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A LETTER THAT FINDS YOU WELL

An innocent conversation on handwriting idiosyncrasies led to each of us writing an example of our own personal styles. HC brought up differences between her quick note-taking styles, and her slower, more formal styles. To show an example, she asked one of us to tell her story, which she would try quickly to write down. We soon discovered that in the unequal speeds of our verbal storytelling and our writing, if the storyteller refused to slow down or repeat, many details would get lost, rewritten, compressed, and obscured, creating an entirely new chance story from the materials. Below are the results from the first round we played, using spontaneous stories of our own creation.

hello dear friend

I hope this letter finds you well. Unfortunately the hippo got out of its enclosure again. A am writing this sentence about a hippo. Hippos will always rule neptune. I like hippos. I have a hippo friend named Bob, he came out of my head and said his name was Alfred. He’s hairy.

There is a very large bird small feet flies berry drops berry. He die. Set off after many berry. Weaker weaker east sun end of time wait—seed feed on.

There, caterpillar with shoes could walk. But ugly foot didn’t need, so he hid and fell in love. Could marry, so he killed out his own foot. So he got struck in ground as butterfly. Why, tooth, thou leave me? Don’t worry, well, but a butterfly jerk who did a tiny. Wait caterpillar wait am I Frank? Always a magnet. Have a nice day.

Back in my day I had a real personal issue with pies. Uncle uncle bob he was not a hippo. Did not see mother, was not her. Was dog? Goose?

There was an eloquent horticulturist filled garden in smell nothing but babies until he lost vision. Killed garden, with dirt?

There was a dragon with the sun in its paw. Transformed into sun and had sex with Neptune. They had babies who named Outkast, he transformed into circus flea hatched in my ear canal. Left a map and the map was shit and a map of all shit that ever was and he put on the roof of Mount Everest. Dragon hatched, and said “what a trip”.

Back in 1800s—shortage of short geishas like frank. Two centimeters confusing bob with special hand lions, but Swedish clan of two feeted flying. Many characters named blank just a blank space write down pigeon babies, no soul. And they lived except geisha, five hundred feet Kyoto, whatever, the end.

Pling blee fly parmo, she has kittens. Jelly fish girdle, looking around. Why why not. Worth the sun the moon the great motorcycle that spins around the earth…Elon Musk the ghirafpa the circus at the end of the world. Clog black holes pillars, woe woe. Who roam across the sky, and never wonder why.

The stinky chicken is a friend with the blind cat. Your soul is a stinky noodle that grows old, and tries to go bold. Rotation splattered old. Soul like a crab like a snow. Still cats, under the stairs. Doll eyes caught by cats on a Tuesday. Raccoon visits in the underworld. Called Sally, who doesn’t know, who speaks in rhyme. But raccoon is confused by the jelly hive. Wonderful pudding shove, in the land of great vibrations of flying fish of catatonia, a state in Florida. Be careful of the sun burn, because the black wing crows consume your toes. O woe all woe except for woe or tiny Tim of Pluto with many men to rule. Don’t ream, have them, because we are not innocent. But if you see a little bee on tiny Tim’s tiny toe fish in clouds O me O my I don’t know how to die. Feet intense. Camping boy scouts trapped in cookies girl tigers. Best film; bruce lee—could be. Unintentional rhyme…

An appendix broke broken. To a person write in a long book only 5 pages too long. Read 8 words per page. A penance appendix because the hippos also was me. O me O my. Many magic too big. Too big to say, and a partridge in a drum boy’s skull. Drumsticks, Frank on focus. Happened to have paraplegic lepers, both amputated rotted off. Tiny tim oh god dear liver cannibal by god there are leper faun statistics 4 feet away! Actually, Big Bob ate own feet. Bob bob bob bob who inevitably falls in love with eiffel tower, who falls eats entirely of eiffel tower. 1836—a year that happened? A shame unborn into radiation of oops.

We decided to take the experiment in a new direction. We pulled a few Charles Dickens novels off the shelf, picked random pages, and began again.

