Rotterdam - Places of pilgrimage - 2

Preliminary results
I am continuing my list of places of pilgrimage. It is an interesting experiment with memory and topography. What are my first results:

• The definition of place of pilgrimage as "a place that is worth returning to" is useful. It separates niceties and curiosities from places with real meaning.
• The sites naturally overlap with monuments and places of cultural interest that you find in the city guides. But there are many that don't fit the city-guide category like: interesting views, random places with "atmosphere" and even a McDonalds.
• Most places are relatively old. It is difficult to find modern places with "atmosphere". Is that because there are less of them or have I not found them yet?
• There are less places stored in my memory than I expected. I had thought I would write down a list of 100 places easily. But at the moment I'm stuck at 70 or so.
• It's a stimulating exercise. I've started to read Rotterdam books again and I'm going through my photo archives to find more relevant places. But this does not add much, most of it is already in my head.

Second map

With mixed feelings I've started using Google Maps. It is very easy to mark and document places in Google Maps, much easier than on a physical map. Still I would prefer OpenStreetMap, but I have not found a similar function in OSM yet. In Google Maps you can add pins to the map, but the numbers and captions are not shown on the map. So I added these by hand:

28. The Hoflaankerk. - This sober and geometric church always feels mysterious and overpowering.
29. The war memorial under the Oostzeedijk. - This place looks un-Dutch with its height difference, the use of natural stone and the old shadowy trees.
30. The angel of the apocalypse above the portal of the cemetery at the Nieuwe Crooswijkseweg. - A beautiful patient angel. It is silently holding its trumpet awaiting the sign to raise and blow it.
31. The Heineken brewery and the brewery face. - The tower of the brewery is one of those geometric towers that seem to radiate a kind of urban energy. This energy keeps the city functioning. There is a strange Mayan-like face staring from the symbolic artwork above the door.
32. The 16th century houses that survived the bombardment, Vriendenlaan, Rechter Rottekade. - Old houses that magically survived the bombardment of Rotterdam. They must have been protected by spells laid by ancient heretics.
33. The Paris-like bench in Katendrecht overlooking the river, Buizenpark, Linker Veerdam. - This is a very un-Dutch place. It feels like a bigger, more urban and imperial city here.
34. The weird door sculpture in Katendrecht. - Strange mermaid-like sculpture above a door in Katendrecht. Approximate location - have to check my picture collection.
35. The brick chimneys of Rotterdam, several of them. - These remains from the industrial era are getting rarer and rarer.
36. The walking path behind the airport, Bovendijk. - Notice the radio antennas and the training airplane for the firemen.
37. The airport lights as seen of the Vliegveldweg. - Try to catch this in the evening when a plane is landing and the lights are on.
38. The landing path towards Zestienhoven (ERDH) airport, seeing the huge descending airplanes.
39. The dark church with the high tower and the somber Christ mosaic, Adriaan Paauwlaan. - A dark brick geometric church with an imposing square tower. An unwelcoming mosaic of Christ above the entrance door. Fascinating. Probably I'm doing it injustice.

Psychogeographer: alchemist or geographer?

A thin book about The Geographer by Johannes Vermeer set me thinking about my own practice. The book contrasts two practitioners of science: the alchemist and the geographer. Which of the two is my model?

 

There are a lot of paintings with scientific subjects in 17th century Dutch art. And here the alchemist is presented as a solitary figure who loses himself in the labyrinth of knowledge. He sits in dark, badly maintained laboratories, fills his head with irrelevant knowledge and spends his money on unprofitable research. He is a tragic figure. His extensive research only generates chaos. Sometimes he is presented as an easily duped believer or - conversely - as a fraud who exploits the easy belief of others.

Now compare the alchemist with the geographer. The geographer is a well-kept, aristocratic, well-off figure. He has his feet on the ground and is producing useful knowledge. He is practicing real, modern science and is serving real human progress (and commerce and imperialism). He is presented in rooms with sober, modern and practical scientific utensils: maps, compasses and measuring devices.

I would like to be the geographer. But maybe I'm just the alchemist. Or somewhere in between, a chaotic reporter of topography?

References

• Johannes Vermeer, Der Geograph, Thorsten Smidt, 2004, Staatliche Museen Kassel
• The Geographer, Johannes Vermeer - Wikipedia
• Le Docteur Alchimiste, D. Teniers pinx. J. Tardieu Filius Sculp. - Images from the History of Medicine

Rotterdam - Places of pilgrimage

Rotterdam is the ultimate unromantic city. It has always been an industrial city. It was bombed in the war. And it was disastrously rebuilt afterwards. It is very difficult to find places with atmosphere where you can charge your internal batteries with "unmediated cosmic energy" (see: Nick Papadimitriou).

