new work under development::	Lately Ive been thinking about something that could be called collective risk management devices... for lack of a better name. One question driving this new work is where control systems become a process of social agreement, normalised and shifted into forms of vernacular. Im thinking about the different kinds of social and cultural restriction that we consent to and actually seek, and the role of active choice in social mechanisms. These are herding behaviours driven by any number of motivators: pleasure, hedonism, anxiety, pecuniary gain, clannishness, fear... The controls I have in mind are not necessarily literally barriers or architectural restraints, but more literally ways of thinking, agregating and clustering. A new noticeable interest in matters metaphysic amoung artists is an interesting phenomenon when looked at in the context of global anxieties; rediscovering some kind of divinity as one more manifestation of a self imposed social control system.
background thinking::	In 2006 I visited the De-Militarized Zone between the two Koreas with Nine Dragon Heads. We toured the DMZ as guests of the Swiss and Swedish delegation to the Neutral Nations Supervisory Commission, then traveled further north, across the border to Geumgansan inside Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North Korea), producing work in both places. From the perspective of an outsider, it seemed as if a ritual aspect has developed over time around the military standoff that has existed since the cease fire in the 1950’s. During this experience I gained an impression that the atmosphere has been distilled by many re-telling with a layer of mythology developing in the way this particular border is constructed in popular image. The sensation of tension division and rift is still strongly present in more than just the literal fortifications. However, the South Korean government has developed the euphemistically named ‘Freedom Facilities’ to handle and facilitate the flow of paying sightseers and the DMZ has acquired the appearance of a military theme park with the fairly overt propagandistic overtones layered between icecream flavors and merchandising opportunities. In particular the mixture of absurdity, spectacle, consumption and residual tension is potent and disturbing, and this complex "free market" sensation is providing stimulus for new work.
	“Borders, buffer zones, walls, control systems, protected areas: You only have to leave your house or watch the news to realise that the space around us ripples with boundaries. Our lives are marked by a succession of badges, passwords entry and identification codes. These boundaries are another face of globalization, framing the worlds flow of individuals, goods and information. They proliferate to defend privileges and customs; they are used to control territories and to regulate cultural and language exchanges. For this reason borders today are not merely lines or walls” Multiplicity, borderdevice(s)2005. in "Making things public: Atmospheres of Democracy"