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Issue 4: maybe it speaks to spaces

maybe it speaks to spaces

At intermediate we had a relief teacher for a term, Mr Hook. We were desperately missing our real Rm23 teacher Mrs Summers, and Hook began a session after lunch one of the first days he took us by asking, “What is space?” Silence—we had no idea what he was talking about, the context to which “space” he referred, and in the classroom, in that moment, it seemed our minds went blank, brains emptied.

Inside my head, I earnestly started on a philosophical tangent—trying too hard to “get it,” to understand, contemplate, figure out, even perceive the question asked of us, and what Mr Hook thought was the “correct” answer. There was an arrogance to the asking. Someone putting a question they know the answer to, and then holding it over us. That energy grinds.

On the blackboard, he started slowly… writing a few words, drawing some pictures, some classmates began to tentatively propose thoughts, we came out of our shells, until the blackboard was completely jam-packed with chalk. Text. Imagery. All mashed up. It turned out this was our introductory lesson to outer space, the Milky Way, the planets, the solar system, the universe…

Partway through the lesson, Mr Hook had exclaimed, like we should’ve known all along, “SPACE EQUALS NOTHING AND NOTHING EQUALS SPACE!” and kept on scribbling while repeating that phrase over and over. We mottoed it for the rest of the term. We made a cartoon of the lesson when we were meant to be working on something else.

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nice small space
its mentions of space

space to move stuff?
space out your payments
have the space to get into my rituals again
quite a few dramas there but left her in a good space

they’ve tried to make up space by not aligning the strip to the skirting again, in the other direction
line it all up with the right aligned spaces of the others and good to go
the most memory and space I could afford

apartment living, garden allotment living, playground living, local café living, public space living, flâneuring

hey is it possible to record it in a quieter space?
try to space the stitches evenly

some (read: three) swimming pools just drove down the street on the back of a truck

same space top and bottom?
slightly smaller so there’s a balanced space at the bottom?
lift the bottom to match the space at the top
spaced about eight to ten seconds apart
bit more space
maybe a gallery space
much easier space wise

Space Isn’t as Colorful as NASA’s Photos Make It Seem and Here’s Why

round, opposite, next to, backs onto
adequate space for camels
funny how spaces you’ve lived in come back in dreams
DOOR PIVOTS
artifying

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Walking in London, all the buildings so close, joined, tight, pushed together, that you arrive at the corner of a park and your body has nothing else to do but take a long, deep, guttural breath in.

what an awkward space
don’t know the space very well
I get the impression they want SPACE

vignettes

added a space all around them, not so clean a look
the space where it would go
extra space to download
the most memory and space I could afford

the rehearsal space in the cellar
gaze into space

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Seen a couple of signs of you around town today. A very large wooden wheel on the back of a truck on the motorway (couldn’t take a pic because driving) and now sitting in front of a shop for lease and the only remaining items in the otherwise empty space are three electric fans. How are you?

where there’s space in between I can edit
mostly just pulling double spaces and replacing dashes
work from home spaces
taking up space
parking space

“I’m watching a house going over the Tākaka Hill to Farewell Spit.”

culture shock
suck up the uninhabitableness for the free rent and make certain spaces my own
not bad to have generated it from literally scratch in the space of two days
reverse culture shock

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Sometimes people move houses here, and not in the sense of moving from one to another, but literally chopping them up, picking them up by their piles, and re-placing them on other pieces of land. In the middle of the night. WIDE LOAD FOLLOWS.

Once removed, the shadow of the architectural space lingers, or after a while blurs on the empty lot until can we really remember precisely the house that was once there, how it existed on that spot, in the ecology of other houses and surrounding landscape? And what then when a new house/s emerge/s?

It is said, presence is felt most keenly in absence: where something once was, where it is no longer, its presence is felt. Empty space and its symbols.

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unwelcoming open public
offer you space if you were ready
would there be space at 2pm today for an hour, please?

not any more really, in that space
nowhere for people to move on to to make space for others
doesn’t always feel the safest of spaces
not spaces for experimentalism

missing having my own space
created a space

translates to a space
measuring up for curtains
all depends on having space/funds for a piano of course in whatever place we live next

«Yeah the spaces look so much bigger with less clutter but it’s also nice to have the things you love in the space, so always a balance!» «Yeah! Did you grate the onion?»

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The language of space. That space can mean a defined space, like my car won’t fit in that parking space (i.e. allotted), at the same time as being all the space out there (i.e. staring into space), and indeed outer space itself.

