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Susanne Oberbeck

Matthew Stone and friends interview Susanne Oberbeck.

Matthew Stone: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

People need to be made aware that trying to prove they are men or women destroys them and others.

Nicola Lane: What does success mean to you?

Success is to be free from constraints, not be oppressed or abused by those in power, and be able to stick to your dreams and beliefs.

Success is also if the thing you do leaves an impact on people, moves or inspires them, makes them fancy you, or changes the world, but that’s obvious.

Steph Raynor: Are we anywhere near where we need to be?

I don’t like the use of the word ‘we’. Who is ‘we’? ‘We’ seems to have been used to justify all kinds of atrocities and banalities. Trying to answer your question anyway, I don’t think anybody needs to be anywhere. An ideal or fixed state would be boring.

MS: What should not be left unimagined?

Matthew this question is too complicated! I have written two pages and feel like I’m sounding like an absolute twat.

All I can suggest is Bin Laden and people like that should be banned from having an imagination, and people who don’t normally say anything should be able to tell us about their dreams.

I think the less you are a part of existing institutions and structures, the easier it probably is to imagine something that people are trying to tell you is impossible. Why take anything for granted? And what is really “real”?

It kind of comes back to your first question, which I think is mostly about power and conformity. Conforming in order to be powerful, or so they think. If people forgot about the need to prove that they are someone, or someone powerful, it might be possible for example for world leaders or even ordinary people to have an online discussion like this instead of fighting a war. And this is where we arrive at John Lennon’s “Imagine”.

Discuss!

Ebe Oke: What unique gifts do you have to offer to this world?

A unique perspective. BIG Balls.
I like to think I have a unique musical and lyrical instinct. But maybe this is something only Ebe can really answer.

MS: What question should be added to this list?

What is your vision for a future society, I mean in terms of political system, families, human relations, architecture, reproduction and so on?

Catherine Borra

Portrait by Matthew Stone.

Matthew Stone and friends interview Catherine Borra.

Matthew Stone: What is most important to you?

I don't know, it depends on what level you are asking! I think there is no one single thing but big groups (or symbols) of values/objects/behaviours and people reflecting into each other that I put together and love. Among these, I think the most important for me is blood.

MS: What do you have faith in?

I believe that people will always go forwards, and even if sometimes it seems that all energy has gone and that this is "the endpoint of mankind's ideological evolution" (Francis Fukuyama), I have faith in cycles and I know that it is going to change again.

Sometimes, though, I don't believe it at all.

Todd Hart: What's the best example of Art really changing the world for the better?

One kind (I don't know if it's the BEST example) of art that I think can change the world is Jiri Kovanda's series of slight and persevering actions, aimed to reach that space in between invisibility, memory and oddness - or everyday surrealism, and Yoko Ono's Grapefruit book as well as other of her works. This is because it's important to me to revive faith, even just for the sake of it, and creativity as a consequence of it; because faith is an extremely important factor of life although currently tends to be discarded.

I believe that art should be active for change now, but I'm not so sure that 'propaganda' works and that it allows the freedom of language that art making deserves - every discipline has its own field of action, and given that art isn't one, it shouldn't have one in particular...

Image courtesy of http://static.flickr.com/122/288558640_70ee35d340.jpg

Image courtesy of http://www.socialeast.org/Images/JiriKovanda,19.11.1976.jpg

Image courtesy of http://www.frieze.com/images/middle/kiss.jpg.

Norman Rosenthal: Why are we alive at all? It is after all a very strange state to find ourselves in.

I've just finished reading a book by J.G. Ballard, one of his catastrophe series about a drowned world (The Drowned World, so to reference it). Time and space after it, seem to be an even more relative set of dimensions to rely upon, because being alive involves an immediacy between past and future that can just not be grasped (by me, at least). In his book, he depicts these human beings that are undergoing the process of rotating their memory so that, because of the environment they are living in, their immediate recollections - or their most recent past, is the revival of their biological memory from millions of years ago, leading to face regression as a prospective and almost as an acknowledged aim. This crashes the present time of subjectivity to something totally irrelevant in the face of the universe and of the infinity of misperception - I highly doubt that we can state with precision that we are alive at all!

Iphgenia Baal: What is the one thing about you that undermines all the opinions you have made above?

They aren't opinions, it's true! All, apart from the question regarding the best example of Art really changing the world for the better, and the one about being alive (that is a confusing subject anyway).

MS: What question should be added to this list?

Out of all the possible languages (English, Latin, Spanish, visual, sign, irony, empathy, facial expressions, music, archetypes etc.) available on this earth, which one do you feel you express/would express yourself better in, and why?

---all images supplied by Catherine---

Ebe Oke

Matthew Stone and friends interview Ebe Oke.