Hush John Tackle! I am afraid. Hush Carrier. The stars were shining in the counting house. There were lamps. A wont of tackletons, dangerous. A step stuck shadow hearth—perfidious hair white and desolate..but the waste dim. Dear step, turn the face-love hands laughing unsuspiciously opening eyes and tender. Fell down upon a desk a house and parcels. Could she kiss there with a face that blushed a baby of knowledge? Wring its heart to breaking good nite for goodness sake. The horses head muffled the house old. And before the cart, tackle the mother by the fire in contemplation.

I entertain english hard sun shines idiosyncrasies fucking fornifications courts trembling and trampling air drought people expected multitudes only hand only stomach. Hand steven roses possessed with a peck of trouble…old steven in reference.

It was a wet night, and many groups of women passed with bear heads held close under their chins to keep Rain Rachel out. Glance at any group. I was shown she was not here no more to come, in a tone of Mr…But he had not gone three streets when he saw shawl figures keen shadows reflected wet without a figure, moving from lamp to lamp fading and telling him what was there, quicker softer very near to the figure. Rachel! He turned. A lamp oval dark and delicate. Gentle eyes set off by a shining black face in bloom. A women 30 years ah tis thou said a smile. Nothing seen but eyes and hood. Thou was behind me, Rachel. No, a little late, Steven seems to me. Rachel, no, Steven! He looked with a face in respectful conviction, right in all. Did lighting true and old, yet getting no Rachel. Thou art puzzled in how to get old without get alive. Old friends honest truth sin pity and walks…Hard indeed to be a doll.

FRANK’S BIG DAY OFF

Three act structure? We’ve all heard of it at some point in our lives, haven’t we. And we all hate the bastard too. But hey, why not try to gameify it? Why not try to “steal it for surrealism”? In the following game, each player was assigned one act to write, and the main character name “Frank”. Besides that, no other information was given. After writing our sections in silence, we glued our beast together. Here are the results.

Act 1: Just another Saturday

It was a Saturday, and the sun was glowing a deep bluish blue. Frank sped through the decrepit circus turn-style, spitting out a barrage of overspent poetic alliteration towards all the eyeless. It was his day off today, and this time, well, Frank was determined to make it count. As the cities one-and-only amateur veterinarian, his days off were always few and far between, and this ‘ol Frank, well, he was a real party boy. He glared with relief at a drifting pucker fish, regurgitated his triangular car keys, and then cried. Today he’d do it, yes, finally! And do it, my dear readers, he really really did.

Act 2: The Shit Hits the Fan

Frank walked down the dark street wondering what it all meant if it meant anything at all. But he wasn’t left to wonder long because his foot went suddenly through the pavement. The gaping opening swallowed first one leg and then the other, crumbling wider as Frank frantically clawed at the edges. But there was no help for it. The sinkhole which had just opened beneath him was growing exponentially and inexorably. When the surface finally ceased collapsing the sinkhole had become wide enough to swallow two whole cars, which had been parked on the street nearby during Frank’s unfortunate encounter with the void. Holding onto the edge of the hole with shaking fingers, Frank dared to peak downward. Below him was a massive spinning fan, which slowly ground the fallen cars down to fenders. The terrifying sight forced Frank to void his bowels onto the fan below, which sucked it propitiously into whatever hell lay beyond. Feeling lighter, Frank was able to pull himself over the edge and back to relative safety. He speed walked away from the existential pit and decided it would all make more sense after he had showered.

Act 3

With his memories becoming progressively sporadic, the last several events are presented more as isolated incidents than actual connected events. Frank is in the garage of his friend, Mister K. Mister K is hosting a sleaze-riddled gathering, with the room set with indiscernible noise and the smoking fumes of an unknown substance that reeks of cadavers. While there, Frank meets a woman who is insistent on the fact that she doesn’t actually exist. When Frank asks Mister K about it, K hands him a copy of the Kama Sutra with all the women cut out from the illustrations. This prompts a fight between the two. Mister K overpowers Frank and locks him in a dingy bathroom. Sometime later, Frank is stuck in an underground train station. He’s aware that an industrial apocalypse is about to happen. Despite this, the train never arrives. Frank wanders around the train station, asking intrusive personal questions to various panhandlers he finds around the station. Frank eventually emerges to find himself in the ruins of a fishing village. Seeing the wandering shadow of a schoolboy, Frank follows it. He’s eventually led to the crater that was left behind from a bomb site. Frank can only hear the boy’s laughter when he stands in the middle of the crater.