Space is also now the place from where we observe the earth—for beautiful imagery, and also to surveil, detect, and collect data for e.g. on climate polluters.

takes up least space
starts and ends too quick
give it a little space
I’ve been in some kind of headspace
it goes from Soviet bloc to Spanish municipalism
there is plenty of floor space, and probably tent space too
no luck rebooking, apparently no space on any flights today

advertising space, incubator space, office space, print space, shelf space

Urban spaces here still seem to have a mix of rural life entwined (native trees out the front, fruit trees and veg garden out the back), and an unhealthy, colonial view of and attachment to the quarter acre section. A “section,” used here in a property context, does not have a use in English English as to be sectioned is a mental health term.

mostly taking out double spaces
living in this floaty not sure when anything is going to happen space
suitable for small tight spaces
has a space after
white wall in the space to project onto

well, now I know indigo
now I’m in it

Video calls with children turn out to be them reaching out to touch your face on the screen, giving you a hug, feeding you crackers, throwing bouncy balls at you to catch and return, placing the phone on the floor so you can see a roller truck whizzing by, eating the camera to show you their tooth, drawing together, giving you a kiss.

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see the space
bread and dips
is messy in a gallery space
«gallery spaces weren’t even discussed» «if anything gallery spaces are too big lol»
the poetics of space
how the inside of your mouth feels bigger on your tongue than what it is in real life

I’ve been waking up at 5am—with the birds—and only this morning it dawned on me it’s because I’ve been leaving a window open overnight all week. This morning I tried to get back to sleep.

create space
the blank page
the black page
no it doesn’t have a message space
it’s an enclosed space
front-spaced
maybe being in a confined space with others at the moment is not a good idea
we don’t have enough space
just picked up a few more spaces
nice use of the space

«I had a dream we did another residency together… in some generic/unnameable European city!» «I think about it a lot. With the heat. At the time it felt kind of like a preview of the apocalypse. And then…! The idea of even being in a European city now seems so impossibly faraway. But let’s keep the dream! Remember also I read that Anne Carson essay about sleep and dreaming when we were there, then dreamt I walked down a dark lane and reached out my hand and my cat was there. And you said, “you were dreaming you were asleep back at home in London.” Strange interpenetration of dream times and spaces… maybe your dream was of that species!»

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Is that your inside voice or your outside voice?

Do you self-talk “aloud” in your head, or are they just “thoughts”?

That voice inside your head, is it yours, does it sound like your voice? Or a neutral narrator’s voice? Or do you hear nothing?

Does the voice inside your head exist in real time? Do you hear your voice when you read? Does it slow down the pace of your reading?

Did you ever visualize a space before you arrived in it? A friend’s house, a bach, a workspace, a building you will go into in the future? How did that align with how it actually looks, feels, is laid out irl?

The brain uses memory, our senses and experiences from our pasts, to interpret our present and predict our future, to create overall shape to our lives.

I learnt a wee while ago that some people’s brains don’t have the capacity to visualize. I met somebody once, a neuroscientist, for whom this is their reality. It’s just they’re reading a book or imagining a time in the future and they can technically imagine but can’t see the space, it’s simply blank, or rather, non-existent. I’m not sure I can imagine that.

When you’re reading, do/es space/s come to life “in your brain”? Creating a dramatization of/from out your mind? What about when you’re reading political theory, what then?

Books set in other cities conjured those cities before I visited or lived in them, and I can still see those images and know those parts of the city even though they’re now layered over the very reality of that city. And yet, cities are evolving all the time. Fictitious realms too. Who’s to say that bookish version of the city in my mind isn’t as real as my memory of the city when I lived there?

In the before internet times, TV attempting to be “period” was always dated by the era in which it was created. How 90s is Pride and Prejudice eh?

Did some images just pop into your head?

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I am having trouble understanding your response. Please ensure your response matches one of the options listed and does not include extra spaces at the end.

mmm chimney, like, minutest time-space single level draws, if it seems like you’re out of time little-known, mm particular radical mm yeah yeahyeah yeah, partial passage of time.

a rogue extra space
edit the spaces
“shift returns”
positively run spaces

crawl space, outer space, space bar, space shuttle, space station, space-age, dead space, space travel

I need some space from all this nonsense
at least I’m in a new space
still a bit spaced out but walk and fresh air will be good
glad we didn’t have a big space haha

space exploration
mutual friend
more open space
height, light, access, space, layout, proximity…

who said, your life becomes a work of art when you’re giving it attention?

whether you want these spaces to be equidistant
in the concrete space and the abstract space
packages of furniture for like whole offices / designer spaces on the regular

I’m just not in very good space
I’m just not in the headspace
yeah that space is noticeable eh
I’ll leave space where the breathing sounds need to go
you’ll notice I’ve spaced out some of the narrative
a little less space before
living space — so ugly, in the best sense
such a great space

«It’s interesting the walk between, and I thought the same last time, how you move into the gentrified space. Patagonia, Birkenstock, Levi’s down here.» «Make an appointment and go to the Apple Store and try the vision pro 🤓»