But I'm making an effort to find and map them. This is a work in progress. Many places are missing from the list. Some places maybe don't deserve a place on the list. The list with change with time.

It is an experiment. See if I can become friends with a difficult city. I'm partly friends with it already, but maybe we can formalize the relationship.

What are the places in Rotterdam that are worth visiting many times. Places that you should invest time in. Places that will return the energy you invest in them.

I have photographs of all of them and I will post these in due course. But first I will leave it to your imagination:

1. The air-traffic beacon and the strange UFO-like appliance at the Wildersekade.
2. The hill, church and graveyard of Hillegersberg, dating back to prehistory.
3. The Melanchton city park, that looks and feels like a London park.
4. The modern abstract observatorium along the highway.
5. The surreal sculpture in the Alexanderpark.
6. The back-entrance gate to the Crooswijk graveyard.
7. The book-window in the Rodenrijselaan.
8. The 19th century jail at the Noordsingel.
9. The catholic Maria chapel in De Steiger at De Hang.
10. The pool at the Vijverweg surrounded by old buildings and a church.
11. The modern buildings enclosing a strange space along an old harbour at the Buizenwerf.
12. The doomed area at the Oude Plantage that someone had a dream about.
13. The arch and park benches overlooking the river at the Buitenbassinweg.
14. The semi wetland wilderness along the river beneath the Nesserdijk.
15. The semi wetland wilderness of the Island of Brienenoord and the concrete basin.
16. The old church of Overschie at the Kasteelweg, with the grave and urn.
17. The view from the Stadionviaduct.
18. The whole island of the Noordereiland, but especially the area around the old bridges.
19. The strange "witch hat" building in the Joubertstraat and the old dyke nearby along the Brede Hilledijk.
20. The last remaining scrap iron yards and ship repair shops around Maashaven Zuidzijde.
21. The children's home from 1880 and the adjoining "Lovecraftian" church.
22. The Veerkade and the square in front of the anthropology museum.
23. The Parklaan with the trees lanes and the fountain with the inscription "The mushrooms".
24. The Zocher park beneath the Euromast.
25. The ventilation buildings of the Maastunnel.
26. The whole of old Delfshaven.
27. The old village square of Oud-Charlois left in the middle of industry.

Not included in the map, to be included in a future edition:

• The Hoflaankerk.
• The memorial under the Oostzeedijk.
• The angel of the apocalypse.
• The brewery face.
• The 16th century houses that survived the bombardment.
• The Paris-like bench in Katendrecht overlooking the river.
• The weird door sculpture in Katendrecht.
• The brick chimneys, several of them.
• Behind the airport.
• The dark church with somber Christ mosaic.

Sheep

Elements of the Dutch landscape - 7

Recently I started noticing sheep. My wife likes sheep. She thinks they're cute and she likes the feeling of nature they bring to the city.

Hitland - Capelle aan den IJssel

I never noticed sheep. I only noticed cows. Cows belong to the Dutch landscape. Sheep belong in Australia.

I was wrong. Sheep have been here since the neolithic. There exist Dutch indigenous sheep species (the Dutch Texel) that were bred in the 1890's.

Zoetermeer

Recently sheep have been grazing in the city parks. It's an experiment in natural grass management because  sheep are much better than lawnmowers. And more interesting to observe.

They seem to eat everything, but it's interesting to see which plants they prefer. They don't seem to like nettles and sorrel (rumex) but they eat them anyway. I heard they like the poisonous giant hogweed because it's rich in protein.

Rotterdam

The sheep is a powerful Christian symbol. I should have a lot to say about it, but it never resonated with me strongly. I prefer: the cross, the all-seeing-eye, the dove the halo, water, wine and the mustard plant. Not sheep. Lions maybe. Or cats, but cats are not mentioned anywhere in the Bible.

Christ was a farmer. He knew a lot about sheep.

Dordrecht

I would never have thought that sheep could be interesting. Then I read "A Wild Sheep Chase" by Haruki Murakami:

Most of the afternoons I would pass looking out at the pasture. I soon began seeing things. A figure emerging from the birch woods and running straight in my direction. Usually it was the Sheep Man, but sometimes it was the Rat, sometimes my girlfriend. Other times it was the sheep with the star on it's back.

