No, not the Moon, but Mr. Moon. (1979-2012)

To mark the death of Sun Myung Moon, founder of the The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, I am posting this excerpt from my travel journal written in 1979 during a hitchhiking trip around Canada and the USA. The post describes my encounter with the Moonies in San Francisco.

August 6 1979
Day: 41
Weather: am: Sun (Hot) pm: Sun (Hot – 95F)

As soon as I got my money, I went to McDonald’s. I was devouring my friendly meal when a young couple came and sat with me. They did not have trays of food with them. They were Sam and Julie and they said they were with the C.A.R.P. (The Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles). They were really nice and wanted me to join them at their house for a lunch. I gulped the last bite of my hamburger and said okay. They had a huge house, up on a hill, and there were a lot of people already there. I mean the whole place was filled with people my age, on the couches, on the floors, in all of the rooms. Everybody was smiling and talking to each other, it was a really nice feeling. A woman was walking through the crowd with a platter of tuna sandwiches. I was still hungry and I grabbed a couple. Then somebody stood up on a chair and said: “Now let’s welcome our distinguished speaker.” We all gave a round of applause. The speaker arrived pulling a black board on wheels behind him. He looked like a professor, a stocky man with a dark goatee. He got into the matter of things very quickly. He said that he was really pleased to be here with us and was going to explain God’s Nature. He started to scribble things with his white chalk; circles, squares, connecting lines and whirlpools of energy. He was quite involved with his presentation. He spoke about the Divine Principle, Sin, and the Internal and External Form of Things. He talked about Mr. Moon. I thought that he was talking about going to the moon or something like that. I asked Sam for some clarification and he said with a big smile: “No, not the Moon, but Mr. Moon. He is the New Messiah.” The presentation lasted way too long and the woman with the sandwiches was nowhere to be seen. We, the audience, had much more to learn. Anyway, at the end of it, the speaker said that the workshop we were going to attend was going to change our lives. That was the first time I heard about a workshop. I asked Sam and he said that I was very lucky to have come at this time because they were all leaving this evening for the workshop. He said that I should come with them. It smelled fishy. I said that I could not come right away. This was the signal for Sam and Julie and a group of others to try to persuade me into staying, into going, into joining, into being together, into following my destiny, into allowing love and freedom into my heart, and so forth. I finally made it through the door with the promise that I would come back for the evening trip. I walked back downtown.

I went to hang out in a public square. There were people having lunches, people basking in the sun, buskers of all sorts; musicians, acrobats and beggars. I met an older man, named Adam and I told him about my Moonie adventure. His eyes opened wide and he grabbed my arm. He said: “Jesus Christ! You really went there? These guys are mad, they kidnapped youngsters like you and they fucken brainwashed them! Are you all right?” We talked for a while about the madness and the danger of cults. He told me that was their usual technique; ‘feed you well at first, and then starve you to take over your mind.’ Now that I knew what was going on over there, I felt like going back to play their game. I left a note with Adam giving the Government of Canada and my family the permission to remove me from the sect. I dated and signed the note and included my social insurance number. I told Adam, “If I am not here tomorrow at noon, I would like you to give this note to the Canadian Embassy.” Adam did not think this was a good idea but agreed to it. When I left he said, “See you at NOON tomorrow!”

I walked back up the hill right into the eye of the hurricane. The house was bustling with activity. There were white panel vans at the doors being loaded. As soon as I crossed the threshold of the door I was assailed by ‘members’. They were all very happy to see me again, saying that my return was meant to be. They kept coming one after the other, in pairs, and in groups and I kept saying no. Their hands were warm, their voices were soft, their eyes were kind. It was a real struggle to not succumb. I felt that I was tied to the note I left with Adam, that I had a responsibility to Adam, and my family in not joining. The time of departure was approaching, somebody was going through the house, in each rooms, clapping his hands together and saying: “Let’s go people, time to go!” There was a real sense of urgency and emergency. I ended up in one of the vans. A bunch of us were packed into the cargo area. Sam was there still trying to convince me, and I was still objecting. The driver of the van who was making fast turns, suddenly stopped and said to one of the other leaders, “Kick him out.” The side door opened and I was promptly ejected onto the sidewalk. The van sped off under cover of darkness.

