From Ruud Janssen and Thom Courcelle

[cheryl penn]

I received mail from Thom Courcelle and Ruud  Janssen in the same week. They seem tied together in some way – so Thom – your work has informed the meaning I have ascribed to Ruud’s new FLUXUS word.

 ZAPIL:

Time is short, soon there will be ZALOP of it left.  Use every minute wisely – its an un-renewable resource.

 Thank you for the accompanying note and wishes – Ruud – the same to you too – ALL the best for 2012 – many thanks again for the IUOMA platform and the opportunity to extend your FLUXUS Word Score.

 First from Thom – made the day after Xmas – and here we are at the end of January already – EEEEK!!! Thank you for another red ribbon. Your masks are fascinating – how we act behind them, or the persona we employ when our real faces are hidden in the Ether – that’s a topic for another day?

Note with Thom's next work: - further thoughts are superfluous... 

For some time I thought there was time

and that there would always be time

for what I had a mind to do

and what I would imagine

going back to and finishing it

as I had found it the first time

but by this time I do not know

what I thought when I thought back then

there is no time yet it grows less...

- W.W. Merwin

Thom says he knits these all by himself. No elves were involved or harmed in their manufacture.

The Gotij Manifesto:

Words from an old hymn ring in my ears

Time like an ever rolling stream

Bears all its sons away

They fly forgotten as a dream

Dies at the opening day

Thank you Thom and Ruud.

[Marie Wintzer]

W-O-W!!

[Ruud Janssen]

[De Villo Sloan]

I think there is a case for this. Math is a language, and I think many mathematicians prefer it because it is more precise and clear.

Language is messy, ambiguous, an amalgam of inherited systems - but also confusion and endless exceptions to rules. Yet written language has strange, numerical patterns that are difficult to explain - amounts to a numerology started way, way back in time.

And going to Fluxus roots - John Cage & Jackson MacLow were always experimenting with numerical language systems that produced surprising yet randomly generated results. It goes on today in even more complex ways.

Yes, I suspect "method to madness" here.

[Ruud Janssen]

damn; my math background has been discovered....

[De Villo Sloan]

"In the beginning was the word..." I like the new words and especially Thom's Gotij Manifesto. Watching the Fluxus word project unfold is fascinating. All these subjective meanings are appearing. I am beginning to think that many of the Fluxus words are connected to a numerical system rather than anything textual. Great blog!

[cheryl penn]

I didn't know that Thom was the inventor of Gotij Cheese - I thought Katerina was :-) - Time to take up knitting??? I was planning to leave that for retirement - in about 100 years or so..... :-) XX

[Marie Wintzer]

Great envelopes. Two classics, really, Ruud and Thom. That Gotij manifesto is priceless! (Did I tell you I come from a place called Geispitzen, which means Goat Peak. Or something... this is true, if uninteresting). I like to think that Thom is knitting his mail-art by the fireplace, watching the snow fall....

And I've already told you what ZAPIL means to me :-)