Matthew Stone: What do you have faith in?

Ebe Oke: Love, friendship, the overriding benevolence of the universe and the inherent goodness of every human being no matter how wounded or flawed - also, we can heal ourselves of illnesses great and small, I've done it!

Boo Saville: What do you think happens when we die?

EO: I'm not afraid of dying having come close before - I am in love with and lust for life but death is a comforting thought - I believe my spirit will remain, my intelligence will become a feeble footnote and I will harmonise with friends and loved ones: those of the same frequency or spiritual family - I don't believe in heaven or hell unless it's self imposed - the inability to forgive is a surefire anchor to the flames.

Nicola Lane: What does success mean to you?

EO: Ultimately for me it means to accept myself and to love without reservation or fear - it also means to have the freedom to work with whomever I choose whenever I choose and to have access to great resources for my work in different mediums, be it musical, visual or literary - finally it means to have the financial freedom to travel and explore, homes in a city and isolated countryside of my choosing and being able to share it all with the one I love.

Jack Brennan: What film fits your vision of the future best and why? (The film needn't be set in the future)

EO: Orlando: the opening scene! I would like to spend my future writing poetry on a rolling hill under a great oak! Tilda Swinton is the ageless, time traveling, gender bending, noble hero(ine) and I can think of no better ticket to the future than that - exploring your anima and animus with lovers of both sexes as both a man and a woman, possessing an otherworldly beauty and charm and being portrayed through the eyes of a brilliantly poetic female director; you can't go wrong.

Iphgenia Baal: What is the one thing about you that undermines all the opinions you have made above?

EO: I have a pronounced dark side that through years of honest investigation I have become more conscious of - I faced a lot of adversity earlier in life which caused me to accumulate fears and insecurities which once seemed insurmountable - simply recognising this dark side and the minions in its thrall is a start but something has to occur which grants you enough perspective to see that you actually have a choice not to act from your shadow but from your shine (so to speak) - having mapped out the terrain of my dark side through poems, songs, visions and the mirror of intimate relationships (etc.. ) and realising I have a choice has freed me immensely to embrace a lighter spirit and personality - It's been a real blessing to visit such extremes.

MS: What question should be added to this list?

EO: What unique gifts do you have to offer to this world ?

Iphgenia Baal

Matthew Stone and friends interview Iphgenia Baal.

Matthew Stone: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

Iphgenia Baal: It is impossible not to change the world. But, I reckon you are asking how to change the world for the better which I just have to be mainstream about and relate back to Star Wars. No, I could do Hindis and Christians. Someone once explained Hindi to me (I bet I miss loads of things). Essentially you are reincarnated time after time after time and the purpose of each life is to have as little effect on the world as possible, to change things as little as possible, to focus your energies inside instead of making other’s understand your point of view. Depending on how well you do, your reincarnation makes things more or less easy. If you have hardly any impact on the world, you come back as tree, then an ant, then a gnat, then as an amoeba (I missed out some stages but you get the idea) and then eventually, one day you die and, if the life you have just lived has changed nothing, effected nothing you die and then you cease to exist. Ping! Nirvana. Christians on the other hand have marched all over the world pillaging villages in the attempt to ‘spread enlightenment’. Christians march and conquer and preach. Which essentially means they fight and lie. I think the problem is that, if you want to get noticed in this world, you have to start early, put in the time to promote whatever it is you are doing from a young age when, in fact, that is the time you should be figuring out what it is you mean. But, if you take that time to figure out what it is you mean, by the time you have figured it out you will probably dead. And so, have no time to tell everyone else about it.

I think you just have to trust everyone else. I mean, there are exceptions to these rules. I mean, you need Ghandi. And Kapil. So, you can make exceptions in certain lifetimes based on trust. Change the world for the better one this time round and then make up for it in the next by shutting the fuck up. But screw it, no one needs the Catholic Church.

I guess my answer is, you don’t have to change the world, just make sure you don’t fuck it up anymore. And yes, that includes ridiculous attempts at self-promotion for “the good of the world”.

MS: Can we ever be truly free?

IB: I don’t think any group of people can ever be truly free. The provisos protecting human rights and freedom which any entity governing a body of people, by their very existence detract from the freedom they are protecting. But, any one individual can indeed be free. Find the middle of yourself, arrange the rest of it in an order which allows you to exist. Congratulations. You are free. Now, what are you gonna do?

MS: What do you have faith in?

IB: That lies, deceit and bad intentions always reveal themselves. And the learning of a collective consciousness. I mean, that’s not something I believe in, I don’t have to. You can just see it and it’s awesome. Like how people learned to draw. Crazy.

Nicola Lane: What does success mean to you?

IB: No idea.

Jack Brennan: What film fits your vision of the future best and why? (The film needn't be set in the future.)