Lopik

And the most disgusting literary sheep-quote is probably from Mason & Dixon by Thomas Pynchon. You will never eat mutton with a clear conscience after reading this:

Thus bickering they pass into the Dining-Room. After the Cape custom, the Dutchman has lock'd his front door for the evening meal, which he now regards, smoldering, less predictable than an Italian Volcano.
...
Another volcanickal Emission, whilst he grimly attacks his slice of the evening's mutton in Tail-fat. Over the course of its late owner's life, the Tail has grown not merely larger and more fatty, but also, having absorbed years of ovine Flatulence ever blowing by, to exhibit a distinct Taste, perhaps priz'd by cognoscenti somewhere, though where cannot readily be imagin'd.

Sources:
Sheep and goats in the Netherlands - more interesting than you would expect!
Low Countries time line
List of Murakami quotes
Mason & Dixon text online - don't know it it's legit

What dust will rise?

For me the most impressive artwork of the Documenta in Kassel 2012 was What dust will rise? by Michael Rakowitz. The sad litany of culture destruction and erasure.

It is said that artists are like canaries in the mine, predicting the future. Is this what awaits us? A cultural apocalypse?

Or is this just a slightly enlarged example of what Marx called the gnawing criticism of mice ? The standard fate of most cultural artifacts?

Stone fragment dropped by the Royal Air Force over Essen, Germany, 1942. British bombers released the rubble of English buildings destroyed by the Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain on German cities as a prelude to actual bombs.

For us it is a matter of special pride to destroy the Talmudic Library which has been known as the greatest in Poland...we threw out of the building the great Talmudic Library and carted it to market. There we set fire to the books. The fire lasted for twenty hours. The Jews of Lublin were assembled around and cried bitterly. The cries almost silenced us. Then we summoned a military band, and joyful shouts of the soldiers silenced the sounds of Jewish cries. - Frankfurter Zeitung, March 28 ,1941

Shrapnel from ammunition rounds used to destroy the Bamiyan Buddhas, Afghanistan, March, 2001.

Samples of clay fragments with paint from outer layers of the western Buddha of Bamyian. Traces of red and blue - made from pulverized lapis lazuli - suggest the sangesti or c eremonial robes of the Buddha were colored.

Books damaged by fire and deemed too unimportant to restore after the bombing of the Fridericianum, 1941.

The Tironian notes contain the oldest lexicon of classical and early medieval abbreviations, a shorthand used to record the great speeches of antiquity. It was developed by Marcus Tullius Tiro, a Roman who lived in the first century B.C., and written down in Carolingian miniature in France around 800 A.D. It
survived the air raid on Kassel in the Fridericianum's vault, but the tremendous heat scorched its leather binding, charred its woorden cover, and liquified the fat in its parchments pages, gluing them together.

Great War battlefield at nightfall

In August 2012 we visited several World War One battlefields and monuments in Northern France. We did not go ghost hunting, we just wanted to see as much as we could cram into each day. So some sites were visited at nightfall.

These sites can be overpowering at nightfall. The nature looks peaceful but you are always aware of the horrific suffering that took place here. So there is silence, but also tension. Strange and unexpected sounds can be very startling.

Especially at this site, the Bois Brûlé, where Jacques Péricard shouted: "Rise you dead!" (Debout les morts!) The same person who said: "He who hasn't fought at Verdun does not know what misery is."

The voices on the video say:
A: Oh fuck!
B: What's the matter?
A: Don't you hear it?

The sound recordings have not been staged. They are authentic and have been made at this memorable spot.  

A ship adrift - erasure poetry

A ship adrift
I'm a fan and admirer of the internet artwork "A ship adrift" made by James Bridle. I return to its webpages regularly. I immerse myself in its aimless voyage and the ghostly chattering of its language bots.

The virtual ship is connected to a London weather station and it drifts around the world randomly. It travels the (lost) imperial periphery, being blown by wind from the (now powerless) governing center. But a much better description by the artist can be found here and here.

During its drift it collects random snippets of local data, ghost whispers of the internet. With its robot intelligence it tries to tell a story of the places it visits. It fails, but it's a very poetic failure. You can read its dream-like texts here.

Erasure poetry
Today I discovered the concept of "erasure poetry" on another blog I follow. This is how the concept is described by the writer Justin Taylor:

Erasure is a method of delving into the depths of a text to see what can be found there. But the eraser is liberated—as well as made anxious—by the knowledge that said findings are not discoveries but creations. The erasure-text is not a salvage: it has no reality independent of the search for it, the searching is in fact what made it real.

Combination
Somehow I started without consciously thinking. I copied a few "ship adrift" logfiles into notepad and started deleting. To my surprise something coherent started to appear. There was some vague shape. I deleted more and more text. I left the order and spelling intact. I added some punctuation. This is what was left at 00:17 AM. The text is culled from the logs of 27 July to 15 July 2012.

