[D-G] hello

[Mark Crosby]

Glad you're still with us, Chris! I check your blog (ABSOLUTE DEVIATION POETICS) now and then. Your photos remind me of the theme of Jane Bennett's VIBRANT MATTER. Speaking of which, there's a cross-blog reading group of Bennett's book that begins tomorrow. Adrian at IMMANENCE has the schedule, here: http://aivakhiv.blog.uvm.edu/2010/05/vibrant_matter_reading_group.html for those who might be interested.

Speaking of photography, just read a review of Paul Emmanuel's TRANSITIONS series (showing through Aug 22 at the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art) and how he employs an unusual technique, using "a razor-sharp blade to incise tiny lines in the black surface of exposed photographic photographic paper". His series documents "masculine rites of passage", such as circumcision and military head-shaving.. 
Best, Mark

--- On Sat, 5/22/10, Chris Jones <ccjones56 at bigpond.com> wrote:

> From: Chris Jones <ccjones56 at bigpond.com>
> Subject: [D-G] hello
> To: deleuze-guattari at lists.driftline.org
> Date: Saturday, May 22, 2010, 12:19 PM
> I just joined this list, again, after
> a longish break
> 
> Following is a sort of bio intro of sorts...
> 
> Hello, Chris Jones here. I am a 54 year old gay male poet
> and media
> artist with Aspergers and the most painful sub-type of
> Chronic Fatigue
> Syndrome. Current I am fighting for my right to be treated
> with
> morphine, known to send cfs into remission, and to which my
> govt refuses
> access, here in freedom loving NSW, Australia. I live in
> Narrabri, a
> country town in north west NSW.
> 
> I fear I need to write too much but will attempt to keep it
> short.
> 
> I came out in my late teens by joining Sydney University
> Gay Liberation
> and dropping out of my degree in electrical engineering,
> gays not being
> welcome here. The next two years were spent at two
> different art schools
> where again staff and students made it known that gays were
> not welcome.
> 
> In 1978 I joined the gay solidarity group and we set about
> organising a
> series of riots, now known as the Sydney Gay and Lesbian
> Mardi Gras. At
> this time you would lose your job if it became known you
> were gay or
> lesbian and walking down the street looking gay meant being
> stopped and
> searched by the police who rapidly and forcefully would
> brings their
> hands up between your legs, so you doubled over in pain.
> 
> After these events ongoing police harassment forced me
> leave Sydney and
> I went and got a job at the steelworks where I worked in
> the raw
> materials section as an openly gay man. When my previous
> gay rights
> activities became known to my fellow workers I was forced
> to become the
> union delegate.
> 
> I later worked as a photojournalist and trained in-house as
> a graphic
> designer and small offset printer. In 1988 I was given a
> part-time place
> at what is now UTS (University of Technology, Sydney) where
> as an openly
> gay man I was taught by openly gay men and lesbian feminist
> lecturers.
> You could say my degrees were the result of 12 years
> political struggle
> for gay rights, along with many other lesbians and gays.
> 
> I was taught poetry writing by the lesbian feminist poet,
> Dorothy
> Porter, virtually doing a writing major in poetry. I was
> taught cultural
> studies by Noel Sanders, also a New Zealand composer,
> textual studies by
> Michael Hurley, an openly gay activist and supporter of
> ACT-UP and
> philosophy of Culture by the lesbian feminist philosopher,
> Marie
> Curnick. I also did a graduate honours year in media arts,
> supervised by
> Noel Sanders and scored high distinctions across the board
> and a fist
> class honours. (As I said, I am a fighter.)
> 
> I then worked in the HIV/AIDS area as editor of Users News
> for NUAA, as
> an openly gay heroin user, heroin being easier to get then
> legal
> narcotic pain relief, since I am a Coeliac. I later got a
> post-graduate
> place, MA (Hons) in writing at UWS (University of Western
> Sydney)
> supervised by Anna Gibbs and Maria Angel, but ill health
> slowed my
> writing down more then I had wished.  I did,
> however,  get the first
> draft of a Ficto-critical novel onto my computer. Also, my
> mother became
> severely ill and I was her sole full-time carer for the
> last three years
> of her life. 
> 
> Some two years later, here I am. I am a fighter, not
> against people but
> the relations of forces making systems and structures, and
> if I win the
> fight for adequate pain treatment for cfs, I may even fight
> for my book
> and blog, not as a MA(Hons) but a PhD.
> 
> -- 
> have chronic fatigue syndrome so may be delayed in reply or
> brain fog weird
> 
> just to let you know that's all, Chris Jones.
> 
> Blog: http://abdevpoetics.blogspot.com/
> 
> _______________________________________________
> List address: deleuze-guattari at driftline.org
> Info: http://lists.driftline.org/listinfo.cgi/deleuze-guattari-driftline.org
> Archives: www.driftline.org
>