  • SC, HC, AK

SURREALIST DIAGRAM GAME

Rules: Take a scientific diagram. Number each term, and have each player fill out a random word for each number without seeing the diagram. Later, replace the original words on the diagram with the new ones. Perhaps chance can build us more accurate maps of reality…

As an optional final step, one may also ask the participants to write a “scholarly” explanation of the new and improved diagram(s)…

Played online with various participants…

May Games

exquisite corpse comic games

NO HOME TO RETURN TO…

BIG DAY OUT

Collaborative Drawing

  • AK, SC, HC

Cubed Poetry

ML found a set of the game “Haikubes” at the bottom of a box of used books. Ignoring the directions accompanying it, we improvised a few variations of surrealist games with the cubes.

In the first round, we each created one section of a poem on our own, and then assembled the full poem together afterwards.

In the more energetic second round, we all worked on the same poem in real time, slapping down cubes as quickly and unconsciously as possible, competing with each other for speed.

In the third round, we split in pairs of two, and cube’ed with our partner.

After these poems were finished, we flipped the cubes over to take a peak at the poem’s unconscious. Many of these chance under-poems ended up being rather obscene…

  • with ML, SC, HC, D

Dream Inquiry Exhibit

A few of us will be in Chicago next week – either in the flesh or on the walls. Details below.

March 27th – May 30th, 2021

Opening: Saturday, March 27th, 5-10pm

Investigation of dreaming and the unconscious. Painting, collage, illustration, and site-specific interventions. Exhibition carefully assembled by Gallery Sabine and the Chicago Surrealist Group.

Participants:

Eve Garrison
Penelope Rosemont
Tristan Meinecke
Andres Garcia de la Riva
Beth Garon
Charles Radcliffe
Tom Palazzolo
Steven Cline
Hazel Cline
Megan Leach
Paris Bezanis
Janina Ciezadlo
Laura Corsiglia
Joel Williams
Robert Bruce Tague
Winston Smith
Franck Augustin… and more.https://www.gallerysabine.com/

Questions and Answers Game

What are the glaciers melting? Because the bird of eternity holds a grudge.

What do you wish for the new year? A twisted smile.

Where do muffins go to die? A subterranean hillock.

In what country was your great great grandmother born? The train whistle.

How does alice shrink? A mysterious flower dripping ink.

What happens on the UFO? Abruptly, then nothing.

What is the midnight tree? Overturned.

Danny, Megan, Steven, Casi

Birdfeeder Glitch

On an afternoon in September, 2020…

CC & I are standing in our backyard. CC is filling up her bird feeders while I smoke a cigar. She opens up a fresh package of suet, and then suddenly realizes that the green metal cage which holds suet has disappeared from our bird feeder pole. I look over, and my mind confirms that yes, the suet feeder is in fact strangely absent. We both put forth theories on its disappearance. Did a raccoon or possum pull it down, and then run off with it? CC searches the yard for it, but can’t find a single trace. Suddenly, we both look over—and it is inexplicably back. Dangling right where is should have been, like it had never even left.

