augmented illusions

The staff is the staff of the herald and of the augur. The keryx, the aggello, the messenger, someone who comes before us to announce what follows. It is the staff of the forerunner. Tireisias’ staff is made of “crow’s wood”, his name already indicates his affinity with the flight and the sound of birds: “the birds who are so near the signs of heaven must know more than man”. Sophocles has Tireisias telling of himself that he would sit in his “observatory”, in his augur’s seat: “I heard a strange bird cry, as they screamed in dire rage and raised a barbarous din. And I knew that they were tearing one another with murderous claws. The whir of wings was all too clear.” The whir of wings. The wings of doves, suddenly stirring into flight at my approach, birds flying by, so close i can feel the air move as they pass. Birds reveal space to me, their wings make it audible. The staff is a hand, as A. taught me: not a windshield wiper, but a steering wheel. While on the street, people do and do not notice. The idea is that the staff alerts others to what I am so that they can take appropriate action and avoid me. Yet, with D. next to me, people seem to rely on her to steer me and so don’t move aside but bump into me if I don’t change direction. And I don’t because I’m guiding D., who has next to no sense of direction. All she has to do is press the alert buttons on the traffic lights and an announcement will sound as to which street we are crossing. Predictions; where will we be next? Place des Vosges announces itself by doves flying around the colonnades, the rush of their wings echoing against the buildings. Then an open space like a theatre and there it is. Under the arches my staff’s tap evokes the space I’m in: vaulted, open to one side, with pillars at regular intervals. To the instantaneous nature of space, the birds introduce something temporal, their passage across the sky, the direction of their flight as announced by their cries and the sound of their wings. The staff bridges the gap between time and space. It converts space into measure with each tap.