[Thomas Barbey]

A thick layer of dust seems to have settled over this corner of the internet. I feel like I'm writing into an echo chamber, hearing my own 'hello - hello - hello - hello' diminish in volume with each repetition.

Lately - well, for a long time now - I've been enjoying other people's words and images far more than my own. I've felt no need to write into the void, into the echo chamber. That feeling hasn't changed, but I do miss something about this whole caper. Perhaps the sense of shared knowledge.

So if anyone is still out there, hello. I hope you are well.

This won't be regular, but for now this is what I have, with a hefty hat-tip to Jessica Stanley, whose Read. Look. Think. is the best thing on the internet. True. Jessica is a beacon of thought and interest, go forth and follow her wherever you can. Maybe some of the following came from her? In any case, it's all been sitting in my emails and open tabs for a while.

• Sou Fujimoto's Serpentine Gallery Pavilion  

• "You could see the light bulbs go off and he looked up and said, 'It copies me.' It was really an incredible moment." 3D printing is not just for nerds, it brings dexterity to children with no fingers 

• Who Wore It Better: Melancholia, Lars von Trier vs Last Year At Marienbad, Alain Resnais 

• "A good navy," says a French woman with short blonde hair, "is going to fulfill the role that black used to fill, because black is now launching into another dimension." Inside Pantone colour forecasting 

• The man who put Tasmania on the cultural map 

• "Blue Monday was a 12 foot long sheet of paper which we had to program, very like a knitting pattern." DIY Blue Monday with New Order 

• Vic felt glamorous for maybe 30 minutes, probably less 

• You Should Date An Illiterate Girl is wonderfully written throughout; but, this: "Do it, I say, because a life in purgatory is better than a life in hell." 

• Miranda July, We Think Alone  

• "My chickens are Tina, Augustine and Currently Untitled." Good one Ang. 

• Kierkegaard on "anxiety as the dizzying effect of freedom, of paralyzing possibility, of the boundlessness of one’s own existence." 

• Kirin J Callinan's internet confusion. 'Confusion' is certainly one word for it.  

• Marina Abramovic wants to adopt Antony 

• "Simplicity is not about making something without ornament, but rather about making something very complex, then slicing elements away, until you reveal the very essence."

Hello. I'm still here. Just busy, as usual. Trying very hard to find the time to do things like: play space-themed mini-golf in country NSW, trawl op-shops, spend Sunday arvo's at exhibition openings in the hills, cook and bake for friends, go to the river, read, play footy in the front yard. Y'know, the kind of things that make me forget my general restlessness for a little while.


In the meantime, local lads Sparkspitter have released their EP and I can't stop listening to it. I think my favourite track is 'Ginsburger'. I can't remember if I ever told you that my long-term loves Doe had released their EP too. That was a while ago, almost a year now. Well anyway, they did. I listened to it pretty religiously whilst travelling, and now so many times that I can't separate one track from another. They're both good records. Real good.

I love this. Swedish interiors be gone! Found Australian interiors from real estate websites, come to me! At the moment I'm in a very enjoyable 'nesting in a new home' period myself. (Via textile and terrain).

I've lost half of my negatives from London. I imagine I put them somewhere 'safe' when I moved house just before Christmas.

I've never really loved London, but this visit was nice. London with a bit of sun on it makes for a far more enjoyable time! Not to mention London Design Week, which led me to all the nicest streets and neighbourhoods. Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, cupcakes, markets (OMG the Borough Market!), Saatchi, V&A, The Breakfast Club, Fika, Flat White, Monmouth, the Barbican, pop up shops, tiny galleries, Look Mum No Hands, flying out in a jumbo jet. FIN.

Oslo. I drank Norwegian beer and ate fish burgers at the harbour in the middle of a bustling food festival and market; I watched skateboarders roll up and down the front steps of the town hall; I took the train into the hills and went hiking, passing by two enormous but obviously out-of-action ski slopes; I saw a play at Black Box; I saw the absolutely amazing 'Absolute Installation' at the National Museum of Contemporary Art; I took a ferry ride around the fjord; I drank coffee at Fuglen (where the barista was from Melbourne, go figure) and admired the wings on the bike out the front; I drank more coffee - the best of my life - at Tim Wendelboe; I bought a waffle from a young girl around the corner who was making and selling them in the street (perfect English at age 10. Cue feelings of inadequacy); I had my photo taken for a Japanese magazine out the front of a cafe one morning - apparently I'm a good representation of the Norwegian cafe/knitting culture (go figure x2)!

I can't believe I'm still doing this, still stuck in Gothenburg. In more ways than one, I suppose.

Life is odd at the moment. Coming out of an extended break from work. Trying to find my feet in quicksand. Appreciative of those around me. Newly twenty-three!

We stumbled upon the Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporay Art, with the tagline 'art in a time of creativity fever'. There were some amazing pieces, like this giant hanging bean-filled work, a world map made out of electrical wire and sound representing migration flow, and a symphony based on the 'voices' of the Icelandic financial collapse! Röda Sten, the building under the bridge, blew me away. What an amazing space.

Anne Kristine from 11.54 had me guest post over on her blog. This photograph of me was taken by the lovely Sia Duff.

It's the new year. I hope yours is, has been and will be happy. I'm crossing my fingers for the same for myself.

Gritty and grey, but beautiful.

Gothenburg felt so right*.

*This may or may not have had anything to do with the number of beautiful boys I fell in love with whilst there.

Obsessions.