A Dream by CC, from a few months earlier…

“I fill up a very large new bird feeder that I am excited about. It has lots of different containers for seeds that flow into a common trough. I come back to check it and discover that some little mice have gotten trapped in the seed containers. Two of the mice have died already, and I feel terribly guilty. The one mouse that is still alive is very beautiful. It’s fur is orange and it has big round ears that kind of glow a peachy color in the sun. I manage to get the mouse out and set it down, but out of nowhere, a bunch of cats come running and I can’t tell if the mouse got away or not. I feel very distraught. I lay my hand on the ground palm up, take just the detached head of a hatchet, place a sharp corner of it against my palm, and use a mallet to drive it through my palm. My hand is pinned to the wooden surface below. I pull it out and look at my bleeding palm. I also see that I have a large cut on the inside of the same arm, which spurts a little blood with each heartbeat.The world starts changing around me. Parts of furniture and trees start to disappear by slivers at a time, but I am the only one who can see it. I demonstrate what is happening to other people by putting my hand in the blank spots. To them it looks like my hand is passing through the object. I have sex with a person who looks like my father, which makes me feel sick to my stomach. Afterwards, I look in the mirror of an old brown vanity and don’t recognize my face, which looks longer and greyer. As parts of the world continue to disappear, people start disappearing, too. I realize that I need to learn how to take care of all the animals in the sanctuary in case I am left alone in the new dimension with them. So I start with a wolf who needs his nails clipped. I sit the wolf on my lap facing outward and put my arms around him (like I would do to clip my cat’s nails). I inspect the first paw and discover that his nails are completely overgrown. When I go to clip them, they bleed and the wolf starts to struggle. I find that one of the claws has grown so long it is digging into his paw pad. I tell the others that it is too bad, and he will have to be anesthetized so we can do surgery. They say it is impossible and just take him and put him back in his cage by throwing him over the fence. The fence seems much too short to me. The leash gets stuck in the gate and a guy goes in there to unhook it. He gets attacked and eaten.”

Emotions game

Each player was assigned an emotion by the person sitting next to them, and was then tasked with creating a tactile sculpture which best represented the emotion.

DESIRE – CC

SELF-LOATHING – AK

CONFUSION – SC

Phantom Object Game

Directions: A mystery object was inserted into a box. Players felt the object without seeing it, and wrote drown their first impressions and associations, followed by a few direct questions.

MEGAN

Initial response
I am the terrain of an oversized sea monkey, left to decay in the back corner of a kitchen cabinet.

What color does it correspond to? A chalky Purple

Is it nocturnal or diurnal? Nocturnal

What part of the world is it associated with? Wisconsin

What year was it discovered? 1992

What could it do? Ensnare one’s index fingers on its rocky terrain and begin to nibble poisoning the skin to a highlighter shade of yellow.

Where is it on a scale between credulous and incredulous? 7 out of 10.

Is it male or female? Male, erotically inclined.

Why did it find us? Georgia’s humidity was its siren song.

What does it taste like? Stale pringles.

Aaron

Initial response
Clay metal organ with plasticine bubbles. Handle it carefully to not sculpt any parts too severely. Felt moist at first, red, then dry. Sand? No, clay. Part of it was like the roof of a mouth, the ridges above the tongue. Peas made of plastic in one corner. Digestive tract of a clay man?

What color does it correspond to? Organic, red and off-purple with brown and some grayish green.

Is it nocturnal or diurnal? Likely had a day job.

What part of the world is it associated with? Either a forensic lab or an abandoned industrial apartment.

What year was it discovered? 1998

What could it do? Function and morph in a full body.

Where is it on a scale between credulous and incredulous? Very credulous to end up in its current state….

Is it male or female? Possibly male.

Is it a crocheter or a knitter? It needs to be stitched together.

Why did it find us? Forensic science.

What does it taste like? Strawberry jam.

Steven

Initial response
Desert landscape, UFO sitting on a hill at night. High technology, mixed with death. Rooster in a farm field. Star shining bright—or is it floating soul? Bedouins stand close by, watching.

What color does it correspond to? Black.

Is it nocturnal or diurnal? Nocturnal.

What part of the world is it associated with? Saudi Arabia.

What year was it discovered? 1917.

What could it do? Travel to distant stars.

Where is it on a scale between credulous and incredulous? Credulous.

Is it male or female? Male.

Is it a crocheter or a knitter? Definitely a knitter.

Why did it find us? To impart pure knowledge.

