New Energy Situations, Connections & Algorithms

Coccyx = Stony Point/Peekskill

Solar Plexus = Newburgh/Beacon

Heart = New Paltz/Poughkeepsie

Throat = Kingston/Rhinebeck

Middle Eye= Catskill/Hudson

Crown = Albany/Troy

"Human beings have a quite different kind of energy than they had 200 years ago, or 500 or 1000 years ago; that today the energies of freedom are emerging in us, and that this is exactly the point where one can speak to, a kind of science of freedom.
Once the bottom line in our stocktaking of the world has been found then everything must orientate itself toward this new energy situation. This includes recognition of the fact that a new manifestation of energy is in the world, represented by the human being; and that this is also something new in human beings--leaving aside for the time being the extent to which it has spiritual links to other networks of forces individualized in the world.
And although this is a given, it is still something that must actually be perceived, as well as practiced, taught and investigated."

-Joseph Beuys What is Art?

My project of inserting copper rods wrapped with iron wire into the earth at specific points along the Hudson River has inspired spontaneous dialogue and interest from both friends and strangers. Leaving from a doctor's appointment, I bumped into my neon artist friend, Rocky Pinciotti, who I hadn't seen in years. Hearing about my Hudson River Jin Shin Jyutsu project, he excitedly suggested I go global with it, track all the points with GPS coordinates, and create a website to sell the copper rods worldwide. That very same week, having lunch with a friend in New Paltz, a stranger sitting alone at the next table, overhearing my conversation introduced himself, Jonathan Pazer. A once-personal-injury-lawyer transformed into a paper-folding-origami-artist, he too, was enthusiastic about my idea and recommended geocaching as an added component to the project.

Coincidences, chance meetings, dialogue--what happens to us every day, creates our own personal algorithms shared within our social environment. Using the Taoist concept of wu wei and allowing each location to appear spontaneously is to be my method.

As a result, the selected spine locations along the river unfold into its own strangely connected narrative and algorithm. This blog tells the story.

Coccyx (West) = Stony Point→John Cage→Al Loving

Coccyx (East) = Peekskill→Meteorite

Solar Plexus (West) = Newburgh→Thomas Edison→Nikola Tesla

Solar Plexus (East) = Beacon→John Cage→St. Teresa of Avila→ Galileo

Heart (West) = New Paltz→Emma Kunz→Albert Einstein

Heart (East) = Poughkeepsie→Samuel Morse→Billy Name

Throat (West) = Kingston→Dolmens→Plato

Throat (East) = Rhinebeck→Linda Weintraub→ M.C. Richards

Middle Eye (West) = Catskill→Thomas Cole→Hudson River School

Middle Eye (East) = Hudson→Frederick Edwin Church→Walter DeMaria

Crown (West) = Albany→Matter →Consciousness

Crown (East) = Troy→Material Science→Alchemy→Spiritual Technology

COCCYX = Stony Point→John Cage→Al Loving

Coccyx = Stony Point/Peekskill

Solar Plexus = Newburgh/Beacon

Heart = New Paltz/Poughkeepsie

Throat = Kingston/Rhinebeck

Middle Eye= Catskill/Hudson

Crown = Albany/Troy

"Art is everywhere, it's only seeing which stops now and then."

-John Cage, 1978

What is it that draws us to a place? Landscape, economic opportunity, familiarity, the unknown..? My first earth acupuncture/needle insertion has begun in Stony Point, representing the coccyx, on the west side of the Hudson River. All I knew of Stony Point was John Cage had lived there in the 50's and 60's and a film John Cage Mushroom Hunting in Stony Point was made there. With little information of this place, I set out to look for a location to insert my first copper needle into the earth.

Having been raised Catholic, my discovery of a Marian Shrine in Stony Point to insert the first needle, seemed right, in harmony, with my proposal to align places along the Hudson River.

Marian Shrine, Stony Point, NY

"Our intention is to affirm this life, not to bring order out of chaos, nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply to wake up to the very life we're living, which is so excellent once one gets one's mind and ones desire's out of its way and lets it act of its own accord." 

-John Cage, 1972

Surprised to find the shrine's parking lot filled to capacity, I ask myself what kind of ideas continue for thousands of years and create a continuing interest in such a large audience as religion does. Sacred space is a form of creative placemaking, and boy, the Catholics are good at it. This place was filled with Italian carved marble sculptures in wooded paths called the Rosary Way or Pilgrims Path. I wandered until I found what felt right or as it turned out, broken, in need of something.

Marian Shrine, Stony Point, NY

Many of the shrines were filled with flowers but this neglected place is where I begin my project, the Main Central Vertical Flow of the Hudson River (see first post). To the left in the photo below, is my copper rod wrapped in iron wire, inserted into the ground

Stony Point Copper
41º 12' 57" N, 74º 0' 34"W

My friend with me, Mara Loving, widow of Al Loving, remarks on the uncanny connection of the spiral form in the marble remains next to my needle. Al is well known for his painted abstract spiral paper collages.

Al Loving, Beauty #57, 2003

"When you see how many things there are and you make more connections between things, I think that is the result of the acceptance of all the things. If you stick to your feelings and ideas, you may be impoverished then and have just the same ideas you've always had 2+2=4 and that will be the end of it. But if you let chaos come in, you have no idea how far you will go."

-John Cage, 1990