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maybe it speaks to spaces
arts admin spaces
just have it in the space
wide open space on the top right there, so that could be nice
I can see a rogue space before an em dash which is bothersome

I’ve been tryna find my way back for a minute

I loved the pacing, the form, the care, the ritual, the fragility, the space, the empowerment, the feminism (free and without being in opposition to anything else), the video, the music… how you created evolving sculptures of your bodies. And you two together—such trust, and in harmonious balance.

a quiet study space for an hour or two
yes can give you space
like a bit of open space for a week or two
have a space for chitchat too

took me so long

people will have thought you asked for space

space is the appearance of depth

it clears space
more space for the work to just be a work and speak on its own terms outside of, beyond, and despite history
detrimentally “exclusive” a space
waiting to get access to the space

I kind of feel, like I know I have strings, people at the moment, and so I still feel very connected

market update at half past eight

“aspects of space”

surprised there’s enough space on that little island to walk

only a few of the books examined devoted a substantial amount of space to this topic

it’s supposed to be the same every time but it ends up being very slightly different

space between
reducing the space in the middle
space at the bottom
same space top and bottom?
we need one at the empty space
such a lovely green space
it’s great but no space tonight
I ran out of brain space earlier

let me know later this week or early next week if there’s space

I’d like a few days to settle in my space but I think I’ll have things under control by Thursday

would the space be available on Friday at 1pm instead?

just think of the space that’d take up
do you want height or space?
in a short space of time
out west there are lots of wide open spaces
gotta find some of those expansive spaces
classic productive “getting-things-off-my-chest” space

prob less about space and more about time
if you have space in your suitcase we’ve had a request
settling into the space alike
it was a really nice space to be in and we made pottery
some space and time out

I’m sitting in the centre of a former lawn bowls (pitch, field, green?) and looking at space

and now I’m falling (falling x9)
do you want height or space?

What kind of sober space would you like to be in? Shall we go watch the sunset somewhere calm with a thermos of herbal tea? Or sit on a beach? Or go get a nice brothy healing ramen or something?

We are just outside the “deorbit zone.” (The map yellow circle.) This is where they try and crash the space stuff. If you think it’s a bit now and then. No. It’s like four or five times a day. We get warned about it a bit beforehand like hours… and just exactly what are we meant to do? It’s a huge area so the chances are vanishingly small apparently. Very nice quietly cruising over the sea tho.

Space is the breath of art. You know who said that? Any idea what it means? Well, I think it means when you’re building a house, you gotta have a place for everyone, and everything important, but it’s good to have some space, that’s just, you know, space.

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cycled 40 mins each way to collective

spent time in the space looking at technical aspects
keep it from the centralized space
spatialization — walking, pacing, figure of eight

sonic space round table

space bar
(remember the ice bar?)
deep space

enjoy your onward travel through the time/space ether

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As an audience member you’ve been out in the world, the day is with them, they can be their own kind of compositional listener, and they, they bring all of their day into it, and so when they leave they have it too.

Guided improvisatory elements, suggestions for the performer, verbal instructions. The performer works not necessarily with something in the room, but from yesterday, or last week, that they’re responding to in performance.

Bringing people together in a space, I guess, and creating an environment where everybody can be the composer, be the performer, like interact with the work, and really consider the audience.

It’s a beautiful thing for a listener to engage with, the idea that they themselves play an active role, and in some way a compositional role in the way that music can be experienced, very much to do with their subjective context of their day or…

Well, you find your own pathway through.

A beautiful kind of vortex…

Discovery.

A willingness to be curious.

I just quite kind of like works that drop in and drop out and so it starts as if it could’ve been going for a while somehow, and once it ends, it kind of continues. So I kind of like that it’s a phase of something rather than… creates a balanced structure.

There are elements of gesture, creating moments where directing a gesture or some kind of physical element, just, forces a sound, the sound comes out of the gesture. Sometimes I do notate gestures rather than the end result sound I want to hear because it’s in producing the gesture that the sound comes about that I’m interested in.

Intermittent internet and lots of different kinds of conversations. Yeah and so I guess while I was there, there was a lot of space and a lot of time and so everything was kind of moveable in a way and so the elements that came together, I was working there alongside other artists and lots of things fed into it as well as field recordings from travels from perhaps the two years prior, and so all of this came together in a slightly jumbled way but also very carefully curated or put together.

We didn’t call it a piano work. It was for soundtrack and performer and piano. It was more like he wasn’t a pianist in this mode, he was a performer first, and just happened to be at a piano and know the piano intimately, you know, so yeah, we kind of, in our minds, we made that distinction.

_____ = _______, and _______ = _____

Antonia Barnett McIntosh (Kāi Tahu, Pākehā) is a Tāmaki Makaurau-based composer, performer, sound artist, editor, and curator with an interest in working across space/s, err disciplines, yes space/s.

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