A ship adrift - erased

1)
I released my grip and a spiritless ship in the shade of years should fail me.
I behaved with beautiful earth, flowed something Buddha.

I had light myself, belonging of a minute.
I day the sword and stared a man, ship of the names.
I held up foot, stamped here like the air.

Tell me, pray, tell me, and, indistinct, like a pair of shadow.
Do you know.
Some to endure, even beyond.

2)
Villa Total in the rocky Monteresting.
Devil was the hammock, groans, blankets, horrors.
But into the path, with wooden loads, for meaning by expanding.
And the same upkeep with the pointinuous night.

Annoying I stave coming for him once.
He wastepec Maravines, miles farm and festive.
I felt gone people, August, sixty profound of them.
To kill something sides, nobody had end you.

Their loads inclosed three world to each others.
In Chiapas, chap with body of eyes.
Beforesting sunlight the men would get into.
Catching habited in the big river.
Wrecked over we came upkeep, is coming you, sir?
And in the interesting, at last bit of course.

3)
Only too old, your unbuttoned uniform, catching that is to hear, he.
I came upon the paths, perhaps on the los.
Retrieved August, I know that you projected devil was.
Through burnt grass near, why did it in the cabin?

A steady glimmer of dange narcotic effectly.
Payton Bomb that brace you, white change narcotic, an effect of water.
Pineapples.
I'm ready and the shielo name to explain bring over.
Very well, I am guilty.
Thou art my hiding over, I woke up each this.
But this become my communication:
"We arent and rise black, flat, over place The Funny Teens."

If you to smuggle your place and throom.
Monotonous frenzy, imperceptible order, so as me?
Speak Marijuana Drama! Amp a go water.
I'm real enough to give straight in fantation room.
God dare for kids!
I believed good offered, word in the fitfully droning.
Dance and really wanna say, some best to a nothing place.

4)
I'm feelinger the ivory; but the hill dads kill me now.
In love with End, original fastened us in favor.
The black to easier forgot this, of many means even.
God Is Faithful, and had he came today.
And rise blackorean boring white.
Altamirano, he was haste to, and in beacon glimpse: Equator.
Some, perfectly here, yet.
Exploring perfectly ... well, we won't.

Night sounds and morning birds - Berlin

In June I visited a congress in Berlin. When visiting a large metropolis I try to make a night sound recording from my hotel widow. It's interesting to analyse the daily and nightly patterns of the city. I especially like the most silent period, usually somewhere between 02:00 and 04:00. This is the Berlin night in Audacity:

The spikes are cars driving below the hotel windows at the Anhalterstrasse. The solid dark area is the background hum of the city. Like William Gibson writes in Zero History:

“Good night,” Milgrim said ... He ... climbed into bed in his underwear, and pulled the covers to his chin. He turned out the light. Lay there running his tongue over the backs of his teeth. ... And listened to, or at any rate sensed, the background frequency that was London. A different white noise.

To filter out that background noise I edited the most silent part of the recording. I cut away all the car sounds leaving only the silent background. And then I cut away all the parts where "nothing" can be heard. This is the result:

It was a wonderful experience to listen to the recording and work with these sounds. I did it in my inexperienced way, but it deserves a better recording and better editing. I was surprised by two things:

1. How early the birds start singing. Almost in the middle of the night.
2. How the birdsong echoes through urban space. How wide and mysterious this space sounds.

The emptiness of urban space at night is breathtaking. I'm a bourgeois individual who goes to sleep at 23:00 so I never experience the spaces of deep night. But I'm tempted to try the very early morning.

But when I talked about this with my son, who is living a student life with occasional partying, he told me he had noticed the early birds and the echoes many times.

I don't know how far the birds were from my hotel window. Maybe they were quite near in the trees. But in the recording they sound very far away. And what kind of birds were they? I did some research on German websites and it could be this:

• The earliest night singing bird is the nightingale. But the song of the earliest birds is much too simple to be nightingales.
• Another early bird is the Robin. But the song of the early birds does not sound like that. It sound much simpler.
• The earliest bird might also be the "Hausrotschwanz" the "Black Redstart". This is the most likely candidate, but I still think the sound on the recording is simpler than the song examples in the Internet.
• The blackbirds are early singers but they start much later. And they are very easy to recognize. In the recording you can hear the first blackbird at 3:13.

Sources:
Berlin recording - Freesound
German early birds
Robin song sample
Black redstart song sample
Early birdsong - podcast in Swiss language, with song samples
Distribution of "Black Redstart" in the Netherlands