WPGC 2012 schedule (2012)

The World Portable Gallery Convention 2012 is an international convention on portable galleries and alternative spaces hosted by Eyelevel Gallery during the month of September. The project celebrates the variety of spaces with which curators around the globe have extended public interaction with art institutions.

LONDON 2012: quicker to paradise (2012)

[Thoughts about the fabulous closing ceremonies]

Daniel Dugas with contributions from Valerie LeBlanc
August 13, 2012

LYRICS AND REALITIES
Imagine there’s no countries,
(John Lennon)

With all the flags waving and a massive,
dominating Union Jack outlining the track,
it is kind of hard to do.

There is Nothing to kill or die for
(John Lennon)

Nevertheless during the final minutes of the closing ceremonies,
the Olympic Flag was carried by members of the British Armed Forces.
It’s like they say, if you want peace, prepare for war.

Imagine no possessions
(John Lennon)

VS

I’m wearing all my favourite brands
(Taio Cruz)

+

It’s not about the money, money, money
We don’t need your money, money, money
(Jessie J)

Why are the medals, medals, medals, made of precious metal anyway?
Flash images of winning athletes biting their own.

FASHION
And no religion too
(John Lennon)

Annie Lennox’s Goth Pirate ship with charred sails:
a royally well-matched colonialist image to compliment the fashion extravaganza.

Did anybody see Fellini’s Roma – Catholic Church Fashion Show lately? Fellini’s ironic images must have informed the London’s closing ceremonies. Whether it is the lighted hats of the bishops (glow-in-the-dark hats of the Brazilian dancers), the deacon outfits equipped with roller skates (roller-skating nuns) or the skeleton float (Lennox’s ship). This is especially interesting when you realized that the Queen of England heads up the Church of England.

PSYCHEDELIA
Psychedelic magical mystery tour bus

How can we reconcile the psychedelic in us with the rectitude of the Olympic movement regarding drugs?  Is the magic drink good for the mind but bad for the body?  Go ask Lucy.

BURNING
Was the so-called re-enactment of the Pink Floyd cover Wish You Were Here, death by burning, auto combustion or political reference to last year’s burning effigy of the London 2012 Olympics organiser Lord Coe in protest at the sponsorship role of Dow Chemical? [1]

ENLIGHTENMENT
After reading a comment by the creative director and choreographer of the show, Kim Gavin it now makes sense: “My approach was to say, ‘Let’s not over-think it. . . . Let’s have a party. I don’t want anyone to say, ‘I don’t understand this.’” [2]

MISSED OPPORTUNITIES
Sex Pistols, The Cure, Amy Winehouse.

[1] London 2012: India 2012 Olympics protest in Bhopal burns Coe effigy, BBC website, 2 Dec 2011 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-16001266
For more information, please see Tell Lord Coe to stop defending Dow Chemical: http://action.amnesty.org.uk/ea-action/action?ea.client.id=1194&ea.campaign.id=15017

[2] London 2012: Closing ceremony the after-party to end all after-parties, thestar.com, August 12, 2012  http://www.thestar.com/sports/london2012/article/1241117–london-2012-closing-ceremony-the-after-party-to-end-all-after-parties

World Portable Gallery Convention (2012)

Valerie LeBlanc and I are bringing the MediaPackBoard to EyeLevel Gallery in Halifax to participate in the WPGC 2012! It’s going to be great ! More to come later, in the meantime, here is the poster.

Lancement Moncton24 (2012)

La revue Ancrages a le plaisir de vous convier au lancement de son numéro spécial : LIBÉRÉ (E) SUR PAROLE et MONCTON24. Le lancement aura lieu le 4 août à la Boulangerie Grain de Folie, à Caraquet, à partir de 15 h 30 ! Le numéro sera également lancé à Moncton en septembre.

[mise en contexte|

LE 13 MARS 2010, le premier volet de Moncton24 s’est déroulé  sous un soleil étincelant et sous une lune splendide.

