Dear Laurel ... we were wondering about the floor of the room ... and now its found ... its beautiful ...

 

 Ever since you mentioned the possibility of working together on a project surrounding  or impacted on by the red-read 'mystery room' at Pompeii, I've been thinking of the floor. It is always the ground of being the becoming space the becoming being of  possibilities for me and so it was appropriate last night that you asked me had I seen it, did I know what it was like ... strait away I thought it must be dirt, and I was imagining the underground caverns, tunneling into darkness breaking into it, connecting what is in 'the great below to the above' ... and when I searched through the French documentary, below, I found these photos ... and its all patterned in black and white tiles ... quite bathroom or french kitchen like, shockingly civilized in an un-civilizing space. The black and white point to  a melding of opposites though - in that way where patterns means something and is not just decoration  maybe (or am I reading into this?)  I have started in on this 'floor' through starting to think of the minotaur and the impossible places in my writing, ones that I try to push past,  those of giving up and of shying away from the job ... and exposing supposition and then making  the new ... Looking for a minotaur image I was surprised that in the end the one I chose, that was right for me, (the second- the first was too smooth, to aesthetically pleasing) was a combination of Picasso's 'bull', from his etchings and then 'Guernica's screamings' - the whole painting is the bull (Picasso's voice)  (voice - always the sound of the voice) ... and then what came to mind was the images of the throat's own vocal cords which I have pasted for you to see ... they are out of focus slightly because I wanted them to appear extra large, because they are large in my 'room'  and because that place in me is like the red room, they are my initiate site, my becoming place, my floor, and thats always the way with spotting the challenges they always go in and out of focus. Working on this project with you though will be a returning for me, it already has the feeling of that pull, towards the 'other' ... that space that is so nourishing... where the chords vibrate. I've put some of my voice sound pieces a few films and a text piece from Dante there too, it seemed appropriate. And I realize I really don't know the  bull myth story itself, ( I know it from Ariadne's side) rather than always making up my own stories ... today I will start reading a bit about it ... I've put a links box on the floor page and started to put links to  sites away from the room that are  possible connections to it for me/us... I am very happy to be doing this with you Laurel curious to where it will take us ... X Jena 

PS ... I have just put Kristeva and Clements exploration 'The Feminine and the Sacred' book (from AAARG) in a link box on the home page, theirs is a similar project to ours, letters, questions, possibilities...