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-I force J. to speed eat an apple before the lecture starts because I feel like an apple is the most disruptive food to eat in a lecture situation.
-The lecture theatre has leatherette seats. They are comfortable, but sweaty.
-According to J., GB has got 'something of the Matthew Barney about him'.
-The room is very well equipped, AV wise. There are eight speakers evenly mounted around the room. There is high quality theatre lighting, plus fluorescent strip lights mounted vertically on the sound proofed walls. (They look "cool"/"stylish".)
-A man and his young daughter sit in front of us eating mini-muffins.
-GB has has a lot of exhibitions - that is the gist of the introduction.
-The man w/ daughter in front pulls out a one litre carton of Tropicana. Him and and the daughter start to drink directly from the carton.
-It feels like the person doing the introduction isn't really that invested in its presentation. It is a long introduction.
-The lights dim, we are expected to clap.
-GB is spotlit, the "stylish" vertical fluorescents dim slightly.
-GB says the lecture might be a bit "non-linear". Some people in the audience look at each other.
-GB says, 'detritus of the mediasphere.'
-It is warm in the lecture theatre, the sweat is flowing freely down my back.
-GB says, 'Brechtian doubling.'
-The daughter is really going for that Tropicana.
-I remove my jumper, but it doesn't help. The sweating is just more present, visible.
-I'm not having a go, but the man really shouldn't be letting the daughter drink all that juice.
-A student looks at the side of another student's face and yawns - more at the student than at the lecture.
-It's just that orange juice is mainly sugar. Just eat an orange! You know what I mean?
-One weird thing about the lighting is that GB looks like he's got a moustache even though he hasn't.
-GB says, 'temporal collapse.'
-I keep having to expend mental energy on remembering that GB doesn't have a moustache.
-GB says, 'dangerously adequate.'
-Another thing about the lighting is that it flickers ever so slightly, as though GB is just about to teleport.
-Or, maybe, he is a hologram. Like Tupac.
-GB says, 'modularity, repetitiveness, endlessness', 'reclaiming my ancestry, for artists.'
-A film plays, but GB is still on mic - he pours some water from a glass bottle and it is relayed to us via the mic and it is a wonderful sound; close and rounded and soft.
-Like, just give the kid some water and a chocolate bar - that would be better than all this juice.
-GB's films make me really want to smoke.
-The daughter finishes the Tropicana and almost immediately tells her dad that she needs the toilet and wants to leave. They leave.
-GB talks about the resistance of the "minimalist" artists to being categorised as a movement.
-I wonder if the Open School artists will end up being categorised as a movement?
-I wonder if I will be seen as the figurehead of the movement. Who can really say? Probably.
-GB explains the theological idea that the world around us is an indexical image of the Old Testament.
-People start leaving the lecture. People are always leaving lectures like they didn't realise it was going to be longer than 20 minutes.
-On screen: a picture of Donald Judd reading a Donald Judd book.
-GB says, 'the contemporary situation of temporality.'
-GB says, 'prop-like', 'hollowness', 'theatre'.
-The Q&A starts, the lights gently rise, people stretch and look around the room.
-GB has really enjoyed giving the talk and is really generous to the people asking questions. It's hard not to warm to him as a person. I sometimes wonder how much that has to do with success - like, just people warming to you and thinking you're nice and easy going. Probably a lot.
-Students are kind of beautiful nowadays. When I was a student everyone was a bit of a mess, but these days people are looking great. Or maybe I'm just older and I equate youth with beauty.
-There is a balcony in the lecture theatre that I didn't even realise existed until someone asks a question from it and GB's eyes are drawn up above my head.
-Oh, no. Wait. it wasn't the lights, he does have a moustache.