Moncton24 a été conçu comme un projet d’écriture à plusieurs voix, un projet polyfunique, qui visait à saisir l’esprit d’une ville ou la substance d’un espace : celui, à la fois matériel et symbolique, que nous habitons, qui nous habite. Cet événement  littéraire a regroupé 24 auteures et auteurs de langue française  et anglaise  qui se sont approprié un endroit de la ville et un temps de la journée (ou de la nuit) et ont écrit un texte sur cet espace et ce moment particulier. 24 auteurs en 24 heures pour recréer, sur un autre plan, la ville que nous habitons.

La contrainte des 24 heures a une longue histoire. Elle correspond à une journée dans  la vie, à une « révolution  de soleil »,  comme l’a écrit Aristote en parlant de la règle des trois unités du théâtre classique. Déjà en 1923, on inaugurait les 24 heures du Mans, la célèbre course automobile d’endurance, où des équipes de pilotes se relayaient jour et nuit sur une piste de 13,000 km. Plusieurs d’entre nous se rappellent peut-être de la série de grands livres illustrés The Day in the Life, qui a débuté en 1981 et où des photographes professionnels tentaient de saisir, en 24 heures, l’essence du coin de pays qui leur avait été assigné. On pourrait aussi rappeler les 24 heures de poésie de Sousse en Tunisie ou encore l’événement slam des 24 heures du mot de Liège.

Moncton 24 s’insère dans cette grande tradition où la mesure du temps encadre l’action des participants et quels moments merveilleux nous avons eu la chance de vivre ! Que ce soit dans un parc ou dans un café, Moncton s’est animée pour devenir un lieu magique de création littéraire.

Les photos de la journée d ‘écriture et de la soirée polyfunique sont disponibles sur flickr.com et sur google map sous la rubrique Moncton24

Hublot (2012)

Hublot est une dérive sur Le Rossignol, un texte de Anton Delvig mis en chanson par le compositeur russe Alexander Alyabyev en 1825. Le poème parle de la voix envoûtante du rossignol, une voix capable de traverser les océans et de remplir de joie le cœur de ceux qui l’entendent. Cette pièce fut composée par Alyabyev pour la plus aiguë et la plus agile de toutes les voix : le soprano colorature.

La bande sonore de la vidéo est un enregistrement de 1952 que ma mère Corinne Melanson Dugas, elle-même soprano colorature, enregistra à Montréal avec la pianiste Bernice LeBlanc.

Hublot (2012) from daniel dugas on Vimeo.

Soundbury – Commentaire par Thierry Bissonnette

Soundbury
Thierry Bissonnette

Soundbury
Thierry Bissonnette

Français
Daniel Dugas et Valérie LeBlanc se sont faits chasseurs ­cueilleurs sonores lors de la foire d’art sudburoise. Ces artistes de Moncton ont déambulé parmi les activités de la FAAS 2010 afin de prélever des séquences qui formeraient Soundbury, une collection en ligne de moments audio qui livre leur vision singulière d’une période effervescente sous la forme d’une «cartographie sonore de Sudbury».

Durant douze heures, Dugas et LeBlanc ont promené leurs micros pour capter des moments témoins de leur dialogue silencieux avec une ville et des artistes qui l’animaient. Ces moments sont fortuits, discrets, hétéroclites : un ruban adhésif qui flotte au vent, un tenancier qui réfléchit sur le retour tardif de la neige, un commentaire sur des bonhommes de neige intempestifs, un homme qui fait rouler son chariot sur le pavé de la rue Elgin, un poème énoncé dans une chambre d’hôtel, l’attente près des portes de la galerie d’art, l’essai de guitares dans une boutique… Affichées progressivement sur le site Web et représentées par une photo et une rubrique, ces séquences sonores naviguent entre l’art et le non-art apparents.

L’imaginaire de l’objet, du sujet et du récepteur sont inhérents à ces fragments sonores. Car si Soundbury a fouillé la ville pour y trouver des bouts d’âme, sa structure n’est complétée que par l’auditeur qui s’engage à composer un parcours. Ce faisant, on crée et on explore une ville miniature qui n’existe que dans l’ouïe, le temps d’une visite en diagonale.