IB: The future? Or my future? The future - Doom Generation My future, I can’t give you the plot, but the setting (it’s not a film) is described perfectly in The Destinies of Darcy Dancer, Gentleman by J.P. Donleavy. Only, I hope less lonely.

MS: What question should be added to this list?

Iphgenia Baal: What is the one thing about you that undermines all the opinions you have made above?

Jack Brennan

Photo Ellis Scott.

Matthew Stone and friends interview Jack Brennan.

Matthew Stone: What do you have faith in?

Jack Brennan: Not much. Maths. Some Science. I like Darwinism.


MS: How can we change the world and what is there to be done?

JB: Here I'm slightly fatalistic. We are changing the world, by heating it up for instance. In this area we need to achieve controlled nuclear fusion power production, because no one is going to change.
If the question means "how can we young leftists change the world for the better?", then I think that we have to chuck out the notion of slipping through the cracks of our crappy society whilst enjoying an interstitial bohemian lifestyle. I'm against this slogan from 1968: "Be realistic: demand the impossible"; it's a recipe for impotence, because it's easy to refuse the impossible. When you make a just demand for a freedom, it should be impossible to refuse! Then you highlight something negative in a government. I think what needs to be done is more action, maybe violence, and certainly a willingness to take leadership. So, strange as the idea of revolution in the UK is, maybe we should all start doing push-ups in case things get rough.


Kate Moross: If you had the choice between either being able to manipulate space or time which one would you choose, and what would you do?

JB: I think that there is a way to show that these two powers are fairly equivalent in Special Relativity, but I'm just going to go for TIME. I'd use all of the extra TIME I had to learn languages and then fly to other countries in seconds. If I got bored, I'd speed up my bodyclock and die of old age, tomorrow.


Nicola Lane: What does success mean to you?

JB: I'm really stumped by this one. I think I'd rather not succeed, just have a good reason for not doing so.


Terence Koh : NOTHING MORE NEED BEE SAID?

JB: I like this question. That's kind of the state I am aiming for...


MS: What question should be added to this list?

JB: What film fits your vision of the future best and why? (The film needn't be set in the future)

Terence Koh

Matthew Stone and friends interview Terence Koh.

Matthew Stone: What is most important to you?

Terence Koh: THAT IS AN INCREDIBLY DIFFICULT ANSWER TO ANSWER. IT SAT IN MY BRAIN FOR A FEW DAYS LIKE AN ALMOST DEAD CAT TRYING TO FIND TUNA. ULTIMATELY THE MOST IMPORTANT THING IS TO FIND SOMEBODY THAT LOVES YOU AND THAT LOVES YOU BACK. AND TO HAVE IT FOR ETERNITY. LOVE FOR ETERNITY.


MS: If you could say one sentence to future generations, what would it be?

TK: TO GRASP THE CONCEPT OF THE ETERNAL.


Todd Hart: What's the best example of Art really changing the world for the better?

TK: THAT'S AN INDIVIDUAL THING REALLY. ART CAN BE ANYTHING. BUT I CONCLUDED THAT MY OWN ART I WANT TO AFFECT PEOPLE SO THAT THEY ARE HAPPIER. NOTHING COMPLICATED ABOUT THAT, TO DO SOMETHING THAT MAKES THEM FEEL GOOD. ACTUALLY TO MAKE THEM FEEL LOVE. AND YOU KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, ITS JUST THAT THING YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHEN YOU FEEL IT. ITS ALMOST AN IMPOSSIBLE AIM.


Nicola Lane: What does success mean to you?

TK: THE OPPOSITE WHAT YOU SUPPOSE IT SHOULD FEEL. I ALWAYS THE MORE SUCCESSFUL YOU GET, THE MORE YOU SHOULD BE TORTURED.


Norman Rosenthal: Why are we alive at all?
It is after all a very strange state to find ourselves in.

TK: NORMAN YOU KNOW WE CAN'T, I CAN'T ANSWER THAT. CAUSE WE ASK OURSELVES THAT VERY QUESTION EVERY SECOND. AND OBVIOUSLY THAT'S SOMETHING WE CAN'T ANSWER. AND YES OF COURSE ITS COMPLETELY STRANGE. WHY ELSE WOULD WE SOLDIER ON IF WE DIDN'T FEEL WEIRD, IF WE FELT STRANGE, IF WE FELT QUEASY. ITS A FEELING THAT EXISTED SINCE WE KNEW WHAT THE CONCEPT OF, I, WAS. WE ARE ALIVE BECAUSE YOU KNOW AS AN, I, YOU ARE THE ONLY REASON FOR BEING. BEING COMPLETELY A SELFISH CUNT.


MS: What question should be added to this list?

TK: NOTHING MORE NEED BEE SAID?