option is to harvest one branch of Oregon grape (cut it from the main plant) and then skin off its bark (which should be bright yellow inside, that’s the Berberine) you can dry this and keep it in your medicine cabinet, make a tincture with it (chop it up fill a jar and cover it with 100 proof vodka) or make an infused honey!
Here’s a yummy recipe you can try with the berries!
Oregon Grape Lavender Jelly (Low sugar)
I tried this recipe for the first time this year and I like it better than the high sugar jelly. I used Pomona’s Universal Pectin. The lavender was a last-minute inspiration since I spied it drying near by – the flavors compliment each other well! Toast with Oregon grape jelly and an egg has been my daughter Lucy’s “out of this world breakfast.”
1. Measure 8 cups of clean, rinsed Oregon grape berries.
2. Place berries in a cooking pot with 2 cups of water.
3. Bring to a boil, turn down and simmer for 15 minutes as described above.
4. Process berries and juice through a Foley Food Mill as described above.
5. Measure 4 cups of the juice/pulp.
6. Place the juice in a cooking pot, stir in 2 teaspoon of calcium water (included in Pomona’s Pectin, and 2 tablespoons of fresh or dried lavender.
7. Measure 2 cups of honey and stir in 2 teaspoons of pectin.
8. Bring the juice to a boil.
9. Add the honey/pectin and stir vigorously for 1-2 minutes until the mixture returns to a boil. Remove from heat.
10. Fill canning jars, seal, and can for 10 minutes as described above.
Oregon grape berries are a traditional food for Northwest Native People and were often mixed with other sweeter berries like salal and made into pemmican cakes. A few years ago I heard about 2 hikers who got lost in the woods for over a week. The only edible food they knew was Oregon grape berries and they ate them in large quantities. They came back in fine shape.
Hopefully you, dear reader, will have a greater variety of foods in your knowledge basket when you brave the wild.
inside encounters ︎︎︎ sites of passage
may 9, 2020
host: lucy kerr
format: zoom
tools: vaseline or other method of blurring the camera
inside encounters ︎︎︎ sites of passage
may 30, 2020
host: lucy kerr
format: livestream on virtual care lab website ︎
Excerpt of audience score:
An hour and a half later, lay down on the ground
Fall into the ground
Press into the ground with one of your bones, press harder
Feel other bones shift
Continue, pressing some bones down while others shift
Maybe this moves you
Maybe you move into the corner between the floor and the wall, between the floor and couch, between the floor and bed
Press into that corner
Fold in like fabric
Press again, and when you can’t press anymore, fold in again
When you feel ready, get up and continue about your day
[...]
Take chapstick, cellophane, vaseline, tape, or a plastic bag, and cover your computer lens with it.
Frame your space with your computer lens.
Include the corner of your bed, a couch, a chair, your door, your floor, your wall the corner in your wall
Without too many things in the frame
Open up the performance link on your computer.
Look at the interface, listen, observe
When you are ready, lay down on the ground
Listen to the recollections, the memories, of others.
Reimagine your space with their memories.
re-member [[home]]
may 16, 2020
host: anise s. hines & marguerite hemmings
format: zoom
poetry soup
may 27, 2020
host: angelina sorokin
format: zoom + google slides
archive: portals ︎
photos from participants in response to frank o’hara’s ‘poem’ (please drag)
a center in a table
july 12, 2020
host: amanda maciel antunes
format: zoom
invitation:
I invite you to bring a dish that is special to you and that is related to a past memory, and to share a memory and a meal with the gathering. Each guest has a designated time to share, and record their memories before eating begins.
This iteration of the project will be a little different as we experience social distancing and we can’t possibly share meals with one another. However, I do believe that our stories and our relationship to our food has increasingly become a primary and urgent focus in our lives.
The name of this gathering A Center In A Table is one of the last lines in Gertrude Stein's book of poems Tender Buttons, which speaks to the unfamiliar-familiar, and which inspired the philosophy of this gathering. A tablecloth made of paper or natural fiber is usually used under each of the guest’s plates for all dinners and those stained papers/cloth eventually become an artifact of a performance/a moment in time. Since I can’t have a tablecloth brought to your various homes, I would like to invite you to place a piece of paper under your food, or under something you’re cooking, eating and prepping. Let that paper come with you from the kitchen to the table. If you feel so inclined.
some meals we shared across time zones:
field trips
weekly from august 1, 2020 onward
host: kenny zhao
format: discord + many online destinations
What was your first favorite online platform?
analyzing relationships between reddit communities
pinning significant / memorable places on Google Earth ︎
exploring virtual exhibitions
trying new generative tools
sharing cultural backgrounds and stories
kenny’s room
september 7, 2020
host: kenny zhao, def sound, twolips, jess joy, annabelle maginnis
format: zoom + bandcamp + companion site ︎
synchronise
august 16, september 26, november 1, december 13, 2020
host: stephanie whitelaw
format: zoom + recorded sound guides
post-exercise method: memory mapping
mother and
child
the pear tree
abundance of
joy
the wild leaf
totem
i changed
direction
back to the
garden
accuracy
walking through
the
neighborhood
upside down
nobody outside
hopeful sound
of the
accordion
lilac colored
flower
flower
the spiders
web, the
intricacy
web, the
intricacy
serendipity -
the magic
mailbox
letters together
september 23, november 13 2020
host: sukhpreet purewal
format: discord
partner: power blossoms
prompt from second session