English
Arriving from Moncton, Daniel Dugas and Valerie LeBlanc became hunter-gatherers of sounds during Sudbury’s alternative arts festival. Drawing from their rich background in online projects and exhibitions – he is a poet, she is a professor, and both are videographers – they meandered through the activities of the FAAS 2010 to capture audio clips that would eventually provide raw material for Soundbury, a collection of moments in sound expressing their particular vision of an effervescent time.

Soundbury can now be heard in its entirety on the site http://soundbury.wordpress.com. Its creators describe it as “a sonic cartography project, an audible image of the city of Sudbury” Over a twelve hour period, Dugas and Leblanc pointed their microphones at key moments that witnessed their silent dialogue with a city that was teeming with artists and writers, but also with the city’s more discrete aspects. This affinity for dialogue is also evident in the title of Daniel Dugas’ book of poetry, Hé!, which had recently been published by Prise de parole. Chance encounters often produce this familiar and fabulous exclamation.

As they brought back a number of short-lived moments, the two artists constructed a mish-mashed intersection that nonetheless bears their signature at its vanishing point. Thirty rubrics, each one introducing one or two sequences, were gradually uploaded onto the site. Today, they can be heard in the reverse order or in a non-numerical order. A visiting ear can wander as it pleases, starting with the final clip where trains pass by in the night, moving on to a moment captured at Peddler’s Pub on Cedar Street, or pausing by a ventilation outlet behind Durham Street, before opening a small window on the performances of Tania Lukin or Thierry Marceau. A strip of adhesive tape flutters in the wind; a tenant reflects on the unseasonal snowfall; someone comments on untimely snowmen; a man pushes a buggy over pavement on Elgin Street; a poem is read in a hotel room; patrons wait outside the art gallery; guitars are strummed in a music store… all these clips, each one represented by a still photo, plot a course between art and apparent non-art. Should a listener be so inclined, more than one clip can be heard simultaneously.

As we sift through this collection, we realize ever more clearly how these brief fragments combine the imagery of their objects, subjects and receivers. Soundbury tunneled into a city to find flecks of its soul, but its structure is not complete until the listener has recomposed its trajectory and created a miniature city that exists only in the vibrations of eardrums and in the moments of a visit in passing.

For a general overview of the experience, visit http://soundbury.wordpress.com/google-map/, where a map indicates all the places where audio samples were obtained. A click on a mark displays the corresponding title and still image, and the audio sequence can be played. The result is an unusual map that can be used to discover downtown Sudbury, thanks to two generous artists from New Brunswick.

Hors Lieux
Une Rétrospective de la foire d’art alternatif de Sudbury 2010,
Français : p 23
English: p 61-62
La Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario

ISBN 978-2-923024-51-6

Rapport Annuel AAAPNB (2012)

Je viens de terminer la mise en page du Rapport annuel de l’AAAPNB ainsi que Le Cahier des participant.e.s 2011- 2012. Pour voir le document au complet : PDF

http://www.aaapnb.ca/enbref/node/9

The Moss Theory – Book Launch (2012)

Here it is!

The book will be launched on May 26 at Chapters in Dieppe.
2 p.m. – 4 p. m.
499 Paul Dr Dieppe, NB
(506) 855-8075

The Moss Theory

Canada is at war and a new wave of patriotic infatuation has taken the country by storm.  Maplespring, a small town on the East Coast, is getting ready to honor one of its own, a fallen soldier who has died in Afghanistan.  As the remembrance ceremony gets under way, a peace march presents a profound disturbance.   This is soon followed by other events that test the limits of the population.  Fuelled by anger, a few old-timers from the Vietnam and the Korean Wars set out on a path that quickly leads into a downward spiral.

Au large des objets perdus – version numérique (2012)

La version numérique de Au large des objets perdus est maintenant en vente à L’Entrepôt numérique : http://vitrine.entrepotnumerique.com/publications/13093-au-large-des-objets-perdus

Le recueil contient 11 images, en voici quelques-unes :