What does it taste like? A wound.

Casi

Initial response
A hairbrush fattened on sap. It is like a glandular impression in a field of honey sand. Berry-lobes puke and suck their nourishment from the flurry of proteins and nutrients below.

What color does it correspond to? Green and red.

Is it nocturnal or diurnal? Neither, it is crepuscular, but in name alone.

What part of the world is it associated with? The north pole in an age when it is melted.

What year was it discovered? 1990.

What could it do? Grow or disintegrate.

Where is it on a scale between credulous and incredulous? It fluctuates from one extreme to the other.

Is it male or female? It hasn’t decided yet.

Is it a crocheter or a knitter? Crocheter, because it only has one hand.

Why did it find us? To reveal the door to a new age.

What does it taste like? Orange rind.

Perversion for the Five Senses Game

– From “Touching and Imagining”

VOYEURISM

AK
Color: An odd, translucent purple hue.
Tactile Analogy: Wet and silky, something left in the bath too long.
Smell: Lavender.
Taste: Air freshener liquid.
Sound: A concentrated drone and breathing.

SC
Color: Greenish blue
Tactile Analogy: Like sticking two big hands into a bucket of ice.
Smell: Boiling water.
Taste: Fresh banana.
Sound: A light classical melody.

CC
Color: Maroon.
Tactile Analogy: Cool melted glass dripping between toes.
Smell: Pine and frankencense.
Taste: A very strong hot toddy.
Sound: The tinkling of bells.

NECROPHILIA

AK
Color: Cyanish green, pinkish red, yellow, and black.
Tactile Analogy: Rotting wood and toenails in a box.
Smell: Rotten Food.
Taste: Brass doorknobs.
Sound: Strained violin playing.

SC
Color: Blackish green
Tactile Analogy: The slow sinking of a dying Neanderthal into nearby tar pit.
Smell: Swamp.
Taste: liquorish.
Sound: Deep gong & the fingernail scratch band

CC
Color: Brown
Tactile Analogy: Sinking into mud with a squirming thing in it.
Smell: Swampy and acrid.
Taste: How ladybugs smell.
Sound: Squelching

SADOMASOCHISM

AK
Color: Grayscale
Tactile Analogy: A burning rock with partial metal coating pressed against a sensitive area.
Smell: Blood.
Taste: Blood.
Sound: Loud Piano.

SC
Color: Orange and red.
Tactile Analogy: A bear cub trapped via sudden sinkhole into very deep cave. He is slowly losing oxygen.
Smell: Rotting flowers.
Taste: Strawberries in brown gruel.
Sound: The tearing of fabric.

CC
Color: Pink.
Tactile Analogy: Like tattooing a name onto a tongue.
Smell: Disinfectant.
Taste: Blood chocolate
Sound: Tearing cloth.

BEASTIALITY

AK
Color: Earth tones but with more grime.
Tactile Analogy: A fur driver’s coat with a dog head inside. In a garden.
Smell: Feces.
Taste: Grass.
Sound: Silence.

SC
Color: Brown
Tactile Analogy: A fur coat, wrapped around a wooden log, dipped in molasses.
Smell: Feces.
Taste: Raw meat.
Sound: Fingers tapping on a stove.

CC
Color: Faux wood grain.
Tactile Analogy: Like rolling down a hill covered in goose shit.
Smell: Hay and wood chips.
Taste: Barbecue sunflower seeds.
Sound: Cacophony.

The Chance meeting on the Dissecting Table of the FancyFresh Bacon Aroma & the Strawberry Jam Coffee Knob

Directions: Assign different tactile sensations to each segment of a dart board. Player throws two darts, and receives two tactile sensations. Player then draws a creature or abstract design of some sort which embodies the combination of those two tactile sensations.

CC: combination of the smell of bacon with the taste of strawberries

SC: combination of the smell of bacon with the taste of coffee

AK: combination of the smell of bacon with the taste of a brass door knob

but wait! there’s one final BONUS Drawing still left! CC’s representation of…

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